One of the most important modules in the Driver CPC course is also one of the least glamorous. That module is Company Image and the following story illustrates the importance of how a truck driver represents not only him or herself, but also his or her company on a clients site.
This happened in 2016.
At the time, it felt like a completely ordinary working day. One load among many for this particular client. An aluminium smelting plant in Swansea. Nothing memorable, nothing unusual. A forklift driver loaded my truck with freshly smelted aluminium ingots for export, we exchanged the usual workday pleasantries, and I headed back to the port.
I only knew him as Dave.
He was competent, calm, and professional on the forks. The load was handled properly, without fuss or drama. Just someone doing their job the way it should be done.
Dave was also not the sort of man you would describe as lightweight. He was over six feet tall, well built, and clearly in good shape, despite being at or around sixty years of age. In transport terms, he was what we would call a unit. The kind of person who carried quiet authority without needing to raise his voice.
Some people simply project confidence and presence. Dave was one of them.
Some time later that day, I discovered that Dave the forklift driver was in fact David Hopkins, who at that point was Lord Mayor elect of Swansea and that detail is the entire point of this story.
Company image is often discussed in terms of branding, uniforms, logos, or how a business presents itself in the public eye. But in real working life, company image is shaped in quieter moments. It is shaped in loading bays, gatehouses, offices, canteens, and brief interactions with people whose titles you do not know.
On that day, he was not a civic figure. He was simply a forklift driver doing his job and doing it well. And I was simply a driver being loaded.
It is easy to imagine how differently that interaction could have gone. A raised voice. A sharp word. An argument over something minor. All of it entirely possible in a pressured working environment. And all of it unnecessary.
What has stayed with me, nearly ten years on, is not the title he later held. It is the reminder that professionalism should never be conditional. You do not choose when to represent yourself or your company well. You do it all the time, because you never know who you are dealing with.
I did not meet the Lord Mayor of Swansea that day. I met Dave, a forklift driver.
And that is exactly the lesson. You never know who is loading you.