All of us, at one point or another in our careers, have “inherited” a wagon that was once a decent thing but - thanks to its previous cack-handed or abusive “driver” - was, when you or I got it, a long way below par. I remember a few (a particular Merc 2328 comes to mind, the muppet who’d abused it was now my TM …) and then there’s a Hino I drove for an Australian subsidiary of Coca-Cola and then there was another time when…
Enough of my ramblings, tell us about your tales of driving a “hand me down” third-hand wagon that was, once upon a time, if not the pride of the fleet then at least a good drive.
Mine was a 1969 Bedford KM tractor unit. It had been acquired as a yard shunter, it had had a multitude of owners judging by the different layers of paint, and was far from being roadworthy. Rust was dining out on the floor and the front mudguards, the handbrake lever mountings had already been welded back in place a couple of times, only the nearside front brake worked with any kind of efficiency on the pedal, and the old wagon was generally “loose”, if you know what I mean. But the 330 Bedford diesel always started easily and got the job done - and the heater worked a treat. One day the transport manager told me to park it up out of the way, we were getting a proper terminal tractor, so the old Bedford was hidden in a corner of the yard until on a freezing cold January morning three years later I was told the scrap man was coming to take it away. Just out of curiosity, I put jump leads on, and the old thing started up within a few seconds, and settled down to a steady idle. If I’d had anywhere to keep it, I would have bought it and saved it from scrap - there was nothing much that couldn’t have been repaired or replaced for a reasonable outlay.
After starting on the YTS scheme and then being taking on as a Apprentice at the BRS Oxford depot for 5 years ,I decided I wanted to go on the road !so after 12 months of nagging and applying for driving jobs within the depot ,I was reluctantly given a job on the Habitat contract driving a very tired and not loved D A F 2500 day cabbed draw bar (yes A frame) ,it was abused as it was ran day and night and was transferred from the Mothercare contract at Wellingbrough (F185 JTV).
I cleaned the cab up and fitted a radio and cb and some curtains in the cab ,painted the wheels and side guards and then started on my draw bar (TTAC 149) , any how had this D A F for 3 months and it never broke me but then the lorry was taken off me and given to the dirtiest driver they had on service (not that did cheese me off) I was then given the only driving job available (Shunting) .
Any how did work my way back up to a very trashed and abused D A F 2500 with a pod (G153 NRA) this one was the same pure abused !!
Worked my way up and three years later I was given M894 PWL (brand new sleeper cabbed M A N ) still had TTAC149 until the very end to .
1964, Hargreaves Fuel Oil, I ‘inherited’ an 8 wheel Thorneycroft that had originally started life with Charringtons in the London area. I don’t know how many times it had been ‘handed down’ but it was a fabulous machine that had obviously been loved and well looked after all it’s life.
When we started out on a new company, particularly if you were an untested unknown new driver, then you almost always got handed the oldest most knackered motor in the fleet.
My first artic was a mickey mouse cabbed Foden that looked like it had last been washed with neat acid, however a couple of hours waiting to unload whisky at London Colney (Bookers? can’t remember now) using T Cut and a good measure of elbow grease made it look a hell of a lot better, wasn’t a lot of cab to polish up, polished up the solid brass radiator cap and fuel caps so you could see your face in them.
Got the lights sorted headlights adjusted and the windows and mirrors (for what use they were) clean and swept out the interior it was a different motor.
They were so basic that even the most ham fisted couldn’t damage much inside the cab, there was nothing to damage, difficult to ruin a Gardner 180 or Foden 12 speed box (that box would beak your wrist if you abused it), a good wash out made the inside a cleaner if not exactly luxurious place to be.
Fleet engineer was impressed enough with the improvements (or maybe that somebody was foolish enough to take a bit of pride) when he saw it that he got the workshops to relign the brakes after i mentioned it pulled to one side and they gave the old girl a good going over generally, no power steering as expected so not much to improve things there other than keeping the steering well greased, later wagons i got issued with there had autolube.
