Ex solstor drivers john springer and photos are there any more of the old drivers still driving
Mark Lee (newmercman) would know some of those fellas as he was on Solstor for some time. I’ll PM him to draw his attention to this thread.
~ Craig
Craig 111:
Mark Lee (newmercman) would know some of those fellas as he was on Solstor for some time. I’ll PM him to draw his attention to this thread.~ Craig
Thanks Craig I’m am one of many drivers but apart from colin berry (rip) and Bella I have not seen any of the old drivers for over 17 years thanks again mate john
Hi all just to say I was involved with Chingford Fruit as a subbie before the inception of SLS, and as such we had 4 of the new cherue trailers in Chingford colours out of the first 6 purchased which we pulled with four Globe trotters in the old two tone blue livery of MJ & GR Davies which is now Davies International. When Solstor was formed we also had four of the new trailers in SLS colours and as our fleet grew we bought our own trailers, at its peak we would have any thing up to a dozen outfits pulling for SLS, of course it was started from Warspite Road and in charge of traffic in those days was Mark Viner aka " Billy Liar " the main reason for setting up the company was to bring fruit from Spain and I remember the main pack house was In Betera , near Valencia. As time moved on Nicole was head girl not to every ones taste but an improvement on Billy Liar and later to be joined by Deidre who is still there today.
As a company we must be one of there longest serving sub contractors as we were there at the beginning and still work with them to this day albeit not in such volumes as in the past, they had a load of subbies mainly working hand to mouth as they paid promptly to those who needed it just to keep them going.
In closing I must add that in all the years we have dealt with Chingford and Solstor, Leon Aitchen and his son David who run these companies have been proper gentlemen in all aspects which is a pleasant thing to find with in this industry today especially with mutual respect for each others customers, long may this union run John Davies aka Buzzer.
Buzzer:
1Hi all just to say I was involved with Chingford Fruit as a subbie before the inception of SLS, and as such we had 4 of the new cherue trailers in Chingford colours out of the first 6 purchased which we pulled with four Globe trotters in the old two tone blue livery of MJ & GR Davies which is now Davies International. When Solstor was formed we also had four of the new trailers in SLS colours and as our fleet grew we bought our own trailers, at its peak we would have any thing up to a dozen outfits pulling for SLS, of course it was started from Warspite Road and in charge of traffic in those days was Mark Viner aka " Billy Liar " the main reason for setting up the company was to bring fruit from Spain and I remember the main pack house was In Betera , near Valencia. As time moved on Nicole was head girl not to every ones taste but an improvement on Billy Liar and later to be joined by Deidre who is still there today.
As a company we must be one of there longest serving sub contractors as we were there at the beginning and still work with them to this day albeit not in such volumes as in the past, they had a load of subbies mainly working hand to mouth as they paid promptly to those who needed it just to keep them going.
In closing I must add that in all the years we have dealt with Chingford and Solstor, Leon Aitchen and his son David who run these companies have been proper gentlemen in all aspects which is a pleasant thing to find with in this industry today especially with mutual respect for each others customers, long may this union run John Davies aka Buzzer.
Buzzer:
1Hi all just to say I was involved with Chingford Fruit as a subbie before the inception of SLS, and as such we had 4 of the new cherue trailers in Chingford colours out of the first 6 purchased which we pulled with four Globe trotters in the old two tone blue livery of MJ & GR Davies which is now Davies International. When Solstor was formed we also had four of the new trailers in SLS colours and as our fleet grew we bought our own trailers, at its peak we would have any thing up to a dozen outfits pulling for SLS, of course it was started from Warspite Road and in charge of traffic in those days was Mark Viner aka " Billy Liar " the main reason for setting up the company was to bring fruit from Spain and I remember the main pack house was In Betera , near Valencia. As time moved on Nicole was head girl not to every ones taste but an improvement on Billy Liar and later to be joined by Deidre who is still there today.
As a company we must be one of there longest serving sub contractors as we were there at the beginning and still work with them to this day albeit not in such volumes as in the past, they had a load of subbies mainly working hand to mouth as they paid promptly to those who needed it just to keep them going.
In closing I must add that in all the years we have dealt with Chingford and Solstor, Leon Aitchen and his son David who run these companies have been proper gentlemen in all aspects which is a pleasant thing to find with in this industry today especially with mutual respect for each others customers, long may this union run John Davies aka Buzzer.
thanks john I last see you at Dartford I was shipping out to Greece for Kodak with colin phil and jimmy jock I don’t no what happened to Nicole but I new deidre was still at Crayford I still see your lads around gel on john its nice to see a great tidy fleet but I still miss the f88 regards john.
I left just as the LHD 143s came home, I bought my own and did a bit of subbing for them here and there over the years.
I was the last driver employed by Mark Viner before his ‘departure’. I think Colin Smith was the next one in after me.
At that time only Billy Wizz, Dave Langstead and myself were the only Londoners on the firm except for the UK boys.
There were a lot of very experienced fridge men on that firm, they had all either worked for the old fridge firms or come from ACH like Ben the Rat, Pete Chaundy and Bobby Joyce.
Apologies to Buzzer, but Solstor was almost certainly the best continental job in Britain at that time and I’m lucky enough to have been a part of it 
Papanumpty comes on here now and again, he’s ex Solstor too. You’ll know him as Melvyn though 
newmercman:
Papanumpty comes on here now and again, he’s ex Solstor too. You’ll know him as Melvyn though
No apology needed to me newmurciaman, I agree with you about SLS they paid really good wages which in the end could not be substantiated but at the heart of the company they had no man management skills and thus came the end but good luck to all those who benefitted from the good old days cheers Buzzer.
The money was very good, not just the basic wage but the add ons for ‘doing a bit’ some months you would get 60 night’s out 
not to be sniffed at when we were on 24.75 a night out in the early 90s
That was when its sole purpose was getting fruit home, when we started doing regular transport the job changed for the better to some degree, we even had nights where we went to bed on the way home, which was a novelty but then it no longer relied on the parent company, young David had a point to prove and it gradually morphed into what it is today. Not such a good thing for the drivers 
Are any of the old boys still on for Davies?
Hi newmurciaman we still see " Silly Keith " every now and then also London Mark calls in when he is tipping containers next door to our yard and I think he managed to sort out Nicole out at some stage but not sure if he worked directly for SLS but cant think of any one else at the moment cheers Buzzer
Hi all I built this for Tony Mapson one of the old Davies drivers on Slostor
In fact I think Tony was the first subbie on for Solstor with Davies when they first started with Paul Nichols and Peter Clue Tony is still bumping up and down the road on container work now !!
Regards Jimski
This was Barry Selfes merc,he was a subbie on solstor doing italy.
boyzee:
This was Barry Selfes merc,he was a subbie on solstor doing italy.
I remember Barry and his merc what a class truck in its time .i have this photo of the same period of me heading south over the new Corinth bridge in greece if I find any more photos I will post them john.
Here’s a solstor truck in patras greece the driver is john springer the ferry is the super fast1 heading for Ancona Italy
kindle530:
i took a photo like that!
hi kindle 530 I was lucky to have been over the old and new bridges for many years with good ozo nights in Harry’s bar or the nitro bar in patras on my way home they are the good old days mate by the way your photo is better.
Remmington, sorry for the hijack! i used to do Greece (Elifsina) from Gist Hemel Hemsted (M&S stuff) reload Alpi in Prato (for Burberry mainly)in 2002-3, its all i ever did for a year, cracking job it was while it lasted. As for the best photo… id call it a draw, i reckon theres loads of people took a pic as they went over the bridge
lovely boats!
anyway, as you were…
I had CFP8 (which was sequestrated for UK work) before being transferred to SLS7 I think it was. Amazingly I have no photos of this era (but I think I know where I left them!).
“The N-o-n-c-e” and Frankie Hurren being the only two I clearly remember. But then I never had an excuse to park up anywhere…we always had to Gel On just like Buzzers boys did!
I was talking to someone about Independent Suspension the other day (VOLVO front axles) and remember having a Van Hool triaxle which Mark had rented for a while, that had 6 huge wishbones on the trailer, fully independent of each other, brilliant behind you but it weighed nearly 10 ton! No good for carrots!
kindle530:
Remmington, sorry for the hijack! i used to do Greece (Elifsina) from Gist Hemel Hemsted (M&S stuff) reload Alpi in Prato (for Burberry mainly)in 2002-3, its all i ever did for a year, cracking job it was while it lasted. As for the best photo… id call it a draw, i reckon theres loads of people took a pic as they went over the bridgelovely boats!
anyway, as you were…
Well that’s so kind of you I have a photo of the old tubs as we called them in patras if you was unlucky we had to book this ferry back home and hope you made it . I do like the photo of the super fast she looks great. regards john
I spoke to Barry Selfe today and he said he,s gonna join on here,he said he has some good photo,s so hopefully he will post them here.