night shift bri:
Kevmac47 you mentioned that John Kerss now works for Catalyst. Are they a north east outfit, I’ve never heard of them or seen any motors with that name on.
harry:
night shift bri:
Kevmac47 you mentioned that John Kerss now works for Catalyst. Are they a north east outfit, I’ve never heard of them or seen any motors with that name on.
Thanks for that Harry, but I’m no wiser. I can’t understand a word of it. “to simplify transport planning Catalyst Logistics use dynamic, accessible simulation packages that deliver comprehensive visualisation and forecasting options”. Do the people that write this cr*p live in the same world as the rest of us?
chilistrucker:
ha,ha,ha. hi steve, yep, h was my sisters father in law
yep, he is still about, lives up north i believe, he was/is great.
the lightbulb trick was his trademark, it never failed to make me laugh, he was a great bloke used to look after me, i could smoke in the truck, swear, and generally have a good laugh. when i was abit older he used to let me drive the truck around in the yard, help him hook up etc, i used to love going with h. do you remember any of the other lads on nights with h, k.d, c.p joe, big al, bw, ron speedwagon etc?p.s, meant to add, gds? george davies? did you drive a big daf, maybe a 3300ati?
hi chili,
yeh did 12yrs on davies’s best job ever in my opinion that daf was the only new motor i got but the money was great you got paid for everything.
glad to here old harry’s still about last time i saw him was in pitsea market about 15yrs ago.
i new most of cp ships drivers good mates some of them(dennis mc d,the muppet,franky the student,ray shades and paul hawkins,after gds finished i went on tracto brian walker was a manager by then only lasted a couple of months then went on brainy’s till they went bang.
good times cheers steve.
nice pic, that brings back some memories.
i remember seeing the daf a fair bit when i was with h if he was doing the tilburys. he used to prefer the shunting back and forth to tilbury all night.
i only really knew tractos night drivers, i’m still mates with ken, (a.k.a rainbow/k.d)
i didn’t mind the tilbury shunts, the “dockers” used to treat me alright, i wasn’t allowed on the pad, so i used to sit in the office with em, whilst harry went on to tip and turn, like you said, they were good times. brainy’s was a big firm, i remember a few, not to good with names, buti do remember frank, small scottish fellow on for brains, he was a top lad. i also remember brian going to the office.
you still driving today steve?
i ended up doing my hgv, been doing it 18 years now, bit of everything, continental work mainly,
take care,
neil.
Not the greatest photos, but thought these might be of interest.
Sierra Freight was part of the Martin Woods Group, and primarily were freight forwarders. Sierra operated from Trafford Park, Manchester, although the truck was
based at Felixstowe.
I did quite a bit of work for Sierra, but they went out of business eventually.
The pictures were taken at Igoumenitsa, Greece. I can’t recall the driver’s name, but he had to take his truck off the ferry to let vehicles off, before
re-boarding for the rest of the voyage to Patras.
i was doing containers out of southampton for R&A freight in the 90s but grew up around all the old firms !!!
night shift bri:
I believe they were called Tyne Logistics Company then.
For a while, TLC was a wholly-owned subsidiary of MOL (Mitsui OSK Lines), but was then sold off a bit at a time to the Port of Tyne authority. The GM there was Ian Gibson - I believe he had worked for John Kerss’ own business some time previously. As a part of the whole tie-up, MOL’s European MD was a non-executive board member of the Port of Tyne.
Although it pre-dated my time at MOL, I understood that TLC had been set up to handle MOL’s Nissan business.
Yes you’re right about Ian Gibson. He worked under John when the depot on Sunderland docks belonged to Les Sampsons then when John took it over Ian stayed on. Can’t remember when he left John to work at TLC but after John Kerss Services went under John ended up working at TLC under Ian. I don’t think there was any love lost between the two of them and John eventually ended up back in his old office on Sunderland docks running the show for DHL (or Securicor, not sure what order)
night shift bri:
Yes you’re right about Ian Gibson. He worked under John when the depot on Sunderland docks belonged to Les Sampsons then when John took it over Ian stayed on. Can’t remember when he left John to work at TLC but after John Kerss Services went under John ended up working at TLC under Ian. I don’t think there was any love lost between the two of them and John eventually ended up back in his old office on Sunderland docks running the show for DHL (or Securicor, not sure what order)
As I recall, I’d thought things were OK until John was poached by Securicor!
Ian was already running TLC when I joined MOL in March 2001, but I think it was a year or two after before John joined them
240 Gardner:
night shift bri:
Yes you’re right about Ian Gibson. He worked under John when the depot on Sunderland docks belonged to Les Sampsons then when John took it over Ian stayed on. Can’t remember when he left John to work at TLC but after John Kerss Services went under John ended up working at TLC under Ian. I don’t think there was any love lost between the two of them and John eventually ended up back in his old office on Sunderland docks running the show for DHL (or Securicor, not sure what order)As I recall, I’d thought things were OK until John was poached by Securicor!
