Any old promotor drivers around

[mushroomman]

Hi Nottsnortherner, if you remember going down the motorway from Prague to Brno you came to an area with two big lay bys on each side of the motorway and what looked like the biggest pedestrian crossing in the world. There was no central reservation for about three kilometres and then you came to what looked like another pedestrian crossing going across the motorway with two more big lay bys, one on each side.
Of course the black and white stripes were the start of the runway whenever the Czech Air Force and The Russians were doing manoeuvres. When ever this happened they used to divert all the traffic back on to the old road somewhere between Jilhava and Brno I.I.R.C.
I once watched two Migs taking off as I was going along the old road and it was very impressive.

You might remember the place I mean.

[sandway]

I’ve been trying for a while to remember the sequence of events leading up to an incident that happened at Habur in the early 80’s and where the photos I have fit into the story. There is a possibility that the incident and photos are of 2 separate events and if this is the case, I apologise now for any confusion.

In the first photo there is a queue of lorries and I think there are 3 M & C, one behind the other. Are they Mervin King’s lorries and did he drive one of them? It certainly seemed the lead driver was the boss.

There are some other British lorries in the queue including an Astran. Now one of the other drivers (not M & C or Astran) was one of those chaps who should never have been on the road. Excitable was understating his temperament by a country mile. We didn’t know the term “Road Rage” then but I’m sure it all started with him. The young Turkish kids would try to sell us water or Coke or whatever and ask us if we would like our lorries washed. One of the boys asked this driver and was told in no uncertain terms to “go away”. Later, though, the boy started to wash the back of this drivers trailer and thats when we saw the “red mist” descend for the first time. The driver flew out of his cab, ran to the rear, and grabbed the bucket and flung it out into the scrub as far as possible, the broom was next and that went in the opposite direction. I think we were all wondering in which direction the petrified boy would be going. Luckily the “red mist” abated slightly and he was told to “p-ss off”.

A few hours after the incident we all pulled into the customs compound at Harbour. We did the Turkish side and then the Iraqi side and all was going smoothly. We had all returned to our lorries to be on our way. As usual there was plenty of jostling in the lorry park as we tried to extricate ourselves. At this point, and I’m fairly sure it was one of the M & C lorries who was slightly to one side of me and a trailers length ahead, was dealt a glancing blow from a Turkish lorry. No real harm was done but from our excitable driver the “red mist” descended again. He was out of his lorry in a flash, raced up to the Turkish lorry, jumped up on the step and was raining blows upon the driver through the open window. Give him his due, the Turk was attempting to fight back but the British driver had the advantage of more room to manoeuvre. Of course, there was a great commotion going on. A load of other Turkish drivers came over to help their man but one of the other British drivers kept them at bay with a good bit of aggression and a stool. I notice the M & C driver (if it was M & C) was leaning over his steering wheel head bowed, no doubt thinking like the rest of us “what is this idiot doing here”.

It did all calm down eventually but I can only think that this driver put back Turkish/British relations by twenty years.

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

mushroomman:
Hi Nottsnortherner, if you remember going down the motorway from Prague to Brno you came to an area with two big lay bys on each side of the motorway and what looked like the biggest pedestrian crossing in the world. There was no central reservation for about three kilometres and then you came to what looked like another pedestrian crossing going across the motorway with two more big lay bys, one on each side.
Of course the black and white stripes were the start of the runway whenever the Czech Air Force and The Russians were doing manoeuvres. When ever this happened they used to divert all the traffic back on to the old road somewhere between Jilhava and Brno I.I.R.C.
I once watched two Migs taking off as I was going along the old road and it was very impressive.

You might remember the place I mean.

I remember that stretch of road, which doubled as a runway.
When they were building the motorway there were all sorts of diversions that we had to take. You ended up rattling through little villages, with cobbled streets. Highly entertaining in the winter, when it was icy. Some times you could not drive directly to Jihlava and had to divert south of there to Trebic and Rosice and pick up the motorway just north of Brno.

