Yes they were light blue in the 70’s but changed to white with a blue stripe just below the windscreen in the early 80’s, we carried on doing the Scottish Markets plus all the other UK markets until after we were taken over by BOC distribution in 1992.
I started working for them in 1990 and I am stil there ( only 5 more years to go before I retire) but hope to see it out. BOC Distribution changed their name To Gist Ltd. When I started I did about 6 mounth on market work before I started doing continential which I did until we stopped going over there in 2001 great day ,great bunch of lads we all worked together but there was only one speed flat out!!!.
Chris Webb:
BAXTER BOY:
Anyone remember them light Blue Scanias mainly v8s used to run out of Spalding up to Scotland all the time. They had drivers upin Scotland tip and reload while the drivers had their time off. Must have been a good job back then 80s.
Also Grounds from Spalding they used to run Guy Warriors .
Hi BB,they were running nights to Scotland in the 70s,maybe five or six handed and they stayed at the Glen Hotel" (I think that’s what it was called) at Chapelhall near Airdrie.I ought to remember the name as I stayed there several times.
One of their younger drivers was bragging that he’d done Chapelhall - Spalding empty at night in 5 and a quarter hours.There was an old driver listening who worked for J and C Finney from Tyldesley and as his day man pulled up outside with an “A” series 180 Gardner powered ERF witha sheeted load he said to the Spalding lad “Aye,I had a Scania and got rid of it!” He filled his pipe,got his case and away he went .If he could do one way in 5 and a quarter hours he could have got up and back in a shift - well nearly - providing it was a load of flowers going north.Just a thought .
Hi All
I worked for them when it was BOC Spalding, based at Faversham, between 1994 & 97. Plenty of memories and a few stories too. after I left I became an OD, then lo and behold about a year later M&S shut all the european shops and the remaining drivers were offered reduncey payouts -some transfered to Uk work though.
The above comment about BOC inheriting a few legal issues was certainly the case.
Hey - anyone remember Mick Meenan the Faversham european transport manager??, probably the best transport manager I ever worked for, sadly he passed away last year.
it was only the Faversham based europeon drivers that got offer redundancy us a based at Spalding carried on at Spalding on UK work, there are only four of the original crew left still working at Spalding
kmills:
Hi All
I worked for them when it was BOC Spalding, based at Faversham, between 1994 & 97. Plenty of memories and a few stories too. after I left I became an OD, then lo and behold about a year later M&S shut all the european shops and the remaining drivers were offered reduncey payouts -some transfered to Uk work though.
The above comment about BOC inheriting a few legal issues was certainly the case.
Hey - anyone remember Mick Meenan the Faversham european transport manager??, probably the best transport manager I ever worked for, sadly he passed away last year.
klingon:
It was only the Faversham based europeon drivers that got offered redundancy, us based at Spalding carried on at Spalding on UK work, there are only four of the original crew left still working at Spalding
kmills:
Hi All
I worked for them when it was BOC Spalding, based at Faversham, between 1994 & 97. Plenty of memories and a few stories too. after I left I became an OD, then lo and behold about a year later M&S shut all the european shops and the remaining drivers were offered reduncey payouts -some transfered to Uk work though.
The above comment about BOC inheriting a few legal issues was certainly the case.
Hey - anyone remember Mick Meenan the Faversham european transport manager??, probably the best transport manager I ever worked for, sadly he passed away last year.
Legal issues where not that serious, in total 10 of us got done for one offence. we’ve been sqeaky clean ever since. BOC did not wont anything to do with it as it happen prior to us being took over, they did in the end supply a barrister who help us
KW:
240 Gardner:
As I recall, BOC inherited some legal ‘issues’… I remember a conversation with a senior BOC manager at the time, which was something along the lines that they’d had their fingers burned when they bought Spalding.
A lot of it was insufficient weekly rest as they used to work 7 days a week on the flower job out of Aalsmeer.They were then given six numbered tacho cards a week,plus another five that had to go in the tacho every night to show the daily rest.
A great bunch of guys on there though,used to see them every week on either the Ipswich or Harwich boat.
Don Beecham started Spalding Haulage, the original business of W C Beecham & Son, Coal Merchants. he inherited from his father they were based in St Johns Road Spalding, Spalding Haulage started doing traction work with europeon based trailers of the docks then progressed to doing the scottish and north east wholesale markets then started going across the water to Holland. The first driver to go was Pete Chamberlian with a Scania 80 lorry and drag this was a day cab motor, once the europeon side took off it really grew in the end we had 45 drivers on europeon work.
BAXTER BOY:
Hello Chris I can still remeber the big Scanias that they had I believe the mans name that started it up was Beecham who had something to do with tippers and coal I could be wrong mind I often am. Be good to get some stories or pics as Lincolnshire hauliers seem a bit thin on the ground on here mate.
klingon:
Yes they were light blue in the 70’s but changed to white with a blue stripe just below the windscreen in the early 80’s, we carried on doing the Scottish Markets plus all the other UK markets until after we were taken over by BOC distribution in 1992.
I started working for them in 1990 and I am stil there ( only 5 more years to go before I retire) but hope to see it out. BOC Distribution changed their name To Gist Ltd. When I started I did about 6 mounth on market work before I started doing continential which I did until we stopped going over there in 2001 great day ,great bunch of lads we all worked together but there was only one speed flat out
In my capacity as a temporary agency driver for Gits in 2010, I made several jaunts up from Thatcham to Spalding on Saturdays (plus some night trunks via Holbeach ), and found it the friendliest of all the depots I got to and certainly the only one like a ‘proper’ haulage yard
45 mins off in the ‘desert’, on a sunny Saturday afternoon:
And the splendid shunter which had disappeared when I next went there:
BAXTER BOY:
Anyone remember them light Blue Scanias mainly v8s used to run out of Spalding up to Scotland all the time. They had drivers upin Scotland tip and reload while the drivers had their time off. Must have been a good job back then 80s.
