We used to feel sorry for them when we were doing Russia, it was difficult enough in an artic in the Winter, let alone a Dragon & Wag. All of the trucks I see nowadays are registered in Lithuania, although he doesn’t seem to have bought any new kit for ages. As far as I know, there have been no Brits doing Russia work for Croome for years.
How did they manage in them silly pods for weeks on end,
Recent - saw them a lots and they got some new brand new volvo fh drawbar curtainsider and boxes - British and LT num plates - no more sleepod for them 
The pods were pretty good actually. Used to sleep well in them. David and Michael came to a parting of the ways over the damage caused by the Lit drivers.
One memorable occasion, when I had come back into the yard, and a Lit driver had managed to put one of the spotlights though the sleeper. He said he had hit a bird.
he was asked if the bird was on a “[zb] wall at the time”
Yeah no problem @ all with them Estepe pods, in fact I wish I’d kept mine rather than ‘upgrade’ to a Globetrotter, things may av turned out differently, eh jj 72? The only fault of DC’s drawbars was the lack of a full rear lift axle, only an air dump, sadly inadequete on RUS winter ‘roads’. All in all was a good job.
I used to do Croomes tyres many years ago at Queenborough, he was a fussy sod, all the wagons had to be parked perfectly in line, just to fit one tyre meant moving two more cos a new had to be on a certain axle…
Seem to remember David was married to a dark women, and used to drive a battered old Merc car, im going back to about 86ish…
Think he does some of the pallet hub work now hence some british reg rigids and brit drivers, though that may have changed.
short walk:
Yeah no problem @ all with them Estepe pods, in fact I wish I’d kept mine rather than ‘upgrade’ to a Globetrotter, things may av turned out differently, eh jj 72? The only fault of DC’s drawbars was the lack of a full rear lift axle, only an air dump, sadly inadequete on RUS winter ‘roads’. All in all was a good job.
I take it that’s Mr R*****ll going by the location? I’m not sure how not having a sleeper cab it might have turned things out differently - unless you mean there wouldn’t have been several others in the same cab to press the button? 
Good to hear from you again if it is you!
For Coddy, I’m pretty certain that any UK reg motors will belong to Michael Croome at Lenham, nothing to do with David at Queenborough - see my post near the start of the thread
Short walk eh ■■? You will have to explain that 1 to me mate .
Have to disagree about pods (especially as jj72 will prob read this and might get ideas ) .We even slept 2 in a pod 1 memorable night eh short walk 
Bob the dog who are you ■■?
I quite liked a pod, they were a lot warmer than a normal sleeper though, not always good in Italy or Spain for summer. They were good to live in as there is more room than a bunk behind the seats and they are always dark so you sleep better.
I never worried excessively about them catching fire, cos I would ■■■■ myself if any vehicle I was sleeping in caught fire.
Haha u rite JJ, I meant that if I hadn’t taken u up on the offer of Ray W’s G’trotter I wudn’t have been there! Still, all things for a reason eh? I keep meaning to do the course on posting pix on ere, got lots of the red ‘super cars’ as the Swiss police reffered to the 19.5m jobs.
short walk:
Haha u rite JJ, I meant that if I hadn’t taken u up on the offer of Ray W’s G’trotter I wudn’t have been there! Still, all things for a reason eh? I keep meaning to do the course on posting pix on ere, got lots of the red ‘super cars’ as the Swiss police reffered to the 19.5m jobs.
I only just mastered it yesterday and I’ve been lurking on here for years mate 
Ray is one of the few people I’ve seen since leaving, working on crane ballast for various companies in UK and I’ve bumped into him on a couple of sites - might be time for an unofficial reunion?!
A superb firm to work for and a great bunch of people, Michael’s a gentleman who seems to have defied the inevitable and stayed loyal to the british guys.He’s still in business so maybe quality is still competitive. I left in 2000 before it all fell apart. From what I hear some of the old guys are still there. Proud to say I worked with those guys, there were and are none better. As for pods…disaster in the summer but surprisingly spacious. I had 249 ( a globey)
and would never have swapped! Bit too long at one end though! Only place they wouldn’t send you was home!
Croome started where i left off…i used to work for Bill Puxley…and when he had enough ( maybe he saw the light) i believe croome was the buyer. And as they say…the rest is history…but the colours are almost identical green & red.
i was a witness to a croom wagon and drag side swiping a car on the a34 newbury last year he spoke to me in english but when the police turned up he said me no english 
croome wagons always parked up on a small new truckstop off jct 8 m53, they seem to be more than two or three parked up and i always wondered why the lith plates but i suppose its to do with costs and lets face it there wont be many uk based company’s hiring british drivers soon or abroad for that matter, be worse next year when they allow the gates fully open for the rest of european operators.
Is or was Croome Transport a British company? The name sounds British to me and I’m sure I’ve heard it in the past but all the trucks of theirs I’ve ever seen have been Latvian registered. Whats the story?
David Croome is still a british transport company who did mainly Russia and Baltic States.
Vince will tell you more, but most of the drivers are Latvian or Lithuanian now, although I think there are still a few UK lads on the firm
i think you will find there are 2 croomes these days, both the same colour trucks and same lines etc, one is croome international and the other is david croome.
i think it’s david croome that operates the uk registered trucks with european drivers (english, scottish, dutch etc) and croome international with the foriegn registered trucks and foriegn drivers.
croome international (formerly david croome limited) has been a british company since 1972, but since around 1999 have operated trucks registered in lithuania (where they have an office) and more recently in ukraine, serbia and possibly other EE countries - they have just one UK driver left i understand.
david’s brother michael split from the company a few years back and runs about 10 trucks as croome logistics, same livery etc, out of freightflow depot at lenham doing EU and swiss work - hope that helps, asking for any particular reason robinhood?
If I remember correctly, I think the address on the side of the trucks was a ‘Sheerness’ one but I think they still have a yard in Leeds too.
In my previous job, Croome used to be used to carry raw materials (coat hangers, labels, buttons, rolls of fabric etc) from the Kirk Sandall warehouse over to Lithuania, Belarus (Minsk) & The Ukraine. They would then transport the finished goods back over here. A lot of the uk registered trucks were driven by Russians/Lithuanians and a lot of the ‘LT / LV / RU’ trucks were driven by brits. Most of the foreigners used to bring them over here (to the Leeds base) then the british lads would fetch them to the warehouse, we had a lot of english speaking Lithy’s come to the warehouse too, plus a few of the brits did do the UK-Lithuania runs.
Just looking at the Croome Website and hearing about some of the very long journeys they undertake makes my mouth water. They have a decent fleet too, the cab I’d been in, an 8 speed Volvo, had Sat-Nav, fitted tv, dvd player, video, PS2 etc. Looks like they have it quite good.