Thought I’d share some memories of my time on containers from the 80’s and 90’s and stuff we used to load/unload at various places.Maybe some of you have been to these places too.
The job’s that every driver dreaded were the ones where you turned up and some bloke would say,‘Right’o drive,get in the back’!
That would guarantee an argument with the office when you phoned up to say that the customer refused to tip or load you,because you wouldn’t get in and handball 20 tons of potatoes or whatever.
The fact that you’d been up since 3 or 4am to get their bloody container there on time cut no ice with the boss,the customer or the spotty kid in the shipping office.
As far as I know,just about the only driver’s in Felixstowe who didn’t have this problem were P&O Coastal Roadways,simply because they had a strong union presence.
The same sort of thing always happened when you turned up somewhere with an open top box too,this time it’s ‘Right’o drive,take the top off’!
No ladder,no gantry,nothing.They expected you to shimmy up the side of the box and then tightrope walk around the top to unlace the sealing cord and roll the cover off.The second word of reply was generally “Off”!
There was a regular place we used to go to in the West Midlands to load copper,they had a gantry that you had to reverse next to and it was easy to walk around and strip the tilt off.
Of course nowadays I suppose this sort of thing doesn’t occur,what with Health & safety and risk assessment.
One time I took a 20’ box full of tinned salmon up to the North West with two deliveries.At the first address they said I had to get in the back and stack it onto pallets,I refused and told them that I hadn’t got out of my bed at 2am that morning,driven to Liverpool only to be told that I’d have to unload it.I explained that I’d done my bit in getting it there and it was down to them to unload it.So they did.
Whilst I went for a cuppa and a bit of breakfast they unloaded there stuff,all the way down one side of the box!
So the boxes for the second address were all stacked up against the other side! Not for long though,by the time I got to the second address a few miles away all the boxes were all over the place.
There were good jobs and bad jobs.One of the good jobs was loading ■■■■ out of Southampton.We had to be in Southampton the night before,so this was generally a good night out as there were usually four or five of us loading together.Next morning we’d load and then wait for the security ■■■■■■ to arrive,who would follow us all the way back to Felixstowe.We weren’t allowed to stop officially,but would usually pull into the OK cafe on the A12 for a cuppa on the way back,with the ■■■■■■ driver staying in his car watching the trucks.
We also used to take raw tobacco to Bristol next to Canon’s Marsh lorry park,so that was another good night out,first into ‘The Juniper Berry’ then into the ‘Mecca’.Some good times were had there. 
I loaded a 40’ full of sherry from Harvey’s in Bristol one day but only had time to get back to Brentwood due to being held up on the way because of an accident.But I parked it up in the first lay-by on the A12 and went home on a dodgy.When I got home I had a bad feeling about leaving a load of sherry in a lay-by,so I got my missus to drive me back down to Brentwood and we both slept in the truck for the night.
Driver’s used to park up and leave trucks and trailers all over the place in those days,and it was a very rare occasion if it got broken into,not like nowadays.
One of the most secure places we used to load at was The Royal Mint in Llantrisant,Wales.There you had to leave all your loose change in a locker before they would let you in.Poor old Danny Palmer forgot it after he’d loaded and pulled out.It’s probably still there.
There was another place where we used to load blank banknotes for the far east,it was somewhere in southern England,but I can’t remember exactly where.
Another regular job was taking peanuts to Tickhill,near Doncaster.Again,there was usually half a dozen of us going up early in the morning and we’d arrive together,wait until we were all tipped and then go for breakfast at Jane’s,just down the road,before heading back to Felixstowe empty.
Some of the worst jobs were the groupage runs on a Friday.This was usually loading a 40’ box at several places and then ending up somewhere where they’d take the whole lot out and repack it,and you’d end up waiting around till 7 or 8pm for a pallet that’s coming in from the other side of London!
There were strange jobs too.We used to load at the Cherry Valley factory in Lincolnshire,frozen duck’s feet of all things! They were shipped to the far east,where they are regarded as a delicacy.
