DEANB:
A regular sight in Poole.
That’s a great pic Dean would you believe I have just loaded this afternoon at Hardings in Frome, I imagine they are the same Familly.Cheers Geoff
No connection Geoff as far as I know.
Cliff luxton:
No connection Geoff as far as I know.
Trust you to put the mokkers on it but I bet there is a connection somewhere. you carrot crunchers are all connected.lol Cheers mate
Merve the swerve was from Bath, I met him Ouistreham and we got talking about unsecured items in the cab when you have a cab rollover, he was nearly killed by a loose bottle jack and a tool box, moral of the story is, you survive the crash but are killed by a hammer or spanner.
Please take a look at the Steve Bryant thread I have posted thanks.
Bernie Dignan , I have been told Bernie Dignan of Poole has died, I have not spoken to him for a few years but saw him at the Purbeck rally,
What about the free bottles of calvados the drivers used to be given for using Truckline Ferries,who remembers that.
I still have a Les Routiers book they gave us one Christmas.
The Volvo FH 12 in the photo is taken at La Linea on the Gibraltar border.
by the time i had this we had all but stopped using Poole / Cherbourg and were using Harwich to Cuxhaven. with boats running on Finnish times and the only meal that was any use was just before docking at Cuxhaven. after I moved on to an man this truck went through troubled times although it is still running now.
nice looking outfit tho 
hotel magnum:
by the time i had this we had all but stopped using Poole / Cherbourg and were using Harwich to Cuxhaven. with boats running on Finnish times and the only meal that was any use was just before docking at Cuxhaven. after I moved on to an man this truck went through troubled times although it is still running now.
Thats a nice looking outfit Hotel Magnum what did you carry in that trailer to Finland ? regards Geoff
Cliff luxton:
What about the free bottles of calvados the drivers used to be given for using Truckline Ferries,who remembers that.
Hi Cliff I was never lucky enough to be given Calvados,had a key ring and not much else.My perks was getting off in my home port.Cheers mate Happy Christmas.
although the trailers came from finland, the comment was the boat from Harwich was a finnish ship going to Germany, once the rear ramp hydraulic ram broke and we sat in Cuxhaven for 5 hours waiting for a big crane to come and lift and lower the ramp down, another time a Philippines boat was used with the old system of all trucks going up on the top deck had to use the lift after getting two hours behind the boat sailed half empty and they fed us and gave everyone a stainless travel mug. good old days, we did most of Europe but never made it to Portugal until I did a bit for stage truck.
Baldrick1953:
On the Cabmont / BI subject…
They were a good bunch on there , driver wise, some good characters.
( I always found Tim Allen to be reasonable bloke to work for too. It was dear old Pete Wolstencroft who was the difficult one! )
Many of the old drivers such as Jelly legs, Reckless Rat and Jim Bailey have left us. Pat Scorey still with us
Approaching 80 I believe… There was a great camaraderie amongst all the drivers on just a few companies in those early days of the run down to Lisbon. Aquilla, R and G , Partricks among them ( forgive me for any omissions ) … It was a very tough trip in those pre EEC money days and to cross the border from Villar Formoso , Badajos or Tuy was to step back in time to a land of ox carts , dreadful roads and even more dreadful drivers.If you had a puncture or any roadside problem , you’d be sure that someone would stop to help. Not just Uk drivers but others too.
I was on there at various times in the 70’s to early 80’s. Their traffic was mostly France and Italy in the early days but when Cabmont began , we started doing more Spain and then Portugal. I think with the demise of Cabmont and British International rising like a Pheonix from the ashes they concentrated on Portugal with outgoing groupage and a contract with Tibbet and Britten amongst others . They were , I think , the biggest outfit on that run at the time…
Also. One more thing… It is often said that BI drivers were adept at syphoning diesel from other trucks…
I personally never knew of anyone in my time there involved in that. Doing ten day trips in convoy with sometimes 6 or 7 drivers , I never saw any evidence of it.
However there’s always a bad apple in a barrel so will stand to be corrected…Reference Cabmont in Erith , I seem to recall they had a big contract with a paper mill in Sittingbourne area… Huge reels of paper to France and Italy . A nasty load and always a strip out. Used to dread it!
Cheers all. Balders.
