Hi Supercube,
Well spotted, just testing to see whos on their toes, he he. Mind you theres not too many in Wakefield either. BUT there were a couple in Patras as I remember. Well somebody told me of course.
Hi Archie, blimey this topic you started is certainly bringing some people out of the woodwork which is nice. To hear from and about some of the guys you knew well and drank with in various dives along the way and what has happened to them since. Unfortunately I’m not sure why a lot of them don’t give their real names cos I’m sure that I could put faces to names if I knew who they were. I remember John Pettitt although I’m not sure if he would remember me but I did some work for him when he was in with some others back in the early 80’s doing loads to Malta. What happened to big John Fenwick who used to pull for Hoggy last time I saw him was in Calais bout 10 years ago and Derek Rance was doing some work with him.
Charlie
Hi Charlie,
Good to hear from you again , yes there certainly seem to be a lot of the old lads still about, well thats good isnt it?. I certainly agree with you regarding the names though, as you say if you knew who you were talking to it would be a lot better, and more interesting. Im not sure if I know John Pettit or not, I dont seem to recall him although the name is making me think. I did pick up a bit of information from him though and I had a brief chat with Brian Hogg on Skype, he seems to be keeping very well and even offered to buy me a beer if ever I was in Crete, I told him he owes me more than one beer. John Fenwick, bloody hell it seems like only yesterday I got him started on running abroad, and introduced him to Anglo Greek, over the years I seem to have lost contact with him, I was not around for a long while myself either, as I nursed both my parents through strokes, then I lost my Wife in 2002, then three years later I had a heart operation. But Ive had my licence back for two years now and still do the Summer work. As I was working from Malton I did see John as I was passing by, hes doing a bit of Spanner work, selling the odd car or two and generally making a bob or two. When I get back home I will give him your regards and ask him to get on here if he has a computer. Hows your Immigration job going on, I dont want you to go before you buy me a beer.
Cheers, 
You were at Anglo Greek before me, Archie as I was doing other things at the time you were doing Greece. I worked for many years for Brian as I am sure he will tell you in your conversations with him, now that I have given you access details to his hideaway on Crete.
The Greek run was a community of great lads and I am sure we all miss it now that it has passed by. It was especially good when we used to reload in Greece. Apostolis had all the work then and I am sure you will hve loadede at Stylis with the copper, Levadia with the Cotton, Thiva and other places with the melons, Gastuni with the peppers. Petzatakis. Kallithea withthe plastic reinforced tube, for Alton. Veria with the tins of fruit heavy load which we always dragged over the Ketara pass to Igoumenitsa. I could go on and on. Memories eh!!!
Once that finished though it was always back to Italy, initially SAIMA, Ancona and then SAIMA at Civvitanove Marche, back to Thrapston.
Graham mentioned yor name to me but I think we may have missed each other during those times.
Hi all, just seen a post on the topic Aston Clinton Haulage which is well worth a look, it’s a poem by Big G Unit towards the bottom of page 3 that certainly sums up a lot of what is wrong with the uk today.
chazzer
Chazzer, we all know that everything the poem puts forward is unfortunately fact. I too did a trip for ACH after Gentleman George recommended the job to me. Why only one trip you ask, well I had to start at 0500rs at Aylesbury and I lived in London, so an early start from home was necessary to get there. I was given a loaded truck to take to Cambridge to tip and then wehn empty I returned to the depot and was giovewn another truck and sent to Hemel for the Kodak. When I got to Hemel I was told to change the unit with another guy who was already there. The load was for Kodak, Lausanne and by the time I was loaded and then back to the yard, then given the paperwork and told to make the ferry that night I realised that they were after their pound of flesh. Coming off in Calais around midnight I joined the queue of other ACH trucks and ND trucks trying to fill up. After tipping he sent me to Italy for a reload, which also turned into a disaster one way and another and on return to Aylesbury I decided that I was unable to work for such a disjointed company. How George put up with them I will never understand.
Hullo John,
Thanks for the message, nice to meet you, if only on here. I thought later, it was the surname that threw me, as I was thinking of a bloke that was on Simons, Robin Pettit. Yes I think it was just before your time on Anglo Greek but the community of lads running down there at that time, and obviously later was terrific. I first got a taste for it when Whittles sent me to back load in Tripolis for Oldbury, then loaded me back to Greece on a return trip. I then did a couple of trips for IMPEX, ( Kieth Raynor,John Raynors brother), a couple for George, and then got on with Brian. And as you know his work was the best of all of them. The office in Piraeus was run by a real Gentleman, Theo Vionellis and Apistolis was his assistant , he was a very on the ball bloke, the runner they used for clearance was a lad called Jimmy, he was good too. Anyway good to talk to you John, all the best.
