Is there anyone out there who has any photographs , or information etc etc on Coopers Road Services ,whatever happened to them , I can recall the owner was a gent named Reg who I believe was a character .
shugg:
Is there anyone out there who has any photographs , or information etc etc on Coopers Road Services ,whatever happened to them , I can recall the owner was a gent named Reg who I believe was a character .
Coopers with the black Big J’s and Volvo F86’s? If this is the firm then google K Transport of Coven and you will see in the history section a picture of one of Coopers, Coopers main yard was where junction two of the M54 is now,Cheers Pete
They were blue and red motors Pete from Holyhead rd. Wednesbury, their yard and offices are still there but I don’t know what firm has it now. Reg Cooper was one time a boss of the West Midlands RHA, a bit of a character is about right 
I had a few mates who drove for Coopers Road Services who got the sack over something trivial and got reinstated a couple of hours later when he had the full story and cooled down 
They ran loads of Big J’s and later 86’s & 88’s.
Trev_H:
They were blue and red motors Pete from Holyhead rd. Wednesbury, their yard and offices are still there but I don’t know what firm has it now. Reg Cooper was one time a boss of the West Midlands RHA, a bit of a character is about right
I had a few mates who drove for Coopers Road Services who got the sack over something trivial and got reinstated a couple of hours later when he had the full story and cooled down
They ran loads of Big J’s and later 86’s & 88’s.
Brings back memories when I started with my first motor,I loaded out of Coopers yard a couple of times and both loads were cages of spares for the Post Office Telephone depot at Motherwell (which wern’t ideal loads for me but that was very early days!) I re-call Reg chatting to me on both occaisions regaling me about when he started at my age,he sure was a character but he told me to always give them a ring if I needed a load in his area.Unfortunately,I had no intention of becoming a “subbie” and his rates and payment terms were not the best 
But he sure was a haulier of the old school,maybe “Saviem” would have had dealings with him in the day ? Cheers Bewick.
I bet Saviem kept well clear, it was like entering the lion’s den, imagine if he had sold him a duff motor
Trev_H:
I bet Saviem kept well clear, it was like entering the lion’s den, imagine if he had sold him a duff motor
I hope you are not suggesting that “Saviem” ever sold a “duff” motor,heaven forbid Trev is the Pope a Catholic ! Cheers Dennis.
Well new or second hand you could end up with a rogue motor and the salesman usually got the ear bending.
Evening all,
“Uncle Reg”, oh yes, we had a few deals…a good few run ins, and some fun!
Trevs right Pete, your thinking about WAC Cooper at the Ball of Coven, (right under the M54). They did a lot of work on the Milk for Midland Counties, and a lot of fertilizer containers, (tied onto 33 ft flats with rope)! Tony Kay ran it for the old man, who was Beryls father, then he married Beryl. They used to do change overs with John Bryce from Edinburgh. Then when the M54 came he closed Coopers, and K Transport was born in Spittles old yard at Standeford. Tonys in his 80s now, and not well, but I see Beryl quite often, she is lovely. David, and Andrew, run the K operation now, and they have made a good business with it.
Coopers at Moxley…what can one say? Reg could go up like a firework…non more so than when I walked him into his tyre store, and unearthed the tyres with my initials chalked on them, that he had told his fitters to take of an old Guy, that I had taken as a part exchange against a used F86!..When he calmed down, he blamed the fitters…but we both knew the truth!
Or when I turned up with a new F86 for him, freshly Big D`d at Cannock…and he started to argue about the price…got a bit “fruity”…so I cleared off…took the lorry away, up into Shropshire, sold it, made a few extra bob on the invoice for the company…drew the cheque,…got a lift back to Walsall…received a fearfull Bollocking for upsetting “Uncle Reg”…but there was not much anyone could do!
Following day, took around a well worn and ex Geoff Bell of Carlisle F86, and drew a cheque from a simmering Reg…grief that lorry was worn , it nearly took off up the M6 by itself, rather than go to Moxley…
After that we sort of had a simmering truce…
What was his sons name, far more pleasant, but well under his fathers shadow
Oh yes, I had a few deals with Reg…now there was this Northern Tandem…
Im past my bedtime
Cheerio for now.
I first came across the company while serving my apprenticeship as a mechanic with the ERF dealer in Edinburgh who were also the International Harvester dealer for Scotland , Coopers ran at this time Commer 4 wheelers fitted with the famous two-stroke engine .This was around the very late 50s early 60s and there was a boom in house building and construction industry at the time and the company were selling large quantities of tracked machines fitted with buckets and hydraulics which were manufactured by a company called Drott whos factory was in Darlaston in Stafordshire . Coopers motors delivered them usually 4/5 a day one only to a motor roped down . I think they had a depot at Blantyre and ran a night trunk from Wednesbury , a nice easy tip for the driver .
Hi Trev, I cannot remember that Coopers from Wednesbury,can you find any pic’s of them pls?, Cheers Pete
Pete, I can only find this picture of an F86 outside their yard at Moxley posted by Topline in the B’ham&Black country thread, I’m sure there must be more photo’s about as Coopers ran at one time 85 lorries, think they ceased trading in 1981.
