It’s time I started pulling together the next feature in the T&D Driving Through The Decades series, and this time I’m looking for people on bog-standard, backyard UK haulage in the 80s please! And images again, if anyone has any!
Question is, given my husband started driving around about this time, do I dare let him see me posting this request in here?
Seriously though, would I be better off looking in the main forum or am I just showing my own age when I say it doesn’t seem that long ago…?
I started driving early 80s. Got my licence, as did a few others on here, through the RTITB Young Drivers Training Scheme 1981. I definitely WOULD NOT consider myself an "Old Timer"!!! :laughing: :laughing: To me they are the chaps in non sleeper cabs doing the job the hard way, roping and sheeting, staying in drivers digs and making their own way on the road in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
Edit… with regard to looking in the main forum, I wouldn’t bother. I looked in there recently and it was like a primary school. At least on the Old Timers Forum, people may disagree but can stay civil and there is a modicum of intelligence! There is wealth of information on here. The other forum seems like a bunch of squabbling, bickering children.
Lucy:
That sounds spot on Bullitt, would you be up for a chat with me later this week/early next? PM me your contact numbers if you are please!
You are a con artist Lucy ! And I and many of the other Lads on this forum have rolled further backwards at traffic lights than the likes of Bullitt have driven forward ! ■■■■ insulting cheek and the Mods should tell you so ! You do not deserve assistance with your “articles” ! Disgusted Bewick.
Lucy:
That sounds spot on Bullitt, would you be up for a chat with me later this week/early next? PM me your contact numbers if you are please!
You are a con artist Lucy ! And I and many of the other Lads on this forum have rolled further backwards at traffic lights than the likes of Bullitt have driven forward ! ■■■■ insulting cheek and the Mods should tell you so ! You do not deserve assistance with your “articles” ! Disgusted Bewick.
You old fat cat only thing you drove in the 80s was a desk and big thirsty car
Not sure if my experience is what you are looking for
Passed first driving test in 1979 in a 7.5 tonner then did 7.5 tonner parcel work for 9 years
1988 passed HGV class 1 but then for the next 17 years did mainly flatbed rigid work on steel deliveries
Virtually all was day work but in early 80s did overnight stays in Stockport/peak district area twice a week for about 18 months where I slept across the seats in a 7.5 using a piece of foam to fill in the gap where the gear stick was as well as a box with foam on top in from of the seats to widen the sleeping area
Lucy:
That sounds spot on Bullitt, would you be up for a chat with me later this week/early next? PM me your contact numbers if you are please!
You are a con artist Lucy ! And I and many of the other Lads on this forum have rolled further backwards at traffic lights than the likes of Bullitt have driven forward ! ■■■■ insulting cheek and the Mods should tell you so ! You do not deserve assistance with your “articles” ! Disgusted Bewick.
You old fat cat only thing you drove in the 80s was a desk and big thirsty car
Sounds about right coming from a puddle jumper and skate board operator !
Lucy:
That sounds spot on Bullitt, would you be up for a chat with me later this week/early next? PM me your contact numbers if you are please!
You are a con artist Lucy ! And I and many of the other Lads on this forum have rolled further backwards at traffic lights than the likes of Bullitt have driven forward ! ■■■■ insulting cheek and the Mods should tell you so ! You do not deserve assistance with your “articles” ! Disgusted Bewick.
You old fat cat only thing you drove in the 80s was a desk and big thirsty car
Sounds about right coming from a puddle jumper and skate board operator !
Thanks Rog, but I really need HGV stuff. I’ll remember you offered for future reference though!
Bewick, I have no idea why you think I’m a con artist just because you disagreed with a column I wrote, but you have the right to an opinion just the same as anyone else. The 60s feature to which you appeared to be referring when you first made this accusation was a separate feature in the same issue, which you seem not to have seen.
Bewick:
…And I and many of the other Lads on this forum have rolled further backwards at traffic lights than the likes of Bullitt have driven forward !..
and I wouldn’t dispute that for one minute! The likes of yourself, Buzzer, Mushroomman, Truckyboy, BestBooties, the Promotor lads, Uncle Robert (Mr ERF), the Astran lads and the myriad others who`s names I cannot quite recall just now did the hard miles and made the job what it was then and how it is now. Hats off to the lot of you. I did the job for 18 years before a career change, although that involved driving trucks as well. Im most definitely NOt an “old hand” and nor would I ever claim to be
This “Rolling backwards at traffic lights” manouver that you speak of Dennis, is that why underun bars became a standard fitment on the rear of trailers?
I started driving full time in 83, despite passing my test in 1976, but did nothing interesting enough for anyone to want to pay cash to read about it!
MR Bewick i 100% agree with what you have said, as FOR LUCY "SITE ADMINISTRATOR what a joke . i have sent her stuff thinking she was ok,
the rubbish she wrote in the truck magazine,they have both put their heads together for a whined up, this is the reason i keep way from the site now,to many tossers using it ,what a QUESTION DOES DRIVING IN THE 1980S COUNT AS OLD TIME,pointless dribble…,i am going back to my worry beads, because some of this crew on here need worrying about…pdb
ROG:
Not sure if my experience is what you are looking for
Passed first driving test in 1979 in a 7.5 tonner then did 7.5 tonner parcel work for 9 years
1988 passed HGV class 1 but then for the next 17 years did mainly flatbed rigid work on steel deliveries
Virtually all was day work but in early 80s did overnight stays in Stockport/peak district area twice a week for about 18 months where I slept across the seats in a 7.5 using a piece of foam to fill in the gap where the gear stick was as well as a box with foam on top in from of the seats to widen the sleeping area
“If you can you do, if you can’t you teach” well known saying apparently ! Bewick.
windrush:
This “Rolling backwards at traffic lights” manouver that you speak of Dennis, is that why underun bars became a standard fitment on the rear of trailers?
I started driving full time in 83, despite passing my test in 1976, but did nothing interesting enough for anyone to want to pay cash to read about it!
Pete.
You could be right about the under run bars Pete ! never thought of that eh! Cheers Dennis.
ROG:
Not sure if my experience is what you are looking for
Passed first driving test in 1979 in a 7.5 tonner then did 7.5 tonner parcel work for 9 years
1988 passed HGV class 1 but then for the next 17 years did mainly flatbed rigid work on steel deliveries
Virtually all was day work but in early 80s did overnight stays in Stockport/peak district area twice a week for about 18 months where I slept across the seats in a 7.5 using a piece of foam to fill in the gap where the gear stick was as well as a box with foam on top in from of the seats to widen the sleeping area
“If you can you do, if you can’t you teach” well known saying apparently ! Bewick.
And if you can’t do any of the above then you can always get a job in the office.
Another well known saying apparently.
Lucy:
That sounds spot on Bullitt, would you be up for a chat with me later this week/early next? PM me your contact numbers if you are please!
You are a con artist Lucy ! And I and many of the other Lads on this forum have rolled further backwards at traffic lights than the likes of Bullitt have driven forward ! ■■■■ insulting cheek and the Mods should tell you so ! You do not deserve assistance with your “articles” ! Disgusted Bewick.
You old fat cat only thing you drove in the 80s was a desk and big thirsty car
Sounds about right coming from a puddle jumper and skate board operator !
I’d put my money on carryfast done more miles in the 80s than yourself Denzil
Depends on what you mean by ‘old-time’. Don’t forget that we were still driving early-'70s lorries around in the '80s. In the ‘eighties we still had 32-tonne max (until about ’83), we still had 40’ trailers (till about the same time and for ages after), we still had no limiters (on most lorries) so flat running speeds were much higher but uphill speeds were vastly lower (smaller engines), we still had masses of lorries with constant-mesh manual gearboxes (and auto-boxes were rare), we still had flat trailers with roping and sheeting (still very common throughout the ‘80s), we still had full border-crossings to contend with in Europe, tilt trailers were still very commonplace, drum-brakes were normal so braking was much worse than today, exhaust-brakes were the usual form of secondary braking if you were lucky enough to have one (Thelmas and Jakes were not that common because of the weight penalty), driving seats were less comfortable, noise levels were considerably higher, air-conditioning was still only for long-haulers and heavy-haulers, long driving shifts unheard of today were commonplace (less enforceable), and as someone else up the page mentioned it was still commonplace to be given a day-cab and poor pay. All that has gone now, which places the ‘80s firmly in a past transport era. For a youngster, that equals ‘old-time’! Robert
Lucy:
Thanks Rog, but I really need HGV stuff. I’ll remember you offered for future reference though!
Bewick, I have no idea why you think I’m a con artist just because you disagreed with a column I wrote, but you have the right to an opinion just the same as anyone else. The 60s feature to which you appeared to be referring when you first made this accusation was a separate feature in the same issue, which you seem not to have seen.
I have never read the “Truck Comics” total waste of money IMHO. Bewick.
I’d say pre 2000 is old time that’s the last generation of manual trucks and before mobiles become common.
In my industry the waste sector 2012 was the change with crosstalk safety was stepped up fors started an it came more professional on paper.
