MY driving and work history from 1980

[peggydeckboy]

After a short while driving i soon became aware of the countryside change and a certain drabness as if everything has been abandoned ,the houses I seen some thatched roofs were of the garden shed type, rough , also old terracotta tiled roofs some missing ,how did I see them I was going so slow in village areas ,I never seen any animals the odd farm ,it all looked every where just like a ramshackle dump just like the war films I use to watch from the late 1950s

We had not seen many people walking about, like normal places not a shop in site we have been driving about a few hours, like schools, or people in villages bus stops cars not seen one, the road narrowed the tarmac had vanished, i thought this is not right ,this cannot be the major route, then out of the blue another truck ,absolutely covered in muck and grime came towards me, that made me feel better ,not as I did not un well just unsure of is this the right road? but if you had seen the road you would have thought no way is the main road you would never believe it. [lots of men who have transited before or middle east men would have ] but I did not have that knowledge yet.

So onwards we went getting more shocked at what we saw as peoples places what they lived in also it was slow going and getting misty, all the damp around ,also being right hand drive ,not the best roads to be on after passing through a few villages i had not overtaken anything ,as there was nothing to overtake it was like no mans land

Nearing a village i came up behind ,what was to me a old railway carriage, I thought bloody hell what is this , no lights, sweet zb all ,it was just like the back of our freight trains [a guards van the old type the roof goes up to a slight arch,] only men in their late 60s would remember them .on the railway in England

I could not believe it it was going about 3 miles a hour ,my words were ,!what the zb,as i got closer there was a window in the back, and Jesus Christ ,there were people in it , good job i had my wife with me as i would have still been behind it now, in all I told her she was going to help me overtake this wagon ,that is [what it was ] she was not happy but i could not stay where i was i would just creep out a bit so she would be able to see well ahead ,it was a big responsibility ,i know for her but i trusted her ,so when she was sure it was ok i pulled out slightly and she straight away said its ok and went for it

My god ,it was the oldest type of transport you would ever see a old carriage ,side windows as well ,pulled by two zb ing horses like the “village bus” ,without a bus, full of people it made such a impression on me that i still remember it as yesterday…i new what to expect now.

I could bore you to death about what the country looked like to me ,however no different from any of the non EEC countries in the rest of EUROPE dire they. all eventually want to join us you could not blame them if that was the communist socialist regime they can go zb themselves.

Eventually after finding some hard ground I parked up for the night going around some towns we started to see the outskirts of Belgrade I am sure there was At.i.r .ihad i good idea i would soon come across their TIR route saying TRANSI Ti did not want to Transit i wanted to get to the city so i ignored the signs and carried on at least it looked as the main road went in towards the city, not like most of the communist countries towns and citys with massive TIR routes to keep you well away ,who would want to go anyway i doubt they had thought of that.

Driving through the suburbs on the most god awful roads i kept looking for anything resembling a cold store, kept looking out for types of chimneys and loads of stem or cold air blowing out. i had no idea i was map blind ,i did not have one ,soon i would have to start trying things to get someone to take me like a Taxi, ,so i parked up on a pice of waste ground, well it all looked like waste ground anyway, i got out, a CMR in my hand with ,”cooling house” haus, cold store, frigo plant,foigofri, ice cream ,anything word related to COLD i could remember from different countries that someone maybe recognise the word, and put it together to what i wanted ,no chance I went into like a store with hardly anything in ,they thought I had come form outer space.

After about half an hour i was seriously ■■■■■■ off ,i had smoked about 10 ■■■■ i went off again towards the city the way people were looking they had never seen a new DAF95 before even a trailer as big only a normal 40foot ,even down the roads i was going but i was now committed ,famous last words ,it will be right…

The buildings were getting bigger and more affluent looking, like a city even pavements, shops getting to look normal more motorised traffic, but the thing was not one type of truck transport at all ,i am starting to think i have dropped a bullock here ,now i am starting to twitch, come on police where are you, none ,it is now like me driving down oxford street in London ,but I am here in Belgrade ooh zb

More and more people are around looking staring ,{because they think my wife is driving, as she is their side] no way can i stop i am looking for a taxi rank or police ,nothing ,as i am going forward it looks as if the road disappears into buildings ahead ,Jesus i am imagining the phone call back to the office, "you are where ,"stuck in the MAIN DRAG ,you pillock

Still driving forward and blind and by luck the road turns sharp right as if by magic the road opened out in to a proper width road with wide pavements hops ,flags fountains ,like a massive square trams or buses ,but i should not be there that is for sure. at this time my wife had kept quite, but then she shouts look vic a massive American flag flying just down the road ,i thought ENGLISH SPEAKING i have cracked it ,all will be well,■■

I pulled up outside THE AMERICAN EMBASSY, jumped out. Paper in hand ,making my way to the door, when out of nowhere two men come running at me long flowing grey rain coats shouting some thing, what i don’t know, but i got the drift, and i shouted I am English ,English I am lost ,they stopped and looked stunned ,what ,one said ,i repeated it, all he could say was move the truck ,move the truck, he opened the door thinking it was left hand drive, and my wife sat there ,no steering wheel ,now he was zb ed.

They calmed down and i got in to the driving seat left the door open, and one man came round ,i told him what i wanted and i needed directions as i had no address next thing a police car arrives 2 officers get out the American speaks to them, explains what i want, they nod their heads and jesters for me to follow, and they took me to a cold store the other side of the city, well it was outside the main housing area [it was not as easy as that but i got to the correct one in the end] they let me off for being where I should have not been, no fine ,so i gave them some BENSONS ■■■■. Another day in the life of a fridge man .

RIDER [no doubt all the regular drivers who used to transit Belgrade and use the hotel national maybe would say what a load of old crap ,believe me it was a true as whatever I had never heard of the national as I had never transited that way and I made sure I never went there again

The outside the cold store was rough ground, reluctant to drive on it ,so half blocked the road and went up to the gate type house with a CMR with nothing on it, lots of jabbering on a phone to the office i suspect, and he asked me if i was Dutch, well Dutch, with guttural sounds so i said ya, ya, so he opened the gate and beckoned me in, thank zb for that plus he could not understand how I drive on the right side,I could tell as he was staring at my wife doing nothing a start at least, but when the cab passed him his eyes popped out of his head as he thought my wife was driving …

Thankfully a Dutch[NL] truck was on a loading bay, i knew then that it would be ok. I parked up found the office, one women in it ,and another man ,so i gave them my CMR[blank] and the look back was also blank, with lots of hand gestures like [,what the zb is this, there is nothing on it]
so i calmly said in perfect English ,ENGLISH ,ENGLATTER, no DUTCH, you know how that used to go until one side gives up, like i did .my next best bet would be the Dutch driver ,9 times out of 10 they would speak German, and i bet these people here would,

I looked in the Dutch cab ,not there so got to be in the cold store, so back i go to the office and gesture to go into the cold store for the other driver, etc, NO, i understood was the answer, so zb you to was my reply ,no response, so i go back to my cab and wait, it is now getting dark so it looks as this day is zb ed ,no one came out of the office so i started to get some food, just as workers were walking out of the factory, staring at the cab because my wife was in the driving seat…
They thought

SO after a while we called it a night ,went to bed and thought 6 oclock am would be a good time to get up.
In the grey morning the Dutch man was still on the bay, curtains drawn, so I would wait ,i had no choice, after the first coffee the old bowls needed attention also my wife so we headed in the office door ,towel in hands hoping for a loo ,or even a shower, tapping the office window the women came out of the office ,and was amazed to see another women, she did lots of chatter incomprehensible to us but was smiling ,so that was a bonus, and she shown us to the toilets , 1950s style spread axel and a tap of sorts ,cold water, brilliant.

Once we had finished, and went to the office the flying Dutch man was there, jabbering away in GERMAN well i think it was so i greeted him in my perfect English and handshake ,he must have been one of the very few who spoke little English ,my loss again, in the end i went for my CMR and he understood that was all i had and nothing else, so he kindly phoned up someone it was a Agent

This man arrived I could tell hge was important he had matching clothes like a suit on and a briefcase I gathered he knew about a English load but i was early, he then said to me TIR carnet, well he did not exactly say that but he picked one up and pointed to me by my looks he knew i did not have one ,so more chatter, on the phone, i had no idea what was being said but it sounded like a big problem.

…There was a TIR carnet that was in the type writer being filled in by the Dutch drive ,not the office women
What more could go wrong, the driver was loaded , and doing his own typing i could not believe it when he had finished the women took it next door done whatever gave it the driver backand he said to me his colleague would be here later loading tomorrow, maybe i might see him.

Once on the loading bay i gestured [will i put the fridge on now ]No was the answer so whatever the load is it must be well down in temperature -20 About 4 o clock they come round and tell me to pull of the bay. I do then go around the back and the back is full of sacks. so high from the floor i have no idea how many or how much weight is on the trailer ,so i thought zb ing shut the doors ,get sealed up and get the ■■■■ out of there it was getting dark and i knew ,the Dutch man had told me it was not the best of roads back to the Austrian boarder. But that was my goal and that was what i was going to do…,

Customs men I think they were,they sealed the back doors up ,and told me to go to the office, where the CMR had been filled in, of sorts ,also another man was there with a brief case so i thought he must be the agent he gave me some papers like invoices also one that looked like our T2L and he made it clear it was only to the exit border.lots of stamps on it writing i could not understand.CMR copy taken by him ,the rest for me lots of shaking hands.

I fired the fridge up, set it to minus 10 just to see how long it would take to freeze down. I would stop in half an hour to check it then if ok set it to minus -25 so off we go in the dark into the unknown, well all you ex ME men and commie block drivers would know what the transit road around Belgrade was like ruts like ditches, as it was my first time and with a new DAF every lurch and bump, and the low front of the cab ,i think it was a 36 ATI not a space cab, i could imagine it getting wrecked just on this road . I am sure i went past the Famous Hotel and park place THE NATIONAL .but i had no idea then. I was on the T.I.R ROUTE.

We eventually get near GYOA ,what time i do not remember but I called in a night don’t ask where I parked I have no idea ,in the morning I made my way to the border i knew i needed a agent now i did not know if the paper i had would get me through in to AUSTRIA or if i had to get it made this side so i though i would walk through first ,to see what the crack was and watch the others what they did…always a good move, as the AUSRTRIANS are as ignorant and arrogant ,even worse than the Swiss and they take some beating.

.I was looking for a English speaking agent so i went around the huts, and came up with , only one who did understand what i wanted but no conversation so i left it with them and told them my route home exit , then exit then Germany then in to Belgium at ACCHEN, ]exit Belgium, entry Dover ,agent in Dover was A and G so simple or so I thought as they made my papers up. I paid them with the DKV as i had no Austrian shillings, so the procedure began papers to be placed by different agencies ,police ,customs, etc. all went well until the final customs paper trail, if you have never done it you have not missed zb all if you are wrong they slam the window shut as if you are a bad smell, so you either stay there and tap the window, or meekly slip away and wait until others have done their papers or a shift change, and try to figure out what is wrong.

We retire to the cab like two undesirables , what is wrong ,god knows so we had a brew and i said to my wife ,stay here read or whatever ,i will go alone and try to sort it out…it is only some Austrians they cannot lock you up, i hope.

I have noticed over time that most European drivers from non eec countries are very quite and like subservient with all types of authority they come against so i thought maybe they did not know i was English I stood in line with the others waiting for the window to be opened just enough for the dirty yellowish curtains to be pulled back as they look at you as if you are from a different planet, as my time came i hoped it was not the same man ,who ZB me off before , my time came, the curtains pulled back the window open i put my papers in the window the curtains closed, next thing i know my papers are flying out of the window with a load of abuse ,i thought right ZB this
,i picked my papers up ,banged on the door they opened the door ,and i threw the papers back in ,with the most verbal abuse you would hear i went mental ,i lost it, i remember calling the one at the window the most god awful names, i kept saying English .someone had picked the papers up and was shouting at me raus, raus, so out i went but stood at the window and the other drivers there just kept quite every one looked gob smacked .i knew i was playing a daft game as they could really keep me there .

Eventually one of the customs men came out of the Smokey office leaned on the door flicked his fingers at me as if to say ,“yes you come here” and kept kept pointing at the papers on the CMR where it stated what the product was inside the truck, they could or would not understand the Yugoslavia meaning word for the product ,well the product was SWEET-CORN,

Now how do i say sweet corn, i remember saying "green giant "that was popular then as it is now ,and they wanted a sample of the product, but they would not undo the seal or reseal it, why ,god only knows ,so there, now i had learned one of the most important lessons i have ever learned about haulage , keep a sample of the load. IF POSSIBLE

I moved away from the window, i thought i have done it know, they will just ZB me off and wait

[paul_who]

I’m enjoying the post DBP, your memory is much better then mine. I loved the phrase " it’s a different life not a job " , where did that come from? .

[peggydeckboy]

Well PAUL WHO,who knows,it was truly a different life,most peoples problems are self inflicted,the driving was one, no forced anyone to do it however for me ,i can only talk about me,it was not normal to your ,like ,when i was at ■■■■■■■■ home every day at a certain time the usual routine, what we did,especially fridge work [meat].not just me hundreds,well, a lot ,was the total opposite, i expect we liked getting zb about, but did not know it.
.
To me it was no different than being on a ship,you were there,you did as you were told, and got on with it ,i lot of ex service men took to the job .dbp.

[peggydeckboy]

Back at the cab i had calmed down had had a brew and thought how do i find out what sweet corn is in AUSTRIAN i knew i did not have any in tins or any loose product on the trailer that had got on the bumber back bar it would have been long gone by now i needed someone to translate one word. I walked around the trucks and they were all kinds of reg no EUROPEAN

I decided to walk,not far ,to the Yugoslav side just to see if someone would translate sweet corn to Austrian. and there to my relief was a Swiss truck, not my favourite people, however at that time they were ,i just hope he spoke English. it was one of them low loaders yellow and grey paint job.a American truck a low loader.

I knocked the cab door and hope to god he was not asleep, luckily he was not and i said in good ENGLISH excuse me mate ,yes the mate bit, etc, etc any chance you could translate this word etc etc he looked at it ,and i told him in English it was sweet corn i drew a head of corn on paper for him ,and he got it straight away and said the word MAZE!!

you could have blown me over, MAZE yes that what it is i went back to the original agent and wrote down MAZE, they then got it and changed the wording on the papers and CMR ,i told my wife it is ■■■■ or bust ,and i went back to the queue in the hall ,the hall was full of smoke it never left ,as there was no ventilation atall only the door ,all different kinds of ■■■■ ■■■ smells, but you got used to it.

