Fred’s at Coslada, anyone ?
Tarmaceater:
Fred’s at Coslada, anyone ?
Only as a last resort. - He knew a good thing did Fred .
I was in in Fernandos in Boceguillas and he was charging the Spaniards 400 pesatas and the rest 500 as we could afford it.
- Fred knew the EU drivers would drink tat all night - And pay up. What was the name of the Uk company who did the Royal Mail into Madrid ? Inter city ?
He did employ an assistant who’s name i forget but one Sunday i went with his wife and family to see General Franco’s mausoleum outside of Madrid . - Vallee de los Caidos. Better than sitting in a Scania all day.
Fred was a shrewd and very intelligent businessman, he spoke about six languages, probably sent his daughters to a private school, on the back of foreign drivers paying over the top for watered down beer , if he gave you the change from a purchase, be sure to count it .
From the humble beginnings in the dust bowl of a parking area in the residential area , to a bigger premises and a restaurant on the National 1 about an hour from Madrid, which never really took off , he is now still trading in a restaurant on the ground floor of a block of flats .
I could never understand drivers sat in a truck stop all weekend, when for pennies, you could get a bus or train to Madrid centre and enjoy the architectural buildings and historical monuments .
If there was an international football match on , it was not long before a fight broke out between the Dutch or German drivers.
Tarmaceater:
Fred was a shrewd and very intelligent businessman, he spoke about six languages, probably sent his daughters to a private school, on the back of foreign drivers paying over the top for watered down beer , if he gave you the change from a purchase, be sure to count it .
From the humble beginnings in the dust bowl of a parking area in the residential area , to a bigger premises and a restaurant on the National 1 about an hour from Madrid, which never really took off , he is now still trading in a restaurant on the ground floor of a block of flats .
I could never understand drivers sat in a truck stop all weekend, when for pennies, you could get a bus or train to Madrid centre and enjoy the architectural buildings and historical monuments .If there was an international football match on , it was not long before a fight broke out between the Dutch or German drivers.
I don’t remember any fights but as you say going to the water park or into Madrid were a lot more interesting.
He’s still trading !! - blimey he was older than Franglais even back then…
Fred is still at it , and surprisingly not aged that much , there is a video of Fred on Trucknet promoting his business, only on Trucknet can a Davies International thread turn in to Farmers Weekly with photos of farmers, farming and all agricultural related threads, markets and stock prices with livestock photos, I mean no offence to the posters of farming stuff , and to Spanish truck stops .
Aye, Bull manure and Brexit on the same thread
I daresay the very efficient and helpful mods will chop off the past few posts, just so the `Ampshire Archers can be left in peace? ]
Meanwhile… I ain`t as old as all that!
Hi all, Wrighty how far do you live from Hardraw we were just trying to remember how many years ago (25 to 30 we think ) it was that we were up there.We stayed at the caravan site in Hawes walked across the field to the pub and it just so happened to be the Brass Band competition at the waterfall sponsored by the Black Sheep brewery was on, my missus had never drunk real so they had a beer tent up there so she started one end and worked her way along, all i can say is that it was a good job her brother was there to help me carry her back across the field. Still got a beer towel as a reminder. Good day’s. 
gerbil sb152:
Hi all, Wrighty how far do you live from Hardraw we were just trying to remember how many years ago (25 to 30 we think ) it was that we were up there.We stayed at the caravan site in Hawes walked across the field to the pub and it just so happened to be the Brass Band competition at the waterfall sponsored by the Black Sheep brewery was on, my missus had never drunk real so they had a beer tent up there so she started one end and worked her way along, all i can say is that it was a good job her brother was there to help me carry her back across the field. Still got a beer towel as a reminder. Good day’s.
Evening gerbil sb152
We are a 5 minute drive from Hardraw, the annual brass band contest is held in September and usually attracts a large crowd not sure if it will happen next year or not…
Cheers Wrighty.
Yes quite right as when i was working we always had 2nd and 3rd week in September for holiday when the kid’s went back to school. I can remember something being said that the year we were there it had not happened for a few year’s and this was it’s first year back that we stumbled on it,we did not think we would enjoy it and only went for the beer but we had a really good day. It has been going since the late 1800s apparently.
What a wet and gloomy morning we have arisen too and the news on the tele is not much better, massive ques of trucks trying to exit the country via Dover and although the Brittany boat out of Pompey last night loaded it did not sail as France introduced a total ban on people entering its shores at the moment for 48 hours this could be extended if I know the French and visions of all those flip flop Eastern European drivers spending Christmas over here in there cabs in a long line to Dover docks with just pot noodles to eat springs to mind, maybe they wont be so keen to return in the future and we can start rebuilding our depleted International hauliers.
