Carlc:
You are right Matman it has gone quiet on this site considering how many people were involved with MAT throughout the country.Cliff
Thanks all, I enjoyed reading all the posts on here, bringing back some memories of names I’d long forgotton from the Hull office and I also remember they guys in the KG dock office at Hull, Dave, Pete, Steve H etc.
I worked in Glasgow in the mid 80’s based at Muirhead. I left before they moved to Stepps.
Happy days.
Hi mizT was Archie the manager during your stay there? I called in at the Stepps office was it Buchanan business park? Archie and two women ran the office was one called Carol?
ricka
Yes it was Archie who was Manager for many, many years. I’ve been good friends with Carol for 25 years now !!
Hi everybody…I am Carl Dixon. Thought I would pipe up on the MAT thread…or should I say Mat Fleet, or even Matdamar?
I worked in:
Mat Hull 1973/76
Jansen en Meijer 1976/77
Mat Hull/Tirtrans 1978/80
Mat Fleet Hull 1980/1981
Mat Fleet Milton Keynes Equipment control 1981/82
Mat Fleet MK UK traffic desk 1982/84
Mat Fleet MK Continental traffic desk 1984/86
Trailer Pool (London)1989
I moved to MK from Mat Fleet Hull traffic office as equipment controller, but was shunted into a traffic operating position in the early 80’s. Never done it before in my life, but Derrick Heron and John Hields showed me the ropes. I worked on the container and tilt side which were separate using Harwich/Felixstowe /Dover and Folkestone. Circa 1984 I resided on the continental traffic desk and learnt that aspect of the operation until I moved out into broadcasting. Things got complicated and I joined TrailerPool, after a short spell at Polar Express and a satellite/cable broadcaster. Trailerpool wished to relocate back to Hull, which at the time seemed exciting. It was not, as they wished to reduce the headcount which I objected to, so I helped recruit the staff and left without a job.This time heading for Sky Television, where I have been for 24 years this year!
From memory some the UK drivers were: John Bowen, Jim Raistrick, Steve Blakey, Geoff Scott, Patsy MacMahon, Charlie and Eddie Creed, Trevor Tuckey, John Tack, Colin Standford, Chrissie Newman, Barry Milsom, Charlie Diver, Neville Johnson, Charlie Edwards
Continental drivers; John Pay, Pete Etherington, Angus Suttie, Mick Potter, Steve Blakey (again), Steve Baker, Len Terry, Stan and Les Whitton, Johnny Mann, Tom Greenaway, Bob Patton, Charlie Diver (again), Stan Warnick, Jim Farrell.
It’s a long time ago, and I cannot remember all the drivers names. The circumstances to rejoining MAT after returning from J and M gave me a position in the Tirtrans section in Mat Hull accounts department. My first boss at Mat Hull was the fabulous Bill Wyman who groomed me for my future employment. He was an excellent boss and I have great respect for him.
Rick I only recognise you on here. How are you doing? That was an interesting period when I decided to quit. How things have changed. What ever happened to Andy Peden?
In my spare time I write songs and as you know, I was a big music fan, so actually did a Detroit and Philly session with my Motown and TSOP heroes in 2008. The tracks are for sale on itunes, Amazon, CD Baby etc, so I am the writer/co writer, owner of the works, aggregator, and publisher of the tracks…so all that singing in 1973 had its roots in MAT Hull, when myself and Phil Nolan would run a pop quiz upstairs in the accounts departed for 10p an entry. If anybody is interested in soul/Motown/Northern/Philly go here: bandtraxs.com
Anyway…I thought this was a cool idea to drop by. My early days at MAT were priceless. I enjoyed the traffic operating, but it became stressful. Juggling like that with a pencil and rubber is an art. Looking back, I would have done things different with an older head mentality. I would not like to be a driver with all the traffic problems you had to go through. The drivers should be recognised for that. It is not an easy job…we should be thankful.
All the best…
Carl
Hullo Carl,
We must have crossed paths at Brighton Street, I first started subbing for MAT in 1973. In the Traffic Office I remember there was Brian Perry and Terry (forget his surname, was a bit lame, after a driving accident on Key Transport), John Birtells was in there too. If you look back a bit on this thread you will find a list of the Drivers I remembered. Of course you will remember Cliff Leader. Well he unfortunately passed away just over a month ago. I left subbing for MAT in I think 1977 /78, same time as Dereck Heron and John Healds went off to Milton Keynes.
Cheers, Archie.
