London carriers

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OLD TIME LORRIES, COMPANIES AND DRIVERS (INTERACT
61

does anyone remember a company called london carriers based in either heywood ind est or pilsworth ind est in bury …? they had a phillips contract and where painted in thier colours , blue and grey as i remember . they ran alot of sed atki’s . an old family friend worked for them for years doing night trunk’s , i later worked for him driving coaches for a while while i took my c.p.c for wagons as he had a plan to buy a couple and put them to work . it would be nice to see some pictures if possible .
cheers … :smiley:

62

hi bowser
i remember london carriers having a big depot at sywell near northampton, they ran a fleet of guy invincables painted green, then went to grey and blue, they also ran big j guys and sed/ackys all sadly gone.
cheers diesel

63

check out an old british transport film from the fifties the ferry load theres a london carriers thames van i think it is taking stuff to belgium

64

London Carriers.

Phillips Electronics.

Interforward.

Bibby Distribution.

65

bowser:
does anyone remember a company called london carriers based in either heywood ind est or pilsworth ind est in bury …? they had a phillips contract and where painted in thier colours

Actually a subsidiary of Philips, until they were sold on to Inter Forward

66

Hello All

First post here. Worked for London Carriers in Croydon once upon 1988 to 1989. The company was the “In House” transport arm of Phillips Electronics. TV’s, Videos. Stereos, Lighting, adverts down the side of the trailers flogging all sorts of things.

I have a couple of pics in my collection of a plain white Volvo F10 pulling a grey/silver London Carriers trailer and I am not sure, but might have a Seddon Atkinson coupled to a plain grey trailer. Will look them out but might need a hand to upload them to here :question:

240 Gardner is right about the history of the company. Went on to work on a Bibby’s contract in 1997 and had the pleasure of going into Sywell one night on behalf of Bibby’s, who took over Sywell, and catching up with a few people who had known some of the guys I had worked with at Croydon. I seem to remember standing in the office and saying something like “who used to work for London Carriers” and most of the office raised their hand :slight_smile:

All of the old Croydon buildings have pretty much gone now. Makro takes the place of the main TV Factory in Beddington Farm Road. The other end past Bestway, The Post Office and the Car Auctions is pretty much all light industrial stuff now. The PCB factory up the Purley Way still stands, but is boarded up.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane bowser.

67

bowser:
does anyone remember a company called london carriers based in either heywood ind est or pilsworth ind est in bury …? they had a phillips contract and where painted in thier colours , blue and grey as i remember . they ran alot of sed atki’s . an old family friend worked for them for years doing night trunk’s , i later worked for him driving coaches for a while while i took my c.p.c for wagons as he had a plan to buy a couple and put them to work . it would be nice to see some pictures if possible .
cheers … :smiley:

Hi bowser, my mate John drove this for London Carriers out of the Heywood depot but I am not sure if it was in the 80’s/90’s. :confused:

68

hiya,
Remember there was a London Carriers depot just further along the road from Killingbecks old depot along Whitebirk ring road in Blackburn, quite a lot of motors and in those days was a “dead man’s shoes” sort of establishment, had my name down for years no joy ran to BRS rules nothing bent, think they did for Mullards and Phillips.
thanks harry long retired.

69

mushroomman:

bowser:
does anyone remember a company called london carriers based in either heywood ind est or pilsworth ind est in bury …? they had a phillips contract and where painted in thier colours , blue and grey as i remember . they ran alot of sed atki’s . an old family friend worked for them for years doing night trunk’s , i later worked for him driving coaches for a while while i took my c.p.c for wagons as he had a plan to buy a couple and put them to work . it would be nice to see some pictures if possible .
cheers … :smiley:

Hi bowser, my mate John drove this for London Carriers out of the Heywood depot but I am not sure if it was in the 80’s/90’s. :confused:

i recognise the trailer colours but i assumed they ran all sed atki’s and the like , the family friends name was jack hamer and he never shut up about the virtues of the good old 290 ■■■■■■■ in his sed atki . he ran a couple of coaches from his house in bolton as well as driving for london carriers . it would have been the 80’s rather than 90’s i would have thought …

thanks for the info chaps… :smiley:

70

Hello Bowser.
I worked for London Carriers in 1969/70 doing the 8-2-20 run which was to Cambridge, and to Potters Bar on the way back.I drove a “C” reg" Guy Invincible with a ■■■■■■■ engine normally and when the load was light a LAD cabbed Albion,a ghastly lorry if you were over five feet tall,it’s silly little windscreen being a swine to see out of,'specially with the wiper blade that always managed to put itself in your line of sight! As in the previous post,the depot has gone,now being various factory units.The main offices at Mitcham have gone and it’s now a housing estate.The passing of an era! Regards to all,900X20. :smiley:

71

Ugh, Those Renaults Trucks. I seem to remember the deal was buy 2 tractor units and we will throw in a Renault Master Panel van “Free” Bedford had been the previous choice with CF Panel Vans being used as site transport.