Archie.
Hi Archie, I agree it was the best set-up out of all the companies running Greece at the time. Those years were some of the most enjoyable ones I have ever had in the game. Cetainly a great crowd of guys.
It seems though that the legends are the ones who always talked a good game but never actually performed on a consistent basis. Those of us who quietly went about doing the job as it was meant to be done, never got remembered as well.
The job was done mostly owner drivers, of course and who knows how they saw it. No one ever did that that job if they needed to ean money as two trips a month was the only realistic way of doing the job or yopu were always stuck with the second week-end. Graham Sopercould put himself about a bit and I have known him do three in one month. Myself, I found the job nice and comfortable.
I much preferred the job when we used to travel via the Eastern Bloc, but of course Bosnia put paid to that and we started to go via Italy and the ferry to Patras. Brian was not too keen on using Ancona so I spent most of my time going down to Bari and sailing with Ventouris as it was a cheaper ferry. I think I have been on all of the ferries that ply this route using Trieste, Venice, Ancona, Ortona for a short while, till it packed up, and Bari. Myself I refused to go down to Brindisi. Awful boats and the road from Bari to Brindisi was a toll road with the Italian Polizei.
My first and last trip by ferry was from Brindisi with Frag Line. It was much more respectable going the long way round.
Hullo All,
I have just this moment spoken to Gentleman George on the ACH thread, he`s keeping well and he is in the throes of getting into computing, and intends to come on very soon. So watch out and watch this space, I know a lot of us will be very pleased to welcome him on here. SOON.
Archie Paice:
Hullo All,
I have just this moment spoken to Gentleman George on the ACH thread, he`s keeping well and he is in the throes of getting into computing, and intends to come on very soon. So watch out and watch this space, I know a lot of us will be very pleased to welcome him on here. SOON.
Hope he will be wearing his tie.
He doesnt wear a tie well not often anyway
Give my regards to George if you would Denise !! I think I know you – school of motoring is a clue ?
lady-driver:
He doesnt wear a tie well not often anyway
The gentleman that I knew always wore a tie & a big smile .
Yes thats correct, and i will pass on your regards, Will he know who you are by your name??
Hullo again John,
How times change eh?, at the time I was on for Brian we could of course choose which way we went to Greece, yes it was a pleasure to go commie block, most especially in the Summer months. Brian though had a good deal going with the Ferries, we used to use Karageorgis Line and it was a fantastic way to travel, Glen Campbell and I were nearly always booked on the Saturday Ferry from Ancona, allowing us to be on the doorstep in St. Nicks square ready for Jimmy on Monday morning. A good trip over, lots of sleep, some sunbathing (not for Glen) and a good crack in the Bar, as you said before the crowd doing the job were mostly good blokes, so there was`nt too much bother with p*hds on board. All of Mondials used to use those Ferries too, it was the gentlemen tourists way of doing the job. I was an owner driver and I found that doing two a month was fine, I was never rich and I just forget now how much we got for a round trip, but I could get by quite nicely, and I had a Wife and three growing lads at home (one of them, my Nick also did a trip for Brian). We always were able to load out of Greece also, mostly out of Lavadia or Volos, so that saved a bit of time. Good memories.
Cheers, Archie.
Hello Archie, had the pleasure of a phone call from George Ginn on Monday. We chatted for quite a while and as we are not too far apart will be getting together sometime.
He made me laugh when he mentioned a middle east company that I had forgotten about, yes it was one of mine. Oasis Overland Express, which I uset up as freight forwarding office to sub all the work I had in the Bristol area for the middle east. I used to keep a lot of owner drivers in work, as well as a couple of smaller hauliers, like Mike Brewer, Keith Taylor and John Chapman. My yard and office was at the Pucklechurch Trading estate. I ran allthrough the seventies to the Middle East, all destinations at some time or other but packed it all in and sold up in 1980 and retired to Spain. Three years is Spain was enough for my wife so we came back to the UK and bought a house in Clacton and I went working for OHS out of Rainham doing the chocolate from Mars and Rowntrees to the Middle East.
