Vertical Systems sales manager David Trunkfield has retired after a career spanning nearly 45 years in the travel industry.
Trunkfield, who is a familiar face among travel agents and well respected for his in-depth knowledge of the original Tarsc back-office system, left Vertical on Friday last week after nearly 28 years, including a short break at other companies in the industry.
Managing director Chris North said: “David has been an avid supporter of our back-office system Tarsc and during his career would be out selling Tarsc or training agents on it. Tarsc is engrained in his blood.
“He is well connected, everyone knows him, and he is well-respected – one of the industry’s good guys.”
Trunkfield said he had loved the job of meeting and selling to travel agents around the country, travelling a distance of around 20,000 miles a year on the road.
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“I built a relationship with agents and helped train them all around the UK,” he said. “I would average 20,000 miles a year and on occasion be asked to drive to the south coast in the morning and the north of England in the afternoon in the early days carrying a desktop, large Sony monitor, OKI printer a modem and all the cables. It could take three visits to unload the car!”
He was one of the first users of the original Tarsc system when he set up his own travel agency Trunkfield Travel in 1988. Despite turning over more than £1 million in his first year the agency was forced to shut in 1992 as a result of the recession in 1991 and the demise of ILG.
Prior to that, Trunkfield managed Lonsdale Travel for eight years and was a sales manager for the ILG Group from 1975 to 1980, tasked with increasing sales for tour operator Intasun in the Midlands to overcome the dominance of Thomson Holidays and Horizon Holidays. His first job in travel was for Thomson Holidays as its first rep in Scotland in 1971.
He recalled: “I used to go on the road and do roadshows and sell the idea to people of going on a package holiday. You had to convince them they would be looked after when they got there. Those days were very exciting.
“Getting into technology was the same sort of thing; encouraging people to take on the technology when before they had written everything down.”
Explaining why he had just retired at the age of 72, Trunkfield said he had never revealed his true age to work colleagues.
“Retirement was not on my radar and whenever anyone asked my age I would always knock ten years off and this made me feel younger. Only Peter Healey (Vertical Travel Group chief executive and founder) knew my real age!
“But my family have been encouraging me in that direction so the time has come after 27 years with Tarsc.”
And even when it came to his retirement date there was a slight mix-up.
Trunkfield, who worked from home, said: “I thought I was retiring this Friday (October 25) but it turns out it was Friday last week. I got a call from Chris this week and he asked why I was still working. This is what happens when you are in your seventies!”
