A1 transport,leeds

[jack_graham]

john knowles:

Jack Graham:

keith 2:
Hi Jack,it did have a bigger engine,but I maybe wrong with the engine size with not been a scanny guy,a ginger hair guy got it but forgot his name,i remember having to change starter on it and was very limited on space to get to the top bolt and a fitter give me a hand,keith

The ones that went abroad were 110’s and the one in Newport was a 140, I know the driver was getting a bollocking for going too fast with it because of the MPG was too low,that’s why it didn’t go over the water.

a lad steve got it at newport running general uk work .more expensive 2nd hand vehicles bought by mr macgee acquiring defunked companies

Unless my memory is getting worse I thought Teamhaul was bought by JMR before Magee took control, could be wrong but unless my memory is going, or may-be some-one else remembers. :- Jack.

[keith_2]

Jack Graham:

john knowles:

Jack Graham:

keith 2:
Hi Jack,it did have a bigger engine,but I maybe wrong with the engine size with not been a scanny guy,a ginger hair guy got it but forgot his name,i remember having to change starter on it and was very limited on space to get to the top bolt and a fitter give me a hand,keith

The ones that went abroad were 110’s and the one in Newport was a 140, I know the driver was getting a bollocking for going too fast with it because of the MPG was too low,that’s why it didn’t go over the water.

a lad steve got it at newport running general uk work .more expensive 2nd hand vehicles bought by mr macgee acquiring defunked companies

Unless my memory is getting worse I thought Teamhaul was bought by JMR before Magee took control, could be wrong but unless my memory is going, or may-be some-one else remembers. :- Jack.

Hi Jack,teamhall was bought buy Magee,do not know if he got any work to go with them,better then the Bowie fuxked Erfs ,keith

[exmetcalfesman]

I have been reading the messages on this site for a year or so regarding A-One Transport and the companies associated with Neil Magee, and its eventual downfall.
There were 14 companies that were part of Magee’s empire prior to A-One’s demise and negotiations were actually taking place with a Lancashire based haulier to purchase A-One in its entirety, but Magee refused to sell, instead he placed the business into the hands of the receivers along with several others that were failing financially; but not before he’d set up another separate company first with one of his co-directors.
Its surprising what you can find out on opencorporates.com/companies

[exmetcalfesman]

[exmetcalfesman]

[jack_graham]

exmetcalfesman:
I have been reading the messages on this site for a year or so regarding A-One Transport and the companies associated with Neil Magee, and its eventual downfall.
There were 14 companies that were part of Magee’s empire prior to A-One’s demise and negotiations were actually taking place with a Lancashire based haulier to purchase A-One in its entirety, but Magee refused to sell, instead he placed the business into the hands of the receivers along with several others that were failing financially; but not before he’d set up another separate company first with one of his co-directors.
Its surprising what you can find out on opencorporates.com/companies

Hi, nice to see some response to our page and from an old Metcalfs man too, when I was at Fielders we ran down to London with your guy’s on nights, in the day when we all worked together down the old A1.
But getting back to your letter on Magee, it wasn’t long before we realized what a prat he was, an asset stripper if there ever was one, he did the same to the other companies he had control of when he took control of A1, he’s one of the business men who put this country to shame, he didn’t give a toss about his employees from the shop floor to the top office staff, he failed them all which is why they left, and I have no doubt JMR wished he’d sold the company to the management instead, because if he had it would be still up and running, I also have one of the A1 book of rules in my case like the one your showing, but nice to talk to an old driver from Metcalfs. Kind Regards :-Jack.

[exmetcalfesman]

Jack, I did the night run a few times to London when the depot was in Bethnal Green, and later when we moved to Millwall (1970?) I delivered the goods from Listers mill in Bradford to the shops around the City, West and East End, staying overnight at Silvertown.
Unfortunately I had first hand experience of Magee when he purchased Henry Longs and we transferred to A-One, but not after he had stripped the assets from that established company.

