About the website Here is a little background to this website. Please if you can, take the time to read it as it may help you understand what a unique world vehicle recovery is. My name is Andy Lambert and I produced the site with the input of many friends and colleagues, most of who like myself have spent their life in Vehicle Recovery. It deals largely with the formative years of the industry effectively from the seventies to a little after the turn of the century and goes into great details about how the industry got to where it is today. That is me below, looking more than a little 'shell shocked' radio in hand, dealing with a serious multi-vehicle RTA on the A3 Kingston By Pass, in the late eighties. (Picture courtesy the Surrey Comet).
Today I am best known for my work as Chairmen of the RISC (Recovery Industry Support Charity) and before that for introducing Technology to a 'reluctant' recovery industry, firsts with the program Garage Manager and then the highly successful and now universally adopted Turbo Dispatch. However back in 1972 having spent a couple of years driving (well pirating to be exact) for Windmill Coachworks and Instant Service, I joined Cambridge Coachworks and soon became Manager. Within a few months of taking over I had formed National Rescue (a recovery division of the coachworks) and the fun began! Those days may have gone forever and many people from today's 'Politically Correct' times, will not believe that such things could ever have taken place, but take place they did as you will see in the 'Memories Page'. I hope that these pages will explain a little of what it was like 'back then'.
About youI also hope that it brings back memories for others, because my experiences were not unique by any means. The same things were happening 'up and down' the country, to other recovery operators, throughout the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. Seeing today's recovery industry, with its procedures, police contracts, health and 'bloody' safety, PAS 43 etc. etc. makes me wonder if perhaps we exaggerated some of the things we did and perhaps over estimate our own importance. However my own, and my friend's memories, tell me that was certainly not the case and that we all lived through the 'Golden Years'.
You will need a few hours to explore this extensive website, but if you do, you will be rewarded with pictures, video and a lot of well researched information. The website deals with events up to just after the turn of the century and I hope one day someone will carry on this work and deal with vehicle recovery in the new millennium.
Although I am the researcher behind this website I have had much help from others with their recollections and corrections to my
aging memory and so I need to now mention and thank those who have in some way been contributors to this site. If I have missed you
please feel free to shout at me, but thank you all that took the time to help with corrections and by sharing their memories.
Footnote: Reading this list it saddens me to see so many names that have gone 'Off Duty'. If you want to add to this website
please do it now before either you, or I joins them.
Contact If you wish to add any information, correct a mistake, or just tell your story, then please contact me. I prefer to be contacted by email, but if you need to phone me and you are not selling toner cartridges, airtime, advertising space, PPI, etc. then the mobile is usually the quickest during normal hours. You can also look at my personal website by following this link Webmaster Home Pages