My time came to the window the curtain came back the window open, i put my papers in and i had wrote MAZE in big zboff of letters on the back of sheet of paper A4…next minute out comes a customs man big grey coat ,and the sealing pliers he jesters me to follow he has my papers as well we walk to the truck he puts another seal on gives me my papers and the yellow card, and gesture me to go ,with a verbal ZB OFF in Austrian, i say" cheers old pal" so next the border would be easy…I had no trouble going in to GERMANY to be honest I have no recollection of a tank shine, I remember they measured the tank and dipped it I needed fuel that was for sure a shell garage was needed or desperate I could use the DKV I was headed to Graz ,Suben Frankfurt Aachen, Zeebruge filled up who knows where

After a 2 shifts+ of driving ,it ended up I was chasing to catch the Zeebruge ferry, it was about 1.300 KS from MARRIBOR believe me it was good to get into Belgium get cleared and up to Frigoscania Kings Lynn, believe me it did not go as easy as that however the cold store knew I was coming , a hand ball load to unload, [not by the drivers] a lot of frozen imports go to Frigoscania depots for storage, and redistribution all over the uk

Once unloaded I had a good job sweeping all the loose maze from the floor in to some bins the put the bins up to the back of the trailer by fork lift and you just filled them up, I got a clear signature on the cmr that was the main thing the weight was wrong by about 2 tons they put 18,00ks on the cmr but when I weight on the weigh bridge I was well over nearly 40 tons my tare about 17,000 with meat hooks,no pallets diesel so they got a good load thank god I never got pulled coming out of Dover

Once I had left the in Bedford and took the car home truck ,and it is all forgotten , all the ■■■■ ,the Hassel ,short sleep ,no sleep, agro ,it all makes the job of a fridge driver ,well ■■■■ really, but we all do it again and again, why god knows, because we were drivers.

The best trucks ,eye catching to be correct, were mostly fridge companies and drivers trained to work like owner drivers , now after a time i look back and think , why did i not get out of the fridge game and drive a beat up old truck on dry freight around my local area.or European honestly i cannot answer that question I expect i liked what I did .

After enough time back home to get the washing done, the truck i was driving was somehow on market work, evening and nights when I got back to it, I was waiting for the phone to say go and load here or there for export but it did not seem to come ,maybe I had zb up and they are not telling me so after time i was getting fed up i asked to speak to the boss about why no European for me,i was told that he was in a company merger with Pulleyns transport reading and they were doing most of the meat and export loads…

I did know a few of the Pulleyn,s drivers you would meet up at different places and they always seemed to be a happier bunch they always spoke of the boss Adrian Pulleyn as a real nice man. to cut a long story short, a merger went ahead between Rokold and Pulleyn, not many of you new that, and it did not last that long ,i have no idea what so ever why ,and i did not care either way. not my business

Rokold at the time had built a good new fleet and they were having a depot built ,well units were there at Bicester and they used the premises’ as a office /depot a large /fuel tank was installed as the company had grown to maybe 10 +drivers and trucks also lot of room for parking however
Many trucks were there at the same time

A lot of the work was a lot of “short hop” bus route I used to call it work from Belguim Holland all cold store work, frozen vegetables ,chips, a lot of empty running back over to load ,it got as we would do 3 trips a week, tip and load ,start Sunday night ship over empty knock your nuts out to get the trips in ,i used to love it if when you got back on your 2nd trip to load and the product would not be ready, un till the next day it meant you got a proper nights sleep. you would not believe how your sleep was broken up if you have never done the job, of course some of the younger lads loved it.
Alot of the loads were hand ball ,not on pallets as it added nearly a extra ton however some of `the trailers we were now using were new light weight, no meat rails eventually also a dividing partion that flipped up in the roof for loading frozen and fresh goods they had like ventilator opening so as you could let the frozen air in to the back section to be for fresh products

Before that system there was a large air blow up part ion like a massive blow up bed that went from one side of the trailer to the other
It I had carted it around in a trailer box for another drive to be used I never used it my self however I have seen loads when they were split with the blow up partition that is where your new long daf air line was to be used from your air tanks or have someone get close to your rear doors and use their air or drop your own trailer pleased I never had to use it .

,There were about 5 of us on the short runs ,not as easy as you would think, you had delivers in England maybe more than 3 delivers [timed ] up to Leeds cold store in the fruit market it was non stop believe me, what i did not think about at the time but i had about 20 years age difference to the other drivers, a lot had not long passed the test, “first jobs” lucky to have a newish DAF ,good kit to work with so they loved the mad rush and tare and pace of the job some of the drivers you knew would not stick it as they had” home lives,” and could see the drawbacks of European haulage .

[peggydeckboy]

Dover was at that time a massive meeting point of all euro drivers non stop ferries like buses from CALAIS .
You would get to know men of different companies every one would know of some one who knew some one from a certain company and the lies were rife about all drivers doing this and that, running bent was the main game drivers would be in “THE WHEEL HOUSE” the clearance customs cafe bar ,rest room, a melting pot of European talk, ■■■■■■■■ ,bragging rites, other companies work truck drivers and of course the beer…

We all ended up in there once off the ferry, the parking was manic, us fridge drivers tried to park together out of the way but that always went ■■■■ up, dry fright drivers would park close then at night try to switch the fridges off ,the noise it got as a bloody nightmare.

Lack of sleep was the drawback of the job, it was a good job we were paid a salary as they could not have paid you the actual hours you worked ,it just meant if you had 3 days off at home you convinced your self you were getting paid for being at home but the real truth was it was for nothing ,pennies.

BUT !we got to drive new DAF,s AND SCANIAS , with lovely paint work ,chrome wheels, trucks driver would dream, also the trailers were very smart
If you stopped to think about it, you would not have done it ,i liked the long distance and i made that clear in the office many times, weekends away, not a problem for 3 weeks but then time home at least 2 full days.

One night i was unloading in Covent garden fruit market ,and one of Pulleyns’ drivers was also there ,we got chatting, i told him i missed doing the meat, and though no more about It once we were unloaded we would get back from the market run get back about 6 in the morning ,go home and wait for the phone at 5 pm for the nights run instructions.

While i was in bed PULLEYNS had rang ,and asked me to ring when i was up, that i did and spoke to Adrian the boss ,he offered me a new daf, 36 not used ,a fridge trailer for meat loads , he also had tilts for dry freight that would be used if the meat work ever dried up .would i be interested .on condition was i was to give my months notice but on no account what so ever tell anyone where i was going to work and not to tell Mr East, so i agreed .

So the rumours started once I put my months notice in, where was i going, everyone thought it was ACH i never let on at all. but I started the rumour Untill the very last minute of my time at Rokold .

.ROKOLD had been good to me ,starting me out on Europe I really appreciated it, I was loyal for a few years, however ,the reward ,cash wise was not what you would have thought for the work time also all the other drivers not just me ,however I am talking for only me,! No one ever complained to me about the wages.

My leaving Rokold was, going to me, be a change in the loads and places i would go to .I was fed up with loading from cold stores, then unloading maybe 3or 4 delivers to supermarkets, all silly timed delivers ,to be honest it was like being a van driver but with a 40 foot trailer, sorry not for me ,
.
On my getting back to the depot on my last trip my instructions from the office was to telephone Mr EAST at home to let him know what time i would be in the yard at Bicester, that i did i got back about 6 pm drove around to the fuel pumps and started to fill up most of the fleet were in ,all parked up like soldiers like most companies, clean i thought i am not going to wash down not today as sometimes you could get into the yard at 5p m and still be there waiting to wash the unit down at 7 pm not unusual,

I am thinking i will get away quick, just as i had finished ,fuelling in drove Mr EAST, he casually wanders over and we started chatting he was thanking me for what i had done and i replied with the same words thanked him for the opportunity[I never mentioned when I started he wanted rid of me ] i said i will park up now robin and get away , I parked ,first shunt no messing,it was tight when all the trucks were in there so i breathed a sigh as i had not had any dings. scrapes, accidents for a while .

.I am getting my bedding and gear in the car ,i never carried as much just lately, as it was lots of local work [euro]and you did not need it ,when I finished i thought right ,time to say bye and hope he does not ask me where i am going .as i will tell him the truth .i never did lie to him ,yes the office but not personal to him so we are shaking hands.

He said so i hope you are happy at A.C.H.YOU ARE ALLWAYS WELCOME HERE .so i thought ,and i said who told you i was going to A.C.H ,”the office” he said, i told him oh no ,not ACH.I i am going to Pulleyns he turned and walked away, he went ballistic, unprintable, he walked over to the shutter doors and kicked them ,zb brilliant!,. I thought now you know what it is like being lied too, so i get in the car and make off but i thought zb-it i stopped, got out walked over to where he was and said to him mr East i can work wherever i like i do not need your permission. He said yes i suppose ,you are right and i walked away I knew I never owed him anything I had done my bit.i never did ever seen him again.

Before I do pull the ROKOLD PLUG , some of the loads were “different ”one load I was tipping in Glasgow fruit market with instructions to ring the night man whenever I was empty, that I did, he gave me orders to go to OBAN he gave me the address with words they are expecting you today ,another long day to come then when I got there, not a lot to be seen as a factories it was a tourist place I drove down the sea front and eventually came to a quay with trailers parked up another sigh of relief i pulled up and there were fishermen types around so I asked one of them if he knew so and so ,yes he did he would ring them.

Not long after they showed me where to back in up to a old trailer parked up they told me to open the doors then go and sit in the cab and when they were finished loading they would tell me ,great ,head down ,
It was about 5 hours later I had been well away, it was dark they said come to back and have a look before we shut the doors up, well zb me plastic sacks full of what looked like shells and water in them ,is all i could see they told me it was old scallop shells .and it stank of ammonia
It was overwhelming .

Once I arrived in France near LYON in a old quarry, the unloaders were going to wear gas masks, when I opened the door the smell was overpowering again I was told to go to the cab,they were just throwing the sacks out in a massive heap about 15 tons worth.

WASHING OUT at a firms wash took me ages the fridge stank the only way to clear the smell was to dry the fridge completely and try to find some vanilla smelling powder, like custard powder. one chap understood English ,he knew what I wanted and he took me to a bakery. they had none so I got some bleach from a super market and made do with that, no ideal but it was better than ammonia.

ANOTHER return load job was from Alba ,Italy I have no idea whose work it was, from Ferrio rhocha chocolates the loads went back to Rotherham and also south Wales The crack there was getting chocolates you were not allowed, there was a shop but they never let you have a lot of chocs.

One day there loading ,I watched a man pushing a green bin on wheels out side near where we were the bins you see over here for paper and cardboard ,my magpie instinct got the better of me so when he went I went ,and it was jack pot it was only full of the plastic trays that you buy in the shops but the lids were cracked so for the dump, as I dug deeper the bigger ones were also there ,the plastic bags from duty free came in very handy ,i only told a few others about the find and yes you can get fed up with chocolate .

My start with Pulleyns was when they were still down by the canal in Reading then they moved to where they are now 3 mile cross, and i will say most of my time was very happy there lots of good experienced drivers, the best of trucks anyone could have to drive also top of the range trailers ,it was and i hope now a very good company to work for all though, i went there twice

I could go on for ever about the loads we did and we went everywhere in Europe you never new from one month to the next where you would be going ,Russia was the talk, Fransens had not been there yet, not many went to Russia back then, not fridges the odd one maybe I did not know about the dry fright companies that were going there, I am talking 1989 there was one from queensbrough on the island that did Moscow the name eludes me road trains

More than once i have shipped out solo, unit only, from Poole to Cherbourg to pick up another new trailer from CHEROUE fridge trailers from Avanranches with all the new meat rails fitted in them to also large side trailer boxes big enough to put 20 pallets in the tilts were the best ,sliding roofs steel coil carriers

As a company they were so clewed up on EUROPEAN HAULAGE it was a pleasure to work for them .
When you first started you would be given £1000 in travellers cheque, all drivers were the same and you would take your night out allowance out of that every day. it was also for any expenses incurred by you for the load or truck so long as you had receipts it would be ok. i never once had any problem ,however they did get one or two know all ,fly by nights manage to get work the but they did not last long. you would see some change the travellers cheques at Dover in to sterling the post the cash home ie their night out money, and hope they never needed a large sum for whatever reason, a few come unstuck.and fiddling expenses was a no ,no,… no need if you wanted anything you would ring up and it would be ok , you would pay it back later.

I could go on for ever about all the different meat loads i did from the UK and Europe some went fine and some a pain in the arse, if you all ways told the truth no matter what happened while at Pulleyens and you were correct they would back you up.

When the French farmers were playing up they would keep us working out of HOLLAND OR Germany we did whatever we were told to load as we had all the right equipment we even had the european meat rails in the trailers so that when you backed up to the loading bay we had the connectors that clipped on to the hanging meat rails inside of the abattoir so it meant that the meat would be pushed out of the cold store straight on to the meat rails inside the trailer, no lifting like every where else in England." and we would then just exchange the meat hooks that would be pushed back on to the trailer ready to load again it was then the best thing for a meat trailer we also had room in lockers under the trailers if the hooks had to come out of the trailer

THE unloading or for us the loading of meat from a abattoir, every carcass no matter what had to be manually lift off the hook in the abattoir carried then put on a hook within the trailer all meat it was a time consuming job however it had always been done that way until some clever European decided that lifting was the wrong way so they had different hooks to us in the uk

They had round meat rails in the abattoirs also round meat rails in their trailers where our uk meat rails were like a t piece of steel up side down and the hooks only come of if you undid the holding bar at the back of the trailer above the door

It meant, on the round meat rails the meat hooks could be pushed any where there was a round rail when you looked up to the roof/ceiling of ant abettor it was a mass of pipes and steel ,rails it looked like a rail track shunting area in and out of the chill rooms ,so when the trailers were backed up to the loading bay there was a small gap from their rail to the trailers so someone designed a joining piece about a 18 inches long that fitted the trailer rail and the abattoir rail then the meat would be pushed straight on to the trailer no lifting and quick loaded, why did we in the uk not get on board with the easy option ,there were two joining pieces with every meat trailer and they were like rocking horse ■■■■, the trailers meat rails would not be changed because home market preceded export. good old fashion no change its been fine years let every one do all the lifting of the meat .we have done it this way for years.

Some meat hooks were called Christmas tree hooks ,these would be hooks that would carry 12 pork legs on one hook and that would hang from the rail in the roof of the truck all meat trailers had stops that would be clipped down to stop the actual full hooks sliding up and down .

, If you were to heavy on the steering wheel when turning or roundabouts they all got swinging you then new about it and you sure took note ,and watched the road for camber changes and sharp bends, it was ok in Holland .as not so many sharp bends etc

Most times it would be around Paris, where you were constantly fighting the traffic but still right hand drive we had a advantage of being able to see the ■■■■■ that what they were they had no idea what you had on ,the trailer did not move around like lift the wheels up that never happened but you knew what was happing inside all going swinging together you got used to it.

