yes ok you old POM, however tell all your aussie mates that the tanker drivers back then did not! support all the other striking drivers all in the same union…
why ,because you were all sitting on the pedestal thinking that you were different .
the only difference was that you lived near a chemical works…the same for the petrol tanker drivers if they had supported us ,we might have back then, even got a company pension, was I ■■■■■■ off yes ,did you lot care no.
peggydeckboy:
yes ok you old POM, however tell all your aussie mates that the tanker drivers back then did not! support all the other striking drivers all in the same union…
why ,because you were all sitting on the pedestal thinking that you were different .the only difference was that you lived near a chemical works…the same for the petrol tanker drivers if they had supported us ,we might have back then, even got a company pension, was I ■■■■■■ off yes ,did you lot care no.
BRS did not go on strike in the national strike as there wage agreements were separate to the hire and reward sector, but a lot of tanker drivers did who were in the hire and reward sector ( it was only fuel tanker drivers who worked again separate agreements ) as I was a shop steward and I placed pickets at Hunslet fuel oil terminal on the first day and all hell broke out as the drivers would not cross the picket line and I had to remove them on instructions from Bill Morris and I had to meet the assistant general secretary of the Transport and General workers union in Leeds regional office for hands slapping and as our firm was 80% fuel oil and only around 45 drivers on bulk liquids we thrashed out an agreement and all our drivers went onto fuel oil and dispensation work as we had the £1 a hour signed within a couple of days.
cheers Johnnie
Here are the only shots of me I can find from the seventies. I started driving lorries in 1969 after a spell as a bus driver with the Northern, then as works bus driver with a builder.
I was involved with the strike of 1979, in fact Waughs were about last to settle in our area so it was into February when we got back to work. Not much support was forthcoming
any of our compatriots who had settled. The idea of everyone staying out until it was a done deal for all didn’t last, and really I never held a grudge, we all had families to feed.
I blame the unions for the fiasco it became, the TGWU didn’t even recognise the URTU as a legitimate voice, and the plonker that was organiser for URTU was only interested in
getting his face “on the box”. Still, (apart from that episode) for me the “seventies” had great memories. Regards Kev.
Sammopisite I respect what you have said .as I was only one of the mushrooms out on strike .thank you for clarification of your situation ,you of all people would know, as you say you were shop steward. and we at the bottom end never did get the full [truth ]…so it is best left to bed , it was a long time ago however we had 7weeks out,1979/80… and I will openly apologise to any of the Tanker DRIVERS WHO DID STRIKE.
MISSIFORMATION is sometime dangerous.
My tail is not between my legs, as I first stated about the tankers from BUNSFIELD COMING ON THE M1-M10 trying to push you over .were KNOBS. NO more to be said from me regarding this Tanker post…done -dusted
ps I did drive a spritzer powder tanker delivering in Europe.
Hi Johnnie, Bill Morris now there’s a name from the past, I thought that I would do a Google search to find out what ever happened to him. It turns out that the lad did well.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morr … Handsworth
And Jack Dromey en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dromey
I wonder if they ever got a pension from the unions. 
As you know in the 70’s there were lots of Union Firms and if you didn’t have your card with you when you were tipping at the docks or most of the car factories when they were being militant, then you didn’t get tipped. We used to have a union meeting at 11 a.m. on the first Sunday of every month in the works canteen and at 11.45 there was always a stampede through the door to get to the pub before opening time. I remember one Sunday morning being at a meeting and one of the topics was about extra night out money for roamers but nothing came of it. I went straight home when it had finished and was surprised when I got to work at 5.45 a.m. on the Monday morning to find that the lads were stood outside the gates. Some of them had decided while in the pub after a few pints that strike action was the only way to go.
By 10 o’clock it was all over with an extra 50 pence on the night out rate but it left a bad taste between some of the drivers and the management. 
Regards Steve.
Hello Peggy, I have to agree with you that misinformation is sometimes dangerous and that those tanker drivers from Buncefield who always pushed you off the motorways were as you say, knobs. It sounds from your first post that you were taring all tanker drivers with the same brush, even the bitumen drivers. 
As I didn’t start driving tankers until the 1990’s then I really can’t remember which pedestal I was sitting on in 1979/80. I hope this helps.
Regards Steve.
