David Wilcox, Technical Editor
Asked to supply a few hundred autobiographical words I am shocked to discover that I have clocked up 37 years in the road transport industry. That time is divided in roughly equal measure into two: doing it and writing about it.
After studying transport at Liverpool Polytechnic (now called Liverpool John Moores University) I spent a couple of years as a traffic planner in the coach industry before switching to a similar role in a third-part distribution company. I entered journalism in 1978, joining Commercial Motor first as a reporter and then becoming a feature writer. After eight years with CM itchy feet took be back to truck operations: several jobs and several years later I became distribution manager for Staffordshire-based sanitaryware manufacturer Armitage Shanks.
In 1997 I made the return journey to journalism, becoming deputy editor on Transport Engineer, the journal of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers. Twelve years later, when the SOE/IRTE decided to change the direction of Transport Engineer and awarded the contract to a new publisher, I stayed with its former publisher and helped launch a new online journal, Commercial Vehicle Engineer.
In October 2011 I had the opportunity to return to Commercial Motor, by now a very different and thoroughly invigorated magazine and online publisher in the new Road Transport Media stable. As technical editor I have editorial responsibility for the new Buyers’ Guide series in particular and a broader remit for the technical content of the magazine.
When not hunched over this computer I normally am to be found running on the Malvern Hills or road biking, telling myself that age is just a number that I ought to disregard. My body begs to disagree, but there is no fool like an old fool, so I push on.
Contact:
david.wilcox@roadtransport.com