Something like 20 Units arrived nationwide along with 10 vans. The Tractor in the photo bears the name “London Carriers International” If my memroy serves me correctly, it was when Phillips parted company with London Carriers and the company went through a rebranding. Very late 89 into 1990.

72

Hi bowser
Jack Hamer my late father loved the 290 ■■■■■■■ in his sed atki .I remember as young lad going to work with him in the 70’s when he use to drive the Guy big J’s wagon and drags, in 1978 he was given a shiney new seddon atkinson… He did the same run monday to friday (nights) Pilsworth to Northhampton with a drop at Birmingham on the way back

When i call at mums i will ask to see if she has any photos of dads trucks… :laughing:

Andy

73

boardy77:
Hi bowser
Jack Hamer my late father loved the 290 ■■■■■■■ in his sed atki .I remember as young lad going to work with him in the 70’s when he use to drive the Guy big J’s wagon and drags, in 1978 he was given a shiney new seddon atkinson… He did the same run monday to friday (nights) Pilsworth to Northhampton with a drop at Birmingham on the way back

When i call at mums i will ask to see if she has any photos of dads trucks… :laughing:

Andy

jesus andy how you doing ? … its rick… remember me … :smiley:

74

Hi Rik hows ya doing mate… long time no see
Andy

75

bowser:
does anyone remember a company called london carriers based in either heywood ind est or pilsworth ind est in bury …? they had a phillips contract and where painted in thier colours , blue and grey as i remember . they ran alot of sed atki’s . an old family friend worked for them for years doing night trunk’s , i later worked for him driving coaches for a while while i took my c.p.c for wagons as he had a plan to buy a couple and put them to work . it would be nice to see some pictures if possible .
cheers … :smiley:

Would that have been john or jack harmer.I knew him well use to drive w&g big j on night trunk.Sadly died yrs ago,ran his oach firm fom farnworth.
regards dave.

76

Hi dave yes that was my late step father jack harmer… the coaches are no more… Ive been at Ring & Ride for over 15 years now… left the coaches along time ago but kept in contact with my dad till he passed away…

Andy

77

diesel dan:
hi bowser
i remember london carriers having a big depot at sywell near northampton, they ran a fleet of guy invincables painted green, then went to grey and blue, they also ran big j guys and sed/ackys all sadly gone.
cheers diesel

‘Firefly’ drove for them and had the biggest mouth on the CB in the country… when I worked at Tesco in MK he was an agency driver there and just as arrogant. I remember returning to MK from a Magor C/O and telling him the snow was getting bad.
“I can get anywhere” he shouted, “I know what I am doing” (big mouthed ****)
Next day he walked in to the traffic office looking bedraggled … he had just got back :laughing: 24 hours later :laughing:

78

One of my first jobs in transport was working for London Carriers as a van boy. I worked out of the Beddington Farm Road depot in Croydon for a couple of years on the Home Serve contract, deliver, unpack, install to private adresses. We were allocated a couple of Bedford TK’s (VPM239Y and VPM240Y), had those for about a year before they bought a couple of brand new Leyland Roadrunners. Remember plenty of old Seddon artics 301’s and 401’s running around the yard for the various trunks, think there was an odd Mercedes too. Plus a DAF drawbar unit that even the shunter Dougie?? used to struggle to put on the bays so they fixed a towing eye on the front bumper so it could be nosed on.

79

I did a bit for London Carriers in Croydon in the very late 80s and early 90s. Firstly on the agency doing an afternoon trunk upto northampton with an artic plus some odd rigid jobs and did a few overnight runs to paris for them in a Merc rigid. that was an easy little run, overnight to northern Paris, Autvilliers near the canal IIRC, park the truck up in there agents yard then go to the hotel where they had a room booked for the driver to crash out, get a good sleep then overnight back to Croydon again.Easy!!

Then they decided that they were going to start up a service to and from Italy, taking back damaged, faulty, returned white goods (washing machines??) to Milan and returning with the new machines. This service was already being done by De-Roys I think and tipping in their depot in Paddock Wood. Anyway, the TM a chap called Peter asked me if i was interested in doing the job!! Was I??..brand new Globetrotter from the Volvo dealers just up the road, out on Sunday night or Monday morning, trundle down to Milan, tip tuesday afternoon and reload wednesday morning, run back to tip friday in Paddock wood or Croydon and go home…EASY…a great job, decent truck and not bad money either so of course, I ripped his arm off for it!! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Needless to say, the promises, the job, the Globetrotter etc never materialised and after a few months of boring local work in any old motor with an occasional Paris run I left. Shame really because if it had come off I would have virtually been my own boss and left well alone because they had never done that sort of thing before.

80

offtherails:
Plus a DAF drawbar unit that even the shunter Dougie?? used to struggle to put on the bays so they fixed a towing eye on the front bumper so it could be nosed on.

What a memory jog :exclamation: Can remember Dougie as clear as day. Remember those drawbars well and the TM Peter :unamused:

Got trained on them but never took them out as a combination :wink: A frame trailers. Again the lure of the Continent, never quite got there :neutral_face: