Hi Guys,
Remember I posted looking for people who’d driven in the 60s to talk to me? Well they did, and the text has gone in, but I’m left with a problem - I can’t get in touch with an of the people who said they could help me with photos!
Unfortunately we can’t use pics posted here as they don’t come out at a high enough resolution for print, so I need them either by email to lucy@truck.net or by snail mail (they will be returned - email me for the address etc.). Digital images by email need to be a minimum of 1mb in file size for the same reason.
I’m particularly looking for: An S21 Foden (artic), 8, 6 and 4 wheelers in general, a Leyland Beaver (artic if pos), Commer TS3, Foden FG 8 Wheeler (1951-ish), Liverpool docks at the time, AA/RAC phone boxes, Curzon St in Derby, the Silver Link cafe at Kincardine…
Other general images of the era would be greatly appreciated too! Can anyone help me out? Cheers! 
Lucy, old men on here are STILL trying to forget Liverpool docks, they caused much trauma and distress at the time you are asking about. There’s a rumour that some old lads went and joined the end of the queue and never went home again. The dock road scarred men for life:( … 
And please, don’t ask for opinions on Liverpool dockers productivity levels. The language could get ‘colourful’
Grumpy old man…so.so,very true they where absolute bas----s to us lorry drivers ,it was their right not to work ,so they thought not only LIVERPOOL ALL DOCKS WERE THE SAME .WHY I WILL NEVER KNOW …we were all in the same ,TGW. you would not of thought so ,in LIVERPOOL the dock roads were full of transport waiting to unload ,a Ganger man would come out of the docks in the morning and mark about 6 lorries with chalk on their wheels and that would be their days work ,also if it was handball, you had to unload it by yourself ,where they wanted it in the sheds,for the pleasure of getting unloaded …best day in the transport world was Containers…and i defy anyone to speak up for the then so=-called work force of this country…the dockers,.yes all the "locals"dock shunters ,Brs ,etc,they would see no wrong because they lived there…we forget the dock strikes…LATE 1970s things changed ,they had lost their powerand they did have some over the country, a few men would hold the country to ransom .
You read now days our modern day truckers,worry about curtains, and spot lights,and" names on their cabs",that was introduced by the dockers if your lorry did not have a company name and a registered address esp ON THE SIDE OF YOUR VEHICLE in LIVERPOOL YOU WOULD NOT GET UNLOADED .end of…i hope what i sent LUCY WAS OK…
Lucy:
Hi Guys,
Remember I posted looking for people who’d driven in the 60s to talk to me? Well they did, and the text has gone in, but I’m left with a problem - I can’t get in touch with an of the people who said they could help me with photos!
Unfortunately we can’t use pics posted here as they don’t come out at a high enough resolution for print, so I need them either by email to lucy@truck.net or by snail mail (they will be returned - email me for the address etc.). Digital images by email need to be a minimum of 1mb in file size for the same reason.
I’m particularly looking for: An S21 Foden (artic), 8, 6 and 4 wheelers in general, a Leyland Beaver (artic if pos), Commer TS3, Foden FG 8 Wheeler (1951-ish), Liverpool docks at the time, AA/RAC phone boxes, Curzon St in Derby, the Silver Link cafe at Kincardine…
Other general images of the era would be greatly appreciated too! Can anyone help me out? Cheers!
I literally shudder at the thought of unloading at Liverpool Docks again,although it has to be said,there were other Docks that were loathsome,but not as much as the scouse ones!!!
Best of luck with your photo request.
David
It was indeed Peggydeckboy - and what I haven’t used I’m saving for one of our anonymous Drivers’ Tales one month, if that’s ok?
You’ll also all be delighted to hear that Liverpool Docks haven’t really improved… 
Well being bone-idle and ignorant must be handed down then. Les.
peggydeckboy:
Grumpy old man…so.so,very true they where absolute bas----s to us lorry drivers ,it was their right not to work ,so they thought not only LIVERPOOL ALL DOCKS WERE THE SAME .WHY I WILL NEVER KNOW …we were all in the same ,TGW. you would not of thought so ,in LIVERPOOL the dock roads were full of transport waiting to unload ,a Ganger man would come out of the docks in the morning and mark about 6 lorries with chalk on their wheels and that would be their days work ,also if it was handball, you had to unload it by yourself ,where they wanted it in the sheds,for the pleasure of getting unloaded …best day in the transport world was Containers…and i defy anyone to speak up for the then so=-called work force of this country…the dockers,.yes all the "locals"dock shunters ,Brs ,etc,they would see no wrong because they lived there…we forget the dock strikes…LATE 1970s things changed ,they had lost their powerand they did have some over the country, a few men would hold the country to ransom .
You read now days our modern day truckers,worry about curtains, and spot lights,and" names on their cabs",that was introduced by the dockers if your lorry did not have a company name and a registered address esp ON THE SIDE OF YOUR VEHICLE in LIVERPOOL YOU WOULD NOT GET UNLOADED .end of…i hope what i sent LUCY WAS OK…
Well Hull docks was the same, I remember a driver whos motor didnt have a name on so they refused to off load him, But he was informed by one of these lazy ingnorant dockers that they would stencil a name on for a tenner, I used to go to Hull quite often, Of course my motors were all singwritten, So I never had that problem but I could stand there allday waiting to get tipped, IMOO, They were the laziest ■■■■■■■ arsoles that I ever had dealing with the same as the Liverpool lot, They must have cost the hauliers thousands of pounds in lost return loads, I remember standing at Gladstone dock two days to get tipped, What a shower of lazy gits who thought the world wouldnt survive without them.Regards Larry. 
Lawrence Dunbar:
peggydeckboy:
Grumpy old man…so.so,very true they where absolute bas----s to us lorry drivers ,it was their right not to work ,so they thought not only LIVERPOOL ALL DOCKS WERE THE SAME .WHY I WILL NEVER KNOW …we were all in the same ,TGW. you would not of thought so ,in LIVERPOOL the dock roads were full of transport waiting to unload ,a Ganger man would come out of the docks in the morning and mark about 6 lorries with chalk on their wheels and that would be their days work ,also if it was handball, you had to unload it by yourself ,where they wanted it in the sheds,for the pleasure of getting unloaded …best day in the transport world was Containers…and i defy anyone to speak up for the then so=-called work force of this country…the dockers,.yes all the "locals"dock shunters ,Brs ,etc,they would see no wrong because they lived there…we forget the dock strikes…LATE 1970s things changed ,they had lost their powerand they did have some over the country, a few men would hold the country to ransom .
You read now days our modern day truckers,worry about curtains, and spot lights,and" names on their cabs",that was introduced by the dockers if your lorry did not have a company name and a registered address esp ON THE SIDE OF YOUR VEHICLE in LIVERPOOL YOU WOULD NOT GET UNLOADED .end of…i hope what i sent LUCY WAS OK…
Well Hull docks was the same, I remember a driver whos motor didnt have a name on so they refused to off load him, But he was informed by one of these lazy ingnorant dockers that they would stencil a name on for a tenner, I used to go to Hull quite often, Of course my motors were all singwritten, So I never had that problem but I could stand there allday waiting to get tipped, IMOO, They were the laziest [zb] arsoles that I ever had dealing with the same as the Liverpool lot, They must have cost the hauliers thousands of pounds in lost return loads, I remember standing at Gladstone dock two days to get tipped, What a shower of lazy gits who thought the world wouldnt survive without them.Regards Larry.
I agree Larry. Apart from using the Hull Rotterdam ferry, I only loaded on Hull docks once. Crates of oranges for London. I had that rubbish about the name and went to a shop and bought some stickers iirc.
I had a forty foot van and the fork lift driver put pallets of crates on the back. I loaded the 20 tons on my own. This was the middle of winter and the dockers had a brazier going near the end of my trailer, which they kept fuelled with pallets. While I loaded the van, at least 5 and sometimes 15 of them warmed themselves at the fire.
When I got back to the gate, the security guard warned me that I wouldn’t be allowed in again without proper signwriting. That was the last straw, and I promised him that I would never return to load on Hull docks again. My language may have been stronger! How all those lazy ■■■■■■■■ ever thought they had a right to complain about losing their non jobs I’ll never know!
John.
Hi John, It was the same in London Docks, The ■■■■■ allways said to me even when I had a heavy lift load which was booked in for the floating crane at 8.00am, Join the rank driver & we will get to you all in good time., My gaffer used to do his nut when I rang him at 10am to say that I was still waiting to tip, But thats the way it was in those 50/60s days, Regards Larry.
It didn’t matter if it was The King George Dock in Hull or The King George the Fifth Dock in London, the Docker’s were all the same lazy bunch of skivers that you were likely to come across, until you went to some of the car plants. 
I must admit that the best fish and chips that I ever had was on a Friday in the Dockers canteen at Hull Docks. 
We have all probably got a docks story that we remember very well and I remember once loading at United Biscuits in Dundee one Wednesday for delivery to The King George the Fifth Dock near Silvertown. It was a full load destined for Nigeria and I arrived at the docks on Friday morning with the copper in the gatehouse saying “you will be lucky to get tipped this week”. He directed me to the back of the queue where the ship was loading, there must of been at least a dozen lorries parked in front of me most of which were carrying steel. I walked along to the ‘Gangers Hut’ to put my notes in and was told to go back and wait in my cab.
