Bewick Tractor units through the years

[bewick]

Leyland 680:
The worst paper load I have seen to sheet were Thames Board Workington
Some looked like a double hump camel and Robson fra Carlisle did a bloody
Good job ( SHUNTERS ) do you agre Dennis

Yea Frank,Robsons had some fair Shunters,especially those that worked in Metal Box at Carlisle,but they often had a few crappy loads knocking about that looked liked they’d been sheeted and roped by The Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers,right “lassoo jobs” sometimes eh! We had a few of those Rodeo merchants at Bewicks,mainly ex K.Fells drivers Good drivers but ■■■■■■■ useless at sheeting and roping,but the main of our loads were done by shunters,however,if we came across a bad sheeted load we’d go ■■■■■■■ mad and dish mass bollickings out to the miscreant that did it Happy days all the same Cheers Dennis.

[leyland_680]

Yes Dennis every one saw your load’s at Henry Cooks along side A6 and they were a credit to shunter and firm I think when
You have done shunting you see it in a different light . If they haddent invented the taut liner there Whould be
A big big shortage of driver’s

[bewick]

Leyland 680:
Yes Dennis every one saw your load’s at Henry Cooks along side A6 and they were a credit to shunter and firm I think when
You have done shunting you see it in a different light . If they haddent invented the taut liner there Whould be
A big big shortage of driver’s

Aye Frank,if ever a driver was daft enough to lodge a complaint about a particular load that a shunter had done,he was immediatley offered a couple of weeks shunting at a place of his choosing,end of conversation Funny we never hardly got any cribbing from drivers,only from those that opened their mouths before putting their brains in gear eh!. Cheers Dennis.

[bewick]

Last one to-night which IIRC was shot at Christmas '85 in the workshop of two new P112’s ready for the road in Jan '86 and a new 3.5 ton Iveco awaiting painting and lettering.

[gcr2erf]

Hi Dennis,

Looking at your mix of 4x2 & 6x2 units from 1983 onwards, did you have a fixed approach to 38 tonnes, or mix and match? I know some operators were fierce advocates of one way over another, with some quite against ‘mixing it’.

Given your evidently thorough approach to all aspects of haulage, what conclusions did you draw?

Cheers,
Tony

[leej]

Bewick:
Last one to-night which IIRC was shot at Christmas '85 in the workshop of two new P112’s ready for the road in Jan '86 and a new 3.5 ton Iveco awaiting painting and lettering.

you must’ve been hopping around with fury when you spotted that the signwriter had got his job sheets mixed up and painted the wrong company name on the doors of these scanias ? tut tut

[bewick]

GCR2ERF:
Hi Dennis,

Looking at your mix of 4x2 & 6x2 units from 1983 onwards, did you have a fixed approach to 38 tonnes, or mix and match? I know some operators were fierce advocates of one way over another, with some quite against ‘mixing it’.

Given your evidently thorough approach to all aspects of haulage, what conclusions did you draw?

Cheers,
Tony

When the 38ton GVW came in April '83 I calculated that the easiest way to take quicker advantage of the legislation was via “new” tri axle trailers i.e. 2+3.As we had a good number of 4x2 units that were capable of plating at 38tons GVW,however,I had no desire to go down the “converting” of existing tandem axles from the fleet.IMHO the economics of spending around £4 grand to do a proper conversion did not compare to being able to purchase,at that time, a new tri axle for £6250.I could go into finer detail of my decision but I am still confident we made the right decision at the time,as basically we had a brand new trailer with a long life in front of it,whereas with a conversion we would still have an “aged” trailer,worth no more than a tandem plus we’d sunk £4 grand into it to boot With regard to the units the 4x2 configuration was always the most cost effective IMO and they could carry one ton more payload than a 6x2 (3+3) outfit,but I did start buying 6X2 units in 1986 but in the main we stuck with the 2+3 configuration.Again,IMO,the saving of Road tax on the 3+3 combination took a while to account for the additional expense of purchasing the 6x2 unit in the first place.Cheers Dennis.

[bewick]

LeeJ:

Bewick:
Last one to-night which IIRC was shot at Christmas '85 in the workshop of two new P112’s ready for the road in Jan '86 and a new 3.5 ton Iveco awaiting painting and lettering.

you must’ve been hopping around with fury when you spotted that the signwriter had got his job sheets mixed up and painted the wrong company name on the doors of these scanias ? tut tut

Aye,very funny However we always had a large number of units,and a good number of trailers in the livery of some of our main customers especially where we were the sole contractor,it just happened that these two new P112’s were allocated accordingly.Oh! the Iveco was painted and lettered as Bewick Transport,well you couldn’t really insult a customer by lettering that lump of ■■■■■ with their name,could you Cheers Bewick.

