I worked for Fred in 86/87, before and after he started ACS. He had some great guy’s then including :- John McClung, John Ellis,Barry barnes,Tony Yates,Dave Payne,Gordon Crisp and many others that i cant remember.
Fred had drivers start on a daily bassis and some only lasted a day.
Barry Barnes once said If they found Fred Dead the police could fill Ipswich Stadium with Suspects ha ha. Fred liked his pound of flesh and kept moving the goalposts when it came to wages but we had some laughs at times.
When at Felaw street yard he would pin your running money in an envelope behind the toilet door, at times there could be up to half a dozen envelopes there and how none went missing i do not know.
On returning from a trip Fred would grab my expense sheet and tally up how much diesel that i had bought and then shake his head and say how is it you allways use less diesel than the other drivers and yet it costs more.
■■■■ Snow(ex Astran) told me that he had phoned Fred up for a job.Fred told him to come and see him and to bring his passport, so ■■■■ turned up at the office with a carrier bag and emptied out ninteen passports on the desk and asked Fred which one he wanted to see.
M&C Jamie:
I worked for Fred in 86/87, before and after he started ACS. He had some great guy’s then including :- John McClung, John Ellis,Barry barnes,Tony Yates,Dave Payne,Gordon Crisp and many others that i cant remember.
Can you remember a guy named Roger something,came from Braintree and drove M/E for M&C before going to work for Fred.
He had a left ■■■■■■ twin steer Merc.
He used to be at Trans UK,and that’s where he started doing international,Germany with a Fiat 170 and then with a RHD Maggie V10.
This would have been around 1980-1,just before Trans UK went under,and although he’d never been abroad before,he had all the stickers and T-shirts.
We used to call him God!
Hi Kieth, i cant remember a driver called roger that worked for mervyn, but then i left m&c in aug 80 till 83 when i had an office job. As you know a lot of the companies running to the M E had a big turnover of drivers and some you became very friendly with and others you only met once or on an odd occasion.
Regards Jamie.
A Scot Lost in the Valley’s
Did’nt fred used to drink in the garderners arms (now gone) when he was in feelaw street.
KW:
Can you remember a guy named Roger something,came from Braintree and drove M/E for M&C before going to work for Fred.
He had a left ■■■■■■ twin steer Merc.
That wouldn’t have been Roger Jarvis would it?
Kate:
KW:
Can you remember a guy named Roger something,came from Braintree and drove M/E for M&C before going to work for Fred.
He had a left ■■■■■■ twin steer Merc.That wouldn’t have been Roger Jarvis would it?
For the life of me I honestly can’t remember,but it doesn’t sound familiar.
my dad worked for the legendary,or should that be notorious fred"the greek" 35 years ago,he was the only boss,that when u came back from a trip,u owed him money.does anyone know what freds doing now,and how hes doing?
Last i heard was fred was married to a well heeled woman and was taking it easy.
Of course someone may well tell me different.
well heeled,that doesnt sound like fred
ok then rich ■■■■■
in the early 1980s i often saw a merc belonging to fred archer parked on a housing estate where i lived as a child.braintree,essex and i think the drivers daughter went to school with me.surname jarvis and also worked 4 you call we haul in felixstowe if im correct?
haulmaster:
in the early 1980s i often saw a merc belonging to fred archer parked on a housing estate where i lived as a child.braintree,essex and i think the drivers daughter went to school with me.surname jarvis and also worked 4 you call we haul in felixstowe if im correct?
the you haul we call would of been trans uk
haulmaster:
in the early 1980s i often saw a merc belonging to fred archer parked on a housing estate where i lived as a child.braintree,essex and i think the drivers daughter went to school with me.surname jarvis and also worked 4 you call we haul in felixstowe if im correct?
Otherwise known as ‘God’.
Roger Jarvis did indeed work for Trans UK,and up to that point had never been abroad.He started doing the odd Germany with a Fiat 619,I think it was WGV307S,I later took it over from him.
Not sure how he managed to get onto continental work,the only driver at that time that was going every week to Germany was Roy Gilbert.
