gazzer:
Now you ALL would have had one of these of one sort or another!
Yep! And I did the same as newmercman, putting little crosses on all the places you tipped and loaded for future reference. Wish I still had mine, seems satnav is the main contender now.
Regards,
Mark.
Mark
I remember my dad having maps of everywhere and comments like 26,000 ltr =24.5 ton and phone numbers in the case of Italy in the space were the Med was and lines to different towns/city he was on tanks for BET in them days, i remember calling him a S.O.D (Sad Old Donkey) then i got the old " Done more miles off and on ships ramp than you,ve driven young man". He said it helped so much with all the different liquids that he carried if he knew what was what
CRACK ON TO MACON:
Hi one and all i have it on good authority that Hurry up Harry passed away
last Friday cancer i believe, so i just thought we could remember the old sod hahaha
on here i dont know how old he was in fact i could not tell you his surname only knew
him 30 plus year’s maybe someone could remind me. Harry had a bad stutter and he
said to me one night Bob i got a joke for yer, i said leave it out Harry i aint got all night
which he then cussed at me then gave a big smile and got some beer’s in, Harry thank’s
for the memorie’s it alway’s hurt’s me when one of your own passe’s on but i suppose
one day we will all be together again shooting bull in that big TIR park in the sky.
ya a sad moment this is, My Dad and i knew him for too long lol, but will always remember the jokes that lasted about 30mins that should of been 5mins lol
Mark
I remember my dad having maps of everywhere and comments like 26,000 ltr =24.5 ton and phone numbers in the case of Italy in the space were the Med was and lines to different towns/city he was on tanks for BET in them days, i remember calling him a S.O.D (Sad Old Donkey) then i got the old " Done more miles off and on ships ramp than you,ve driven young man". He said it helped so much with all the different liquids that he carried if he knew what was what
[/quote]
I bet he had a few tales to tell doing tanks! I was with a tilt/tautliner, bad enough with a few packs of “hazardous” over the water, let alone a bloody great tank of it! I think we all have our own ways of remembering drops and reloads, it just seems a bit less working out with a satnav, although I wonder how many drivers “come-a-cropper” by taking for granted a particular route, without having a map to study the terrain and other options.
brookie:
Mark
I remember my dad having maps of everywhere and comments like 26,000 ltr =24.5 ton and phone numbers in the case of Italy in the space were the Med was and lines to different towns/city he was on tanks for BET in them days, i remember calling him a S.O.D (Sad Old Donkey) then i got the old " Done more miles off and on ships ramp than you,ve driven young man". He said it helped so much with all the different liquids that he carried if he knew what was what
I bet he had a few tales to tell doing tanks! I was with a tilt/tautliner, bad enough with a few packs of “hazardous” over the water, let alone a bloody great tank of it! I think we all have our own ways of remembering drops and reloads, it just seems a bit less working out with a satnav, although I wonder how many drivers “come-a-cropper” by taking for granted a particular route, without having a map to study the terrain and other options.
Regards,
Mark
[/quote]
Mark
Hope i,m not out of order saying this, but he use to hang bottles of whiskey,gin etc on fishing line inside the tank and then load and get it sealed and off back to the UK. Just a way of making extra, not much they could do to him these days passed away in 95, i throw his ashes of the wall in Dover as he spent so much time in and out ot that place seamed the right thing to do. If you want i,ll share some of the other tricks that he used if you know what i mean
Mark
Hope i,m not out of order saying this, but he use to hang bottles of whiskey,gin etc on fishing line inside the tank and then load and get it sealed and off back to the UK. Just a way of making extra, not much they could do to him these days passed away in 95, i throw his ashes of the wall in Dover as he spent so much time in and out ot that place seamed the right thing to do. If you want i,ll share some of the other tricks that he used if you know what i mean
[/quote]
r.i.p. your dad boatchaser, I’m sure we’d all like to hear about the other “tricks”! it’ll probably spur a few others on into letting in on their fiddles!! I think we’ve all brought a bit more back than we were allowed, although I never did tanks I just used to chance it with extras in the cab. At the time I used to think that if I left it on the bunk, I could just plead ignorance, whereas hiding it you “knew what you were doing”! I got questioned a couple of times about how much I had, but never confiscated. Mind you, I didn’t go over the top, extra ■■■■ and booze, same as everyone really.
