Haulage heroes’ lifetime achievement honoured
‘Very few people dedicate their lives to their job like they both have’
A Southend couple who bought their first lorry in 1970 and retired this year with a fleet of 60 have received a national industry lifetime achievement award. Donnie and Kate McKerral collected the illustrious award at the 25th annual Transport News Scottish Rewards ceremony in the banqueting suite of Glasgow’s Crowne Plaza Hotel. Their sons joined them at the breakfast do, attended by 600 people, where they were recognised for turning their small, family business into one of Kintyre’s biggest employers. Donnie took over the family’s farming firm, Peter McKerral & Co, from his parents, Peter and Nellie, when he married Kate in 1962. Living at Brunerican Farm, they purchased an ex-council Albion Chieftan tipper in 1970 to shift sand and gravel from the farm.
General haulage
By the late 1970s, they owned a small fleet of tippers, before buying a Bedford lorry, moving into livestock transport and general haulage, which is what the company mainly deals with today. As the business grew, Donnie and Kate sold the farm and moved to Dunaverty Lodge, turning the derelict church next door into the company’s first proper workshop. Today, P McKerral & Co, which is synonymous with Kintyre’s haulage industry, has 75 employees and depots at Darlochan, Lochgilphead and Strachur. The couple have five children, Peter, Bobby, Donnie, Lorna and Colin, 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. It is very much a family business, with all the couple’s sons and five of their grandchildren working for the company. Donnie, 78, who quipped that at the end, he had become the ‘message boy’, had many roles, driving lorries for a number of years, ending up in the office. On deciding to retire this
air-brushed with an image of Donnie and Kate, taken just after they married. The couple are enjoying their well-earned retirement by visiting cafés across Kintyre and spending time with their expanding family. A P McKerral & Co spokesperson said: ‘Very few people dedicate their lives to their job like they both have. ‘Their knowledge and years of experience have brought the company to where it is today and we hope they enjoy as much relaxation as they did hard work.’ year, Kate, 77, who always did clerical work, said: ‘We just decided it was time to go.’ Donnie admitted that he cannot quite give it all up though, still driving to Lochgilphead and Strachur on Saturdays to pick up paperwork. Shortly after their retirement was announced, the company paid tribute to its founders by revealing that a golden, 50th anniversary Ailsa edition Volvo lorry, the ‘pride of the fleet’, had been