Yeah it was Jazzandy. Its called 50 shades of tarmac.
Danne
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
maga:
I believe these were the golden years for British transport for getting all over Europe and beyond, long before I was even a twinkle in my fathers eye
I’m just wondering if Brits caused as much carnage around Europe back then as EE drivers do now? Its plainly obvious a lot of EE trucks are smashed to pieces with a few exceptions, vectra international (RO) run a cracking fleet for example.
Now I’m not going to tar them all with the same brush as I’m sure some/most of them are perfectly fine but it seems whenever I come close to one I’m almost expecting him to do something daft.
This week alone we’ve read about
CZ (hungarian driver) stobart reversing up the toll
Hungarian waberers doing an obviously impossible U turn on a single carriage way roadI’ve just driven up past the M42 jct7 where it joins the M6N and a EE driver has the missed the juction and attempted to drive over the grass to rejoin the slip (at least he didn’t attempt a reverse back I guess
These are all incidents within 30 miles of my house! so I can only guess its country wide the mayhem spreads
I’ve read on Twitter that the EE driver who has got stuck on the M42 has been done for careless driving and it has cost him or the company £4500 for recovery. This from the police forces own Twitter feed. Surely they have been ripped off with the recovery? I thought it was about £2500 to be recovered by a wrecker?
I saw that on Twitter…did have a little chuckle to myself
Bloody wonderful.
Cliff luxton:
Bloody wonderful.
What he said!! 
Not sure how the question that was originally asked evolved into a debate about EE drivers though?! 
In the 70s (before my time1 :open_mouth: ) and throughout the 80s and 90s, (my time was 80-99) it was great, admittedly though the further into the 90s we got, the more the fun was removed. More regulations, more controls, more “hurry up”, less fun! 
Only real problem I had in Europe whilst driving between the eighties & the early nineties were German lorries accellarating on hills to hold you out, normally putting the left indicator on & slowly moving over would make a gap appear, did anyone else experience this…
I drove in Europe in the 80-90, great times you needed a permit to do Austria and the money was great, but when they joined the EU anyone could go there and the rates dropped, also you just had a road map as sat nav’s were not around to guide you but we rarely got lost, most if not all drivers would help each other out, not like today we’re they don’t flash you in or say thank you for giving way to them.
3 wheeler:
Europe in the 80/90’s was great fun, Every driver would help every other regardless of who or where they were from and we all got home roughly on time somehow.
Changing a wheel in the middle of nowhere or tipping the cab for a problem ALWAYS got another truck pulling up behind and "need a hand " or “I have a spare one” comments.
The drinking and games that when on were serious at some places…whole weekends on the ■■■■ while waiting for a load or on a break. It was usually the same guys who were a hard breed and loved the lifestyle, in a cab that is not the palace you have now with every mod con.
Life thank god has moved on , and most of the real ■■■■■■■■■ “Lads” are dead because of the lifestyle and age. But if you ask any of the remaining older lads that are left would they want to do it again and you would see them saying No because life has changed. We now live in a world of technology , rules , regulations and beaurocracy , with deadlines and stress ! The job is [zb] .
Here here, I started my m/e career in the '70’s and that was the best time, met some of the nicest blokes you could wish to meet, of many nationalities, you were all doing the same job, you never passed anyone who may have a problem, sadly, that time has passed along with many old friends, I must be getting near the top of the list!
In general, the standard of international driving was high in those days - partly because lorries handled like lorries rather than cars! UK drivers had no problem driving on the continent and many of us would take out a RHD wagon one trip and a LHD one the following trip - no problem. The Germans, Dutch, French and Belgian drivers were highly competent and had no problems with British roads and today’s cavalier side-swiping was almost unheard of. The old-time Eastern European state-operated companies (Hungarocamion, CSAD, Pekaes etc) sent excellent drivers - in pairs - who were careful, skilful and courteous. Something changed in the early 2000s and with it, a driving culture that may be disappearing for ever. Robert
Well here we are in 2016 and the company I started over 40 years a go is still active on EU transport but what a difference today to what it was back then, I have retired from the buzz of the transport office for some 15 years now and the responsibility is now in the capable hands of my two sons but how things have changed. When I first started out I drove for another company but it was not long before I had a truck of my own and did traction, having had TK Bedford’s from the age of 17 as if they were under 3 ton un laden you could drive them on a car licence.
In 73 I took and passed my HGV class one and away I went first did work just to France but that was a big old country compared to Britain, of course you needed permits to go abroad and this was always a pain to get enough of these so any one who did the job knew what you had to do to get bye with bung’s etc cheap back then but not the case in todays Europe. you get locked up now. This was the end for me when they abolished that system as I spent many pounds securing permits for an ever expanding fleet of trucks buying books and permits and EEC books of fella’s who quit the job.
