Right, this is probably a topic for those of a certain age. A couple of weeks ago our mobile phone network went down for a couple of hours and one of my drivers had to find a working telephone kiosk, (a challenge in itself these days), to call the office for his return loading instructions. This driver is old enough to have remarked that it reminded him of the days when he needed a pocket full of change and his book of telephone numbers for finding his own backloads. It started me thinking about the clearing houses of years ago. Do any of them still exist? And there must be plenty of stories to be told about back loading and clearing houses.
Some of those clearing houses were rip off merchants, some well established were genuine but on BRS I didn’t really have to resort to them most backloads were sorted by the nearest depot in house.
DHL run something similar today although most of it is contract work they are encouraged to exchange work where it would be more econominal for an empty motor returning home to take a load/part load.
anyone remember jopling and turnbull from chester le street, later on from blaydon. they ran afleet of there own up until the 60s i think. they never failed to find me a load south, sometimes once a week. they always paid on time, without having to be asked!!! last time i loaded off them would have been the mid 90s, just before i packed up owner driving. bazztrucker
One I remember from the early 70s was Stenreg from Walsall, nearly always found me a load for home. At the time the guy I worked for had a list that we were expected to work from, which took the responsibility of “dodgy payers” away from me.
Another regular when in London was Silver Roadways with sugar for either York or Newcastle Rowntrees. All this was of couse on a flat trailer and they were very fussy about having decent sheets.
Always remember that as a young lad, didn’t matter how much change you had, try and find a phone box that worked in Liverpool, 
It’s done in a more subtle way these days.One of the big hauliers take a contract to shift x number of tons,then sub it out taking 10% off the subbie’s.
Oh My Oh My!!! Clearing houses!!! I am sure that 10 volumes could be written about them!!! IMO they fell into two very distinct catorgories-----The first and much better group were hauliers that had ,quite genuinely,surplus traffic which they subbed to other hauliers who completed the job to the same standards as the prime haulier.Then there was the “second division” that specialised in scrounging traffic from wherever(usually based in the main Industrial areas) at any sub-economic rate(remember that 10%, or more, of a poor rate was not much different than 10% of an economical rate)Then,of course, there was the little matter of extracting payment from these “bloodsuckers”,say no more!!! I re-call an instance in circa '68 when I was just kicking off with my first “A” licence 4 wheeler and was empty in the East end down Commercial Road( “H” will bear me out on this!) and I was looking for a load back to the Northwest.Well there was umpteen of these clearing houses to take your pick from,and I chose what looked liked a “good’un” THAMES-CLYDE back loads to everywhere,prompt payment assured! (insured through the Titanic Assurance Co. at LLoyds!!) my arse!!! Anyway in I goes and there was this “geezer” dolled up in a suit,tie and pocket handkerchief,shiny shoes,the full ■■■■■■■■!! No probs son where do you want loading for!! I’m thinking(20 year old) this will be OK everything looks kosher in this office so I do the return load to Preston IIRC? I’m still waiting for the cheque!! I know the Mail isn’t so good but it wasn’t that bad in 1968----was it? I would,in these enlightened times,substitute the words “clearing house” with “Agency Driving” as IMO one has replaced the other,although I never was that short of drivers ,ever,to have availed myself to their services either and I was only bitten once by a “clearing house” so I consider I got away lightly!!Cheers Bewick.
I tended to use the same ones all the time.BRS was a good one as they only took 5% of the rate IIRC.My gaffer would sooner you ran north out of London instead of wasting time looking for backloads,and run into BRS at Corby where you were very often loaded out of their yard.Others I used were Hickinbottoms Walsall,Round Oak Motors Dudley,Federated Road Services Leicester,Springfield Haulage Hull and Manchester,Siddle Cook Consett,RAH Transporters Darlington and Robsons Carlisle.There were others,but I only loaded off McPhees Newcastle once,never got paid,gaffer went spare,waving his arms about.I just said “well they are listed in this little book”.
I remember a firm from the 80’s round St Albans way (Ardtrans or Ard something) always had loads (pardon the pun) of work but a bit belated with the payment. I think they had some bother when they subbed a load of copper to someone who had inadequate insurance and it went missing - seem to recall there was loads of mither at the time as to who was responsible and I can’t remember the outcome (and the lad probably didn’t get paid either!)
hayday:
I remember a firm from the 80’s round St Albans way (Ardtrans or Ard something) always had loads (pardon the pun) of work but a bit belated with the payment. I think they had some bother when they subbed a load of copper to someone who had inadequate insurance and it went missing - seem to recall there was loads of mither at the time as to who was responsible and I can’t remember the outcome (and the lad probably didn’t get paid either!)
…perhaps it was Ardluck!!!
5thwheel:
hayday:
I remember a firm from the 80’s round St Albans way (Ardtrans or Ard something) always had loads (pardon the pun) of work but a bit belated with the payment. I think they had some bother when they subbed a load of copper to someone who had inadequate insurance and it went missing - seem to recall there was loads of mither at the time as to who was responsible and I can’t remember the outcome (and the lad probably didn’t get paid either!)…perhaps it was Ardluck!!!
Nice one…
Since headlight magazine died a natural death, many are lost to the memory. But a modern day 10% scallywag is called a driver agency and they expect much more than 10% from both ends of the food chain.
I gained a mispent youth on King George Dock in Hull and as Bewick reminded us, they fell into two categories.
