Left Maritime three years back due to severe ill health.I was ex DHL and Omega before that.Now working as a transport manager.Wondering if any of the old crew get on here?
Which depot? I was with FX years ago,good outfit to be with,was based in Sotton all the week. I won’t give out ID on here for obvious reasons. 
In fact it was the last outfit before I hung up my spurs.
I was at Seaforth
Sorry,I only went there once. How did you find M’time? I thought they good but after years of international fridgework with all the stress I was bored to tears with the UK boxes.
Good kit but massive turn over of drivers.Owner good when I was taken ill at work arranged for wife to stay in hotel near me etc
i subbied for Maritime for over 3 years, never had the displeasure of going to the Seaforth yard, went to the dock a few times though 
John Williams is a decent honest bloke, met him a few times
shame that can’t be said for ‘most’, not all, of the office wallahs that work below him, especially at the Felixstowe depot
Yeah, John Williams runs a tight ship .His way of running things puts the driver first. Couldn’t fault 'em. What happened to me - & I am no way bitter about it -was I was an old guy & went down to FX for a job. Immediate start,pick of the trucks & a schedule to suit me. Lovely,away all week & home Friday afternoon,sweet.When I had three weeks holiday the truck stood in the yard,JW would not employ any agency warriors. All was well ,then after a coupla years FX was suddenly flooded with migrant labour. M’time did not employ one foreigner when I was there,but there was a knock on effect ,other firms ,such as DHL,ect. took on migrant labour. The UK drivers on those firms wanted out so they queued up to get onto M’time. Suddenly there were complaints about my work,it was impossible to get home on a Friday, & so on. Our office was staffed by ex-DHL bods who knew the drivers that were asking for jobs. I wasn’t the only one that got moved on. But to be fair I’d had enough of the transport game so they did me a favour. No regrets for the bad times,no regrets for the good times…
Edith Piaf - No, I regret nothing
No, absolutely nothing
No, I regret nothing
Not the good that has been given
Not the bad, it’s all the same to me
No, absolutely nothing
No, I regret nothing
It is payed, done, forgotten
I don’t care about the past
With my memories
I light the fire
My pains, my pleasures
I don’t need them anymore
I’m done with the loves
and all their troubles
I’m done for ever
I start over with nothing
No, absolutely nothing
No, I regret nothing
Not the good that has been given
Not the bad, it’s all the same to me
No, absolutely nothing
No, I regret nothing
Because my life, because my joys
today, they start with you
shuttlespanker:
i subbied for Maritime for over 3 years, never had the displeasure of going to the Seaforth yard, went to the dock a few times thoughJohn Williams is a decent honest bloke, met him a few times
shame that can’t be said for ‘most’, not all, of the office wallahs that work below him, especially at the Felixstowe depot
Totally agree with you,I had to arrange all the transfers of contracts to Maritime for the Dhl bods.J W very decent can’t say the same for some middle management.
I was going to have a go about the wannabees in the various offices,FX was full of the little posers ,but in my mind I was working for JW & at the end of the day if I had gone to him with my concerns he would of fixed it. I’d saved a few bob & needed a break,I had no hard feelings whatsoever. They tried to get at me but I had too much experience ( I worked for Dutch,Swiss,Italian, French firms,Also Irish London) so their naive bluffing didn’t wash with me. One time I was in Leeds & my ex-missus rang me to say she was in hospital after coming off her bike in the ice. I called FX & they started saying I had to complete my trip etc. I told them I was coming back ASAP & unless they wanted my box returned they better find a swap. They arranged to swap trailers with a driver on the A1 somewhere & I got back to FX. The silly F’s then said I had to be back to work next day. I took the rest of the week off & nothing was said.
Non, je ne regrette rien.
It sounds better than it looks. 
