I didn’t suffer too much from the A,B and C licensing. I guess I was one of the new generation. I started hauling timber on a 'contract A ’ licence in 1969 for my uncle Jack, who had originally worked for George C Croasdale in Haverthwaite, near Ulverston in Lancashire.
Jack had set up on his own in the Scottish Borders, and I asked if I could provide his haulage. When I was still 20, I worked for him, at that time we burned the ‘snedded’ branches, and I worked in the forest for him, also driving the ex army Ford crane we used to load the wagons. Some weeks before I was 21 I bought a Leyland 14 tonner 4 wheeler and started hauling his timber - mainly to Riding and Anderton’s seven star sawmills at Wigan. Although I did go to Wallsend, Hexham, Glasgow, Ellesmere Port and somewhere in Yorkshire.
I bought a Triumph Spitfire in Preston from a man who was called Blamire. He told me that they had run a successful haulage firm, with regular trunk runs to London, but had struggled to come to terms with modern legislation, so had closed the firm down. ‘You’ll be alright, you’ve grown up with it’ . I suppose we did.
When ‘O’ licensing came in, I carried on carrying for Jack, but also bought sheets and carried for Bowater Scott from Barrow, my home town. Further to that I bought Vans and Curtain Siders.
That was the start of my haulage career, which carried on to overland to the Middle East and 10 years in Saudi Arabia.
Happy Days!
John.