As for conditions on the roads on those many trips I did before driving an office desk, had ten trucks at this point all drivers tended to help each other even if they never knew you. Most times if you had a blow out or puncture two or maybe three other trucks would stop and help out and nine times out of ten you never touched it you were told to make the tea and that’s the way it was. Remember seeing one fully loaded artic towing another home all highly illegal of course but with a bung or two you could get away with it.
Todays International transport from Britain on our trucks has been so depleted, when starting out there were at least 20 companies doing this type of work in and around Southampton either on traction for the bigger firms or doing there own thing now think we are one of may be three that are left doing it. On starting out the split of UK trucks versus continental ones taking loads out was fifty / fifty today we only have about 10% of the traffic if that, the reason is we cant compete on price, service does not seem to matter any more and besides that there are eastern European drivers being paid half what we pay ours and they think they have hit the jackpot.
We don’t charge foreign trucks enough to use our roads, it is a joke and they must be laughing at us. In my opinion every foreign vehicle coming here should pay £150 regardless of where they are tipping, also we permit them to use our roads on Sundays with dry freight so a level playing field it is not.
Knowing I have gone on a bit of a rant here I apologise for that but iv’e been in this game all my life and cant help my feelings and have to vent them. Summing up, the old times were the best drivers had time for each other and helped one another, not like that today to much on road toll’s, rush a tear, red tape, health and safety etc etc, how the hell did we do the job back then without all that.
Will recline now and put me tin hat on and await the flack, Buzzer.
, ,
+100
Well said Buzzer , I started in the late 60’s and haven’t ever regretted one moment of it, how did we survive?
Ossie
robert1952:
In general, the standard of international driving was high in those days - partly because lorries handled like lorries rather than cars! UK drivers had no problem driving on the continent and many of us would take out a RHD wagon one trip and a LHD one the following trip - no problem. The Germans, Dutch, French and Belgian drivers were highly competent and had no problems with British roads and today’s cavalier side-swiping was almost unheard of. The old-time Eastern European state-operated companies (Hungarocamion, CSAD, Pekaes etc) sent excellent drivers - in pairs - who were careful, skilful and courteous. Something changed in the early 2000s and with it, a driving culture that may be disappearing for ever. Robert
Remember the CSAD Skoda’s>,with their front to back bunks. They weren’t actually 2 drivers - 1 was a policeman, and the driver was only allowed to do 3 trips to Western Europe - for fear of them defecting.
East block drivers were also more than handy with a set of spanners too. I remember seeing one with a half shaft stripped out, waiting for a colleague to arrive with a replacement.
Trucking in general was a lot better than it is today back in the 60s when i started.late sixties i started international runs in TK and first trip was the centre of Paris..a complete nightmare and will always be remembered, and cherished..and i could with legs bent, sleep on the parcel shelf..We never had sleeper cabs..never had a mobile phone..boss said see you when you get back..contact was via pay phone or telex we had no mod cons like night heaters, and when the sleepers arrived we ventured more..more comfort and we added cookers and our own food stuffs ( mainly tins ) we never had side boxes, fridges, but had a cooker ( hence theCamion StewWe carried sparev wheels, and had to change the wheels ourselves, and sometimes fitted inner tubes as well, we were mechanics too as we had to do our own repairs in the wilderness, and in minus temperatures too. Waberers were calledHungarocamionand Csad was the main haulier in CZECH..with Romtrans in Romania and Somat in Bulgaria..all of their drivers were very experienced, and very hospitable and friendly. All the borders were closed and we had no choice but to stop, the moment we left the ferry at Calais..We were happy to see other brit drivers, and we all knew where the places to stop were, our evening meals and drinks were something to be desired, with many nationalities at the long tables, mostly Dutch, Belgiums, and the odd scandinavian.. there were the drunks who started fights, from all nationalities, and drivers stepped into stop it getting out of hand..our money was not too good for what we had to put up with, sometimes weeks away..we ran on Carnets instead ofT forms, ran Tilts not tautliners..which often had to be stripped down in blazing hot sun, or freezing minus temperatures..yes, we had some language problems but we managed, and most of the frontiers were very busy, queuing for days sometimes, but we managed..we were a friendly bunch, but we thought we were better on middle east work, than those on euro work..some of the first timers had a rough time, but we helped where we could..unless it was one who knew it all..lol..but they were a rare occasions. We never had automatics.. or a lot of the mod cons drivers have today, but what we did have was a camarderie that somehow disappeared..when drivers got the mod cons like tvs and decided to stay away from everyone else, wouldnt mix…all we had was a radio and 8 track ( fitted by the drivers ) and later a radio cassette player…all in all it was the best trucking days of our lives.