Maybe 18 months later upgraded to an S40 for a few months and then they bought a used S80 from Foden which i was issued with, power steering and a ■■■■■■■ and a heater that worked in the cold, luxury
Most of us worked our way up in those days, you had to prove you were trustworthy, some small hauliers with really well kept fleets no doubt do the same, one place i know of he’s very very pickey who he employees because all his motors are pristine, how he manages to find so many decent old school mentality drivers i don’t know but good luck to him.
If distribution fleets went back to this way of ‘promoting’ drivers there wouldn’t be so many destroyed nearly new vehicles many even if not smashed up are about ready for the knackers yard at 4 years old, next time you’re near a main dealer that has a bodyshop have a look at the rows of badly and negligently damaged motors that gets dragged in every day of the week, enough to make you weep, the usual suspect operators make up the majority of wreckage as you’d expect.
I can honestly say that as far as the three companies I worked for in the '70s that was not the case, everything got a full repaint at least every three years. Certainly for one of them even the spare vehicles were kept up to scratch. I never drove anything newer than six years old. I took one of mine at the age of ten into the workshop for some fault or other which was done while I waited. I went to get back in it and was told to wait, the n/s cab door (ergo) had been seen to be going rusty at the very bottom where it met the step. A piece of metal was cut, shaped and duly gas welded in place and a coat of filler applied, shaped and then brush painted in colour. When that was done I could take the vehicle. The only real tell-tale was that the pinstripe lining out was missing at the bottom of the door. Two months later the vehicle was sold.
At the Tilcon quarry I worked at trucks (at that time!) were replaced every six years. The longer serving drivers obviously got the new ones which they usually kept for three years and then it was passed on either to a new starter or sent off to another quarry. I was employed at a fitter but knew that my legs and back were giving me problems ■■■■■■■ springs and hubs etc about so asked to be transferred to driving. Alas about this time, late seventies, the recession bit and as drivers left they were not replaced so I resigned myself to a fitting life but I did take the MOT vehicles to Derby each week for test plus occasionally got to do some relief driving if they were short handed. However one friday in 1984 I took a Foden to Elworth for warranty work and then carried on repairing out Bedford TK sweeper when around 3.30 pm our TM marched in and tackled me. “Do you still want to go driving for us?” so I said YES, I will give it a go. “You wont give it a go, you either stick with driving or leave as you are not coming back into the garage so make your mind up”. I still said yes. “Right, there is a Sed Ak 400 out there which hasn’t a regular driver now (the driver had transferred to powder tankers a year before and it had been spare truck since then and was four years old) so take that, as you know they have weak diffs so treat it carefully” I asked when do I start- “Come in tomorrow (saturday) and tidy it up, it needs a new sheet and a few other things then be at the weighbridge at 8 am monday”. I asked him how I booked coming in on the saturday, the reply was that I couldn’t expect to get paid for it as it was me who wanted to go driving! Anyway I did it and it had a few issues through general abuse, the taildoor dropped off after two days because the hinges broke through lack of lubrication so I got blamed for that, but I kept it until a new C reg Foden appeared in May 1986 and I kept that for almost eleven years until a new 3000 series arrived for me…
We had one driver come to work for us who had been at Sellers and Kent, he was given a five year old Foden S50 halfcab and was chuffed to bits with it! “It has power steering, a sprung cab and seat, the S21 eightwheeler I had on bag work at S&K had none of those and was hard work!”
My last two trucks were both over ten years old when I got them but had been well looked after and gave no problems.
Never had a new lorry in over 25 years with Inter-City transport/TDG. They were hammered for three years running day/night trunks continuously before they were handed out to us trampers. They were rarely cleaned inside as different daily/nightly drivers couldn’t give a toss about cleanliness of the cab.
Anyway I did it and it had a few issues through general abuse, the taildoor dropped off after two days because the hinges broke through lack of lubrication so I got blamed for that, but I kept it until a new C reg Foden appeared in May 1986 and I kept that for almost eleven years until a new 3000 series arrived for me…