re fergy sunderland ,how franky , how ya doin , well ya stories bout fergys ring in me lugs canny bunch of lads but a company and polocies i found hard to accept let alone drive the ■■■■ trucks they had at the time, guess ya wondering who it is and divnt really expect ya to remember , well i was given ya 6 legger merc c118 a think to do containers out of tyne dock cos a complained about them being ■■■■ heavy on the front end , so they thought lets p*** them off and swap units around , i had b110 fcn wotever merc and god it wouldnt pull ya granny out of bed even if sheed bin ded 10 years moved onto stubsys ,(keith ) fl7 g101 sty comfortable little thing but i ya reet totally crap way to small for 36 ton , done a few runs to maesteg with it and felt like leaving it there, anyway always felt ya had to back before u got there and well on a basic of 122 and 11.50 a night out got to admit gettin parked up at 3 in the afternoon on ■■■■ 8 hours pay was nee gud to me , one distinctive memory bob came out onto the pumps one night and complained cos a left 2 crates at teesport, nee gud wud a pushed me ower the top, and sed jon ya never look happy wots rong wiya , to which the reply was , two types of truck on the road which r a pile of sh** totally useless for the job , wots that gotta dee wi me he said , u got both of em a replied, had some gud times tho and beeing honest picked up few thing from ya self and bob albert dougy and kenny coathanger sum characters, anyway keep had till next time . regards jon armstrong
Frankydobo:
Hi Garry
Yeah mine being a 36 tonner was a bit of a shock to me, I wasn’t told it wasn’t plated for 38 as the one Kenny got first of the batch of three was 38tonne, First load away 22 Plts of Pop loaded the day before and parked in the yard for me to pick up and off I go. First full load so I’ll see how it goes, wasn’t expecting it to be a flyer anyway but when I got on the 62 I thought bloody hell this is crap, anyway the usual Bobby car came along and pulled me in and pointed me in the direction of the weighbridge as if I didn’t know! Still feeling smug though cos I knew it wasn’t pulling its best being less than a week old and knew it wouldn’t be overloaded anyway. Now the kick in the balls, it weighed off 40 tonne! “Your 4 tonne over driver”, “No its not I’m a 38 tonner”, “No your not look at the plate, 36 Tonne GVW”!
I had to lose 4 tonne and a lad from Blyth with the four wheel Merc and Hiab (you’ll know his name) came eventually to tranship the four pallets. The ■■■ that loaded it had put two extra pallets on even the office didn’t know about.
Anyway taking the four pallets off didn’t make any difference it was still a pill and never got any better. I played hell when I got back but to deaf ears as usual and when my fine came up they paid it, out of my wages! I didn’t know it had even gone to court, I never got on with Bob Brown after that right up until he got me sacked so I’ve got no good memories of that Volvo and it was the last wagon I drove as a driver, I’d had enough. Happy days eh Franky.
Ha ha, hy Jon, aye those old Mercs needed some winding up. The six legger might not have been in the same league as the MAN’s but I got used to her and could keep her going and I would have swapped that Volvo straight back for her if I had the chance. They always had a problem getting an exhaust for it as it went through one every year and they could only get one from Germany. Bob always seemed to find something to rant at me with but he blew hot and cold most times, I think he thought I was too laid back and didn’t get wound up when he gave me anything crap. I hear Alberts not long retired, I liked his dry humour, he told me a kid knocked on the door for his son one night “Is your lad in”. “Aye” Albert said then shut the door. His son came down the stairs " Dad man that’s me mate he wants to know if I’m going out". “Well he didn’t say that” said Albert he just asked if you were in!. Class, hope he enjoys his retirement. Franky.
Frankydobo:
Hi Garry
Yeah mine being a 36 tonner was a bit of a shock to me, I wasn’t told it wasn’t plated for 38 as the one Kenny got first of the batch of three was 38tonne, First load away 22 Plts of Pop loaded the day before and parked in the yard for me to pick up and off I go. First full load so I’ll see how it goes, wasn’t expecting it to be a flyer anyway but when I got on the 62 I thought bloody hell this is crap, anyway the usual Bobby car came along and pulled me in and pointed me in the direction of the weighbridge as if I didn’t know! Still feeling smug though cos I knew it wasn’t pulling its best being less than a week old and knew it wouldn’t be overloaded anyway. Now the kick in the balls, it weighed off 40 tonne! “Your 4 tonne over driver”, “No its not I’m a 38 tonner”, “No your not look at the plate, 36 Tonne GVW”!