[8lxbv8brian]

Bewick:

LeeJ:

Bewick:
Last one to-night which IIRC was shot at Christmas '85 in the workshop of two new P112’s ready for the road in Jan '86 and a new 3.5 ton Iveco awaiting painting and lettering.

you must’ve been hopping around with fury when you spotted that the signwriter had got his job sheets mixed up and painted the wrong company name on the doors of these scanias ? tut tut

Aye,very funny However we always had a large number of units,and a good number of trailers in the livery of some of our main customers especially where we were the sole contractor,it just happened that these two new P112’s were allocated accordingly.Oh! the Iveco was painted and lettered as Bewick Transport,well you couldn’t really insult a customer by lettering that lump of [zb] with their name,could you Cheers Bewick.

So why buy it and then put your own transport company name on it

[bewick]

8LXBV8BRIAN:

Bewick:

LeeJ:

Bewick:
Last one to-night which IIRC was shot at Christmas '85 in the workshop of two new P112’s ready for the road in Jan '86 and a new 3.5 ton Iveco awaiting painting and lettering.

you must’ve been hopping around with fury when you spotted that the signwriter had got his job sheets mixed up and painted the wrong company name on the doors of these scanias ? tut tut

Aye,very funny However we always had a large number of units,and a good number of trailers in the livery of some of our main customers especially where we were the sole contractor,it just happened that these two new P112’s were allocated accordingly.Oh! the Iveco was painted and lettered as Bewick Transport,well you couldn’t really insult a customer by lettering that lump of [zb] with their name,could you Cheers Bewick.

So why buy it and then put your own transport company name on it

Just a run-a-bout Bri,it didn’t do a lot of work but managed to keep the drivers arse off the ground eh! Oh! and it was dead cheap Dennis.

[chappy_597]

Bewick:

8LXBV8BRIAN:

Bewick:

LeeJ:

Bewick:
Last one to-night which IIRC was shot at Christmas '85 in the workshop of two new P112’s ready for the road in Jan '86 and a new 3.5 ton Iveco awaiting painting and lettering.

you must’ve been hopping around with fury when you spotted that the signwriter had got his job sheets mixed up and painted the wrong company name on the doors of these scanias ? tut tut

Aye,very funny However we always had a large number of units,and a good number of trailers in the livery of some of our main customers especially where we were the sole contractor,it just happened that these two new P112’s were allocated accordingly.Oh! the Iveco was painted and lettered as Bewick Transport,well you couldn’t really insult a customer by lettering that lump of [zb] with their name,could you Cheers Bewick.

So why buy it and then put your own transport company name on it

Just a run-a-bout Bri,it didn’t do a lot of work but managed to keep the drivers arse off the ground eh! Oh! and it was dead cheap Dennis.

bet it didnt run round to far eh! reverse gear teks some finding on them things.them fl10’s did they have the lift axle conversion from ireland,dump air bags n two springs to lift axle.

[bewick]

What you on about “Chappy” ? The gears on the Iveco were all in “one box” so didn’t take much sorting out eh! And as for your wierd and wonderful “Irish” lift axles well for your info I wouldn’t have bought a “matchstalk” from Ireland,all our 6x2’s were built in either the Volvo or Scania factories in Sweden Cheers Bewick.

[bewick]

Another Volvo to-night (tell me when you are sick of Volvo,I nearly am )this time an F10 stood in the depot coupled to an m/t Task tri axle

[retired_old_fart]

There’s nae brass in empty trailers, Dennis.

[bewick]

Retired Old ■■■■:
There’s nae brass in empty trailers, Dennis.

There is if it was only going down the road a mile then changing trailers with one loaded with 25 ton of paper at £16 a ton to London (mid 80’s rates) Dennis.

[retired_old_fart]

Oh, yes indeed!
How did you manage to get those sort of rates? Any time I mentioned a price approaching £10 per ton, customers used to crack up laughing!

[bewick]

Retired Old ■■■■:
Oh, yes indeed!
How did you manage to get those sort of rates? Any time I mentioned a price approaching £10 per ton, customers used to crack up laughing!

