Earlier today when I was outside I noticed a TNT van go whizzing by obviously in a great hurry at this time of year and then it occurred to me; it hasn’t been TNT for quite some years now.
When Ken Thomas started up his small trucking company just after WW2 it was that small it had but one truck. It didn’t take long before his company grew and became Thomas Nationwide Transport (not National as many people think, the Government wouldn’t have a bar of that, they didn’t want the plebs to think it was a Government run business).
Around 1972 Mr Thomas got kicked out of his company by Peter Abeles, in ’67 TNT merged with Abeles company ‘Alltrans’; Abeles was a friend of Bob Hawke and Rupert Murdock. What’s the expression? “you’re known by the company you keep”; anyway Mr Thomas got the boot but Abeles kept the name for the transport company.
Messrs Abeles and Murdock did the same to another great Australian iconic company Ansett Transport Industries, the word plundered comes to my mind for some reason when I think of this, only this time they sent the carcass on the road to ruin. However, Abeles ( Sir Peter Abeles to be correct) was such a good bloke that our Prime Minister appointed him to the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia in 1984 the PM by the bye was one R.J.L Hawke who came to office in March of ’83. Didn’t waste much time did he? As soon as a vacancy on the board appeared………..
Any conclusions you draw are strictly your own, I have my own!
As usual I’ve wandered way off course, back to the TNT van; it struck me that this company is now and hasn’t been for many years just a nationwide company but a very large international company and I believe it’s time they updated their name and logo to reflect their identity. I thought perhaps they might be able to do something with my amateurish endeavour at a new logo which appears hereunder,
In case I don’t get to these pages again this year I’d like to wish everybody the compliments of the season and all the very best for the coming year, I shall drink your health, whoever you are 🙂 🙂 🙂
LordBeariOfBow 