Ian was already running TLC when I joined MOL in March 2001, but I think it was a year or two after before John joined them
Is there anome still on this site?
I would like to know if anyone remembers a manchester driver called Johnny Shep, as I worked with him at a few companys in and around the manchester area.
one that I remember was Goodways in Lyons road Trafford Park and P&O Roadways.
I know that there has not been any posting for some time but there must be someone out there still.
polarbear manchester:
240 Gardner:
night shift bri:
Yes you’re right about Ian Gibson. He worked under John when the depot on Sunderland docks belonged to Les Sampsons then when John took it over Ian stayed on. Can’t remember when he left John to work at TLC but after John Kerss Services went under John ended up working at TLC under Ian. I don’t think there was any love lost between the two of them and John eventually ended up back in his old office on Sunderland docks running the show for DHL (or Securicor, not sure what order)As I recall, I’d thought things were OK until John was poached by Securicor!
Ian was already running TLC when I joined MOL in March 2001, but I think it was a year or two after before John joined them
Is there anome still on this site?
I would like to know if anyone remembers a manchester driver called Johnny Shep, as I worked with him at a few companys in and around the manchester area.
one that I remember was Goodways in Lyons road Trafford Park and P&O Roadways.
I know that there has not been any posting for some time but there must be someone out there still.
Bit early in the morning for most of us 
I was on for Curries/Shamrock Express in the 70s.
the artful dodger:
Cant recall any of the trucks either remember goodways and csm well as they pulled out of chequers lane dagenham,Same with mair transport out of tilbury if memory serves mostly brown volvos f88 & f86s. Anybody remember cct (commercial container transport) out of choats rd off of chequers lane. I subbed for them be going onto m w bakers in stratford.
Wow. Just stumbled across this post. Bit late I know. I remember commercial container transport when they were in the old east India dock. Cobbled roads. Tram lines and a tower crane to lift the boxes ! Before moving to Choats road Dagenham. I was only a young lad then. My dad used to drive for them. Then an owner driver. (Arthur Collins) or Big A as he was known then. Then he went to M W Baker transport in Dagenham in the office. I remember John Robinson etc. Great memories reading this. Thanks chaps
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Bit early in the morning for most of us I was on for Curries/Shamrock Express in the 70s.
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Hi, Were you based at Heywood or one of the outposts?
I did a few container jobs in the early '80s with this motor:
dave docwra:
Bit early in the morning for most of us I was on for Curries/Shamrock Express in the 70s.
[/quote]
Hi, Were you based at Heywood or one of the outposts?
[/quote]
Hiya,
Use to run out of Heywood. 
[/quote]
Hiya,
Use to run out of Heywood.
[/quote]
Hi, I was based at Stranraer in the workshop from 1977 until they went under, I used to come down to Heywood for my assesments by Mick Gannon / Cannon.
All the flat trailers were fitted with 40’ containers and were used on mushroom transport from Northern Ireland.
night shift bri:
[I worked on containers in the 80s for Salina freight out of purfleet.We subbed for a lot of the names above. Got stuck in Swansea when dock strick was on with a lot of Goodways and walkers drivers. They were the days. What about Les Samson any one remember them■■? They had some crap motors.
I remember Samsons, I worked for him out of his depot on Sunderland docks. Great bloke to work for, treated us like humans. He’s the only bloke i’ve worked for that gave his drivers £100 for Xmas, and that was in the mid 80s. When I started for him he was running Marathons and Ford Cargos but he started buying brand new Scania p112s, the first new motor I ever had. When we got the Scanias he supplied us with a new sleeping bag, portable telly and a bucket with dusters and a tin of Mister Sheen! He also had the motors fitted with night heaters (not standard in those days) and a radio/cassette player. As I said a top bloke to work for. He paid good money as well.
Here’s a pic of some of the Scanias.attachment=0]img143.jpg[/attachment]0
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Did work for Les Sampson in the late "70"s, they were running Mercedes sleeper cabs, (can’t remember the model) he was a decent bloke … I read somewhere that he is, or was, working for, or he owned, a yacht brokerage in Antibes in the south of France …
dave docwra:
Hiya,
Use to run out of Heywood.
[/quote]
Hi, I was based at Stranraer in the workshop from 1977 until they went under, I used to come down to Heywood for my assesments by Mick Gannon / Cannon.
All the flat trailers were fitted with 40’ containers and were used on mushroom transport from Northern Ireland.
[/quote]
Hiya Dave,
I`d moved back to Preston 1976 so just missed you, some of the lads I remember, Freddie Minter, Big Al aka The Hairy Beast, Ted Monaghan and his 2 sons
Jimmy Cassidy, Jimmy Hughes and his son, and Gordon Ridings who I used to keep in touch with.
Can anyone remember any of Gary Vincent’s classics in the 80’s and 90’s pulling containers out of Tilbury and Felixstowe was an owner driver pulling for Goodways, CSM and Armours Transport. Heres a few pictures of his lorries to jog a few memories.
