Hi all.
A bit of nostalgia… 
Who used load back for BSL. ?
Where did you load back from ?
How many people that you knew wore shoes that didn’t make it to the unloading bay ? 
Is BSL still there?
I will start the ball rolling:
Italy T2
- Load at several shoe factories and clear with Albini Petigliani in Pavia, on a Friday and then a mad dash to Ponte Chiasso and get in the queue on the road which was a steep hill to the Italian side of the border. Dinner and copious amounts of Frizzante at Giovannis Ristorante and then bed on the hill, leaning against the back of the drivers seat, or the windscreen if you drank too much Frizzante. The aim was to be awake early and in to the customs as soon as they opened on Saturday morning and then clear and across Swiss as quickly as possible and into France, park up at Charlies at Luneville. Another early start and up to Boulogne for the boat Sunday lunchtime. Clear Dover and Tip BSL Monday morning 9am booking. Open the back, reverse on to the bay and go to bed. Reload lightbulbs, Doncaster and do it all over again…Mostly RN because my guvnor wouldn’t pay the big peages.
Portugal T2
2) Load Atri, Oporto, again on a Friday, clear customs at about 11pm ish in the TER TIR Oporto and hell for leather towards the border at Villar Formoso via Luso, get as far as you can before falling of the perch. Early start and get up to Victors at Burgos for a late bit of grub and some Vino Tinto. Up early again and keep going, couple of hours kip just north of Paris, aiming for the boat Monday lunchtime, clear Dover and tip BSL Tuesday 9am booking. Open the back, reverse on to the bay and go to bed.
Back to the yard empty, home for a couple of days and wait for the phone call. " your trailer is loaded in the yard"…
Romania T.I.R.
3) Load several shoe factories around Romania, Fill in the T.I.R. Carnet using carbon paper between the pages, clear customs at the exit border and get back to Zeebrugge as quickly as possible, including putting a new card in, to show full 12hrs off at the German border, then big hit to Zeeby. ( Wheelhouse, bed and wait for customs clearance. ) " Full Turn out and Tally driver".!!
Up to BSL for whatever booking was available. Open the back, reverse on to the bay and go to bed.
Loads of people in my flats had the same shoes !! Different colours though… 
So that was a summary of my loads to British Shoe.
Who is next.
GS
Loaded a low-add of heels and soles from Northampton and took them to Cagliari on Sardegna… Via Swiss and then in and out of San Marino… Probably better not to ask any questions… Took all day Friday to get them on, shipped out Sunday on the 7.30 out of Dover. Unloaded Friday after a bit of hanging about Napoli… Reloaded out of Napoli with Mc Hamburger wrappers, for Aylesbury… but only got as far back as Varona… Changed trailers for another low add of the same, then back in and out of San Marino…no really don’t ask… and back to Sardegna. … unloaded that load on Friday… reloaded the first load on Monday and took it back to BSL. Drop the trailer there and back to the yard…One of the local kids shuved his unit under the trailer and took it back to the yard latter on in the day. Pick up the first trailer and go to Northampton to low add soles and heels for Cagliari… Other than buying 500 gets you 1000 from the bloke with the sports bag on the boat nothing else really went on… He also did Italian tunnel tickets for 25 quid… 35 for a return… not a bad deal really… I bet ESL drivers never did things like that…
Jeff
GS overland that was some going how did you beat the French Sunday driving ban FROM LUNNAVILE TO BOULONGE ? WITH SHOES.
BSC in Leicester and have fond memories of that place and IIRC the foreman’s name was Ken very nice bloke, only trouble it was a union place but if the right unloading crew you were allowed in the back to help if directed by Ken, this usually speeded up getting empty especially with there telescopic elevator which extended into the shipping container as you went down the box in my case. Special memories of that place as it was where when I phoned my Mrs when unloaded and she told me she was pregnant with our first son and you don’t forget that sort of phone call ever, Buzzer.
peggydeckboy:
GS overland that was some going how did you beat the French Sunday driving ban FROM LUNNAVILE TO BOULONGE ? WITH SHOES.
Back in the day, you could run to a port if homeward bound.
Really, run to a port where from ?, Sunday ban was Sunday ban untill 20.00hrs [France] unless fresh produce , from my experance 1981-2002.
peggydeckboy:
Really, run to a port where from ?, Sunday ban was Sunday ban untill 20.00hrs [France] unless fresh produce , from my experance 1981-2002.
Peggy,
You used to allowed to run home on a Sunday in France, as long as you could make it in a days shift… which sort of done for everyone from Cadiz / bari back to Calais !!
I think they stopped it around 2001ish… thus totally cocking the job up a bit more.
The same was for the Spanish and the Italians on the way down, i.e. If the got to about LYON of a Saturday night they could transit on the Sunday.
Several times I used to “hide” amongst them on the way down on Sunday… and wasn’t alone !
Also seem to remember the fines were as cheap as chips for running the wrong way on a Sunday, about 450 francs.
I usually ran back on a Sunday… How else are you going to load Friday night/ Saturday morning in Venice and get tipped in Leeds on Monday morning if you don’t run through France on a Sunday… back out on Monday night boat stop in Calais … no make that Riems… Ahhhh just a bit farther the Shell at St Diz…
If you have an Italian reg truck you could do Udine Rome and back on a Sunday…as long as you took it easy from Rovigo to round about Ferrara rest of the way you could get on about 95 in most areas… The other thing I used to do was hook in with Transport 2000 weekend bans never used to bother them to much anywhere…
Jeff…
Hi Mushy
How are you my old China ?
Those Irish Reg trucks were when I was on for Smithy out of Ferry Lane, ex Tanker Bill motors.
