Any old promotor drivers around

[sandway]

Back in the late 80’s or beginning of the 90’s B & Q offered home delivery. Bit of a sales gimmick but it was popular amongst its customers. I couldn’t see it lasting long as it was costly to run. Most of the vans used, both enclosed and open backed, were owned by O/D so that helped keep the cost down.

However, Peter Calderwood, our MD decided there was money to be made and decided to get involved even though I told him it wouldn’t last long, maybe 18 months to two years max. We got the job initially in their Tonbridge store then took on Hastings and I believe one other. It was only one or two vans at each store but Peter’s idea was to take on the complete job thereby freeing up B & Q staff. This wasn’t to be confined to a few stores, we would take it nation wide. But Peter needed someone with logistics experience and at great expense Mike Sedgewick came on the scene. He was a great guy who didn’t mind getting his hands dirty, which he had to in the beginning as we had so few vans and drivers. Peter hired in some vans and had HDS (Home Delivery Service) emblazoned on their sides. After a few months a plan was formulated and Peter and Mike got an appointment to meet the B & Q top brass in Southampton to make a presentation of their ideas. Later Peter told me they listened to his ideas but were very non committal. Of course, as was obvious, B & Q dropped the idea of home delivery six months later for some other gimmick.

Mike left Promotor but I’m still in touch with him. He has retired and lives near Cadiz in south west Spain. This is a fairly recent photo of him.

Thought I would add a few more photos from sis in the states. According to my new sister this truck is owned by a friend of hers and is a 2011 Kenworth T660 and works in the oilfields hauling frac sand.

[mushroomman]

Another set of very interesting posts Brian, well they certainly are for me. so where should I start.

When Dow Freight finished in 1987, I started driving for Hanson Transport based in Heywood, near Manchester. I.I.R.C. it was in the early nineties that they put a couple of vehicles on the B.& Q. Home Delivery Service. I wasn’t on that contract myself but I seem to remember that the depot was based at the old Fleet Air Arm airfield at Appleton Thorn, near Warrington. I have a feeling that most of the work was delivering and erecting garden sheds and that the vehicles may have been E.R.F.'s or Seddon Atkinsons. I think that they covered an area around The North West, down to The Midlands and up to Scotland.

Talking about ‘sowing wild oats’, well I had a workmate who sowed one or two of his wild oats, in The Commie Block back in the eighties. The problem was that thirty years later one of his seeds had flowered in Czechoslovakia and with the fall of The Iron Curtain and the invention of Facebook, she was able to contact her father who was now happily married. The last time that I spoke to him at a reunion over in the U.K. it had all turned out to be O.K.
I suppose that he was our equivalent to your Bugsy, who I am sure that he would have met, once or twice.

I also joined ancestry.com about ten years ago and discovered that my Grandfather, who I obviously never met, is down on the 1911 Census as a Steam Motor Chauffer so maybe driving was always in my blood.

Poor old Harry, it seems that the first shots in the First World War against The British at Mons in Belgium, were fired on the 22nd August 1914 and he was killed on the 26th August 1914 during The Retreat From Mons, in what is known as The Battle of Le Cateau. He left behind my grandmother and three children, who were all under five years old.

Le Cateau is less than thirty miles from Perronne Services, how many times did we all pull on there for a break and if I would have known this over forty years ago, then I would have made the effort to go and see the area myself.

Also, on ancestry.com I was contacted by a cousin who lives in Dudley, who I never knew I had. It turned out that my grandmother had a sister who died just after she got married in 1919.

I know, I know, Dudley is nothing like Florida so I have to ask you Brian. Will you and Gill be driving down to Spain for the winter or are you already planning a Thelma and Louise fly/drive to the U.S.A. to meet your new sister.

Where’s Forest?

[sandway]

To mark the half million viewings I have amassed a collection of some of the characters who helped make Promotor one of the most exciting companies to be around especially in the early 70’s.

I will post more photos in the next few days or so.

[sandway]

More character’s associated with Promotor.

[sandway]

Promotor guys loved their job. From the Arctic Circle to Saudi. From Lisbon to Moscow. All a driver could wish for.

[sandway]

Drivers, subbies, mechanics, office bods and hangers on. Promotor was the one company, perhaps with the exception of Astran for those who wanted soley M/E, they all longed to be involved with.

This blog is headed up ‘any old promotor drivers around’. The last 4 posts you have seen many of the guys and gals involved. I only wish I had photos for the rest of them.

[sandway]

Just found this photo interesting.

[sandway]

Just found three photos on the web of Bluebird in the days when she was after the World Land Speed record.

First one must be Utah.

Second photo must have been taken in the UK.

Not sure where the third photo was taken.

The last 2 photos I have posted before.

[efes]

Nothing to do with Promotor but someone sent me a photo of a cabriolet truck which I thought rather fine. Right hand drive so probably British. Any guesses?

[suedehead]

Efes:
Nothing to do with Promotor but someone sent me a photo of a cabriolet truck which I thought rather fine. Right hand drive so probably British. Any guesses?

Looks like a Unic grille. A lot of early Itie lorries were RHD

[sandway]

The Barfleur sitting in Poole early Sunday morning. Beginning to show her age a bit especially the cabins. Been around a while and still no sign of a replacement. Never used her in the early days but plenty on here who did.

[efes]

Just a matter of interest I saw today in the Telegraph.