[supercube]

Sandway, you was talking of road rage, when I worked for Promotor early 70s I had loaded peanuts at Ordu with Micky Fitzell and Ray Tours, two subbies for Astran, we ran back to the Bosphourus ferry when a Turk tried to jump the queue and took off Micks mirror, when we were loaded mick walked up to the Turks motor with a spanner and tried to take his mirror off, we were surrounded by every Turk driver on the boat, there were 5 brit drivers in total on there and something like 15 Turk trucks plus the crew, I said to mick “forget it I’ve got a spare mirror in the cab”, he said " so have I but I want his" we managed to talk him out of it but it was a bit scary at the time.

[tubbysboy]

sandway:
I’ve been trying for a while to remember the sequence of events leading up to an incident that happened at Habur in the early 80’s and where the photos I have fit into the story. There is a possibility that the incident and photos are of 2 separate events and if this is the case, I apologise now for any confusion.

In the first photo there is a queue of lorries and I think there are 3 M & C, one behind the other. Are they Mervin King’s lorries and did he drive one of them? It certainly seemed the lead driver was the boss.

There are some other British lorries in the queue including an Astran. Now one of the other drivers (not M & C or Astran) was one of those chaps who should never have been on the road. Excitable was understating his temperament by a country mile. We didn’t know the term “Road Rage” then but I’m sure it all started with him. The young Turkish kids would try to sell us water or Coke or whatever and ask us if we would like our lorries washed. One of the boys asked this driver and was told in no uncertain terms to “go away”. Later, though, the boy started to wash the back of this drivers trailer and thats when we saw the “red mist” descend for the first time. The driver flew out of his cab, ran to the rear, and grabbed the bucket and flung it out into the scrub as far as possible, the broom was next and that went in the opposite direction. I think we were all wondering in which direction the petrified boy would be going. Luckily the “red mist” abated slightly and he was told to “p-ss off”.

A few hours after the incident we all pulled into the customs compound at Harbour. We did the Turkish side and then the Iraqi side and all was going smoothly. We had all returned to our lorries to be on our way. As usual there was plenty of jostling in the lorry park as we tried to extricate ourselves. At this point, and I’m fairly sure it was one of the M & C lorries who was slightly to one side of me and a trailers length ahead, was dealt a glancing blow from a Turkish lorry. No real harm was done but from our excitable driver the “red mist” descended again. He was out of his lorry in a flash, raced up to the Turkish lorry, jumped up on the step and was raining blows upon the driver through the open window. Give him his due, the Turk was attempting to fight back but the British driver had the advantage of more room to manoeuvre. Of course, there was a great commotion going on. A load of other Turkish drivers came over to help their man but one of the other British drivers kept them at bay with a good bit of aggression and a stool. I notice the M & C driver (if it was M & C) was leaning over his steering wheel head bowed, no doubt thinking like the rest of us “what is this idiot doing here”.

It did all calm down eventually but I can only think that this driver put back Turkish/British relations by twenty years.

Sandway,

There definitely M&C lorries.

I only recognize the driver on the far left. Pretty sure that’s Ken Ward.

I shall message M&C Steve who I’m sure will be able to name them, and also tell us what Tyres where on each of the lorries…

I seem to remember my dad doing some loads for promotor via M&C, I saw earlier on this thread that the polish fred cross was through promoter, I can remember going to load in a warehouse near to brentford on a Saturday morning with dad.

The people who loaded the trailer were mostly polish ladies, and they didn’t let us even open the tilt. They all mucked in a did everything for us, and then proceeded to feed me and dad a delicious piece of home made cake and cups of coffee.

On one of the trips to Poland one of dads driver took a volunteer chap with him and dropped him off at the nunnery or church.

I’m sure Steve can correct my errors !

[m_amp_c_steve]

Danny,

" Their definitely M&C lorries.

I only recognize the driver on the far left. Pretty sure that’s Ken Ward "

Yes, three M + C trucks for sure, and also yes, Ken Ward on the far left, 2nd from left looks very much like Allan Thornton, a chap who for many years was Transport Manager for a local company called Jack Russel Tpt and then after done odd trips ( but mostly just Euro/UK trips ) for Mervyn. My puddled brain cannot recall if he ever actually made it down to Arabia, but it certainly looks like him and i’m pretty sure that he did do a couple of trips with Ken Ward to ‘learn the ropes’.

