7) Richard Burnett
Title: Chief executive RHA
For the general public, Richard Burnett is the face of the road transport industry. When he became chief executive of the RHA in summer 2014 Burnett would hardly have believed he would have to be a man for a crisis. But life isn’t always that straightforward.
No-one has been more vocal campaigning and lobbying to boost the pool of skilled drivers in the UK; nor trying to push through the LGV Trailblazer Apprenticeship scheme. But it was during the summer crisis in Calais, and its knock-on effect with Operation Stack that Burnett’s power in lobbying and communicating stepped into its own. He was barely off rolling news channels, flying across the Channel to see the scale of Europe’s immigrant crisis first hand. And he led the RHA’s inaugural National Lorry Week leading to an hour of breakfast Radio 2 devoted to all things trucking. Burnett put himself across as the pre-eminent lobbyist for road haulage in the UK in 2015.
- 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