Dutch plates were later when I had my 141… They used to revolve on the boat ! 
GS
However when and if any of you men worked for established company’s and not being “owner drivers”, or working with a Irish company, who were in TRANSIT anyway different story again OR ONE MAN BANDS THAT WOULD PAY YOUR 900 FRANC FINE, YES i knew about getting off the ring at Paris by 2000hrs.i did it times but with a company that did not pay fines at all so “Sunday night” you would run up to Calais"after 2000hrs even monday morning after 36 + hrs off… with some of the running times and mileages quoted from Italy on here, “unbelievable” but probably true no wonder the job went to pot…
what did you ever gain by cutting the job to ribbons ,did you ever get a" bung" from the receiving companies "transit time wise"because no sooner you were back, you were away again … the only answer i can think of was greed.maybe that was the mindset of some drivers.maybe i had to much BRS time ,hallways tomorrow…
peggydeckboy:
However when and if any of you men worked for established company’s and not being “owner drivers”, or working with a Irish company, who were in TRANSIT anyway different story again OR ONE MAN BANDS THAT WOULD PAY YOUR 900 FRANC FINE, YES i knew about getting off the ring at Paris by 2000hrs.i did it times but with a company that did not pay fines at all so “Sunday night” you would run up to Calais"after 2000hrs even monday morning after 36 + hrs off… with some of the running times and mileages quoted from Italy on here, “unbelievable” but probably true no wonder the job went to pot…
what did you ever gain by cutting the job to ribbons ,did you ever get a" bung" from the receiving companies "transit time wise"because no sooner you were back, you were away again … the only answer i can think of was greed.maybe that was the mindset of some drivers.maybe i had to much BRS time ,hallways tomorrow…
Peggy,
What I (can’t speak for anyone else) was the need to have to do the job like that, all well and good being upright and outstandingly legal, however as the rates were already shot to bits by the “established” companies the rest of us had to pick up the leftovers, and if that meant driving up a deserted autoroute/ motorway when you weren’t supposed to with a threat of a 45 quid fine, then so be it.
Also I can’t bear the thought of sitting on me arse in a services for 36 hours without need…
36 minutes and I used to get a bit twitchy…
Well said…Also Trip Money springs to mind. The more you do the more you earn. It wasn’t all about a nice pair of overalls and being paid by the hour where ever you went ! After all, wasn’t the reason for doing the job to earn as much as you can ? or was it just for fun ? 
I did it for the money.
GS
I’m not getting at you personally Vic, I know you were out there doing it with the rest of us and running under your company guide lines…
I was never asked to do anything illegal, everything I did was for my own benefit… For Bustone I was on trip money. It didn’t matter to them if it took me 5 7 or 9 days to do Venice return. I pretty much used to run my truck my self inside their guide lines, so I’d phone HG, FM or ZA from Toddington and tell them I was in Manchester ready to unload so they would get a reload ready for me… Running the big Iveco I would normally go for a heavier 1 collection 1 drop load rather than a light multi drop. Engines out of Peterboro to central Italy were good for me and reload Rimini /Bologna area with tiles or ceramic back… I used to share a flat with 3 other international drivers so other than a place to collect mail and do laundry there wasn’t any incentive to go there…
Sitting about in Routiers, Autogrils, Pavista’s and Tratoreas being loud and British just in case someone noticed you never interested me… If I could get another 50k’s down the road on Monday and every other day of the week then it would add up for my own benifit by the weekend…
I would also like to add ( same as Tubbsyboy ) We were rate takers not rate makers… we were told what the job was worth… don’t like it… go somewhere else… You knew what it cost to do the job… if it looked good enough, go for it…
At that time North West Italy from anywhere south of the British Midlands return was just about doable in a week if you got into it and weren’t wasting time… You didn’t have to run bent to do a run a week. There was loads of traffic offices and forwarders to supply work at reasonable rates… I don’t think that many people were getting filthy rich at it. But it was a reasonable source of income at the time and certainly not as cut throat as some of the rates being offered on domestic runs…
Jeff…
A regular backload from Alicante to British Shoe for McKellars in the early 90s. Went in there one Monday morning to tip a stepframe tilt & a Norbert Dentressangle was parked up & couldn’t tip for some reason. Went back Wednesday & he was still there fuming! After lunch he finally lost the plot… His trailer was a flat sided tipper which could be loaded for pallets or in this case boxes of shoes & reloaded back to France with bulk loads so out he wandered, pulled it into the centre of the yard, pushed a button & headed for the gatehouse leaving a trail of shoe boxes behind him.
Did I laugh
i knew a bloke who drove for ‘The Shoe’,for years,Geoff Underwood.he used to love his TK Bedford 
i heard he has retired somewhere oop north.
jacko22:
A regular backload from Alicante to British Shoe for McKellars in the early 90s. Went in there one Monday morning to tip a stepframe tilt & a Norbert Dentressangle was parked up & couldn’t tip for some reason. Went back Wednesday & he was still there fuming! After lunch he finally lost the plot… His trailer was a flat sided tipper which could be loaded for pallets or in this case boxes of shoes & reloaded back to France with bulk loads so out he wandered, pulled it into the centre of the yard, pushed a button & headed for the gatehouse leaving a trail of shoe boxes behind him.
Did I laugh
Jacko,
Was that from papitrans ? Warehouse next to a Repsol garage just down the road from the beach and a big Alcoa alloy factory ?
I loaded there a few times for mckellars,
Gold Cargo in Alicante Tubbysboy but I think I remember Papitrans, nearly always loaded the shoes in Crevillente just south of Alicante