This morning all those who loaded in Pompey last night had to get of the ferry as at the moment its not going anywhere. Out of our ten trucks we only have one still out and he is a relief driver and is in Spain so we are not to badly effected.
Forward planning by us was maybe not to send anyone out in the new year for a couple weeks to see how the land lies with Brexit as if the French dont get fishing they say they are going to block all ports to ferries any way & this is typical of the type of action that has been seen in the past disputes from them, at the moment the general consensus is this travel ban has little to do with Covid19+ but is a lot more to do with the deal talks not going there way, they just dont get it do they that we are leaving on the 31st, well enough said about that else we will get sent to Bullies, onwards and upwards is the way cheers Buzzer.
Good luck with the Channel Ports, Buzzer - fingers crossed. And ignore the headlines, some of which blame Covid queues on Brexit 
and others which blame Brexit queues on Covid . All of them conveniently forget that Xmas is always a bunfight in the ports and a scramble to get lorries home in time! 
Tarmaceater:
Fred is still at it , and surprisingly not aged that much , there is a video of Fred on Trucknet promoting his business, only on Trucknet can a Davies International thread turn in to Farmers Weekly with photos of farmers, farming and all agricultural related threads, markets and stock prices with livestock photos, I mean no offence to the posters of farming stuff , and to Spanish truck stops .
Yes indeed: only on TNUK!
One of the pleasing ways in which Trucknet has evolved over the years is the high level of tolerance among regular contributors for occasional diversions and relevant sub-topics. With regard to this particular thread for example, quite a lot of relevant agricultural material related to transport has appeared from a first-hand farmer-haulier. We are all better informed for that. Likewise, where political data and opinion is relevant to the thread, this too has been informative. This culture is replicated across all the threads. But it is a balancing act.
Sometimes, a topic gets ‘hi-jacked’ and a new thread is opened as a result; or posters request that the mods separate a thread to create two parallel topics. And we are at the end of the day free to skip stuff that doesn’t interest us! For example I sometimes skip over the farmy stuff on here but not all of it: after all, my father was chief sub-editor on the Farmers Weekly in the '60s; and I’ve done my fair share of farm pick-ups, straw cartage and other agri-transport in my time.
Where say, an agriculture-only thread is opened; or say, a Brexit-only thread is opened then these generally get diverted to Bully’s Truckstop. This keeps the the threads from contravening the ‘random crap’ rule on TN.
Keep posting! Merry Christmas all!
OwenMoney:
Tarmaceater:
Fred’s at Coslada, anyone ?Only as a last resort. - He knew a good thing did Fred .
I was in in Fernandos in Boceguillas and he was charging the Spaniards 400 pesatas and the rest 500 as we could afford it.
- Fred knew the EU drivers would drink tat all night - And pay up. What was the name of the Uk company who did the Royal Mail into Madrid ? Inter city ?
He did employ an assistant who’s name i forget but one Sunday i went with his wife and family to see General Franco’s mausoleum outside of Madrid . - Vallee de los Caidos. Better than sitting in a Scania all day.
Louis was Fred’s assistant, taught himself English from listening to MTV apparently, one year he gave all the guys who came in a T shirt with a picture of himself on the front… Camp as Christmas he was 
We did the airmail to the train station at Chamartin whilst working for LEP
Louis - camp or not he was married with a child back in the 80 s.
At least I didn’t have to check the change with him as Fred was a different story.
I was given an umbrella by a driver to take to Tibet,but I only remember him carrying the mail from London to Madrid hense my thought it was inter city or Europa.
Ah , happy days indeed.
.
I only went to Fred’s a couple of times. At Coslada there was a decent local restaurant or the Chinese restaurant.
Victor’ s however I used a lot. If week-ending there I would vary it by using the others but always back to Victor.
Simón was a bit dry, but I got on ok with him.
Stuart Smith Aka The Animal ( RIP , killed in a crash , hitting a broken down coach in Spain, on his way to Morocco) played a trick on the waitress at Victor’s , she says no fish on the menu, so out of sight he removes the fish in the fish tank , and pretended to eat it , to her horror .
I used to use the Matador restaurant behind the warehouses in Coslada, a lot of German, Dutch and Italian drivers liked parking there too .
Donny bypass April 2018 Buzzer, all credit to Richard Says for the photo.
Oily
Called into “Tracy Island” today and found 3rd generation of Davies hard at it washing trucks & trailers off, I had made a trip to Gregg’s for sausage roll’s so young Tommy never went hungry and at 12yo is keen and he got wages his Nan saw to that as she is in charge of the petty cash tin 
Hi all, i am pretty sure that Transport Services ( Mr Squibb) did the post to Spain but i could be wrong.