Bloody hell, I remember Bill Morris in Leeds in the early 60’s, I always found him to be a good, fair man. I never knew that he progressed as he had.
HI all YES
it was a long time ago the strike, KEVMACK47 we went back some time in January ,we were all in the same boat i doubt if you have read my Driving history on here,pages well back now in the forum ,but i tell of the measures i had to go to to survive esp at Christmas ,3 kids…,you must have been the same skint ,and i mean not a penny.after the tax back and the union pittance. We all got over it though,and i continued driving until retirement. a lot wiser…
. we got made redundant later in the year ,“well done us and the union”, my outlook changed completely after that , would not pay a single penny again to any union in fact,i detest unions i was in the national union of seamen when i was 16 they were worse than the T.G.W .However at the top ,union men were in cahoots with each other,secret meetings or ■■■■ ups in the island of JERSEY…
Would our intrepid new breed [look at me] drivers go to lengths we did ,to achive a change if needed ?
matt watson:
The Bison I drove for a few years, This had the fuller 9 speed road ranger box a good motor to drive.
what year was the bison had it the fixed head or tl11 cracking lorry wish i was driving them today.
Hi,Ergomatic man. I can’t remember. Which year this was but it was sometime in the eighties. It did not have the fixed head, all I can remember is that it was turbocharged and had the 9 speed fuller roadranger box. It never let me down once unlike the buffallo that was purchased at the same time.(with the fixed head) 2 engines in 6 months.
At last the threads back on track instead of this claptrap about tankers we all worked together in road transport and back in the day we all looked after each other, we all had our skills mostly defined by where we lived, my skill living in Bradford a wool city so obviously wool haulage, but also glass, steel, stone, hiab .etc. etc. This thread is driving back in the 70s a general look at lorry driving in that era that will never come back, so lets reminisce about the good days, we have all got tales of clapped out lorries, crap tackle, sleeping on the sheets, no good sleep for days, good nights out on the beer, come on guys 70s banter. Les.
Quite right Les, this forum seems to be losing a lot of the “old driver’s banter” that it has been known for over the past few years, so lets try and get it back on track. 
Your mention of sleeping on the sheets reminded me of an old workmate of mine who funnily enough also worked for A1 running out of Trafford Park in the eighties. His name was Tony Mcloud who sadly passed away while he was only in his forties. In the early seventies Tony was working for The East Lanc’s paper mill in Radcliffe carrying those large rolls of newsprint on a forty foot flat, roped and sheeted. I can’t remember what kind of unit he had at the time but it was defiantly a day cab and as the school summer holidays had just started he had promised his fourteen year old brother that he would take him on a trip up to Scotland. Their accommodation for the three nights while they were away was sleeping in between the rolls of newsprint and when they were empty Tony put the sheet over the headboard and made a tent. His brother reckoned it was the best camping trip he had ever been on.
I am sure that there are similar stories like this out there so come on lads let’s hear them.
Regards Steve.
Big difference from todays driving and driving “back in the day”…back them we, (whatever we drove, and yes I was mainly on tankers), we loaded, got our notes and we were sent out to do the job efficiently and to the best of our ability, WE had to handle any problems that cropped up along the way, WE were responsible, todays drivers are just there to press the pedals up and down, no roping and sheeting etc. Todays drivers don’t NEED to think, it’s all done for them by someone faceless in a distant traffic office. I spent my working life in road haulage, I enjoyed it, I got job satisfaction, would I go back■■? not bloody likely.
Oh, and we didn’t have night heaters “back in the day”, I ■■■■ near froze to death in an Atky in Dundee one night. 
