Thanks Simon for that, do you have the phone number for them (MTC & Qickfreight)? It’s not for me, I live in Canada now, but for a friend of mine. He’s done all of Europe and Eastern Europe too. Plus Russia too. He’s a good driver. I worked with him when I was made redundant from Murfitts (like most, if not all the other drivers).
Thanks
Thanks Simon for tat PM
biggusdickusgb:
telford paul and cal settled for the quiet life near wrexham and just did agency driving to get by
Paul & Cal are still living in the Wrexham area, but are now running there own motors
they`ve got a Daf 85 & Iveco Eurostar 520 both pulling for Kingspan out of Flint,
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
Curries have put Dumfries on the map, rather like Eddie Stobart making Carlisle famous.
r slicker:
. dave(morphine) sadly think you are correct with what you say as i heard this also just before xmas.
would that be Dave Avis, short skinny bloke, pony tail from London?
if so he died late last year from respiratory failure while weekended in Spain.
He was working for Transmove and parked up with one of the other drivers, good bloke sorely missed
As we are recalling our memories of ‘Murfitts’ does anyone know or remember ‘Martin Dewshurst’ did a lot double manning with him when I doing trunk work to Stranraer/Cairnryan sometime around 97/98 for Dukes Tranpsort , Portadown NI
He lived in a barge on the canal that goes through Lancaster. He was a great bloke to be teamed up with knew how to drive safe and had lots of tales to tell but most of all he knew how to keep the wheels on the tarmac when you were on bunk. Are you still out there or does anyone remember him I know he was on for Murfitts on the drawbars & the artics. It would be great to catch up with him if poss;
nianiamh:
Also are Westermans still going as they used to be loading from our place all the time but ive can`t remember the last time i saw one
This truck R400 DLT belonged to Davey “peas and gravy” from Carlisle, he had to sell it after Customs had a falling out with him over the amount of tobacco that was deemed to be for personal use.
The truck was bought by a company in Kent (Matthew James)and the front stretched and trailer shortened and changed to two axles, turned into a removals truck
We bought the other one from Carlisle Mr Blobbys
R400 RSM which is also a removals truck now
As for Westermann still running, it has closed it’s office in the UK, has no more than 3 trucks registered in the UK (owner Drivers) but is still a big company in Europe with over 750 trucks running for them
That blue Topline wagon & drag, is that a Steve Court motor 
Back to the topic, Murfitts, I had a few encounters with them as you would if you were in Italy/France in the 80s/90s, first one was when I had a double blow out as I overtook one near Brescia on the way home one Friday evening, it was on a stepframe & totally my fault for flying along in the middle of summer with an Italian 25t in the trailer, anyway the Murfitt man followed me for about 5k to the next services, San Giacomo IIRC, he made sure I was ok for ■■■■ & swapped my empty gas bottle for his full one as it was inevitable I was going to be waiting until Monday for a tyre man (correct!) the other Murfitt memories involved lots of fighting in Carisio & the Pub at Bourg, it got so bad that I stopped using the Pub, another time I was being a CB ■■■■■■, listening to 2 Murfitts telling a 1st timer how to the job, good god I’ve never heard so much bollox in my life, I had to interrupt & put the newbie straight before he got himself into a world of trouble, just goes to show, good & bad everywhere 
newmercman:
…the other Murfitt memories involved lots of fighting in Carisio & the Pub at Bourg, it got so bad that I stopped using the Pub…
Yep…had the same pleasure and ended up staying well away from the place. On my last visit there I got stuck for the weekend, was originally going to push through to Milan for Saturday night,Sunday morning,I had to go in there for some reason or another, diesel probably, anyway, got back to the peage and plod stopped me, breathalised me (no probs there) then asked where I was going, “Milan chef” says I giving him my “how many ■■■■, francs, coffees (you know the score!!) is this going to cost me” look!! 
He wasnt having it, told me to turn around and go back to the pub!!. I had half a mind to spin around, go back to the main road, take a chance and hang a quick left and run the national but no chance, he watched me all the way.
So fair enough, I resign myself to a weekend in “the Pub” 
FFS!!
By the time I had found a place to squeeze in and park somewhere I was in two minds as to whether to brave the bar, having “ummed and AHHed” for abit I decided to chance it, if I stayed on my own, avoided eye contact and ordered my beers in french then hopefully things will be ok!!
Well, within 30 minutes of being there all hell broke loose in the restuarant!! One of the waitress girls wanted to clear the table at which a group of about seven brit drivers were huddled around. She was polite and asked in broken but understandable English if they would mind while she cleared the plates etc off the table…suddenly there was an almighty crash as this idiot brit driver with the biggest mouth out of his little group swept all the plates, knives, forks, condiments, everything straight onto the floor!! 
Not happy with that he lets rip a stream of abuse at the young girl!!..suddenly the atmosphere has changed…for the very worse and in a very bad way. Everybody stood up at once, the local french boys had their blood up and rightly so. the Germans, Dutch and the Danes stopped drinking whilst the few Italians in there did what was expected of them and ran out the door!!!
