The small Hertfordshire village of Thundridge near Ware isn't exactly where you'd expect to find the UK headquarters of such a large international truck manufacturer. But, nestled inconspicuously just off the main street, there is a thriving and vibrant office.

The open plan of the downstairs area extends into the open door policy of Nikki's office and, in a wonderfully non-PC twist, her room is actually the smoking room. This unusual situation actually makes a lot of sense; firstly, being a smoker herself, it means Nikki doesn't have to leave her desk when the nicotine call comes. Secondly, as all the other members of staff have to go to her office when they want a cigarette, Nikki always knows what's going on within the company.

Unlike other MD's offices that I've visited, Nikki's is neither grandiose nor that cluttered - whether this is because Nikki is, obviously, a woman, or simply that she likes a tidy office I didn't speculate. After a cup of coffee and a general chat about India and Japan I asked Nikki to tell me how she'd got to where she is today.

In the late 60s and early 70s, Nikki trained and worked as a bilingual secretary, though she does admit that "I don't remember much until I got married" - it must be true what they say about that period in English history then!

During married life, Nikki appears to have done all the normal wifely things - children, husband, etc. But it's just before her fortieth birthday that her involvement with trucks begins. When her marriage broke down and her husband left, Nikki had to go to work in order to support herself and her children.

She started working as a Fleet Administration Manager for a Ford Iveco dealership. Six years of working her way through the ranks later, she was headhunted by Lex to start up a one-stop-truck-shop. It was while she was with Lex that, as Nikki puts it, "Isuzu came up". In 1995 Lex had been approached by Isuzu to become the UK arm of the Japanese company, and a working party was put together to go to Tokyo to investigate.

Nikki wasn't initially part of the reconnaissance team but, fortuitously for both her and Lex, one of the original group members was ill and couldn't go. "They needed someone who knew about trucks" she says, "and that was me".

Her first experience of Japan was both enlightening and frustrating; "While the men were talking business, they wanted me to go shopping" Nikki said, "When we sat in meetings, the interpreter wouldn't translate for me". The translation issue appears to have been resolved when, after one meeting, the interpreter asked Nikki to explain the meaning and difference between 'a load of…' and 'the dog's…'

But it wasn't just in the boardroom that Nikki found herself being treated differently, "I remember when they took us to the test track to try out one of the trucks," Nikki recalls with a smile "in the middle of the circuit there was a table, a chair and a parasol - obviously intended for me - but I was determined to have a drive.

"Having been round the track, I came back to where everyone was and instead of about twenty people, it looked like the whole company had come out to have a look at this woman who drives trucks. There was also a much larger truck parked up and, when I got out of the one I'd been driving, I was asked if I fancied trying the big one.

"I took off my heels, climbed into the cab and passed my shoes and handbags to the, by now quite concerned looking, test driver, prayed that I'd find a gear and set off again."  Needless to say Isuzu's driver needn't have been concerned and they easily made it round the track.

Events like these and their now constant interactions seem to have convinced Isuzu Japan of Nikki's abilities but they still don't seem to have fully worked her out, "They say there's men, women and Nikki-San" she tells me with a laugh.

Entering the UK trade in 1996 must have been hard for Isuzu, especially as they were the first to bring a new Far East built truck to the market. "It was difficult," Nikki said, "even with a parent company that's huge in Japan. So from the start we decided to differentiate ourselves by our customer focus.

"On day one we set up a 'Customer Clinic' with people from 25 of the UK's major fleet operators, companies like Ryder Rentals and Smiths Newsprint. Fifty percent of the invitations went to fleet engineers, the remainder to buyers and of all of those that we invited, half would never buy the type of trucks that we were going to bring in.

"Having shown them the vehicles, we first asked them whether we should bring them in and they told us that we should. We then asked them how, if they were to reinvent the wheel, would they start up and new truck manufacturer. The answer to this is our business today".

This certainly was a new approach to selling vehicles, so I asked what exactly it is that Isuzu does that's different from everyone else. "Firstly, most of our staff are ex-operators who know what the 'real world' is like and so they don't bring a 'manufacturers culture' with them" she said.

