iknow they havent been gone that long and rikki and simon was drivers but what was they like for working for.
i remeber when i first started driving 7 years ago and they had an advert in truckstop news always after driver for euro work no experiance nessary, it always seemed a bit dodgy to me but after reading other posts on here they didnt sound too bad at all.
i was at a computer company on the euroway estate in bradford 6/7 years ago talking to one of their drivers and he was away for up to 13/14 weeks at a time and he lived local to bradford so he was going to go home for a cup of tea before setting straight of aboard again.
when i was on for taylors of martley at sherburn they used to go in there to load empty can for aboard some motors were ok and some were old rust buckets.
as i’ve said many times because they were big the rumours just flowed, most of them absolute cobblers - having worked there and heard them all I have a degree of sympathy with Stobarts when you hear all the rumours about them.
basically you ran legal, any maintenance got done there and then, you had good backup and 99% of the blokes on there were sound - you were expected to be out 2 weeks which on continental work was normal but if YOU wanted to only come home twice a year you could.
Yes there were plenty of stories doing the round about the artics hating the drawbars who hated the fridges who hated the litlle wheels etc.
The one about murfitts fighting everywhere and getting barred from most truckstops in europe was almost common folklore in the later half of the nineties.
But think about this!.
Murfitt was probably the biggest UK outfit running into europe at that time.
Most of his drivers were on regular work so had regular stop offs.
In any big firm you will always get the odd ■■■■■■■■■
So if you were weekended at most of the routiers used by brits you would see a murfiit or two out in the lorry park.
You also didn’t have to look very far in most of these place to find some W***** who though he was rambo after a couple of french lagers ( remember that in the uk we still had 3% lager at that time).
I know and could name a few firms who’s drivers were a lot worse ambassadors for the uk than murfiitt.
By the way I’ve never worked for murfiit but have weekended with a few of there drivers and most were just your average bloke forced to park up for the weekend.
By the way if you want to firm who’s drivers really would fight there own shadows thare was a removals firm from somewhere near oxford with yellow motors, Fraikin or something I think, and they were regularly punching each others lights out on the pompey leharve boat…
Wheel Nut:
I remember Curries were a bit feral as well. The most stupid thing I saw was 2 blokes arguing who was hardest by hitting their heads on the kerb
Yep i drove for murfit '99-2000 for the experiance. Ran wagon and drag.First run was over to Bremen and back and then unleashed on my own About 6 months later was in a left ■■■■■■ a lovely euro star which had been looked after.Had great weekends in Milan etc…
Used to be abroad for 3-4 weeks at a time mainly ran to Italy with perkins engines, never saw any fights but saw and heard a few heated discussions.
Was told “If you havent heard a rumor by midday make one up” and the other piece of advice was “If you get lost ask a dutch driver if you cant find one ask a murfitt”
Met some really great guys and had some great times… Then i got married
Wheel Nut:
I remember Curries were a bit feral as well. The most stupid thing I saw was 2 blokes arguing who was hardest by hitting their heads on the kerb
I did hear from a very reliable source that P&O banned Curries from the Felixstowe crossings because they were always getting pi…er,drunk on a Sunday night and fighting each other.
I used to use the Tor Line freight boat from Immingham to Rotterdam years ago,one night a Hargraves driver (Scotsman) bought some old tart on with him.
During the course of the evening he downed a considerable amount of alcohol,and started accusing all the rest of us of trying to bed his woman (she really was an old dog!) and started fighting with a Dutchman.
It took six of us to pin him down whilst the crew bundled him into his cabin,where he was locked in for the rest of the crossing,and arrested on arrival in Rotterdam.
Tor Line then informed Hargrave’s that he was banned for life from their vessels.
didnt they get brought out by norfolk line, who then shut them down due to mainainence problems?
i have seen a lot of their old units are also romanian owned and operated now, i guess there isnt really a market in the uk or western europe for 2nd had lhd eurostars, guess they all got exported out to eastern europe for onward sale
If you are going across the A2 in germany you still see lots of Murfitts trucks and trailers all Eastern Bloc and Russian registered. There are always a couple in the Zoll compound near Marienborn.
Nearly all of them got exported to the old block,most i think went thru hull on there way over there,Norfolk line had no use for them.Plus muppets had a contract with kelloggs which norfolk didnt get.As most of muppetts motors where left hookers best place to send them was over there.As said there are a large number still about…
This intrigued me being an ex-muppet so i made a few enquiries
Murfitts is indeed still going, and has recently gained a few quite large contracts.
According to companies house its making a profit !!
the major difference is that Murfitts do not own or run any trucks either in UK or abroad.
All its work is sub-contracted out,some to UK companies/owner drivers, but the most to UK and foriegn Maersk owned hauliers some of the old Murfitts trucks were sold “In -House” to other Maersk owned companies and run on Murfitts work and in their colours.
About 6 months later was in a left ■■■■■■ a lovely euro star which had been looked after.Had great weekends in Milan etc…
mid you with cloggies in charge owt’s possible 
