rexyu No, the Sean I meant was the manager for years of Roba in Harlow.They only did Swiss. I think they were ■■■■■■■ with Roba in Basel. I don’t know if you knew Brian Smart on Sammy Williams…? He was Ex-commando. Pat was the only man he was scared of on the TIR run…Brian went to Canada & became skipper on a tugboat on one of the lakes…
rexyu:
Yes, the pass was called the Col du Cerdon. The monument at its foot was called “Monument au Morts du/des Maquis” (Spardo will correct my French if necessary.) It means " in commemoration to those memebers of the French resistance who lost their lives"
As Maquis is usually used in the singular to describe the organisation the correct form would be ‘du Maquis’. If talking about the reistance fighters themselves ‘Maquisards’ is used. 
. However as the Resistance in France was made up of many independant groups, communists etc. I suppose the plural ‘des’ may have been used.
It is popular to decry France’s war-time activities. The simple truth is that they helped win the war with us in many ways. The resistance members were incredibly brave. As one who experienced nothing but kindness from the French, during my time travelling through by truck, I will defend their reputation against anyone.
I’ll second all of that with feeling. Nice to find I am not a lone voice in the wilderness. 
My greatest privilege is talking to these brave old boys twice a year at the memorial (Nov. 11th & May 8th) and in between times when we meet. Frail old men and women, but with steel in their spines.
When I started TIR France was the most hospitable country in the whole of Europe for truckers. Always a welcome ,even the cops used to salute you before ‘Cafe’ Time '…The next best was Greece but the food wasn’t so good.
David
Thanx for the explanation. Its been a long time since I spoke French regularly. My sister, who has a MA in modern laguages, concurs with your view. So, yoou’re in good company.
Harry
I agree with you. French drivers were always the most helpful. I was once struggling to change a wheel after a puncture, somewhere near Nice. Two Frenchmen stopped, brushed me aside, and did the job in no time at all. Wouldn’t take anything in return, so we repaired to a nearby bar.
Dutchmen were very friendly as well. Never went to Greece, myself; althoiugh a pal broke down somewhere in Greece. Right out in the country and right outside a small farm. They took him in and he stayed there while the spare part was in transit from UK. He lived “en famille” with them farmer and helped out on the farm for about four days.
Happy days
Steve
Yeah, French & Dutch drivers were very friendly until we got the Wally Squadrons coming over pillaging diesel etc. & causing mayhem & then grassing the cops coffee money. It was then time to lose the GB plates. Re;Greece. When I first went down people in the countryside used to wave at you. Once I was double manned & went to this village to load melon’s that were not ready & a guy from the village gave us a great meal & beds for the night…Never wanted to leave. Years later I was with an Italian outfit & on the freight boat from Brindisi to Patras were a load of Greek drivers. Not one of them would speak to me because I was English. What ever had our drivers been up to in the intervening years…?
France; Always a good meal & always somewhere to park…
Yes, there sure were some animals about. I learnt who to park alongside and who not to. The Cantrellians were the worst I ever met. Robby and Tony never gave their drivers anything like enough running money.
I took a break from TIR for a couple of years at one time and went back to the fishing at Newhaven. When I went back to it, my first trip to Milan I walked into Frenchy’s restaurant in Concorezzo, to be greeted by a hail of bread rolls from about 6 Brit drivers. That was the beginning of the end for me.
What finally did it for me was the few trips I did on trip money down to Prato. You’ll remember that one I guess. Rags out and cloth back. Anyway, this clown I was working for was a bit of a heavy Essex boy. On about my 10th trip he gave me a Shell card in someone elses name. “Use this” he said, “Things are bad at the moment and I can’t give you enough cash for fuel”
Blimey. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I used it and made sure that I signed with my name, each time I fuelled up. About two months later I got a tug from the CID and was dragged into the DI’s office. I explained my use of the card by telling him that the boss said that the firm, whose card it was, owed him a lot of money and that this was the arrangement to pay it back. It worked and I was free to go. He got done though.
Robby & Tony real tight zips! I was in Italy loaded for home ( On trip money ) & my boss asked me to pick up a document for a load of wine & take it to the Cantrell’s hide-out in London as it was holding up a customs clearance. I belted back found their gaff . They took the papers without even a penny for my trouble. It was Cantrell’s boys down in Congorezzo when an OD had to fly back to UK to get a spare part for his Volvo. While he was away for the weekend Cantrell’s tilted his cab & nicked the fuel pump which they sold to the Bros.Scum.
And then of course you got all that Britannia rubbish from ,I believe Sotton who used to invade Spain & Portugal…Another horrible story…
How one small country could zip so much up in such a short time…
Yeah. Robby and Tony. Cantrell Road, right in the heart of Bow. Did hear that things finally got too hot for them in the UK and they ended up in Saudi, robbing UK drivers of their trucks at the end of a sub-machine gun. About right.