"Secondly, we don't have Isuzu dealers, we have agents. The advantage of agents is that we can have a fixed price policy, so no matter where in the country you buy your Isuzu, you know that you're paying the same price as everyone else. Not only is this fair at the time of purchase, with no discounting going on the residual price of your Isuzu truck holds strong too.

"We hold all of the new vehicle stock and buy everything that they need to have done, for example bodybuilding, before being sold to the customer. Our agents then earn a commission for every truck that they sell.

"For our customers this means that we know every single one of them as they are buying directly from us".

I asked Nikki what she thought it was that customers want from a company once they've made their purchase, "Customers want peace of mind, a quick response, to be kept informed and no more tick boxes to describe how happy they are!" she said, "We want to be the first truly customer facing truck manufacturer in the world, so we created the CARE program - CARE stands for Customer facing, Always listening, Reliable and trustworthy, Efficient and friendly."

This ethos means that everyone who buys a new Isuzu receive a personal letter from Nikki herself that gives direct and mobile numbers for anyone the customer might need to call. With a level of customer care that I've never encountered anywhere before, the final paragraph of the letter asks the customer to contact Nikki directly if they have a problem that they can't get resolved. Not content with providing an address for their customers to write to, the letter has Nikki's own phone number for people to call if they need to.

If you are anything like me, you'd be slightly sceptical that the number actually was Nikki's so I asked her whether it really was. "Of course it is" she said, "and in the six years that we've done this, I've only ever had 12 calls. Five of them, and they're always on a Sunday afternoon, were members of staff who had the same thought as you! The others were general problems that we quickly got resolved."

Once they've had their new truck for a little while, each customer is then contacted by one of Isuzu's Customer Care staff. With another nod to modern, well thought out working practises, the staff who make these calls are almost all women who work from home and the same person will look after that customer for as long as they own the truck. "The first call is literally two questions long" Nikki says, "How's the truck and how's the service from us been?"

Whilst the frontline care staff are empowered to deal with certain issues, each is backed up by a Job Manager. Any problems that do arise are quickly dealt with and, one week after resolution, Nikki herself follows up every one of them to make sure that the customer is happy.

To keep track of all of this activity, everything, and I mean everything, is logged into Isuzu's customer database. This gives total transparency to every member of staff, enabling them to stay informed and to track the progress of any enquiry. Nikki showed me a few entries and I was very impressed by the way that nothing was marked as concluded until the customer was described as totally happy.

"With all this information we can spot any trends" Nikki explained, "in fact the system alerts us if a particular problem reoccurs to often."

By being ahead of the game when it comes to spotting potential issues, Isuzu are able to iron them out almost before they occur. One area that has certainly benefited from this is the fitting of tipper bodies to the vehicles. Having noticed that this type of body often gave rise to after-sales calls, Isuzu now check every single order that they receive to make sure that the body-type requested will suit the truck ordered. "If it doesn't" Nikki says, "we'll suggest alternatives to the customer, but if that's not what they want then we won't sell the truck".

Isuzu's CARE attitude doesn't stop after a few months of ownership either, "Another area in which we're different to the other manufacturers is that we highly value our technicians that service and maintain our customers vehicles." Nikki tells me, "Selling a customer their first Isuzu truck is the relatively easy bit, the second and hopefully subsequent ones are sold by how good our technicians and service are.

"Our technicians are customer facing, they learn customer skills and we value them really highly. Each time one of our agents wins repeat business from a customer, we put £50 into a 'pot' for their technicians. At the end of the year we make sure that the money gets used for something for them; it might be for their Christmas party or a television for their staff room, for us the important thing is that the staff are rewarded for their hard work."

It's all very easy for companies to blow their own trumpets about such things, but CARE certainly isn't just hot Isuzu air. In 2002 they won the Daily Telegraph Customer Service Award, beating such well-known names as BT and another champion of customer service, The Virgin Group.

Since their management buyout from Lex two years ago, Isuzu have also become one of 180 companies that have been benchmarked by the Department of Trade and Industry. As a result of this once a quarter about 12 other companies visit Nikki and Isuzu to see what they do and learn from it.

Despite holding the Number 1 position in their respective markets in 24 countries including Japan, USA and Thailand  (not forgetting Papua New Guinea!) for many years - in the USA, Isuzu have been the top seller of 'imported cab-over trucks' for 18 consecutive years - Nikki doesn't register the company's sales with the SMMT, "I once described the SMMT's market share figures in a magazine as 'corporate masturbation'" she says, "Market share battles lead to problems such as devaluation and we're not interested. We only want a profitable business that looks after its customers. The other manufacturers aren't interested in what Isuzu are doing and that suits us".

Away from her role as MD, Nikki has taken on several other projects. She was recently a guest speaker at the 'Women in the Transport Industry' conference where, amongst other things, she pointed out to delegates that "the skills for management are the same as those for children, which made them [women] perfectly qualified for the roles that they have".

Nikki's most prominent recent achievement has been becoming appointed Chair of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers (IRTE). The IRTE has clear plans to raise its profile not only with companies and workers in the road transport industry, but also with Government; to show that the IRTE is as relevant as it's always been and has valuable skills and advice to contribute to industry and the country as a whole.

At the IRTE's relaunch Nikki said,  "[once] there was a hell of a lot of pride in being a member" and she said she remembered the time when "a lot of jobs used to say, 'must be member of IRTE'..."

It's a place the IRTE want to be again. They aim to help employers appreciate the role the IRTE has in setting standards and have them demand such standards from their work force. In turn the IRTE hopes that educators will encourage their students to aim for IRTE membership, to prove their competency to employers, who will in future be requiring IRTE membership.

With Nikki at the helm, the IRTE looks certain to revitalise itself and I for one am sure that it will have a bright future.

Snapshot

All too quickly my time with Nikki came to an end, but before I left I asked her my standard set of certainly-not-haulage questions so that we could get a better idea of Nikki herself. As usual the answers proved both enlightening and entertaining:

Who or what makes you laugh?

- Everything - usually at the most inappropriate moments. On TV, I am a "League of Gentlemen" fan.

What CD / Tape have you got in your car at the moment?

- Grand Italian Opera, Folk, Meatloaf and Def Leppard.

What are your 3 favourite films?

- La Vita e Bella", "Death in Venice", "The Seven Samurai"(Japanese Version).

What's your favourite program on television?

- Question Time.

What's the last book that you read?

- In total embarrassment - The latest Harry Potter.

If you were stranded on the famous desert island, what would your luxury item be?

- A Grand Piano and a lot of sheet music.

What can't you live without?

- The team who keep me going - My Children, who keep my feet on the ground - My PA, Hilary, who runs my life - My ladies who clean my home and my wonderful Vietnamese Beautician- David - who does my hair, nails, feet, eyebrows and all the other things that keep a middle-aged woman relatively presentable.

You can put one item into Room 101, what would it be?

- 'Big Brother'.

If you were hosting a dinner party for 6 guests, who would they be?

- Des Evans - MAN, Ann Widdecombe, Terry Leahy - Tesco, Joan Rivers, Judge Judy, Rick Mayall.

What's your favourite food?

- Any Italian food but my ultimate comfort moment is fish fingers, mashed potato and frozen peas - sheer heaven!

I'm ordering drinks at the bar, what would you like?

- A pint of Kentish Real Ale, preferably with a strong cheddar ploughman's.

How do you relax?

- I rarely relax. However, when I do it usually involves good friends, good food and alcohol.

Where would you go for your dream holiday?

- I really want to take a cruise that goes from Alaska right across the North Pole to Greenland. Right now, the price is still out of my league but if Isuzu continues as it is now, maybe in a year or two.

Do you have any pets?

- I have 2 cats. One is a really loveable Oriental and the other is a totally feral Bengal. It depends on my mood which one I talk to!

What question that I haven't asked you do you wish I had asked, and what would your answer be?

- Is there life after Isuzu? I really want to work in South America with the street children and have already programmed this into my life plan.