To celebrate the centenary, and especially for Saviem , are 10 Saviems, his era I think, so he may well have sold some of them or at least know the haulier…and, here’s to another 100 pages…cheers !! …
I completely agree with buzzer regarding John’s encyclopaedic knowledge. Fergie’s never ending photos are also a treat, as are all the contributions. Thanks to all. Regards Johnny
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Well done on the century. For me too, a regular read- it’s a bit like having a monthly magazine, but every day!
I’ve had a word with my “contact” at The Palace and Her Maj has agreed to combine the 100th post congrats with the 100th Birthday greeting telegram to John ! Anon 1. 
My contribution to mark the century.
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robert1952:
Congrats on 100th page!A ‘TV’ for Fergie here. Robert
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Is that a remote tyre pressure regulator thingy on the rear axles? Someone please elaborate.
[zb]
anorak:robert1952:
Congrats on 100th page!A ‘TV’ for Fergie here. Robert
0
Is that a remote tyre pressure regulator thingy on the rear axles? Someone please elaborate.
They look like wires or even stays, rather than tyre-inflators if you look at the guage . They are a bit baffling and look as if they are simply holding that plate amidships the wheel arch in place, using costly revolving hub centres - hardly likely 
! It occurred to me that they might be some sort of odometer arrangement. However, could it be that the van is not just a carrier of TV aerials but an outside broadcasting facility with mysterious flaps and wires? 
. Oh dear, I’m floundering in a quagmire of conjecture and speculation 
! I’ll bet you a French Franc to a pinch of merde de camel that dear old ‘Saviem’ will know the answer 
and deliver it to us with his usual flourish - a glass of Bollinger in one hand just as the page rolls over to 101. 
Robert
My contribution to the centennial festivities, and long may this thread continue
Craig
robert1952:
Congrats on 100th page!A ‘TV’ for Fergie here. Robert
0
She’s a beauty, they look better with a fridge / box body than an artic I think…but for the early '60’s, what a lorry…
Just to add my congrats on reaching a well-deserved century. Sometimes if I’m pushed for time I just speed read and skip through some threads, but this one always gets my full attention. Fascinating, interesting, informative, and never any arguing or controversy. Brilliant stuff.
Not quite a hundred, but a nice collection all the same.
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Indeed congratulations on the 100 John.
Without being silly we are very fortunate to have a man of your stature in tne industry to put us right.
David
Hi All,
Just to add my congratulations with the others on reaching 100, thank you John(Saviem),Dave (Fergie),and Michel,and all the others for all the information and photo’s on this remarkable thread.
I would also like to thank the lady in this photo,who puts up with the time I spend looking on here,and is convinced I am having an affair with a woman called Saviem !!!
Here’s to the next 100.
Regards
Richard
MaggieD:
Hi All,Just to add my congratulations with the others on reaching 100, thank you John(Saviem),Dave (Fergie),and Michel,and all the others for all the information and photo’s on this remarkable thread.
I would also like to thank the lady in this photo,who puts up with the time I spend looking on here,and is convinced I am having an affair with a woman called Saviem !!!
Here’s to the next 100.
Regards
Richard
Lovely little Lydee you are so lucky Richard hope you appreciate her, JD.
Here’s another from moi, I like this a lot as is it satisfies my OCD.
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Evening all,
Well, I really do not what to say…when Kevmac started this thread back in 2014, I was embarressed, and thought that it would not last more than a few days…to get to here is little to do with me, and a huge amount to do with you all!
I am amazed at the pictures that you can all produce, (and non more so than Fergie 47), but the exploits of so many of you keep me enthralled , you have done so much …been so much further…have experienced so much more…and have photographic records that make me green with envy…(no, Im just glad that you are willing to share them with us all)…and that friends from across Europe, the Antipodes, Nord Etates Unis, also share, makes for a great shared experience, and an appreciation of just what so many have achieved.
I always loved lorries, but more so came to love the people within the industry…and the more I worked in other countries the more I saw the similarities, and the same hard working, characters…the language may be different…and also the equipment…but the people…well, very similar indeed!And in all cases…an industry little appreciated, and even more sad little known, by the people who benefit from its activities in every area of their life.
I apologise if my ramblings go on a little, but the pictures trigger all sorts of memories, and in the main they are of the individuals who either ran the businesses, drove the lorries, or were engaged in that political blood bath that was lorry manufacture, or lorry dealing…(and being on the receiving end of Dealing…you had to count your fingers when you left certain operators yards, as there could be some missing)!..believe me it was rare that it was down to good, or bad engineering…all across the Globe!..then there were the Journalists who like Sharks circled around the offerings of each producer, (many not even comprehending what life really was like to have to drive, load, unload these machines) , let alone live with them for 12/18 hours, (and perchance a tad longer ), per day!..boy there are some stories that perhaps I should relate…but fear not…the best, and impartial, and dedicated were from the British publications…the poorest …well perhaps it would be unfair to go further at this juncture!..
Perhaps I could dodge around some of the pictures so recently posted,
Our friend michel, correctly reminded us that the Berliet P100 bus was a good seller in Australia, but that GBH “logger”, I think was the only one imported. That TRH 280 was the one of 6 that I refered to, but I have never seen a picture of it before.
Fergie, puts up a galaxy of my favourite Saviems, mainly 240s with the 2156 MAN 6 cylinder, but that cab looks good, and those are early ones, in the late 60s, amazing that cab was drawn in the 57/58 period!
