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Truck and Track June/July 2017 58
DANGEROUS GOODS
So many of us in the logistics world
were shocked to hear of the unexpected
passing of Jim Scanlan in April. It also
made me and my colleagues reflect
upon the very challenging period when
we assembled our team in Rugby who
would become the HazchemNetwork.
Jim Scanlan is probably best known as
co-founder of The Pallet Network [TPN].
Jim’s passion was always transport
– from his time at United Transport,
at Fortec and from time to time as an
agency driver.
My own memories of Jim relate to the intense time we spent co-
founding Hazchem Network, with HW Coates, Deltion Software, a
consortium of hauliers [including Palletline plc] and the team we
assembled in Rugby.
When you spend times of high intensity and grave personal risk
with colleagues, the memories are seared into your consciousness
like a cattle brand, and that is especially relevant today, as I reflect
upon the times I shared with Jim Scanlan.
I recall sitting at my desk at Interoute Transport in Thame [with
fellow Directors David Martin, Ray Engley, Steve Chapman, Robert
Janes, Steve Biddle and Brian Rogers] when we joined Pall-Ex [for
managing the OX and RG postcodes] just after the millennium,
having developed an interest in the pallet network model.
We had sent out press releases indicating that Interoute Transport
Services were planning to set up the UK’s first specialist pallet
network for the transport by road of palletised Dangerous Goods
under ever tightening ADR Regulations.
David Martin and I received growing interest from the haulage
industry, initially with calls from Bill Bowker of WH Bowker, Bill Ball
of Firmin Coates [now HW Coates] and Geoff Hill of RASE among
others. Then I got a strange call on my mobile phone which went
like this:
‘Is that Ali Karim?’ to which I replied ‘Yes, and who’s this?’
‘I’m Jim Scanlan, and I have the same idea as you.’
And so started our partnership; one that changed the direction of
my life and the lives of a large number of others.
Many within the logistics industry knew the background of Jim and
I, pondering upon the chalk and cheese of our natures – Jim the
pallet network director and Ali the industrial chemist and transport
manager. We knew that, behind our backs, manywould smile at the
‘Odd Couple’ trying to set up a transport network in one of the most
risky and highly regulated areas of logistics, the transportation
of Dangerous Goods. For all intents and purposes, we were the
Batman and Robin of the transport sector!
We held many meetings, the length and breadth of the country
as well as across mainland Europe. We spent long hours in the car
together, talkingabout our lives, about transport andcrime,mystery
and thriller fiction – as we shared a passion for reading books from
the darkest edges of literature. We also shared a somewhat surreal
sense of humour and proportion – which was vital as we lived
together during one of the most stressful and challenging periods
of our lives.
AdamLeonard, former CEOof The Pallet Network [TPN], and I would
often compare notes as we both shared analogous experiences of
working with Jim, which he too recalls with affection here:
‘Jim’s boundless enthusiasm, energy and belief gave birth to The
Remembering Jim Scanlan
Ali Karimwith Jim Scanlan
In this Issue our Dangerous Goods columnist Ali Karim, FRSC, FCILT, Managing Director of the
HazchemNetwork, remembers his business partner and friend Jim Scanlan, co-founder of Hazchem
Network, Great Britain’s only specialist pallet network dedicated to the carriage of Dangerous Goods
under ADR and IMDG Regulations. “ Ali Karim
Jim at Hazchem
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