mushroomman:
Chris Webb:
mushroomman:
sammyopisite:
The BRS group did not have sleeper cabs then as the union would not have them, the first one they had was an ex Siddle C. Cook FB88 based at Birtley depot.
cheers JohnnieStand by your beds Sandman Norman and Pikeman Harry Gill, although after Normans lucky escape in Istanbul you could only describe his cab as a half sleeper
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It’s ok Steve,Sammy’s on our side,he’s a dee-dah like me,but he is a lot uglier than me and has no decorum at all - just the sort of bloke you can have a pint with
Unions and bloody sleeper cabs - so what,can’t reckon it up.Shades of Liverpool/London reps - what did the drivers want?Hi Chris, I am well aware that Sammy is a bloke that I am sure I would of had a good night out with along with The A1 ( LEEDS ) men in years gone by. Don’t forget that I did a few years missionary work in Huddersfield for Hansons and they were very happy years working with some cracking drivers who only ever beat us once at cricket ( but then again we only played the one game ). Even the lads from BRATFORD sometimes bought a round of drinks
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Johnnie was dead right about the trouble with the unions and the sleepercabs and I remember that we had the same problem at Blue Dart after they had bought about a dozen Volvo F88’s and a few Volvo F86’s in the early seventies. The unions forced the management to take the bunks out of the F88’s so that the drivers couldn’t sleep in them, so in the end they were used as night trunk motors. Then after the annual pay negotiations they put some on roaming and gave the drivers with the daycabs a pay rise in there night out allowance but they put the bunks back in the sleeper cabs who’s drivers didn’t get the increase.
Then the following year the union disputed the fact that there were two night out allowance rates for roamers and in the end we all got an increase, we were all on the same rate and if you had a sleeper cab then you were lucky. The following year the union put the pressure on the managment to get all the roamers sleeper cabs.
My first trip across the water for Blue Dart in 79 was in a day cabbed Seddon Atkinson 401 in Vitafoam livery which ended up through no fault of mine taking over a week to do a Germany. I think it was then that I started to admire the guys that had done the earlier continental trips in the late sixties and the early seventies and put them on a par with the drivers who had done the trunking in the U.K. in the forties and the fifties.
So I hope that Johnnie didn’t think that I was having a go at him but I was hoping that Harry and Norman might of had a few comments to make about sleeper cabs as I know that they have both got some very interesting storys to share on this subject.Regards Steve.
P.S. has anybody got any photos of Blue Dart European.
Chris I’ll have you know that I have decorated the house I was instructed to, the FB88 was a “G” or"H" reg so in the late 60s when BRS had a British only policy and North West BRS were one of the first to have day cabbed continental wagons Scania 110s on the Procter and Gamble contract Trafford Park to Staniforth Road I think there drivers got fed up of picking us up as we knew what times they left so we knew what time to park up LOL dint we Chris. There was a heavy haulage company “Muntons or Monktons” who ran down to Italy in day cab Fodens regular in the 60s and early 70s and when BRS group did start to get sleeper cabs they were on UK work and we going over in day cabs around 74 time. The Crusader I posted was not mine it was my mates as I had a day cab but by removing the passenger seat you were left with a flat space as the locker beneath the seat was the same height as the engine cover so I made a box which came to the same height as the drivers seat with foam topping and I had more in cab room than some sleeper cabs I took the lining down an insulated it and added curtains and jobs a goodun. Steve it will take more than that to get under my skin when you are eldest of 11 you tend to get the hide of a rhino very early in life and you have to be able to look after your self and siblings from young LOL
Cheers Johnnie