brookie:
Mark
Hope i,m not out of order saying this, but he use to hang bottles of whiskey,gin etc on fishing line inside the tank and then load and get it sealed and off back to the UK. Just a way of making extra, not much they could do to him these days passed away in 95, i throw his ashes of the wall in Dover as he spent so much time in and out ot that place seamed the right thing to do. If you want i,ll share some of the other tricks that he used if you know what i mean
r.i.p. your dad boatchaser, I’m sure we’d all like to hear about the other “tricks”! it’ll probably spur a few others on into letting in on their fiddles!! I think we’ve all brought a bit more back than we were allowed, although I never did tanks I just used to chance it with extras in the cab. At the time I used to think that if I left it on the bunk, I could just plead ignorance, whereas hiding it you “knew what you were doing”! I got questioned a couple of times about how much I had, but never confiscated. Mind you, I didn’t go over the top, extra ■■■■ and booze, same as everyone really.
Regards,
Mark.
[/quote]
I knew a few guys who smuggled the ‘Old Holburn’ fairly big time, hiding it in the spare tyre under the trailer. One bloke who was on the same firm as me ended up buying a large house in west London on the proceeds and as his wife was a registered nurse, converted it into a nursing home, eventually opening a second one. And you know how much those places can charge, eh?
brookie:
Mark
Hope i,m not out of order saying this, but he use to hang bottles of whiskey,gin etc on fishing line inside the tank and then load and get it sealed and off back to the UK. Just a way of making extra, not much they could do to him these days passed away in 95, i throw his ashes of the wall in Dover as he spent so much time in and out ot that place seamed the right thing to do. If you want i,ll share some of the other tricks that he used if you know what i mean
r.i.p. your dad boatchaser, I’m sure we’d all like to hear about the other “tricks”! it’ll probably spur a few others on into letting in on their fiddles!! I think we’ve all brought a bit more back than we were allowed, although I never did tanks I just used to chance it with extras in the cab. At the time I used to think that if I left it on the bunk, I could just plead ignorance, whereas hiding it you “knew what you were doing”! I got questioned a couple of times about how much I had, but never confiscated. Mind you, I didn’t go over the top, extra ■■■■ and booze, same as everyone really.
Regards,
Mark.
I knew a few guys who smuggled the ‘Old Holburn’ fairly big time, hiding it in the spare tyre under the trailer. One bloke who was on the same firm as me ended up buying a large house in west London on the proceeds and as his wife was a registered nurse, converted it into a nursing home, eventually opening a second one. And you know how much those places can charge, eh?
[/quote]
[ r.i.p. your dad boatchaser, I’m sure we’d all like to hear about the other “tricks”! it’ll probably spur a few others on into letting in on their fiddles!! I think we’ve all brought a bit more back than we were allowed, although I never did tanks I just used to chance it with extras in the cab. At the time I used to think that if I left it on the bunk, I could just plead ignorance, whereas hiding it you “knew what you were doing”! I got questioned a couple of times about how much I had, but never confiscated. Mind you, I didn’t go over the top, extra ■■■■ and booze, same as everyone really.
Regards,
Mark.
[/quote]
I knew a few guys who smuggled the ‘Old Holburn’ fairly big time, hiding it in the spare tyre under the trailer. One bloke who was on the same firm as me ended up buying a large house in west London on the proceeds and as his wife was a registered nurse, converted it into a nursing home, eventually opening a second one. And you know how much those places can charge, eh?