Also Grounds from Spalding they used to run Guy Warriors .
It is a while ago in the mid 80’s but I’m sure I used to pass them heading North towards Madrid from Valencia (oranges maybe ?) around Aranjeuz
or was it Machins lorries I am thinking of ? too many birthdays is my excuse. They used to park up by the racetrack at Jarama.
regards Big Al
My dad worked for Spalding Haulage in the 1970’s as a day man . They had a portakabin at the back of the Glen Hotel in Chapelhall by Airdrie. The manager at that time was a guy called John Russell who had a Morris Minor van liveried in Spaldings colours . The English drivers ( only names I can remember is Gerry and Trevor ) went to their beds in the hotel while my dad and the other local drivers , George ( what a driver of the wagon & drag ) and Gordon tipped and reloaded the trucks for the English lads. They were often in the Blochairn Fruit Market tipping and loading and I think they eventually moved in there.
I remember they often loaded out of Smedley HP Foods in Rattray and at that time it was mostly Volvo F88’s they run at that time the majority being 240’s but they had some wide grilled 290’s too and they had a very smart F88 290 6x2 drawbar outfit . Dad was forever getting demonstrators and once he had a fabulous Ford Transcontinental that had a switch for everything. Spaldings owner Don Beechams son David was also frequently up at Chapelhall and I went with him and Dad to pick up a brand new just out ERF B Series which was to be used as a local truck out of Chapelhall. This would be about 1975 and I am suddenly feeling very old lol. A couple of years later my dad did a few shifts with them when Stan Donaldson was the manager while he was waiting for his start with BOC
I remember them fondly. About 93 ish, not long after BOC took them over, they regularly came into Bakers at Warrington. There regular nightman (his name escapes me,nice guy and Man Utd fan) tipped the markets and reloaded for Tesco Doncaster. They had top motors (All Scanias, the only ones in the BOC fleet I think) and I contemplated moving over there to get onto the European side. One lad did, a scouser called Danny I think.
Anyone remember them light Blue Scanias mainly v8s used to run out of Spalding up to Scotland all the time. They had drivers upin Scotland tip and reload while the drivers had their time off. Must have been a good job back then 80s.
Also Grounds from Spalding they used to run Guy Warriors .
BAXTER BOY:
Anyone remember them light Blue Scanias mainly v8s used to run out of Spalding up to Scotland all the time. They had drivers upin Scotland tip and reload while the drivers had their time off. Must have been a good job back then 80s.
We’re talking Spalding Haulage, who were bought by BOC in the mid-90s?
BAXTER BOY:
Anyone remember them light Blue Scanias mainly v8s used to run out of Spalding up to Scotland all the time. They had drivers upin Scotland tip and reload while the drivers had their time off. Must have been a good job back then 80s.
Also Grounds from Spalding they used to run Guy Warriors .
Hi BB,they were running nights to Scotland in the 70s,maybe five or six handed and they stayed at the Glen Hotel" (I think that’s what it was called) at Chapelhall near Airdrie.I ought to remember the name as I stayed there several times.
One of their younger drivers was bragging that he’d done Chapelhall - Spalding empty at night in 5 and a quarter hours.There was an old driver listening who worked for J and C Finney from Tyldesley and as his day man pulled up outside with an “A” series 180 Gardner powered ERF witha sheeted load he said to the Spalding lad “Aye,I had a Scania and got rid of it!” He filled his pipe,got his case and away he went .If he could do one way in 5 and a quarter hours he could have got up and back in a shift - well nearly - providing it was a load of flowers going north.Just a thought .
Hello Chris I can still remeber the big Scanias that they had I believe the mans name that started it up was Beecham who had something to do with tippers and coal I could be wrong mind I often am. Be good to get some stories or pics as Lincolnshire hauliers seem a bit thin on the ground on here mate.
BAXTER BOY:
Anyone remember them light Blue Scanias mainly v8s used to run out of Spalding up to Scotland all the time. They had drivers upin Scotland tip and reload while the drivers had their time off. Must have been a good job back then 80s.
We’re talking Spalding Haulage, who were bought by BOC in the mid-90s?
BAXTER BOY:
Anyone remember them light Blue Scanias mainly v8s used to run out of Spalding up to Scotland all the time. They had drivers upin Scotland tip and reload while the drivers had their time off. Must have been a good job back then 80s.
We’re talking Spalding Haulage, who were bought by BOC in the mid-90s?
Yes there the ones 240
As I recall, BOC inherited some legal ‘issues’… I remember a conversation with a senior BOC manager at the time, which was something along the lines that they’d had their fingers burned when they bought Spalding.
240 Gardner:
As I recall, BOC inherited some legal ‘issues’… I remember a conversation with a senior BOC manager at the time, which was something along the lines that they’d had their fingers burned when they bought Spalding.
A lot of it was insufficient weekly rest as they used to work 7 days a week on the flower job out of Aalsmeer.They were then given six numbered tacho cards a week,plus another five that had to go in the tacho every night to show the daily rest.
A great bunch of guys on there though,used to see them every week on either the Ipswich or Harwich boat.
great day ,great bunch of lads we all worked together but there was only one speed flat out!!!..If he could do one way in 5 and a quarter hours he could have got up and back in a shift - well nearly - providing it was a load of flowers going north.Just a thought
), and found it the friendliest of all the depots I got to and certainly the only one like a ‘proper’ haulage yard 
