David Lowe started his transport career in 1952 as a traffic clerk with British Road Services, and subsequently gained experience in vehicle workshops and on the road for a short time, running his own truck as an owner-driver haulier. Later he gained extensive experience in road haulage and distribution fleet management, obtaining practical, hands-on perspectives of road transport and an opportunity to apply best practice concepts.

The first edition of his highly successful Transport Manager's Handbook was published in 1970 by Kogan Page. In 1989 the title was changed to The Transport Manager’s and Operator’s Handbook to provide scope for wider coverage of topics related as much to the interests of a vehicle owner as to fleet managers and he has revised and updated the book annually ever since*. This key Handbook explains complex transport and related aspects of legislation in layman's terms and is widely acclaimed as the transport manager's 'Bible' — from small beginnings the Handbook now runs to 700-plus pages of ‘must have’ information for all who are concerned with road transport. In fact a former Secretary of State for Transport said it should be on every transport manager’s and operator's bookshelf.

Since turning freelance in 1972 David Lowe has contributed to most UK transport journals and many other publications, including Commercial Motor, The Financial Times, Management Today, Logistics Focus, Headlight (now defunct) and The Director, as well as writing many well-known transport handbooks and study manuals and compiling monthly legal up-dates for Butterworths Tolley (now LexisNexis) transport manuals.

As a transport consultant he undertook many assignments for nationally and internationally known companies – primarily advising on the legality, efficiency and safety of their road transport operations. He has also lectured extensively at seminars and in-company training sessions in the UK on key transport issues particularly, for example, on the introduction and use of tachographs and the EU drivers’ hours law, and he has addressed transport and logistics conferences in Europe, South Africa, Swaziland and Japan.

Currently, David Lowe is tutoring students for the CPC National and International examinations with DTT Norwich.

* A copy of every edition of the Transport Manager’s and Operator’s Handbook, from the first in 1970, is held in the Corby Knowledge Centre of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport: www.iolt.org.uk/pages/jwlibrary