To survive almost 50 years in haulage you need a calm head. David Craik talked to George McLaughlan about how his potatoes and fruit transport business continues to ripen despite darkening economic clouds.
FOR GEORGE McLaughlan the secret of almost 50 years of successful haulage operations lies in simplicity and it seems, straight talking.
“It is down to not being over ambitious and living within our means. It is about being sensible,” he said. “We have seen competitors spring up, get huge shiny new lorries, vast numbers of them and then disappear. A lot of people have ambitions to grow faster than they can. The banks are always trying to push money at people, but they only do that because they are going to take it back eventually!”
George set up McLaughlan Transport at a site in Perth Harbour in 1977 as a one-man operation. He had previously been a truck salesman in the city for Ford until he ‘saw an opportunity to buy one of the vehicles – a Ford demo-truck’.
