Security measures back in the day question

[cavalier]

Hello,

I’m writing a book, and I’d be very grateful if anyone would be kind enough to answer a question I have about security procedures.

I’m trying to find out what security measures drivers faced in the 1970s-1980s period. Specifically, on for instance your easiest day across the border, how many security measures you would face when crossing over from one country to another? Would your load always be examined, or would there ever be times when you could just show your papers and that would be enough?

I’m especially interested in roped and sheeted flatbed trailers – for my writing, I have something in mind along the lines of these lovely loads that I found on this very helpful forum:

What sort of security measures would loads like these have to face?

I’d be so grateful if anyone could help me. Oh, and by the way, I checked with Rikki-UK to make sure it was all right for me as a private individual to ask some questions, so I’ve got the go ahead on that.

Thank you very, very, very much for reading!!

[peggydeckboy]

Cavalier
go to the BEWICK POSTS OR the roping and sheeting posts all good honest true writing,as for security mostly none if you were custom sealed that was it ,nothing else needed,no flat or sheeted trailers except low loaders they would have had customs seals somewhere i do not know… would have done EUROPEAN THAT IS WHY THE TIR TILT WAS AROUND And there are many more men on here that will be able to tell you all.BETTER THAN ME …

IF you loaded whisky from SCOTLAND in the 1970s you had a customs seal put on every dolly when roped and sheeted. pdb good luck with the book,i am trying to write a book but the old grammer is a bit iff-ie .if you go way back on the pages on here you will see "my driving history"deckboy peggy, last year but stopped doing it on here ,well the site stopped me …no prob it done me a favour …about 290 pages as yet…pdb.

[cavalier]

peggydeckboy:
Cavalier
go to the BEWICK POSTS OR the roping and sheeting posts all good honest true writing,as for security mostly none if you were custom sealed that was it ,nothing else needed,no flat or sheeted trailers except low loaders they would have had customs seals somewhere i do not know… would have done EUROPEAN THAT IS WHY THE TIR TILT WAS AROUND And there are many more men on here that will be able to tell you all.BETTER THAN ME …

IF you loaded whisky from SCOTLAND in the 1970s you had a customs seal put on every dolly when roped and sheeted. pdb good luck with the book,i am trying to write a book but the old grammer is a bit iff-ie .if you go way back on the pages on here you will see "my driving history"deckboy peggy, last year but stopped doing it on here ,well the site stopped me …no prob it done me a favour …about 290 pages as yet…pdb.

Thank you very much for your advice, and good luck with your book!! Don’t worry too much about the grammar – that’s what editors are for!

[mushroomman]

Hi Cavalier, it all depends on where you were travelling to as no two borders were ever the same. Sometimes in the Commie Block if you had a problem and they wouldn’t let you through you would wait until the next shift change and chance your luck and a lot of the times then you would get through. The easiest border I believe was between Belgium and Holland about ten miles from the West German border at Aachen. You would just slow down, wave and smile at the customs man who would then wave you through, he would never come out of his little glass hut if it was raining.
The worst border I.M.H.O. was at Kapikule going into Turkey in 1980 when my longest time took four days but that also included exiting Bulgaria. You always seemed to get more hassle the further East that you travelled. Once you had weaved your way through all the parked lorries towards the customs buildings you had to open up your tilt and then they would send in a couple of search Monkeys who would smash into a couple of crates with a pick axe just to have a look inside. The customs man would tell them which boxes to open up and when he was satisfied with what you were carrying you had to close your tilt and before you were resealed then you had to give him and his axemen a Baksheesh, a reward for the “good” job that they had done. This usually consisted of a couple of packets of cigarettes or some Turkish Lire.
If we were carrying tractors or machinery on a flat trailer then some countries would put a seal or sometimes two seals somewhere on the machine and enter the seal numbers on you carnet which would be stamped in red letters OPEN T.I.R.
I once loaded 20 ton of Hazelnuts in 15 kg sacks out of Samson on The Black Sea Coast on a Broshuis low loader, a rope and sheet job. The customs men counted all the bags on and after I had sheeted it up they put about four seals through some of the dolly knots. When I arrived at Kapicule to exit Turkey, they made me take the sheets off and after taking a few kilo of nuts for samples, I had to resheet it before they put some new seals on.
One of my favourite borders in the early eighties was over The Friendship Bridge from Rumania into Bulgaria, minimum of 1 hour, maximum 6 hours but a friend of mine told me that at the end of the eighties the same border was taking two days to cross due to the increase in heavy goods traffic.
I hope this helps.