In 1985 I worked on the Band Aid project and put together half a dozen trucks, twop of which were double bottoms, for the relief effort. In fact Truck and Driver Magazine did a very nice spread for me, but I have long since lost my copy. Started for Brian in 1989 with Mciver and Rance with the subbies, yes Glen was still doing work for Brian although he did have a driver for one of his trucks who lived not far from Patras. I cannot remember his name but I think it began with Geoff. As you know Brian changed his mind frequently and from four trucks he took them all off the road, then put two back on and myself and Graham were the drivers then for some time. I have all the photos and I will get round to putting something up on here.
The problem with this forum is that I recognise lots of names that are bandied about in different threads, but the one posting does not have a real name so we don’t know who we are talking to. I was known as “The Colonel” on the Greek run, but my name is John Pettitt.
I would join in on the Middle East thread as I started earlier than most on this forum, being 72 now, in fact I thought the Middle East was dead after 1980, Shah deposed in Iran, Sadaam taking over in Iraq put a different complex on the operation.
I am rambling again, I had better stop. Nice to chat with you Archie.
Yes, I also remember the Karageorgis lines we used to use. load in the side and back down behind the engine. 36 hours on the boat was too long though.
Hi John Did you used to run the Transcons and Dafs, white with light blue cabs out of Bristol, I remember Leo Smith used to drive a Transcon. I remember your name but cant place you yet. If so you used to play a lot of Pro-Am golf IIRC.
Gavin
Yes Gavin, Golf is my game and I operated out of Bristol. in fact Leo Smith was one of my drivers. My company name was SMI Ltd (Stockport Machinery Installations).
Leo Smith arrived at my office in Pucklechurch one day dressed in a suit and an ear-ring and said that he was a writer and that Davies Turner had sent him to me because they knew I did the Middle East. At that time Davies Turner only used subbies, they had no trucks of their own running down. He said that he had passed his test three weeks previous and could he possibly go down with one of my drivers so that he could see first hand what the job was like.
I said to him that there is not enough room in truck for one, let alone two, but if he was that keen I would give him a truck and he could drive it himself.
This would be 77/78. I sent him to Tehran for his first trip, he was away four weeks and very expensive with his expenses. I let this ride because he had to learn tthe ropes, so to speak.
Second trip was a cracker as it would make him one of the first to go on the new road past Doha to Dubai as you know sand trucks used to do this run before. So that will tell you the date exactly. I am not sure. He was out five weeks, so still a bit slow and still very expensive. The load was one of 64 to build the Desalination plant in Dubai. We did the same for the plant in Jeddah as well.
Third trip I sent him to Baghdad. Now we have a driver who has been given the opportunity to learn virtually the whole of the Middle East in his first three trips. He telephoned me from Baghdad on Christmas eve telling me that he was loaded. I used to load my trucks with the empty beams for courtaulds, back to Leicester at that time. I said, great Leo, see you for the New Year.
When do you think I saw him next - clue I had to send another £800 just to get him and another driver he had corrupted and my trucks back to the UK. They both turned up on February 1st.
Of course I had to sack him. He was most apologetic and said that he would do one for me for no pay, bearing in mind that I used to pay £1200 cash in hand for a Baghdad in the seventies. I said, well Leo, you could not do one when I paid you, so how the hell are you going to do one for me for nothing. So he stayed fired.
I sold up in 1980 and retired to Spain, but came back in 1983 and got myself a job with OHS. I did one trip to Izmir, you know the BMC job which tipped opposite the old Contex yard and when I came back Sooty (Mr Sertel) made me Operations Manager. To my horror and to Leos I found out that he was one of the drivers. There were only about half a dozen English drivers, Leo Smith, Billy Smith, Tony Gambleton, Reg Cook and Kenny Bowkett (Egg on legs) he had one of the Seddons as he was so large he had to sleep in the seat anyway.
I then went to South Wales and set up a company called Portfreight for some rich man who had two sons who wanted to be truckers. In fact Eddie Nixon drove for me there as he lived in the same village as me. The two sons were useless and one even dumped the truck at Dover on the way out. The same son I sent to Kuwait by air to take over a truck where the driver had been taken ill, His first name was Trevor but his Surname escapes me.He was welsh and 60 at the time. The guvnors son arrived back in the yard having come all the way home empty.
I then started the charity Operation Roadrunner with Mark Wooliscroft where we put together six trucks which I bought from Peter Gilder, 4 xScania11, 1xScania 141 and a Scania 145 bonnet. The two big ones had two trailers and could run as a double bottom. In fact I took the whole rig up to Donnington for the Truck Racing to raise some more money.
A Photograph of this truck is on my website.
I am sure we must have met Gavin, but my memory drifts in and out these days being 72. Still nice to know that you remember those days.