Hiya a pal of mine had a daf top sleeper off franses he was based in chatam. he did some easten block work
with bananas i think. at one time he had 6 motors on fridge work. his name was norman.
John
Love the old fransen stories, and brings back good memories keep em coming lol , here a few more pics too the daf was M532JVP went miles in this as my dad drove it for bout 7 years
djdaddydan100:
Peter 1961:
I remember running back up through France with two Fransen guys with top sleeper Dafs in the late eighties, rushing for a boat as usual but when we got to Cherbourg the seamen were on strike so we ended up sitting there for a few days. I can remeber one of them was a burly black fella but cannot remember any names…lol that sounds like a chap called George, who i believe set up on his own with 1 van, but has a couple of artics now goes as James international i think.
Yeah George sounds about right, I know that he had at the time he had badly bashed face/mouth on the trailer and so found drinking and eating a problem (so we helped him) Lol
Pete
Wheel Nut:
Neville:
I used to deal with Fransen many yewars ago… And was trying to remember the Surnames of Martin and Steve who
were in the office towards the end… both really nice guys to deal with and a pleasure to work with.
Anyone tell me ?Neville. Was Martin originally a driver. The name rings a bell with a little chap who used to drive a wagon and drag for Fransens.
Tony Meddings pops his head into Trucknet occasionally, not sure whether he posts though.
The two gentlemen you are talking about were Bickerton brothers, Steve Bickerton worked for Fransen for year’s & was joined by his brother Martin probably in the eighties. It all seems a long time ago now!
djdaddydan100:
0scaffy2012:
I remember reading a book when i was a kid with fransens and a daf 2800? In ityeh i got it up stairs bout one of the drivers doing a load of hanging beef to Germany had a truck looked bit like this
Fair play to fransens they always had smart trucks.
The truck in the picture was Brain Fenick
He parked it in Smithfield Meat Market
A nice bloke to know
Andy L:
djdaddydan100:
0scaffy2012:
I remember reading a book when i was a kid with fransens and a daf 2800? In ityeh i got it up stairs bout one of the drivers doing a load of hanging beef to Germany had a truck looked bit like this
Fair play to fransens they always had smart trucks.The truck in the picture was Brain Fenick
He parked it in Smithfield Meat Market
A nice bloke to know
Yeh spoke to my dad an he said the same, think he used to park there cause he used to live nearby ■■?
many thanks
Brain did live near by
Regarding your dads trailer spent many late nights in dover fixing them
I remember the incident reagrding the link span and the frigde
Some of the last trailers they had are now in Faversham owned now by Harrier Express
Andy L:
Brain did live near by
Regarding your dads trailer spent many late nights in dover fixing them
I remember the incident reagrding the link span and the frigde
Some of the last trailers they had are now in Faversham owned now by Harrier Express
He said it was a very low tide that night lol, bet them under-slung fridges kept you busy being so low down bet they got all the road crap into them, dont know if any of the old Fransen’s tractor units went to Harrier Express too did abit of browsing on google and there is a picture of a DAF XF with a reg which is very close to the one my dad drove. Don’t suppose you have any pics of the fransen trucks you worked on ? 
.
look around you might find
Hi my name is Norman Ferns I was a subbie for Fransen’sin the eighties and nineties brought two dat’s off them Iwas wodering if any of their drivers are still about ,
Neville:
I used to deal with Fransen many yewars ago… And was trying to remember the Surnames of Martin and Steve who
were in the office towards the end… both really nice guys to deal with and a pleasure to work with.
Anyone tell me ?
thier name was bickerton martin was the older one
Hi DJDADDYDAN100 was your dads name LEENIE he was all ways saying [BUSTING ]I was driving for ROKOLD in the 1980s and on ferry’s, also loading /delivering with FRANSENS i remember Lennie having a son with him. also there was HE-HAW drivers from BUNNS and a weston supermare company, years later on i was away from fridges however years later i used to see drivers on “EAT MORE CHIPS” also the hereford turkey company SUN VALLEY who im sure were ex Fransens but i was unknown to them as on dry goods so no contact[lol]
NAMES are my nightmare even now. dbp
