IT WAS NOW 1992
I knew in myself i could go and work anywhere on dry goods or fridge haulage on European and the reason for leaving was not nothing to do with conduct or problems I just did not want uk work.
.OPTIONS not a lot ,i had a diary with lots of companies and drivers names and phone numbers, i did not have mobile phone so i had to use the public phones s i will start nearest to my home… nr Banbury,
The first call was to ACH Aylesbury, i did not hold much hope but here goes ,then iRokold .
I spoke to Dennis who ran the office told him my story quick and he said come in the morning 10 oclock David Fowler would see me then ,i thought i wonder if they would remember me, i would have to wait and see,
That day I drove to Aylesbury booked in to a pub for bed and breakfast I could have gone home however at the same time my wife and her sister were in Blackpool looking for a house or bungalow or us .
A.C.H had moved from the village and were now on a factory estate I found that out when I went to the village where they used to be and I was given the address where they were now ,i found the yard ,drove in slowly and seen a visitors parking space and parked.
Dennis was there behind the counter, no handshake. , hello,what can i do for you,
As re- my phone call yesterday i am here to see if you need any drivers, at the moment as i am now not working, finished yesterday at Pulleyns ,please ring their office if you would like ,i did have a misunderstanding with a ex driver who now runs traffic ,and i decided it would not change ,so i thought it would be better for me and the company if we parted and you are my first call,
Well ok he said David will be in soon and he will make the decision, just tell me what you have been doing.
I told him all the countries i ,had been driving to and it was fridge work, and dry goods in tilts special trailers used for European work,and the border crossing etc procedures i knew.even Swiss.
Once Mr Fowler arrived ,[the bosses son] the interrogation began he wanted to know the ins and out of everything i had done connected to transport any this or any of that, accidents damaged ,done by me any insurance claims ,the whole lot any problems with fines abroad with the police ,a through grilling, as this was going on in walked another man his dad ,the boss Mr Fowler, he sat on the edge of the desk listening after time he said, you have worked her before haven’t you , and i replied yes for a short period years ago ,i did not have reliable transport ,He said have you now ,yes was my reply
I have been working 3 weeks away, and then my time off for the last few years and it works well for me and i still live where i did before about 40 miles away, he then said I only employ drivers within a 25 mile radius from here and you are out of that range .
I then replied yes, however i do not mind where i take my weekend brakes at all it can be anywhere ,to suit you, here or abroad.
He then said go and get a coffee from the drivers room on the other side of the yard and come back in 15 minutes that is what i did
Back in the office they asked me to go in and they offered me a job there and then. no particular run or unit to drive ,3 weeks here then 3 to 4 days at home wages were not mentioned ,and it was weekly pay. Kept here when you are not here ,no company ■■■■■■■■ or company book of dos and don’t just do as your told ,and that was that
I was not going to go home so i asked if there was a spare unit i could stay in until i got sorted out with my own and that was ok.
I could not give you the whole rundown of what type of work they had, they had to much to single out, this is what what i did.
they were a very well organised in the equipment they used ,the warehouse the clean trailers and 99% of the units were top range high line sleepers Volvo or Scanai also i knew a few of the drivers from ferry crossings some were not the most friendly, after time i knew wh
Import loads would come in all days of the week from mostly ITALY ,SWISS, GERMANY ,summer time from GREECE [FRUIT]
Some trailers would be dropped in the Aylesbury yard or some in the Kodak yard at Hemel Hempstead they were one of the main contractor or sometime at the AVON cosmetics yard in Northampton,
There was always a good reason for what they did it was very well organised the older long term drivers never had to mess around with tipping [unloading] many of the trailers,
There was also Patricks of Kettering they seemed to run in line with each other so you might get the odd load left there ,you were never ever able to sort of plan what you thought you might end up doing as it changed all the time.
That was good sometime but it seemed that all men were all running around.most drivers were treated the same Export work from the local area was a well oiled machine.
Typical day, start from the yard 6 am ready to roll you could have a trailer with 3 drops around the midlands ,never further north than Stafford .