But he managed to get onto it regularly,and would enthrall everyone with tales of the Rühr and passing everyone on the road to Zeebrugge.He was full of himself,so everyone called him God.
Trans UK then aquired a pair of V10 Maggie’s complete with a couple of refurbished tilts with Gunther Baumann’s name on the side,the German connection,and he and a Brummie,Dennis something or other,were going every week.
Now I can understand why Dennis was put on the job,he had been in the army and based in Germany,so spoke German fluently,but everyone wondered how Roger had got the job.
Several years later I bumped into Roger one night in a pub in Felixstowe,apparently he’d been doing a bit of M/E for M&C in Braintree and had just started for Fred,driving a left-■■■■■■ twin steer Merc and was supposed to be doing M/E for Fred.
I have finally located a couple of pics on my old laptop that Tony Goody sent me back in May (sorry Tony).
He sent me a few details of when and where they were taken…
This first one was taken in Hungary,possibly at ‘The Windmill’ where he and Mick Gain had taken a couple of dust extractors down and had met Bob (don’t know his surname) on the way back from the middle east.Bob’s is the white Merc and Mick’s is the 111.Fred bought two white Merc’s second hand complete with fridge trailers to get some fridge work,and permits!
This is Bob and Mick cooking curry in Hungary.Tony unfortunately had to do the washing up!
This is Tony on his way back from Yugo where he had loaded tyres.Pic taken at Cluses.
The last new truck Tony had whilst at Fred Archer.He shipped out to Poland two weeks before it should have gone on the road,did a trailer swap in Ostend and then did a Swiss,returning on August 1st just in time to pick up the tax disc!
Nice to see a photo of mick gain on here,I worked with Mick at Wyatt’s (Fridged Freight) and we were weekended together once in Clones ROI had a great time and more than a few laughs.Often wondered where he went after Wyatt’s although i
did hear he was manager at Nedu in Harwich for a while. Does anyone know if he is still about?
This first one was taken in Hungary,possibly at ‘The Windmill’ where he and Mick Gain had taken a couple of dust extractors down and had met Bob (don’t know his surname) on the way back from the middle east.Bob’s is the white Merc and Mick’s is the 111.Fred bought two white Merc’s second hand complete with fridge trailers to get some fridge work,and permits!
This is Bob and Mick cooking curry in Hungary.Tony unfortunately had to do the washing up!
I to cannot recall Bob’s surname ? M&C Jamie will no doubt remember, he is good like that.
But i can recall that we at M&C all called him " Noddy Bob " as he had this unfortunate nervous afliction that meant he was constantly ‘nodding’ his head. The only times that he stopped was when asleep or ■■■■■■■ which was often the case when back in the M&C yard !!
Steve.
LB76:
Nice to see a photo of mick gain on here,I worked with Mick at Wyatt’s (Fridged Freight) and we were weekended together once in Clones ROI had a great time and more than a few laughs.Often wondered where he went after Wyatt’s although i 0did hear he was manager at Nedu in Harwich for a while. Does anyone know if he is still about?
The last I heard of Mick was that he was in the office at Harwich Transport,which later became DFDS Transport,but that was back in the mid-80’s.
mushroomman:
Is that the same Fred Archer who had blue motors with a target or a roundel painted on them.If they did Middle East then I remember meeting Truckyboy “Bob” in Baghdad, when he worked for them in 1983 / 84 , I am sure he could tell a few tales about Fred.
When I joined Trucknet I was under the impression that Truckyboy was the well known Noddy Bob who worked for Fred Archers 
.
I had heard the name Noddy Bob on a few occasions and when I first met him and asked him why they called him Noddy I thought that he was going to hit me, he was not amused.
B.T.W. I can’t remember the car park at The Windmill having bitumin but I could be wrong, again. 
Same Merc after being re-painted in Fred’s colours…
Trubrit:
Keith, what was the name of that pub on Cliffe Quay (I think) that everybody used to hang out in? Had pics of FA trucks framed on the wall.
Would it be this one?