Different class of customer I think ROF ,but we did have some cracking customers in the paper industry where the cost of transport as a % of the overall cost of the product was small,but the reliability of deliveries was paramount.A lot of the Bleached Kraft tonnage we hauled was ordered 12 month previously,demand was so great.Not all our full load rates were as good as that but in the main they were all above average,I’ve walked away from some contracts if we couldn’t get a decent rate,why should good customers subsidise bad ones In the 70’s and 80’s I always found that if you gave the customers a full and comprehensive reason for requiring an increase I was usually able to achieve what I needed to keep ahead of the game.We did often experience other hauliers blindly offering to do jobs for “less than Bewicks are charging you” and the customers would gladly tell me,but we never lost a contract to the idiots who made them sort of approaches nor were we required to lower our prices to keep the job.The worst case of “rate cutting” I ever experienced was work we did for a local Structral steel fabricator in Kendal,and this idiot local haulier (now deceased) offered to do the same job for 50% less than we charged,just to boast that he’d took the job off Bewicks needless to say he got told to ■■■■ off Happy days Cheers Bewick.

[saviem]

Bewick:

Retired Old ■■■■:
Oh, yes indeed!
How did you manage to get those sort of rates? Any time I mentioned a price approaching £10 per ton, customers used to crack up laughing!

Different class of customer I think ROF ,but we did have some cracking customers in the paper industry where the cost of transport as a % of the overall cost of the product was small,but the reliability of deliveries was paramount.A lot of the Bleached Kraft tonnage we hauled was ordered 12 month previously,demand was so great.Not all our full load rates were as good as that but in the main they were all above average,I’ve walked away from some contracts if we couldn’t get a decent rate,why should good customers subsidise bad ones In the 70’s and 80’s I always found that if you gave the customers a full and comprehensive reason for requiring an increase I was usually able to achieve what I needed to keep ahead of the game.We did often experience other hauliers blindly offering to do jobs for “less than Bewicks are charging you” and the customers would gladly tell me,but we never lost a contract to the idiots who made them sort of approaches nor were we required to lower our prices to keep the job.The worst case of “rate cutting” I ever experienced was work we did for a local Structral steel fabricator in Kendal,and this idiot local haulier (now deceased) offered to do the same job for 50% less than we charged,just to boast that he’d took the job off Bewicks needless to say he got told to [zb] off Happy days Cheers Bewick.

Hi Dennis, you know I could never really comprehend the logic of a lot of these people. They had obtained an operators licence, had a few units and trailers, (and probably never understood the “true” cost of those), then went out to under cut whoever had work from a manufacturer. Often they seemed to have little anticipation of payment terms, or even what they should have charged for the job! Forced their Drivers to work like idiots, (and break every rule in the book…but of course it was the Driver at fault), But people took them on, and as a consequence they b…d the job up for everyone! And in reality just lowered the standard of the industry.

Same with vehicle acquisition…hammer down the price at the front end…or put in a “dodgy” part exchange, then not realise that the “finance” on which they depended was actually making the seller so much profit it was obscene!!

To this day I dislike Barbara Castle, and the irrevocable decline that her introduction of O Licences started for our industry. We loaded several lads with Grain today, one lad , young, 40+, nice DAF XF, (with a bit of age in it), and good Grain trailer, but that “haunted look”, (d`ont we all know that)! And I asked him the rate he was getting…Dennis, the family were getting a similar rate for the same traffic in 1972!!!

I just said “nowt”, and felt sad…what has happened to"our" industry■■? Oh, and of the other six we loaded, five had Eastern European Drivers, including one I sent off empty, when he tried to take a P… in the yard next to the house, (and believe me we run a very tidy operation here, with "proper"facilities for visiting drivers)

Had an “interesting” telephone call from his Liverpool employer this evening (a man of “limited” vocabulary),…how do we end up with such Morons running lorries… and to what depth has the industry sunk for these people to be involved in Road Haulage?..so it is decided they will not be coming here again!!!

Am I getting like Victor Meldrew? I expect so, but I am so sad at how far the industry has sunk!

Solace in the Bollinger I think!

Cheerio for now.

[retired_old_fart]

In our part of the country the “silly rate syndrome” began when the customers decided that they were the ones who should decide the rate for the job. A considerable part of road haulage in the area was generated by large, powerful industries, therefore it was coal factors, steelworks, quarry owners etc who dictated the rate. For the haulier, especially the small & medium-sized operators, it was a case of “take it or leave it”. I remember the manager of one London company we used to deliver to asking me to quote for goods from the capital to South Wales and the Bristol. We negotiated a price of £4.50 per pallet which was almost TWICE what we were getting for the outward load.

[bewick]

Spot on analysis from “Saviem” and ROF,how an industry can function profitably when about 50 to 60% of their costs is Derv I fail to understand.I can recall that for many years our drivers costs AND fuel to-gether accounted for between 45 and 50% of our costs at Bewick Transport which was manageable if not always acceptable but at least we could return a reasonable “bottom line” during those years,oh! and we were living with annual inflation of anywhere up to 15%.Imagine the “debris” that kind of inflation would leave in to-days industry ? Cheers Dennis.