9) David Hunt
Title: vice-president and managing director at Ryder Europe
With some 12,500 truck assets on its books Ryder remains the largest truck rental firm in the UK - which means it’s one of the biggest truck buyers as well as one of the biggest truck suppliers in the UK.
Ryder’s purchasing decisions can make or break a month of new registrations for a multitude of manufacturers, but it is its role as the barometer of the health of the UK road transport that gives Hunt his real power. If Ryder starts expanding its asset base that means its predicting growth among its considerable number of customers. And that trend has been seen in 2015 with customers like Viking Wholesale, Howdens Joinery and Countrywide Farmers have been expanding their fleets.
The sector has undergone some upheaval in recent years, with Enterprise buying Burnt-Tree in 2014 – a statement of intent in the truck rental world from one of the world’s largest car rental firms – but Ryder remains top in the UK and Hunt is at the top of that tree.
- Every day over Christmas and the New Year we will be counting down the Motor Transport Power Players from 20 to one, so come back tomorrow at 9am to see who is next in our countdown. As ever, we'd welcome your feedback and input into the debate. Send us your thoughts on Twitter @Motor_Transport using #MTPowerPlayers
