'For years we have been seen as rogues, highway robbers,' he says. 'But this perception of the recovery industry is the direct result of a handful of cowboy operators out to make a fast buck. The vast majority of operators are highly professional people who are passionate about what they do and are focused on safety and customer care.'

Coupland explains: 'We are not out to rip off the road haulage industry or anyone else. Our sole aim is to help remobilise customers' vehicles without causing any supplementary damage, at the same time giving a quality service at a competitive price.'

Parked in the yard at Castle Recovery's headquarters on the outskirts of the Dorset town of Ferndown are several million pounds worth of specialist recovery trucks. 'A new 8x4 heavy can cost as much as £400,000 fully equipped,' Coupland says. 'The problem recovery operators face is most of the time people do not want to know us, because "it will never happen to them". And when it does they want us to sort it out, now, now, now. Try selling that business principle to your bank manager.'

But it is not all doom and gloom and for a successful operator such as Castle Recovery, constantly striving for excellence in training, health and safety and customer care, the rewards can be national contracts from the roadside assistance organisations and high profile 'statutory' police work.

John and Aileen Coupland founded the Castle Group in 1969. 'We started off repairing cars,' says Aileen, wife to John and the Castle Group's finance director. 'I used to help John in the pit and I have been part of the business ever since. That business grew and we branched out into vans and trucks.'

One repair garage soon became five filling stations and by the mid 1970s the Couplands were masters of an independent car sales business complete with tow truck. 'Demand for recovery grew and we invested in equipment until we reached a point when we had to decide which way the business was going. We decided to specialise and in 1986 we pulled out of the retail side of the business and sold the forecourts,' she explains.

A site on the Ferndown Industrial Estate was purchased with some premises, but the Couplands realised the need for more dedicated buildings and five years ago they developed the land behind their workshops and offices. Today the Castle Group has moved out of its initial premises and lets this space. 'We brought in businesses that we can cross trade with,' John says, 'and we have expanded this part of our business.'

But recovery remains at the centre of the Castle Group's activities and two of Coupland's children work alongside him and his wife. 'Our boys have been around this world all their lives, but both went out and did apprenticeships before joining the business 13 and 15 years ago,' he explains.

'Graham is our technical director and using his expertise in IT, he has revolutionised our business. We now have a wireless network linking our sites to each other and to the emergency services. Matt is our sales director and as well as looking after contracts, he runs the used truck and truck hire side of our business', Coupland adds.

Last year the Castle Group turned over £2.5 million operating from two sites - Poole and Ferndown - and this year the company successfully acquired Southampton-based Oakmount Recovery.

'In recovery operator terms we are on the small side of big. But to be honest if we just relied on recovery it would not provide us with our pensions,' Coupland says. 'Other than acquisitions there is no growth. Used truck sales and tractor hire are two areas we have moved into and we also open our workshops for vehicle maintenance, but we are careful not to compete with our local truck dealerships because many of them use our recovery services,' he adds.

'As part of our recovery service we also supply cars to our customers. It helps us manage working time,' he explains. 'Rather than have one of our people drive home a stranded driver we can supply the customer with a car, which we then collect at a later date. As part of handling wrecked vehicles we have built up a vehicle de-pollution service. We are an approved treatment facility and we recycle the fuels and lubricants. Our premises is heated using waste oil and we sell recovered fuel to our staff.

'The last arm of our business is property. We are developing a portfolio of commercial premises to compensate for the lack of growth in the recovery business.'

With contracts secured for the RAC, Green Flag, and two police forces, Coupland has had to invest heavily in equipment and now runs a fleet of 60 vehicles. These range from a Smart Car to 100-tonne low loaders. 'We do not stick with one marque. We run Sprinters, Isuzus and Canters from 6.0 to 7.5 tonnes and have found the Renault Midlum excellent from 10 to 12 tonnes. At the heavy end we have a mix of Mercedes, Daf and Renault and keep Premiums for the tractor rental business,' Coupland says.

'We have tried Ivecos over the years, but while they are good on price, we have found that the initial gains are quickly swallowed by down-time costs. One truck we think very highly of is the Daf LF45 but we continue to be disappointed that Daf does not offer a crew cab version. All our maintenance is done in house and we have a great working relationship with a variety of dealers', he adds.

John Coupland returns to the subject of the industry's profile and he says the key to raising its profile is high-level representation. 'We are still tarnished by the rogue traders,' he says, 'but there are wider issues across the whole industry to be addressed. We see some real horrors in our business and often they are a result of poor maintenance and breaches of driving regulations, especially on foreign trucks. Something has to be done.

'We were founder members of the AVRO (Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators) and I am chairman of the RAC commercial assistance council. These are excellent bodies that address internal recovery industry issues,' he says. 'But they do not have the clout our industry needs to be taken seriously by government.

'Now the RHA has formed the Rescue and Recovery Group we have a representative body that has direct links to the suits in Whitehall. We need this powerful lobby, especially when there are big changes afoot with the introduction of the Highways Agency Traffic Officers [HATOs] and the renegotiation of police recovery contracts by the HA. We need to be seen and accepted as a totally professional service with high standards of training and a sound safety record.

'Recovery operators must be able to work as a team with the emergency services and I believe with the introduction of the new HATOs we now have an additional mountain to climb in terms of their role and the way we/they will interact with the emergency services.

'At the Tow Show, as part of the RHARRG, we organised a recovery demo with all the roadside services - police, fire, ambulance, HATOs - involved. I believe it was a milestone for our industry and showed how an integrated team effort could work. We need to lobby in the halls of power to ensure this type of cooperation is a daily occurrence.

'Another thing we need to look at are statutory fees - the price paid by the authorities for removing immobilised vehicles from accident sites - and we need a unified approach to the rates paid by the roadside assistance organisations,' he explains. 'Some take a very aggressive stance. We choose not to deal with them, but some in the industry have no choice and it helps to have an influential trade association behind them.'

Coupland continues: 'We were members of the FTA, but it never did anything for us and it did not seem interested in getting involved with the nuts and bolts of our industry. The RHA is different and runs regular local meetings at a grass-roots level where we can interact and establish relationships with other operators.'

The Castle Group works hard to ensure it maintains its own high standards and runs internal training courses and career development programmes. It has taken several inexperienced employees and has given them a full training package including comprehensive health and safety training. Coupland explains: 'We have our own NEBOSH [National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health] qualified instructor and ensure our staff are trained to the highest standards. Working on the roadside is the highest-risk occupation in the country so safety is critical. We have also organised training days for the emergency services and regularly roll an artic onto a car in our yard to allow them to train on rescue techniques with us.'

So what of the future? 'As far as the recovery side of our business is concerned, we will continue to raise standards and hopefully we can transform the way we are perceived - by many in the road haulage industry - from highway robbers to a highly professional body that can be recognised as an emergency service,' Coupland says.

We ask where he wants to take the Castle Group over the next 10 years. 'We took over Oakmount Recovery, but we are not in the business of taking over companies left, right and centre. Growth will come from the property side and we will work with other companies in the future in a mutually beneficial way,' he says.

'But most importantly we must keep striving to show that we are a customer-facing and focused industry that when asked to jump, will say, "How high?" ' he concludes.