OK Tony, have you found the answer yet ?
I just remember calling at Chadwell Heath several times 1971 & 72 over money and Hilliard senior seemed to control the ■■■■■ strings and Bill Martin at that time but they lasted some years after that I think.
I’d be interested to know what happened, they seemed to be a really professional operator into Europe at that time - common Market / TIR tilts etc etc
Ozzie Hugh, No. no responses yet only yours, After 1973 they expanded quickly when they moved to Chadwell St Mary Tilbury.
At one time they were Townsend Thorensens Ferries biggest customer.Some of the alledged stories are they were shut down by ministry of Transport over Ghost drivers doing shunt work in Italy …Shut down over smuggling by drivers by H M customs, and then by lack of opperating capital due to too many people using MTX 's Ferry account and not paying their debts. And yes I do believe Reg Hilliard and son Nigel did pull the ■■■■■ strings along with daughter Jane, all three very rarely ventured out of the office, the only ones who knew the drivers by name was Bill and his wife Vicky,
But still no definitive answer as to how or why it folded. It seemed at the time very stable and would go on forever, but since that time many of the “old” time originals of European haulage have disappeared, also the customers they served.
So Hugh I am still waiting for drivers or others who MAY know the story of their demise to come forward with their theories.
Regards Tony
Bump. It would seem by the lack of replies that no one has any theories or facts…Well I tried. Tony.
Lets bump this up again,and see if I can get a result.
Well, Still no response, are there any drivers left on here that maybe can give me any clues or are the memories all gone. regards Tony.
Tony R:
Well, Still no response, are there any drivers left on here that maybe can give me any clues or are the memories all gone. regards Tony.
I think the main person who could shed some light on what went on would be Russ Peters, but I don’t think you would have any luck there, not even sure if he’s still with us, another man who may have helped was Tony Bradfield who used to subby for them and was still in touch with them but he sadly died about four weeks ago, keep your fingers crossed you never know someone may come up with the answer but as you say most of the old trail blazers are long gone now.
Ossie
My dad (Chris Owen ) drove with and for Tommy Peak and his dad for Essel Shipping ( Scania Red and White livery ) I last saw Tommy in the 80’s and heard he recently passed away after hard times, very sad if that’s true. My Dad has also passed away now but drive for Alltransport, HTS and Essex International and I grew up in a Scania 
Happy days and great memories for me.
Nice little video of some of the drivers from Martintrux, used to see most of them on the italian runs all the time, special shoutout to Joe Lee who sorry to say is not in the video.
click on the link to watch
TerryM15:
Nice little video of some of the drivers from Martintrux, used to see most of them on the italian runs all the time, special shoutout to Joe Lee who sorry to say is not in the video.
click on the link to watch
The guy on the right of the video at 10mins 2 secs looks like Roger Hancock ex Martintrux and Kentvale.
And I wish that they would of sprayed some Mr Sheen on that squeaky drivers seat at 2mins 02 secs as it used to be so bloody annoying. 
I don’t know if this helps to explain why parts of the company ceased trading:
And a picture I’ve not seen here (I don’t know if the Volvo was Martintrux’s):
beegee:
I don’t know if this helps to explain why parts of the company ceased trading:Receiver is called in to sell Martintrux | 14th September 1989 | The Commercial Motor Archive
And a picture I’ve not seen here (I don’t know if the Volvo was Martintrux’s):
Proper sleeper!
David
Any one remembers Martintrux based at Chadwell Heath then down to Tilbury. Bill Martin was the MD, Bill had two other directors and those directors Son’s and Jimmy Martin (Bill’s Boy) ran the company. Vehicles were always spotless and the livery a very distictive Blue. They had first class workshops at Tilbury.
I was fortunate enough to be able to sell them many Scani’a Trucks for their International Operation. Bill was a personal friend and we had quite a few happy business years and private memories. Any one out there who also knew this company ? Ron Day 
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pm toothpickjohny hes posted loads of martin trux pics 
My Dad drove for Martintrux from 1977 until he got busted in Dover by Customs for having rather too much Old Holborn under the trailer floorboards !!!, That was December 1979. He mainly ran Belgium, and Holland but he did Italy and Switzerland and Spain too i recall. He got busted on the Thursday night, spent all day Friday with Customs, Came home and got sacked on Saturday, and was shipping out again for JC transport on Tuesday. It Cost my Dad £1200 in Fines, A Fair few quid in them days, and Customs offered him the Baccy if he paid the £600 odd duty as well. It cost Martintrux £1200 to get the Motor and trailer back from Customs. I think he used to stop at the Fina garage in Zeebrugge to Fill up !!! but it was 1979 and a totally different world to now eh ! The motor he drove was an Old 110 Scania Day Cab OPU640M, i wonder if its still about or if anyone has a picture of it
I doubt that OPU640M, is still about, that was one of the firdst Scania’s that Martintrux purchased and following 4 day cabs the remainder of the fleet were always sleeper. That truck was probably purchased while they were based at Chadwell Heath, after going to Chadwell St Mary (Tilbury) every Scania was the double bunk cab complete with night heater.
Nice reading your memeories, hope your Dad buy’s his Backy froma shop these days !! Thanks for the posting
Ron Day:
I bought opu of peter croft ran it for a few years and sold it to my friend who had her from 85 till christmas just gone when i kept saying i would restore her and never got round to it she looked sad in the end but was a good motor I will get some pictures posted
Well I rekon the old Girl has just about earned her retirement. Would be interested to know what sort of mileage she has clocked up, must be well in excess of 1 million. Is it the original engine (DS11) and Gearbox (GR750) ? guess the block has had new liners and pistons by now. I remember, when we brought in the first LB76 with the day cab and a manual splitter Box in 1968 people were saying that the Scania would never take on in this country and the Wet Liner engine would not stand the pace. I guess they were wrong!!
Regards
Ron Day
Those LB’s were way ahead of anything we had in UK when they first arrived.
I remember Roy Simons who dove for them for years. He came, like me , from Hailsham, where we went to school together. Lovely cheerful fella, used to meet him in Italy mostly.I wonedr where he is now
When i started they had 1 140 the rest were 111 and Monty,s 112 then the new 142,s. Roy later worked for Laser when i was a subbie, he worked on the French side when i was still on the run to Italy.