The table of brits,realising that this idiot was about to get them a serious kicking stood looking at themselves then at the mess on the floor, then at the idiot that had started it all then at the poor waitress…before anybody could do anything out came the “Madame” and let rip at the lot of them, screaming and shouting abuse at the lot of them…my French wasnt to bad then but she was really going for it, all I could get where “Les Police”…“gendarme”…“militaire” and “Monnaie, beacoup monnaie!!”
In a way she saved those blokes getting a real hiding from the locals but, IIRC, they all had to pay 100 francs each as compensation to the waitress and the crockery, then they where kicked out of the building and told to leave by 10pm the next (Sunday) night!!
That was enough for me and I resolved there and then never to go there again, that would have around 1989-90-91ish!!
Wouldnt have a clue what it is like now but the lesson learned was that no matter how “buddy buddy” you may get with another driver whilst weekended, learn not pick the diesel talking, ex M/E, “i just missed the Herald that night” idiots!!
There used to be loads of them around and I bet there still are now!!
bullitt:
There used to be loads of them around and I bet there still are now!!
yeah but thankfully they’re mostly confined to UK piloting shopping trolleys these days - leaving continental work to true knights of the road, sob, choke
I also missed the Herald .Based in Basel they loaded me for Spain instead of UK so when I called my old Mum from Valencia she was distraught because she hadn,t heard from me.I think to this day the whole street believes I had a miraculous escape from that boat.
harry:
I also missed the Herald .Based in Basel they loaded me for Spain instead of UK so when I called my old Mum from Valencia she was distraught because she hadn,t heard from me.I think to this day the whole street believes I had a miraculous escape from that boat.
And me…missed it by about 3 years…close thing really
I was on the shuttle though, weeks before and after the fire, and the super fast ferry5 weeks before it caught fire near Patras…
I wanted to join the SAS as well if that counts
There you go jj72, 10 years ago I told you about all the people that missed the Herald!!
Trubrit:
There you go jj72, 10 years ago I told you about all the people that missed the Herald!!
if you search this very forum, you will find that many moons ago i attributed the very same words to “and old boy from Suffolk I used to work with…” cos your little tirade still makes me laugh even now p.s I maybe exagerated your accent, sorry 
i must be the luckiest bloke on earth, either that or i picked my company carefully
i worked for murfitts on and off for quite a few years, stopped at the usual haunts, the pub, macon, reims, aosta, via stephenson, carisio, campogalliano, orte, bremen, geiselwind, victors, freds, corinth canal, harry’s, the fishbar and nitro in patras and many more all over europe.
i only ever saw 3 big fights, 1 in carisio which was the RH boys letting off steam,
1 in macon which was mainly curries and some paddies kicking off although a few murfitts joined in that one
and 1 in the pub which was some regulars of the englishmans who were using the pub while the englishmans was being done up
these lads were gobbing off about murfitts, a group of lads around two tables took offence and a hell of a scrap ensued
there were only two murfitts in the bar at the time, me and a mate and we were the only two brits who weren’t fighting.
i ran into the same prat who started it all at the shell at st dizier on the way home and got full chapter and verse on how murfitts had kicked off at the pub and he got caught up in it
Not Just You Steve,
I never saw any mass fights when I was at Murfitts, although I heard about plenty, mainly from drivers from other companies. There was plenty of banter betwen the guys that at times was taken seriously when drink had been taken, But Murfitts was that sort of firm and the banter was 99.9999% of the time taken and given back.
I am not saying all Murfitts drivers were angels, because they weren’t, and there was a couple that could be real mean when drunk. But then I met Youngs, Spinks, Kwikfreight, and a mulitude of other drivers from many different companies that were exactly the same.
One thing Murfitts did do when abroad was meet up, and back each other up, because there was so many of us it was rare to go a wek away without bumping into another driver or five and often parked together for the ritual ■■■■■■■■■■■ . Maybe it was this camaradarie that led to what I believe is a certain amount of jealousy and leads to so many stories.
The pub !!! brings back good memories I never once saw a fight in there heated exchanges yes but no fights , If I remember correctly the English speaking girl was short with curly brown hair and had a very good sense of humor then there was Fabien she was seeing an English driver and the older head waitress her husband was a local Gendarme’s who remembers Phils the English bloke at Breiny the car park when wet was like the Somme, and had some mega nights at the Irish bar in Settala (Milan) with Glen,Martin,Bornio John all from Roadways International and an OD Braso from Stoke also the Truck stop in Lyon with Welsh Carl(now at Denbys) and Taffy from Roadways aswell oh and I always flashed(my lights) at ANY British based Vehicles and ALWAYS stopped to help any trucks in trouble, Once at Frejus me and a work colleague passed an old Iveco Turbo Tec stopped about 9 miles from the tunnel on the Italian side we got to the top Dropped my Trailer and went back down to help , we spent 6 hours of fannying about trying move it but to no avail, the truck had no Air in the tanks and wouldn’t build up with a line off mine so we couldn’t drop the trailer or even drag it, I dropped the driver off at the Tunnel and after buying him some scran and lending him £50 we left ,I sometimes miss that life and It doesnt see like 12 years ago but I have a family now and my own business
Did he pay you back ?
To be honest I never saw him again,and judging by his old shagger of a motor I think he needed it more than I did !!!