Regards Steve.

[peggydeckboy]

HI Cavalier, very good piece written by MUSHROOMAN obliviously a very knowledgeable ex Euro.commie block driver.
Not that many drivers/companies went in to then eastern block countries in 1970/80S mostly small 2/3 lorry outfits or owner drivers mostly on T.I.R Garnet.only T.FORMS as far as GERMANY AND AUSTRIA for the customs i think i am correct but who knows… as i am aware, yes when Russia opened up bigger companies got involved i do not know anything about that work at all, however a company i used to work for is very active within RUSSIA .

Going back to flat trailers,i would say that in all my time within EUROPEAN DRIVING I cannot recall ever seeing a “[BRITISH]” flat trial except low loaders.on regular distance European work,someone will try to prove me wrong however, all the hundreds of drivers every week that used to be in the customs compounds within EUROPE,flat trialers would not have been seen UNTILL!!! All the customs processes had finished ,then every tom ,■■■■ and chancer, started to arrive on the EUROPEAN SCENE,and that was when it went totally DOWN HILL… who would not have dared to send a truck into EUROPE ,did we worry about security ,no not really ,i used to work like many others taking near on thousands of pounds worth of all types of goods,cosmetics ,electrical,televisions,and not a lock to be seen… just a seal…

.you will hear about drivers getting loads high jacked and robbed,but no one actually knew the drivers it was all a mate of a mate,yes the odd unfortunate driver got gassed ,■■ or it was arranged.
. However, yes, i got shoes robbed ,where ,outside the delivery factory gate in DARTFORD. about year 1999 i was asleep in the cab…no locks on the rear doors, driving a road train,they went in both trailers ,the security said ,fine park there MATE.the police woke me up…i was non the wiser…the police moaned that they had not got their sizes[joke]. there was no comeback on me, locks or no locks a stanley knife cut the sheets …but that was about my lot of losing any loads during my driving , or just remembered i got robbed in Dublin market that was a different story… not mentioning the stuff we used to help our self’s too…perk of the job back in the 1970s+…some may scoff…but if you take a box of apples you might as well have the load as it is the same intent…i never did .pdb.

[cavalier]

mushroomman:
Hi Cavalier, it all depends on where you were travelling to as no two borders were ever the same. Sometimes in the Commie Block if you had a problem and they wouldn’t let you through you would wait until the next shift change and chance your luck and a lot of the times then you would get through. The easiest border I believe was between Belgium and Holland about ten miles from the West German border at Aachen. You would just slow down, wave and smile at the customs man who would then wave you through, he would never come out of his little glass hut if it was raining.
The worst border I.M.H.O. was at Kapikule going into Turkey in 1980 when my longest time took four days but that also included exiting Bulgaria. You always seemed to get more hassle the further East that you travelled. Once you had weaved your way through all the parked lorries towards the customs buildings you had to open up your tilt and then they would send in a couple of search Monkeys who would smash into a couple of crates with a pick axe just to have a look inside. The customs man would tell them which boxes to open up and when he was satisfied with what you were carrying you had to close your tilt and before you were resealed then you had to give him and his axemen a Baksheesh, a reward for the “good” job that they had done. This usually consisted of a couple of packets of cigarettes or some Turkish Lire.
If we were carrying tractors or machinery on a flat trailer then some countries would put a seal or sometimes two seals somewhere on the machine and enter the seal numbers on you carnet which would be stamped in red letters OPEN T.I.R.
I once loaded 20 ton of Hazelnuts in 15 kg sacks out of Samson on The Black Sea Coast on a Broshuis low loader, a rope and sheet job. The customs men counted all the bags on and after I had sheeted it up they put about four seals through some of the dolly knots. When I arrived at Kapicule to exit Turkey, they made me take the sheets off and after taking a few kilo of nuts for samples, I had to resheet it before they put some new seals on.
One of my favourite borders in the early eighties was over The Friendship Bridge from Rumania into Bulgaria, minimum of 1 hour, maximum 6 hours but a friend of mine told me that at the end of the eighties the same border was taking two days to cross due to the increase in heavy goods traffic.
I hope this helps.

