The super rich in road transport have all seen their fortunes rise in the past 12 months, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, and there are some surprising additions to the small club of those who reside in the UK and have made part of their fortunes from logistics.
Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay are worth a combined £6bn, a dramatic rise from their estimated worth of £2.35bn in 2013. Home Delivery Network (HDNL), which the brothers previously owned, bought the domestic B2B and B2C business of DHL Express (UK) through its subsidiary company Parcelpoint back at the beginning of 2010, merging the two together to create Yodel.
Second on the list is Alastair Salvesen. Despite his interests in the Glasgow-based plant hire company Aggreko – which has felt the benefit of investment in Glasgow for the 2014 Commonwealth Games - he made the bulk of his fortune from selling Christian Salvesen to Norbert Dentressangle back in 2007. He and his family are worth a combined £912m.
Turners (Soham) MD Paul Day, and his family, is estimated to be worth £225m, rising from £175m a year ago. Peter Dawson, of rental firm Dawsongroup also saw a rise of £14m to £216m, while Bulkhaul owner Steve Gibson also saw his fortune rise by £60m to £205m and Peter and Michael Kane, founders of what is now UK Mail are worth £199m.
Steve Parkin, set to float Clipper Logistics on the London Stock exchange (LSE) later this year, is worth £120m, while Nigel Jagger, founder of Cert Octavian – which was sold to Culina in 2012 - is worth £110m, and Balleyvesey Holdings owner Harold Montgomery is worth £107m.
Own-account operators on the list include former Travis Perkins chairman Tony Travis, worth £120m and Andrew Owens and Alex Lewis, founders of Greenergy (which brought its transport operations back in-house in 2013). Watsons Fuels founder Anthony Watson is worth £90m, as is Robert Wiseman of his eponymous Dairies.
In Ireland Robert Harris, owner of the Iveco, Isuzu and Hino franchises, is worth €63m (£52m).
A slightly left-field entry is Sir Paul McCartney’s wife Nancy Shevell. She is vice president, administration, of New England Motor Freight and The Shevell Group of Companies in New Jersey. She has worked at her father’s haulage company in the USA since 1983. The Rich List estimates her wealth at £150m.