kirbs50:
I used to work at Chris Hudson International in the traffic office. When I joined (1975/6) I was responsible for making sure Ford Halewood had enough empty trailers and arranging units to drop and collect, shipping via Felixstowe-Europort RoRo. Then I moved into export loads, then import loads and finally an IBM contract.
CHI was the largest independently owned fleet of 12m tilt trailers, but nowhere near 1000.
During my time, Ford was the biggest client. We also used to carry milk powder back and forth from Europe thanks to some peculiarity with government subsidies.
There was also a small groupage fleet (4-5 mini artics) working out of North Weald airfield.
When I was with them the office was next to the Betterware factory in North Street, Romford. It was there that they took over the adjoining warehouse and developed the monoframe chassis with airbag suspension, which was going to change the world. Actually, it broke the company.
There was also a depot at Beckton, then the company moved to Harold Hill, just off the A12.
There were some very good people involved in CHI, but you had to be carefull - lots of family connections working under one roof.
Kirbs50
very interesting post, i knew a lad who worked in the office towards the end, mark saunders?