Do you remember a guy called Jansen Potter. Had a little firm called Havelock Haulage. Started in East London, somewhere and then moved down to Newhaven for some reason. He was the guy I did the Pratos for. I liked him actually, but things got too heavy for my liking what with other people’s fuel cards. Apart from that, it was a right laugh and he paid well too. His father-in law was a DI in the Met. Very handy for our Jansen
harry:
And then of course you got all that Britannia rubbish from ,I believe Sotton who used to invade Spain & Portugal…Another horrible story…
that’d be british international from sholing? brittania were out of hull and may still be going i’m not sure
Yes British International. They run under a great big Union Jack. I always thought that they should change it to the Skull & Cross bones. 99% of the drivers were complete know-all petty crooks. Again it was the way the firm was run that made them what they were… They owned Portugal .Always broke.
Harry
You were asking if I remembered a Sammy’s driver called Brian Smart. Hardcase. No, I’m afraid not. The only Sammy’s driver that I remember was a Billy Moore. Another hardnut.
He liked me a lot, because he swore that I once made him a cooked breakfast, somewhere on the road. I didn’t disillusion him, but if he had sampled my cooking I certainly wouldn’t have been that pal that he thought I was.
In fact, I seem to remember that none of them were real Sammy Williams drivers. As I remember, when Sammy decided to do a bit of TIR, none of the existing drivers would hear of it. Union pressure, I guess. So, The new Sammy drivers, for the TIR bit, came, en bloc, from a firm called something like Coward Europen. Would you remember that? I think that they only had about 6 trucks on TIR work, but they worked strictly to rule. 8 hours a day only. No weekends.
The only other Sammy Williams drivers I ever knew were when I first joined Russell Davies at Tilbury. At the time, there were quite a number of them at the Barking depot. When Sammy folded, they went to RD as it was a cracking job then. Does the name Harry Doyle ring a bell for you? And a lovely man called Red something?
Steve
Bill was a good mate of mine. Perhaps you remember TIR Tel…? Terry Farrel from Dagenham. He took Smartie on his first trip to Italy. Coming home Terry did the customs on the Blanc & let Brian drive thru the pipe. Terry said’ I will watch you from the bunk & if you get probs I will advise you.’ Brian got the other side & started the descent & a massive blizzard blew up. He could hardly see the the road .He kept on going & going altho it got worse there was no comment from Terry so he thought this was normal TIR routine weather. Eventually he heard Terry snoring in the bunk…
I’m sorry I don’t know the other two lads…
Harry
Terry Farrel? Would he have been a quite slim chap. Rather serious, but a good guy.
Steve
He was slim ,with glasses . But only serious when you first met him. He couldn’t get past Collonges ;Up or down. He used to stay there for days on the booze. He even married the waitress( in Billy’s? ) in a drunken ceremony in the cafe which he forgot about the next day. He started his own outfit just on UK work quite soon afterward.
No, not the same one. The one I knew wouldn’t have been seen dead at Collonges (Is that the caff at Collonges-sous-Saleve, with the railway station opposite?)
The lady owner’s boyfriend spoke really good English and was one of the nastiest bits of work. Had a big Alsation dog to back him up when he insulted you. Hated the English, but was keen enough on our money. He once showed me a jam-pot filled with cheese. Said “This is the strongest cheese you can get anywhere. Much too strong for the English. Here, try some”. I said “Right, bring me some bread and I’ll show you how strong it is.” I ate the ■■■■■■ lot, straight off. He was right though. It was very,very strong; but I couldn’t back down, could I?
That was Jeanettes. Her husband died ,she had a little girl. Then she married one of the customers. A spiv vy looking geezer called Michel. He was a driver from Strouf & was from Paris. He gave Jeanette ,the little girl & the grandmother a real bad time. One of his favourite tricks was to wait til all the Brits were eating & then go out on the carpark by the railway line & break into the backs & cabs of the trucks with another scroat. The police caught him but by then all the truckers had stopped using Jeanettes. She lost the trade but thankfully lost him also .
Yes, that was his name, Harry. Michel, the no good…!! I couldn’t stand him at any price. He was popular with lots of the Brits 'cos he spoke such good English.
I only used to stop there, normally, for coffee and use the basin in the station toilets for a cold wash. In my time it was really difficult to get a wash, hot or cold. Perhaps France wasn’t too bad, but Italy was hopeless. I can remember what bliss it was to shower at the Elf just into France from the tunnel, on the way back.
Ever since then I’ve been almost paranoid about cleanliness. I honestly don’t think that I could have done the ME work. They never washed for days, perhaps weeks.
rexyu:
… I honestly don’t think that I could have done the ME work. They never washed for days, perhaps weeks.
PMSL rexyu…time to put your tin hat on!!! 
I kept myself clean by taking a can of water ,a bowl ,a shaving mug & a flannel. & I would wash down & shave with cold water in the cab even at C34- . That & boiling water on the gas bottle for tea & saving some for the shave. Of course I would have the night heater going full blast in the mornings…
Rexyu wrote
…[ I honestly don’t think that I could have done the ME work. They never washed for days, perhaps weeks.]
On the middle east run you could always get a wash somewhere infact probley easier over there than some of the places in uk today no you cant use this and that ect. Most of us used to carry water as the method below shows and it was warm after the heat of the day warmed it up another handy device a garden hose with a waterin can rose on the end.
Peter Lawson of Taffy Davies assisting with shower method
Or you could wait till you got to Qater and float in the gulf
