In the early hours of one morning earlier this month Peter Willis, CEVA Logistics' Queensland State Manager, was listening to outspoken Australian broadcasting legend Alan Jones on his radio breakfast show when he heard about the plight of an elderly Brisbane couple.
Brother and sister, Bill and Barbara Johnstone had sent Bill and his van some 1,769 miles (2,848 kilometres) from their home to Darwin in northern Australia to support their grandson in a time of need. While he was there, the van broke down which meant not only could Bill no longer get work – the van was his livelihood – but the van was stuck in Darwin and he couldn’t afford to get it back to Brisbane for repair.
Alan Jones put out an on-air appeal to see if there was anyone in the transport business who was able to assist the Johnstones' in their plight.
Up to the mark stepped Peter Willis and the CEVA specialist vehicle logistics team. While Alan Jones was still on air, Peter got straight onto the radio station and offered CEVA's assistance to get the van back home. An amazed Bill and Barbara were shocked at the speed of which support from CEVA came their way and within days the van was on the tilt-tray of CEVA's driver Kyle Whitfield and on its way back to Brisbane where on arrival Barbara took photos of Kyle with the vehicle to send to Alan Jones.
Alan himself was hugely impressed with the care, consideration and speed with which CEVA had acted and called us "the best in the business" when telling the happy ending of the story to his listeners a week later.
Says Carlos Velez Rodriguez CEVA's Managing Director Australia and New Zealand, “This is the best endorsement for the great work of all our colleagues in the car carrying team and we are delighted to be able to assist the family in their time of need”