a one took over henry longs.a bloke called neil magee had bought a1 he also bought bowies at manchester and teamhall at felixstowe.a lot of the old a1 drivers worked for barnfathers after a1 shut up shop.there old trailer park is where bedfords transport is now.they had the spur treefields and a couple of warehouses on fitzwilliam st in bradford near the low bridge.i think i might have an article when a1 got all there o licences suspended for 24hrs i will have to look and see.
Vascoingles:
When first starting out after leaving the army I remember being impressed at Kamac´s passing me as though I was standing still and then I went on the IPEC contract for Jan De Rijk and was well chuffed that I was now able to whizz past Kamac
Kammac’s F10s could whizz past anyone - they spent half their time loaded to 5-6 ton with empty cans out of Nacanco at Skelmersdale.
They backloaded fruit out of Kent - then they were slowed down a bit.
i think a one transport started doing haulage for international harvester when ashworths of bradford closed they took over the tractor cab trailers and im sure this got them a foot in the door any pics of the cab trailers would be good as my dad did this job for ashworths for three years until closure
A-One used to do a fair bit of Italy, permits & O licence were in the name of DLS International, they used to do a bit from the tractor plant in Doncaster, when in Milan area they used to congregate at the Glasshouse, which used to annoy the life out the patron because there’d be half a dozen of them sitting in their motors eating tins of beans! They were running a few F88s still, a few heroes had FL10s & old V reg F12s that had been re-cabbed with the later Hi-line cab, the paint used to fade badly & they were a nice pink colour after a few years.
I spent a weekend in Como with one of em once, we joined forces in an attempt to rid those naughty Italians of all that Vino Rosso 
Good lad but cant remember his name, he was impressed with my shiney new Globetrotter & even more with my wages, the North South divide again 
theres a nice pic of one of there f88 on the 80s thread i will have to pm trucker ash to post it on here 
newmercman:
A-One used to do a fair bit of Italy, permits & O licence were in the name of DLS International, they used to do a bit from the tractor plant in Doncaster, when in Milan area they used to congregate at the Glasshouse, which used to annoy the life out the patron because there’d be half a dozen of them sitting in their motors eating tins of beans! They were running a few F88s still, a few heroes had FL10s & old V reg F12s that had been re-cabbed with the later Hi-line cab, the paint used to fade badly & they were a nice pink colour after a few years.
I spent a weekend in Como with one of em once, we joined forces in an attempt to rid those naughty Italians of all that Vino Rosso
not fuelling a north/south war but a-one were always in i’d say the top 10% wages wise for the whole country, certainly in the 80s anyway
you’re dead right about the glasshouse at arluno, unfortunately some brain donor off there caused trouble at a wedding one weekend and got them all banned 
jj72:
not fuelling a north/south war.
Best not either 
dreva:
theres a nice pic of one of there f88 on the 80s thread i will have to pm trucker ash to post it on here
message recevied 
not able to post til weekend 
. Stand by all … 
ps: gives me time to find other A 1 pics.
jj72:
newmercman:
A-One used to do a fair bit of Italy, permits & O licence were in the name of DLS International, they used to do a bit from the tractor plant in Doncaster, when in Milan area they used to congregate at the Glasshouse, which used to annoy the life out the patron because there’d be half a dozen of them sitting in their motors eating tins of beans! They were running a few F88s still, a few heroes had FL10s & old V reg F12s that had been re-cabbed with the later Hi-line cab, the paint used to fade badly & they were a nice pink colour after a few years.
I spent a weekend in Como with one of em once, we joined forces in an attempt to rid those naughty Italians of all that Vino Rossonot fuelling a north/south war but a-one were always in i’d say the top 10% wages wise for the whole country, certainly in the 80s anyway
you’re dead right about the glasshouse at arluno, unfortunately some brain donor off there caused trouble at a wedding one weekend and got them all banned
If that’s the case then me & all the rest of the 01’rs were in the top 1%
Shame about the Glasshouse, but then once a lorry park was full of Long Vehicle plates it was always only a matter of time…
Heres a couple of pics to be going on with;
a1 tilt pulled by subbie
cheers ash your a star thats a nice one as well carl cheers
thanks for the great photos my grandad used to live close to the owner of a-one transport just up the road from briggs cafe on gelderd road in drighlington i can remember when it was time for new truck deliveries he used to park them on his drive, i can rember a brand new f7 rigid b***wvh happy days more photos please thanks
DLS international was set up by a Ken Mallinson, I believe. Donald Chapman of Chapman group put money in to help out but they were struggling. So he took them over to save them going under and loosing his money. When Chapman took control they were running left hand Berliets. As Chapmans had a deal with Crossroads commercials to buy Volvo units they were soon running with F88s. I think they were running groupage, wool yarn, machine tools and parts to to the Italian fleet. Lancashire Tar Distillers took a share but then sold on to Jack at A-one. Using DLSs permits they added ICI chemicals to the workload. First met Donald Jackson when working at Chapman`s Blackfriars depot in London.Great bloke, he joked that nobody in Bradford could understand him so they sent him abroad to find somebody who could.
[/quote]
Often wondered what happen to them, they used to haul lots of wool from Bradford to Scotland & they always parked up at Lockerbie
I always thought that Russell Hutchinson owned them, what ever happened to him.
I believe Chapmans was the largest wool haulier in yorkshire after buying J G Fielder of Bradford. They also handled the majority of Australian & N/Zealand wool coming through London docks and wharfs. Jack Robinson owned A-one and Russell was his right hand man.
thanks for the memories.
My dad used to run that merc down to italy and he’d take me whenever possible. He loved that motor and refused give it up for the bigger more comfortable globetrotters. Happy days.
i drove for a subbie of a1 back in 1988.
used to load in leeds and deliver turin.
rubber for pirelli tyres.
the rubber came from grangemouth.
we loaded i geldersome?
i alway used an ip atlas of italy.
the transport manager of a1 used to give backload address and the ip book grid reference.
important if you know about italian villages hidden in the hills.
they had freephone numbers from all the countries as well.
transports managers name was john holroyd.
if he is reading this.
hello and greetingsjohn,a man that knew what he was doing.
very few good transport manangers around,but he was one of the goodies.
john went to archbold along with most of x longs and and a1 men.when a1 finished
thought this was worth a look again anymore pics people 