News

Obituary Mike Whitehead

2/24/2025

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Mike Whitehead, founder and Managing Director of Distinctive Systems Ltd, aged 74.

Here are a few words describing Mike's career in the industry...

Mike graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business in 1974, which included a strong computing element. When the very earliest personal computers started to emerge in the late 1970s Mike took an immediate interest in them. His job at the time allowed him to spend a great deal of time exploring this exciting new technology and how it could be used to build genuinely useful real-world applications.

In 1980 Mike joined his family’s long established coach business. He hadn’t been there long when he decided there were major efficiencies to be had from computerising the management of both private hire and regular contract bookings. So he went out and bought a computer. For over a year he spent his evenings and weekends sitting at the dining room table writing software. Initially Mike had no thoughts of turning this into a separate business, but chatting to other operators at local association meetings, many were interested in what he was doing.

As the development of the software started to get close to completion, Mike began to believe it was a strong enough product to become the basis for a new venture. So he formed a company and named it Distinctive Systems. Mike travelled the country demonstrating the first ever Coach Manager to operators. He installed both hardware and software for them, trained them in how to use it and looked after them on the phone. Mike’s father ran the accounts and handled incoming enquiries. In the first year the company sold 23 systems.

In 1995, Distinctive Systems moved to its new purpose-built offices and continued to grow. Today its core products include Coach Manager along with the Tour Booking System and Vehicle Maintenance System. The company expanded into other territories, including the USA and Australia and the company Mike created now serves over 2,600 coach operators.

In 2022 Distinctive Systems celebrated its 40th birthday with a staff party where it was a great opportunity for everyone to reflect on what had been achieved. Mike built a successful team, recruiting people with coach industry expertise, some having worked for the company for over 35 years, along with strong development and IT staff. The entire team have made the company the success it is today.

We will all miss him very much.