mornig dave, many thank for you prompt reply, god this is going to be fun for me, i hope that a lot of the lads are still about mate, well your answer to my question was spot on mate,you got the brian in one hit good on you, what a gentleman he was, god i had some ■■■■ ups with him on seagull ferries, then get off the boat and straight through to macon north in them days, have a bite to eat at jaque borrells(used to get a three course meal in them days for a quid, there were 16 frances to the pound then)then off id go through macon, on to pont de ain and up the old cedon, through bellagard, next stop then would be bonnerville,then up to the top of the blanc, then it all started,join the que in the freezing snow and get the old carnia stamped up then fly down to morjax, and park for the night, (if you felt like it,no what i mean)well thanks dave once again mate, will take your advice and see if i can operate the seach part of this page, any advice would be appreciated mate , cheers and stay lucky. 
Oh deary me!!
The pilot of the camero was an aussie frank gardener who won the saloon car championship for adrian.Do you remember mrs nolan in the dusseldorf office?I loaded out of bocholt late one friday night and she told me to fill out a blank carnet,their was no customs there to stamp it and when i got to aachen they just threw it back at me.I had to wait till the saturday morning to get an agent to make a t form out for me.While i was there mike furnels driver who was pulling for sca arrived he had the same problem.We both ran back to zeebrugge together and had to leave our trailers in dover to clear
rexyu wrote-Oh deary me!!
What’s that supposed to mean rexyu?
Rattlesnake Dave:
rexyu wrote-Oh deary me!!
What’s that supposed to mean rexyu?
■■■■■■ up on the boat then straight through to Macon?
I’m sure I’ve seen him in a ditch somewhere
I take your point rexyu but Seagull ferries run Southamton-LeHavre and if my memory holds up the overnight crossing was longer than usual . It was common practice for a lot of drivers to have a meal, a good drink and then sleep it off before arriving at Le Havre. I don’t think you left the port much before 10.30 either as all those TIR Carnet’s had to be processed and we are talking about 35 years ago, we had a bit of a (misplaced) cavalier spirit about us in those days.
Don’t think there were too many drivers running to the drivers hours laws either!
Yes, perhaps I was a bit cruel. While never a drinker, I could run bent with the best of them.
As you say, boat sails at around 11.pm wasn’t it? Nice meal and a couple of glasses. Pick up your free driver’s 200 ■■■■ and bottle of scotch. Down to the cabin and a good kip (or legover). Breakfast in one of the bars opposite the ferry terminal and away you go on the big dash, as I used to call it.
sea gull ferries what a laugh, there was a english skipper and on the other ferry was a german one,and they realy didnt get on, when it was rough out there ie force nine the english skipper wouldnt sail(depending on which way the wind was blowing)but the german skipper would, but what a skipper,used to let you go up on the bridge at night and many a time thought we were never goin to see dry land again mate,(flat bottom ships, not good in force nines)re the bar in le harve, you must be talking about the FERRYBOAT,a lady called chanttel had it lovly lady,Mmmmmmm!!!, like you say mate used to leave there well tanked up and then burn the fuel down to the blanc in time for the midnight changeover,nuge, nuge, can anyone remember the name of the routiers at Annacy,(all lite up and ready to go.) 
Yes I remember them from back around the early 70’s. They would ship out with Normandy Ferries to Le Havre from Southampton. At that time a company from Southampton called Cabmont, were running old twin steer Fodens and they were far from new. Every week they would go to a place in the Massiff Centrale, France., called Riom es Montagnes. It was a quarry up above the ski resorts. No snow chains or any other special equipment. I also did a few trips there myself in my own truck. A hard road especially in the snow, all to pick up a load of powdered rock ! None of us seemed to encounter any problems.
Then Howells and Reaveall came on the scene to do the same job(any of you remember?). Six wheel Volvo F88’s, double drive, snowchains and every other mod con you can think of. Well up they went but definitely not straight back down. In fact it took them a fortnight to complete the trip and they very soon gave it back up to Cabmont. Well impressed !!! 
and the moral is■■?