Edith Piaf - No, I regret nothing
No, absolutely nothing
No, I regret nothing
Not the good that has been given
Not the bad, it’s all the same to me
No, absolutely nothing
No, I regret nothing
It is payed, done, forgotten
I don’t care about the past
With my memories
I light the fire
My pains, my pleasures
I don’t need them anymore
I’m done with the loves
and all their troubles
I’m done for ever
I start over with nothing
No, absolutely nothing
No, I regret nothing
Not the good that has been given
Not the bad, it’s all the same to me
No, absolutely nothing
No, I regret nothing
Because my life, because my joys
today, they start with you
Read more: muzikum.eu/en/127-4873-86576/edi … z2ipog5p8S
[/quote]
youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Kvu6Kgp88
Thats because its sung in French
Edith Piaf - Non, je ne regrette rien
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait
Ni le mal, tout ça m’est bien égal
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
C’est payé, balayé, oublié
je me fous du passé
Avec mes souvenirs
J’ai allumé le feu
Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs
je n’ai plus besoin d’eux
Balayés les amours
et tout leurs tremolos
Balayés pour toujours
Je repârs à zéro
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait
Ni le mal, tout ça m’est bien égal
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Car ma vie, car mes joies
aujourd’hui, ça commence avec toil
harry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Kvu6Kgp88Thats because its sung in French
Edith Piaf - Non, je ne regrette rienNon, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait
Ni le mal, tout ça m’est bien égalNon, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
C’est payé, balayé, oublié
je me fous du passéAvec mes souvenirs
J’ai allumé le feu
Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs
je n’ai plus besoin d’eux
Balayés les amours
et tout leurs tremolos
Balayés pour toujours
Je repârs à zéroNon, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait
Ni le mal, tout ça m’est bien égal
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Car ma vie, car mes joies
aujourd’hui, ça commence avec toil
Well I’m ■■■■■■! I never thought of that! Doh.
It don’t work in English… but on the flip side Jerry Lee Lewis can’t be done French.
Not exactly old skool but I’d have been at Maritime when you were there and have worked odd days / weeks out of Liverpool so we’d have run into each other.
I finished (was sacked) in around 2010
I finiahed due to illness Aug 2010 what you get finished for? breathing too reguarly 
nw explorer:
I finiahed due to illness Aug 2010 what you get finished for? breathing too reguarly
Fraud 
Long story…
My name’s Wayne (clue in my username?) and I was a cabhopper from Manchester for a while then got a regular cab in Leeds.
When I was a cabhopper I ran out of Liverpool on a few occasions. Sometimes on a day, sometimes on a week basis.
Once I was on for Liverpool and my truck got sold so I had to hitch a lift back from Tilbury and another time it went into a garage in Kirkby and had to get a lift back, both times with another tramper with all my kit too, not the best at all…
Trucks were kitted out to make it feel like the company gave a ■■■■ about the drivers, and I’m sure the top brass might have done, but the people I dealt with definitely didn’t give a crap about the drivers.
If it was my firm I would worry about the huge turnover of staff,nearly all the x DHL guys left in short order.I went in with several guys on diciplinary hearings,when at DHL you got a fair hearing and it was generally sorted with minor drama.Maritime it was definetly decided before you got there
Yeah,once your card was marked there was no way back. The problem was that middle management was full of wannabe macho juveniles that didn’t know one end of a truck from the other. The older truckers were nursing them but they resented the drivers knowledge. There were a lot of bluffers in the office that used try to hide their ignorance by trying to act tough. If they had been given separate offices it would have been better. But every interaction they had with drivers the whole office could hear.
When I first started one of the sotton crowd thought he would try it on. It was the evening before Xmas eve and I had loaded sotto docks for FX,my home base, I was on the M3 & got a call to turn around,swap boxes , and load in S Wales. I laughed at him and switched the phone off. Next day dropped the box in FX and nothing was said ,I got home early,
Bit boring ,but the same planner on another occasion, I had been all day loading china clay in the wilds of Derbyshire ,got on the A50 and got a call to turn around and unload the clay back in the quarry.they needed the empty box for an urgent load I kept on going south ,twenty mins later I got a call to turn round and head for sotton. I kidded him up that I was almost back to the quarry.