I loaded Bull meat ,not cow or steer from a abattoir in northern Germany,[called a slachtoffer] i rang the office to tell them i was ready to leave I was very heavy c m r said 22 tons well in kilos it was 44 tons gross in Europe.
The middle rail was empty [the wonders of ,how do the meat rails hold up] just to confirm ,the worst thing a driver can do is take it in to his or her own hands to decide which way to go when you have a option of different routes on a outward bound journey as for the veterinary clearing border compounds , the paper work also has preferred crossing places .

Return loads was normally up to you however .I was told go via Paris for some reason to clear in AOSTA the long way round they, the exporting company did not like their loads going down through GERMANY all though we loaded in northern Germany [oldenburg area] the most direct route was make your way to the BRENNER PASS, over and down in to VIPPATINO, compound ITALY and clear, it is the other side of the Brenner pass, the problem was the veterinary, [meat doctors]in the auto port for some reason they had a habit of too long a inspection ,that was what I was told any way, did I care NO all meat trucks no matter where they were loaded from had to leave the centre rail in the fridge empty so the VETS could and would walk down inside the load in the trailer and check the whole load of meat why ?they were the only country to do it.

The route was out Germany, Karlsruhe, Strasbourg ,Mulhouse Besancon, Bourg en Bress Nantua, skirting Genève, Cluses, a long route from GERMANY to ITALY let alone Mt Blanc[my memory may be a little out in direction but that was the way-ish.] all was well untill around Bourg en- Bresse, there was a farmers protest ,the roads were blocked many, many trucks all going south and that was us all ZB ed, so you just stuck with it moved a bit then some more, but no distance the main thing was to make sure you had diesel for the fridge at the moment i was ok, however you would be able to syphon diesel from your tank into the fridge so long as you had the pipe etc ,i did have the kit…

Having stopped and started we crept slowly on through Nantu then duel carriageway after 2 days we were now slowly heading towards Cluses masses of trucks, my fridge was ok.purring away at+1 all good,

[[[ i all ways had plenty of food, i also had a pressure cooker, i had potatoes,carrots, cabbage,onion,main oxo cubes,i would buy meat from a supermarket and i have been known to be going through a village a spot a butchers ,stop,run back and get what i liked the look of , so all was good for me " i would boil bacon with cabbage in the cooker, i had flour,milk, i would make pancakes ,and use them as yorkshire puddings jams,tinned meat ,to be honest there was no end what you could do with one gas ring ,i had contrary to safety, a 5 kilo gas bottle in the passenger foot well, a small table that had 2 flat hooks that clipped in the front air vent at the bottom of the windscreen.
I used to hear men say [i never cook in the cab etc] however they would never refuse a feed or just a cup of tea. opened the windows ,and i washed the cab curtains i when week ended while some went on the ■■■■,well i would later,i did like the beer ,but only weekends.]]] back to the road.

The office were well aware of what was going on you just had to stick with it to be honest i did not mind it at all, another night went and come round ,i had given up walking up and down the ranks of trucks again no movement one thing these old French farmers do not zb about. No one came and knocked my door that was a good thing I was not one of theses men who needed to be with others.i expect I was getting good at avoiding others.

Once into Cluses parking was nightmare, you were better off on the old road but every where was chocker block so i just followed the bloke in front when he stopped i did ,there was not going to be any quick exit everyone was blocking every one in, if you have not ever been like that you just have to chill. you will get out in the end.
You will then be moved up to the parking area by the sky slope that had been opened .what a god send that was Then the police will let trucks out of the at there leisure as there was no farmers here blocking the roads up.it was just a mass of volume of trucks,

I do not remember the whole length of time lost but it must have been around, 4 days, the fridge was going ok i was ok just follow the leader ,creeping up slow time ,when i eventually got to the top, the last french pay phone, i thought i would phone the depot ,they were fine ,instructions were “keep us posted” i had 4 delivers ,2 in Milan market one Bologna and the last in Forli-in-pola i new where the market was and the last one but BOLANGA never done that before .

Once i got through slowly, slowly ,done the customs at the top then followed the snake down the mountian, it was low gear most of the way ,easy on the brakes that was for sure. Eventually i pulled in to the auto port in AOSTA ,with the airfield across the road ,i did manage to get parked on one of the vets inspection bays that was lucky still no other English trucks around at all some Southern IRISH they were fine but kept to themselfs.

My papers were put into the agent as with the masses of others so it was just wait they were generally cleared within 4/5 hours however the auto port was full of trucks so it could be the next day and it was it would be lunch time around 11 am was the normal about 9/10 o’clock the parade of vets and customs me would start cutting seals on the doors and another man would open the rear door ,then move away so GOD, the vet ,could just walk in to the load and do his bit.

,It was no use hanging around standing watching them the looks would be enough they were the men and ladies of importance.[jumped up ,never come down, ■■■■■■ Hanging around the truck it would make no difference to the clearance time or whatever ,so it was feet up in the cab and dose or read , it was amazing no matter what sleep you had you would bet that within a few minutes reading ,feet up ,you would be away with the fairies snoring ,i must have dosed off as the sound of trucks woke me up ,the clock said i have, had nearly 2 hours kip ,jesus, i jumped out, half asleep.

I made my way to queue up at the agents door with all the other hopefuls these agents were the new gods ,it all depended on them, they would have a stack of paper work on the desk that you could see, and they would shout out truck numbers then your papers would be handed to you after you had paid unless your company had a account with them ,[i never did pay any agent in Aosta [all i worked for had accounts].

So i waited and waited until they were getting up from the desks to put their coats on,[not a good sign] so i asked .excuse,ee and her the companies name .and a women looks at me and does the look of ,what the zb are you saying speak ITALIAN.and a banter goes on between 2 office workers, papers are picked up ,put down ,arms are out stretched ,all the gestures, that said to me, Mr you have a problem.

That was my next expletive word, in English ,i asked, is there a problem with my truck and load ,after time the answer was ,yes there is, and you will have to wait, so i ask what is the problem ,and they reply [VETENIARY],with outstretched arms as if to say ,ZB all to do with me…so i say problem FRIGO!! temperature ,and the reply was no ,nnono. paperie.[paper].or ZB off …they say to me go back to the truck for another inspection, vet…

I am not the only fridge left, but all that was overnight with me have gone, after a while the door open gang are standing around a sort of pointing at my fridge and sort of giggling, so with the packet of ■■■■ i sunter round and say to them ,HEEY MISSTER PROBLEMEO WITH FRIGO

[[in my best broken stupid Italian I detest doing the trying to speak English with a foreign accent some drivers used to do it all the time and think they were smart, when they do it times I have to walk away.]]

One starts smiling and says to me ohh lee,o,LEE,O, i have no idea what he is on about so i laugh with him give him a ■■■ and walk away and he shouts me again in a laughing manner MR,
points at the truck and says leeo lee,o, and laughs again ,i have no idea what is going onabout the fridge is still sound +1 ticking over ,the gas is good as i had checked it, i could see the bubble in the sight glass so as far as i am concerned all is well plenty of diesel…

I have all ready rang the office and told them the score and will ring as soon as i find out in the mean time maybe they said they could ring the agent office ,that would not do a lot of good as they do not want to try to speak English ,well you cannot blame them can you.

At 4 o clock the “fridge door openers” are at the back door and there is a posse of white coats at the back of the fridge ,and I mean 3 men one women ,as if they were going operating on the meat.and they had face masks on After 2 mins papers in hand doors closed one of the agents me calls me and says follow him to the office…
i will not try to do this in Italian however it was very dramatic for them, the basic story is=

When the first lot of meat was slaughtered in GERMANY IT WAS PUT IN COLD STORE UNTILL A LOAD WAS READY, each carcass has a eec stamp on it and it is recorded by date ,and apparently fresh hung meat is allowed only 21 days to be fridged and transported from the date of slaughter.
it must be used by the date shown on the dated health certificate the hold up in the journey down ,by the strike a lot of the meat had gone into the 21st days and some was over, and the importer did not want it now, so it was going to be sent back to GERMANY OR THE PLACE OF ORIGIN or to a cold store and be used for meat to feed the ZOO. AKA LEEO THE LION… NOW I KNEW
The agent had been in touch with the office and the balls have been rolling ,and it was to go to the cold store in MILANO at MELZO. I knew it well all you fridge men will also know it.

So papers sorted i eventfully got on my way and to the cold store to unload the next day, when the doors were open there was a smell of meat going off that was for sure, thank god i did not have to help but i knew a very hot wash would be needed to get the oddur,PLUS SOME BLEACH, it was not a pungent as the fish smell. so i would have to find a haulage yard with a hot water wash, another problem?. A office worker spoke very good English and he sorted it for me…another eventful trip.
I do know that of our beef especially scottish beef is supposed to be better when hung for at lest 20 od days matured yellow beef fat on the outside however the rule was the ITALIANS .

[peggydeckboy]

Pulleyens as a transport company had some very good work ,anything anywhere you never knew from one week to another what you would be doing or where you would end up, the whole of EUROPE WAS THEIR WORK PLACE and of course good back up, TOP OF THE RANGE trucks and trailers as a driver for me to say there was not one thing wrong with PULLEYNS transport ,you could not fault it and the new yard was all you needed.

The dry goods work was as good as the fridge work the TIR tilts had all the mod cons you needed you were able to load any load thrown at you ,there were wells in the floor for carrying steel coils up to 20 ton one coil, side bars for loading steel bars ,lots of floor hooks, for straps to be tied to and best of all sliding roofs, now if you have never stripped a tilt down and rebuilt, you never forget how to do it.

None of you curtain side trailers with clips ,like now days all though. with a sliding roof you are in heaven .If you dropped a fridge trailer in the yard or any other trailer or even a small van anything you could guarantee that all trucks trailers would be in the most immaculate condition as you left it they had their own full truck wash ,all serviced in the workshops.

One of the main sources of work was from Basingstoke, for dry,white goods, there could be a small camera that was needed in the anywhere and a van or small truck or even a 40 foot trailer would do the job more often some of the younger men on the small stuff would get as much flight time as driving as soon as the deliver was made if not needed to race back one driver would fly home.

They also had their own low loader I did a few loads with it mostly down in to France to AiR-ESPATIALAL in TOULISE where `they built Concord it was oversize for parts for the massive front loading cargo plane called the [Guupie] or similar name 1992 ish we did drive right in to the hanger it was unbelievable to see such a thing up close.

One job was a classic it was the yearly MONTREUX festival in Swiss everyone driver available was on it , they used to hire a warehouse outside the town and men would be there all the time unloading and loading Pulleyns men ,goods to go to the large exhibition centre, all drivers, warehouse staff would stop in a the hotel even us drivers who brought a 40 ft trailer down you just did as you were told, we were all dressed the same smart PULLEYN TOPS SHORTS /TROUSERS SHIRTS, all embossed when we were told to go anywhere we would all have to drive back through the town all trucks nice and clean

We would all use the small border south of Besancon, Pontillier called [ Vallorb] then ,on to Lausanne Montreux.it was a cracking job,if anyone no matter who upset anyone there they would be sent back home.
They even paid us our night out money when we were in the hotel ,all meals free we would all shower, dress smart then in with the boss in the main lounge and have what you wanted to eat even a sweet and drinks however we all watched the drink as you might all have to drive back to get another load at short notice like ,now…

I did get to travel to some amazing places with Pulleyns Moscow was the talk for a long time ,other firms were doing dry goods and the Dutch ,Danes etc were doing fridge work but hardly any from the UK, Fransens had not yet started to go to Russia yet.

I did some Poland for them that was not as easy and good as you would think as it was still the classed as east commie block ,also East German was still GDR. i was in WARSAW after the Berlin wall came down, i have one entry stamp for the .G.D.R and no exit stamp as it all collapsedwhen I was unloading I did get caught up in the mass exodus of all the east Germans and their old smokey beat up [trIbants] cars the people had never been outside their towns and city ,it was manic.

Good job i had my own food and water it was 3 deep in cars for as far as you could see people were just stopped anywhere on the roads ,the fumes from their old cars was choking kids all climbing on the truck steps, hanging off the mirrors, it was a unbelievable site however after a time it wore a bit thin ,i had a load of FROZEN PORK BACKS for a well know pie and sausage maker? temperature minus -20/

Them people had never seen trucks like what i had and other Dutch trucks ,i was the only Englishman .that I know off it was not the normal run of the mill run for English trucks [to much hassle] in the end it got to much you just wanted to get away, some of the Dutch and German not G.D.R .started to blow their horns to get a passage through the beat up mêlée of cars i did the same

After hours and hours and hours of non stop we eventually reached the boarder “FrankFurt Oder” luckily there was no customs procedures THE EAST German side was empty, who would ever had believed it they made us all go out on the MILITARY lane up the hill,

The military lane was for all the military going to Berlin and back not civilian

At the top of the hill, now we were in Germany ,who were normally the worst of any police rule enforcers, in Europe for foreign drivers, however they made every truck just keep going, we never stopped anywhere , hard to believe they just pushed us on,and out so it was go for it, the border area was just like a football crowd hundreds of people never before been in to free Germany it was manic,the fumes from, the old two stroke car engines was chocking you could see the clouds of fumes just hanging ,

My route was Aachen and the driver in front was from BELGUIM [ the office had no idea where I was at all ]so following him .knowing the Belgium’s they are masters at running bent and long hours so i hoped he lived up to that.
I just kept on and on the |“old nodding dog” [wanting to fall asleep,] kept creeping up so open the windows at start singing, once you get it that tiredness come over you common séance says stop ,you know you have to have your wits about you or else that will be it, off the road

I would do the most silly things to keep awake ,like having a dry shave ,or wash with out water rubbing your head ,or change your clothes without looking what you are doing ,concentrating of the road ahead ,you try taking your shoes off and drive , try to reach something that is out of reach that was my favourite until it got that it was impossible cab radio full blast ,or tape I only had one as I do not like cab music never have .and of course smoke a lot[this is what I did] it would end up that I was smoking nearly 24 hours ,we started to get on the outskirts of KOLON so i knew we had cracked it, the only thing would be the customs but i new to follow the driver in front and if needed he would tell all .

It must have been about 9 am Monday and the traffic was building that is the last thing you need when you are zb ed, another day gone, when we reached the exit from Germany the barriers were up in the truck lane [I COULD NOT SEE],as i was behind the other truck, he did no more carried on and went straight through ,no challenge nothing at that moment , it was one of those things you would not believe it if you was not there ,however that was the way it was that Sunday ,I did not give two zb s,I was what you called bushed.FATIGUE IS THE WORD. and pulled in to a lay by and crashed out, the tachograph was a mass unreadable lines and stating to crunch up in the head ,I did keep, it as they liked us to run straight but “this was a exception,” it never happened to many uk drivers that weekend.

Again another trip i can honestly say that, the day to day life of me ,i am talking about me only, was never dull ,every day had a “drama” not in the theoretical way , just nothing was ever straight forward ,and i now realise that was the way i liked it it kept you on your toes .

I was always 100% aware of all my surroundings no matter where i was or what i was doing.[just a self observation] now! back then i never realised it, most drivers doing what i did and there were hundreds of us were nearly all same minded.