Regards Steve.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your fantastic answer!

peggydeckboy:
HI Cavalier, very good piece written by MUSHROOMAN obliviously a very knowledgeable ex Euro.commie block driver.
Not that many drivers/companies went in to then eastern block countries in 1970/80S mostly small 2/3 lorry outfits or owner drivers mostly on T.I.R Garnet.only T.FORMS as far as GERMANY AND AUSTRIA for the customs i think i am correct but who knows… as i am aware, yes when Russia opened up bigger companies got involved i do not know anything about that work at all, however a company i used to work for is very active within RUSSIA .

Going back to flat trailers,i would say that in all my time within EUROPEAN DRIVING I cannot recall ever seeing a “[BRITISH]” flat trial except low loaders.on regular distance European work,someone will try to prove me wrong however, all the hundreds of drivers every week that used to be in the customs compounds within EUROPE,flat trialers would not have been seen UNTILL!!! All the customs processes had finished ,then every tom ,■■■■ and chancer, started to arrive on the EUROPEAN SCENE,and that was when it went totally DOWN HILL… who would not have dared to send a truck into EUROPE ,did we worry about security ,no not really ,i used to work like many others taking near on thousands of pounds worth of all types of goods,cosmetics ,electrical,televisions,and not a lock to be seen… just a seal…

.you will hear about drivers getting loads high jacked and robbed,but no one actually knew the drivers it was all a mate of a mate,yes the odd unfortunate driver got gassed ,■■ or it was arranged.
. However, yes, i got shoes robbed ,where ,outside the delivery factory gate in DARTFORD. about year 1999 i was asleep in the cab…no locks on the rear doors, driving a road train,they went in both trailers ,the security said ,fine park there MATE.the police woke me up…i was non the wiser…the police moaned that they had not got their sizes[joke]. there was no comeback on me, locks or no locks a stanley knife cut the sheets …but that was about my lot of losing any loads during my driving , or just remembered i got robbed in Dublin market that was a different story… not mentioning the stuff we used to help our self’s too…perk of the job back in the 1970s+…some may scoff…but if you take a box of apples you might as well have the load as it is the same intent…i never did .pdb.

Thank you very much – wow, “not a lock to be seen”! That’s amazing!

[mushroomman]

Here’s one of your old firms D.B.P.
When I took this photo in the early eighties of a Bowker lorry going up Monte Blanc towards Italy, I did wonder if anybody would ever be interested in seeing it. I am not sure if the driver was Jag Joe.

[mushroomman]

Re: Question from a non-lorry driver
Postby Dipper_Dave » Thu Sep 08, 2016 4:47 am
I could be speaking out of turn as I’m not as old as some of the buggers on here posting from their care home but it would not be that unusual I would think to have a rope and sheeted load in the 80’s travelling international.

