1997
Incorporated
T.A.D. Communications Ltd registered in England and Wales on 5 September 1997, company number 03429988. Hertfordshire then, Hertfordshire now.
About us
Fitting kit to working vehicles since 1997
We supply and fit the parts that turn a standard vehicle into a working one — and we built TAD i-am because our customers kept asking for something the catalogue did not sell.
1997Incorporated
28 yearsTrading, same county
One unitWhiteleaf Road, HP3
03429988Companies House
Incorporated on 5 September 1997, T.A.D. Communications Ltd has traded out of the same corner of Hertfordshire ever since. The work has always been roughly the same shape. A vehicle arrives standard. It leaves able to do a job.
In practice that means ply lining and racking for the trades. Beacons, light bars and chevrons for anyone working near live traffic. Towbars, bulkheads, reversing cameras, deadlocks and window grilles.
Some of it comes off a shelf. A good deal of it does not, and gets measured, cut and built around the vehicle sitting in front of us that morning.
Trackers were part of that list too, for operators who needed to know where their assets had got to. Fitting them year after year meant hearing the same complaint over and over.
A site spends real money on training records, licences and toolbox talks — then hands out one key that works for everybody. Nobody finds out until something goes wrong.
Once the trackers went in
What telematics could tell them
01Where the machine is, to the metre.
02Where it has been, and how it got there.
03How long it sat idling with the engine running.
And what it could not
Who actually turned the key
01Whether that operator was trained on that machine.
02Whether the licence in their pocket had already expired.
03Whether they should have been on it at all.
Tracking tells you where. TAD i-am tells you who.
Twenty-eight years
From a bare van
From a bare van
to an immobiliser
Six turns in the road. None of them planned in a boardroom — each one came out of a vehicle that was sitting in the unit at the time.
02
The trade years
Ply lining, racking, bulkheads, beacons, towbars, grilles and deadlocks. Some of it off a shelf, a good deal of it cut to the van in front of us.
03
Telematics
Trackers went into customers' vans and plant. Managers could finally see where an asset was, which solved a real problem and exposed a bigger one.
04
The gap
Kit gets moved by whoever is nearest. Machines get started by people whose ticket ran out two years ago. By the time anyone finds out, the paperwork is the only version of events there is.
05
TAD i-am
An i-am unit on the machine, a Bluetooth Tag in the operator's pocket — one each, no sharing — and the licence and training record held on the unit and wired into the ignition. If it does not check out, the machine stays immobilised and the attempt is written down.
Now
Still independent
Family-run, Achilles audited, FSB members, and everything still fitted by our own team at the unit on Whiteleaf Road.
What we actually do
Four things,
Four things,
done properly
These are related jobs rather than separate ones. TAD i-am only works as well as it does because we spend every week inside real vehicles.
Supply
Racking, ply lining, beacons and light bars, towbars, bulkheads, reversing cameras, window grilles, deadlocks, trackers. Trade brands we would fit to our own vehicles.
Fit
Everything we sell, we install. In our unit, by our own fitters — nothing handed off to a subcontractor we have never met.
Build
TAD i-am is ours. Specified, assembled, installed and supported from Hemel Hempstead — not rebadged from somebody else's catalogue.
Support
One phone number. The person who answers it has usually stood next to your vehicle, and can pull the install notes up while you talk.
House rules
Five things we will
Five things we will
not talk you out of
Nothing here is a mission statement. It is just how the workshop has run for a long time, and why customers who came to us for a towbar in 2004 are still ringing.
01
We quote on the vehicle, not the model.
Two Transits of the same year can be completely different inside. We would rather look first than send you a price that changes later.
02
You get the same people throughout.
Quote, fitting date, handover, warranty call — it is a small team and you will recognise the voices.
03
If it is not right, it comes back.
No arguing about whose fault it is while your van sits off the road.
04
We will say no.
If a job is not one we should be doing, we will tell you — and usually point you at someone who should.
05
The van goes back clean.
Swarf, offcuts and old wiring leave with us.
Achilles
Registration means our company, insurance and health-and-safety documentation has been verified by a third party main contractors already trust. It saves everyone a fortnight of PQQ emails.
Federation of Small Businesses
Where a lot of independent British firms our size sit. It is not a badge that wins work on its own, but it says who we are: small, accountable and not owned by anybody else.
On the record
The formal bit
- Registered name
- T.A.D. Communications Ltd
- Company number
- 03429988 — registered in England & Wales, incorporated 5 September 1997
- Workshop
- 15 Chancerygate Business Centre, Whiteleaf Road, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP3 9HD
- Registered office
- Unit 3 Peerglow Industrial Estate, Olds Approach, Watford, Hertfordshire WD18 9SR
Whiteleaf Road, Hemel Hempstead
Come and see the unit
One van, a yard full of plant, or a TAD i-am trial across a site — the quickest way forward is a conversation about the actual vehicles.
