HI LADS JUST PUT A PIC OF HATTONS ON LONG GONE SOUTHAMPTON HAULIERS ,HE IS WITH A FORSEYS WITH A FRIGO MAT TRAILER
derek heron ran mat fleet good bloke i bet a few had some run ins with him
mat man:
derek heron ran mat fleet good bloke i bet a few had some run ins with him
Hullo “mat man”,
You’re quite right Derek Heron, (The Bird Man) came to M.A.T. when Cliff Leader went off to run a firm in Bradford, an ex Bowker driver he was a good man also. Derek was from East Yorkshire and had started his time on a Furniture Van in Bridlington, he was after that a Top Man at the old Hull company, Keyways. When he came to M.A.T. as the Transport Manager he had a good sort out, I was a Sub Contractor with them at this time, and was certainly the only one doing Europe for them. I found him to be a really good fair and honest bloke, I should say he was the best Transport Manager that I have ever met.
Cheers, Archie.
Cliff Leader went to run Leamans from Denmark out of Transflash at Bradford, I pulled for him for a while 78/79, until we had a fall out, nice bloke till you didn’t agree with him.
I also pulled out of MAT’s at Oxford sometimes, one of the funniest things I ever saw there, they were loading one of those kangaroo tilts with engine blocks, like 2 pallets at a time, you know, with the long forks, well they were stacked 2 high, so they had 8 pallets of engine blocks infront of the landing gear, with no unit under it. as the guy pulled the forks out, the front went down, as it hit the deck the legs collaped, so the the back , which was by this time way up in the air, started on the way back down, so the trailer wheels hit the deck and the whole of the superstructure collapses around it, so bloody funny.
Dieseldogsix:
Cliff Leader went to run Leamans from Denmark out of Transflash at Bradford, I pulled for him for a while 78/79, until we had a fall out, nice bloke till you didn’t agree with him.
Hullo “Diesledogsix”
That,s it Leamans. at Transflash Mcgreggor, I always found him to be a good bloke, he was a driver through and through, and cetainly knew the game. I wonder where he is now. He had a son that was in the workshops in Hull, Gary Leader, and a lovely daughter, Carol, who was a pretty good grasstracker.
Cheers, Archie.
Archie Paice:
He had a son that was in the workshops in Hull, Gary Leader, and a lovely daughter, Carol, who was a pretty good grasstracker.
Cheers, Archie.
Would she be a good leader in grasstrack?
coat, & at etc 
Wheel Nut:
Archie Paice:
He had a son that was in the workshops in Hull, Gary Leader, and a lovely daughter, Carol, who was a pretty good grasstracker.
Cheers, Archie.Would she be a good leader in grasstrack?
coat, & at etc
Hullo Malc,
You are certainly far too sharp for me, what are you on ? Mataxa ?
Cheers, Archie.
we always had top trucks in my time there fl 10s doing italy and a erf if you turned it off at top of frejus would not start again for 2 hours
When I was a Trailer Mate on Suttons at their London Depot, I had for a time a Driver named Sean Venables, whose brother was Danny Venables who was the Manager at Archibalds of Leeds, London Depot, anyway Sean who was a lovely bloke and a real character left Suttons and became the manager at Barking for awhile before getting the push for it is said some dodgy business, I have subsequently heard that Sean was killed in his cab in Austria or germany when a gas ring which he was useing to keep warm while he slept went out and he was gassed, a tragedy. Later when I was at the BRS at Hampstead Depot we had a Bristol unit on contract to MAT Barking and I remember loading a container for Denmark at Mars of Slough, I hasten to add the old Bristol never went abroad even in those crazy days…Tony.