A few European drivers were the men ,that when they were children they were maybe" hyper-active ,they would just be sleep-less, when they grew up they would become a good asset as drivers to any company as sleep was not their priority.i was pleased to say there were none at that time working for PULLEYNS. running bent was the last thing you did, unless you got asked to then they would take full responsibility.

PULLEYNS had a lot of meat export jobs mostly subbed i would imagine, down to one man who worked in the office i will not name him however he was a Scotsman and had lots of connections and he was brought in to PULLEYNS for that reason, he was there when i started and we got on very well, he did not "suffer fools gladly "

The job i am going to tell you about is 100% true and maybe a bit long winded ,so if you do not want to read it is up to you.

The job was hanging meat PORK , BUT SOW MEAT the big old pig, maybe 4/5 years old very heavy and long they would hang down from the meat hooks and the heads would touch the floor ,so when fully loaded you knew you had got your weight on board,[if the sea was rough the ferry captains would not take you, you had to wait until the sea calmed down ,as there was 20 tons plus swinging around that was at POOLE

The place of loading was a back and beyond place behind Sneterton race track[motorbikes ,cars, etc]in a village called BANHAM, not to far from DISS. NORFOLK.

The abattoir was just outside the village on a country road in the middle of fields, just down the road ,from a proper [ drinking pup called “cider house”] you could see the village church spire from where you were parked for loading, that was about it all for at least 2 miles around, you used to go to the village to tare off at the weighbridge at BANHAM CHICKEN FACTORY then when finished loading back weigh off .
The abattoir doubled up as what is called a knackers -yard that meant they had the licence to kill “anything,” and they did, from horses to donkeys ,bulls, yes i did go into the slaughter house to watch, a very slick organisation ,you name and they slaughtered they had the licences also they did prime pork nice 1 yearold pork ,we all like to eat ,so next time you get big slices of bacon, it is from a old bird ,a sow pig…

Once you were ready to be loaded ,Your trailer would be inspected by the vet for hygiene ,you could used their wash if needed ,however most times we were ready to load, also they had the euro loading system the we just clipped our joining pieces from our trailer rails to theirs in the loading bays, very quick loading, the only draw back was our units are so long a ,twin steer daf 95, also the 40 ft trailer, Cherua,[make] we used to stick out into the road ,only a small narrow road, a car could just get passed anything bigger would cause big trouble, loading would have to stop, = unclip the hooks pull off or try to jack knife around to allow transit, it was a pain. But very rare as most people knew the crack Most loading was early morning or late in the evening .you had just enough room to pull off the bay straight so the doors could be shut then you could drive back on to the bay doors up to theirs

Providing no one was parked next to you there were 3 bays but only one used for export all in all it was a good job, you would load up, do all the weighing off and go out the village way, and the make you way down to Poole you were always booked on the night boat ,[ferry] .sometimes you might have to drive down to the yard or maybe swap over trailers, you never knew ,but it was never a problem, you may have to take your 3 day break .

However they liked to keep the same drivers on a job if all was going good until
it was time for your home time then swapping around would happen that was never a problem for even me all the trucks and trailers were kept very clean.

So if you could you would ship out on the Friday night boat Poole -Cherbourg .Saturday morning off you would drive to either Le-mans or Vanes’ they were regular unloading abattoirs so by early afternoon you would be parked up in the compound by the loading bays suture, to do whatever…

Both places had a brilliant hot wash for the trailer when you were unloaded so you could go and load anything anywhere and we did if you had the blue EEC BOOK[no permits] you knew you would be going down to spain or even down and across to Italy ,if there were loads to be collected by PULLEYNS distance when empty, was never a problem in the end, i just never thought about it just did it it was brilliant. T

Having been on the same run as i have just written about, it did get a bit like i could do with a change and you only had to say and the office would do their best for you this certain time i had my wife with me so we were back loading the pork at BANHAM i ,and also other drivers had got to know most of the loaders and some slaughter men as we were a regular men there and all was good.

As normal on Friday all the same procedures ,loaded ready to go ,i phoned to office and asked them to book my wife on the ferry it was never any problem sometime they might charge me, not all the time so all went well that trip tipped ok ,reloaded frozen vegetables from Belgium back to kings lynn then back for the meat again, all was not ok a delay loading the frozen vegetables meant that i would not be able to load the pork[ just what i wanted] so somon else would and that would get me off the routine for me that was ok

Pulleyns were very good at giving new drivers a chance, a good job some companies did ,they had a new ish driver from MILTON KYNES who i had sort of [the new word is mentored] i was showing him the ropes so they made sure most of time, to new countries he was with someone if there was 2 loads and it was me a lot and he took to it very well ,most new drivers problem is the time away from home, if you want to be home every week do not drive into Europe, well not with PULLEYNS
Some companies do have regular Sunday to Friday runs in Europe but i never have .

I was asked by the office they said do you think he will be able to do the pork run ok, and yes was the answer he was a carful driver no ■■■■■■■■, nice and steady we had done loads of lambs before together ,but pork was a bit different but take his time ,no rush ,yes he will be fine ,end of story…

I get on with my load tip and go else where, my wife has another week with me as i reminded the office ,however if something comes up ,she will not be able to come with me we always get her home as then i lived about 40 miles from reading…

All was going good it was Saturday morning i was loaded from Doncaster ,local ■■■■, for Peterborough dog food, the cab phone rang, it was Adrian Pulleyn ,i thought this is not normal and he said there has been a problem with the meat load from BANHAM he said he has been Hijacked, what ! I replyed and he told me what they knew also he was pumping me as well.

The true story was he half loaded his trailer Friday night and there was a problem with the meat temperature so it would be delayed until Saturday morning it had happened before to me, that was fine so as i said before ,once you pulled off the bay shut the doors back back, again you unit is still on the road, his fridge was running ok +1 so the meat was ok in the trailer and the next bay to him was the local delivery meat lorry, a 4 wheeler that was loaded with the good pork, how i knew as it was al ways being loaded the same time as us and you could see the small young pork, for Smithfield meat market in london.or eles where.

He is sat in the passenger seat of a Mercedes A 2014 pr-select or something like that [at one time there was a lot of Mercedes in the yard]with his feet across the middle area between the seats , in his underpants ,getting ready for bed and his telly going, no curtains drawn as it was as dark as it could get about 10pm.

Next thing he knows there is a baseball bat smashing the drivers window in ,he starts to jump up and the same happens to the passenger window and they are both smashed out, next he is grabbed from outside and he is pulled out of the cab via the window as the doors are locked [normal procedure when parked up anywhere] he is bounced to the ground 2 men grab him and throw him in the back of a van, by the time he bounces inside, the van doors are slammed he is ■■■■■■■■ himself and only in underpants [ he is very slightly built] and the drive him around he does not know where, like over fields so he was getting thrown around like a rag doll, he does not have anything with him at all not even a watch, and he passes out.

It must have been at least a hour ,he wakes up doors left open in the pitch black with no clothes he is very cold, he goes around to the drivers door ,falls in and lays on the hooter with his hands that does not work so he starts shouting and banging ,and after time someone heard him and called the police…it must have been a very harrowing experience ,i know it took him a long time to get over it if he ever did…

The truck was found in a barn in a field near great Yarmouth at least a week after, and all of the meat was still inside all gone rotten as the fridge had run out of diesel…The load was taken and disposed of, the trailer had mega washing out ,the unit repaired they would not have got him out of a DAF cab to high.

The conclusion by us drivers was that it was a inside job, however THEY TOOK THE WRONG TRUCK. The one with the good meat on ,why have I told you this is because it was only by chance that it should have been me and my wife there loading for FRANCE it did not do, to think about .after time it all faded away, however i never went back there to load for different reasons?

I have not named the driver and not many will know about what happened to him ,if by chance he has read this ,or someone knows him well ,ask him to private email me on here thanks.

After about 3 years I had been with PULLEYNS a long term driver went in to the office to work as a traffic clerk years ago it was the natural progress of older drivers to go in the office but this man was not old, however he had been with them from the start-ish ,and he was not my favourite person PULLEYNS fleet had really grown at least 20 units if not more and all the smaller trucks they had a contract with TESCO to bring fresh chicken out from FRANCE and deliver it to all TESCOS hub depots for onward shop delivers ,some of the trucks were dedicated just for that work any overflow and general fridge men like me ,would do the odd load.

. My so called ex best buddy gave me so much local work that in the end ,i just rolled in one day asked to speak to BOB NEDOMER the 2nd boss one of the nicest men you could ever meet and told him my problem with all the local work, but as management they have to back each other up so he said nothing he can do give it time, it will work out i did appreciate what he said and could see his side of the story but my mind was made up, time to go that all happened within a week.

So it was goodbye .if any one was leaving and put notice in they would have to go there and then ,no notice worked ,you would be paid up in full there and then, get your gear and seen out of the yard i do not blame ADRIAN one bit as some one with a grudge could do thousands pounds worth of damage to the fleet ,but we all new the system you were told when you started and if anyone was ever stroppy or threaten anyone drivers or staff ,no matter who you would be escorted off, and you would not mess with the man . Not for me

So now i was slightly zbed I had done it as i had only just started back on my 3 week turn around i had all my gear in to my car and drove away …my own fault but you can only do so many inter cold stores it was like a van boys job some of the lads loved it but they had done zb all before, in transport anyway, and that is the type of driver they wanted now so i was better off away ,or so thought.

I had some cash all my monies due were paid ,and my salary went into the bank to keep the wife and home going ,so it was now down to me to get a job
IT WAS NOW 1990.
I knew in myself i could go and work anywhere on dry goods or fridge haulage on European and the reason for leaving was not nothing to do with conduct or problems I just did not want uk work.

.OPTIONS not a lot ,i had a diary with lots of companies and drivers names and phone numbers, i did not have mobile phone so i had to use the public phones s i will start nearest to my home… nr Banbury,

[peggydeckboy]

IT WAS NOW 1992
I knew in myself i could go and work anywhere on dry goods or fridge haulage on European and the reason for leaving was not nothing to do with conduct or problems I just did not want uk work.

.OPTIONS not a lot ,i had a diary with lots of companies and drivers names and phone numbers, i did not have mobile phone so i had to use the public phones s i will start nearest to my home… nr Banbury,

The first call was to ACH Aylesbury, i did not hold much hope but here goes ,then iRokold .
I spoke to Dennis who ran the office told him my story quick and he said come in the morning 10 oclock David Fowler would see me then ,i thought i wonder if they would remember me, i would have to wait and see,
That day I drove to Aylesbury booked in to a pub for bed and breakfast I could have gone home however at the same time my wife and her sister were in Blackpool looking for a house or bungalow or us .
A.C.H had moved from the village and were now on a factory estate I found that out when I went to the village where they used to be and I was given the address where they were now ,i found the yard ,drove in slowly and seen a visitors parking space and parked.

Dennis was there behind the counter, no handshake. , hello,what can i do for you,
As re- my phone call yesterday i am here to see if you need any drivers, at the moment as i am now not working, finished yesterday at Pulleyns ,please ring their office if you would like ,i did have a misunderstanding with a ex driver who now runs traffic ,and i decided it would not change ,so i thought it would be better for me and the company if we parted and you are my first call,

Well ok he said David will be in soon and he will make the decision, just tell me what you have been doing.
I told him all the countries i ,had been driving to and it was fridge work, and dry goods in tilts special trailers used for European work,and the border crossing etc procedures i knew.even Swiss.

Once Mr Fowler arrived ,[the bosses son] the interrogation began he wanted to know the ins and out of everything i had done connected to transport any this or any of that, accidents damaged ,done by me any insurance claims ,the whole lot any problems with fines abroad with the police ,a through grilling, as this was going on in walked another man his dad ,the boss Mr Fowler, he sat on the edge of the desk listening after time he said, you have worked her before haven’t you , and i replied yes for a short period years ago ,i did not have reliable transport ,He said have you now ,yes was my reply

I have been working 3 weeks away, and then my time off for the last few years and it works well for me and i still live where i did before about 40 miles away, he then said I only employ drivers within a 25 mile radius from here and you are out of that range .
I then replied yes, however i do not mind where i take my weekend brakes at all it can be anywhere ,to suit you, here or abroad.
He then said go and get a coffee from the drivers room on the other side of the yard and come back in 15 minutes that is what i did

Back in the office they asked me to go in and they offered me a job there and then. no particular run or unit to drive ,3 weeks here then 3 to 4 days at home wages were not mentioned ,and it was weekly pay. Kept here when you are not here ,no company ■■■■■■■■ or company book of dos and don’t just do as your told ,and that was that

I was not going to go home so i asked if there was a spare unit i could stay in until i got sorted out with my own and that was ok.
I could not give you the whole rundown of what type of work they had, they had to much to single out, this is what what i did.
they were a very well organised in the equipment they used ,the warehouse the clean trailers and 99% of the units were top range high line sleepers Volvo or Scanai also i knew a few of the drivers from ferry crossings some were not the most friendly, after time i knew wh

Import loads would come in all days of the week from mostly ITALY ,SWISS, GERMANY ,summer time from GREECE [FRUIT]
Some trailers would be dropped in the Aylesbury yard or some in the Kodak yard at Hemel Hempstead they were one of the main contractor or sometime at the AVON cosmetics yard in Northampton,

There was always a good reason for what they did it was very well organised the older long term drivers never had to mess around with tipping [unloading] many of the trailers,
There was also Patricks of Kettering they seemed to run in line with each other so you might get the odd load left there ,you were never ever able to sort of plan what you thought you might end up doing as it changed all the time.

That was good sometime but it seemed that all men were all running around.most drivers were treated the same Export work from the local area was a well oiled machine.
Typical day, start from the yard 6 am ready to roll you could have a trailer with 3 drops around the midlands ,never further north than Stafford .
After unloading that, you would maybe go back empty to the yard very unusual, or drop the trailer in to the Kodak works near Stafford and probly load it, or take one that was a full load for export but different delivers’that would be straight back to Hemel Hempstead, and some one would be waiting for some of the load on itand some to be transhipped ready to go out asap ,you would guarantee when you got there would be no free bay to back on to.

You would go inside to see the warehouse man he would say right pull that one off the bay…back yours on.we will only take half off ,take it off the bay.,then put the other back on, and then another one on ,the other bay needs closing up and pulling of the bay then that has to be sealed up [customs].all you do is end up shunting.but that was the way they utilised every one of you working hours if idid not like it icould go home no one never said that to me but I new the crack
I would bet you would never go to Kodak and pull a trailer out and getaway on a export run with out shunting trailers of course the office new that is why you were sent there free shunting.and if some one had pulled you trailer off a bay and not properly put the cord through the back rings down the sides from the top you would have to either back on a bay or drop the trailer and use your unit to stand on the catwalk to zip it up… very nice especially as you had to get to DOVER

. You had to make sure by 5.30pm any day while you were in the UK you had rang up to get your next days instructions-they knew you had a 15 hour work time spread over and the days driving would not be more than 9 hours so you might have to wait at KODAK until a trailer had been finished loading ,get it sealed up ,and take it back to the yard ,as someone would be coming in at 6 am to go export with it and you would be just in your spread over time and knackard.

