Scott Robertson is co-founder at HaulageHub, a tech company he established in 2021 alongside Craig Thompson.
Based at Sci-Tech Daresbury in the Liverpool City Region, HaulageHub is a digital freight marketplace and uses its AI platform to help hauliers reduce their empty loads, saving carbon emissions and lowering costs.
From his biggest influences to his best failure, Robertson shares all the lessons he’s learnt.
Which single daily habit or practice could you not do without?
I end each evening by compiling a list of things I need to have completed the following day. This enables me to hit the ground running each morning as I am fully prepared for the day ahead.
What’s been your luckiest break?
I was very lucky to work directly for Mr. William Stobart, chief operating officer of the Stobart Group from 2007 to 2014 and chief executive officer of Eddie Stobart Logistics from 2014 to 2017. Very early on in my career within road haulage, so I was exposed to lots of opportunities to learn and develop directly from one of the most respected and knowledgeable people in the industry. I still use and implement some of the teachings and practices learnt early on in my career today.
What’s your best failure?
We started HaulageHub up during the infamous UK driver shortage of 2021. Our original operating model that we envisaged fell short on the needs of the market during that turbulent time and it didn’t quite add the value that we hoped it would. We quickly realised that the solution needed to be adapted to address the needs of the market. We achieved that quickly and we are now able to operate our digital freight marketplace solution across a wide range of subcontracting specialisms rather than just the original concept.
What is the best investment you’ve ever made, either financial or time?
I made the decision to invest in returning to education and completed my MBA at Warwick Business School. Although an MBA is very expensive to do, I feel the knowledge and experience obtained has been paid back ten times over. The learning material, as well as the access to peers from senior positions in some of the country’s biggest businesses, armed me with extensive knowledge that I feel I would not have been exposed to should I have not done my MBA.
Which podcast or book would you recommend others to read and why?
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War must be the choice. Although a 2,000-year-old Chinese classical text, there is not a dated maxim or vague prescription in it. If you read this book, you can chuck out all the other contemporary books on management, strategy, and leadership. Its teachings can be applied to pretty much any management decision to achieve success.
What one piece of advice would you give your 21-year-old self?
If you want something, go get it! Don’t be afraid to fail. You cannot always win, but don’t be afraid of taking a chance to win. When you go all in you usually come out on top more often than not.
Who or what has had the single biggest influence on your working life?
My biggest influence on my working life has to be my dad, George. He taught me very early on in life the importance of hard work and you reap the rewards based on the effort you put in whether that be in study, sport or owning a business.
Tell us something about you that would surprise people.
I have climbed quite a lot of mountains – my favourite being Mount Hallasan, which is the tallest mountain in the Korean peninsula.
If there was one thing you could change about your career, what would it be and why?
I regret not starting up HaulageHub sooner. I must admit that I had the idea for around three to four years before actually getting it started up. It was once that I started to work with my now business partner Craig Thompson and spoke to him about the idea that we were able turn the really good idea into a reality. If I had not met Craig, HaulageHub would not exist.
What does success look like to you?
Success for me would be to see HaulageHub become the biggest haulage subcontracting solution in the UK. We are well on target and have achieved a hell of a lot in the past two years where we have seen incredible growth which has been supplemented by our ability and openness to adapt our model to support a variety of different needs and customers.
