Harold undertakes intensive research in order to understand what the company wants to achieve, and why. His writing style varies to reflect each company’s distinctive identity … as in this excerpt from Lead & Feathers – the history of transport giant TNT.

“Although running a growing trucking business, founder Ken Thomas was not mechanically minded. In fact, he freely admitted that he had no feelings for vehicles and could scarcely identify which of his trucks was standing in the yard. In 1947, his personal car was a V8 Ford Pilot and the standing joke was that no more than six of the cylinders were ever working. Clearly there was a need for someone to look after the company’s repairs and maintenance requirements. The man who took the job initially was Harry ‘Blacksmith’ Pusterla, whose primary tool was a seven-pound hammer, which he used frequently to shift difficult truck components. A year or so later, he was succeeded by Arthur Bray, a genius when it came to innovation.

Thomas met Arthur Bray under unusual circumstances. He had recently employed a driver named Harold Swinsberg to take a near new KS5 tabletop truck to Melbourne. Swinsberg had assured him that he had plenty of driving experience, although in the light of events, Thomas had serious doubts as to whether he had ever driven a truck in his life. Swinsberg had been told by an acquaintance that a truck should be put into a lower gear when going down the hills. He did just that, and then screamed downhill at 60 miles an hour (about 100 kilometres an hour). Using this unconventional driving technique, Swinsberg managed to manoeuvre the vehicle along the Hume Highway until he reached a hill on the southern side of Gundagai where the crankshaft broke and the vehicle ran off the road.

When told about the broken crankshaft, Thomas asked innocently: “Oh, is that something serious?”

Thomas rang a local garage at Gundagai to see if someone could be sent to assess the damage. He was fortunate that, not only did the garage happen to have a spare crankshaft for a KS5, but that a mechanic was willing to go out into the night and make an inspection. Hearing this, Ken Thomas decided to drive down to assess the situation first hand, arriving at the scene at 1am. It was raining and the ground was muddy. Two boots protruded from beneath the vehicle. A gruff voice identified itself as Arthur Bray and made it quite clear that no assistance was required. Lying on his back in the mud, Arthur Bray was changing the heavy crankshaft of the truck entirely on his own, a task normally difficult enough in a workshop, let alone at night, in the rain, and on a country road. Thomas was, to say the least, impressed by the man’s ability and some time later he persuaded Bray to join his staff.”