You could well end up with another 6 am start and do the same again and that is what i did but i never moaned to any one just got on with it. I knew in the end it would pay off and that is what happened they decided to use me on Export .

One of the most funny things to be seen is a bunch of grown men scatter like buck shot when a certain car comes in to the yard ,around 9am and that is the car of the boss Mr Fowler, a red jaguar .he is like a shark looking for prey,
Most mornings there would always be at lest 3 or 4 drivers hanging around waiting for a load or unit from service so the job would be, put trailers through the useless old wash ,just water no chemical and the wheels had to be done it was a 2 man job ? also a space for 2 units to be washed, there was always units to be washed ,they never supplied any gear, washing up liquid, there were bald brushes ,old shirts, but it was to look busy.

If it was all done and the trailers were parked nice and neat in the lines , drivers would be in the brick built. tea hut plus toilets, however that was frowned upon by the boss in his eyes you could be tiding up the yard picking up litter,all types of jobs in his eyes, have you ever seen 3 men trying to get out of a door all at once because a red car has started to turn around the yard like a shark, cruising for his next victim
,
After about 2 weeks i was given the usual daily run around but with a export on the end of the day they new that was the bonus extra cash, it appeared no one spoke wages to any one else every one got different or else drivers would say it did not take me long to find out how,a long day but ended up in Dover i was glad to be back hoping to get in the rhythm of export .

I soon realised all was not what it seemed regarding the taco graph and the use of.the ferry i was booked on mostly to Zeebrugge meant you never had a proper break until the end of the next day men before me must have just queue up in the truck export lanes, and took what sleep they could load the truck on the ship at 6 am 4/5 hours on the ferry by the time you got off, [in theory] you had had a long break the truck might have but you certainly did not.

,After running straight at PULLEYNS i was amazed at how bent we were on A.C.H if that was the way,so be it. Over hours .no card inwell one in and out again.
I would be here for ever, telling you all the tricks we used to pull, but no one ever said a word, all the loads had been done a hundred times to the same customers it was standard practice we all thought it was good doing this and getting away with it.

One job sticks in my head is the “Kodak factory stutguart” after leaving Hemele Hempstead , you would go down to Dover,catch the Zeebruge ferry,after clearing customs ,once you get off at Zeebrugge from the afternnon boat get
off late -ish Saturday evening ,top up with diesel , no time for coffie your mind was set on driveing straight down to Aachen

Once at .the border you start your brake, parkup on the Belguim side … it would be about 3 to 4 am Sunday morning.Belguim was the same as England you could drive any time, different from GERMANY.10pm Sunday night.

You could be parked at the front of the queue in lanes however by the time the Border opened up it would be so jam packed with trucks mostly Belguims it would be impossible to get out,it was never easy once you had done all your paper work, customs permits etc we never used a agent ,as the goods got cleared at the end destination once you got the hang of it after quite a few times it was easy-ish other drivers were the problem by not being in their trucks to move as we were all forgieners no GERMANS TRUCKS
10 O CLOCK Sunday night you would start driving in GERMANY that was if you were in GERMAY but we were not it coud be well after midnight before you managed to actually get out of the border
,you drove down to KODAK STUTGART after one break, by the time you get down there you are about out of driving time, so you would think that normal thing to do was to drop your trailer in the factory and leave to their shunter to move around the factory,…

No chance you have to do the shunting for them in their yard also some outside delivers to other KODAK small factories you would be at it all day you would end up unloading other men s trailers who had been to the factory earlier the same day and they would have a empty one and go off to load somwhere …As some left England a day before you and were parked up at the factory Saturday…

It was all preplanned at the office nothing on ACH ever happened by chance ,you would do the same the next day after a sleep, go off with a empty trailer but not the one you brought down with you and re- load sometimes you had 3 collections that card would go out of the window

It looked as if you had had a 10 hour break on the card it looked as if you had done nothing all day,it was like magic
as some of the regular loading points had a spare right hand ACH unit used to go out and pick up colletions.for your load and for others to be left inside the warehouse that is how the tacho got theno work break you was not in it.

You could end up leaving at 10pm at night and drive back to the border if you had time so as you would be able to drive to ZEEBRUGE ,then the penny dropped you had got in their system, of going back to the depot in England with a loaded trailer, drop it off in the yard , pick a loaded one up and away again you got used to it.
The same system worked in ITALY ,NORTH OF MILAN ,in the middle of nowhere, Avon cosmetics from Northampton had as factory there some of the men were on a regular contract and had box vans and kept them all the time , unloaded and loaded them or picked a loaded one up ,good job as they had their own customs clearance at the factory we never had to clear anywhere else not in the northern area of Italy.

However it was never done fairly .you may have brought a trailer in to Italy with one drop and you would think yes that is good quick clearance and away, you could bet that would not happen ,one of the longer serving men may have brought a trailer from England to ITALY with 3 or 4 delivers you could bet he would have dropped it in their yard and gone off with a empty trailer and left it to the likes of me, however i was not on my own there was a few of us.
But i used to think while you are doing this you are doing nothing else.but i did respect loyal service should have its benefits and that was one of them.

I never did get in the A team,i did nor expect to because they knew i would be off whenever iy suited me [no loyalty] but the money was always good you could never work out how you got payed , was it hours, or loads or price of jobs, it was worth the effort and hours while i was working there my wife and i moved up to BLACKPOOL so i thought why tell them so i did not for nearly a year but they new when they had to phone my old number,my son had brought our house so it was still in the same surname and his wife told all,unsuspectedly. i was surprised when they rang me at home ,too late then ,i expect that was another nail in my coffin ,but as i said the money was good they had two choices .let me stay or go.
.however
A well known driver who lived in Appleby at least 250 miles from Aylesbury had worked for A.C.H for many years , not being local ,sadly he passed away while working for ACH in ITALY and i got on well with him ,what i am saying there were now 2 off us not local now and eventually more came from farther afield…

Mr BOYCE,was one of the few drivers who used the train from Koln to MUNich Saturday night to get you to Munchen Sunday morning. ROLL ON AND ROLL OFF .it was mostly for other foreign trucks and something to do with PERMITS that were used back then also it was a ■■■■ up ,so i was told and knowing the driver it would be right
. It meant that you were on your weekend break, but moving not driving you had to drive on and off but it was legal. And you had travelled that would have taken you at least 9 hours driving it was for the Avon cosmetics contract for just outside Munchen

[peggydeckboy]

I have been there a couple of years when in March 1994 trouble in camp . David Fowler the now boss ,and me never ever got on at all ,he was a verbally bully, how some of the men put up with him i will never know .
He knew i was not bothered ,i said once to him “i have had bigger and better bollickings, of better men than you” so but i did know when to stop as it was good money and not many jobs paid weekly and good .

However he did give me many loads of KODAK to GREECE because in the summer the photographic paper had to be kept at a even plus+15 and i was a fridge man ,and fruit would be also be the return load from mostly Italy, many other drivers also did the same , it was not difficult to do .but it used to surprise me because of our non happy relation ship that he gave me the loads , but i still did not like him one bit…

.LATER trouble with the MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT taco graph offenses.

The company will be paying all legal bills and will also in mostly cases if not all, meet any fines, that you face please discuss this individually with the company.
You have to plead guilty to… etc … niall Quinn =legal executives.

What the most amazing thing about all that was to take place ,most of the drivers did not have the slightest idea that we had all been caught and how many offences ,we all had god knows, i do not remember ,to be truthfully honest "no one driver knew"no one told us,we even did not know when it went to court we did not get told results of the court ,we were all as bad as the next man, so ye,s i hold my hand up and we did it "my lord"and they did pay the fines so some one at lest had that decency to do that who god only knows.because we all benefited from it .

NORBET DENTERSTANGLE were getting involved with ACH then, i was there when they did we were still going out of Calais the old road and we used to fill up at Norbert Dentrsangles depot for fuel.in fact it used to work out ,as we/i used their depots in france when transiting , for parking .having a dump.

Once things followed the ministry accusation, all types of rumours were going round and we were still messing about with the cards in Europe, but after time the office told us to run legal ,great, but some would or could not.

When it came to the interviews with the ministry man at the office, in David Fowlers office we knew they were paying fines so no comment on all questions the ministry men asked us.
However when i went in to be interviewed “.this is true” we go through the ■■■■■■■■ bit after the no comments i said to this man, do you know whose office this is,… he said yes…, so i said, well he will know all you have been saying,… what do you mean he said … i said he tapes all the conversations he has in here…how he said … i said look under the desk there will be a tape player…and he looks,that made my day, and said no there is not… ahh well he’s moved it it does not matter… .then he said, have you any more to add to the no comments ,i said yes.what he said … I SAID MR DAVID FOWLER IS A VERBAL BULLY…and the stupid person! said what do you mean, i have never heard that before… i said i rest my case ,and walked out .

To this very day i do not know what charges i had or what fine was paid my behalf ,at lest we never had any licence convictions. by the time all that in court happened i was long gone…

I think there were about 45 offences in total that lead to the loss of lorry Licences how many i do not know also NORBERT DENTRASANGLE had the running of the company however ,as a driver you will never know the full story, but it was obvious the FRENCH, wanted the good work that ACH had
why i could not settled down like a majority of drivers .

I AM going to write down different experiences that happened to me! all self inflicted no one told me where to go ,or what to do it is all purely on my own head and did i regret it,… no

Men that have stayed with the same boss, or company for years do so for many reasons they live local ,i have never had that, all kinds of things made me move on,i think it was when i was on the cargo ships as a deck hand AB in the end, when younger ,once you had got a year or two under your belt i.like hundreds of others would join ships going to whatever part of the world YOU wanted to go to, an my its a big place mostly it was what most other men did.

A lot of drivers mess a good job up ,because they only think of them self’s and they want to be home ,before they have even left ,and they go out of their way to show off, but the boss is laughing at them most of the time. it was always something about the job i did not like.
I did part company with ACH the way it was done was partly my fault but also petty in house squabbles .

Once NORBERT DENTRASANGLE had started to get to grips with ACH things did not seem to change for a time however the trucks were starting to be re sprayed RED and new MAGNUMS started to arrive and the long time served drivers were given them to drive and i was ok with that ,it did not matter, i would not be having one ,however it did mean that the better VOLVOS would be handed down the ranks so i had a reasonable chance to get a newer one they were all in good condition also the majority never cooked in the cabs except one .

Every time a trailer was in the yard loaded or empty it would get put over the inspection pit for the fitting staff to check it all over and tyres before it went any where near going on export,you in fact could not fault anything with ACHat all it was just me, i never ever heard of any of ACHs trucks or trailers break down any where on the continent, so good maintenance did pay off.

We knew no difference who was running the firm ,our work was the same although we never had any French deliveries, plenty of Swiss ,Italy , Germany.

There were always rumours going around about this and that, all started by drivers just a wind up. however we did have different people in the traffic office at times and one women in particular was very popular as she would tell you what you would be doing when empty different from all the others.

Also her husband, a driver for Norbert dentressangle, who was French and she was a northern english women, Manchester area ,over time her Husband Patrick got to know most of us drivers as we would see him Dover or Ashford truck stop it seemed as if we were getting more weekends away in england,no more flying home through the night like ghosts, not to been seen,we thought, that all stopped, instead of all trying to get back to the UK.that was the old way.

After time Patrick and his wife moved on ,she went to run a Norbert dentressangle depot north of Manchester at HEYWOOD .
All the trucks there were A frame road trains left hand drive .

I was in ASHFORD truck stop for 36 hours ,[years before we would just have ran home but not know] and Patrick was there i asked him if i could have a go at learning to reverse the Afram trailer he had , it went quite well, one thing i did not think about was that there were some other ACH MEN at the truck stop and they had seen me, i [found out after.]. i had got the basics , he was based up at Heywood and his wife was the transport manager also they were recruiting drivers , while i was there with him at Ashford truck stop, he rang his wife at home ,he explained ,i lived in Blackpool and wanted a change
plus nearer to my home as far as i was concerned it was a no brainer ,the same company i would be able to handle the truck after a weeks training.

I had a week to do before my break to go home so that could not fly quicker enough i was on a short run to SWISS KODAK,AND A LOAD BACK OUT FROM COMO tractor axles to massey Ferguson at Coventry, a no messing about load but it would take my full week up…

Once home i think a TUESDAY morning i arranged a interview with Michelle the manager and she said come right over that is what i did
once i got to the Heywood depot, she recognised me from Aylesbury and said no need for all the PRE company ■■■■■■■■, when can you start ,well i said i will go home ,ring up and give a weeks notice and work it ,that would be Wednesday to Wednesday, i did ask her what about David Fowler she told me it would ok leave that to me she said,f he gets awkward ,i will tell him your local to the north depot and i need drivers i know, so that was what she did.[allegedly] i have no idea.
I did not say on the phone where i was going to work and they never asked i arrive Wednesday And the message is David and Dennis want to see you in the office, i thought i bet they don’t want me to go…

I go in the office and FOWLER starts as soon as i get in .
WHO the zb do you think you are.
what on earth a you on about.

[him] you and the zbing Michelle UNDRMINDING ME
.
[ME[ I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE ON ABOUT,I CAN GO AND WORK FOR WHO I LIKE.

[HIM] NOT IN THIS COMPANY IT ALL GOES THROUGH ME
.
I TRIED TO TELL HIM, NO SUCH THING WAS HAPPENING, IT WAS NEAR TO MY HOME ETC ,HE WOULD HAVE NONE OF IT JUST LIKE A SPOILED CHILD I KNEW HE WOULD WIN .IT WAS HIS EGO
WELL YOU GO AND zb YOURSELF IM OFF.

[HIM ] YOU WILL NOT BE WORKING ANYWHERE FOR NORBERT I HAVE PUT A STOP TO IT ALL DEPOTS .AND THAT MICHELLE SHE IS IN DEEP ■■■■.I AM THE BOSS OF THIS COMPANY NOR HER.
zb OFF, IM OFF.
And that was it or so i thought how wrong i was .i drove straight back to Blackpool.
The bottom line was, he was ■■■■■■■ because he thought we had both undermined him. I had no idea what that even meant. However i did not know this. So i rang Michelle on the way up and she said come round that way to see her, i thought it was all ok .so by the time got there it was 6 o clock at night she waited .It was either ■■■■■■■■ or true i had no idea ,however she told me when i had left, Aylesbury ,Fowler, he has caused so much fuss at head office that she has to go to a meeting with FOWLER at AYLESBURY on Friday to meet their boss DANAIL LETARD.AND SO SORRY THAT SHE CAN NOT EMPLOY ME.

[peggydeckboy]

Well that went well didn’t it.So i am out of work partly my own fault, what i should have done is just left and said nothing then get re -employed but who would have thought that a man would let his ego get the better of him because me a driver dared to in his eyes undermined him.

Once i arrived home and gave the news to my wife it was time for me to hit the phones and try to get employment ,but where to go where you know is best and that is what i did i took a deep breath and rang Pulleyns, and took a chance i had two choices yes or no .

Once i got through i asked to speak to Adrian he was not around so Bob Nedomer came on the phone ,so i told him what had happened at ACH, he understood, and said ring back at 3 o’clock
.
I rang at 3 0,clock and spoke to him again ,he had been in touch with ADRIAN and the answer was yes ok, but you must do whatever work you are given, an no zbing about ! typical Adrian you knew exactly where you stood with him and the company, so i excepted that and was told to go down ready to start work FRIDAY, it was a bank holiday just what i did not need as i want to be home for a change ,hey ho, that was the way it goes .
1995.
I arrived Thursday there are always men around,also a yard Forman who lived on site with his wife

Once you get to know men,some have their own agendas and Barry certainly did, he wanted to get in the office and run transport I think he had his own truck.from Cirencester way,but iwill state Barry was all ok with me and I with him he would work all hours god sent in that yard ,loading up trailers all kinds of silly hours to get the job done.
He ended up being master of the large proper trailer and truck wash in the yard there was a lot of workings as it recycled all the water used, how god only knows to complicated for me however barry had got it sorted.

Once i had picked the truck keys up from the key locker
Some of the lads who were around were
very surprised to see me back there
Lots of banter going on ,the unit i was given was a Daf 95 twin steer ,any way it was weeks old ,in fact all the units and trailers were all kept in tip top condition the in side was immaculate they alllways looked new ,the blue all over colour was eye catching
.
I got all my gear stowed away made my bed up on the lower bunk i always used sheets then a good quilt, clothes put away on the top bunk and all my other bits telly ,video, food in the side lockers,gas bottlepots and pans it was amazing how much gear we used to have , or iused tov have it was for 3 weeks +?

I was to see the traffic manager in the morning ,then get my tacograph cards ,then my £1000 float in travellers cheques .i hoped to get away for the weekend ,if you were week -ended in the yard ,you only got UK night out money that was fair if you were away from the yard and loading a export load you would get European night out that was more cash

The office meeting with the traffic manager went ok,i could tell he did not like me being back he gave me my load details ,CMR, paper work for the truck, agency cards no permits needed ,and the verbal instructions, and a unsealed large envelope with a lot of permits and [export licences] for different meats

The trailer was already loaded and in the yard,
I had to go Ostend airport ,it is only a fright airport and the parking is outside the airport just like a lorry park his verbale instructions were to park outside the airport entrance and wait until someone will come to you ,that was it, and i repeated it. Unload at the fright firm Swiss Air .When I was empty go to Holland, address given and load Monday morning,then ship back to Dover The office will be shut until Tuesday morning owing to the holiday any problems ring Barry as he will be on duty.

And that was clear enough for me i pick the loaded trailer up from the yard and check it out ,diesel tyres door seals .put on from the loading point once hitched up i make my way down to Dover and ship out on the next zeebruge ferry after taking the truck into the customs parking so they can check the seals on the doors,once that was done i qued up for the ferry and i did not wait for long,i liked the zeebruge crossing as you got to have a sleep if you needed it or not nice to have a rest .allthough at that time i did not need it .

Once the ferry was docked and you waited for the dock workers to come to the ships hold to take the chains off all the trucks that held them down to the deck for if it gets a bit rough ,some of the drivers never learn and start their engines up straight away to buld the air pressures up so as the brakes will work proply before the main bow doors are fully open so we can all to drive out off “,the place is filling up with diesel fumes “

[peggydeckboy]

Once the quick customs paper show,was finished no need to fillup with diesel as we always left the yard with full tanks, no matter where you were going even to cheaper diesel in Zebrugge ,it did not take me long to drive to the airport in Ostend a route i was familier with,once there i parked up outside not another truck in site is was Saturday afternoon i was parked very close to the entrance gate no one could miss me ,as i was told someone would come to me [who i had no idea]from the office.

After about 1 hour the doors open and a chap comes out sort of dressed as a Agent not in high viz gear.and told me to bring my papers to the office in side of the hall it was a customs place .

I passed all the papers i had over to this chap ,he took them and walked away to a office so i did the usual walked out and sat in my cab if they want me they can see me and i just got comfortable.
.
He called me back over and asked me to bring the truck through the gate,he handed me back my C.M.R. and he pointed to me right over the far side of the air field there were some hangers ,all with names on them different air freight forwarding companies , the fridge was roaring away as it was frozen goods and on a defrost cycle ,under their canopy attached to their office ,i new they wanted my away from them as the noise was deafening .

The chap from the office came outside and pointed to the air fright hangers where I was to go
I could see the men they were using small electric tractors pulling small trailers,at one hanger i drove there observing the speed limit and parked out side the hanger that was for SWISS AIR i was asked to open the fridge doors the customs had broken the door seal under the canopy.

Once the door was opened i could see that there were about 10 very small loaded pallets with boxes on and frozen up the front end ,i thought how on earth would a small load like this ever pay, i had no idea.

A pallet truck was put upon the back of the trailer for me to pull the pallets to the rear and the fork lift take them away ,and that was what i did about 10 minutes of work,once empty the pallet truck lifted off i closed th doors up went inside the hanger for my CMR ,it had been signed a clear signature ,and handed back to me.i got back in to my truck and drove out to the same gate i come in under the canopy and that was me, I was now on my way up into Holland about 3 hours away, i had been to the freezer loading place before so i had no problem ,i knew where i was going to park up on a sports centre park.there were showers inside and a bar a small entrance fee ,another good weekend plus pleasnty to look at,also there was a cafe near by that sold the funny cakes!! However I was not in to weed,just old roll up baccy.

Monday morning 6 o’clock i was out side the cold store i was told to back on the bay and wait to be loaded ,22 pallets of frozen pork legs ,for a pie factory near Bristol knowing the Dutch did not worry about the weight ,i went to the office and said no more than 21 tons full load ,including pallets ,so they said no problem we load Pulleyns all the time with the same number of pallets , ok by their office, so i said if that was normal.

After about 3 hours i was loaded ,i pulled off the loading bay ,closed up the doors put the fridge on to minus -25, then the trailer doors were ready for a seal to be put on by their customs people, in Holland the customs used a piece of string ,then put a lead seal over it Belgians were the same, also i put a pulleyns plastic seal on with a number on that i would write down on the CMR before i signed for it…

After a hour ,it would be around 9 oclock at home ,i thought i had better ring Barry at the office just to tell him i was loaded ,i went for the CMR
In the office and had a look and it said nearly 22 tons, what !! i said to the man look, i cannot take this it is to heavy , he said no! it is normal !

I must ring the office before i leave here i said , the office man said you go we will not take any off, etc,etc.

They let me use the phone ,and I spoke to Barry, before i could say a word, he said thank god you have rang
The traffic clerk at pulleyns [my ex mate] is going ballistic and you must ring him immediately and he gave me his private number i have no idea what is going on.
I get him on the phone and the first thing he said to me was you ■■■■■■ the load up at Ostend the ■■■■ has hit the fan””
I had no idea what he was on about ,he goes on to say, what did i tell you to do ,
I said you said wait for someone to come to me ,and i did .a man came out to me to tell me to come in and get unloaded
He said it was the wrong man,
How the ZB would i know ,i said you never said who it was, just wait for a man to come to me .
He said, that load is still outside on the airfield, ■■■■■■■■ i said, you lying,
No im not he said.

Ok then i said how come i have got a clear signature on the C.M.R.
We will sort this out when you get back, yes we will, by the way this load is to heavy and they will not take any off, he said its normal just bring it back . i said by the way, you know, the meat hooks are still in this trailer there is the extra weight, anyway i want to see Adrian before i go anywhere once back home…yes he said too true and that was that …

Once back in Dover i get the load customs cleared , it is now Tuesday and i will make my way to Bristol ,the M25 was not finished you had to go up the A2 get on the motorway then do left near the Dartford tunnel and get down to the M25 there ,so that meant going up the hill in Dover it was a steep climb ,once up the top it was not long before the MOTOWAY
However there was a MINISTRY weighing station it was called “whitfield” at the top and ,yes you guessed a police motor bike officer was pulling the odd truck in, and it was sods law, if you got a pull or not and it was not my day, and i get pulled over, pulled over the weigh bridge ,they weigh each AXEL separate then total all up to see the gross weight, then they work out which Axel is over weight or how many are over weight , i knew i was ZBed, they asked for the CMR took a copy , and the gross weight was like nearly 40 tons on 5 AXELS.

The load weight]pork] was ok but it was the meat hooks ,and the pallets so they put a non movement order on the truck, not me ,we had to lose over 2 tons of weight however it would be a prosecution and court case also points on my licence .

I had to ring the office with the good news, they said ok a 4 wheeler will be there later and you will have to hand ball 3 pallets off on to him , great ,just what you need freezing -25 and handballing ,about 2 And half hours later another driver rolls up, and we get stuck in, trouble was, the pork legs are all loose inside a wire type of cage on top of a pallet so we had to empty the legs out of the cage. Put them on the floor then pull the pallet and cage on to his truck and fill it up with the pork legs from the floor . after 2 hours it was all done we were cold .

,We had a brew ,and he then got on his way and told me that we were both to go to the yard and sort the load out, i did not say a word about what had happened in case it was not general knowledge. I was cleared from the re –weigh and on my way, at a more sensible weight i must say though that the DAF i was driving was no different with the weight off.

Now the crunch was to come do i go home after 5 days or what??
I pulled in to the yard refilled the diesel tank found a space to park, i was sure all eyes were on me but it seemed normal.

Lots of banter from the yard man Barry shouted a greeting, i bet he knows more than me

I got out of the cab and made my way to the office where the drivers reported as i walked in the foyer b BOB NEDOMER asked me to go upstairs into his office i also new Adrian had a office there so i thought this is it “in the front door andout the back door” someone will clear the cab out ,they will pay me up and gone, back to square one.

Once sat down Bob said right Vic tell me what happened from the start of you coming back, so i relayed everything, what i was told and how , he was taking notes he looked at the CMR ,i gave him my tacographs, so he would see the movements i had made at Ostend.
Also the delivery address written on a piece of paper.
Right he said as far as i am concerned you did all you were told to do ,he said where is the yellow sheet with all your instructions written down, i have not had one.The yellow sheet was a new procedure,like a job work sheet with all your instructions to be carried out on that certain or any job you were given.

I said look Bob if it makes your life easier i will just get my gear and go i do not want to be here with a cloud over my head .
He said go down to the drivers room get a coffee say nothing, do not go to the traffic office and wait until i send for you.

After a time, on the yard tannoy Bob called for Barry to go in his office ,so i thought this is the heave ho, back to the phones for work…

As it turned out i was not asked to leave in fact it was nothing to do with me ,however others were involved and they would not tell me .all i had to do was forget the load in to Ostend the traffic clerk would not be a problem, he has been told he does not hire or fire ,just get on with the work.and that is what i did.

[peggydeckboy]

Then I told bob about the overload and he knew all about it he said they will pay any fine incurred not to worry
I had a very happy time while i was at pulleyns we had some really good work, however we had a lot of drivers, and they were recruiting all the time some of the men that came were ex army and made good drivers also good drinking buddies.

I can honestly say i never took anything that i was not entitled to all the time i worked for pulleyn you had the best of trucks, the trailers were second to none never any shortage of running money ,you never had to run bent unless you were asked to and that was very rare,

You went to any country you would never know where ,they would send you.
The war had finishd in Bosina C roatia [Yugoslavia, ] ESTER RANSON Started some kind of charity and Pulleyns got the delivery job thousands of boxes clothes toys all sorts were held at one of Londons Railway stations for loading ,some of the local men who never did Europe went and loaded 4 trailers i was one of the 4 to go and it was a bit hit and miss ,i went to a place called PULA in Croatia .

We had all kinds of paper work with us permits ,red cross papers ,T forms,CMRs we were told that any expenses incurred just pay and it would all be funded when we got back ,we had one driver with us who was a bit of a smart arse ,however he said he new all about transiting a country for free if doing AID work .

When we arrived at the KARAWANKA tunnel in Austria to go into Slovene there was a toll ,so he had the idea that we would go through for free ,there was no one in charge of us, so we all parked up on the hard shoulder and he marched in to the offices, it was snowing and cold, and we were just lorry drivers i bet they thought who the f— are theses 4 men in our office

The fun started ,knowing Austrians they like everything 100% correct ,they wanted to know the ins and outs of every thing, one phone call led to another and so on it went, it was a wonder their parliament did not know about us.

Mr smart arse thought he could speak German, he could order food ,but that was about it, but we would not know ■■■■■■■■ BEATS BRAINS. After wasting at least a hour, at the end a lady who translated arrived, shut MR smart arse up and in perfect English asked why we thought we should not pay for the tunnel you only get it free if its u.nfor. not red cross it went something like that we had given up and left him to deaL with it.
However as it was, lorries had come this way for a long time with aid ,the tunnel company would let us through for free this time only ,so it was worth it .however it was about only £10 each. He was sort of right…

Once into SLOVENIA not any movement at all ,we had to transit to CROATIA it was like ghost town vevery where we drove through was completely deserted. It started to get a bit ere like ,where is everyone we stated to spilt up and go our own ways i had to go to POSTOJNA, RIJEKA OPATIJA.THEN DOWN TO PULA that was my destination it was non stop,
I arrived after a few wrong turns in the town and kept stopping showing the address lots of finger pointing and in the end arrived at like a army barracks, with big wooden gates ,i blew the horn [first time ever] to attract attention the old gates opened ,they waved for me to drive in ,it was full of women , no men to be seen ,i was reversed in to a very large shed like warehouse already,it looked like thoudsands of boxes already there ,someone had been there before, and it was all unloaded by women not a man in sight.

They would not let me unload either, so i sat in the cab and had a good cook up ,once finished the lady in charge spoke good English and said come to the office ,they were so pleased with the load, while i was there in another office i could hear someone talking on the phone, and the next think this lady says to me someone wants to talk to you, i said no one knows i am here how to they know to talk to me.

[.now this is as true as i cannot believe it myself] she says the boss of theWORLD WIDE RED CROSS HE wants to thank you personally ,so i have a sort of one sided conversation ,he is asking me things as if i had driven through a actual war zone .and he thanked me for getting through i thought am i missing something here what on earth was he on about, i never seen any military, what so ever so that was that.

I made a call to the office, and was told to go into Italy make for BOLINGNA.

