Silver_Surfer:
:shock: I can’t believe it’s still afloat.
Yeah it was obviously pretty well built to keep going after that. Still Smit’s of Rotterdam will make a few quid salvage on it.
vernonbish777. I ran for Maritime late in the day, when they had bought all the new units but were still limping about with scrap trailers. Shortly after I joined they gave the trailer contract to Hills ,I believe, & everything was up to the mark. The firm had its faults but I could never fault the equipment or the money. I was on the APL contract.Leave Monday morning & be parked up Friday afternoon @ 1700 or earlier. I only jacked because I was bored stiff of UK work.Nothing to do with the firm. I went down to Almeria to look for work but it was the winter when Southern Spain had snow & frost for the first time in living memory. All the salad crop was lost. But on top of that Polish drivers had moved to the region with their families so the job market was to say the least tight around the old peublos.
There was a big sign in the sky telling me to take a break.
( & I lived happily ever after.)
PS. I am just curios. Who was the driver from the Sotton depot that drew 7 yrs for armed robbery about a couple of years ago…?
just goes to show how "hard "it is to sink one,or tip one over,given the amount of turnovers lately.
shame about spanish thing “h”, lived over their myself for a couple of years runnin a bar, hard graft but the sunshine on your back made it worth while, plus the whole spanish manyana attitude. ur right about the skellys mate, was my only real moan about them, everything was bodged yet we paid big bucks in rental every week - like u say, its hill hire kit now and all looks fairly new. dont know anything about the blagger but i will ask around. glad the sign in the sky worked for you !!!
vernonbish777 . Yeah, most of my experience with Spain had been with a truck. Fridges ect. & on a good salary. With your truck you have your own mini climate. & you go to where trucks go. So you know the best parking , best restuarants ect. Get off the road & down on the ground its a bit different. Hotels & bars dont have much in the way of heating so when you get cold it lasts all day. The other thing is you are off the beaten track & the locals react to you with a little bit of suspicion. Not unfriendly but not as relaxed as when they see you get out of a truck. All Im saying is I saw another side to it…The job thing ,all I needed was about 6 months with a fridge & a rented flat to get the feel of the place with the view to selling up & living there. A few years ago they were screaming for drivers at el Ejido…but not any more. No big deal.
Yes that lad got detained at Her Majesty`s Pleasure not last January but the one before. He kinda left the same time as me…
Tell me something…On the Spanish trucks why do they put Papa Ali on the back of the fride trailers…?
bullitt wrote:
bikemonkey wrote:
Hyundai also need to save a bit of money for a new boat after this happened last month
cargolaw.com/2006nightmare_hyundai_for3.htmlWhat was the cause of the explosion…jesus…that is one serious fire and the blast blew the containers up onto the bridge deck as well!!! Shocked Shocked
Apparently something possibly hazardous could have gone up from the heat from the ships engine,thats what i’ve heard anyway
…There’s another horrific report on the same site regarding the Hanjin Pensylvania which went the same way in Nov 2002. But she had the misfortune to be carrying…yes…fireworks!!!
Check out the second picture on this page…
chorcheela:
bullitt wrote:
bikemonkey wrote:
Hyundai also need to save a bit of money for a new boat after this happened last month
cargolaw.com/2006nightmare_hyundai_for3.htmlWhat was the cause of the explosion…jesus…that is one serious fire and the blast blew the containers up onto the bridge deck as well!!! Shocked Shocked
Apparently something possibly hazardous could have gone up from the heat from the ships engine,thats what i’ve heard anyway
…There’s another horrific report on the same site regarding the Hanjin Pensylvania which went the same way in Nov 2002. But she had the misfortune to be carrying…yes…fireworks!!!
Check out the second picture on this page…
So was the Hyundai one it turns out.Apparently asian countries have a dubious record when it comes to declaring hazardous cargo.There was a few containers on that boat carrying fireworks.
Lank:
Driver gossip, rumours…Maritime Containers have taken the Hyundai contract, which employs a considerable fleet, from HCD (an amalgam of Hanbury Davies, Carters, Debens, Brian Rayner and others) effective from the end of May. The work is mostly ex Southampton and Thamesport.
The contract was won by undercutting existing rates by 8%!!
If this is true, the question has to be asked, why do haulage companies continually ■■■■■ each others throats and how can such a cut in rates be commercially viable? I’m sure HCD weren’t making a huge margin on the contract in keeping with most transport operations.
The more important question is what the impact will be on driver pay? The financial squeeze must come from somewhere and driver pay is usually a hot favourite with the number crunchers…
I heard on the Grapevine this week that the reason Maritimes think that they can do it so cheap is that the boxes will be shunted fromSouthampton & Grain up to places like Birmingham where another wagon will take it on its onward journey.Whereas HCD would for example pull a loaded out of SCT upto Doncaster tip then upto Norcon Leeds to swap boxes,then over to Bradford to reload scrap metal or animal skins then down to Grain,you could prettymuch guarentee 4 nights out every week. (a nice day for me).Maritimes mostly will just shunt halfway and use there other depots to do the work nearest to them.thus cutting out the need for nights out etc.plus Maritimes have a big depot at Grain so are not spending money sending there wagons OFF route so to speak,as it is in the middle of nowhere (40 mins from M25 )
I actually thought of trying to get into Maritimes,because Hyundai is pretty much all I know,but being a tramper it would seem this would be not for me.
Im sure someone will correct me if im wrong as I hear so much crap from other drivers I dont know what to believe 
Maritime are also deeply involved in the new feeder boat scheme up to Teesport, which is why both they and Dart now have small yards here. Fits in with what you say, Bikemonkey. 
Cant see it working tho
It already is. 
Gurner:
Cant see it working tho
Me neither
Also Maritime ONLY have the contract for 2 years
Watch this space
I am just really gutted.Its like the end of an era for me 
I just cant let it go 
I might have to be really childish and stick my fingers up at all their drivers,might make me feel better
maritime take over in may i think or is it june didnt read notice properly 
but 75% is from soton then i think its 20% thamesport then cant remember where the other 5% is from.
70 lorries going on the contract 
Lucy:
Maritime are also deeply involved in the new feeder boat scheme up to Teesport, which is why both they and Dart now have small yards here. Fits in with what you say, Bikemonkey.
although I hear that Maritime have wrapped up Teesport and will now run it from Leeds
Lucy:
HCD is just Hanburys/Carters/Debens…Rayner, Jacksons et al are subbies (as I was too at one point, which is how I know).Carters and Debens are now one and the same, btw. And as far as undercutting goes, they undercut what was then SOCL to get it in the first place, so what goes around come around, eh?
Presumably they’ll just wind HCD up now. Poor Phil.
Not strictly true about Deben: although “CEL Goup” has appeared on some motors, Carter own only 40% of Deben, and the balance is held by Johnson Steven Agencies
Maritime. You heard wrong then. Their yard is definately still there (it’s on the same road as ours), although don’t know about the office (opposite, and certainly still has a sign up etc).
Didn’t know the full Debens story, though…cheers! 
240 Gardner:
Lucy:
HCD is just Hanburys/Carters/Debens…Rayner, Jacksons et al are subbies (as I was too at one point, which is how I know).Carters and Debens are now one and the same, btw. And as far as undercutting goes, they undercut what was then SOCL to get it in the first place, so what goes around come around, eh?
Presumably they’ll just wind HCD up now. Poor Phil.
Not strictly true about Deben: although “CEL Goup” has appeared on some motors, Carter own only 40% of Deben, and the balance is held by Johnson Steven Agencies
Carters apparently own 49% and Paul Dawson owns the rest,the C.E.L group wagons you see in Southampton are Carters motors as they share the yard.China Shipping also have a large interest acooring to some sources.
There was talk about a complete takeover by Carters but apparently Maersk who have some sort of interest in Carters was against involving Deben.
I think eventually it will all be one happy family
But then again I hear so much rumourmongering and bull ■■■■ you dont really know whats going on
HCD are still going but have heard wagons from a certain subbie will be going due to loss of Hyundai:cry:
But I wish Maritimes all the worst for being such a callous greedy company,and hopefully If they carry on being late and rolling over motors like they are at the moment they wont have it for too long.as they seem to be losing quite a lot of other work
Why do Maritime trailers all have a notice on them saying this truck is limited to 52mph and then the numpty drivers sit staring into the abyss unaware of what is around them? still travelling at 56+ mph
Wheel Nut:
Why do Maritime trailers all have a notice on them saying this truck is limited to 52mph and then the numpty drivers sit staring into the abyss unaware of what is around them? still travelling at 56+ mph
Because container drivers can’t read 
they don’t know the notice is there
coz box boys never go round the back ( see how many you see without number plates)