i started driving 7.5 tonners at 18 ever since a small child i had been fascinated by trucks and plant hire equipment on a sunday in harlow you would see at least one or two ukon trucking f88s f89s heading of some where
and i said to myself one day i am going to do that . so my first job was with a small haulier in harlow driving a 4cyl d series up to scotland and all over the uk
that job only lasted a few months had few accidents along the way
so then i got a job for lt carriers based in bishops stortford i started of in the workshop because when i first left school i went into the diesel fitting side but hated going to college .
but every now and again the odd job come up on 7.5ton to bristol or cardiff markets Lt used to do all the whole sale mkts eventually i ended up driving all the time got to 21 applied for hgv but failed on medical grounds i had afit at school after playing football at the age of 10 but never had one since.
so i thought ok ican still drive 7.5ton but ireally want to do continental work
anyway lt carriers became phillph lane tansport and then went bust after about 6 months. so luckily i got a job with jh attwell and did my first trip to fords koln
in a merc van then a few months later another trip came up to fords bordeaux
and iwas getting likeing for this and wanted more
a few family friends worked on robas and told me that a job had come up on the little van doing express groupage and i had been in and out of robas yard for attwells so ihad got to meet sean and june 1983 igot ajob mainly italy swiss alot of the time out empty picking up hand made shoes
normally two pick ups vigevano and bergamo now and again they had special jobs down to monaco whith rolls royce tyres or abit of groupage out to swiss i really did enjoy my days working for roba i know the vehicle was not the best in the world but ihad a fold down bed a thermexine night heater that roba bought me in france go to bed put youre kettle on top of it and by the morning it had nearly boiled just quick warm up on the burner in the morning for your tea or wash
you was never lonely there was always another roba truck nearby when you stopped in france along the n4 luneville / total st dizier /white house perthes /reims /felixs /tonys at basle this was all new to me but the boys soon showed me the way to enjoy myself and all the differnt foods and then off for a wine induced sleep
ther was anothe firm that used to run out to italy for shoes i think they were called dj transport some real charecters on that firm there was one called the wichita line man he did not care about anything what a laugh quiet often he would be rowing with italian customs at como over diesel and just lock the truck up and walk away leaving the gate into the swiss side blocked with his truck and scream and shout at the police to fi ***ng hand cuff me then
my days at roba ended in feb 1986 when nuttalls took over they finished my
job and i moved on to location freight but that another story
loading at moreschi vigevano
march 1984 my wedding day sean and the boys pick me up
one of the first 142s in the uk ona x plate written off at reims a few years later and sadly a lep driver lost his life
harry reading youre posts got my mind going back 20 + years ago and made me post my photos
i meet up with yap yap 2 summers ago in harlow sean had started up doing runs to swiss with a company called hpc based in attwells old yard on top of the m11 he calls the firm sx express smart motors black & silver my own work was quiet so i did a few weeks on 7.5 tonner for them
yap yap was driving for them did not look much differnt to how i remmberd him the other fred they called little legs used to do the swiss shunt if you remmber the 141 scanias used to do 2 trips a week to swiss and i think fred used to do the first run leaving saturday night
i may be wrong but i thought he went off to drive fuel tankers
johnny smith moved up to cambridge i still see a few drivers around harlow barry jones johnny blanks paul taverner and now and again sean
The last time I saw Johnny Blanks was in Dublin with a Swiss firm. He packed in the driving game & went back to fitting kitchens…I saw Smiffy around the Oxford area about 2 years ago. He was driving a green & white DAF on an A road around that way ,but he didn’t see me. Its a small world. Roba had more than their fair share of deaths on the road…There was Gordon , McCoy, Seans Dad, that one in Rheims ( Who was that…? ) , that young guy that died in Canterbury hospital after eating a hamburger in Belgium. How many more bought it…?
fred kelly:
i started driving 7.5 tonners at 18 ever since a small child i had been fascinated by trucks and plant hire equipment on a sunday in harlow you would see at least one or two ukon trucking f88s f89s heading of some where
and i said to myself one day i am going to do that . so my first job was with a small haulier in harlow driving a 4cyl d series up to scotland and all over the uk
that job only lasted a few months had few accidents along the way
so then i got a job for lt carriers based in bishops stortford i started of in the workshop because when i first left school i went into the diesel fitting side but hated going to college .
but every now and again the odd job come up on 7.5ton to bristol or cardiff markets Lt used to do all the whole sale mkts eventually i ended up driving all the time got to 21 applied for hgv but failed on medical grounds i had afit at school after playing football at the age of 10 but never had one since.