Hello Cavalier, POLAND, (z.b.) POLAND.
The nurses here in the Trucknet Retirement Home For Ex Lorry Drivers (who have fallen on hard times) or your original post at the top of this page never mentioned anything about Poland. So it must of been that bar of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut chocolate that somebody gave me for Christmas that sent me wondering off along the memory lanes of yester year. I just happened to be looking on another of your threads where you mentioned that your lad was trying to get to Poland back in the eighties.
I did a few loads to Poland back then and I am sure that some of the inmates on here will agree with me that there were plenty of people desperate to move from the East to the West, in fact they would risk there lives to do it but I can’t remember anybody trying to get from the West to the East, apart from Kim Philby. At one time we had quite a few loads for Gdansk/Gdynia. These were reinforced concrete walls for some hotels that a British company was building along the beach. Because of their height we had to put some of them on to stepped frame trailers which didn’t need to be sheeted so there would of been no hiding place for your Jack The Lad.
We also used to take a full load of empty hessian sacks to a salt mine near Bydgoszcz (which we all pronounced as Bidkosh) every month.
Now the route that most people used from the U.K. to Poland was through West Germany into East Germany using the border at Helmstedt, there were other smaller border crossing but they all had the same characteristics. Leaving West Germany was never a problem but some of the customs men may of wanted to have a quick look at what you were carrying. The problems usually started on the East German side with barriers across the road, high fences with barbed wire across the top and electrified warning notices, armed border guards, watch towers, mine fields, floodlights and C.C.T.V. along with dog handlers with their Alsatian dogs (Der Woofenbarkers). They were very particular who they would let in to their country back then. You would have to drive very slowly once you were on their side and park up next to a gantry where a soldier would inspect the top of your tilt or sheets to see if there were any rips or tares. The dog handler would walk around the lorry with his dog which would be sniffing away, occasionally they would lift the dog up and put it into the back of the trailer. I was told that the dogs were trained to smell out people and drugs. Then there would be a cab search by one of the customs men or one of the conscripted soldiers. The searches were always more intensive when you were leaving East Germany and I think that a lot of the old lads on here will agree with me when I say that the East German border guards were probably the most efficient in The Communist Block but it wasn’t called The Iron Curtain for nothing.
If your lad was still not detected he would have to suffer a five hour very uncomfortable journey mainly on cobbled roads across East Germany to the Polish border near Frankfurt am Oder where the lorry would have to go through another search on the East German side and then another one on the Polish side.

I can still smell my sheets on a hot summers morning, soap, oil, detergent, cat pee, etc…
so it must now be time for that nice Polish health care worker to make my bed.

Regards Steve.

[peggydeckboy]

Mushroomman yes a good photograph of the "best -iss"firm i ever worked for… however that photograph was before my time, BUT! the driver may well have still been on there it was a job for life,i never had any complaints mind you i was not LANCASTERIAN OR YORKSHIRE i did not involved in the war of the Roses, yes it still exists,ask any LANCS or YORKS man.

THIS is true we were all stopped for a brew in France about 4 of us ,yes i did run with drivers i liked, and the question of the brewing water came up as we all carried our own UK water WHOs WATER WAS WE GOING TO USE,FROM HULL depot or PRESTON[bamber bridge] just to make the tea, the merits of the differnt water…you had to be there to have witnessed the [meant ]banter.it was getting heated ,so i made my own as usual and then they all did … so i did not really count but i enjoyed every day i was there . ?may i ask ,why did you take photos of lorries,very nostalgic,however,you must have some for-thought that they would be interesting in years to come…

AS for Poland, you done more than me however one trip was the same routine as others ,you had to write down how much curancy you had for Poland ON THEIR VERY POOR PAPER LIKE TOILET PAPER and record where your money went in fact the only thing you would buy or need was maybe a Lady,there was nothing else of worth to buy… it if i remember right,i know it was one country in commie block…Last time i was there it was 1.000 zloties to the pound,also i have a going out EAST German STAMP IN MY PASSPORT AND NONE ON EXIT they were gone,not a sole around, in that short time while i was delivering in POLAND…there will be men on here who probably did Poland regular not me…We used to load FAT PORK BACKS,FROZEN ,for the sausages at Bowers…pigs back fat with the “skin rein” on about 3/4 inches thick …lovely,ixed with rusk you never did know, i know 4 pigs that will never get that big and they are in luxury in Hampshire,eating apples so they allready have the sauce in them buzzer…pdb