Transports Valenton, (one of my favourite outfits, along with ONATRA). Valenton ran from a Chateau, (Im certain I wrote their history some time back), and were Saviems prime contractor, running both to MAN in Germany, and Alfa Romeo, (who licence built our SG 2 lightweights in Italy), as well as taking the complete assembly line to the new Saviem works in Iraq, and then supporting its activities throughout its period of production.....Valenton , never failed to deliver, what a superb outfit, a real team of people, and those Burg swop bodied drawbars were their backbone.....they hated articulation! Valenton used to "needle" the drivers in the 400 plus fleet of Stouff, (even the name still gives me nightmares), as they Valenton , never lost a load.....most of Stouffs were in a ravine, or abandoned, or lost forever…(as were "my "…TR 280s)!!!..“we always deliver” was their motto…and they did …always
Jean Delisle, from Dreux…how do yo fancy reversing that outfit, a` 69 SM , artic, plus a 1950s 4 wheel drawbar?That business started in 1928, and grew and grew. That outfit is in the colours of Calberson, (and many stories about that great company…who were also a GUY Vixen operator…and liked them). Jean Delisle loved big fast American V8 cars…his good lady, the svelt Italian jobs from Alfa Romeo…perhaps they had more mundane tastes with their lorry fleet…but it was a big fleet indeed!
Fergie and I share an affection for the Charbonneaux designed, Pelpel built “Television cab” Bernards. (Based on Charbonneaux`s design for a TelAvia Television), and that M Portenseign 4x2 is a classic in its own right…sadly she met a rather sad end!
Backsplice, those are two smart lorries, a little JK 75 4 cylinder, (judging by the smoke), and a GF151, 16 tonner…why RTB UK never specified the 6 s speed gearbox was a mystery to me…but perhaps not…their top marketing man was ex Leyland! Hope that they earned you good money, that little JK 75 7.5 tonner was a good lorry…but the JN 75 6 cylinder was a flyer…
Then NMM throws up a couple of real happy memories, the big Berliets, of Transports Bouveral. Founded by Gaston Bouveral back in the 1930s as a one man cattle haulier. Grew so much that he established an office, not in his Café at Place Saint Pierre, Saint Dónant en Herbasse…but next door. Traffic grew, mainly for Soc Rhonelec, with Bretagne being a major destination, and source of backloads, along with their routes to Paris and the North. Gastons son Jean-Loup drove the business forward, and NMMs second picture shows my friend Andrés fleet order of R310s in around 1980 lined up. But my overriding memory of Bouveral was of what a happy company it was, many long standing employed drivers, (who had a big say in what they drove, hence the Magirus Deutz, the Iveco`s, and the Mercedes). So similar in so many ways to your UK “family” operations…except the sun always shone when I visited them…
They were absorbed by Groupe Bert, and moved to Saint Rambert DAlbon in the 90s. Bert having been founded in the mid 60s by the delightful Jean, and Marie-Antoinette Bert in Serrieres in the Ardeche. By the 80s was about 350 outfits, and handled contracts for Carrefour supermarkets, and were acquiring medium sized outfits with a strong balance sheet such as Bouveral to increase their growth. Remember this was te time of the big sort out in France, the battle for supremecy was on between Norbert Dentressangle, Charles André, and the Giraud Groupe, and everyone else was scrabbling for growth in the sectors left behind.
One quick one on Fergies Saviem pictures, the maroon tanker outfit of Royer…“we” used several shots of a Saviem SM with a Coder tank trailer, splashing through a water course in our publicity handouts…amazing how spectacular water can be…(especially when a young English “idiot” mistimes the incoming tidal race onto the causeway at Mont Saint Michel…in an SM 300 and Fridge trailer…but the pictures were good)…worth the bollicking…well NO!
Now direct from Maggie D we see how to treat a lady…first maroon her adjacent to the docks in Rouen…then, having given her a load to Angleterrre in a FAR 3 wheeler…appreciating that at best there is only a modicum of heater output in said vehicle…he gives her a good set of gloves…and she is sent on her way!..its a long, slow way with only 4 cylinders, and four gears…but the payload is only 12 tonnes…(ish)!
I spent many happy days in and around the industrial city of Rouen…blooming big port…and lots of clients, and non more so than the complex outfit that nmm shows, Transports Tenart, founded back in 1898. Did both domestic, and contract removals, as well as French and International work. Ran over 30 Saviem tractors, under the stewardship of Gérard Valet and Guy Cantetreau, as well as the midleweight rigids on the van work.
Back in the 1920s they had run Saurer coaches, alongside the transport operation. A very tidy outfit, (but note the chock under the front wheel of that SM…one of the design weaknesses of the SMs lock actuators parking brake was its propensity to …roll away…oh dear!
Weel this week ROF and myself, as well as many others of us will be glued to the TV , (whilst sitting…no crouching), over a reversed dining room chair, with goggles on our heads, as we hurtle around the Isle of Man TT course…(obviously far faster than any current rider could possibly do)…and I suppose that is the secret of these threads, shared interests, shared experiences, (good or bad)…shared memories…
Thank you all…its all YOUR thread…
Im away to a large Bollinger,…and a toast to you all!!!
Cheerio for now.
Congratulations on reaching 100. May there be many more.
Sacre’ bleu … a Leyland Comet on the Saviem page !!!
Monsieur Saviem you are absolutly correct about the JP 75 being a little "flyer " mine was smoking a little bit while sitting idling but it was a Big 6 and from memory was about 145 /150 hp
Congrats for such an informative and enjoyable thread… I,ve raised my glass