05.07.2024

Access veteran retires

Martin Stevenson, technical manager at CTE in the UK is retiring today at the tender age of 71, and after 34 years in the powered access industry.

He began his career in 1969 as an apprentice mechanic apprentice, moving through various jobs over the years, initially as a motor mechanic, entering the access industry in 1990 with Go Industries, which manufactured the Hop-Up and Hop-Up Plus, as well as self-propelled lifts. After Go closed, he joined Liftright Powered Access, which was taken over by Lex Access, so in 1999 Stevenson moved to platform distributor Skyking, where he got his first taste for truck mounted lifts, leaving for CTE UK in 2005.

CTE UK’s Craig Rooke said: “Martin has been invaluable to the business and more importantly customers, with his knowledge and work ethic being the best there is to only be topped off with his approach to always put the customer first.”

“They don’t make engineers like Martin today which is a huge shame I wish I could clone him I really do. Martin has a special way about him, since a work accident in his early years made him deaf you always know when Martin was on the phone, I’d call him Dom Jolly, but he didn’t get the joke… Always at the end of the phone no matter the time or day of the week he was always there for the customer or colleague.”

“Martin is irreplaceable as a person and employee that is for sure. I never knew when his retirement might come, so we have built a great team over the last three years whose members have been soaking up all they can from Martin. So today he leaves not only us but work full stop in a really strong position and he goes off to take care of his loved ones and to go and do those jobs and experiences he never had time or the opportunity to do.”

“The word legend is often over used but Martin truly is a legend of the industry.”