big company in its day lots of firms on here did work for them. sad day when the kunzler brothers sold it rosier
I worked for Mat out of Harwich in a about 1972 to 76,(not exactly sure when). Cliff Leader interviewed me and took me on, there were only 5 of us at Harwich to start with. a guy called Ronnie Barker was already there, he had transferred from Barking. The second driver there was called Mike Lester, then me Eugene Doherty, the next was Wally Haylock and then Barry Page, and John Tye. We had no transport manager, we got all our instructions direct from Arnold House in London, I forget the lads names who used to deal with us. We came under a guy called Tony Blackmore in Harwich, who was either a shipping manager or area manager, he would dish out our expenses and night out money, he was not our boss or anything like that. I have picked up gold and silver ingots from Arnold house and delivered it around London with just a Brinks guard along, I was very wary around places like Tooly St. I drove a Scania 110, reg no. TNO702K or 703K, what I do remember about it, the letters of the Scania logo on the grill was smaller than the others of the same reg. There was a guy based in a caravan on Parkeston Quay called Reg, he would give our collection and delivery notes, and check the condition of the trailers and containers when they came off the ferry. We used to get the lorries serviced at Barking overnight until the depot closed, then we had to go up to Hull, and we could be there all week if they found anything wrong with your wagon and they usually did, I had a few run ins with Dave Clark the workshop manager. We had to stop at the fishermans mission if our lorry wasnt ready. At one time we could sleep in a spare motor, but Clarkie put a stop to that. While we were waiting for our wagon we had to shunt ot the docks with the Foden with the weird gearbox and also do local work. We spent a lot of time in Peterboro, I remember Patsy who was a night trunker to Dover every night.I cant remember the female transport manageress name at Peterboro, I think her husband was a driver. Mat used the freightliner terminals alot, drop a empty box and pick a loaded one and off you go, they didnt think you had a home to go to. I also spent alot of time at Stratford LIFT no.6 shed. The Danish drivers used to demount the tilts of their wagon and drag at 6 shed , I could then pick them up with a skelley and deliver them around London, giving the Danish drivers a quick turnaround, I enjoyed that job very much as I could thumb a lift home to Colchester most nights if I got finished early. The job went down hill when they opened a depot in Felixstowe and employed a transport manager, who was in charge of us at Harwich. He employed all his own men and didnt like us Harwich boys very much, he slowly got rid of us all by being bloody akward. He actually sacked me for refusing to take one of his favourite drivers lorry to Hull for a service, this happened a few times , I went to the union and Cliff Leader offered me my job back,but I said I could not work with that manager anymore. They gave me compensation, I dont remember how much, but it was quite generous.
good to hear the old stories. i worked for mat from 1991 to2000 good company to work for. you was right they didnt think you had a home to go to. i used run italy they would keep you away as long as you wanted. i used to do two weeks away but they always wanted more. but if you said no they always brought you home .back into hull have two days off then back out for two weeks. dave clark still going ok still the same
Eugene
Thanks for the memories - I was one of the guys that gave you your instructions from Arnold House.
I worked there from 1972 until 1976, I think you probably started around 1973 as I can remember when we started the ‘fleet’ at Harwich.
Ronnie Barker has always been based at Harwich, although officially at Barking, Mick Lester I remember worked for us firstly under
contract from Coastal Roadways, a P&O group company. As I remember several did, you too?
I had often been seconded (thats probably too grand a word as I was only a teenager) to Barking where they had so much union trouble
that the operation became unviable and sone of the vehicles were sent to Harwich - I don’t think the real reason was talked about
before Barking closed.
The Transport manager at Felixstowe was called Alan Johnson, originally a Londoner I think as his previous company was A.C. Lloyd
a very old company (it said ’ Bonded Carmen’ on their trucks). Alan subbed for MAT at A.C. Lloyd and when they closed he applied to
MAT and got the job. His Traffic Clerk was Gerald Unwin who started on his own with a few trucks at Felixstowe some years later.
It was Pearl in the office at Peterborough, a lovely cheerful lady, who worked alongside Jean and Derek Price, the Manager - all lovely
people made redundant only for the office to be started again later as was the MAT custom of moving the offices around.
My office in Shoreditch was Arnold House, my department T+ECG (Transport and Equipment Co-Ordination Group) we were closed on
February 13th 1976 (Barking had been closed from memory some 18 months earlier) and the Traffic operation moved to Cowley,
Oxford. This was not successful and me and my mate, Russell Sherriff were offered our jobs back if we moved to the new office at
Felixstowe who were taking things over. We declined.
It was said that Cliff Leader had closed Barking and T+ECG due to a North-South vendetta, he had been given responsibility of the South after a
the Southern Area boss, Ted Vugler had been sacked, allegedly for signing a trailer replacement contract without agreeing a firm price.