I was sat there thinking what my plan B for the week end was going to be when there was a knock on the cab and a Docker asked “have you got the biscuits on” ? I said yes and he replied “pull to the front we are waiting for this load”.
No sooner had I parked next to the ship somebody had broken the seal on the back doors, two blokes had climbed into the back and had started passing boxes down to about half a dozen Dockers who were eagerly waiting. I thought great, at this rate I shall be tipped in less than an hour but that was it, they very quickly disappeared with about twenty boxes of biscuits. I stood there not really knowing what was happening until one of the foreman said “I shall get somebody to get you some pallets”. The next four hours was spent on my own emptying a 36 foot trailer, no conveyer belts, no pallet truck, just walking back and forwards two boxes at a time stacking each pallet and then asking a forkie if he would get me another empty pallet. I can’t remember being annoyed at the time, I was just pleased that I had received a clean signature for the load and having been tipped for that was just another one of those jobs back then.
Sorry I have no pics but I do remember that I always kept an A.A. call box key on my key ring. The phones inside the A.A. and R.A.C. call boxes were the standard G.P.O. public phones and they always worked. 
Regards Steve.
I never had the ‘priviledge’ a number of you have had. It is almost hard to believe that they could somehow get away with it, the laziness that is. A lot of wasted time for you lads as well. I only experienced docks once - loading bananas in Antwerp. They were a rather efficient bunch of lads.
Sent from my Hol-U19 using Tapatalk
YES hull dockers canteen it was the best ,but not only lazy dockers in the uk i was at sea in the 1960s and ,“well blow me down” name the AUSSIE PORTS AND EXACTLY THE SAME IDLE LAZY “workers were their in force however the union was much stronger they did rule the roost…on the same track the NEW ZEALAND dockers were unionised but if a ship needed loading smartly they would offer the crew of the ship -any hands] to help load the always frozen lambs in their thousands the same rate of pay as the [wharfies} and the “tax” would be deducted all from the ships accounts 100%above board…you would work on the Quay OR DQWN IN THE HOLDS…
Idoubt many would know however when container bases first started to come into being” in -land" like BRUM THE DOCKERS UNIONS wanted their members to work the bases as it involved import and export like some of the essex container bases did employer dock labour workers, and that is how FELEXSTOWE BECAME THE PORT IT IS all to do with being outside the LONDON DOCK HARBOUR control ,yes their were docks in IPSWICH ,wharfies near colchester RUN BY DOCKERS but not controlled by the militant dockers ,all in the TGW UNION but less militant …even some of the smaller Wharfs around london were independent ,[brent],
when you lived and worker through that era it seemed to become normal ,so then the TRANSPORT big firms [driver unionised} only the TGW. other lesser unions were not recognised by the big TGW FOR A LONG TIME …Drivers “well militant shop stewards” within transport under the influence of the large transport house " car factories ,steel works , miners “,thought its time to show some strength and get £5 a hour in 1979/80 what a shambles,and we like lemons went on strike ,myself=and others” 8 weeks over christmas " what you say, yes 8 weeks ,so all the toss pots that moan and groan about today’s ,conditions no curtains ,no spotlights,no!!!do i have to work 4o hours orr ive been away 3/4 days get a grip.i could go on and on for days ,but i will spare you all and get back in my shell…lol dbp…just one more thing if when leaving LIVERPOOL DOCKS if you had not locked your passenger door while giving your exit chit to the policeman you would have at least two dockers jump in your cab for a lift up the east lancs as that was the only way out ,well the main one thats how cheeky they were …
I remember waiting to off load at Hull docks, Waiting was the name of the game at Hull, I was getting really ■■■■■■ of with the dockers, I said to one of them that I had applied for a job as a docker but I was rejected when I told them that I was a wagon driver, He replied I wonder why, The silly sod, He like the rest of them were just lazy ■■■■■■■■■ They seemed to delight in making things hard for us old drivers, It must have been in their genes,Regards Larry.
Old Fred Chappell had one flat trailer, I was a young lad and i had my first ‘experience’ of Liverpool docks. “Off you go Brian, load of imported hides for Steads Leather, Leeds” There were 22 pallets of the stinking things, each hide wrapped in plastic, the lazy bar stewards lifted the pallets on, and made me take the hides OFF the pallets (“we need the pallets back driver”) and the whole bloody gang stood and watched me struggle stacking these stinking things on a flat trailer.
A pox on em all.