Hi Miz T
I can remeber you working for MAT Glasgow. I was based at Manchester and we used to load out of Catarpillar at Uddingstone quite a lot I remember loading out of Lanark once, it was a huge press. I stripped the tilt and the press was on another flat trailer it was parked about 20 ft from my tilt. The mobile crane arrived and got set up and the press was slung to the crane, the crane driver picked up the load and tied to swing the press over my tilt frame because I had only taken the sheet and roof out. I was stood in the back of my trailer waiting to set the skids etc and I could see the crane driver was having trouble slewing the crane to come over my tilt. He pushed the leaver the oposite way and the jib swung out over the car park and the crane tipped over with the press landing on the bonnet of this Austin 1100 and flattened it. The driver of the crane was slung out of his cab and broke his arm and I ended up waiting for hours until the first crane was lifted back upright by another bigger crane. What was the big guy called who also worked in traffic? I remeber being on with Brinks MAT and we had 20ton of coin in a 20ft container and we had a split load. We pulled into the Glasgow depot and I had a guard with me and we sat in the office looking down on the yard and noone payed any attention to it but when the Brinks motor came in the yard to take 4 coin cages out of my box people apeared from everywhere expecting to see gold bullion I bet they were disasapointed that it was only 10p coins.
Miz T:
Yes it was Archie who was Manager for many, many years. I’ve been good friends with Carol for 25 years now !!
Carlc:
Hi Miz T
I can remeber you working for MAT Glasgow. I was based at Manchester and we used to load out of Catarpillar at Uddingstone quite a lotI remeber being on with Brinks MAT and we had 20ton of coin in a 20ft container and we had a split load. We pulled into the Glasgow depot and I had a guard with me and we sat in the office looking down on the yard and noone payed any attention to it but when the Brinks motor came in the yard to take 4 coin cages out of my box people apeared from everywhere expecting to see gold bullion I bet they were disasapointed that it was only 10p coins.
Caterpillar was one of our busiest export/import contracts, we always had trls dropped in there for loading.
I do remember some Brinks MAT loads sitting in the yard and had a picture of the gold in the back, but we knew it wasn’t gold. That just wouldn’t happen these days.
Alistair was the big guy in traffic, I did Imports and Carol did the Exports.
Good times 
Hi Carl,good to hear from you,I was in trailerpool until the end in 2006. Ray Stephens and Ray Elmes were all that remained of the organisation in Hull for a couple of more months after i was given redundancy.Andy Peden was with me until around 2000 when he was transferred to work for Ray Stephens, he now works for a printing company in Sutton Fields.
Archie, the Terry in the traffic office was Roberts.
keep the thread going
ricka
ricka:
Hi Carl,good to hear from you,I was in trailerpool until the end in 2006. Ray Stephens and Ray Elmes were all that remained of the organisation in Hull for a couple of more months after i was given redundancy.Andy Peden was with me until around 2000 when he was transferred to work for Ray Stephens, he now works for a printing company in Sutton Fields.Archie, the Terry in the traffic office was Roberts.
keep the thread going
ricka
Hullo Rick,
Thanks mate, of course it was. Terry Roberts that was him. By the way have you still retained those long flowing locks of yours ? 
Cheers, Archie.
Archie Paice:
ricka:
Hi Carl,good to hear from you,I was in trailerpool until the end in 2006. Ray Stephens and Ray Elmes were all that remained of the organisation in Hull for a couple of more months after i was given redundancy.Andy Peden was with me until around 2000 when he was transferred to work for Ray Stephens, he now works for a printing company in Sutton Fields.Archie, the Terry in the traffic office was Roberts.
keep the thread going
ricka
Hullo Rick,
Thanks mate, of course it was. Terry Roberts that was him. By the way have you still retained those long flowing locks of yours ?
Cheers, Archie.
Hi Archie
Terry Robers was Billy Coopers Brother in Law. I had a great fondness for Terry. Remember when we had to weigh every bloody trailer that we picked up off the dock? Well if it was overweight Terry would always say “do you want to get off” we would say yes and the weigh ticket went in the bin. Bit naughty but helped us out a great deal, on the CB then to find out if the weighbridge was open on the bypass and then mix it with the trunkers back to Manchester. Sorry to see Terry and the old yard man go!!! but Joe and Dave followed on and were a great pair to work with.
Cliff
Carlc:
Archie Paice:
ricka:
Hi Carl,good to hear from you,I was in trailerpool until the end in 2006. Ray Stephens and Ray Elmes were all that remained of the organisation in Hull for a couple of more months after i was given redundancy.Andy Peden was with me until around 2000 when he was transferred to work for Ray Stephens, he now works for a printing company in Sutton Fields.Archie, the Terry in the traffic office was Roberts.
keep the thread going
ricka
Hullo Rick,
Thanks mate, of course it was. Terry Roberts that was him. By the way have you still retained those long flowing locks of yours ?
Cheers, Archie.Hi Archie
Terry Robers was Billy Coopers Brother in Law. I had a great fondness for Terry. Remember when we had to weigh every bloody trailer that we picked up off the dock? Well if it was overweight Terry would always say “do you want to get off” we would say yes and the weigh ticket went in the bin. Bit naughty but helped us out a great deal, on the CB then to find out if the weighbridge was open on the bypass and then mix it with the trunkers back to Manchester. Sorry to see Terry and the old yard man go!!! but Joe and Dave followed on and were a great pair to work with.