[buzzer]

Cavalier many of the Southampton boys would have loaded out of Bergamo in Italy with washing machines from the Philco factory there, a lot were on flatbed trailers and as the customs man always arrived at 4.45 pm every one helped each other with sheeting and roping, even I remember a step frame trailer which took out machinery R.K Crisp was the company driving a Scammel Crusader so his sheets were a bit worse for ware but with sheets of card board underneath and a bit if jiggling we managed.
When the customs came we had already run a paper or twisted card cord through all the dolly’s of the ropes and he then duly sealed with a lead seal which was squashed over the cord, always wondered why they bothered as if it rained invariably it broke before you got home.
Then when we moved to fridges we always backed on to a wall or another trailer if possible but that was a bit of a giveaway that you had something worth pinching.
Once loaded whisky for Barbour European and spent the night in there yard backed against a wall but they had security alarm fixtures to each trailer door which were all round the periphery of the yard.
At the end of the day if someone wants what you have on your truck they will do most things to achieve there gain so you do not always end up unscathed, Buzzer.

[cav551]

While this clip of film is a bit early for mid/late 1980s, if the story is set nearer to the turn of the decade, then the two foreign registered vehicles shown at 2.50 and particularly the one at 5.05 behind the Alan Firmin lorry would be reasonably typical of eastern europen lorries at the time. The lorry and trailer Skoda, or is it a LIAZ? particularly would have been a typical eastern bloc vehicle of the '70s early '80s.

Depending on how far the OP wishes to go with embellishing the story with flavour, this would have been the tale end of the time scale before which the Route to the Channel ports, which would definitely have included Folkestone back then, did not include significant Motorway or dual carriageway along the A2 and A20 corridors. The M20 between Farningham and Wrotham and Maidstone and Ashford and the A2 from Sun in the Sands to Falconwood and from Brenley Corner to Dover were both significantly altered during this rough period. IIRC Rochester Way was still A2 until late 1980s.

britishpathe.com/video/a2-tr … onstration

[carryfast]

mushroomman:
Hello Cavalier, POLAND, (z.b.) POLAND.
The nurses here in the Trucknet Retirement Home For Ex Lorry Drivers (who have fallen on hard times) or your original post at the top of this page never mentioned anything about Poland. So it must of been that bar of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut chocolate that somebody gave me for Christmas that sent me wondering off along the memory lanes of yester year. I just happened to be looking on another of your threads where you mentioned that your lad was trying to get to Poland back in the eighties.
I did a few loads to Poland back then and I am sure that some of the inmates on here will agree with me that there were plenty of people desperate to move from the East to the West, in fact they would risk there lives to do it but I can’t remember anybody trying to get from the West to the East, apart from Kim Philby. At one time we had quite a few loads for Gdansk/Gdynia. These were reinforced concrete walls for some hotels that a British company was building along the beach. Because of their height we had to put some of them on to stepped frame trailers which didn’t need to be sheeted so there would of been no hiding place for your Jack The Lad.
We also used to take a full load of empty hessian sacks to a salt mine near Bydgoszcz (which we all pronounced as Bidkosh) every month.
Now the route that most people used from the U.K. to Poland was through West Germany into East Germany using the border at Helmstedt, there were other smaller border crossing but they all had the same characteristics. Leaving West Germany was never a problem but some of the customs men may of wanted to have a quick look at what you were carrying. The problems usually started on the East German side with barriers across the road, high fences with barbed wire across the top and electrified warning notices, armed border guards, watch towers, mine fields, floodlights and C.C.T.V. along with dog handlers with their Alsatian dogs (Der Woofenbarkers). They were very particular who they would let in to their country back then. You would have to drive very slowly once you were on their side and park up next to a gantry where a soldier would inspect the top of your tilt or sheets to see if there were any rips or tares. The dog handler would walk around the lorry with his dog which would be sniffing away, occasionally they would lift the dog up and put it into the back of the trailer. I was told that the dogs were trained to smell out people and drugs. Then there would be a cab search by one of the customs men or one of the conscripted soldiers. The searches were always more intensive when you were leaving East Germany and I think that a lot of the old lads on here will agree with me when I say that the East German border guards were probably the most efficient in The Communist Block but it wasn’t called The Iron Curtain for nothing.
If your lad was still not detected he would have to suffer a five hour very uncomfortable journey mainly on cobbled roads across East Germany to the Polish border near Frankfurt am Oder where the lorry would have to go through another search on the East German side and then another one on the Polish side.