[/quote]
Mark
Some of the things he did he won,t tell my Mum, (she would shout at him) well he use to run Whiskey (23,000 Ltrs) from somewhere in Scotland to Strasbourg France and i can tell you it was not the stuff that went into bottles straight away anyway the guys at where he unloaded it would always let him get some from the tank when it was “EMPTY” he had a 5ltr plastic petol can on the front of the truck hanging on the tow hook pin and he wrote on it Clutch Fluid we had gallaons of it at home. He always said that should the shed catch fire with that lot in it half of Culcheth would go with it.
Dont forget guy’s driver’s night out,
Saturday 4th December same venue as alway’s anyone who
want’s detail’s ring me Bob Cairns 07768-696214
be there or be square see yah all soon
gerry passed away about 3 years ago i have his old white road commander now Dave Stanway is retired now i don’t now the rest phil Nash and my self took Gerry on hi last trip wen he died we put his coffin on the back of the white witch was appropriate as he ad onde it for 23 years and phil looked after it all that time. discovered this site by accident last week and have been captivated by it ever since. I do have some photos to put up (When I read up on how to do it) and have lot of memories from my stints of international work between 1988 and 19…whenever it was they done away with customs! (thats when I lost interest in it!)
I mainly did Italy for subcontractors on Ferry Freighting, but also did some work for Leggetts while working for KG Farrow & Son of Enfield. (Where I used to live.)
The first company I did european haulage for was Ashline Trucking of Chadwell St Mary Essex. (Same yard as BW Rogers & Cowards and just up the road from Martintrux) Ashline was run by a guy with a volatile temper called Colin Jarrett. (and he still owes me a weeks wages! ) However, at least he gave me a start at European work, which I was finding harder to get than finding a job after first passing my class one! But still, you don’t mess with people’s money!
Another compnay I worked for was…well, when I first started for them they were called ‘Camion Express International’ (Needham Market), but before that had been East Anglian Transport of Clacton, then Marwood Uk of Little Bromley, Colchester, and a year after I started became Eurotrans of Manningtree. This was all run by a guy called Micky Hearn. His Brother used to run CJ Transport as well.
We used to do a lot of work for MAT Transport out of West Thurrock delivering to their Italian counterpart Saima mainly at Turin and Linate airport and also for Ferry Freighting out of Dagenham.
The Ferry Freighting work I preferred most even though you could end up with a ‘wine groupage’ back load. This could be anything up to a dozen collections of wine from small vinyards situated in the most hideaway places you could find. If you didn’t have the ‘Atlanta Stradale’ (Think thats what it was called) which was an excellent Italian mapbook that listed every town village you didnt have a chance!
I once tipped in Ancona only to be given six collections that stretched right down the adriatic coast with the last one at copertino south of Lecce! (Right inside the 'heel of the boot of Italy!)
The names I remember on the ferry Freighting work are: Bournebridge Transport (Colin Clift, Stewart Atkinson. Jack, another Colin and Mark Pattern) Kevin Eastwell (I think?) who had his own unit in Ferry Freighting colours, Ferry’s one and only driver at that time Billy Moore (Bill only had two interest when I knew him-wine and beer! ) and owner drivers Dave Stanway, Paul Sapiano and Gerry who had a black and Gold American White Truck
All of these people were great blokes who would never see you broke down or in trouble. Real old school drivers, the likes of which don’t seem to be around anymore.
I will add more on at a later stage. If anyone remebers these names and knows what they are up to now, I love to hear. Photos to follow soon.
whiplash:
By whiplash_012 at 2009-09-15.Not quite crack on to Macon,more come bak from Macon.The old arch at Conwy Castle on the A55 heading for Holyhead.If you think that was tight you should have seen southbound!
Ha Ha i went through that 1 day it just krept through
are you sure it was only baccy!! 
) However, at least he gave me a start at European work, which I was finding harder to get than finding a job after first passing my class one! But still, you don’t mess with people’s money!