How did the driver gain from that,the amount of times i heard that they could get from Cherbourg to Sunbilla in one hit was absurd,their boss gained,unless they were on trip money,now illegal to offer incentives,or a bribe.Once they did it,they could not run legal again,as the gaffer would say,you did Gib in two days,now you take longer,so get the sack for being slow,if you wanted to do it legally.
The methods to hide the secret switch ranged in ideas,and had to change a lot if the word got around where it was,from the 24 v socket,to a kettle,or a dashboard switch that was in disguise.
Rumour was the gendarmes tuned in to uk drivers cb chit chatter,waiting down the road for you.The fines then were not much,coffee money was the rule of the day,depending if the officer had got his leg over the night before,there were some right gestapos,not to be messed around with,at your peril.
as you say it depends on how you were being paid obviously, quite often we were on trip money and even not there was always a good bonus for being helpful 
, a lot of the funny running was done because drivers wanted to spend a weekend in a certain place rather than a French routiers
Some of that, but I’d say mostly greed from the bosses though Paul - little wonder there were/are so many burnouts and lingering health problems, while a lot of firms made a mint during that time
jj72:
Some of that, but I’d say mostly greed from the bosses though Paul - little wonder there were/are so many burnouts and lingering health problems, while a lot of firms made a mint during that time
In the best Derek Jameson voice I can muster,
Does he mean me? 
For younger viewers this DJ was a radio 2 DJ after Jimmy Young.
He thought Erudite was a fast setting glue 
Wheel Nut:
jj72:
In the best Derek Jameson voice I can muster,Does he mean me?
For younger viewers this DJ was a radio 2 DJ after Jimmy Young.
Jimmy who??
toby1234abc:
The methods to hide the secret switch ranged in ideas,and had to change a lot if the word got around where it was,from the 24 v socket,to a kettle,or a dashboard switch that was in disguise.
.
I have no idea what your talking about
toby1234abc:
The fines then were not much,coffee money was the rule of the day,depending if the officer had got his leg over the night before,there were some right gestapos,not to be messed around with,at your peril.
Back in 1989 I was on a flyer to Huelva, I’d loaded at ICI Heywood on Thursday afternoon & shipped out of Poole Thursday night arriving Cherbourg early hrs Friday. I had to be in Behobia TIR park Saturday morning to clear T forms to tip Monday darn sarf. Anyhows, I got to Bordeux on the second card and re-set the clock to Sat AM & kicked off towards Irun, I got to the French customs a few mins before midnight & chucked him the permit to stamp and (of course) he spotted the time & date on the French ‘entry stamp’!! I was in ‘la merde’!!
He said “disc”? & followed me over to the truck, I was imagining a night in the cells and up before ‘the beak’ in the morining, but luckily, he had other ideas. The disc was showing 10AM Saturday and the run from Centre Routier, he looked me in the eye and said “you have peseta’s”? (not a mistake, French Customs man wanting Spanish dosh?) It ended up costing me about £35 and a rollocking!!
I was parked up within 10 min’s and cleared next morning, putting the disc back in at the time showing, I ran the remaining time (plus prob an hr or so on “the Emlyn”) & parked up at Salamanca Sat night & outside the factory in Huelva Sunday night with a bloke from Stoke!!
I was lucky, but as an owner driver it was worth the risk back then, in the tax year 1988/89 I did 39 trips to Spain, that might not sound that much, but it was in the days of T forms & permits which cost at least 1 day on a round trip.
Ross.
Ross hit the nail on the head really, money, that’s why it happened, one a week to Italy or Spain put good money in the bank
The use of the wire could make the driver’s life a bit easier too, if used properly, I’m not talking about the fish or fruit and veg madness that meant everywhere was done in one hit, but a normal Italian groupage load could be a real pain in the arse if you missed customs in Italy, get there after 8am and you could forget it until the next day, now you never knew how long it would take to get a boat in Dover, especially when the dockers were acting up, back then the Dover lot were as bad as the kermits too, then you could have problems with the paperwork, a breakdown (old lorries then remember) blowout, bad weather, whatever, any of them could turn a nice easy run into a mad dash where a wire was very useful. it was also handy when you were out doing deliveries and collections, tacho on rest meant that when it was all loaded you had a fresh card and could get within a day of Calais once you left, yeah it was long days, but who expected a 9-5 gig when they signed up for the job
Or when you have driven an hour to a packhouse,to sit there all day to be loaded,some drivers could do a full shift,even though the duty time had expired,or all day doing multi collections or a multi drop,eating away the driving time to get back home.