[grumpy_old_man]

Whatwere peoples opinions on Hutchinson? I only had “dealings/words” with him once and I wasn’t impressed. In fact I was well brassed off with him.
I’d delivered a load of Derv, to Gildersome.

[jack_graham]

grumpy old man:
Whatwere peoples opinions on Hutchinson? I only had “dealings/words” with him once and I wasn’t impressed. In fact I was well brassed off with him.
I’d delivered a load of Derv, to Gildersome.

Well the truth is he was a “grumpy young man”, he could be arrogant and rude, but when you got to know him he wasn’t too bad deep down, he would listen and if he thought you were right he’d back you up and try to sort the problem out, including bollocking other managers if you were right after arguing with them, he did it for me a couple of times after fall out’s with the TIR manager, he was also like most people including the drivers, he had problems at home which made him grumpy just like drivers did, but when his wife was killed in the Manchester airplane fire disaster he had a shock at the number of drivers who turned up at the funeral, also he was depressed for a long time after that event, so if he was grumpy it was understandable, but one thing I did see, he could drive an artic when I saw him back one into the werehouse one day when he thought no-one was watching and it was perfect.e
But yes he could be arrogant and rude, but underneath he was not a bad bloke, but you have to remember if it wasnt for him A1 wouldnt have been the big company it became and if it wasnt for him we wouldnt have been one of the best paid drivers on the road.
So yes he could rub folks up, but when you’d worked there for over 20 years it didnt matter because if your not there he cant bollock you.
One thing he did like to do was keep drivers instead of sacking them, because he didnt want anyone leaving to take there knowlage of A1’s business to them, that’s why so many of the drivers had been there for well over 20 years, some had been working for JMR for over 30 years, which is proof of a good company. :- Jack.

[maxhagar]

Having a pint and a pie in a Birstall pub I got talking to Hutchinsons mother and her opinion of him was when he was younger he was a little bar steward and down the line he was a big bar steward,very very true.

[keith_2]

Jack Graham:

grumpy old man:
Whatwere peoples opinions on Hutchinson? I only had “dealings/words” with him once and I wasn’t impressed. In fact I was well brassed off with him.
I’d delivered a load of Derv, to Gildersome.

Well the truth is he was a “grumpy young man”, he could be arrogant and rude, but when you got to know him he wasn’t too bad deep down, he would listen and if he thought you were right he’d back you up and try to sort the problem out, including bollocking other managers if you were right after arguing with them, he did it for me a couple of times after fall out’s with the TIR manager, he was also like most people including the drivers, he had problems at home which made him grumpy just like drivers did, but when his wife was killed in the Manchester airplane fire disaster he had a shock at the number of drivers who turned up at the funeral, also he was depressed for a long time after that event, so if he was grumpy it was understandable, but one thing I did see, he could drive an artic when I saw him back one into the werehouse one day when he thought no-one was watching and it was perfect.e
But yes he could be arrogant and rude, but underneath he was not a bad bloke, but you have to remember if it wasnt for him A1 wouldnt have been the big company it became and if it wasnt for him we wouldnt have been one of the best paid drivers on the road.
So yes he could rub folks up, but when you’d worked there for over 20 years it didnt matter because if your not there he cant bollock you.
One thing he did like to do was keep drivers instead of sacking them, because he didnt want anyone leaving to take there knowlage of A1’s business to them, that’s why so many of the drivers had been there for well over 20 years, some had been working for JMR for over 30 years, which is proof of a good company. :- Jack.

well said jack,jmr was the money man but but you need some very good men to get the work and look after the men who did the graft,you could be here all night putting the names forward,but we all did our bit from the 1940s to 1999 ,and to the 20 plus year men must have been happy with the job or you would have left,wish we could go back to them years,keith

[jack_graham]

keith 2:

Jack Graham:

grumpy old man:
Whatwere peoples opinions on Hutchinson? I only had “dealings/words” with him once and I wasn’t impressed. In fact I was well brassed off with him.
I’d delivered a load of Derv, to Gildersome.

Well the truth is he was a “grumpy young man”, he could be arrogant and rude, but when you got to know him he wasn’t too bad deep down, he would listen and if he thought you were right he’d back you up and try to sort the problem out, including bollocking other managers if you were right after arguing with them, he did it for me a couple of times after fall out’s with the TIR manager, he was also like most people including the drivers, he had problems at home which made him grumpy just like drivers did, but when his wife was killed in the Manchester airplane fire disaster he had a shock at the number of drivers who turned up at the funeral, also he was depressed for a long time after that event, so if he was grumpy it was understandable, but one thing I did see, he could drive an artic when I saw him back one into the werehouse one day when he thought no-one was watching and it was perfect.e
But yes he could be arrogant and rude, but underneath he was not a bad bloke, but you have to remember if it wasnt for him A1 wouldnt have been the big company it became and if it wasnt for him we wouldnt have been one of the best paid drivers on the road.
So yes he could rub folks up, but when you’d worked there for over 20 years it didnt matter because if your not there he cant bollock you.
One thing he did like to do was keep drivers instead of sacking them, because he didnt want anyone leaving to take there knowlage of A1’s business to them, that’s why so many of the drivers had been there for well over 20 years, some had been working for JMR for over 30 years, which is proof of a good company. :- Jack.

well said jack,jmr was the money man but but you need some very good men to get the work and look after the men who did the graft,you could be here all night putting the names forward,but we all did our bit from the 1940s to 1999 ,and to the 20 plus year men must have been happy with the job or you would have left,wish we could go back to them years,keith

Thanks Keith, the people who really knew and understood the management were the ones who had been there for many years, and A1 were the same as many other haulage firms, we were not perfect and our management were not perfect, but under Hutchinson’s management it worked, but as I said you had to be there for quite a few years to really get to know them, but as drivers who spent most of there working life away from the yard and only made contact by phone, once you had your job you were left to get on with it and usually on your return back to your depot providing things had gone right everything was fine, there were so many things we could build an argument with and at times it did happen, but once the air had been cleared it was back to work and as I said he didn’t like the idea of sacking people unless he had an very good cause, one thing we should do is understand not only drivers and garage staff have personal problems, management also have personal problems and if you put them all in the same mixing bowl they all come out the same in the end. :- Jack.
PS :- Sadly we cant turn the clock Keith, back otherwise most of us would still be working at Gildersome today, even old git’s like me.

[patrick_68]

Afternoon all.

been reading this thread and it’s stories and found it really interesting. personally i have had very little to do with A1 Transport other than growing up in ‘the valley’ seeing their motors regularly as a kid and always thinking how smart they looked.

as i got older i got to know Billy Parkinson through my dad and the sir Robert Peel in Heckmondwike , what a really nice bloke, hope he is well.

I did go to huddersfield tech on day release with Paul coltas when i was apprentice at Winteringham’s ( you probably don’t remember Paul, i think you had a mk 1 cavalier at the time and i had a mk 3 cortina)

I got to know Dave Hooley in the mid 90s whilst working at a local builders merchants, loved the tales of the foreign legion.

My old man worked at A1, not sure if it was the 60’s or 70’s but he didn’t go over the water and didn’t stay long, not a long story but i may tell if anyone’s interested…

anyway like i said i have really enjoyed they tales and hope it carries on for many moons to come.

Big respect to all of you blokes who did this job back then… top lads…proper grafters

Patrick

[jeffrey_ellener]

patrick 68:
Afternoon all.

been reading this thread and it’s stories and found it really interesting. personally i have had very little to do with A1 Transport other than growing up in ‘the valley’ seeing their motors regularly as a kid and always thinking how smart they looked.

as i got older i got to know Billy Parkinson through my dad and the sir Robert Peel in Heckmondwike , what a really nice bloke, hope he is well.

I did go to huddersfield tech on day release with Paul coltas when i was apprentice at Winteringham’s ( you probably don’t remember Paul, i think you had a mk 1 cavalier at the time and i had a mk 3 cortina)

I got to know Dave Hooley in the mid 90s whilst working at a local builders merchants, loved the tales of the foreign legion.

My old man worked at A1, not sure if it was the 60’s or 70’s but he didn’t go over the water and didn’t stay long, not a long story but i may tell if anyone’s interested…

anyway like i said i have really enjoyed they tales and hope it carries on for many moons to come.

Big respect to all of you blokes who did this job back then… top lads…proper grafters

Patrick

tell some tales Patrick, it would be good to get some new input. its slowed down a bit over the years.best regards jeff.

[patrick_68]

Hi Jeff,

Like I said not a really interesting tale regarding my old man’s time at A1 but if I remember right it went something like…

Like most drivers of that era my old man had a few jobs, some long standing and some no so. Anyway he’d left whoever he had been and went to A1, had a chat with Jack and was told to be in the yard Monday morning at a certain time. He arrived at the yard, picked up his motor, called home for his night out gear and set off for the big smoke. Delivered his load and rang the office for a return load. Whoever he spoke to said at that time they only had a load for South Wales, No problem said my old man went off, collected the load and off to south Wales he went.after delivering his load he rang the office and was given a load for the big smoke, no problem says he, loads goes and delivers his load and makes the call, we have a load for so th Wales. ?.. He did this for 3 weeks until during 1 call back to the office he asked “do you anything going north, I haven’t been home for 3 weeks and have run out of money” no problem, said the voice on the phone you only have to ask. ?..when he got home his wife, not my ma, gave him a right old boll***ING saying she thought he was either dead or had buggered off with another woman and as she didn’t know who he was working for couldn’t get in touch with them to find him.

After that he left, under pressure from er in doors. I think that’s when he went either back to Bedfords or did his stint at Yorkshire traction, at least he was home every night… ironically whilst he was on the busses he ended up buggering off with another woman, it was said I was conceived on the top deck during a break !!! My old girl was a clippy

[keith_2]

Welcome Patrick,nice to see someone new looking keith

[jack_graham]

keith 2:
Welcome Patrick,nice to see someone new looking keith

Your right there Keith, it is nice to see some-one else looking on this page, but we don’t realize how long ago it was when A1 was going strong and how the younger kids took notice and now they have grown up, “no disrespect” to them but it just shows what an impact we had back in those days, sadly we cant go back but it’s still nice to be remembered, and also it’s people like Patrick who could have been the new generation of drivers at A1 today. :- Jack.

[patrick_68]

Thanks for the welcome Keith and the kind words Jack.

As I’ve been reading through this and other threads on this site it’s not difficult to be both inspired and in some cases amazed at what you lads achieved back in the early days of continental transport. Please correct me if I’m wrong but I would imagine that the majority of drivers who started these, sometimes epic, journeys across foreign countries and even continents probably didn’t speak much if any of the local languages of the places you passed through and delivered to. These days drivers would have sat nav, electronic translators, fridges, microwaves, independent cab heating/cooling and mobile phones at the very least. When you boys started this most of you didn’t even get a motor with a proper bed!!!

I really don’t want to sound like a miserable, grumpy old tw*t but some of the drivers of today are proper nob heads, refusing to take a motor out where the night heater or radio doesn’t work !

True story… 2 years ago I was sent into UPS in Dewsbury for a day run and as I waited for my keys and paperwork another agency driver came back into office and asked if he could have a different unit because the 1 they had given him had a ripped seat cushion and he had never driven a manual 16 speed before… Needless to say he was despatched home.

I did want to have a go over the water but nobody would give a 22 year old a Chance! In some ways I can’t blame them but not all 22 year olds are as green as they are cabbage looking

Anyway I hope you keep the tales of adventure coming, I for one enjoy them all .

Patrick

[jack_graham]

patrick 68:
Thanks for the welcome Keith and the kind words Jack.