I had to lose 4 tonne and a lad from Blyth with the four wheel Merc and Hiab (you’ll know his name) came eventually to tranship the four pallets. The ■■■ that loaded it had put two extra pallets on even the office didn’t know about.
Anyway taking the four pallets off didn’t make any difference it was still a pill and never got any better. I played hell when I got back but to deaf ears as usual and when my fine came up they paid it, out of my wages! I didn’t know it had even gone to court, I never got on with Bob Brown after that right up until he got me sacked so I’ve got no good memories of that Volvo and it was the last wagon I drove as a driver, I’d had enough. Happy days eh Franky.
Yep ya wernt alone in ya thoughts regarding the above , lasted 2yrs there,when asked why I was leaving, the reply was simple , you , the wages are crap as is ya truck, its at nissan ganin get get it , bye ,ps a seen ya photo ov you next to the new buisness park at sunderland think kenny coat hanger took it ? Sure thts when we all done a bunk dwn to maesteg open cast , cud be wrong ,chug chug spit spit said the merc, I got irish andys handy dwn after his errrrrrhhhhh hic up , drinky drink ,… regards john
Dont know if any of you guys will remeber me I only drove for Fergies at Sunderland for a couple of years from 1990 I started on one of the old merc 4 wheelers then i got the wee merc with the 33 foot single axle curtainsider and the sleeper pod on the roof it must have been the slowest lorry in the world. I loved the job as my whole life id wanted to be a lorry driver so when I left the airforce I gave it a go. With 2 young kids I was soon skint and went back to my trade as an aircraft fitter and went to Saudi where ive been up until recently Ive kind of retired at the moment but will find a job somwhere eventually to fight off the boredom. Frank I remember you with your Merc and Kenny believe it or not i was jealous when those FL7’s arrived one of them would have been an upgrade to me lol. I remember Albert and the other MAN driver though his name escapes me. They were like gods to me lol driving the pride of the fleet always thought the Blyth guys were a wee bit jealous of the MANs. I remember Bob Brown was going to give me a go on a MAN think it was a bank holiday ans i loaded it up the day before I was turning into the yard and selected too low a gear and the unit just sat and bounced on the hill start Bob seen it from the office and threw me off it I think i might have used your Merc in the end Frank it was delivering cherry pickers to Liverpool docks if I remember it right. Bob was a hard task master but i always felt grateful to him for giving me a go when i had zero experiance. My fondest memeories of Fergies though were nights out with Cockney Bob Waller who drove the FL6 curtainsider what a character and he looked after me like a son lol when I left Fergies he said to me you fix Aeroplanes son if i ever see you driving a lorry again I’ll kick your arse. In short it was a long time ago long hours, terrible wagon, rubbish pay and a nutter for a boss but i loved it just couldnt make a living at it
Thanks for posting your photo of Fergies Merc, I cant say that I ever met you but I did a lot of work when I subbed from Fergies, & The late Bob Brown was a real nice fellow , sadley he didnt enjoy old age , We used to get work from both depots Blyth & Sunderland, I prefered the Sunderland work myself, Of course that was a long long time ago, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Thanks for posting your photo of Fergies Merc, I cant say that I ever met you but I did a lot of work when I subbed from Fergies, & The late Bob Brown was a real nice fellow , sadley he didnt enjoy old age , We used to get work from both depots Blyth & Sunderland, I prefered the Sunderland work myself, Of course that was a long long time ago, Regards Larry.
Only Subbies I remember were a guy with a blue ERF and an older guy who had a Stratos> Like I said I did like Bob Brown im sorry to hear he passed away young but boy could he go off on one at times Ive used him over the years as an example when blokes have complained about me asking for some graft from them I used to say “I had a tansport manager that would have eaten you alive”
Found this pic of my wee Merc just after it had been painted and the trailer was converted from flat to curtainsider. It later had a sleeper pod fitted. Was a good little motor i went to all sorts of places with it that the bigger motors couldnt get into but god it was gutless spent many hours on hills slumped over the wheel with foot flat to the floor and hardly moving