After unloading that, you would maybe go back empty to the yard very unusual, or drop the trailer in to the Kodak works near Stafford and probly load it, or take one that was a full load for export but different delivers’that would be straight back to Hemel Hempstead, and some one would be waiting for some of the load on itand some to be transhipped ready to go out asap ,you would guarantee when you got there would be no free bay to back on to.
You would go inside to see the warehouse man he would say right pull that one off the bay…back yours on.we will only take half off ,take it off the bay.,then put the other back on, and then another one on ,the other bay needs closing up and pulling of the bay then that has to be sealed up [customs].all you do is end up shunting.but that was the way they utilised every one of you working hours if idid not like it icould go home no one never said that to me but I new the crack
I would bet you would never go to Kodak and pull a trailer out and getaway on a export run with out shunting trailers of course the office new that is why you were sent there free shunting.and if some one had pulled you trailer off a bay and not properly put the cord through the back rings down the sides from the top you would have to either back on a bay or drop the trailer and use your unit to stand on the catwalk to zip it up… very nice especially as you had to get to DOVER
. You had to make sure by 5.30pm any day while you were in the UK you had rang up to get your next days instructions-they knew you had a 15 hour work time spread over and the days driving would not be more than 9 hours so you might have to wait at KODAK until a trailer had been finished loading ,get it sealed up ,and take it back to the yard ,as someone would be coming in at 6 am to go export with it and you would be just in your spread over time and knackard.
You could well end up with another 6 am start and do the same again and that is what i did but i never moaned to any one just got on with it. I knew in the end it would pay off and that is what happened they decided to use me on Export .
One of the most funny things to be seen is a bunch of grown men scatter like buck shot when a certain car comes in to the yard ,around 9am and that is the car of the boss Mr Fowler, a red jaguar .he is like a shark looking for prey,
Most mornings there would always be at lest 3 or 4 drivers hanging around waiting for a load or unit from service so the job would be, put trailers through the useless old wash ,just water no chemical and the wheels had to be done it was a 2 man job ? also a space for 2 units to be washed, there was always units to be washed ,they never supplied any gear, washing up liquid, there were bald brushes ,old shirts, but it was to look busy.
If it was all done and the trailers were parked nice and neat in the lines , drivers would be in the brick built. tea hut plus toilets, however that was frowned upon by the boss in his eyes you could be tiding up the yard picking up litter,all types of jobs in his eyes, have you ever seen 3 men trying to get out of a door all at once because a red car has started to turn around the yard like a shark, cruising for his next victim
,
After about 2 weeks i was given the usual daily run around but with a export on the end of the day they new that was the bonus extra cash, it appeared no one spoke wages to any one else every one got different or else drivers would say it did not take me long to find out how,a long day but ended up in Dover i was glad to be back hoping to get in the rhythm of export .
I soon realised all was not what it seemed regarding the taco graph and the use of.the ferry i was booked on mostly to Zeebrugge meant you never had a proper break until the end of the next day men before me must have just queue up in the truck export lanes, and took what sleep they could load the truck on the ship at 6 am 4/5 hours on the ferry by the time you got off, [in theory] you had had a long break the truck might have but you certainly did not.
,After running straight at PULLEYNS i was amazed at how bent we were on A.C.H if that was the way,so be it. Over hours .no card inwell one in and out again.
I would be here for ever, telling you all the tricks we used to pull, but no one ever said a word, all the loads had been done a hundred times to the same customers it was standard practice we all thought it was good doing this and getting away with it.
One job sticks in my head is the “Kodak factory stutguart” after leaving Hemele Hempstead , you would go down to Dover,catch the Zeebruge ferry,after clearing customs ,once you get off at Zeebrugge from the afternnon boat get
off late -ish Saturday evening ,top up with diesel , no time for coffie your mind was set on driveing straight down to Aachen
Once at .the border you start your brake, parkup on the Belguim side … it would be about 3 to 4 am Sunday morning.Belguim was the same as England you could drive any time, different from GERMANY.10pm Sunday night.
