newmercman:
Carryfast you still don’t take into account the fact that journey times were not so important during the period in which Gardner made its name and acquired legendary status.You also need to figure in that this was also the start of the motorway and bypass era, so journey times were reduced significantly by virtue of the better roads, even at the sedate pace that a Gardner provided.
The timed delivery was unheard of, things were much more relaxed and nobody was belting around like their arse was on fire trying to save a few minutes out of their day.
The lorry driver was also a different breed, more spit than polish, they had mostly worked their way up through the ranks driving older lorries and to them a new Atki/ERF or even a Big J with a 180 Gardner was a huge improvement.
Yes they went on past their time, just like the older stuff before and the turbo era completely changed the transport industry, but ask the old boys like Bewick, Harry, Larry and the rest and they will all tell you things were much better all round when Gardner ruled the road. Dennis is a perfect example, he waxes lyrical about Gardner, even though he ended up running the Scania 143 450 which I consider to be the best lorry ever made, it’s horses for courses and while the rest of accept that you need a shire horse, you want to be on a racehorse.
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Nail on head Mark in my opinion concerning the job and also agree with the comment about the 143’s, the job and the motors have gone downhill since then, Cheer’s Pete