Sadie worked for Smiles for Miles in those days before starting Unicargo Transport Services on the Quayside, Tosh used to operate from Jacks Café in Macalpine Street Glasgow,He had the job tide up in those days, Regards Larry.
At one time Simpsons of Glasgow had their own 'phone alongside the public payphones on Bothwell services. I never had to use it as we used to tip and mostly re-load from the Aberdeen area but I assumed it was a free “hotline” to their office.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Sadie worked for Smiles for Miles in those days before starting Unicargo Transport Services on the Quayside, Tosh used to operate from Jacks Café in Macalpine Street Glasgow,He had the job tide up in those days, Regards Larry.
I forgot to mention that He was called Samuel Macintosh hence the name Tosh, He was a real Glaswegian with all the qualitys of a nice bloke,
Silver Roadways & Bill Entress in South Wales.
First bloke I did any work for was a Clearing House in Hull. Dawnbrook Ltd (Trevor Cleaver) in Union St. Most of his work was from Jim Weeks. Weeks Trailers Ltd. all Farm Equipment. It did’nt pay much but it taught me a lot. This was in the Mid Sixties.
Hi Archie Paice, I too loaded a Weeks trailer through Tutty’s of Hull about 1965. Bound for Annan and paying £9-00 net which I am still waiting for. Fortunately I also had a 1 ton pallet of firebricks from Rotherham to Workington paying 10tons cap from another clearing house which helped to compensated for the trailer non payment.
Cheers Leyland 600
Here are some more clearing house cards. The Fred Roberts card had a Liverpool and Birkenhead docks indexed guide printed inside.
Some of these cards haven’t seen the light of day since about 1965.
Cheers Leyland 600.
After judging the prospect hanging about on Liverpool or Birkenhead docks all day waiting to get tipped, better see if a bed can be booked just in case the worst happened you could not get tipped that day.
Happy days, (I must be joking) Cheers Leyland 600.
Arthur Woods in Liverpool, anyone remember?
shugg:
I don’t see Noblett and Underwood of Warrington on the web site ,multi drop loads of wire products if I remember , I think they went under at some point .?
Their Telex answerback (remember those, next to the number on the end of the Telex?) always used to make me smile. Ok then, snigger… NUDIST G
Were they based in Warrington? I recall them being somewhere like Erith or Northfleet, or somewhere like that
When answer phones first appeared in the late '60’s, John Evans in Newport got one and whenever they played it back the young lady who worked in the traffic office used to be asked to have an early lunch or just leave for a bit while the tape was replayed.The reason was some of the messages left by the drivers were not only for instructions but were accompanied by all kinds of ribald comments and “drivers jokes” ! Cheers Bewick.
Clearing Houses !! the name got me thinking back to the late 60’s when I started as 20 year old with one 4 wheeler on “A” licence.I recall that on one of my first trips to London with a load of Libby’s from Milnthorpe,I didn’t have any of my own traffic to reload so I had to see what the Clearing houses had to offer.So,wet behind the ears,I saw this office in Commercial Road,“Thames Clyde Transport” advertising return loads to all parts,good rates,prompt payment etc.etc. smart office,so in I goes ! There was this smooth ■■■■ dressed in a smart “whistle” and wearing shiny shoes,smooth as a chocolate egg,I kid you not,but to me (at the time) he looked the “business” so I thinks,these must be OK,I’m not just certain where I loaded for,Glasgow I think which wasn’t really what I wanted but I was in no position to argue at the time.Anyway,I’m still awaiting “Prompt Payment” ,by the time I did finally get back onto Commercial Road,their office was closed and they were long gone !! Talk about “gullible”,but then experience and 20/20 vision wasn’t available to me at that time 
Cheers Bewick.
I was just a few years in front of you Bewick and wet behind the ears too hence my nonpayment for the Weeks trailer but it was a steep learning curve. Our marra and me went into another Hull clearing house a few months later regarding the small matter of non payment for two loads of apples off Hull docks to Newcastle fruit market, with a few choice words and actions we came away with a cheque apiece that did not bounce. Those were the days !!!
Cheers , Leyland 600
There seemed to be quite a bit of “money-chasing” in those days. It was a regular occurrence for two drivers to be asked to meet up and pay a visit to some unscrupulous firm, usually based in big cities. It wasn’t often that we failed to extract some, if not all, the money owed. These days bad debts are more likely to be placed in the hands of specialist companies. I’m sure it was quicker and cheaper doing it the old fashioned way!
Hi, Folks, We had a few run in with bad clearance houses ,So kept to the ones we new that payed often and new well and also the old regulars B,R,S not always the best rates but you always got payed ,Just a bit of use less info Cheers Barry
i did some of that debt collecting when i worked ( briefly ) for a mini mix company , i was along for the ride as my sidekick was a very large aggressive sort of chap . if all else failed and the debt was large enough the boss had recourse to some dubious characters of irish extraction who never failed to persuade the debtor to cough up .
After the early run-in I had with “Thames Clyde” I quickly latched onto J&W Watts office in London Colney and their manager Harold Dunkley was also glad to see me twice a week as any traffic he had for what is now South ■■■■■■■ and Furness as well as Lancaster was a pain for Watts,they only wanted to get up Carlisle and Scotland and J&W were prompt payers always.He used to sometimes send me to SOM in St.Albans or Inter City for Ford tractors but I dealt with them directly,again no problems,a bit slower than J & W but you got payed.The only other one Harold would send me into,but he didn’t get involved with 
was J&H Transport of Peckham,out of their Dunstable depot,I soon found out why,that unless you turned up at their Peckham HO,and kicked up ■■■■,they just didn’t bother to pay you.They never owed much in comparative terms but it was the principle,I knew I was doing them a big favour regularly delivering half a dozen crates of Schweppes concentrate to Kendal,it was usually my last collection as I set off North,and often a right balls ache as my motor was usually loaded to the gunnels,so I’ve even had the crates in the cab on the odd occaision,and the dog would sit on my knee,or behind the gearstick !!I kid you not. 
Happy Days,Cheers Bewick.
any one load out of a one transports clearance depts.,always in headlight mags,thanks keith
Hi Bewick, Working for Jack Watt was never a problem always decent rates and paid regularly. I did a lot of work for them as did our mutual pal Norman D. I knew Jack , his wife had been a school friend of my mothers. They always had high tea every Saturday in the Silver Grill at Carlisle. I hauled a lot of canned goods out of Tyne Brand at Maryport to Tyne Brand at North Shields loading back home with my own farm feed traffic from Ranks and Spillers etc or fertilizer from ICI at Billingham. I have also had a few occasional loads out of the London area off Harold.
Happy days, Leyland 600
Tyne Brand, Maryport and was it TB or John West at Workington?
One of my regular trips was hauling charcoal from the Forest of Dean to the foundry at Maryport in hessian sacks. Loaded by hand to about fourteen feet high with the tailboard in use as well. At Maryport I was shown where it was to be stacked and left to get on with it. Reminded me of farm deliveries!
If memory serves me I think the T Brand/J.West was through Barnett & Graham at that time and the loads were usually for Bristol or Avonmouth.