To be fair in the world which the OP is going by that will actually be the situation getting ‘out’ of Dover.While East Germany and Poland will be along the lines of friendly countries waiting to offer our hero asylum and a friendly welcome.At which point I’ve advised somehow hiding in a tilt or maybe a box trailer during loading not under a sheet on a flat.

[buzzer]

Just another little snippet I just remembered, back in the early 90’s we did a lot of work for Sydney Hart in Harlow and we were regularily there especially on a Sunday morning delivering Broccoli from there pack house in Spain. Any ways up we turn three of us and cops all over the place and apparently there was a frog parked in the same road but opposite was a wine merchants and he got captured in the night, they drove him off in his own truck after tying him up and dumping him in a layby then took his truck up towards Cambridge where it was found abandoned with the four pallets of turnips bound for Harts still intact. Well we laughed about that for weeks but the Frog was traumatised.
Bet them robbers were sick as parrots when they opened up the trailer ha ha, cheers Buzzer.

[mat_man]

mat transport did a lot of flat work all over europe

[cavalier]

mushroomman:
Re: Question from a non-lorry driver
Postby Dipper_Dave » Thu Sep 08, 2016 4:47 am
I could be speaking out of turn as I’m not as old as some of the buggers on here posting from their care home but it would not be that unusual I would think to have a rope and sheeted load in the 80’s travelling international.

Hello Cavalier, POLAND, (z.b.) POLAND.
The nurses here in the Trucknet Retirement Home For Ex Lorry Drivers (who have fallen on hard times) or your original post at the top of this page never mentioned anything about Poland. So it must of been that bar of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut chocolate that somebody gave me for Christmas that sent me wondering off along the memory lanes of yester year. I just happened to be looking on another of your threads where you mentioned that your lad was trying to get to Poland back in the eighties.
I did a few loads to Poland back then and I am sure that some of the inmates on here will agree with me that there were plenty of people desperate to move from the East to the West, in fact they would risk there lives to do it but I can’t remember anybody trying to get from the West to the East, apart from Kim Philby. At one time we had quite a few loads for Gdansk/Gdynia. These were reinforced concrete walls for some hotels that a British company was building along the beach. Because of their height we had to put some of them on to stepped frame trailers which didn’t need to be sheeted so there would of been no hiding place for your Jack The Lad.
We also used to take a full load of empty hessian sacks to a salt mine near Bydgoszcz (which we all pronounced as Bidkosh) every month.
Now the route that most people used from the U.K. to Poland was through West Germany into East Germany using the border at Helmstedt, there were other smaller border crossing but they all had the same characteristics. Leaving West Germany was never a problem but some of the customs men may of wanted to have a quick look at what you were carrying. The problems usually started on the East German side with barriers across the road, high fences with barbed wire across the top and electrified warning notices, armed border guards, watch towers, mine fields, floodlights and C.C.T.V. along with dog handlers with their Alsatian dogs (Der Woofenbarkers). They were very particular who they would let in to their country back then. You would have to drive very slowly once you were on their side and park up next to a gantry where a soldier would inspect the top of your tilt or sheets to see if there were any rips or tares. The dog handler would walk around the lorry with his dog which would be sniffing away, occasionally they would lift the dog up and put it into the back of the trailer. I was told that the dogs were trained to smell out people and drugs. Then there would be a cab search by one of the customs men or one of the conscripted soldiers. The searches were always more intensive when you were leaving East Germany and I think that a lot of the old lads on here will agree with me when I say that the East German border guards were probably the most efficient in The Communist Block but it wasn’t called The Iron Curtain for nothing.
If your lad was still not detected he would have to suffer a five hour very uncomfortable journey mainly on cobbled roads across East Germany to the Polish border near Frankfurt am Oder where the lorry would have to go through another search on the East German side and then another one on the Polish side.