However, Cliff Leader eventuallyleft MAT and took over at Leman in Bradford where I made contact with him again.
i remember the aggro caused by the Hull workshop for the drivers - steaming any stickers off the trucks, and removing the radios and telling the
drivers not to fit them again. Very stange days at MAT, great expense was made to get trucks to Hull for service instead of
getting them serviced in the South.
Rather than being traditional, I think a lot of stupidity and small mindedness reigned at times.
Nevertheless a great company that didn’t stay up with the times - I belive it ended up being run by accountants in trust for the Kunzlers
and when sold to Brian Rosier (who incidentally was Manager at Barking when I started there!) its days were numbered.
By the way your truck was TNO 702K (we had 701 too) and the reason for the small badges was that it was an older truck which had been
sat around before being registered - the first 110’s did have the small badges.
Patsy McMahon from Peterborough (originally a BRS Contract driver to MAT) worked for them until his retirement until about six or
seven years ago - a lovely guy - absolute gentleman
knowall:
EugeneThanks for the memories - I was one of the guys that gave you your instructions from Arnold House.
I worked there from 1972 until 1976, I think you probably started around 1973 as I can remember when we started the ‘fleet’ at Harwich.
A very interesting insight into MAT, seems like Dave Clark hasn’t changed much then
.it was still like that in the 90s .they all had there own little empires .but all the same i wished jobs was like it now.me and mat 33 had lots of good times .must be someone on here with some old pictures on here.
Eugen We came under a guy called Tony Blackmore
Blackmore used to run a freight clearance co. in Harwich & when T Forms were fazed out he got himself a job with Visbeen & became Manager of the Dailyfresh warehouse in Colchester . The drivers were mostly Londoners & old hands that knew the market job inside out . Blackmore figured that they were earning too much & set about getting rid of them . He succeeded & the firm went bust .Funny thing was that in one small item that when the firm went bust the forklifts were sent back & Visbeen could only find four on the premises .But they had been paying for six on hire since day one .The forklift firm told Ardrie that they had only charged him for four . Honest mistake,I suppose? Visbeens then opened up an office in FX with units to shift the fridges off the night boat .
Robbies Dad:
Wheel Nut:
I knew a lot of the MAT people from the workshops to the higher echelons of the planning department.Joe Fuller was the bloke with a hand missing and was also the bloke who sent me on my first European trip.
Dave Clarke was the foreman fitter who now runs his own garage in Hull
Johnny Mann is still doing European and is on for N&B
Do you remember the Wilkinsons who did the shunting?
I was talking to Manyy on NSF the other week.
He still needs a haircut
And a wash.
magnum mark:
Robbies Dad:
Wheel Nut:
I knew a lot of the MAT people from the workshops to the higher echelons of the planning department.Joe Fuller was the bloke with a hand missing and was also the bloke who sent me on my first European trip.
Dave Clarke was the foreman fitter who now runs his own garage in Hull
Johnny Mann is still doing European and is on for N&B
Do you remember the Wilkinsons who did the shunting?
I was talking to Manyy on NSF the other week.
He still needs a haircut
And a wash.
Hullo Magnum Mark,
That’s a really uncalled for remark, I have’nt seen him for a couple of years , but I’ve known Johnny Mann for nearly 40 years, right back to when he was a Fitter ( a brillliant fitter). Yes he chooses to wear his hair long, that’s his choice, but you could never say he was dirty. That’s not correct. And to the other bloke, Yes I remember very well the Wilkinsons, they were from Holme on Spalding Moor, the old man was Alf Wilkinson.
Cheers, Archie.
good bloke john mann .do any thing for you. stil doing europe not many from the mat day still doing it.
Thank you very much knowall, for filling in some of the names for me, my old memory is not what it used to be, and I am only 66. After reading your post, I googled Ronnie Barkers name and rang him yesterday Sun 27th June to put him in the picture, he was celebrating his 76th birthday. I dont keep in touch, even though he lives in Harwich and me in Colchester. I last seen him in April at the Tolemans reunion. It,s funny how 4 of ex-Mat Harwich drivers, ended up at Tolemans, that was another great job.