M&C Jamie:
Hi Turnip, I bought Alan Johnsons 3300 Daf off him and went Subbing for Kepstowe through him, for a few years. That is when we used to meet up with Croomes’s drivers on a Tuesday night on the finland /russian border. When I think back on it,it must have taken some bottle to have invested all that money on new trucks that were over length to be on the road. I wonder how much it cost him every time they were stopped in Finland coming off the boat.
There was also a driver was he hungarion ? who drove there for a few years if i remember correctly and one i used to see in the riders who run a lot to the Ukraine. the old memory is not what it was im afraid. regards Jamie.
A Scot lost in the Valley’s
The hungarian was laszlo.
Yes i do remember you.
You probably knew me as junior as my old boy worked there as well.
As far as i know croome never got fined in finland for being over length, he did get turned back at helsinki a few times. But we just went on down to kotka, took a day longer but hey what did we care.
M&C Jamie:
it must have taken some bottle to have invested all that money on new trucks that were over length to be on the road.
bottle or stupidity, i wouldn’t like to call that one - i know his brother the accountant turned ashen faced when i explained it to him the second time, that yes, the recent £1.5m and imminent £1.0m of tackle was illegal
don’t know if you’re still in touch, but alan still does regular UK work for me by the way - a proper gent
turnip I never met Alf. But Charley had a goldmine of stories to tell. Those Croome combo’s were over hight & over length ; he had 'em made like that for the Tampon contract to Russia .And then he lost the contract & the lads were sent to Swiss ( of all places ) in them.
harry: turnip I never met Alf. But Charley had a goldmine of stories to tell. Those Croome combo’s were over hight & over length ; he had 'em made like that for the Tampon contract to Russia .And then he lost the contract & the lads were sent to Swiss ( of all places ) in them.[/quote
Swiss in overheight & overlength, that must’ve been expensive
harry:
Those Croome combo’s were over hight & over length ; he had 'em made like that for the Tampon contract to Russia .And then he lost the contract & the lads were sent to Swiss ( of all places ) in them.
the original “8+8” (metre) F10 drawbars were legal on the total length, only when volvo refused to offer their new FH daycab so that we could have estepe top sleepers on them did mr croome decide to brass it and have sleeper cabs
these weren’t specifically bought for tambrands work, in fact sony was flavour of the month when they were ordered
he was convonced a competitor had tipped the finnish authorities off about it (like they don’t have eyes/brains of their own ) and several ways around the problem were tried with varying sucess - i decamped shortly afterwards so no idea how it panned out, but those trucks were not used for swiss work
as an afterthought, as i say the F10s were legal overall, but 8+8 load space exceeded the EU regulations even within 18.35m - the trailer bodies which michael croome ended up with were cut down to 7m subsequently
The last time I saw Tony the musician we were both going to Swiss. I did the direct St. Louis border & he had to creep along the German side of the Swiss border until he came to that little border crossing near Winterthur because that was the only one that hadn’t twigged the extra hight & length .And it was a pigeon coop Croome.
harry:
The last time I saw Tony the musician we were both going to Swiss. I did the direct St. Louis border & he had to creep along the German side of the Swiss border until he came to that little border crossing near Winterthur because that was the only one that hadn’t twigged the extra hight & length .And it was a pigeon coop Croome.
I presume you mean tony merry??
He must have been spinning you a line. those trucks were not over height atall. And i done swiss a few times in them , mainly transitting with no problems. They were over length but no one ever seemed to notice.
Do they now run on Latvian/Lithuanian or whatever plates now, saw one a while ago & gave the driver the nod, as you do, he was a flathead of some description, he gave me a blank look & he had a ■■■ hanging out of the corner of his mouth
newmercman:
Do they now run on Latvian/Lithuanian or whatever plates now, saw one a while ago & gave the driver the nod, as you do, he was a flathead of some description, he gave me a blank look & he had a ■■■ hanging out of the corner of his mouth
david croome’s brother joined the company in 94, putting money in afaik - then around 97 they had a falling out and michael set up separately based at lenham storage, doing swiss and EU work with around 8 trucks, and is still going mainly with UK trucks (and drivers, I think)
david’s side is the one now on lithuania/serbia/ukraine trucks and drivers
I was told that the reason for measuring the trucks in Finland was ,
1: The finns were not allowed into mainland EC Countries with their domestic legal 22.5 meter road trains. So they enforced the EC laws on other trucks coming in to finnland.
2: The ferry companies charged by length and knew that drivers and companies always under declaired their length so after they had come off the ferry they could not deny their length and had to pay the extra charges.
I was never measured all the times i disembarked at Turku. But then we berthed at a different dock to the ro ro from Sweden where it was normal to be measured.
The police used to set up road blocks just outside the docks on the road into town with breathaliser kits slung over their shoulders like bullet belts waiting on the drivers coming of the ferry from Sweden. Regards jamie
HI all ,Has anyone got any pics they would like to post on here of the croome trucks.Here is one that i found working in north cyprus.
another question who know’s of croome’s oldest working truck? fleet number 241 is the oldest i’ve seen.Paul
M&C Jamie:
I was told that the reason for measuring the trucks in Finland was ,
1: The finns were not allowed into mainland EC Countries with their domestic legal 22.5 meter road trains. So they enforced the EC laws on other trucks coming in to finnland.
2: The ferry companies charged by length and knew that drivers and companies always under declaired their length so after they had come off the ferry they could not deny their length and had to pay the extra charges.
I was never measured all the times i disembarked at Turku. But then we berthed at a different dock to the ro ro from Sweden where it was normal to be measured.
The police used to set up road blocks just outside the docks on the road into town with breathaliser kits slung over their shoulders like bullet belts waiting on the drivers coming of the ferry from Sweden. Regards jamie
A Scot lost in the valley’s
Something like that jamie. We never used to get fined though, just put back on the boat.I think the idea was we were supposed to be sent back to the uk , but we never did we just got off at kotka about 20k from the russian border. This was a costly exercise for croome as he lost a day and had to pay the extra freight charges. As i remember harry vos’s crowd had the same problems.
postman paul:
HI all ,Has anyone got any pics they would like to post on here of the croome trucks.Here is one that i found working in north cyprus.
another question who know’s of croome’s oldest working truck? fleet number 241 is the oldest i’ve seen.Paul
Nice pic.
Didn’t know they still did that job. It’s a hanging garment job. Ferry from turkey for that one, never done it meself but know a few who did. Apparently the ferries are disgusting, but a few days in the cyprus sun makes up for it i suppose.
My last truck on croomes was 252 original reg m113pkr. I think he still has it but it was re registered a long time ago.
Hi all i think he still runs 241/242 from the uk on uk plates,i know i have seen it at Lenham storage,here is a picture of 242 courtesy of Steve Lynch.
Nice one.
D528kko was my first truck on croomes, used to go like hell. But it was a bag of nails and a pig to reverse. Took that truck to russia,ukraine etc etc. Nerve racking to say the least.
) and several ways around the problem were tried with varying sucess - i decamped shortly afterwards so no idea how it panned out, but those trucks were not used for swiss work