As regards the “firey chap” who wanted to take on the Turks, the young washer lad and also battering the driver in the Queue, sounds very much like a certain Mr. Mick Chinnock !!!

Steve…

[bestbooties]

sandway:
I notice the M & C driver (if it was M & C) was leaning over his steering wheel head bowed, no doubt thinking like the rest of us “what is this idiot doing here”.

It did all calm down eventually but I can only think that this driver put back Turkish/British relations by twenty years.

On my first trip to Baghdad in '75, there were three of us travelling together as it was the first ME trip for all of us.
As we now all know, your first trip is a steep learning curve, where you rely on any help from other drivers if possible, if no help is available one takes one’s time to learn border procedures etc.
One driver out of the three of us was the one that always had to prove how hard he was by falling out with anyone who did anything he didn’t agree with, he didn’t like queuing, and as for paying “Baksheesh”, no way, and don’t look at him the wrong way either!
Myself and my other mate always rolled our eyes and made out we were not with him, and when we got back home, on our debrief, we made it clear we did not wish to travel with the other guy as he was more than likely to finish up in jail, this was understood and to the best of my knowledge this guy never went to the ME again, for this firm at least.

[mushroomman]

I think that the tubby guy on the right might of worked for Taffy Davies or Duncan Macrea.
The guy in the blue T shirt looks familiar, he might of been a Falcongate driver.
I was going to say could one of them be M.&C. Jamie or he would know but as Jamie has not logged in since October then I hope that he is alright.

B.T.W.
M.&C. Steve, when Sandway mentioned the word trouble, Micky Chinnock was the first word that I thought about.

[sandway]

mushroomman:
I think that the tubby guy on the right might of worked for Taffy Davies or Duncan Macrea.
The guy in the blue T shirt looks familiar, he might of been a Falcongate driver.
I was going to say could one of them be M.&C. Jamie or he would know but as Jamie has not logged in since October then I hope that he is alright.

B.T.W.
M.&C. Steve, when Sandway mentioned the word trouble, Micky Chinnock was the first word that I thought about.

I always thought the main guy in the middle of the group with the camera was the Astran driver.

[sandway]

Tubbysboy:

sandway:
I’ve been trying for a while to remember the sequence of events leading up to an incident that happened at Habur in the early 80’s and where the photos I have fit into the story. There is a possibility that the incident and photos are of 2 separate events and if this is the case, I apologise now for any confusion.

In the first photo there is a queue of lorries and I think there are 3 M & C, one behind the other. Are they Mervin King’s lorries and did he drive one of them? It certainly seemed the lead driver was the boss.

There are some other British lorries in the queue including an Astran. Now one of the other drivers (not M & C or Astran) was one of those chaps who should never have been on the road. Excitable was understating his temperament by a country mile. We didn’t know the term “Road Rage” then but I’m sure it all started with him. The young Turkish kids would try to sell us water or Coke or whatever and ask us if we would like our lorries washed. One of the boys asked this driver and was told in no uncertain terms to “go away”. Later, though, the boy started to wash the back of this drivers trailer and thats when we saw the “red mist” descend for the first time. The driver flew out of his cab, ran to the rear, and grabbed the bucket and flung it out into the scrub as far as possible, the broom was next and that went in the opposite direction. I think we were all wondering in which direction the petrified boy would be going. Luckily the “red mist” abated slightly and he was told to “p-ss off”.

A few hours after the incident we all pulled into the customs compound at Harbour. We did the Turkish side and then the Iraqi side and all was going smoothly. We had all returned to our lorries to be on our way. As usual there was plenty of jostling in the lorry park as we tried to extricate ourselves. At this point, and I’m fairly sure it was one of the M & C lorries who was slightly to one side of me and a trailers length ahead, was dealt a glancing blow from a Turkish lorry. No real harm was done but from our excitable driver the “red mist” descended again. He was out of his lorry in a flash, raced up to the Turkish lorry, jumped up on the step and was raining blows upon the driver through the open window. Give him his due, the Turk was attempting to fight back but the British driver had the advantage of more room to manoeuvre. Of course, there was a great commotion going on. A load of other Turkish drivers came over to help their man but one of the other British drivers kept them at bay with a good bit of aggression and a stool. I notice the M & C driver (if it was M & C) was leaning over his steering wheel head bowed, no doubt thinking like the rest of us “what is this idiot doing here”.

