Hi Ant.
More great memories!
Taking them from the top:
- I never realised that the Hinos had Gardners fitted (not that I ever had anything to do with one). I always thought the Japs would eliminate the English truck manufacturers the same as they had already done with motor bikes. But I guess the Swedes did instead. And rightly so in my opinion.
- Do you see the line of bells at the end of the first message from Alf & Peter? Thats them ringing the bell on the telex machine in Stoke because they wanted an answer. The 2 telex machines were kept in a little glass office all on their own because of the noise they made. Linda and I would sit in there for hours telexing our contacts to get back loads. It was always a relief when we had a plan for everybody!
- Yes that would have been me who sent that telex. I think the telexes shown are quite respectful (whether from me, Linda, or Maurice Lockett). Respect is something that I found lacking during my recent few years on the road.
- If I needed to get hold of a driver urgently and they were on there way to or from Italy I would ring The Bakehouse at Macon and ask to speak to any English driver. My French was lousy (it’s not much better now). Mostly the message got through, sometimes not.
- What happened to Bill Smith (and Jake his brother). Did Bill set up on his own?
- And regards to Alan Morrison. Another nice bloke. He gave me a Rover 2000 once (can’t remember why) but the deal was I would sell it from home. I think I got £25 for it.
Kind regards,
PTT
Hi Flip,
Yes I had a lot of respect for Rokold back in the day. All those ROK plates. But by the time I got there it was, as you say, dire. Dave ‘Cranny’ had left (never met him) and set up SDM and the rest of the crew were fed up with all that was being done to them.
Some of the lads, who had been there from the start, were miffed with Robin who they felt had taken the money and run.
There is, as I am sure you know, a whole Rokold thread on here somewhere,
Kind regards,
PTT
part-time-trucker:
Hi Ant.
More great memories!
Taking them from the top:
- I never realised that the Hinos had Gardners fitted (not that I ever had anything to do with one). I always thought the Japs would eliminate the English truck manufacturers the same as they had already done with motor bikes. But I guess the Swedes did instead. And rightly so in my opinion.
- Do you see the line of bells at the end of the first message from Alf & Peter? Thats them ringing the bell on the telex machine in Stoke because they wanted an answer. The 2 telex machines were kept in a little glass office all on their own because of the noise they made. Linda and I would sit in there for hours telexing our contacts to get back loads. It was always a relief when we had a plan for everybody!
- Yes that would have been me who sent that telex. I think the telexes shown are quite respectful (whether from me, Linda, or Maurice Lockett). Respect is something that I found lacking during my recent few years on the road.
- If I needed to get hold of a driver urgently and they were on there way to or from Italy I would ring The Bakehouse at Macon and ask to speak to any English driver. My French was lousy (it’s not much better now). Mostly the message got through, sometimes not.
- What happened to Bill Smith (and Jake his brother). Did Bill set up on his own?
- And regards to Alan Morrison. Another nice bloke. He gave me a Rover 2000 once (can’t remember why) but the deal was I would sell it from home. I think I got £25 for it.
Kind regards,
PTT
PTT,
Ahh - The Bakehouse, always remember going there with Dad, one of his (and many other drivers) favorite places, don’t think it has been open for many years, since the new motorway has been built (old road was much more iteresting, if not a little slow !!!)
Bill Smith is retired now, I see him some times in the Congress pub in Longton when I go for a beer on a Sat with my mate, he said he is going to sort some photos out when he can, can’t remember what he said Jake was doing, last time I saw Jake, it was about 20 years ago when he was driving for Mark Cooper on the bricks, he went with Clive and Alan Morrison to drive my Mum to Munich when my Dad had his accident, I have a letter that Clive sent to my dad, which I’ll post later.
Notice in the photo of you from the article that you and Peter were looking at a map of France, were you looking for the best place to live (even back then) 
or just trying to work out were all the drivers were hiding
Regards
Ant
Hi Ant,
I was probably looking for somewhere nice to live in France. Of course we always knew where the drivers were all the time. You’ve just got to look at the Visual Display Unit of the 24/7 tracking system behind my head in the SPD photo to know that to be true…
Have a good week, I’m off to stock up on logs for the winter.
Kind regards,
Stephen
thanks for sharing your memories ive enjoyed all of your photos and posts
Hi Ant,
Thanks for reminding me of what was a great period in my life, half a lifetime ago.
I’ll keep mye on the post but I guess the box is now empty,
Kind regards to you and all who worked at Comart Europa International,
Stephen
