This is a Pod One production. For more information, visit podone. co. uk. This is 

the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm Davey Markwell, and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is episode five of series two. On this podcast, we showcase stories from the companies, service providers, and staff at the Business Village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Well, if you're ready, let's go. 

In this episode of Business Village People For some business, compliance requirements can be easily overlooked or forgotten due to the fact that the people are too busy actually doing the job.  We meet a chap who accidentally created a website that helps hauliers stay legal.  Also, a man who admits his management style is not to everyone's taste.

So much so that his office is not even in the same building as his employees. 

Lee Pritchard took the plunge and set up his own business just as the first COVID lockdown began. In four years since, Lee has established an award winning company providing transport compliance to the haulage industry. Here's Lee's story. 

An interactive website, so it provides um, Features such as compliance guidance, there's industry news, um, there's networking opportunities, um, for various things. It keeps, uh, operators compliant with regulations, uh, connected with the industry. And we're developing it all the time, um, so it's one of those where we've just added, um, other features to it, which includes fleet management.

Um, so, operators can send me their, um, service records, um, we upload that onto a fleet management system, so we can keep a close eye on them, make sure that they're, you know, they're, they're keeping legal and compliant. So it's, um, it's very interactive, um, but it is brand new. Um, we're, we're very sort of in its infancy, if you like.

So we're adding new features, we'll, we'll keep on growing, and hopefully it'll, um, it'll provide a good platform for, for many operators in the future.  So where did the platform come from? Did you create it or is it part of a franchise or? Yeah, it literally is. We, I created it, um, by mistake to be honest, and I will be honest.

So originally it was a conversation with a website developer. Um, and I literally asked, um, could we upgrade in, you know, update our website? And we had a good chat for about two hours, which wasn't, you know, scheduled. And all of a sudden, we come up with this platform where it was like, Okay, we'll not So we do our current website, we'll create a new website.

So we do have two websites. Um, one predominantly sort of telling everybody as a consultancy what we do. But then we have the Hawleyers Hub, which is obviously the interactive website. Um, so yeah, it was created by a mistake, but, but I love it and, and what it stands for. And, you know, we've got some good guys on there at the minute that are really seeing the benefits of it.

Um, so, so yeah, that's, that's where it is. Well, it was a big mistake, but not a big mistake, if you know what I mean. Mistakes can turn out good, can't they? You know, you learn from them. Yeah, we love it. I mean, I do. And, you know, like I say, it's getting updated every day and we keep on top of it. Um, but I've had a meeting this morning and, you know.

You know, a client's coming this morning. He just said, I'm loving it. You know, he's interacting with it because many operators, you see, and what we're finding is, is they're not transport people, so they struggle with a compliance side of things. And some of them are, you know, so run an operator license where they don't need a transport manager.

So this kind of platform creates that kind of interaction where they can go onto it, find out what they need and they can book a call with myself as well. So it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's really good. I'm passionate about it. I love it. And, you know, especially when you see it helping people, that's, that's, that's what we're trying to achieve.

Where did it all begin? What did you want to be at school? When I left school, um, I PE teacher. So that worked out really well, didn't it? You know what I mean? Um, yeah, I was always into sport when I was growing up. Um, bit of background in rugby league as well. Um, but yeah, I always wanted to do that. But kind of fell into this as you do.

Um, you know, you find your way. Um, I mean, four years ago, I was a transport manager at a company. Um, but always sort of had the inkling of, What would it be like going on my own? Could I, could I do this? You know, um,  You know, I had doubts, don't get me wrong, but been thinking about it for a while. And lo and behold, um,  You know, I don't know what come over me, but decided to do it when COVID hit.

Which I'm thinking, what on earth are you doing? And people did question it.  Um, but four years later, here we are and I'm loving it. Yeah, I really do. Um, the variety is what we're after. You know, being on your own, you get into different things, you're seeing different people, different operators. Whereas when you're a transport manager, you're kind of stuck in the, you know, day to day, you know, same company, um, same office and things like that, which, which is fine, don't get me wrong, it's, there's nothing wrong with that, but I did fancy a change and, and I love what, I love what I do now, I really do, yeah.

It is quite nice, isn't it, being your own boss and, and just  Doing what you want without some monkey around your neck. That's it. Telling you, you've done it wrong, or this is what you should have done, or why hasn't it done. Yeah, and it is because what this gives me is to be able to focus on my own thing.

I think it gives me that experience as well of when you're dealing with different businesses and different operators, you know, you're kind of educating yourself as well, so you never stop learning. But when you're stuck in, I suppose in one company, I was finding myself that you become very good at what you do there, if you like, but when you're seeing other industries within road transport, then you can sort of put your experience onto other people and help them.

So I just love helping people. That's, that's the key. And, you know, I enjoyed, I used to do a lot of training with drivers and things like that and just helping drivers and stuff. And this is where we're at now. That's where the platform were built.  Um, just trying to help these road operators just keep legal and compliant.

Have you ever been a lorry driver? I have. I was a lorry driver. Um, I was, um, I was up and down the road. I did days, nights, um, tramping as we call it. So we stayed out on a night. Um, so, so yeah, so it was, it was good grounding really because obviously understanding drivers when you're training, when you're talking to them, when you're managing, um, transport, um, yeah, they've got a tough gig to be honest, they've got a tough job and on days like this where it's blustery and windy outside, I'm glad I'm stuck in an office today to be honest.

So what kind of training do you provide for drivers or?  Yeah, we provide a variety of different training. So we do bespoke training. Um, some of it's, um, daily walk around checks. Um, we do driver assessments. Um, we do load safety security for transport managers.  Sometimes that's more consultancy. So going in there and just, you know, supporting them, just helping them with the legal and compliance side of things.

So, um, we've got online training. So we have kind of bite size training that covers the intricacies of break testing with vehicles, um, drivers, hours and tachographs. So again, that's probably aimed at more your operators that are not Just general transport managers, but they're operators that know very, very good about what they do, but not sort of the legal and compliance side of it and the operator license undertakings.

You've won an award recently, haven't you? We have, um, Transport Management of the Year, which we're delighted about, yeah, yeah.  We've won it two years in a row. So it was Does nobody else apply for the award? That's what I was thinking, to be honest. I mean, I got a phone call this first time in 2023 and it was, it was just crazy because there were a couple of my clients put me forward and, and that was nice, you know, just kind of, it, it's kind of a pat on the back, really, to say, you know what, we're doing something right, you know.

Uh, because we're such a small business as well, so you, you, you, you know, you don't really, Are you doing well? Are you doing okay? Um, but yeah, it was good. And then we, we won it again. And we got a nice gold trophy this time. So, we're doing all right, aren't we? Do you get to keep them all if you win it three times?

We have. We've got it in the corner of the office. Um, so, you know, let's, let's hope that that's what we do again third year. What do you do, Lee, when you're not stuck in your lovely little office? What do you do in your spare time to chill? I don't have much spare time.  Um, but I spend a lot of time with my family and I like, I do like, you know, getting in the gym and working out and it clears me out a little bit, to be honest.

Um, and, um, and yeah, I'm into my sport. I do like my sport.  What particular? Rugby League. Rugby League? Rugby League? Up and under? Yeah, been brought up on it, you know, I didn't have much choice to be honest, because my dad was a professional rugby league player. Oh, right. Who did he play for? He played for various clubs, he was at Doncaster, Halifax, had a time in France as well.

Um, so, um, so yeah, I got sort of shoved into it. Yeah, no choice on that one. Not a choice, no. No, absolutely not. Do you actually have any vehicles? No. We don't operate vehicles. It's purely consultancy, training, and supporting those guys tha