That was what i liked about working for Pulleyn you were given instructions and left to get on with it work your route out yourself i had a permit for Italy I do not remember if they were needed then ,but i had to do transit customs at TRESTI i was empty one wrong turn, and you would be back in Slovenia i took the bull by the horns when i came upon a queue and guessed they were loaded and what a poor looking bunch some of trucks they were old, falling to bits once i started going past i got no hand shaking of fist waving a right hand drive was a novelty,

Not many Brit trucks been this way for a long time ,i arrived at a compound and thank god there was a sign above, that in my book meant [transito] i went to the Slovenia office ,shed, took my signed CMR ,that was ok ,they waved a hand as if to say go on f–k off ,and i did ,no problem with the ITALIANs shown him my permit he just waved me on i thought this is to good to be true ,i was and soon on the AUTOSTRADA heading for VENICE then BOLONGA.

I loaded peaches from a warehouse not the normal load from that area back to the uk .all semed to be going ok The company had some very good loads from most countries within Europe You may go to Italy with one of the sliding roof tilts dry freight goods with a [mixed load], and load back trees and plants for garden centres in England the loads normally came from around the south of Florence area ,nice and warm.

Loads of hair shampoo to Hungary reloading from Italy make your own way there, as driving went it could get no better than it was, i was getting no problems from the traffic clerk,! however they decided to employ another man ,as a man he was ok, however he had never delt with any European traffic at all and he did not know who liked to do what or anything, about keeping all the drivers happy ,he was brought in for a reason, he had local work.in the diary market world.

Mostly his knowledge was supermarkets and supply chain we all found out later ,he had come from a local dairy, bulk milk delivers, yes i know the management have the right to do what they think and to make money, however me,i have a liking for European work and not the uk.

You would start the week by loading at Eastleigh frozen meat for Iceland at Queens ferry, timed delivers, then when empty, over to Grimsby and load frozen any product for one of the major supermarkets or 5 drops to Small food outlets just like doing small van delivery jobs with a 40 foot trailer also work for ALDI warehouse where they made you pull the pallets of yourself, or use a electric truck and put them in lines so they could check them.

Also INTER frozen cold store work from FrigoScandi depots,also a lot from Grimsby, timed deliveries were coming in to supermarkets depots for their distribution .we used to load hams and meat from HERTA [BRAND NAME ]from germany that was ok untill sainsburys made us as drivers sort their pallets out o at their guilford depot['brake the pallets down] in products numbers, where as the Germans just made the pallets up with any product,my thinking was ,why should we as drivers do their work for the warehouse staff employed,most times the were lazy as it was.

Yes i know what i am going to say now ,will go against all i said early,but, sainsburys staff were 100%unionesed,but they new we were not,so they did not give two monkeys about job demarcations ,one job they did not want to do ,[brake pallets down]so let the drivers do it ,yes ok ,however their own, god bless them drivers ,would not do anything in the warehouse at all.
However it was work ,and i did as i was told but for how long i did not know

They had all of Noon Products work from Southall London all the frozen curry’s for BIRDS EYE, to all the major wholesalers I absolutely hated it.It seemed as if the Euro haulage was being given a miss for me, as there were a lot of us doing this work ,and he did not care, a truck is a truck as far as he was concerned not our own egos ,yes i get that but we were also losing European night out money ,that was what made you wages up not the uk night out money that was less also he would get you back to the yard if he could, so no night out money.

It was not going down very well with me so i thought right,zb it, time for a change .i had done shop/supermarket delivers’ years ago i did not want it now.it was good work for a lot of the young men who wanted local work and also it must have paid good money.

The straw that was the last one for me was after unloading at Iceland supermarket ware house in Queens ferry i was told to go to a dairy near Shrewsbury once there, i washed the trailer out [no problem] and then book off…
So it meant i had done about 5 hours work ,it was now dinner time 12 o’clock and i would have to start work again in 8 hours time and go through the night doing milk delivers, however during my time off i could not leave the trailer dropped on their warehouse loading dock and park the unit up away from all the noise ,like i would normally.

You had to stay on the loading bay with the trailer while loading through out the 8 hours with a fork lift going in and out whenever a pallet was ready, like being on a rocking horse , i was thoroughly ■■■■■■ off ,to think that some other drivers had been here and done it and never said a word it was just unreal, the job was going back wards, however i bet it paid well , that I understand ,i new this was the way it was going ,long gone were the good euro loads for me anyway ,[ some one got his own back on me]indirectly ,my mind was made up there and then i would do this load, when i get back i would be gone.

[trucky_mc_truckface]

Keep em coming. Brilliant reading. Thanks.

[peggydeckboy]

Thanks TRUCKY mcTruck face, unusual pseudonym[aussie-trucky? ]i have a bit more ,i do not know if i am posting to much at once or not enough.i know how it was for me 100%all my own doing while driving im 73 ,74 next month so i thought i better do it now before the old box gets empty.dbp

[sandway]

peggydeckboy:
Thanks TRUCKY mcTruck face, unusual pseudonym[aussie-trucky? ]i have a bit more ,i do not know if i am posting to much at once or not enough.i know how it was for me 100%all my own doing while driving im 73 ,74 next month so i thought i better do it now before the old box gets empty.dbp

Evening peggydeckboy. Many thanks for sharing your experiences with us. Each posting, for me, is about the right length. Certainly doesn’t need to be any longer. If the posting is to long my eyes start to glaze over. Hasn’t happened yet and I doubt they will as the stories are so interesting.

[jimbo47]

I have to say ,no BS this is the best thread on the forum for many a yr. Helps pass the winter days out on the prairie. jimmy

[peggydeckboy]

That is what i did, however i was asked to wait until the court case for the overloading had been dealt with in DOVER ,any fines,for me would be paid and my transport to Dover would be by them just hoping there was no points on the licence.

After 6 weeks the date had been set i was ready to leave, where to i had no idea but the supermarket hubs were the worst job you could have in my opinion not for me.a big zb you, one place i unloaded at was a Aldi OR lidl warehouse near Nuneaton i think i had 22 pallets i have forgotten what the product was i was given a unloading bay number so i backed on then went to the cab for a brew ,i sat there for about a hour and i thought jesus they are slow, ill go in and see whats happening ,nothing was ,the warehouse door was open,and a chap is sat in the small office ,and i asked him if he has a problem,he said no, you have.my god the red mist came down , so the usual argument ,whats my problem ,he said you have to unload your self here and put all the pallets in the lines on the floor then we check the load,you can use the electric lifter or a hand pull pallet truck, at that moment another driver came in he had a word with my friend ,then the driver came to me, and said you will sit here all night if you do not unload yourself. i got the message,and did it now that was the final straw.

The date arrived and i was driven down to Dover by Bob Nedomer company director a very fair man to work with.The overloading was explained to the court that it was not the actual load that was over weight it was because someone [not me ] had forgtten to take the meat hooks out of the trailer causing the extra overhaul weight,however it fell on deaf ears and they were fined and as the driver i was but no licence endorsement for me ,also none for the company so in all a good day.

On the way back Bob tried to get me to change my mind about leaving but he could not guarantee me any European work ,as he said the UK work at the moment was the way to go of course there was still European but it was nothing to do with him who did what load and where to.
Iexcepted that they did let me stay until the end of the week, they new i would not do anything wrong ,it was only the work that was my problem, so once again i was on the move i had yet to tell the wife however she knew she would have no influence on where i worked .however she knew i would not be long out of work…

The strangest things happen sometimes ,when i was driving from the motorway in to Blackpool now home, i ended up following a smart looking powder tanker ,i thought it would be going to the ICI Thornton but it did not make the turn and carried on towards Fleetwood ,so i made my turn towards home and left it at that.

Once home i explained what was going on to my wife I unpacked the car and the next day i will start ringing around for work.

I did not have many numbers left that i did have a book that i used to write down firms name and numbers and that is the only reverence I had or have to any stories I have written on here all out of that old wooden block for a brain the teachers used to tell me I had at school.

.I did not want to do the UK but the way it looked that might be the path i must go when you are actively involved in European driving you see all the trucks on ferry’s but when you think about it there are more owner drivers doing European than i suspect large companies .

My target had to be small hauliers who sub contract work from larger companies i brought all the truck magazines that i never ever used to read also anything connected to Transport.

After nearly a week of getting no where i got a reply from CURRIES of Dumfries would i go and see them I drove up to their depot, went in for the interview, i took all my paper work from before where i was driving etc
It went well, however it meant that a lot of the time i would not be getting nights out basically it was shunting for the European men, not having your own unit .

They offered me the job there and then without even a driving test, however some of the time it would mean staying in digs there until a unit became spare for me to drive permantly i was not prepaired to do that.

I declined the offer and thanked them they were fine about it .

Next was DUKES of Northern Ireland i had their number from my old book, i was getting down to the last resort, they had a UK depot at Crick that was my old home ground area i rang them and was told Ireland did the meat and European not CRICK

And the most strangest conversation I ever had again true I ended up talking to a traffic clerck asking about any work at all and could i speak top the manager about a job and he was,pumping me,I said is it you is going to employ me or the manager ,he said the manager so said I would like to speak to him please

He asked my name and I told him,he said he will speak to the manager hold on the line ,so I did,about 2 mins later a voice said did you ever work at Northampton,I said yes I did and told them jcs,but rokold then the voice said well zb me,I laughed and said well who are you it was not only Alan Webb who first employed me at rokold in 1982ish

I could not belive it he was the uk manager, for Dukes at CRICK after about 20 mins I gave him my history and my home number he said he will do the best for me wait for a call how strange was that…

After a phone call he made I had phone call from Irland a interview was arranged for me to see a MR Bertie Marshal in a Morecombe Hotel on Friday i had no idea who or what he was, so on the day i drive there,walk in to the hotel, and ask at the reception if a MR Marshal was around and they said yes and they took me too him .luckily he was on his own .

I introduced my self and it went from there he said i can start at CRICK straight away if i wanted to with my experience however not in BELFAST as the meat was slowing down ,out of the blue .he said he had a old friend who used sub contracted from him, and has some trucks and works out of Fleetwood, it was news to me so he said i will ring him now and tell him about you ,and he did there and then after a few minutes he said right victor! in his loud ,growly Belfast accent you go and see him tomorrow and he might just sort you out

[james_908]

Keep it up peggy…Great read

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[peggydeckboy]

I asked where is his place ,and he said go right to the very end of Fleetwood dock and you will see his yard, he thanked me for coming and i the same to him and i drove home…
.
Next morning i made my way top the end of Fleetwood dock only 15 minutes from home ,i could have got the tram there ,but it was a walk through the dock so i drove.

At the bottom was this yard just like a scrapers yard .one gate open but it was hard standing so i drove in, there were a few odd trailers parked about two high sided scrap car tipper type, with crushed cars loaded.

I though no way am i messing about with scrap. I had done a bit before all muck and ■■■■ no thanks, a double porter-cabin in the corner a few mixed type of cars typical driver type so my expections at the time were going very fast.
I knocked the door ,a very load Lancashire accent shouted its OPEN, so in i go as i walk in a pair of heads swing round to see me the first word to be said was Lancashire-
NOW THEN!!
In local terms it means a greeting , like how you doing lad …for a start,to me, it sounded so aggressive, it was if you had confronted whoever and they wanted a confrontation,]

Hows you doing my name is john and this is my wife ,and small chat started, he asked why i was seeing Bertie Marshall ,so i told him the reasons and as i looked up where his wife was sitting just above her head was a Pulleyns calendar, i walked over and said, see that motor there ,I drove that it was a yard scene all the trucks what!! he said you worked for PULLEYNS, i then told him my history of all the work i had done he could not believe it he told me he had admired Pulleyns for a long time .
The rest is history ,in fact he was pleased that i was there so they both go on to tell me parts of their history within haulage [.some bits missed out ]after time it was all a bit of a mess.

The main part of there haulage was like spot hire if anyone needed a unit to pull any type of trailer they would be on it ,however they had 3 units on permant hire to a firm called B.E.T.from DOVER who had a main contract to Smits of HELLBRION [D] the bulk powder transport company one of the biggest in Germany so it was like 3rd hand work he wanted to get with Smits as the main Northern contractor to cut out EBT.

To help get this he wanted drivers that would tramp around Europe for Smits direct and that was the only way ,some of EBT drivers and one of his own driver were on weekly jobs home every Saturday and they did not want to do it, so by luck for me, one had told him he wanted to finish hoping john would relent, little did he know that i was willing to do that and was looking for work also the driver was his longest employee they even had his name painted on the drivers door “our john” blue, on a white rental DAF right hand drive .

That would defiantly have to come off if i drove it.

I was given a run down on how a powder tanker works , but would get more training next week if i want the job.So that was that, start Monday…
You did not need haz –chem –cards as dangerous materials were not carried inside powder tankers.

Monday came i parked in the yard there was this newish DAF unit empty of gear and i was told go put your stuff in there was a change of plan ,Iwas given a book with all relevant phone numbers ,GERMAN addresses ,shell card, insurance all the usual inside the door lockers he shown me some bolts on a ring and said they are the shear bolts if you need them…all new to me.

He gave me this massive chamois leather as big as the door windows ,i thought must be knock offs ,a box of tachographs that was about it the change of plan was ,i was to go to Sandbach off the M6 find this other powder tanker yard and pick up a 20 foot powder tanker [container and take it to a works in Widnes unload it [blow it out] Take the empty back and ring the office when empty

Fuel tanks were full, solo down the M6 off at SANDBACH and find the yard that was on a small main road out of the town.
I find the office i go in after knocking, walk in and heads turn round and stare at me as if to say who the zb are you ,Hello i said i have come to pick up trailer so and so no one speaks so i said this is the right place .etc

.I was used to this type of reception “.normal for a traffic office” from years of experience[ the silent treatment] so i said ok im off, must be the wrong place john has sent me bye, smartly out, to the cab as quick as i can jump in,i fire her up and start to pull away, as the man runs out of the office waving his arms about, so i stop wind the window down and said ,WHAT!!

He starts to say ohh sorry mate, we were used to “john” the driver of the lorry ,i said say no more mate, its me now, do you want me to stay or will i just f— off because i do not give one monkeys f–k
. Ohm yes sorry, you have got to deliver this tank as it is booked in and it cannot loose the booking ,so yes please tip the load for us .

So i have calmed down, and backed under the tank, gone in the office, got the CMR and said any instructions please i have never done this powder tanker before ,ohm!again, john never said nothing to us about anything ,we normally work well together ,as we are all sub contractors
I told him the circumstances how I got the job, the driver has jacked and i was looking for work and here i am to tell you the truth i am a fridge man, but i am sure i will learn.

He then explains to me that at the factory i am going to, they use their own air lines to blow the product out of the tank, that is cradled inside a steel 20 foot container on a 20 foot skeleton trailer=

[ meaning a very light constructed trailer just for pulling containers ].
The men there know all there is to know about the job, they will do the job for you .

