Don Malcolm

Apart from a year working in an Ice Cream factory upon leaving school, I have spent my career in the freight industry – by way of a cadetship at Brambles Trans-Tasman Division.

Promises of being moved around within the company proved baseless, and when combined with the weekly strikes, (the last because there was insufficient egg on the sandwiches in the staff cafeteria), I bailed out upon acceptance into Air NZ Cargo. I thought that I’d struck gold but quickly became disillusioned by the “Public Service Mentality” that prevailed in those days – we were chastised for not letting the phone ring at least 7 times, and for helping people…

The offer of a job at East West Transport encouraged me to leave, but unfortunately the company folded soon after I started. Several shuffles later I was wondering why I’d left what could have been a job for life at Air NZ when I landed at TNT Airfreight.

The manager there did not impress, so after handing in my notice and voicing my views to his boss, he was fired and I was offered the job of Branch Manager. At 21 years old, with little to offer other than the confidence to give it a go. I was oblivious that I was intended to be caretaker until the place was closed down – fortunately for my small team, we quickly turned things around and started making very good money, becoming darlings of the Group.

Several years and several promotions later I was a young General Manager, cocky, bold, and successful, and on the rise. Unfortunately as I became more aware of the goings on, I could not toe the company line, especially when faced with ethical dilemmas that could not be reconciled. TNT was an organisation that was extremely big, extremely powerful and extremely corrupt, and certainly not prone to tolerating internal scrutiny.

After rocking the boat once too often, there was a price to be paid - I was ignominiously fired as an example to others.

Job openings proved elusive and I had few options other than to try and scratch out a living doing the odd job for those clients who believed in me.

Slowly we gained credibility, with more clients taking a chance on this new enterprise. The first year was very tough – every cent we’d made was lost when a client went into receivership.

Year by year our business increased, long term employees Ricky then Lilian came on board, and the rest is history. Clients liked how we worked, the transparency & honesty, the guarantees and the service offered by people who really cared.

So, nearly 30 years later, what has changed - very little really, other than there are more very good people continuing to do exceptional things.