Lawrence Dunbar:
0Well for me it has to be my late great uncle Issac Smiles, the founder of “SMILES FOR MILES”, he started in the 20s & soon built a fine company up, a man with a head for making money, sadley he passed away in 1939, but of course his sons kept the business going, but there was a falling out with the remaining brothers in 1975 & the Co was put into volentery liquidation, One of the brothers carried on running a clearance house for a short time, & that was the end of a Family business alltogether, They had a mixed fleet, tippers,flats artics, heres a picture of Isaacs Ford Sussex tippers from the early 30s, Regards Larry.
The other two firms that went down well in my book Were BAXTERS ROAD SERVICES which I worked for. Plus CROWS OF GATESHEAD, They had some very long servicemen in there day, & both these firms paid canny wages, Regards Larry.
Who are they then? could be anybody I suppose ! Bewick.
Dennis,
Perhaps the Davies Bros?..just a guess really!!
David
Hiya David,I know,I know but just to put up three names with no explanation isn’t what the idea behind the thread was meant to attract!! How about------ Tom Pep,Joe Bloggs and Syd Snot ? same thing really !! What I hoped for was that actual long gone individual Hauliers names but it seems the thread has decended into quoting the “Firms” names and not all of them have disappeared !!There was an earlier thread that asked for the “greatest haulier” of all time but not the individual/s that actually built up the operations to make them worthy of the term !If this thread is allowed to run on I’ve no doubt it will end up bearing absloutely no resemblence to what was intended Cheers Dennis.
For me it has to be Bowkers for all they did moving on from nothing to a very large and respected outfit. There was also a compny from Camblesforth near Selby called C W Body (Charlie Body) who ran 5 AEC Mamoth Major 8 leggers on general. He had been/still was a farmer but ran a very successfull haulage company.
Met Norbert Dentressangle and didn’t think much of him. Now his late father there was a character, chatted for ages with him really knew his trucks.
As for hauliers from yesteryear I can’t think of any, I would rather talk to some of the designers of the old trucks.
ben walker:
The Davis Bros were Ubby, Harry ,Solly,Sammy, and Frankie.I believe they were at one time the largest Haulage Contractor in Britain.
Ben.
And along with that,probably,highly suspect claim you might add one of the most “notorious hauliers” also.If the write ups they got in the commercial press in the 60’s and early 70’s were anywhere near true,and they sure wern’t complimentary write ups either! Cheers Bewick.
Jarvy:
Met Norbert Dentressangle and didn’t think much of him. Now his late father there was a character, chatted for ages with him really knew his trucks.
As for hauliers from yesteryear I can’t think of any, I would rather talk to some of the designers of the old trucks.
I just dug out some interesting stuff on Famille Dentreesangle. I will start a new thread though.
Charles Alexandre How well organized they were in the 60s getting fish from Aberdeen to London by change over same motor different drivers Wynns read all the books about them the nolage of moving very heavy loads in the 60s and before .There low loader drivers in my book were in a class of there own. Have to pick a ■■■■■■■ Haulier now Robson fra Carlisle well turned out (haulage firm) A real general haulage firm very smart motors in there day FRANK
For me its got to be Bewick, (always admired his well turned out Scanias), and founder of the Chuckle brothers empire Eddie himself. The third member to join us at the bar. though not a haulier, would have to be Saviem with his product knowledge and tales of yesteryear. and a bottle of his finest Bolinger. As they say up here, Skål!
When i was a young transport manager not so much the hauliers but some of the great character of the old managers the knowledge they had and the tales they could tell, you could not buy the knowledge they had
There was some good old companies about in the Essex area
Maldon transport Owned by Peter Mann he was a true character i dont think they ever bought a new lorry ,a lot of the lorries he had they rebuilt in his workshops his favourite saying any space on top of a load belongs to me ,finally sold out to Essex international
Dyke transport Mr Dyke was a true gentleman, his son runs Heavyhaul Shelmsford
Wyats of Danbury Two great characters Geof and Ernie and also did a lot of market work
J.A.Wilkinson Jim and Jack Wilkinson well known and respected men also did a lot market work, sold out to Parkside warehousing
All family owned
ben walker:
The Davis Bros were Ubby, Harry ,Solly,Sammy, and Frankie.I believe they were at one time the largest Haulage Contractor in Britain.
Ben.
And along with that,probably,highly suspect claim you might add one of the most “notorious hauliers” also.If the write ups they got in the commercial press in the 60’s and early 70’s were anywhere near true,and they sure wern’t complimentary write ups either! Cheers Bewick.
Dont think it was a highly suspect claim if you do a bit of research i think you will find it is a fact, i know they were notorious but not much worse than a lot of hauliers of that time , maybe it was because they were that much bigger and they stood out more.
ben walker:
The Davis Bros were Ubby, Harry ,Solly,Sammy, and Frankie.I believe they were at one time the largest Haulage Contractor in Britain.
Ben.
And along with that,probably,highly suspect claim you might add one of the most “notorious hauliers” also.If the write ups they got in the commercial press in the 60’s and early 70’s were anywhere near true,and they sure wern’t complimentary write ups either! Cheers Bewick.
Dont think it was a highly suspect claim if you do a bit of research i think you will find it is a fact, i know they were notorious but not much worse than a lot of hauliers of that time , maybe it was because they were that much bigger and they stood out more.
Ben.
Fair enough mate ,they may well have the largest private haulier for a few years! However,when I got to hear about them/read about them, they most certainly were not the largest but were,in fact,fighting for survival in the late 60’s early 70’s.From memory the two companies that figured at that time were Charles Poulter Ltd.(cream coloured motors,bonneted Mercs) and Larrow Transport (Northern) (Red bonneted mercs again from memory).I think after the LA finally closed Poulters,Larrow kept going for a while until the LA caught up with them and found out there was a “Davis” connection.Obviously I am trying to remember what was happening over 40 years ago so I stand to be corrected,although I clearly recall that the name Davis,Poulter and Larrow usually got a good write up quite regularly in Commercial Motor at that time and it was never complimentary!. Cheers Bewick.
Mr Hilton Was that the man that owned H T S .The blue Scania that used to fly along at 70 mph whith sheeted loads of ■■■■ never get stopt high secure load. This was in the 70s Also Ie think his motors were used for TV soap THE BROTHERS .(Dennis reminded me of Bradys who we used to work for) The Brothers I mean Frank
You may find that HTS trucks were used in the series but the show’ base was F.G. Hammond’s yard near Stratford E15.
As they already had Hammond written up everywhere and the Brothers were ‘Hammonds’