Busy haulier with excess traffic. Us and many others around Hull, especially around Raven Street, Ferries Street, Merrick and Thomas Street. Alf Battams was well known and respected in Hull, as were Rix Shipping, John Good and Sons. Jarvis Freight at Drypool. Hull & Glasgow Carriers. Springfield Haulage had lots of work from the docks, in Hull and Manchester and several customers out in the sticks. My mum worked for Springfield Haulage for over 25 years.
Hull was also very busy with the timber trade and fish, so the good work was always in Hull and other hauliers came from far and wide to collect it. Why have I no great pictures? 
I had the ideal opportunity either from home or from the dock office when I finally got a job.
John Cox as Coxinental had a dock office acting as a clearing house in the 1960’s, looks like he still has, although John Cox has gone. The office was between Black Hut and the new Canteen
I worked at a clearing house in Catford when I first left school, we had some pretty decent traffic and specialized in the North East, we had a nice little operation and I took to it like a duck to water, we used to nick anywhere from 20 to 50 quid off the top, depending on the rate and who we were giving it too, regulars got well looked after, we used to save work for our regulars too, everyone was happy…
Then we joined forces with a firm in Co Durham, we got a warehouse and started assembling groupage loads, we took on some new customers and did a kind of palletline thing, it all looked pretty good, but the accounts dept moved to ‘head office’ and it started to go wrong, people were not getting paid, you can guess the rest
A few i remember from the 60s,
Silver Roadways,London.Swansea,Bristol and Liverpool.
J+H Transport,bad rates!but good loads,
Edwards of hull,good rates but lots of drops!
Smiths of Eccles
Humber McViegh
Dents of Spennymoor
Heavy Transport . Plymouth and St Austall
Browns of Ash,kent
A One Tspt Leeds
- loads more i cant remember at the moment,I even remember going into Crane Fruhauf at North Walsham once on the off chance.and got 2 new containers to Southampton,so no 10% off!..chris
Hiya…consort carriers mile end road…■■■■■■■■ same area …IJ Blakey Hull…smiley Glasgow
Henry Tyrer liverpool (timber)…was it henry diaper who had the copper job in Kirkby he was in a corner
past the cold store in the one way system…we used to load out of stratford lift where the new olympic
stadium is… what a god ridden hole that was…i think it was consort who sent us there.most of the other
places we used have been posted like federated in Norwich/leicester…Pc Howard had some loads to give
away. it was always scotch for me and i wanted Stoke so it was scratch around Goven for something south.
John Smiley usuall come up with a load of timber for Newcastle Staffs…we always had a trailer in Hulland
Products to fall back on if you was in that area. Berresfords at Tunstall always had a trailer job for Harrisons
in stoke…it could be a tile trailer(hand ball) or a change over in Dover with a continental driver. Good old days
John
DJV at Purfleet, timber and steel
General haulage, Leeds I think, Kerbs & slabs out of Southowram
Paper out of Convoys Deptford
Steel out of Sammy Williams
Timber from Streets at Watchet
Grantham Road Services and Silver Roadways were two more I used,also Mainland Market Deliveries Portsmouth and H and L Workington - they could always load you for Sheffield out of steelworks.General Haulage was at Leeds as Dieseldog just said,a bit close to home but handy when Sheffield Works Fortnight holiday was on.
I can’t remember whether it was Lawsons of Kirriemuir or Peter Halley,Crieff I loaded seed potatoes off once for Horncastle and Spilsby,handball but quick with two others on the Reiver loading.They would have Arran Pilots or Pirates as we used call 'em as kids on the farm.
Chris Webb:
Grantham Road Services and Silver Roadways were two more I used,also Mainland Market Deliveries Portsmouth and H and L Workington - they could always load you for Sheffield out of steelworks.General Haulage was at Leeds as Dieseldog just said,a bit close to home but handy when Sheffield Works Fortnight holiday was on.
I can’t remember whether it was Lawsons of Kirriemuir or Peter Halley,Crieff I loaded seed potatoes off once for Horncastle and Spilsby,handball but quick with two others on the Reiver loading.They would have Arran Pilots or Pirates as we used call 'em as kids on the farm.
Hiya chris…did you ever do the slit and tip spuds at Christian Salveson just off the A1 before Costerworth roundabout
22 tons from Leigh Docks was mine load many times
John
3300John:
Chris Webb:
Grantham Road Services and Silver Roadways were two more I used,also Mainland Market Deliveries Portsmouth and H and L Workington - they could always load you for Sheffield out of steelworks.General Haulage was at Leeds as Dieseldog just said,a bit close to home but handy when Sheffield Works Fortnight holiday was on.
I can’t remember whether it was Lawsons of Kirriemuir or Peter Halley,Crieff I loaded seed potatoes off once for Horncastle and Spilsby,handball but quick with two others on the Reiver loading.They would have Arran Pilots or Pirates as we used call 'em as kids on the farm.Hiya chris…did you ever do the slit and tip spuds at Christian Salveson just off the A1 before Costerworth roundabout
22 tons from Leigh Docks was mine load many times
John
Salvesens place weren’t built then John,1968 - at least I don’t remember it.Was that road called ■■■■■■■■■ Lane just off the A1? If so that’s where I used to load concrete kerbs etc off Grantham Road Services.I once loaded foreign spuds off Rochester Docks for Princes Foods just outside Liverpool,I wouldn’t have fed bloody pigs with 'em. 
Anyone remember G J Coopers of Southampton?
Another one that springs to mind was Ken Oakley (a genuine man) who had an office in the High Street, Southampton and a lot of work out of Solent Canners just inside the docks by Rank Hovis, also loads of sheet cladding from Cookson’s at Bishop’s Waltham near Southampton.