A modern approach to transport, a lot of hard work and running the first Euro 6 V8 in Scotland has seen JHP Transport become a success during tough times
By Dougie Rankine
Photography Steve McCann
Making the leap from owner-operator to a full-scale haulage operation is a tough one. But that’s just what Jim Prentice has done. Not only that, but he elected to establish JHP Transport in 2007, just before the Credit Crunch and worldwide recession kicked in.
His company’s fledgling years were set against one of the toughest backdrops the road transport industry has ever known. In the face of such adversity, the firm has grown steadily and now runs 22 tractor units between JHP and sister company, Farm Field Fresh. Trucking paid a visit to its Lanarkshire HQ to find out about a modern-day success story.
The first year of business saw the company base established in Lanark with two trucks, both Scanias, the first being a used R480. To begin with, they pulled curtainsider trailers on general haulage, but industry contacts enabled them to begin work on fridges and today, 99 per cent of the work JHP and FFF do is refrigerated. Pulling chilled and frozen goods requires a high level of customer service, the goods are perishable and will almost always have to be where they need to be within a strict timeframe, vehicles and trailers need to operate with the utmost reliability – you do not want a high-value load of fresh produce going off on the hard shoulder of a motorway.
As featured in the November 2014 issue of Trucking. Buy the magazine here
