KW:
[
Mate of mine who drove for Astran said he had to take a basic course in
Astran’s workshops on how to keep a Scania mobile before they let him loose.
For all I know that may have been Michael’s policy too, but to drag a bloke all
the way down from Nottingham at 9 hours notice of a sailing, he must have
been desperate. 
On the other hand maybe he knew just how good I was 
, Pete
Farbrace had recommended me to him and I had worked for Pete
elsewhere 
does this help
That second photo is a bit blurred Crankcase, but if the reg is NVB 951 R I think that was my motor, it certainly rings a bell. However can’t make out the driver, I’ll ask the wife if she does when she appears. Do you know when it was taken?
nianiamh:
Here you go then chaps this was sent to me by DEANB for you all
Sorry nianiamh but I can’t see anything here 
, is anybody else having the same problem .
Yeah me too .Can’t acess the pictures
All sorted for you now chaps, another one of my img postings that gone a bit pear shapped since they changed the way pics are hosted on here
nianiamh:
No ‘elf and safty in those good ol’ days.
Cheers
the pic was taken on the way to saudi 1981.
crank case:
the pic was taken on the way to saudi 1981.
Bit before my time then 
Hi, I’m afraid Whitrux was not one of my favourite companies!! In either 75 or 76 one of the drivers (I think Cannonball) gave an interview to a paper either The Mirror or The Sun stating that on every corner from Dover eastwards was an 18 year old virgin hippy looking for a lift and a bed, all of them eager for a middle aged hairy arsed truck driver to teach them the ‘facts of life’, and how every driver obliged. We were so busy it was a wonder we covered any distance, as you can imagine this went down like a lead balloon with the WAGs at home 
I believe I was not the only one to confront him, his story was -a true story was not interesting! I and at least one other driver pointed out that another interview like that would be bad for his health!
When I was doing some internals in Saudi all trucks used to park on the round about shown in my pic on Astran/ ME thread, one day M.White turned up and said that this area was now his depot, every time a truck moved out he would park one of his there, we ( all nationalities) were told to ‘go forth’. When he had enough space he stripped the tilts down and welded the superstructure into a workshop covered with the tilts and parked all his trucks around it using up all the space. Was this the depot that you dropped the cases off in bestbooties?
When I went to Najran I discovered that 3 of Whitrux had set off to I think Kamis Mashet a couple of days earlier, when they got to the mud road they were asked to wait by the workers but they refused and tried to drive through, when you are driving an 89 you don’t have to wait for any one!The road was being built with clay foundations, they put down a layer of clay in the early morning,rolled it, and then soaked it with water and left it for the mid-day sun to bake it like terracotta.You could drive on it in the evening but Whitrux couldn’t wait , drove onto the wet clay and got stuck down to the axles damaging 2 or 3 days work, the workers refused to let them pass and made them turn back. You can imagine how pleased they were to see me, another western truck, they parked a D8 across the road so that I would not be tempted to try the same, I was quite happy to wait until evening and drove through with no problems.
When I sold my Crusader in Saudi I was going to put my trailer on the ferry to Marseilles, M.White was in the booking office(he was delivering trailers off and on to the ferry) he asked me if my trailer had a GV60 I said yes, so he asked if he could take it back to UK overland a he had 2 loads to collect in northern Turkey but had only 1 trailer with a GV60, I agreed. A couple of weeks later I was preparing to fly home so I took the trailer round to him, he then told me it was going to cost me £450 to get my trailer home, I asked why and he said ‘my truck can drive home on it’s own-your trailer can’t, and the ferry has gone for another month.I was very impressed Alan Ball was with me to take all my stuff out of the boxes when M. White said ‘you can leave that I’ll do an inventory if I can use the oil and anti-freeze in the gerry cans’. He and I made a list and I paid him and I flew home. Quite a long time later I got a phone call to say my trailer was back in his yard, I think he could have done 2 trips by then, and I went to fetch it, when I arrived the trailer had been stripped bare - no spare wheels -no tow bar- no gerry cans and the boxes were empty.I waved the inventory and said what about all my bits and pieces? I was told ‘don’t know nothin’ about that you’ll have to see Michael’ So I asked where he was- in Saudi.I left a note saying I was not happy and came home and wrote a proper letter, every time I shipped in or out of Dover for some years I would call into the depot only to find Michael was ‘in Saudi’ when I was in Saudi he was ‘in England’ I was very angry and for a long time considered sabotaging a truck but that would only have got a driver in trouble so you can imagine how pleased I was to see a pair of his trucks captured in Kapic for smuggling especially as it was not his fault.
If this post offends anyone------------TUFF
Gavin
i remember delivering a load into white trux on a saturday in my trusty bedford tk and saying to the drivers about wanting to do european work in the late "70s and they started ribbing me about the spanish drivers down on the french/spanish border! if you go down there watch your back!!
Hi My Dad Tony Buckle drover for Whitetrux for many years and went on to drive for Michael White again at European Freight Sadly he passed away on june 10th 2009 keep on trucking dad.
Hi.
I am so sad to hear of your dad’s passing, my wife and I spent many evenings with him in Italy,and en route in France,in the late 70’s and early 80’s. He was a great character and one of the old school continental drivers, and will be sadly missed.
Please give our condolences to you and your family.
Kind regards MaggieD
I was there too
Many thanks Dad was a classic Hey Pops!!!
Came across this accident down the tap line in 1976 the astran motor in the back of the picture is Roy Day . Whitruck driver had hit a donkey or camel can’t remember old grey’s going a bit now,we arrived ealy morning he had the accident early hours about 4 hrs before Roy and I arrived .If Memory serves me right I think he had a leg amputated we stayed awhile to help clear up but never heard any more ,maybe some one will no if the driver survived and got home ok
Hullo BuckleJ,
I am really very sorry to hear of your Dad passing away. He was a really good bloke and will be remembered by many, one of the old school. Please accept my condoleces (R.I.P Tony, mate. )
Cheers, Archie.