so i thought ok ican still drive 7.5ton but ireally want to do continental work
anyway lt carriers became phillph lane tansport and then went bust after about 6 months. so luckily i got a job with jh attwell and did my first trip to fords koln
in a merc van then a few months later another trip came up to fords bordeaux
and iwas getting likeing for this and wanted more
a few family friends worked on robas and told me that a job had come up on the little van doing express groupage and i had been in and out of robas yard for attwells so ihad got to meet sean and june 1983 igot ajob mainly italy swiss alot of the time out empty picking up hand made shoes
normally two pick ups vigevano and bergamo now and again they had special jobs down to monaco whith rolls royce tyres or abit of groupage out to swiss i really did enjoy my days working for roba i know the vehicle was not the best in the world but ihad a fold down bed a thermexine night heater that roba bought me in france go to bed put youre kettle on top of it and by the morning it had nearly boiled just quick warm up on the burner in the morning for your tea or wash
you was never lonely there was always another roba truck nearby when you stopped in france along the n4 luneville / total st dizier /white house perthes /reims /felixs /tonys at basle this was all new to me but the boys soon showed me the way to enjoy myself and all the differnt foods and then off for a wine induced sleep
ther was anothe firm that used to run out to italy for shoes i think they were called dj transport some real charecters on that firm there was one called the wichita line man he did not care about anything what a laugh quiet often he would be rowing with italian customs at como over diesel and just lock the truck up and walk away leaving the gate into the swiss side blocked with his truck and scream and shout at the police to fi ***ng hand cuff me then
my days at roba ended in feb 1986 when nuttalls took over they finished my
job and i moved on to location freight but that another story
loading at moreschi vigevano
march 1984 my wedding day sean and the boys pick me up
one of the first 142s in the uk ona x plate written off at reims a few years later and sadly a lep driver lost his life
fred, i know you put this posting on a few months back but i just tripped over it and felt i had to reply, i knew a couple of roba drivers , bob croome and ray lewis. i dont know if you knew them. the driver in chiasso you mention working for danny johnson was i think alan kendall aka tin legs . he was from whitechapel in the east end , i worked with him on davies bros in wapping mid 60s, bit of a scallywag.
hello supercube
yes thats it alan kendal i see him on some tv show about buying antiques
few years ago. Never forget his words to me when i first started on roba in 1983had me girlfriend with me he said to me
why do you want to be out here son go home go on the dole and keep youre misses
any way i packed it all in 1992 and that girlfriend has been my wife for the last 24 years but i did not go on the dole i started my own firm up
ray lewis i havent seen for years he come from keens or bobbie croome
but used to have a good crack with the dj boys and a few of the owner drivers doing the shoes out of italy
fred kelly:
hello supercube
yes thats it alan kendal i see him on some tv show about buying antiques
few years ago. Never forget his words to me when i first started on roba in 1983had me girlfriend with me he said to me
why do you want to be out here son go home go on the dole and keep youre misses
any way i packed it all in 1992 and that girlfriend has been my wife for the last 24 years but i did not go on the dole i started my own firm up
ray lewis i havent seen for years he come from keens or bobbie croome
but used to have a good crack with the dj boys and a few of the owner drivers doing the shoes out of italy
i worked with ray and bobbie on mick keens at ilford around 1980 , it wasnt a firm that attracted a lot of well known faces but it suited me, decent trucks and the money wasnt too bad. if you got the job done they would leave you alone.
DO you remember john butler he done swiss for years,with his own motor and also working for various firms,including HND. he now drives for HPC from harlow on nite trunk for TNT
john butler comes from dagenham he ran a f88 in the mid 80,s and then had a112 scania +bedford tm and went on too iveco,s he ran for europa +HND+swiss firms. nice bloke,mad on west ham
Am i right in saying before roba the firm was called incotrans with light green scania,sand before this it was trailer 70 an woods in enfied?I had a friend harry evans better known as harry the hat he worked for albert warren an pulled for woods and incotrans doing swiss every week in the 70,sThe scania he drove was dark green with red chassis,After albert finnish up harry worked for incotrans direct he has since saddly past on.
boyzee:
Am i right in saying before roba the firm was called incotrans with light green scania,sand before this it was trailer 70 an woods in enfied?I had a friend harry evans better known as harry the hat he worked for albert warren an pulled for woods and incotrans doing swiss every week in the 70,sThe scania he drove was dark green with red chassis,After albert finnish up harry worked for incotrans direct he has since saddly past on.
spot on boyzee,it was incotrans first,and if i remember rightly they were in the same yard that later became roba’s depot in harlow. i never did any european work for them but on the odd occasion i did unaccompanied trls to dover for incotrans,reluctently.
fred kelly I worked with Blanksey on a crap Swiss outfit doing Dublin after he left Roba. He was so disgusted with it all he went back to his trade of fitting kitchens. Give him my regards ,he will know who I am. You can tell him I spend the Winters in Thailand ( Its 28C at the moment & I’m getting on my motobike & cool off down the beach;air-con hotel room & motor bike @ 10 quid a day.) now to avoid the Xmas rush.
I remember when it was woods trailer 70 they had a couple of scania vabis.s or scania 76 as some called em doing two dovers a night from enfied if i had to leave my truck in dover waiting to clear i would get a lift up to blackwall tunnel with one of them.They also had a 140 that sounded really good the turbo would really whitsle load,funny the things you remember i to did some unacompanied traction for them and roba taking yarn loads to llanition? in wales.
