Just out of curiosity was the Co Wilkes from Syston in Leicestershire as i remember a co by that name in the early 70s from Syston airfield who ran ME in the early 70,ran with them a few times.
Sorry about the delay in replying…
Yes, I think it was. I remember Wilkes got a lot of our haulage business in the earlier to mid 70s. I also remember going up to their offices to prepare some paperwork once or twice and it was certainly on an open site. I’m fairly sure it was in Syston but wouldn’t swear to it. Bert Jones used to live in Quorn (Quordon) a bit past Syston and I am fairly sure he used to drop documents off there from our Leicester office on his way home sometimes.
Of course, Wilkes presumably started to lose our business once we started to purchase our own tractor fleet, probably around the mid 70s. I also think I remember (but I could be wrong) that we had started to use an increasing number of owner-drivers too before that happened.
What I do remember is that Wilkes’ fleet by the mid-70s was looking seriously dated. I mentioned in the earlier post about one breaking down in our warehouse in Leicester and in general, there were reliability issues more and more frequently with their tractors breaking down on a job.
To be fair, I say again this was a long time ago and my memory might be a tad flaky on some points of detail. Cheers!
Cheers.
A long time ago now but I still remember running with one of the P.I.E. drivers quite a way down to the Middle East, I was on my way to Kuwait, can’t remember his name or where he was going.
This was somewhere in southern Turkey.
Steve
I’d guess from the tilt of the PIE trailer that this must have been mid-later 1970s? Prior to the big purchase of the tractors, most of our trailers were rented as I recall (TIP?) and only a few carried the PIE logo.
As I said in earlier posts, we were quite big in ME traffic from the mid-70s for a few years. In the end, most of that was being run out of Southall not Leicester. I sort of think I remember that although our ME business started out with direct export clients, over time Southall may have been forced to do more and more subbie work for third party shipping agents. I seriously doubt there was much, if any, margin in that.
I don’t think PIE in the UK ever really got themselves organised with direct selling and marketing.
I went down with one of our trucks R/T to Milan around 1976. Spent a few days in the Milan office. Good work experience. It was one of the DAFs I think. Beautifully equipped. I have to admit, I may have been great at driving a desk but I couldn’t ever have done the job as a real driver. I was a fit young guy but I was shattered after spending a few days on the road. I guess the pro drivers on this forum got used to it over time.
I remember one stopping place near Mont Blanc I think called “The Bakehouses”. There was a sign saying “WC”. The tiny cubicle was open and surrounded by shelves with stacked bread. You could sit and watch the bread being taken off around you for sale!
Can’t imagine they’d allow that today.
Cheers.
chazzer:
I can’t remember any of the drivers names but the transport manager was ex Howells and Reavell by the name of, and I’m not joking, John Thomas who if I remember correctly was a large bearded chap. They were as previously mentioned a big North American company who thought that they would do well in UK to M/E and bought a fleet of F89s with what became known as the PIE spec cab ie, air con, fridge, cooker, table, swivel passenger seat etc and m/e spec tandem trailers with belly tanks and boxes. I believe there was also a Swedish version of the company as well.
Yes my father drove for PIE and was then working in the office with John Thomas. Garth Inns…
