Profile: Gay Russell
Jan 07
Gay Russell is not your typical bodybuilder. Although she trains six days a week and loves keeping fit with karate, Gay would rather be talking to engineers, truck drivers, manufacturers and dealers about the finer details of commercial vehicle bodies.
Now Sales Office Manager for Telford-based body manufacturer Ingimex, Gay’s childhood love of trucks steered her choice of career: “I have always had a passion for lorries, and the smell of diesel and hydraulic oil, for as long as I can remember. Being an only child, I was both son and daughter to my father, and I loved nothing more than to help him strip down and repair motorbikes and car engines. My most treasured toy was a red lorry, and I use to have a poster of a Perkins V8 diesel engine on my bedroom ceiling for years. One of my uncles had a haulage business, so I had many opportunities to go in the trucks and the workshops. The experience shaped my childhood dream of being a lorry driver, or a diesel fitter, as I had such a passion for the vehicles. But in those days it was totally unacceptable for a woman to be remotely considered for anything in that line and, when I left school, I was steered into an office junior position at a firm of chartered accountants.”
The chance of a sales job at a firm of bodybuilders proved the stepping stone for Gay’s career. In the male-orientated world of commercial vehicles during the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, gaining the respect of colleagues and customers was all-important: “Speaking to truck drivers about tipping gears, engines and gearboxes was an uphill struggle at times. And I’ve been called ‘Gary’ more times than I care to remember! I was determined not to be beaten though, and spent hours reading up on technical specifications of the latest trucks on the market and absorbing as much knowledge as I could about hydraulics. I was fortunate to have excellent mentors over the years who patiently fuelled my learning. I was known for helping out on the shopfloor, fitting ‘power take off’ pumps, welding, using a grinder and so on - totally unacceptable in today’s health and safety conscious environment - but it all helped me to hold my own. I was one of the early female members of the Institute of Municipal Transport and Institute of Road Transport Engineers.”
Having joined Ingimex in 1995, Gay’s role as Sales Office Manager keeps her exceptionally busy, handling customers’ enquiries from quotations through to final build and dispatch. As the first point of contact for customers, Gay takes around 50 to 100 enquiries a day by telephone and email, answering questions about detailed specifications, dimensions, weights, costs and lead times. As well as ‘aftersales’ conversions to vehicles – where an individual customer can buy a 3.5 tonne chassis cab from a dealer and order a body to be fitted - Ingimex works closely with eight leading manufacturers as part of their ‘core conversion’ schemes. This is a high volume approach, where bodies are built and fitted at the Ingimex factory as a seamless extension to the customer’s own manufacturing programme.
Gay explained: “For example, we manufacture the dropside and box vans for the Ford ‘One Stop’ programme and have worked in close partnership with Ford for many years. Our Titan tipper and Thor dropside brands are specified for the Iveco Daily and the new Volkswagen Crafter. I look after the bodywork fitment, following orders through from the initial arrival of the chassis, through to build and movement to the various dealers with the UK.”
“The trend for one off bespoke bodies is being replaced by state-of-the-art production line bodies that conform to the long list of current regulations and health and safety directives. Long gone are the days when I could offer to fit extra bits here and there, to suit every individual’s requirements, and every single body was different to the next, often ‘designed’ on scraps of paper as it was built. “
Gay can picture the office environment of twenty years ago: “Remember the first ‘mobile’ phones? A handset that sat on top of a battery the size of a twelve volt car battery packed in what looked like small suitcase! And telex machines that took up half an office and deafened anyone nearby when they were churning out typed messages. Certainly, the use of computers, email and internet has dramatically changed the way we work now.”
And the best thing about her job? “Having been at Ingimex for almost eleven years, I’ve built up a great rapport with many of my customers, some of whom I’ve known throughout my career in the bodybuilding industry! Although my true love will always be the ‘big’ trucks, I still get that wonderful feeling when I see a completed vehicle going out of the factory gates.”
Come & see for yourself the Ingimex difference.