Pics of pre-1989 Polish lorries in UK

I wonder if anyone have some. I was reading an article recently about Polish guy, who was in 1970’s in Glasgow on his Jelcz… That can be interesting part of the history, as I know that they were buying some western european lorries to go there…

The company will be almost for sure PKS, as that was the state-owned only haulage operator in Poland of this times… If it was western made lorry, the tractor will be yellow, and with the other ones there will be sign like that at the doors or front corners:

orys.
Did the firm change it’s name to Pekaes(spelling)?
They were yellow.
If so I recovered one in the early '80’s in London.
The drivers spent a few happy nights with the lads
at a club on the North Circular,whilst staying in digs
at the Arnos cafe opposite.
When they came back from Poland they brought
cases of Polish beer & good spirits.Happy days.
As it was recovered late at night,I have no photos.

When I was about 14 yrs old, living in Ilford, on the East side of London, I remember seeing lots of trucks from Pekaes and Hungarocamion, parked for days by the old railway yard on Ley Street.( I think M&S Shipping was near there) I can remember the drivers sitting by their trailer boxes eating pickles and jars of meat in some kind of lard !! Isnt it funny what springs to mind. That must have been around 1977/78 and then a few years later, I was going to their countries and eating pickles and funky meat!! I never thought about taking photos but I do remember the old RABA and F89’s artics and wagon and drags.
GS

DaveL:
orys.
Did the firm change it’s name to Pekaes(spelling)?

Yes, altough I am suprised that it was changed so early… I thought that it was after 1989 when they split the company - international spedition became PEKAES, while local haulage (and bus) operators became PKS + City name.

orys:

DaveL:
orys.
Did the firm change it’s name to Pekaes(spelling)?

Yes, altough I am suprised that it was changed so early… I thought that it was after 1989 when they split the company - international spedition became PEKAES, while local haulage (and bus) operators became PKS + City name.

I met up with a lot of Pekaes drivers on the Midle East run in the '70-'s and '80’s.Good blokes.

Hi orys, there were lots of P.K.S. all over the continent in the 80’s.
I.I.R.C. they had mainly yellow Volvos pulling fridges and I think that they were usually double manned. I saw them lots of times in Dover and I have a feeling that I have seen some photos posted by Trucker Ash.
Try looking in the Truckin in the 80’s thread on page two of this forum.
Good luck, Steve.

Thanks!

Driving to Poland around 1981-2 I used to always get a wave from the PKS driver’s,very friendly and would always stop to see if you needed help.Remember they had Volvo F89’s and F12’s,and also some SK Mercedes.

Didn’t they have a big depot at Slubice?

I also remember seeing those old Orbis tourist buses in the UK,which was quite a rarity!

KW:
Driving to Poland around 1981-2 I used to always get a wave from the PKS driver’s,very friendly and would always stop to see if you needed help.Remember they had Volvo F89’s and F12’s,and also some SK Mercedes.

Didn’t they have a big depot at Slubice?

I also remember seeing those old Orbis tourist buses in the UK,which was quite a rarity!

yes, but what i know they had some western lorries bought for hard currency to go west and for local trips within eastern bloc they were using standard eastern lorries like Liaz, Jelcz, Star, Kamaz etc.

I just read that from time to time they were sending these to the west… So I just asked if anyone seen some of them in UK?

I checked that thread, but (apart of some orange Liaz in the distance on one of the pics, which I guess will be hungarian) I can’t see any PKS there at all… Maybe they were on that pics which are gone from photobucket?

As for depots: yes, every bigger city had a PKS depot. That was almost one and only, state owned haulage company… And if you were driving this western-going ones, you were a young god, as you had your diets paid in dollars at the official rate (wich was very low), so if you trade this dollars on the black market, you was really rich…

Unfortunately, in most cases you had to have really good back to get that job :neutral_face:

Have you tried the Euro-Wheels website?
They have several PKS pics on there.

Orys,where do you originate from in Poland?

Hm. Will try.

I am from Wrocław.

orys:
I am from Wrocław.

Okay,that’s one of the places I delivered to.
Also Poznan,Warsaw,Lublin,Lubachow,Chestahova and Szczecin.

But this was back in 1981-2.

if orys comes back and says he was born about '83… :open_mouth:

please orys accept this as a joke :slight_smile:

glenman:
if orys comes back and says he was born about '83… :open_mouth:

please orys accept this as a joke :slight_smile:

No, in 1981 I was already on this world :slight_smile:

much to kw’s relief :smiley: