I have always been the one the old soldier warns you about.
Never Volunteer for Anything
I have enjoyed myself during my career, probably because I get bored easily, in my time at United Carriers I volunteered for several runs, some drivers did the same run for 10 years or more. Hull 1 or Hull City Centre was probably the most difficult but you did get a mate to help, we did used to bully these lads but we made them tough, most of the time the 40 minute journey into Hull was spent punching the drivers mate in the arm, and then making him carry boxes all day 
Kevin was like this, he came as a fresh faced boy, who was a bit cheeky because his dad drove for the company too, he knew the job but not the route so he had to learn along the way. He had been with his dad several times during school holiday times, but he was finally employed at the age of 16.
Hull 1 was a fairly intense run but our first drop was Gypsyville Industry and Hessle Road, a busy shopping street and main thoroughfare at the time, we got this off to a fine art. I would drop him off with a barrow load of boxes and then drive further down the road, he delivered his load and I did the shops near the vehicle, he would then walk up to get another barrow load, and we kept doing this for the length of the road, just over 1 mile.
Occasionally we would have a large drop of maybe 50 or 60 cartons and we were always having a laugh with the shop staff, some of the ladies would tease Kev, some frightened me 
Hessle Road was a hard drinking, hard working area, it was where all the trawler men seemed to live, these women brought up huge families on their own while the men were at sea. I cant imagine what the job would be like today as people seem to have lost their sense of fun, but we had a great laugh all day long. We had to rush this first hour as the next part of our delivery was in a pedestrian precinct with a time slot of 9.30 until 11am for deliveries. It was a great battle with the traffic wardens and we did used to wind them up.
Kevin wasn’t backward at coming forward, and he soon employed a tramp to keep an eye on the lorry, mainly to watch for traffic wardens but also as a bit of extra security, although we had a roller shutter and a drop down tailboard, we hardly ever closed them between deliveries. The cost of this was a cup of tea for the tramp. Most of the delivery drivers used him in this way and occasionally he would ask us for any cardboard packaging if we had broken down a full pallet, he used to store this in a 10 foot between some shops until he had a load to sell. This load was just enough to fit on a disused pram chassis. Kev then started saving cardboard from other deliveries and we used to put it in the 10 foot for him. Eventually Kevin reckoned the tramp would be paying for our tea
Kevin was a great mate to have and we just giggled all the day, taking the ■■■■ out of anyone who was fat, walked with a limp, fugly or plain stupid. I have got all those traits myself in later years At 12.00 we drove over the Drypool Bridge where we met other drivers on Hull 2, Hull 3 and DDM. these two vans did different areas of Hull and the outlying villages. DDM was called after Daily Dock Motor, who did the bulk deliveries and collections in an artic. He left the depot at 10am with any overspill and started collecting almost immediately. We took over this little cafe for lunch before going next door to the pub for a game of darts or pool. We could normally find some celebration to warrant a pint of Hull Brewery Bitter.
At 1pm after the phone call to the traffic office with our remaining drops and being given our collections we would chuck a few parcels around to make it easier for the other drivers if they were busy, occasionally Kevin would go off in the DDM to help out and I would meet up with them later in the day to recover him. The next couple of hours or so were spent rushing around getting another 40 or 50 drops off before starting on the collections. A normal day on my run would see 10 collections with parcels from the likes of a fancy goods supplier, who sold handbags, wallets, leather goods etc. A motorbike equipment manufacturer, who made leather bike clothing, helmets, boots, topboxes, gloves etc.
We had a board games manufacturer of which more later. We collected Horse medicines from my cousins factory shop, bags of Reckitts Blue from Reckitt and Coleman, Parquet flooring from Hewetson Flooring and Rubber Conveyor Belting from Fenners. Our last collection was from a very busy industrial printers in Anlaby called Harlands. This was our favourite as we had to go into the packing room which was full of young girls, they gave as good as they got, but Kev soon had them teasing him mercilessly.
I know he hated it in the beginning but then quite liked it, in fact I think in later years he went out with one off the girls from Harland Printers
Remember the industrious tramp and the cardboard boxes. Well Kevin became quite the entrepreneur after finding out how much this cardboard was worth to other companies. Our collection at the board games manufacturer was packed in anything from shoe boxes to crisp cartons, so Kev found out where they got them from. The boss told him they bought it in, and some tramps occasionally called in with it, but they couldn’t get enough clean cardboard.
Kev negotiated a deal and discovered the company would pay 10p per carton provided it was clean, strong and dry. From that day we had a great cash bonus as we were collecting waste cardboard from all the shops we delivered to. “Do you want me to take those boxes away love?” I will get rid of them for you. The shop staff thought we were brilliant by saving them a job. If the cardboard wasn’t suitable for our customer, we chucked it into Marks & Spencers cardboard skip as they had a compactor baler
Eventually the cardboard business became a bit much so we had to alter our route to deliver the empty cartons, and of course get paid. We did this over lunch time and my “new best mate” had even sorted that out, he used to knock on the canteen window of Ross Foods in the same street and get a couple of sandwiches each. I don’t think he even paid for those! United Carriers is long gone but I did see Kevin several years ago, he was driving a DAF wagon and drag on the Hull DDM for United Carriers.
) to reverse up to the door,throw some cartons on the back,call the chap down,and sell him his own cartons!!!