BATHGATE’S FINEST

It’s easy to look back with rose-tinted spectacles at our ‘happy days’ of yesteryear but Alan McInally reckons that even at the time, he knew his job was a good one. True, starting out as something of a general dogs-body hadn’t been his first choice as a career when at school. As a dedicated petrol head, he always fancied being a car mechanic but in the mid 1970s, fate was to introduce him to the road transport world and he was to make a connection with a firm which he champions even now. Yes, we all know that the evolution of road haulage means that companies come and then companies go. So in that respect, Alan reckons he was exceptionally lucky that when the dice stopped rolling, it was to be Russell of Bathgate that came into his life.

Denationalisation

If you follow transport history at all, you’ll certainly be aware of the creation – from 1948 – of British Road Services. It was part of the new Labour government manifesto that all of the UK’s long distance, general haulage vehicles were bought into Government control. Ran under the BRS banner, this political exercise saw the end of many long established private enterprise hauliers of the day.

However, the flip side was of course when there was a change to a Conservative government (in 1951) that a lot