Yes, in the early ‘70s I used to see them on the A2 coming from / to Dover. They were artic wine tankers and if you were stuck behind one in your car on Boughton Hill it was a slow climb.
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Most of the story is said by Fredo77. The initial colour of Tps Giraud was indeed darks purple, but changed to white with colour stripes as they became a vast group durinf the 1980-90s They were in 1999 the second biggest transporter in France, but gradually things turned bad for them, and the whole groupe disappeared in 2009.
Here’s one of their bonneted Scanias, probably a L 110 or 111. Sorry for the poor picture, but I can’t go on Facebook, and have to do with what I find..
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Roughly the same size at their best time c. 2000.
We had White Road Bosses and Commanders. When White was taken over by Volvo, Duce a Brisbane based company entrenched in commercial vehicle dealing, aquired the rights to assemble and market Western Star. These were simply Road Bosses with a new grill and badge. Many of the parts still had White cast or marked into them, in the old cursive font. When was that superseded, late '60s? The cabs and architecture had not changed for years, until the Constellation was released.
IIRC, Duce ended up controlling the Canadian, parent company.
Remember being in G.J.Coopers office one night and one of Barbours drivers think his name was Willie was translating for the office staff as he spoke perfect French, only problem was if they had been in the pub before hand they needed another translator to do the Scotch to English bit 
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Before the A2 Canterbury bypass was built I used to craw up the old Boughton Hill behind the wine tankers. The hill had a ‘suicide lane’ down the middle but as my 1954 Morris Minor was only about 2 mph faster than the tankers it wasn’t worth the risk
I didn’t think that it was Giraud that was dragged back in memory, to me there was another French company, mainly tankers, and frequently seen in Britain. A great friend of mine, now sadly gone, used to work for them back in the day but I can’t for the life of me bring back the name, I think it started with ‘S’ but that is the best I can do at the moment. It will come back to me, eventually, unless one of you…?
Samat? Just a guess
Yep they were the ones
Often seen on the M6 when I first started driving, usually running 2 or 3 together.
Speaking of French and French drivers…
Anybody else remember that French driver on for some Paddy firm in the 80s, who you always heard on the CB.
He would speak English but always start his answer to you with ‘‘Oui oui oui oui’’ said rapidly?
Just sounded funny.
No?
Ok just me then.
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Could be but I think they were blue and the ones I’m thinking of were a sort of muddy marroon I think. Also they were always bonetted tractors, damn, old age and memory definitely don’t go well together.
Indeed, SAMAT trucks were blue.
I’d do a shift with yon Wilsons motor. Cab is just about low enough for a creaky old man to get mounted.
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