Andy Lambert

Andy Lambert is well known in the vehicle recovery industry having been managing director of both The National Rescue Group and Motor Trade Software. He is thought of as the father of Turbo Dispatch and has contributed greatly to the industry's modern techniques in use today.
Early life and education
Andy Lambert was born in 1946 and grew up living in Replingham Road, Southfields which is located in South West London, England. He attended Riversdale Junior School and then from 1958 until 1963 The Elliott School.
Career in Vehicle Recovery
After leaving school he followed his interest in radio communications by working for telecommunication companies like Decca, Philips and Redifon. During this time he also became a licensed Radio Amateur with the call sign G8HER. He joined a Kingston garage called Cambridge Coachworks in 1972 as a Recovery Controller and Radio Operator. Two years later he was Manager and had started a separate recovery division which he named National Rescue because he could not register the name ‘International Rescue’. By 1982 he and his brother Geoff had brought out the other shareholders and in the next few years, opened depots in Devon, London, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex and the Midlands. Their control room was located beside the Kingston Bypass at New Malden and their main Fleet Workshop, at the former Brooklands race track near Weybridge, Surrey.
In 1986, together with Ian Lane, the two brothers formed a new software company to sell the computer system they had developed for themselves. This was called Motor Trade Software and was also based at Brooklands in 'The Control Tower' (originally built for the famous pre-war Brooklands Aero Club and opened in 1933, disused by the late 1970s and restored by 1988). Until then there had been no attempt to produce software specifically tailored to the Recovery Industry and the product was an immediate success. Initially produced to operate in MSDOS, a Windows version soon followed and by 1992 over 1400 copies had been sold. The softwware was by now producing around 90% of the industries invoices.
In June 1994 because of Motor Trade Software’s domination of the Recovery Industry, Andy Lambert was able to organise a meeting of the main providers of work to the Recovery Industry. The meeting took place at Brooklands and he was able to introduce the concept of Turbo Dispatch. Over the next few years a network was set up across the UK and allowed everyone using it (Motoring Organisation Police Forces and Garages) to make large savings and increased efficiency significantly. By 2005 it was estimated that 92% of the 4 million Incidents dealt with by the independent recovery industry were sent over Turbo Dispatch.
Brooklands Museum
In 1984 Brooklands Museum asked National Rescue to collect part of a weighbridge to assist its restoration of the historic Edwardian BARC Clubhouse, thus started his long association with the Museum which was just being established at that time and formally opened in 1991. For some 25 years he has organised the acquisition, recovery and/or transport of some 40 full-size historic Brooklands-related aircraft including a Hawker Hurricane, Vickers Vimy and Concorde. His support for the museum's work has also involved organising and assisting with many aviation and motoring events at Brooklands and elsewhere including airshows, flypasts and even fly-ins for light aircraft at Brooklands (from 1990-2003).
Charity and Major Awards
Along with his ongoing work at Brooklands Museum, in 2005 Andy was asked to become a Trustee in RISC UK, a role in which he is very active. In 1989 he was award the Phil Briercliffe Gold Award as the Most Outstanding Personality of the Year. In 2004 Andy was made a Fellow of the Institute of Vehicle Recovery. Two years later at the Institute’s Annual Dinner, in recognition of his contribution to the industry, he was awarded their Lifetime Achievements Award (Professional Recovery April 2006). In June 2010 at the European Tow Show he was again awarded a lifetime achievement for his work on Turbo Dispatch and more recently his work with RISC (Telford Tow Times 25 June 2010 Cover).

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