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 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
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
Report this postReply with quoteby jj72 » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:55 am
Hi jj72, I have to agree with you about the A1 drivers being on good money in the 80’s. In fact I was with an owner driver called Chris Turnbull on the Townson Thorensen ferry going to Zeebrugge in 1980 and Chris was talking to Cuddles who was the A1 shop steward. The A1 lads had just negotiated a very good payrise and I can remember Chris saying that they had just negotiated themselves out of an already good job. Chris on this occasion was proven wrong as A1 went on operating as far as I can remember well into the 1990’s.
There were some good lads on A1 and even though they always seemed to be flying about there always seemed to be one or two parked outside The Monkey House near The Blanc or a couple parked at The Bakehouse.
kojak, there’s another cracking story of some “goings on” in calais about 20 years back involving some a-one drivers but i’ll not post it here as it’d be a bit disrespectful - nowt criminal or unpleasant i hasten to add - PM me if you likejj72
Come on Andy, isn’t there something in the Official Secrets Act where after 25 years these kind of incidents can be disclosed so long as their names are not used to protect the guilty .
Spill the beans mate
mushroomman:
Come on Andy, isn’t there something in the Official Secrets Act where after 25 years these kind of incidents can be disclosed so long as their names are not used to protect the guilty Spill the beans mate
unfortunately the 5 years since posting have dulled the memory of the details, and I wouldn’t name the names anyway, but basically one of a-one’s drivers passed away in calais in his truck one night, and to save all the hassle of paperwork, dealing with the french authorities etc, for the sake of 22 miles he travelled back to blighty in somebody else’s bunk, to be declared deceased to the toytown police in dover. so, there wasn’t a corner of some foreign field which was forever england that day, well not officially anyway
I have many memories of A-One Transport after they bought us out at Henry Longs and we transferred accross to Leeds, although I wasn’t a driver but a staff member. Their demise was brought about by their owner at the time, Neil Magee, who put them into receivership along with the other companies he owned - we were nothing more than a sacrificial lamb.
does anyone remember an A1 driver called martin jackson before he went to A1 he worked for a firm down here in herefordshire who had a depot in leeds ,every year for several years martin and several leeds based characters were based down her for two weeks doing the blackcurrants which meant collecting from local farms during the day transhipping loads onto flatbed artics (seddons + Buffalo’s) then doing a night run to beechams in the forest of dean,the guys must have had a fair bit of “down time” because although i was very young at the time (maybe 10 or so)they got to know most of the pubs in town, i still remember their strong accents and wondering to myself what the hell they were saying half the time,also remember martin doing some regular trips to switzerland in the daycab seddon (were those really the days?)rode shotgun with him quite a few times,good times!!
Hullo Greg50,
The Transport Manager at that time was Geof Wilkinson, a really lovely bloke who knew his job and knew and understood all of his drivers. His assistant was John Holroyd, And from my recolection was a totally different bloke altogether, he was good at the start but he became overly ambitious, I believe he moved on to, not Henry Longs ( Christ I’ve started writing this and I’ve forgotten the company he went on to run, well known double barrel name) anyway he turned out to be a bit of a prat. The office lad David, I saw many years later, when I did a trip with my lad, working for a company in Bradford, again a big company, and I cant remember their name, was it Duforest ? that seems to ring a bell.
Cheers, Archie.
Archie Paice:
Hullo Greg50,
The Transport Manager at that time was Geof Wilkinson, a really lovely bloke who knew his job and knew and understood all of his drivers. His assistant was John Holroyd, And from my recolection was a totally different bloke altogether, he was good at the start but he became overly ambitious, I believe he moved on to, not Henry Longs ( Christ I’ve started writing this and I’ve forgotten the company he went on to run, well known double barrel name) anyway he turned out to be a bit of a prat. The office lad David, I saw many years later, when I did a trip with my lad, working for a company in Bradford, again a big company, and I cant remember their name, was it Duforest ? that seems to ring a bell.
Cheers, Archie.
Hi Archie, double barrel name ?, it wouldn’t be Barn Farthers would it or as Chris might say Barn Favvers .
Archie Paice:
Hullo Greg50,
The Transport Manager at that time was Geof Wilkinson, a really lovely bloke who knew his job and knew and understood all of his drivers. His assistant was John Holroyd, And from my recolection was a totally different bloke altogether, he was good at the start but he became overly ambitious, I believe he moved on to, not Henry Longs ( Christ I’ve started writing this and I’ve forgotten the company he went on to run, well known double barrel name) anyway he turned out to be a bit of a prat. The office lad David, I saw many years later, when I did a trip with my lad, working for a company in Bradford, again a big company, and I cant remember their name, was it Duforest ? that seems to ring a bell.
Cheers, Archie.
it does seem that mr holroyd could be a bit unpopular, i always got on with him but i was subbing good work to them so maybe that’s why he was always pleasant, if a bit full of himself - as you say geoff wilkinson was always a good bloke. john ended up at archbolds where he is still a.f.a.i.k, maybe he was elsewhere in between a-one and there though I don’t know
HI DOSE any one remember the lads in bradford a one yard tony wood ian lee big duncan ian anderson david hoolie alen render peat scolick frank redfern joe wood tony wood
dreva:
thought this was worth a look again anymore pics people
I keep flicking back to it to see if there any more updates.
One of my best memories of A1 was when I was in the Hotel Wien in Budapest with a couple of their drivers when I called home to discover my old school friend and best mate had died of Multiple Sclerosis and I was planning on how to get back for the funeral. It was going to be a problem as I wouldn’t & couldn’t leave my lorry where it was. The drivers name was Dennis and he offered me any help he could, the plan we came up with he would follow me to Hungarocamion and park my lorry and he was going to drop me at the airport.
As things turned out, I decided to carry on and had to apologise to the family when I returned. But if Dennis is on here. I would like to thank him for the offer. Cheers mate! That is what drivers did for each other.
hi all,i was a sparky for this firm between 1976 to feb 1999 when it went bust,new most of the drivers names.if you want any info please ask,i have lots of phots when i find out do it and dig them out
keith 2:
hi all,i was a sparky for this firm between 1976 to feb 1999 when it went bust,new most of the drivers names.if you want any info please ask,i have lots of phots when i find out do it and dig them out
blade900:
HI DOSE any one remember the lads in bradford a one yard tony wood ian lee big duncan ian anderson david hoolie alen render peat scolick frank redfern joe wood tony wood
yes i worked with all these lads some who were drivers and some were fitters,the Bradford garage closed down in about 1979 and the fitters were moved to Leeds dept,and the were not happy Bunny’s
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
.
heres one that mr bubbleman posted earlier
or as Chris might say Barn Favvers 
.