Cliff
Hullo Cliff,
Yes you are perfectly right, do you know I’d completely forgotten about Billy Cooper, another good bloke I wonder what he’s doing now. Billy’s Mother used to work down at the Seamans Mission in Goulton Street. Remember we used to go in there for Breakfast sometimes. Talking about those times when we had to weigh off, I had to go down to the Dock to pick up a J&M trailer with those barrels of mud, do you remember those ?, always bloody heavy, to go to Capper Pass, back to the Office, picked up the Delivery Notes, weigh ticket in the bin, only about five or six miles to go, no weighbridges until Newport, so it was safe as houses, off I went. About a week later I got a letter from the Ministry, they were taking me to Court for running overweight, the Bar Stewards had been into Capper Pass checking their weighbridge tickets. I lost money on that particular job 
But still a great plate to work eh ?
Cheers, Archie.
Hi Archie
We never met, as I was admin in Hull, not the transport side. I started in 1973 at 17 years old. I used to see your lorry on site though. Firstly I was upstairs in the accounts department, then we moved into those portakabins on the left hand side on the drive to the rear of the site. I remember Brian Yeardley and at one stage John Shortland on the traffic desks. I never thought I would have been able to do what they did, but I did ha ha. Before we moved to Milton Keynes, I was the equipment controller for a short period in Hull, then did the same in MK. It worked all coming from one traffic office. At one stage we turned the loss making southern operation into a profit. Once I left Trailerpool, that was the end of my freight forwarding/traffic days. The lure of broadcasting was more interesting, but now I wish to pursue my musical interests more than ever. Maybe one day I can earn a crust from it and give up TV, because that has changed tremendously over the last 10 years.
Good to speak to you Archie.
Hi Rick
thanks for the reply. Andy was agood man wasn’t he? I think he was the first person I ever offered a job to ha ha. He said, and asked all the right things. How on earth did MAT fold? I have never been told what happened. What a shame. Changing that logo was a mistake! Do you remember that white company car you had…well that turned up at my Aunties house when my Uncle died. The lady driving it was a social worker married to the guy that worked in Trailerpool. Can’t remember his name, but I think I gave him his job too. Didn’t I keep the rubber mats out the car when you collected it? I never thought that company would have gone. Happy memories there…a good training ground. It was a massive employer. Bill Wyman…great manager. Do you rememebr Bernie Beneson? He was on the Scandinavian desk. Dave Askwith, John Colverson, Pete Dinsdale, Mike Blakestone, Graham Hague, Dianna, Tony Baggaley, Kerry Fulcher…I could go on forever. When I was a junior I used to help Kerry do the post and my tie got caught in the machine and it yanked me down and franked 7p on it I think…
Looking back Rick, Trailerpool needed a traffic op and a fitter specialist in there to make that run smoothly. Understanding the trends of imports and exports, along with somebody who knew the trailers inside out would have been advantageous to MAT. Didn’t they stupidly stop the port control to save money on fitters down at the docks? Ridiculous. They were the ‘Mat police’ down on the docks keeping an eye on the equipment!
Yes Archie, I read about Cliff on this thread. Very sad news. Gary, his son, came down and worked in Milton Keynes in the garage. He was a good man too. I would say hello to Cliff, but remember I was young and just a junior.
Hello Carl D
Tony Myers here, nice to hear from you.
I started this thread over four years ago and its been great watching so many others come on here and share their memories.
We do seem to have had more Northern lads on here than my fellow Southerners - although I was a haulier for MAT for over 30 years, I had worked in Arnold House for four years after leaving school, with spells at Barking as well as holiday relief at Peterborough and Hull.
It would be great to hear from anyone with memories of Barking etc
Great memories, great company.
Tony
Hi Archie,i ran into Billy Cooper recently he’s retired and well.I passed thro Thornton -Le- Dale on the way to Dalby at the weekend. Was this your old stamping ground-a very scenic village.
Hi Tony a good idea to set up this site. I remember your tractors (grey scanias?) coming into the Hull depot, and also at Dover.
ricka
knowall:
Hello Carl DTony Myers here, nice to hear from you.
I started this thread over four years ago and its been great watching so many others come on here and share their memories.
We do seem to have had more Northern lads on here than my fellow Southerners - although I was a haulier for MAT for over 30 years, I had worked in Arnold House for four years after leaving school, with spells at Barking as well as holiday relief at Peterborough and Hull.
It would be great to hear from anyone with memories of Barking etc
Great memories, great company.
Tony
Hi Tony
Are you from the BJ Myers family from the arches in Barking? Is that company also still running from Barking who had light blue Scanias, they pulled for MAT and P Hauser out of MIFT Manchester. I am not sure if they were on Ripple Road. I remeber Chris from Barking depot, what a guy !!! Great thread you have started but it is a pity more of the old MAT boys don’t come on.
Cliff
I remember BJ Myers, their yard used to be on ordanance Rd,above the blackwall tunnel , which is now part of the 02 arena complex. They closed down but iv’e seen a few of their wagons about recently on Ferrymasters so he’s back in the game. Harry carpenter left MAT Cowley to work for them in the late 70’s.