I can still smell my sheets on a hot summers morning, soap, oil, detergent, cat pee, etc…
so it must now be time for that nice Polish health care worker to make my bed.

Regards Steve.

Thank you very much (and for the photo, too!), though don’t worry about the Polish issue – because it’s an alternate history novel, Poland isn’t Communist, and East Germany doesn’t exist, so in this universe, it’s no different from travelling through the Western European countries of that era. So your original answer still stands perfectly, and was exactly what I needed to know!
However, there are a few of situations in the book that do require border crossings (though not in a lorry) in situations similar to crossing the Iron Curtain, so it’s still very helpful information!

Buzzer:
Cavalier many of the Southampton boys would have loaded out of Bergamo in Italy with washing machines from the Philco factory there, a lot were on flatbed trailers and as the customs man always arrived at 4.45 pm every one helped each other with sheeting and roping, even I remember a step frame trailer which took out machinery R.K Crisp was the company driving a Scammel Crusader so his sheets were a bit worse for ware but with sheets of card board underneath and a bit if jiggling we managed.
When the customs came we had already run a paper or twisted card cord through all the dolly’s of the ropes and he then duly sealed with a lead seal which was squashed over the cord, always wondered why they bothered as if it rained invariably it broke before you got home.
Then when we moved to fridges we always backed on to a wall or another trailer if possible but that was a bit of a giveaway that you had something worth pinching.
Once loaded whisky for Barbour European and spent the night in there yard backed against a wall but they had security alarm fixtures to each trailer door which were all round the periphery of the yard.
At the end of the day if someone wants what you have on your truck they will do most things to achieve there gain so you do not always end up unscathed, Buzzer.

Buzzer:
Just another little snippet I just remembered, back in the early 90’s we did a lot of work for Sydney Hart in Harlow and we were regularily there especially on a Sunday morning delivering Broccoli from there pack house in Spain. Any ways up we turn three of us and cops all over the place and apparently there was a frog parked in the same road but opposite was a wine merchants and he got captured in the night, they drove him off in his own truck after tying him up and dumping him in a layby then took his truck up towards Cambridge where it was found abandoned with the four pallets of turnips bound for Harts still intact. Well we laughed about that for weeks but the Frog was traumatised.
Bet them robbers were sick as parrots when they opened up the trailer ha ha, cheers Buzzer.

Thank you for the superb detail – and the fun anecdote!

cav551:
While this clip of film is a bit early for mid/late 1980s, if the story is set nearer to the turn of the decade, then the two foreign registered vehicles shown at 2.50 and particularly the one at 5.05 behind the Alan Firmin lorry would be reasonably typical of eastern europen lorries at the time. The lorry and trailer Skoda, or is it a LIAZ? particularly would have been a typical eastern bloc vehicle of the '70s early '80s.

Depending on how far the OP wishes to go with embellishing the story with flavour, this would have been the tale end of the time scale before which the Route to the Channel ports, which would definitely have included Folkestone back then, did not include significant Motorway or dual carriageway along the A2 and A20 corridors. The M20 between Farningham and Wrotham and Maidstone and Ashford and the A2 from Sun in the Sands to Falconwood and from Brenley Corner to Dover were both significantly altered during this rough period. IIRC Rochester Way was still A2 until late 1980s.

britishpathe.com/video/a2-tr … onstration

Thank you for that very interesting video, and your absolutely fascinating information about the roads. With it being an alternate history, the structure of the roads, and remembering that they’d be different in this universe, is really important to me and my sister (even if that makes us a little pedantic), so that’s really interesting to know.

