Former Freight Transport Association (FTA) director general Hugh Featherstone has died at the age of 83.

Hugh Featherstone joined the forerunner of FTA, the Traders Road Transport Association, in 1958 when it was composed solely of manufacturers and traders who operated ‘C’ licensed vehicles. The organisation consisted of 13 virtually autonomous divisions and a very small head office in London, where it shared offices in New Bond Street with the Road Haulage Association and the then Passenger Vehicle Operators Association (now the Confederation of Passenger Transport).

His first task was to co-ordinate the 13 divisions into a single body fit to meet the many challenges which faced road transport operators at that time, leading to the introduction of annual tests for commercial vehicles, which now amounts to more than 2,000 members’ vehicles a week for safety compliance and maintenance standards and over two million driver records a year.

In a statement, the FTA said: “Featherstone led the FTA through the testing industrial relations of the 1970s and the ‘winter of discontent’ in 1979. It was his foresight that resulted in the FTA relocating its head office to Tunbridge Wells in Kent in 1975, where it remains based to this day.”

Featherstone retired from the FTA in 1984, by which time it employed 330 staff, handing the organisation over to his deputy of many years, Garry Turvey. He was awarded the OBE in 1974 and the CBE in 1984.

He leaves behind his wife, Beryl, son Michael, daughter Janet, son-in-law Robert and four grandsons.

Funeral arrangements will be posted on FTA’s website, where a dedicated page has been created for those who worked with Hugh to record their memories.

Our condolences to Hugh's family and friends.

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