there was much fun and games in the 70s . we carried bulk quicklime to the south wales steelworks and it was only 40p to use the old severn crossing . do any of you remember the " doorstep " just south of the m50 split ? this day on of our 8 leggers , a brand new foden hit the doorstep full tilt and the tailboard jumped out of the catches and spread about 2 tons of quicklime down the carriageway . talk about panic , police and fire service turned up in full on space suit mode . the driver specifically told them not to wet it , also printed all over the delivery notes . oh no , the firemen knew better an started to wash it off . they ended up with half a mile of steaming bubbling mess which took them all day to shift . then the bloke from the rivers authority came and did his nut about polluting the drains . nobody got done for it as it was proved that the body builders had fitted the catches wrong on the taildoor . for months after we had to tiptoe past strensham , the plod had their beady eye on us . dave
rigsby:
there was much fun and games in the 70s . we carried bulk quicklime to the south wales steelworks and it was only 40p to use the old severn crossing . do any of you remember the " doorstep " just south of the m50 split ? this day on of our 8 leggers , a brand new foden hit the doorstep full tilt and the tailboard jumped out of the catches and spread about 2 tons of quicklime down the carriageway . talk about panic , police and fire service turned up in full on space suit mode . the driver specifically told them not to wet it , also printed all over the delivery notes . oh no , the firemen knew better an started to wash it off . they ended up with half a mile of steaming bubbling mess which took them all day to shift . then the bloke from the rivers authority came and did his nut about polluting the drains . nobody got done for it as it was proved that the body builders had fitted the catches wrong on the taildoor . for months after we had to tiptoe past strensham , the plod had their beady eye on us . dave
That’s just about the change you get nowadays if you hand them a £20 note to go over the bridge!! 
I apologise for going on about tankers in this thread but it’s all I’ve done since I was 21. Laurence Dunbar, I love the photos of the old fodens. As I said earlier my first experience of the foden 12 speed box, fullers, twin splitters etc, was a long time ago.(been on fuel 41 years now).when I try to tell some of the young drivers I meet at the various terminals and tell them how drivers helped each other years ago and try to explain how we managed to do a days work in a mandator.Foden.seddon Atki etc. I say to them, we just went out and got on with the job. (Better times back then definitely)
matt watson:
I apologise for going on about tankers in this thread but it’s all I’ve done since I was 21. Laurence Dunbar, I love the photos of the old fodens. As I said earlier my first experience of the foden 12 speed box, fullers, twin splitters etc, was a long time ago.(been on fuel 41 years now).when I try to tell some of the young drivers I meet at the various terminals and tell them how drivers helped each other years ago and try to explain how we managed to do a days work in a mandator.Foden.seddon Atki etc. I say to them, we just went out and got on with the job. (Better times back then definitely)
Hi Mat, sorry mate it wasn’t you I was having a go at, you started the thread and tankers were your preference, cant knock you, I suppose if I had started the thread I would have been banging on about wool haulage, I only drove loaded tankers twice a four wheeler and an artic when taking them for test when I was on the spanners, its a funny feeling with the load sloshing about behind you, I presume there will be more baffles in the tanks now than there was late 60s early 70s, hope the thread keeps going on a good note from now on, as its a good subject we all have fond memories of.
Les.
No need to apologise Matt, if you have been doing a job for 41 years which you enjoyed and got a fair wage for doing it then you can’t argue with that.
So who can remember the fuel crisis and the three day week back in 1974 and how did it affect you ?
I was driving a Ford D series rigid at the time and the boss gave me a Texaco fuel card, something that I had never had before. I made it down to London when I started noticing signs across the forecourts of filling stations saying “No Fuel”, I remember that most of the signs were scribbled on bits of cardboard. To be on the safe side I decided to start looking out for Texaco garages and found one somewhere near The North Circular but they wouldn’t accept the card and said that they were taking cash sales only. 
So as I headed home I decided to come off the M1 at Mark Yate as I knew that there was a couple of Texaco garages along the A5. A couple of them were out of diesel and the one that had some wouldn’t take the card and said “it’s cash only today”. I decided to get back on the M6 and head for Hilton Park but I knew that there was no way that I would get back to Manchester.
I pulled onto Hilton Park Services running on fumes and was surprised to see that they were also out of fuel, there was no option but to phone the boss and let him know what the score was. He asked me if I could hitch home and come into the yard at 6 a.m. the next morning. This is what I did and it had been arranged for me and a five gallon Jerry can of diesel to get a lift back down to Hilton Park with somebody who was on his way to South Wales. That five gallons enabled me to get up to our depot in Stoke where they gave me enough fuel to get back to my depot in Manchester.
So what were your experiences of the three day week.
you must have been just behind me mushroom an , i’d tipped and reloaded for airdrie the day before . rather than divert back to the yard for fuel , i went in hilton park and to my surprise they had fuel and no limit . when i checked my card in i asked the manager what the idea was . he said when it’s gone it’s gone , i’m fed up with trying to keep everyone happy . you must have got there too late . dave