It did all calm down eventually but I can only think that this driver put back Turkish/British relations by twenty years.

Sandway,

There definitely M&C lorries.

I only recognize the driver on the far left. Pretty sure that’s Ken Ward.

I shall message M&C Steve who I’m sure will be able to name them, and also tell us what Tyres where on each of the lorries…

I seem to remember my dad doing some loads for promotor via M&C, I saw earlier on this thread that the polish fred cross was through promoter, I can remember going to load in a warehouse near to brentford on a Saturday morning with dad.

The people who loaded the trailer were mostly polish ladies, and they didn’t let us even open the tilt. They all mucked in a did everything for us, and then proceeded to feed me and dad a delicious piece of home made cake and cups of coffee.

On one of the trips to Poland one of dads driver took a volunteer chap with him and dropped him off at the nunnery or church.

I’m sure Steve can correct my errors !

I think I only did four loads of aid to Poland but, from my point of view, it was some of the most gratifying work we ever did.

[sandway]

One for you Nottsnortherner. Any info on lorries or driver?

[nottsnortherner]

Ummmm! Got me on that one, I know Bugsy had a “E” reg Scania so maybe thats his. I wasn,t that familiar with Showhauls drivers by then mainly because even though we were in the same industry our paths hardly ever crossed. Don,t recognise that driver. Those Ivecos were the result of a lease-purchase deal that Richard Dyne did to service a massive tour,5 or 6 of them I think, unfortunately for him the tour didn,t materialise and he was left with a lease purchase deal which he couldn,t support with the other work he had at that time. Enter P.C. with a partnership deal which enabled Dyney to get out of gaol short term. Knowing the business man that P.C. was it was never going to last and that proved to be the case! I don,t know the full S.P. on the insde story, maybe Steve Lacey could enlighten us one day. The last I heard of Dyney his missus had took him for a few quid and he had gone to the States. Having said all that I would have thought that your good self could possibly fill us in on some of the details!!nudge-nudge,wink-wink,know what I mean

[sandway]

Chemical Industries Roadshow 1988. Nice little job for Promotor. Kept one of our guys busy around the UK for quite a few months.

[sandway]

What is a reprobate? Promotor driver John Preece was one. I have just Googled the word to be sure and looked up synonyms for reprobate. Tramp, scoundrel, wastrel, miscreant, wretch, rascal, cad, rogue. That just about summed up my view of John Preece after only six days of the trip I am about to relate to you. That man landed me in the mire and other places I never want to go to again.

We loaded between us, 3 x JCB tractors and a large consignment of spares from Rocester around the 13th August 1980. We were bound for Sulaymaniyah in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. We shipped over, I think on Friday 15th Dover to Calais knowing we would be weekended somewhere in the Alps. It turned out to be Cluses. The French customs depot just off the auto-route leading up to the Blanc.

We arrived there Saturday afternoon. Not much happened Saturday evening or most of Sunday. We met up with other British drivers, did the usual, had a chin-wag, had a brew up and got bored. About 5pm John came over to me to say a couple of the other drivers were going to a bar and restaurant in a village that one of them had been to before. He reckoned the food was ok and it was a good crack. They were going down in one of their units and would we like to join them. Good idea, thought I so we all piled in to their lorry and set off. I hadn’t a clue where we were going but it didn’t matter as we had a lift there and back or so I thought! The evening started off ok. It seemed we were all drinking Vin d’ Alsace, a white wine, and a bottle or two or three were quickly consumed. A few more were ordered and the evening started to warm up. Music was blaring out and a frenchman had by this time joined our group. I remember he was singing and John kept laughing, pointing at him and shouting “Johnny Haliday, Johnny Haliday” Later we adjourned to the restaurant and I remember eating spaghetti bolonaise. After the meal it was back to the bar where the wine kept flowing. Johnny Haliday kept singing and John kept trying to tell his Australian jokes but by this time he was too drunk to finish them.

The rest of the evening passed by in a blur although some things I do remember clearly. I remember John saying that one of the other drivers was bit too mouthy and we were going to walk back to where the lorries were parked. As I said earlier I hadn’t a clue where we were so decided to stick close to John. A little later I remember climbing out of this ditch, John was standing there with his donkey jacket on and woolly hat pulled hard down on his head. He was quite irate and shouted at me to get a move on. The next thing I remember is a flash of lights and a bit of commotion. I looked around for John and he’s not there. Then John’s climbing out of the ditch and holding his hand. It seems a passing car got a bit close to him, hit his hand and caused him to fall into the ditch.

As he got back onto the road I turned round and saw one of those blue Citreon corrugated vans used by the Gendarmes, stopped on the other side of the road. “Come on John” I said " Lets get going, they are watching us". Next thing I remember is John sitting in the back of the van shouting out to me “Come on Holmsy, they’re giving us a lift”. I then remember sitting alongside John and he said angrily “shut the door then”. There were two Gendarmes sitting in the front and I thought , “why can’t they do it”. Anyway, it was a sliding door and so I leant over to grab the handle to push it to close. The door was sliding nicely and almost closed when the spaghetti bolonaise in my stomach saw this as the ideal time to make a break for freedom. I remember trying to aim it through the almost closed door but without success. Most of it hit the inside of the door and slid into the footwell. By this time the two Gendarmes in the front were not best pleased and I had the feeling they wished they had left us in the ditch. I then remember standing in the doorway of a cell. To my left was a bed with a dirty mattress and blanket on it, to my right was I think, a french styled toilet. A Gendarme indicated to me to go in and lie down which I did. I pulled the blanket to one side and as I went to lay down I vomited again as the rest of the spaghetti bolonaise made its break for freedom and ended up on the floor.

I shall continue this little story later.

[sandway]

I was woken by somebody banging on something and continually shouting. Somebody else then shouted a reply in French. This went on for quite some time. I desperately wanted them all to be quiet and go away as I was dying. I just wanted it all to end. I had never felt so ill in all my life. But it didn’t end and the noise continued for what seemed like hours.

Finally there was some peace and quiet. I tried not to move as I was sure if I did I would vomit. I tried to repress the feeling as I was now beginning to realise my predicament. I was in a cell. John was in another cell and he suffered from claustrophobia and bad nightmares. It was him continually shouting to the gendarmes to be let out. They were shouting back to him to shut up. It had been going on for a long time but finally my cell door was opened. A gendarme was standing there with a mop and bucket, behind him stood John. I knew I had to move though. I remembered where I was. In a cell somewhere near Cluses and I had a lorry waiting for me that had to be driven right across the north of Italy that day to the Yugo border as we were both booked on the Koper/Tartous ferry departing early afternoon the following day. As I rose from my bed the mop and bucket was thrust at me and a gendarme indicated he wanted me to mop up the spag bols which I had deposited on the floor when I was first incarcerated the night before. I looked at the bucket of water and then at the spag bols and knew there would be even more to clean up if I wasn’t careful. John seeing my predicament angrily came into the cell, grabbed the mop and cleared up the mess. Right thats done he shouted now lets get going. I should think so John I thought. You got me arrested. You got me thrown in a cell. You kept the wine flowing. You’re the pi-s artist. Now you drive my lorry to Yugo cos all I still wanted to do was die. But I knew that wasn’t an option.