I went to somwhere in Hampshire with a 40’ loaded with grass seed in hessian sacks.When I backed into the warehouse they opened the doors and then shut them again.‘You have to take it back driver,it has to be fumigated’.It was full of mice,that over the weeks since it had been loaded and shipped,had multiplied tenfold.So I took it back.
A regular job that Goodways had was for Anglo-Italian Foods,who had a huge warehouse at Nacton near Ipswich.They used to import huge numbers of containers full of tinned tomatoes.It was normally just a case of doing a changeover,taking a full box up from Felixstowe and returning with an empty and we’d do that five or six times a day.Mind you,we were never short of tinned tomatoes at home!
Another good job was Holyhead,which usually meant leaving early Friday from Felixstowe with a 9’6" box,up the A5 to Holyhead,lift the box off and wait for the boat from Dublin to arrive around midnight.After lifting the box off we’d give the blokes there the box number we’d be taking back and our reg.number,so when it came off the ship they’d wake us up and get it lifted on.Saturday morning would see us heading back to Felixstowe and straight to the quay.
This was before the Conwy bypass was built,that’s why we had to go up the A5,there was a low bridge at Conwy that you couldn’t get under with a 9’6" box.
Though some did try.
George Carling,a Grays driver,was running from Holyhead to Manchester with an empty 9’6" box one day and went flying under the bridge.There was a loud bang and the empty box was ripped off of the twistlocks and landed on the road.Very embarrasing 
It was also decidedly tight going from Chester to Holyhead through those arches at Conwy.The first time I went up there was on a Sunday night and I ignored the warning signs that tell you to take an alternative route.As I approached the arches I thought,oh dear!,or words to that effect,I’m never going to get through there! There were two coppers walking up the street and I thought,‘Here we go,I’m going to get nicked here’,but they said “Just pull your mirrors in driver and take it slowly,all the Irish lads come this way”.So I did.
Some of the nicest jobs were the household removals where you could be in some of the nicest parts of the country at some exclusive house,watching all their furniture being carried out and loaded into a container.
I remember loading once in Berkeley Square,London,that was nice.Even saw Lorraine Chase getting into her Jaguar XJS while I was waiting.Probably off to Luton Airport 
In the same vein,there was an awful lot of antiques we used to load all over the place and shipped to the USA. I went to one place just off the M11 to load antiques,well,when I say antiques,it was a load of old rubbish.But,as the guy who owned the place said,“The yanks love all this old stuff,they haven’t got a clue that it’s no good”.Fair enough.
One of the jobs we all hated was timber.Timber loaded into a normal 40’ box takes some getting out.Getting it in is no problem,they just push it in.
But,invariably,almost everywhere you went to unload it,they wanted you to shunt it out of the back.
That’s right,‘shunt it’.
This meant you had to take out everything in the cab that wasn’t tied down and secured,or it would be all over the place.Then you engaged reverse,and went backwards as fast as you could.And hit the brakes.This could take several shunts before it was out far enough for them to get a forklift or side-loader under it to do the rest.Again,something which probably doesn’t happen too much nowadays.
There was a furniture place in Ware,Herts that we used to go to quite a bit with timber.I went there one foggy morning to unload and missed the turning,so had to go for miles before I could turn around.The only place I could find was a farm gateway,so I backed into the gateway and out again.Unbeknown to me,there was a ruddy great tree stump lurking under the grass and as I pulled out it caught the front axle of the tandem axle trailer I had on.
Quite a bit actually.
It had ripped the front axle from it’s mountings and the wheels were pointing in the wrong direction,or at least not straight ahead anyway.
I managed to unload and limp all the way back to Felixstowe with the wheels trying to turn left all the way.That took some explaining.
More memories soon,I’m tired and off to bed now…zzzzzzzzzzzz
, thanks for taking the time to put it all down in writing. Every driver must a have a few stories like that and I just love reading about them 
went to the far east