As I’ve been reading through this and other threads on this site it’s not difficult to be both inspired and in some cases amazed at what you lads achieved back in the early days of continental transport. Please correct me if I’m wrong but I would imagine that the majority of drivers who started these, sometimes epic, journeys across foreign countries and even continents probably didn’t speak much if any of the local languages of the places you passed through and delivered to. These days drivers would have sat nav, electronic translators, fridges, microwaves, independent cab heating/cooling and mobile phones at the very least. When you boys started this most of you didn’t even get a motor with a proper bed!!!

I really don’t want to sound like a miserable, grumpy old tw*t but some of the drivers of today are proper nob heads, refusing to take a motor out where the night heater or radio doesn’t work !

True story… 2 years ago I was sent into UPS in Dewsbury for a day run and as I waited for my keys and paperwork another agency driver came back into office and asked if he could have a different unit because the 1 they had given him had a ripped seat cushion and he had never driven a manual 16 speed before… Needless to say he was despatched home.

I did want to have a go over the water but nobody would give a 22 year old a Chance! In some ways I can’t blame them but not all 22 year olds are as green as they are cabbage looking

Anyway I hope you keep the tales of adventure coming, I for one enjoy them all .

Patrick

Hi Patrick, nice to be able to speak to someone with sense, sounds like you have an old head on you and not spoilt with getting your own way like some of the spoilt brats driving today, I could see this industry changing 15 years ago when I went to Macfarlands, there were a few of us waiting for job’s at the window in the traffic office, when a young kid came in swaggering with his bag on his shoulder, he went to the window told them which agency he’d come from, they sent him out to find and check a unit then come back for a job, he came back about 10 min’s after threw the keys through the window and said, that truck’s no good to me because it has a Eaton range change, they said we don’t have any with an Eaton range change, he said yes you do, and it’s no good to me, “because he’d not been trained to use a rage change”, we all just stood there laughing at him, he was then told to go back to his agency and tell them never ever to send one of there drivers again to this company, I think I could see the ink still dripping off his license it was so new.
Regarding the “over the water” drivers it originally came from Chapman’s Freight Services when A1 bought them out, we used it at Chapmans as DLS Europe Ltd which was the original name, which came from the company Chapman’s bought out, we even sent F86’s out to Belgium Holland France Germany and sometimes to Italy and Spain, then when A1 took over they reorganized and in a few months we all had new F88 290’s, we already had lot’s of work but A1 got ICI and other work so yes we were busy and yes we did a lot of millage every week, we were paid better than most companies, but better still we had the back-up from the office at Gildersome, but I’m glad we didn’t have the problems they have today in Calais, it was a different job then but now it’s all messed up in red tape, too many rules too many laws that can put a driver in jail just for doing his job, also the drivers today cant even change a wheel because it’s illegal, why is it illegal just because you can change your own wheels, and that’s only one rule “law”, they don’t want good drivers today they want robot’s, programed to do as your told or go to jail, it’s the German way or nothing, as you’ll see I’m an old world driver who don’t like this new way of running transport, they have taken all the fun enjoyment and excitement out of the job it’s all about rules and regulations, and you have to be programed in like a machine to do as your told, in other words going to work is no fun any more.
But don’t let me put you off because it’s now a new era in the industry, but it’s not for me any more, cant see me enjoying it these days.

[harry_gill]

Hiya,
Hello Jack, talking rules and regulations, a friends son, who was pulled for a tacho
check when genuinely looking for a ■■■■■■■■■■■■ for the night was found to be 10
minutes over the top this was on the South coast and at a place not regular to him
got a fine of £100 and got a warning that this blatant exceeding of the law will not
be tolerated in this area, as for me Jack I wouldn’t do the job in this day and age
for double time,It’s no wonder young un’s aren’t taking the job up, and contrary to
what people say there is a definite shortage of HGV drivers now so if the current
trend continues we’ll be overrun with “Johnnie foreigner” cutting rates to ribbons.
thanks harry, long retired.