Once i had found the yard,it looked like a chemical works of some type i was told where to go and someone would meet me there, that was what happened ,i told the man that i did not know anything about what was going to happen ,and i would be all eyes, he backed me up into a position [the truck] very close to a big cylinder silo ,like the once you see in the fields for corn

I back On to a ramp he said apply all the brakes switch off the engine and give him the keys

He explained to me once he had connected their air pipe to the container fitting ,he then connected a bigger hose next to it [it was like a little control panel on the rear of the container, and then opened a valve ,we then had to move away as once they started to the unloading the whole of the truck and trailer start moving upwards on a massive platform

I had never seen anything like it before, it must have risen to 45 degrees it was to get the powder product in the tank to help loosen up so it would blow out of the tank and up in to the massive silo .

I was amazed, he then explained to me that was what you do when you have you own tank behind you ,
You have to get the air pressure right ,blowing in to the top of the tank from hose that is connected to the compressor from your unit that makes the air pressure.

To unload your self is going to take a time to master HE SAID and my god he was right.

[peggydeckboy]

The trucks have about four flexi 4 inch diameter pipe [you see on the side of powder tankers] they are the main pipe you use for going from the exit valve on the back of your tank that will be connected to the pipe going direct in to the host silo, sounds easy that is the theory. i will try to give a full explanation on loading and blowing out a full tank on its own ,unless you fall asleep.[ First time I was pooping my self] if i now try to tell you about a powder tanker you might later get what i am on about what i am going to write now, took me a long time to get to grips with.as in doing it properly and feeling confident [well a little bit .

A powder tanker is not used for hazardous materials they are mostly used for powders, dry goods, plastics, anything that will be able to be blown out of the pipe and up in to silo.a silo is the holding tank at any company you go to to unload your goods in to…
A POWDER TANK TRAILER.

On the top of the trailer are five lift up lids on hinges with locking down large wing nuts on the side of the tank top ,making the lids to be air tight once screwed down by the driver…

When the lids are open for loading you look in and it is a massive looking space if you fell in,it made me aware of what I was doing when them lids were open on your own if you fell in you would never be able to get out ever .[true]

One locking down wing nut on every lid has a ring welded on the end so as the TIR “tilt ”cord is able to be threaded through each one on a locked down lid.

Then it is threaded along all the 5 lid tops, that are individually locked down with another 4 threaded swivel clips on each lid top and back down and threaded through the rear of the unloading nozzleat the back of the tanker you have all see one when you get to close the back end of a powder tanker normaly it is customs sealed if going to Europe also it makes sure no one has been tampering with the lids or the rear end of the powder tank.

Also at the front of the trailer where the the TIRcord starts from it is in a small type box and the small opening lid has lots of customs seals inside on the clasp.

The rear end has a large lid that is big enough for a man to get in with ease and belive me you DO, who would ever have thought it ,I never did but every wash out you were inside and yes with the big zb off chamos-leather with our socks on or with but no footwear ,getting out when you think it is bone dry inside, getting out of the rear is another work of art, as you have no shoes.on,but you soon learn to put some shoes on the trucks bumber to get down with…no one told me I just watched others ,that was 99%of me learning the job ,no one person ever come and said are you ok mate ,the reason all the time I was doing it I never ONCE came across another ENGLISH man and very very few English speaking driver so that tells you something .

The rear lid/rear of the trailer round opening, also has large wing nuts to close it up ,inside the rear lid is a space/like a rim that is for a filter[called a cone and that is what it is shaped like] that can be placed so as no lumps get blown down the exit tube and blocks it up…like a filter paper in a cooker hood. However you have to know when loading a procduct that it will be needed to stop the cloging [did anyone tell me no] I just watched others and hoped]

In the centre off the rear lid hatch, are a number of bolts that hold a lever down that lets you control the flow of the product leaving the tank and the most important bit of kit is a threaded end that is sticking out of the housing holding the lever that you attach ,exiting pipe or hose some time you can get one with a sight glass fitted in the centre so you can see the product moving out of the tank.

Just about at eye level is a small round gauge off the main air hose and that is giving you the air pressure [the air pressure is coming from the engine of your unit, on tick over, after you have engaged it in gear, so it works as a compressor making air] that is actual going into the tank to blow the product out ,the air enters the tank from the top of the tank .
Also a hose right by your eye line is a lever that you can contro; the air preesure going in to the tank, sorry it is easy to show someone how it all works,but no one did for me .

If by any chance all the top lids are not completely screwed down by the large wing nuts ,and it is leaking very small air pressure [you will know as powder will form on the top of the tank after time] also you may have threaded the TIR cord through so hopefully it is not that side that leaks…even the back lid /hatch could well leak air so for a start you have to be on your toes …

Back to my first unload ,after the man said the tank is empty they lowered the whole truck and trailer down to ground level ,he uncoupled his air supply hoses, said here is the CMR signed and off i went back to Sanbach.

Once back there at their depot i drove around the back and there was a place to drop trailers but i thought i will go in and ask in case i have to take it somewhere else, i was told to drop it then come in the office, there were now 2 white painted powder tankers dropped in the yard .

There was a, like ,a small drivers room i went in there and 2 drivers also in there ,so i said the usual greeting and I got a response and they wanted to know where the other driver was so i told them my bit and i asked why they seemed a bit awkward to me ,so i said look !whatever the other chap was I have no idea I never met anyone else from the company except the bosses ,i am here now trying to earn a few bob like you i am not new i have been on European driving a few years but not on powder tankers but been a fridge man and now fancied a change and left it at that.

I was told to wait in Sandbach for a 40 foot powder trailer,that will be dropped here for me and to leave at 6 am for Grangemouth Scotland.

I was back in the drivers room and asked for more advice on how to operate the trailer and do it safely ,they could not believe that i had no instructions on the sequence of what to do at a delivery.

The driver who was there was very good and went through the whole sequence at all delivery’s it was nearly all the same routine but safety always first.

First thing to do,was without fail was attach the wire clips to the STATIC to the anchor point at all deliverys or loading points, the wire was furled up inside a box on each side of the trailer you pulled it out like a hose reel and clipped it to the anchor point on the floor[like a lightening conductor, and the trailer end was attached to the trailer.

Make sure the truck and tank are level at the rear end ,there are 2 wind down legs each side of the trailer ,the same as the landing legs under the trailer on a chassis bar ,under the valve that you attach the blowing out pipe for unloading is a built in “spirit level” [can you believe that]. the trailer must be level for when you start to lift the trailer up once unloading starts[another thing i did not know].it goes up to near 45)degrees absolutely frightening the first time on my own.

Another lever at the rear of the trailer operates theHydraulics that lift the tank off the trailer to start lifting it up in the air
I asked why do you lift the tank up out of the chassis,

It lets the product inside slide down the inside of the tank as when the air is pushing the product [powder especially] out it creates a tunnel inside the product in side the tank.the lifting movment stops the tuneel being created

Example if you had a bag of flour and you put one hole in the middle at the top and lift it upside down to empty it would not come out ,if you put another hole in it the other end it would for a while but then clog up, the air pressure inside of the trailer does the same however that can clog/block up,then you have a hammer that has a rubber head and you go around banging the side of the tank so release the product stuck inside the trailer it does work [lift the trailer and then bang].the same sort of equipment i first seen in the zeebrugge garage on my very first trip now years later I am using them.well hopefully try to

You also have to keep a eye on the pipe that is taking the product out of the trailer up in to the silo, if the pipe starts to move[dance] around ,like starting to jump about, you know that more air is going through the pipe then product ,so you lift the tank up higher to get the product to fall to the bottom in side of the tank after banging the sides as well with the rubber hammer.

To get to grips with what i have just written , i learnt by asking and watching, and no way was the last explanation ,half of what there is to do and learn, i doubt you could learn it in a school ,it is on the job, and by your own mistakes ,and you did not make many of them .

Finding my first ever solo delivery in Grangemouth was not straight forward but i got there in the end ,the gate man directed me where to go, i could see the silo above the warehouse roof ,once i had turned around and backed up , there it was a concrete pad top place your rear wheels on to it was not to far away from the silo connection pipes once out of the cab i started to make out as if i knew what i was doing, getting the hoses out of the side containers , hoping someone would soon arrive to give me the ok also help me to start connecting up.

Years ago len the brs man used to say “IF YOU ACT DAFT YOU WILL GET AWAY WITH MURDER” in a sence he was nearly right,however bluffing ,was another thing,no way could i pretend to know what i was doing because i could not, and did not ,i do thank every one ,who “will never remember me” on the powder tankers for their assitance.

[peggydeckboy]

A Scots accent was heard by me,” HI there jimmy how is it going” turning round .a massive chap in overalls was walking towards me ,it turned out he could not have been more helpful once i told him my situation that i knew very little about what i was doing he helped and guided me through all the sequence of unloading.

You always check with someone at any delivery to see if their silo is full,if not,if you put procuct in to a silond it is full it will blow the product out of the top of the silo you are trying to put in,the silo overflow cuts in [in fact a disaster,] .thank god that never happened to me

It will be to boring to go through all the things i had to do and learn i will say! if the silo man had not been there i would still be there today, i had no clue ,in fact it was stupid to send me out untrained, but you get on with things, he even was able to show me how to put the pumping lever in gear, from inside my cab,by dipping the clutch and gently p utting it the correct position that drove the compressor that put the air in to the pipe to the tank and leave the engine in gear ticking over

Ihave seen lorries ,powder tankers that used to have a engine on the chassi infront of the tank I always assumed that was the donkey engine for some kind of power now I know but a lot have exit pipes for the product under neath the tank,.

He also showed me when to start lifting the tank up so the product would flow smoothly out of the exit pipe ,he said if the pipe taking the product out of my tank started to want to bounce around it was time to lift it up more so product kept flowing, i can tell you for nothing, it was the most scariest thing ever,i got used to it also the power of the air is about one and a half bar pressure i am still very grateful for his assistance .

They let me use their phone once unloaded i was told to make my way down to Dartford in Kent ,to go under the tunnel come off at the first exit, turn right go over the other side and you will see signs for the power station make you way there, and they will know you are coming and load up for Germany they have all the details you need, once loaded go to DOVER .

Once inside the power station i was told where to go read the signs and please obey them as this is a secure area, so for once i did and arrived at a loading area ,with a Shute hanging down ,made out of sort of canvas ,the instructions on the board out side told me what to do.

Go and sucure the anti static line, pull the lever at the rear end of your tank and pull it ,it will operate the walk railings on top of the tank for your safety, go on the top of the tank and open all the lids get back down ,and ring the bell on your left and wait ,this was in numerous languages .
After 5 minutes the tannoy -speaker came on the instructions . were go to your cab, start your engine up,

When the green light comes on in front of you slowly move forward when the red light comes on ,you stop, do this until a person will come out to you ,keep you windows up tight, stop your engine when on a red light, do not in any circumstances get out of you cab as you will be surrounded by a thick dust…if you have any old clothes put them on …

I followed the instruction to the letter ,i could feel a product going in to the tank, the dust was like a sand storm [i have never been in sand storm] however ,i moved forward as instructed and the final red light come on, because next thing i knew the cab window was being tapped, outside was a chap with a breathing mask on ,he held a sign up that said wait until all the dust has settled stay in your cab,then by the door on the side of the building.is a phone pick it up I did as i was told, and out came this man with a shovel and a big soft brush and a face mask.

He said unclip the static line pull over on to the concrete pad over there then re clip the static line up again, go on top and brush all the product off the tank, after you have done that close all the lids make sure you have cleaned the rims so they close good ,because when you go to unload you do not want any air leaks what so ever, very important!

And do not put the product from the lid inside the tank just push it off on to the floor tighten the clips holding the lid down keep the one with the hole on top all facing the same way as the TIR cord is to go through each lid.

.Once you have brushed it all off, unclip the static line and move forward to the wash bay that you see over there ,it is hot water and then wash every bit of the product off the unit and trailer under neath as much as you can especially the wheels as it must not be put on any roads ,your truck will be inspected before you leave
The product was every where but i knew i had to do it correct ,once done i moved over to the wash and nearly forgot the static line, but i did unclip it and did a walk- around before i moved [just luck]

.When you are finished bring some clean clothes and shoes, with you will need them , there is a shower and plunge pool for drivers once inside it was like a swimming pool but I just had a shower I could imagine drivers ■■■■■■■ in the pool just for a laugh there was even a bag to put you old clothes in or just leave them there.

They had their own customs ,and they sealed up on site ,T forms were done there,and the CMR .i would still have to produce paper work at Dover, but idid not need a agent once all {done up the stairs] all drivers doing customs knew about the queing on the stairs]ihad got my ticket coming in the dock I then parked up in the lane and waited to be called forward to load on the ferry the next ferry available to Calais

I parked up in CALAIS and had a short break for transit of BELGUIM down around Brussels ,if you catch brussels at the wrong time it is as bad as any city although you are miles from the city but it has it different districts areas, the northern belgiens are called FLEMISH dutch speaking, the middle areas are called WALLOONSfrench speaking going towards LILLIE and a smaller group from the ARDENNES going towards Luxembourg,and across toAachen are GERMANspeaking peoples so bit of a mixture

It had been a while since i last went through Aachen frontier, they did not disappoint me at all the arrogant men were still there the usual routine . god knows what their problem is

The transit of GERMANY went ok by this time in my euro driving I had at last brought some maps and the German maps were cald Falk plan, they are so good they were made like the japanise paper folding [macramie] they just keep opening up to show more detail.

I arrived at the Krupp factory around late pm , [old habits,] I had had a good 10hours plus shift not caught speeding,after going first to the wrong industrial estate, i was given correct directions to the chemicial looking sitei followed the sign to the truck parking ,pulling up as quite as possible as there were 2 powder tankers parked up so i joined them on the park.

I walked with my T forms CMR ,to the gate house i assumed somewhere on the site they would have to come and check the seal on the tank ,the gate keeper looked at the papers, picked a phone up and spoke to someone he handed the phone to me, a German/with a English accent said that it would be 12 midnight before i would be unloaded ,customs would be done here, and someone will come to the truck and get you .Another English truck is at the unloading dock i was told.

The gate man looked at me and i said could i have a “pass please” he knew the routine he wrote one out and gave me a plan of the factory, it looked a long walk ,i thanked the gate man, and make my way down a maze of just like streets of buildings it was like a town ,brick built walls like houses, street names you would never belive that you were in a industrial factory i followed the map eventually i could see the front end of a truck unit, ,with the tank half way up, it was getting unloaded it had E.B.T.DOVER. on the tank the first time I had ever seen one, after all the years of in and out of Dover well I would not have took any notice it was a tank.

I found out later that they had some sort of contract to do internals in Germany inter factory work, some drivers stayed a long time just working in Germany for smits

As I got closer I could here some banging at the rear of the tank so i moved back away from the truck and walked to the back at a distance, i could see the driver doing something ,so i waited untill he had finished ,i said the usual “all right mate” how you doing ,he looked over ,not the best of pleased he walked towards his cab he did say yehh ok,but never put his hand out to be shaken like most euro drivers do