Did you use the four stamp permits,if on the fifth trip,it was coffee money with the Douanes at Cherbourg,and believe or not,there is still a Douane working there from the 90`s,i recognised him,it was bunging some ■■■■ to them back then to keep them quiet,a raised eyebrow,a hand raised,as in do you want to pay a fine or not,it was all a secret code and body language with the French.
We used to have to clear customs at every border,it took a while,but had time to get meal or a shower while waiting for the papers.
I wonder what the longest distance someone has driven on the wire,the fruit and veg boys would go legal after Pamplona,if loaded on the Costa`s.
Whats a "wire " do?
A device to show rest mode while the truck is driving,or the fuse was pulled out of the fuse box to show rest or bed mode,or it would knock out the power to the tacho unit.Different trucks had different ways to immobilise the tacho.
Vascoingles:
as you say it depends on how you were being paid obviously, quite often we were on trip money and even not there was always a good bonus for being helpful
Aye,saturday nights in Sunbilla,no prob’s with the let’s get drunk & fight brigade in those days. Packed the wagons in like sardines some nights. Cracking meal & good drink & lie in sunday or even stay 'til monday was our norm. Sunday walk round village & cider bar then repeat saturday night & away early o’clock monday down to Madrid or wherever. Happy days!
Wheel Nut… like the David Jamieson fer,top class.
Couldn’t beat a 3 series for ease of wiring,or as we put it…“The appliance of science” to quote Zanussi.
My longest ever hit was Merca Seville (ex revision) to the rest area before Saintes peage,4 hrs on the cot & up for sunday afternoon Stena to Southampton. Probably longest hit on the wire was Coslada to El Ejido or mebbe Setubal to Seville. All done in the name of having a social life!
Did you meet the French bird at the freight check-in office for the Stena line,Marie-Noel,big blue eyes,a real stunner,she carried on working for various ferry firms,now she owns a childrens clothing shop in Cherbourg.
There were two old Canadian chaps that did the marshalling for the ferry,they both came over for the war,and met local ladies and never went back.
And Gina,the waitress in the drivers lounge on the ferrry,one new years eve,they had Frankie Carson for the night entertainment.
I have never used a wire, magnet, paper clip or pulled a fuse in my life. The only thing that was considered fair game was the split gearbox cable on the Transcontinental. Most people forgot to seal the join
The rest of the time I ran a card out. I always showed what I had done and paid very few fines. I always put in a new card at every border and hoped that I was never asked for “previous” Most times I wasn’t!
In the case of a full cab control I always found room down my pants for any extra cards and told them I posted them home for safe keeping. I have heard the tale where someone gave the Czech police a music CD and because they couldn’t read the data, he accused them of being a backward country. How true is that?
toby1234abc:
And Gina,the waitress in the drivers lounge on the ferrry,one new years eve,they had Frankie Carson for the night entertainment.
I think I would have preferred having Gina for the night 
Clear customs in Barcelona friday lunchtime, saturday afternoon boat at Caen and last orders in the Rudmore. week in week out. Perfectly legal.
Thats nearly a thousand miles in 24 hours. 
Ex Haulier:
Clear customs in Barcelona friday lunchtime, saturday afternoon boat at Caen and last orders in the Rudmore. week in week out. Perfectly legal.
toby1234abc:
Thats nearly a thousand miles in 24 hours.
toby, if you have your time off while waiting to clear, or nowadays while they’re still picking the oranges its eay.
in jan and feb i was loading around valencia for spalding, park on bay in pack house and hit the sack, then 9 hrs drive 9 hours break and 9 hours drive easily gets to caen, in fact its probably only about 16 hours in total
Just under 800 miles actually. The roads weren’t as good then. Had to have a bit of a microwave break and 2 good shifts.