I think you’re right there bullitt but I have an anecdote from another much earlier period, possibly 79 or 80 and another out of the way place. Dave Stagg, our transport manager sent Paul Linscott, one of our part time drivers well up into the Arctic Circle on a photo shoot. It was a single car job and one of our small Ford Cargos was used. Paul was away for quite a few weeks and upon his return feedback came in from the film company saying what a great job both Paul and Promotor had done. Dave, who was very good with words said he was going to write an article for one of the magazines or newspapers of the time outlining our involvement and heading the piece up “The farthest north a British truck driver has ever been” and if anyone said they had been farther north he was going to change the heading to “The farthest north a British coloured gentleman truck driver had ever been”. Well it was a long time ago so I can’t be expected to remember exactly what Staggie was going to change it to but it was words to that effect.
Just for clarification purposes the photo of Paul Linscott (my last post) was not taken in the Arctic Circle but in southern Turkey during a shuttle of Coles Cranes from Iskenderun to Baghdad. Well, no, I knew none of you would have thought that!!
Greece late 70’s. Homeward bound and looking for somewhere to stop. I always used Ipsala border crossing Greece Turkey so why is the sea on the right?? Perhaps I had used the Volos ferry that trip. Come on you grey cells. Don’t give up yet.
It’s a stab in the dark Sandway but I reckon that you are going to Salonica for a plate of calamari and a bottle of Retsina. 
Perhaps you’ve just come off the Rio-Andirio ferry. Robert
Been thinking! Could be I had tipped in Piraeus at the exhibition hall near the port and was on my way back to Yugo for my reload. Cant figure out who the truck in front was in the photo. Wouldn’t have stopped in in Salonika for calamaris as not a lover. But Retsina! Thats a maybe. Mind you if I was on my way to or from Turkey I always stopped on the beach at Kavala. Did anyone ever drive there lorry over the mountain at the back of town cause there was a weight limit through the town itself. I never did and was never stopped. I remember one night I went to the restaurant on the beach and had a meal. Opposite me was another driver, a Frenchman. Big man with a ■■■■■■■■■ beard. He ordered a bottle of wine and the biggest bowl of moules I have ever seen. He spent ages working his way through them and the wine and when I left he was leaning back fast asleep. Often wonder if they left him there till the morning ready for his breakfast.
Hi Sandway, I did wonder if you were on your way back from Athens or Piraeus and you had met up with the other driver parked on the car park at Saint Nicks next to the Island ferry terminal. We used to use The Lantern Café back then and there were quite a few stretches of road like that in your photo in Greece, before all the duel carriageways were built.
I can’t ever remember getting stopped by the police while going through Kavala town, in fact I once stopped for a couple of hours one afternoon on the seafront after I saw a Top Deck bus parked up there.
I took this photo on the back road around Kavala on my way to the beach where we used to park up across the road from The Stadium, you might remember seeing it.
And you probably spent a couple of hours, an afternoon, an evening or even a day here with your Tacho on (if you had one) “perks of the job” mode. 
You can just about see the white walls of that restaurant that you mentioned.
Great pic of the beach mushroomman. I remember being in that exact spot. Spent the day there with a few other lads one of whom had brought a case of efes with him from Turkey which needed liberating. Of course it wasn’t all beach and sun. I once did the cultural bit round Athens as the attached pics show. Trying to improve my understanding of past civilisations no doubt. What a load of tosh! Give me the beach any day.
Hi Sandway, whenever I used to drive past The Acropolis and I looked up at The Parthenon, I always said to myself one day I am going to have a walk around there but of course I never did. Even when I was week ending in Piraeus I was talked (very easily) into going with about four other British drivers around to the beach at Glyfada and spending a lot of time in two pubs, The Essex Bar and The Sussex Bar.
It was nearly thirty years later that I actually got to visit the place which cost me an arm and a leg to get there. 
I can’t believe that they haven’t finished building it yet.
Is that you mushroomman in the red shirt. By the look of things you are sobbing your heart out cos of what it cost you. Yeah, I did it for free thanks to Promotor 36 years ago!!
I was probably crying because I still had a ten Drachma note and nobody told me that they had changed to Euros. 
Lets get this thread back to lorries (for a while). Attached are two photos from mid to late 80’s showing the old and new livery. I much preferred the old colour scheme. Had more class.
Have been reading the excellent posts put on by mushroomman on the “Security measures back in the day question” thread of his time in Berlin and later when as a driver he transited East Germany to Poland. Although I never took my lorry to Berlin my son went there in his in 1990 or thereabouts and got his bit of the Berlin wall.
During the 70’s and early 80’s Promotor did a fair bit of work to Poland. Mainly to Poznan as that’s where most of the big trade fairs where held. In the early 80’s Poland was in turmoil. The trade union Solidarity was formed in Gdansk and although no one knew at the time this was the beginning of the end for communism. It was a very difficult time for the Polish people and a lot of aid was donated to the country from abroad. Promotor picked up a contract through, I think, the “Polish Catholic Society of Ealing” to transport aid from the UK. The society obtained funds and purchased food cheaply from the Common Market intervention scheme. Do you remember at that time there was much made of the butter mountains and wine lakes? Well we transported most things but not wine. I had already done a few trips to Poland late 70’s but in 1982 all our lorries seemed to be heading there. On my first “Aid” trip, 3 Promotor lorries, all fully loaded went to the town of Koszalin up on the Baltic coast. We had a young lad with us from Ealing whose parents were originally from Poland. He was there as interpreter and to see the aid got through to the right people. When we arrived to the outskirts of Koszalin he asked a chap the way to the church where we were to unload. The chap jumped in his car and said follow me. We shot of after him and 20 minutes later arrived at the church. Scores of people turned up to help unload the lorries and in no time 60 ton of aid was deposited in the church ready to be distributed to the needy later. Everyone was very pleased to see us. We were fed and accommodation was provided for us. We left next morning. I delivered more aid around Poland and it was a great job. I can’t remember all the towns I delivered to but at one I purchased a painting that was being displayed on the railings outside the church. The artist couldn’t afford canvas, or indeed get hold of any, so he painted on the back of hardboard. I still have this painting hanging on my office wall. Does anyone recognise the town from the picture? Maybe that artist is famous now and the painting is worth a small fortune but I somehow doubt it.
When I was working for Expo Freight I had a convenient breakdown at Kavala and spent a week parked up on the beach.
After shopping in town first thing, inflated my spare inner tube and spent most of the week floating off the beach, took this pic while afloat.
Yep, it was always a good idea to carry a spare inner tube, you just never knew when you might need it.
mushroomman:
Yep, it was always a good idea to carry a spare inner tube, you just never knew when you might need it.
There are four TNT Alltrans lorries or their subbies in the attached photo taken somewhere in the M/E. The two Promotor lorries are nothing to do with them. Does anyone know what happened to the M/E division of the company as never saw them on the road again? We all know what TNT are now and when Promotor moved to Childerditch near Brentwood in the early 90’s TNT had a depot next door where they ran some of their lorries on the newsprint (I think) contract out of London docklands. But what happened to the M/E work? Did it continue under another name perhaps.