You could be parked at the front of the queue in lanes however by the time the Border opened up it would be so jam packed with trucks mostly Belguims it would be impossible to get out,it was never easy once you had done all your paper work, customs permits etc we never used a agent ,as the goods got cleared at the end destination once you got the hang of it after quite a few times it was easy-ish other drivers were the problem by not being in their trucks to move as we were all forgieners no GERMANS TRUCKS
10 O CLOCK Sunday night you would start driving in GERMANY that was if you were in GERMAY but we were not it coud be well after midnight before you managed to actually get out of the border
,you drove down to KODAK STUTGART after one break, by the time you get down there you are about out of driving time, so you would think that normal thing to do was to drop your trailer in the factory and leave to their shunter to move around the factory,…
No chance you have to do the shunting for them in their yard also some outside delivers to other KODAK small factories you would be at it all day you would end up unloading other men s trailers who had been to the factory earlier the same day and they would have a empty one and go off to load somwhere …As some left England a day before you and were parked up at the factory Saturday…
It was all preplanned at the office nothing on ACH ever happened by chance ,you would do the same the next day after a sleep, go off with a empty trailer but not the one you brought down with you and re- load sometimes you had 3 collections that card would go out of the window
It looked as if you had had a 10 hour break on the card it looked as if you had done nothing all day,it was like magic
as some of the regular loading points had a spare right hand ACH unit used to go out and pick up colletions.for your load and for others to be left inside the warehouse that is how the tacho got theno work break you was not in it.
You could end up leaving at 10pm at night and drive back to the border if you had time so as you would be able to drive to ZEEBRUGE ,then the penny dropped you had got in their system, of going back to the depot in England with a loaded trailer, drop it off in the yard , pick a loaded one up and away again you got used to it.
The same system worked in ITALY ,NORTH OF MILAN ,in the middle of nowhere, Avon cosmetics from Northampton had as factory there some of the men were on a regular contract and had box vans and kept them all the time , unloaded and loaded them or picked a loaded one up ,good job as they had their own customs clearance at the factory we never had to clear anywhere else not in the northern area of Italy.
However it was never done fairly .you may have brought a trailer in to Italy with one drop and you would think yes that is good quick clearance and away, you could bet that would not happen ,one of the longer serving men may have brought a trailer from England to ITALY with 3 or 4 delivers you could bet he would have dropped it in their yard and gone off with a empty trailer and left it to the likes of me, however i was not on my own there was a few of us.
But i used to think while you are doing this you are doing nothing else.but i did respect loyal service should have its benefits and that was one of them.
I never did get in the A team,i did nor expect to because they knew i would be off whenever iy suited me [no loyalty] but the money was always good you could never work out how you got payed , was it hours, or loads or price of jobs, it was worth the effort and hours while i was working there my wife and i moved up to BLACKPOOL so i thought why tell them so i did not for nearly a year but they new when they had to phone my old number,my son had brought our house so it was still in the same surname and his wife told all,unsuspectedly. i was surprised when they rang me at home ,too late then ,i expect that was another nail in my coffin ,but as i said the money was good they had two choices .let me stay or go.
.however
A well known driver who lived in Appleby at least 250 miles from Aylesbury had worked for A.C.H for many years , not being local ,sadly he passed away while working for ACH in ITALY and i got on well with him ,what i am saying there were now 2 off us not local now and eventually more came from farther afield…
Mr BOYCE,was one of the few drivers who used the train from Koln to MUNich Saturday night to get you to Munchen Sunday morning. ROLL ON AND ROLL OFF .it was mostly for other foreign trucks and something to do with PERMITS that were used back then also it was a ■■■■ up ,so i was told and knowing the driver it would be right
. It meant that you were on your weekend break, but moving not driving you had to drive on and off but it was legal. And you had travelled that would have taken you at least 9 hours driving it was for the Avon cosmetics contract for just outside Munchen