Carryfast:
To be fair in the world which the OP is going by that will actually be the situation getting ‘out’ of Dover.While East Germany and Poland will be along the lines of friendly countries waiting to offer our hero asylum and a friendly welcome.At which point I’ve advised somehow hiding in a tilt or maybe a box trailer during loading not under a sheet on a flat.

The problem is, he’d still be wanted in Poland due to extradition – he’s only going there because he knows someone there who can help him. So he would have to be hiding in something that he could get out of without being noticed as easily as he got in, which would be more difficult for him if he was in a tilt.

mat man:
mat transport did a lot of flat work all over europe

Thank you, that’s good to know!

[mushroomman]

mat man:
mat transport did a lot of flat work all over europe

That’s true mat man, come to think of it there were quite a few big firms who used to run flat trailers around Europe in the eighties. A1 from Leeds, Beresford’s from Stoke, Bowkers, Wilsons from Ferrybridge, Halcyon, Carr/J.C.B. Denby to name just a few.

[carryfast]

Cavalier:
The problem is, he’d still be wanted in Poland due to extradition – he’s only going there because he knows someone there who can help him. So he would have to be hiding in something that he could get out of without being noticed as easily as he got in, which would be more difficult for him if he was in a tilt.

Blimey in that case he’s got no chance he’s toast.The Polish security services have been tracking the Polish friend before he even gets out of here if he’s lucky. Great ending to the story.He makes it through Dover and Europe to Poland and escapes from the sheeted flat where the … disguised Polish secret service agent is waiting for him.

youtube.com/watch?v=6zwW7iWinrk

youtube.com/watch?v=o0wNl66tT3Q

[newmercman]

There were quite a few firms running flat trailers over the water, Murfitts were one such outfit, way back when they were a small family firm, Bowkers were another, as were Beresford and RK Crisp. The oilfield and ship supply companies from Scotland were another lot that used flats and there were Smiths of Scotter and that mob from Scunthorpe with the red white and blue livery, 3 letters beginning with an O, not OHS but similar. They (Smiths) ran steel down to Italy and marble or tiles back and possibly still do.

I know when I’ve run an opened tilt down that the customs will Colis seal the goods, basically a big piece of string wrapped around the piece (in my case big forklifts) with a lead seal on the ends.

Obviously I never had to worry too much about security as it would take a very big bloke to run off with a twenty ton forklift, mind you I never went to Italy with one, so you never know [emoji23]

[cav551]

If we do end up going with a Tilt, Newmercman’s mention of plant in a Tilt suggests possibilities. Either uncovered or just the back uncovered to accommodate a machine’s boom poking out. With a little bit of author’s license the stowage of the buckets might allow the hero to hide unnoticed under an upturned one. The export of plant in the real world then would have been quite a quite common sight on Eastern European vehicles as well as UK ones.

Perhaps now over to Monsieur Saviem for information on the likes of RABA, JELCZ, LIAZ, Skoda etc vehicles and Eastern European haulage companies from that era, or links to already posted details.

[newmercman]

I went to Berlin in a 7.5tonner before the wall came down, my one and only incursion behind the Iron Curtain while it was still the Iron Curtain, it was to a fashion show in West Berlin and I was loaded with posh frocks. It was in an X reg Ford Cargo, one of the first and this particular one was obviously one of the first of the first as they didn’t have enough pistons to finish the build, there were only 4 of them and it was painfully slow.

Anyway, it was still in the day’s of the authorised transit route and the border procedures were bloody scary if I’m honest and I was a young lad then, a pint of Fosters in me and I would’ve had a punch up with Muhammed Ali if he’d looked at me the wrong way or eyed up my bird. It was a great adventure for sure, but there is no way I would’ve entertained the idea of doing anything naughty, the border guards were very serious about their job and the defences in place were formidable. Tbe one thing that struck me was although it was difficult to get into DDR, it would’ve been nigh on impossible to get out.

The next time I went that way was in 1994 and I was in a brand new (first of the first again) Volvo FH12 and I passed the same spot on cruise control at 85km/h