The sadly recently departed George Fardell’s former house

[sandway]

Stephen Lacy aka flyingflash007 has asked me to post these photos for him. Most of them I’ve not seen before. Thanks Steve for sharing them with us. However, I have to air one of my pet gripes here. I wish people would treat the original photo with consideration. So much definition is lost by just using your smart phone to take a snap of them. They need to be scanned properly. If you don’t have a scanner/copier I’m sure you know someone who does.

Saying that I still appreciate the fact that somebody has taken the time to share them with us however poor some of the photos may be.

[sandway]

Well the good old Barfluer got us home again Saturday evening. We were twenty minutes late into Poole as the considerate captain slowed down a bit as the sea was a bit choppy. Don’t remember the captains doing that on the Dover/Zeebrugge ferries years ago. Maybe because I was asleep. The attached photo was taken just after the Barfluer entered Cherbourg harbour.

Saw this next photo on the web recently and found it very interesting. The Irish Kelly Freight lorry together with many other lorries are in the queue on the hill leading down into Bazargan customs, Iran. I was lucky there not having to queue even coming up the hill into Turkey.

[5thwheel]

sandway:
Stephen Lacy aka flyingflash007 has asked me to post these photos for him. Most of them I’ve not seen before. Thanks Steve for sharing them with us. However, I have to air one of my pet gripes here. I wish people would treat the original photo with consideration. So much definition is lost by just using your smart phone to take a snap of them. They need to be scanned properly. If you don’t have a scanner/copier I’m sure you know someone who does.

Saying that I still appreciate the fact that somebody has taken the time to share them with us however poor some of the photos may be.

Ubiquitous bucket on the bumper !

David

[flishflunk]

5thwheel:

sandway:
Stephen Lacy aka flyingflash007 has asked me to post these photos for him. Most of them I’ve not seen before. Thanks Steve for sharing them with us. However, I have to air one of my pet gripes here. I wish people would treat the original photo with consideration. So much definition is lost by just using your smart phone to take a snap of them. They need to be scanned properly. If you don’t have a scanner/copier I’m sure you know someone who does.

Saying that I still appreciate the fact that somebody has taken the time to share them with us however poor some of the photos may be.

Ubiquitous bucket on the bumper !

David

Bucket on the Bumper You couldn’t do that these days, Elfun Safety would have a fit.
you’d have to strap it on

Ray

[whisperingsmith]

> flishflunk:
> You couldn’t do that these days, Elfun Safety would have a fit.
> you’d have to strap it on Ray

I can see CF googling “strap it on” so he can dispense wisdom on the subject

[sandway]

The road from Mosul to Baghdad more or less ended at these arches. After slogging your way south for many hours it always gave me a lift when I saw them. Once you had passed them you were on the last leg but it was always galling to have to drive away from Baghdad westward to Fallujah to register and suffer the indignity of handing over your passport which you only got back once you had tipped and your paperwork signed.

There was very little to see as you made your way south from Mosul. The anti aircraft gun emplacements at Bayji north of Tikrit held your interest for about twenty seconds before you started to nod off again. I remember somewhere on the left as you headed south was a huge area that had irrigation channels and ducts all complete and no doubt some Iraqi had the great idea of growing lettuce or carrots or whatever. It looked abandoned last time I passed. That really summed up much of Iraq.

[efes]

On the right-hand side of these arches (presumably both sides) was a very deep cut sharply “V” shaped channel - presumably to stop the locals by-passing the checkpoint that they sometimes held there…

I remember waiting in a long queue on the way home as the Police checked vehicles through… In my mirror I suddenly saw a car plunge into the channel… I was interested. Why had this happened? Ah, the gentleman wanted to avoid the queue but found his car stuck on its side… However, as I watched the rest of the queue followed until there was a line of cars more or less tipped over on their sides jammed at the bottom of the “V”… Had I not seen this with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it… Shame we didn’t have mobile phones to film everything as we do now…

I must say I chuckled to myself for hours having seen that.

[sandway]

Efes:
On the right-hand side of these arches (presumably both sides) was a very deep cut sharply “V” shaped channel - presumably to stop the locals by-passing the checkpoint that they sometimes held there…

I remember waiting in a long queue on the way home as the Police checked vehicles through… In my mirror I suddenly saw a car plunge into the channel… I was interested. Why had this happened? Ah, the gentleman wanted to avoid the queue but found his car stuck on its side… However, as I watched the rest of the queue followed until there was a line of cars more or less tipped over on their sides jammed at the bottom of the “V”… Had I not seen this with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it… Shame we didn’t have mobile phones to film everything as we do now…

I must say I chuckled to myself for hours having seen that.

Yes Efes. I must say you saw some odd sights as you travelled around Iraq. You remember all the thousands of Turkish petrol tankers. I was heading south from the border towards Mosul. The weather was atrocious with very heavy rain. There was water lying everywhere when I saw an artic tanker drive off into the desert. He got about 80 metres before he stopped. He was empty and the drive wheels were still going round. I thought you’re there till next summer but at least it was one less we had to contend with.

Another time I had left Fallujah heading into Baghdad when a grey Merc 4 wheel tipper coming towards me drove straight off the tarmac road, down a slight incline, got about 50 metres into the desert and turned over. It then disappeared into a huge cloud of dust. I reckon his dish dash got caught up around his pedals.