Long Departed Southampton Hauliers (Part 1)

Hi Buzzer, Thanks for the welcome,
Re, Jim Squibb, he was a very hard man to work for and wanted his pound of flesh, but if you did right by him he looked after you. Yes he did look after the wagons, He once went to a Porsche dealer in his overalls, and the salesman apparently told him he couldn’t afford one. He wasn’t a happy man and went else where then drove a new 928 to the dealer who told him he couldn’t afford one.
On the Autocross they used a single decker coach to transport the two vehicles in and all the supplies and tools, then slept in it at night. I also heard Barry caught Malaria on a trip to Saudi, so he became office bound due to Foreign Medical requirements. I should thing If Jim is still drinking diesel he’ll be a round 95 plus and Barry must be at least 60? They had a very good Transport manager running the UK from the industrial park just North of the Docks, perhaps his name will come back to me but then that’s like asking for a reduction in age.
Re, Matsolex, one of their drivers (Dennis) lived in Salisbury and ended up driving Busses due to health problems created from going to all the refineries and carrying Hazmat, You know its funny I can see their faces but names are a mystery now, but then I believe most truckers are the same way because your always moving and never really get to know your colleges.

After Matsolex I went to DAMCO (Holland)and transported the lead that goes in to gasoline, between Belgium and Fawley, with a couple of Acid runs in between to Riyadh. There was a guy Johann from Sweden who did the Saudi trip all the time until one day they stripped his tilt out on the Iraqi boarder and found the frame full of Whiskey ! I understand he escaped but he can’t go back there or hell say good bye to his head.

As for me I have been in the USA for the last 32 years and have no regrets, until I retired I owned a Driving school and taught all aspects of Theoretical and Practical requirement to operate all classes of vehicle except motorcycles. As for being a trucker here its just as hard and regulations are like the UK, aimed at hitting the CDL (HGV)Drivers. I read the posts about new regulations being adopted and the rebelious comments, We had the same arguments when the Tacho was introduced but it was accepted because it was the law and you needed to earn a living. But hey being a Trucker is like being in the Army, you have a right to complain but make sure its after the job is done !!!

Ah well its time to put on a nosebag on so I’ll let you go, have a good one talk again soon.