lesters truck tucked up for the night .
Great pics, keep them coming!
Hi there James , im with Carl to keep this thread strong to you the Haulage boys how we cope with it .
This was taken last June at Christ church college , 12 containers in to store for the summer months whilst they refurbished two staircases with 10 rooms .
It was a night mare right from the start but we got on with it and finshed and paid on time , but we were delivering when work was still being done and it ained and rained all day causing big problems .
great van ,no trouble at all through out its working life , we will park it up soon when its replacement comes .
Do you Know Have Robinsons closed in Darlington? In the eighties Mark Robertson was running 15 vans In Darlington, and it would appear strange that following taking over Haward and Robinsons they after so few years closed it down.
H & R had a very good name and perhaps they would have been wiser to retain their name and identity.
Hi Carl , im pretty sure they still have Darlington because they now have Darlington day trunker on a wagon and drag , he delivers all the goods from Darlington for the south (Abingdon ,Basingstoke ,london)at Abingdon depot and then re loads for Birmingham and Darlington and delivers some goods on the way up as he makes his way home .Pretty good trunk with or without the drawbar trailer and one or two men depending on the volume . Only problem is its handled many times which in this game is a problem .
JAKEY:
Hi Carl , im pretty sure they still have Darlington because they now have Darlington day trunker on a wagon and drag , he delivers all the goods from Darlington for the south (Abingdon ,Basingstoke ,london)at Abingdon depot and then re loads for Birmingham and Darlington and delivers some goods on the way up as he makes his way home .Pretty good trunk with or without the drawbar trailer and one or two men depending on the volume . Only problem is its handled many times which in this game is a problem .
Hi Jakey
It’s just there is no record on their website of a Darlington Base
They do not come up on Google in Darlington. Seems strange
Carl
Hi Carl , I just asked the question to ROBINSONS and they shut the depot 2 years ago ,he said the depot was running at a loss.
The said trunker now runs from Manchester depot .
Hi, Carl.
Don’t worry about the removals trade being too specialist- I’ve never done more than the odd local move in a well-washed livestock container (try that nowadays!) but I find your pics and tales most interesting and informative. Keep it up.
JAKEY:
Hi Carl , I just asked the question to ROBINSONS and they shut the depot 2 years ago ,he said the depot was running at a loss.The said trunker now runs from Manchester depot .
Hi Jakey
That leaves no long established professional removal contractors in Darlington, disregarding Pickfords which I’m sure most peope will. In 1970 /80 there was Haward and Robertson, D.G Craig and sons, Cracknells and we got a fair percentage, Surely they must have made a big mistake by re branding into their own name when no one in the North East had heard of them. Over about 70 years H & R had develloped a lot of good will and a large section of the population in our area knew of them.Probably it was before your time I remembered Lunns Edinburgh painted yellow with part of Bishops move group and it must ave taken about 30 years with both names before totally rebranding.
Here is a photo of one of Cracknells just to illustrate
So Carl , what about the waiting for key business , what do you think of this?, ie we load by 1230am and ready to unload at 1pm ,half hour lunch 
then we could be waiting from 1 hour to 4 hours !!! , I give them 1 hour grace then depending how the men have been treated I charge £45 plus vat per hour ,spread that over three or even two men we are loosing money any how , but its better then nothing , one company I know around here charge £50 per hour per man plus vat 
, they get no trouble what so ever , they even take the items back into there store and then charge storage plus re delivery charges .
Worst days are end of the month if its a friday . Trouble with me is I feel guilty charging them extra ,so I end up not charging them .
JAKEY:
So Carl , what about the waiting for key business , what do you think of this?, ie we load by 1230am and ready to unload at 1pm ,half hour lunchWorst days are end of the month if its a friday . Trouble with me is I feel guilty charging them extra ,so I end up not charging them .
Hi jakey
I don’t think it was so much a problem in our day. Possibly because solicitors were not so competitive and clients were often known by them as they had dealt with the same solicitors over a couple of generations and there was more trust, and completion was agreed verbally, unofficially even if the money hadn’t yet gone through as they knew it eventually would. I can remember one example were, like you said it was on a Friday afternoon and I went out ,after the driver phoned me , because of the delay in unloading. We needed the van empty for the Saturday morning and it was a new empty house on a new housing development.
Time had reached 3.00PM and therre was no completion. The customer was in tears.,after being told it was to be Monday morning, and I didn’t want the hassle of having to take the van back, unload and re load Monday morning. So I had a quiet chat to te site forman, explaining that the house was empty and we could pack the furniture into one room, no one would know, and we would collect again on the Monday if completion fell through, and I would make it worth his while financially , giving him £20 tip. He ageed, the customer gave me my £20 back and everyone was happy.
This was not the norm, and as we gave fixed prices for removals, to cut out the amateurs who could only charge by an hourly rate, as they had no idea how long it would take, and we could explain was giving them carte blanche to take as long as possible, we never made additional charges, and would absorbe any additiona costs putting it down to advertising and good will, which usually did us more good in the longer term. However if things have changed in this world where no one trusts anyone anymore and these delays are common , I can understand your problem, but in my opinion only charge what is fair and reasonable because if you cash in at someone’s misfortune, you soon get a bad name.
Carl
Hi Carl , yes I never charge jobs on a hourly rate it just does not work for me , but I do have the waiting charge clearlrey shown on my quotation form .
Last year we did not charge any one for this , but I can say I lost a lot of money on overtime because of the crews twiddling there thumbs out side a clients house , Another thing is if the guys have been looked after with tips and tea and cakes etc then I just let it be , but if the client was a nightmare to work with I do charge them .