All the gear, no idea?
i first knew H&R when i was driving to italy mid 70s, i was working at that time for promotor, i have never worked for h&r, but their drivers mostly seemed to be up to the job and capable of doing most things, i met mick howells on one occasion in france, and he appeared to have faith in his employees, there is always a minority at any firm whose actions will be what other people judge the whole company on, i have no doubt that cabmont had its fair share of idiots, but, from the comments on here, obviously not in the southampton depot. i suppose they were all based in greenwich.
newmercman:
All the gear, no idea?
Sums it up in a ‘nutshell’, newmercman !!
But that was just for a short time that I knew them back then.
No reflection on before or after. Have’nt we all done something embarassing
or dropped a big goolie in this game, when being asked to do something different ? I bet if I asked everybody who has’nt to stand up, then we would all remain sitting !!!
We all know what they say about people in ‘glass houses’.
TIR Original:
newmercman:
All the gear, no idea?Sums it up in a ‘nutshell’, newmercman !!
But that was just for a short time that I knew them back then.
No reflection on before or after. Have’nt we all done something embarassing
or dropped a big goolie in this game, when being asked to do something different ? I bet if I asked everybody who has’nt to stand up, then we would all remain sitting !!!
We all know what they say about people in ‘glass houses’.
best we all remember that and not be too quick slagging off firms we know nothing about.
Lets just get one thing straight. No-one could slag H & R as a company. In fact back when we were talking about they had far superior gear to what other companies were running and that I have already stated.
Companies cannot be responsible for staff they employ or their lack of experience.
hi there dave, just wondered if brian knight was still with us, would love to have a chat on here with him, i have posted a pic on the long gone southampton driver/company site,tell him to go into the bulldog thread im on there at the bottom, it might jog his memory,i was known as MR BACARDI on the seagull ferries(wonder why)well you did get a free bottle!!!, i had a f88 240 duthch speck on for jim squibb in those days,also some of the SCA boys might reconize me from the photo, cheers dave.(OH FOR A GLASS OR TWO OF FEZZANTI NOW)
I’ve just read this topic about Micky Howells & Buster Reavell and it takes me back to my first trip abroad, it was for a firm called JMM(Jillian Mary Miles Int Transport Services) out of Buckingham and myself & another JMM driver were parked on Macon services on a saturday afternoon when several H & R trucks rolled in. They suggested we joined them at the Bakehouse for the rest of the weekend & they would show us the way to Italy which they did taking us over Mont Cenis on the monday. After tipping at Novara I reloaded washing machines out of Bergamo and ran back to uk with one of their drivers. Great bunch of lads without who to make my first trip abroad a good experience would probably have resulted in me not wanting to drive in europe again. Several years later as an owner driver I did some work for Micky and Buster after they had lost all the trucks but parted company after relieving them of payment for work done became rather tricky.
chazzer
TIR Original:
Yes I remember them from back around the early 70’s. They would ship out with Normandy Ferries to Le Havre from Southampton. At that time a company from Southampton called Cabmont, were running old twin steer Fodens and they were far from new. Every week they would go to a place in the Massiff Centrale, France., called Riom es Montagnes. It was a quarry up above the ski resorts. No snow chains or any other special equipment. I also did a few trips there myself in my own truck. A hard road especially in the snow, all to pick up a load of powdered rock ! None of us seemed to encounter any problems.
Then Howells and Reaveall came on the scene to do the same job(any of you remember?). Six wheel Volvo F88’s, double drive, snowchains and every other mod con you can think of. Well up they went but definitely not straight back down. In fact it took them a fortnight to complete the trip and they very soon gave it back up to Cabmont. Well impressed !!!
Howells and Reavell with six wheel F88’s, double drive??
You sure you got the right firm? Admittedly,I only worked for them for a comparitively short period of time (June 74 until they folded in March 75) but they certainly didn’t have six wheel tractor units then.
Hi “Rattlesnake Dave”. You didn’t happen to live on the Greenford road, just up from the Oldfield?
I lived at the top of the Greenford road on the Harrow road opposite the Black Horse when I worked on H&R.
Hell’s Bells Viv, you’re going back a bit aren’t you, What happened to Davies Transport? And come to think of it, Welsh Wales?