We were led to the front desk where our shoe laces and belts were returned to us. Neither of us knew where we were but it turned out we were being held in Bonneville and the gendarmes were going to drive us back to our lorries in Cluses. We went outside to find two identical Citroen Diana, or similar, 2 door cars parked. Now trying to squeeze four men into a very small car was always going to be a laugh. having John Preece, the comedian, as one of the four was asking for trouble. As we all settled down the gendarme in the front driving seat found there were no keys in the ignition and started searching the car for them. Oh no (or words to that effect) he said. We are in ze rong car!! John by this time is laughing his head off and pointing to the driver, shouting out "Inspector Closeau. Inspector Closeau. Peter Sellers. The gendarmes saw the funny side of it and were also in hysterics. We jumped out of that car and all squeezed into the identical car parked next door. Ahh it is ze rite car said the driver and we shot off down the road lurching around the corners all still in hysterics. I say all. I was still holding on to my stomach. As we headed towards Cluses one of the gendarmes turned to me and then pointed to the side of the road, Monsieur, monsieur, Spaghetti Bolanaise, Spaghetti Bolanaise.

After dropping us off at our lorries the gendarmes departed. Just as well cos if I’d been breathalyser there was no way I would have been on the next days ferry. We had some strong coffee and even though I still felt like death warmed up we had to get going. I said to John it would be best not to tell anyone about what happened last night. Didnt want it getting back to the office. We went up and through the Blanc and dropped down to Aosta customs compound. As we pulled around the back blowed if another Promotor lorry wasn’t there. It was Geof Gardner who had been down to one of the Italian ports to pick up a trailer that had been sent over unaccompanied to an exhibition in Egypt. John immediately jumped down from his lorry, ran over to him and excitedly said, guess what. We spent last night in the police cells in France! So much for keeping it quiet.

We did make it to the Yugo border that night and onto the ferry next day. Once on board we spent the next three and a half days relaxing and getting over the spag bols incident. However, it wasn’t the end of the story-----------------------

Six months later I received a summons from Bonneville for 75FF. The galling thing was the instigator of all our troubles that night didn’t get one. Wheres the justice in that!

[jazzandy]

Great story BH.

Happy Christmas!

[mushroomman]

Yes Brian a great story but I bet that you wished that you would of had the Frogs Legs instead of the Spag Bog.

Merry Christmas Blue.

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

Talking of John Preece reminds me of the Ford Sierra launch at the Palais de Congress in Paris.
It had been decided that John and I would shunt trailers between Boulogne and Paris, every day during the Put In and again for the Pull Out.

We shipped out with the first trailers on a Sunday. P&O. John had gone earlier than me and I arrived in Boulogne to discover that he had Over-Refreshed himself on the ferry. This resulted in him hitting the doorway of the shed, as he drove out of the dock. He had damaged the nearside front of his unit.
We drove to Paris and commenced running back and forward every day. John used this as a pub crawl across Northern France. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea break and dinner all centred around café turbo’s.

Unfortunately, with all of the other trailers coming in there were various forms of damage being done to cars etc. So, to calm Ford down Staggy flew to Paris and sacked John and I on the spot. Not from Pro-Motor but from the Paris job. We were told to return to Dunton Green and that we would be shipping out to Yugoslavia. I didn’t mind that, because I was getting fed up, but John pulled Staggy aside and said that we had not caused any damage. (He omitted telling him about his unit). That, if he wanted to sack anybody then sack those that were causing the damage.

In the end Staggy changed his mind and we kept running to and from Boulogne.

On one of the trips I broke down on the Perepherique, at the Congress slip road. Scania dragged the truck away and John moved the trailer to the carpark. However, with the truck in Scania’s I did not have a bed, so I slept, (or tried to) in one of the Sierras on the back of his trailer. Unfortunately, I could not sleep and spent most of the night smoking, flicking the ash out of the window. This built up and ingrained itself on the paintwork. The next day the car was written off as unfit to go on show. Because I had gone to Scania’s they did not know how this had happened and put it down to having happened at Dunton. So, I escaped blame.

[sandway]

I hope you are still with us John Preece, from, so Efes tells us, down under. You could be a miserable old g-t at times but boy oh boy I really enjoyed your company, (most of the time). I wish you John and all fellow ex Promotor men, and all readers and contributors here on Trucknet UK “The Very Best wishes for Christmas”.

[nottsnortherner]

Same to you Brian, and anybody else who I had the priveledge/misfortune to run with/bump into all those years ago!!!