Trev_H:
Pete, I can only find this picture of an F86 outside their yard at Moxley posted by Topline in the B’ham&Black country thread, I’m sure there must be more photo’s about as Coopers ran at one time 85 lorries, think they ceased trading in 1981.0
Nice one Trev, where was their yard was it where Hewdens plant hire was? Cheers Pete
Their yard was past Bull lane on the r/h side of the old Holyhead rd (now Black country route) their offices and yard are now the Ring and Ride depot.
Trev_H:
Their yard was past Bull lane on the r/h side of the old Holyhead rd (now Black country route) their offices and yard are now the Ring and Ride depot.
Got it Trev,Cheer’s Pete
Hi Trev, Only pics i could find of Coopers Roadways,I think i’ve got the right one, Cheer’s Pete
There is the tale that Reg walked out into the yard one day, found two drivers idly chatting and sacked them both on the spot for idleness. The drivers seemed unperturbed and one of them asked to use the telephone. Reg demanded to know why. “I want to ring my boss and ask him if it’s ok for you to sack me” replied the chap calmly “because i don’t work for you!”. It turned out they were a couple of outsiders using the yard for a changeover. (Davies of Morriston with those lush green and red Scammell Crusaders used to do a changeover in the yard). I don’t know whether the story is true or not, but it shows something of Reg’s impulsive nature.
Reg was always good to me - i worked for him in the (very) late 70’s - although i had a ‘wet’ licence and was very inexperienced. One day he gave me a job for the following day loading coils of wire out of Coventry to some place i can’t remember in the Black Country. There were two loads and Reg’s parting words to me were “Don’t take it all at once!”. All i can remember of the following day was the incessant horizontal sleet and rain and some character driving an Iron Fairy around some waste ground picking up these coils one by one really slowly. It took forever. Around midday i lost track of what i was doing together with most of the feeling in my body and at some point in the afternoon the crane driver pointed out there weren’t many coils left on the ground and so i threw a rope over the back and set off for the Black Country. My first inkling that something was amiss was going up Corley on the M6 in low range and looking in the mirror at the trailer that was bent like a banana. When i got to my destination, the weighbridge went off the scale at 40 ton and the only way to find out how much i had on was to take the coils off and weigh them one by one. I dropped the trailer and went back to the yard solo where Reg was bouncing off the walls and gave me right bollocking telling me i must have caused untold damage to his lorry and trailer. But he didn’t sack me! In fact, like i say, he was always fair to me.
There was a chap worked in the office as transport manager - an ex-driver who went by the name of ‘Scotty’. I was stood at the counter one day when a convoy of US Lines containers came down the Holyhead Road and turned left into the yard. Scotty called out to the other chap in the office (a chap with glasses who always wore a warehouse coat) that he would shout out the numbers as they drove past and then they would have a record of what was in the yard. The chap with the warehouse coat faithfully recorded everything Scotty called out including K-E-N-D-R-I-C-K as a Kendrick bulker followed them up the road! - much to the amusement of everyone present.
There was a plaque on the wall saying that John Stonehouse the MP (the one who did a Reggie Perrin in the States) had opened the new premises so the depot must have been quite new at the time. And Reg drove a Roller, so he must have been ok for a few bob. Had a depot up in Scotland too.
They had Leyland Buffalos and Volvo 86’s and a couple of Magirus Deutz’s, but i liked the Buffalos best.
Good days! 
Reg Cooper was my late wife’s uncle related to my mother in law.
After the war he and my father in law started a haulage business using a couple of old army trucks but after s few months my farther in law dropped out as he was not the type of rouge you have to be to run a business. After I came out of the army in 73 was looking for a job never heard of coopers untill my wife said give uncle Reg a ring so I did and was invited over for an interview but he spent most of the time talking to the wife about her dad as they had not kept in touch for years.
I started the following Monday the problem was I lived the other side of Birminham Kings Norton so it was a fair old trek when not on a night out driving a ford D1000 day cab flatbed with sides I only had a class tree at the time.
As for the yard I was told that BOC bought him out when he had a big contracts with murex they rebuilt the office block and resurfaced the yard then sold it back to him for half the price they paid.
Those pics of the floats on a previous post are from one of the parades but I can’t remember the name of the place. Coopers always supplied the truck free of charge and still paid the drivers for working on the Saturday
I left after nine months as was fed up sleeping in a day cab and hand balling ten ton of loose sand at the founders in wolves plus I get done for excessive working hrs
Regs son Graham was sales manager and Terry Scot transport manager Terry also had a coach the he did tours with. I left and got a job with BOC in Birmingham as a driver operator testing pipelines.
And yes he did have a bit of a temper give you a good bollocking for the slightest thing then give you a fiver to go over the pub a get some dinner. £26.50 for forty hrs plus £2 a night out.
Thanks for the info Wildbill, the pictures of the motors in the parade are from Darlaston Carnival, Cheer’s Pete