First time I noticed this page, so to put the record straight, I do not wish to say anything that may discriminate me, so help me god.
But I do remember when I was at “Chapmans” Bradford, there was boxes of cheeses gone missing from the security compound one day, Donald Chapman said if you know who the the thief is I’ll sack him, so Ted Millner “the company accountant” said you’d better sack yourself then, cos last night when you thought everyone had gone home I saw you climb over the fence and nick it yourself, “and no further action was taken”, the owner was worse than any driver in Bradford. :- Jack. 
Big incident up the Stranraer road many years ago, one of our Irish “collegues” had managed to get a fridge trailer full of hanging beer rusty side up and a couple of “citizens” were trying to load a side of beef into the boot of a car. They were in uniform and it was a police car. 
One word for the boys who used to do fruit and veg market work — Slack!
Bernard
albion1938:
One word for the boys who used to do fruit and veg market work — Slack!
Bernard
Not when it’s a pallet load! 
Hiya…don’t know about fell off the back of a wagon. my uncle never let some stuff get on in the first place.
he’d be driving through the country lanes early morning. he’d stop jump out of his lorry with a garden fork wander
into a field and dig up a couple of cabbages or collies sometime half a bag of spuds. theiving sod did it all the time.
good old days a
John
Tinned fruit from London Docks?
And if you stacked paper bags of spuds on their side you could get 11 in a row instead of 10!
back o the wagon ish…i was heading up a u/c road in rural Scotland a good few years ago at xmas wi a second man and he said stop an pick me up on the way back down the hill(he had a folding saw wi him) cough cough trees.
anyway did what i had tae and was coming back down the hill and just as i stopped to pick him up ,a landie came down behind me so big dougie had to hide back in the trees again(twas the gamie).
The road was just wide enough for one motor so i ended up driving about 2miles before i could pull over and make out it was snap time
That was the last time big dougie ever got me tae pull over …welli met him one day covered in whelts he was digging spuds on Drumlanrig estate when a tractor stopped on the road next to the field and he jumped head first into a large nettle patch.
The words dead sheep,tipper,spade,legs o lamb back o beyond and a couple o old time drivers.never left my lips.
jimmy.
The Moss at Carlisle,you could buy any meat from the Irish drivers,and most other commodities too,!
David
rigsby:
back in the 60s delivering/collecting at liverpool docks , if it wasn’t nailed down it was fair game . in the 70s round the back of the old cafe at lymm on nights it was a market place , you could swap or buy/sell virtually anything .
If you overnighted at the Bold Heath Café in the 60s, you could buy anything in the pub across the road. The blame was always laid on the Scouse dockers.
I worked on haulage in Liverpool in the 60s general and meat haulage I went from a posh office boy at Lever Brothers to a drivers mate in Liverpool what a eye opener to any plod who reads this it was not me guv I have seen cases of whiskey go cartons of jeans if it was not nailed down it was gone but I sossed that was the way of life they gave the wife there wages and what they made on swag was the beer money I soon got into the swing of things and we really did need some money for beer I will never forget a drivers face one day I was standing by the motor and a voice shouted to me to open the passenger door and in went a case of whiskey I put on my best office boy voice and said you can’t do that his face was a picture we dined on that tale for months I was aWirral boy but I was soon a hon scouser what characters but a really good bunch one day 5wagon and drags 10of us went to Sheffield cold store I think it’s the one by Sheffield Wednesday FC we got our night out money and got to Sheffield we put the trailers on the bay tipped them then put the motors on then some drivers went the pub came back then the others went night out money well gone my driver was well ■■■■■■ so I would not drink in the day so I drove back got to Salford driver said more drinks coming up any one who knows the old Salford will know the infamous Fox pub all in there full of shall we say ladies of the night we had a hoot there set off again and got to Carr mill cafe on the east lances unhooked one motor and set off home they dropped me off at the Mersey tunnel and they were all singing in the back as they drove off. Priceless 7am the next morning all back at Carr mill tea and bacon butties all round Carr mill cafe was good for /buying/selling /swapping but not by me I hastily add just think we got paid as well
BRS FH66:
rigsby:
back in the 60s delivering/collecting at liverpool docks , if it wasn’t nailed down it was fair game . in the 70s round the back of the old cafe at lymm on nights it was a market place , you could swap or buy/sell virtually anything .If you overnighted at the Bold Heath Café in the 60s, you could buy anything in the pub across the road. The blame was always laid on the Scouse dockers.
[/quote]Now those fellas were absolute artists at “borrowing” stuff. They’d have pinched a bloody ship if anybody had wanted one.
harry:
albion1938:
One word for the boys who used to do fruit and veg market work — Slack!
BernardNot when it’s a pallet load!
True, but with a bit of swopping, you never needed to go without your “5 a day”.
Bernard
grumpy old man:
Big incident up the Stranraer road many years ago, one of our Irish “collegues” had managed to get a fridge trailer full of hanging beer rusty side up and a couple of “citizens” were trying to load a side of beef into the boot of a car. They were in uniform and it was a police car.
The police did the same thing at Jack’s Hill at Lemsford, they’d wait for the potato lads to pull up and fill the boot of the patrol car with spuds themselves, so if we had a sack or two they couldn’t say too much, because they were just as bad, we carried wool at the time and if they could have got a bail of wool in the car they would have done, that’s why they left us alone, Ah! the good old days hard work but the perks were good.
One story that’s perfectly true, when I was at Fielder’s / Chapman’s I had a Seddon 8 wheeler just loaded at Liverpool with wool, 108 bales of singles, as I pulled away from from the shed down to the gate, the copper said what have you got, showed him my notes 108 bales, OK he said where are you going down to our office to get my delivery notes from Lenny our manager I said, he said well go slowly and stop when your told to, then a few yards down the road I was stopped, a copper said now you can go to the office for your notes, and they caught a docker taking a box of butter from my spare wheel which was at the back of my lorry,they’d put there just before I set off, but the police had seen what he did and nicked him and let me go on my way, didn’t hear any more about it. :-Jack 
Old man told me once about being on the drays in Glasgow.
One day the shop steward announced the following day they would be out on strike.
Most of the drivers and mates came in early and flew round tipping the motors before the strike started.
He said there was that many hookey barrels on the wagon they couldn’t afford to leave it in the yard for someone to “audit” or unload.
When he first went out with my mum he used to pick her up in his car.
After a while she noticed the car was always down at the back but leveled after two or three pubs.
Once again doing off card deliveries.
I came home on leave once and my wardrobe was full of boxes of Yorkie.
He was running out of Thwaites in Blackburn and Smiths in Taddy by then.
He’d swapped a barrel for a load of Yorkie with a Rowntree driver
His gaffer always used to get him to get a couple of barrels for the firms barbeques or parties.
He always made sure that the lads in the warehouse got their cut and he always passed something on for the police.
When he died two police Volvo’s ran in front of the hearse and blocked the roundabout of so we could get tp the crem on time.
They turned up before us with their blues and two on as we went in as well.
He’d sat down with two or three of them and went through tacho’s and taught them to reverse the yard shunter etc
He felt it would do them good if they new a bit about what drivers were up against.
Plus they got a barrel and some Yorkie for their Christmas doo 
Talking of Police “involvement”. My brother was on with a firm who delivered tomatoes to Dewhurst’s butchers shops, you remember they always had tomatoes in the window. Drove round in the middle of the night leaving a few boxes in the doorway of each shop. One shop kept ringing in the morning to complain he was a box short. The police were informed but the boxes kept disappearing. Drivers tried checking on the way back, seems it wasn’t long before the box went. One night a driver had a bit of time to spare so he dropped the toms, drove away, parked up, walked back and “staked out” the shop. He didn’t have to wait more than a few minutes before a little blue car with white doors and a blue lamp on top pulled up, a man with a pointed head got out, box of toms in the boot and away. A funny thing, nothing to do with thieving, my brother stacked some boxes in a shop doorway just after midnight one time, got back to the yard in the morning, they’d had an irate 'phone call, seems he’d leaned the boxes against the doorbell, kept the people in the flat upstairs awake all night!
Bernard-
albion1938:
Talking of Police “involvement”. My brother was on with a firm who delivered tomatoes to Dewhurst’s butchers shops, you remember they always had tomatoes in the window. Drove round in the middle of the night leaving a few boxes in the doorway of each shop. One shop kept ringing in the morning to complain he was a box short. The police were informed but the boxes kept disappearing. Drivers tried checking on the way back, seems it wasn’t long before the box went. One night a driver had a bit of time to spare so he dropped the toms, drove away, parked up, walked back and “staked out” the shop. He didn’t have to wait more than a few minutes before a little blue car with white doors and a blue lamp on top pulled up, a man with a pointed head got out, box of toms in the boot and away. A funny thing, nothing to do with thieving, my brother stacked some boxes in a shop doorway just after midnight one time, got back to the yard in the morning, they’d had an irate 'phone call, seems he’d leaned the boxes against the doorbell, kept the people in the flat upstairs awake all night!
Bernard-
Used to deliver flowers to a wharehouse in a residential area in Plymouth ,I had the keys.It was always an unsociable hour so I used to leave a fancy pot plant on the doorstep of the lady that lived next door. What I didn’t know was that the florist would get to work early in the morning & take his pot plant back!