Hello Bewick
Thank you for sharing your story I grew up spending the summer holidays with my dad like so many people who ended up in the transport industry, your trucks always look so well looked after in the photographs in the Bewick thread it reminds me of how good some fleets used to look around here when I was growing up, the likes of Ken Thomas at Guyhurn And T R Butchers and many more sadly departed companies
Keep up the good work!
Richard R:
Hello BewickThank you for sharing your story I grew up spending the summer holidays with my dad like so many people who ended up in the transport industry, your trucks always look so well looked after in the photographs in the Bewick thread it reminds me of how good some fleets used to look around here when I was growing up, the likes of Ken Thomas at Guyhurn And T R Butchers and many more sadly departed companies
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the kind comments Richard they are appreciated 
Cheers Bewick.
Bewick ,
It is all so interesting, you must be the only owner ,haulier,that has ever told anything, about how the business actually works, its price less material .99%of drivers have had no idea, and did not care, as it was nothing to do with them,[keep your place] how and what deals are done to run a successful professional haulage business ,especial has you have done it [driving] not like the modern day suites. pdb
peggydeckboy:
Bewick ,
It is all so interesting, you must be the only owner ,haulier,that has ever told anything, about how the business actually works, its price less material .99%of drivers have had no idea, and did not care, as it was nothing to do with them,[keep your place] how and what deals are done to run a successful professional haulage business ,especial has you have done it [driving] not like the modern day suites. pdb
I’m probably not unique by a long chalk “pdb” but what I can claim is I started at the bottom as a Trailer mate and then grew a fleet in twenty years to number 100 employing many drivers and other staff but it was done honest so I never had anything to hide, a “Spade was a shovel” but believe you me I had some real aggro in the late 70’s which culminated in the National Drivers strike. The popular opinion around Bewick Transport at this time was we could “walk on water” so we could also pay premium wages along with better conditions generally. Some of the meetings I had with our Shop Stewards and the full time T&GWU rep were unbelievable, I used to try and explain that the business was made up of a number of sections i.e. Capital/interest, fuel, wages and exces, tyres and repairs and maintenance, insurance and other overheads etc and as long as I could keep them all in balance fine! but if one section or another demanded a larger slice of the cake another part of the business would suffer. But could I get it through to the thick ■■■■■■■■ who sat across table from me at times, could I ■■■■■■■ like, they weren’t interested and the best thing of all they had better conditions than at other local Hauliers plus they were always treat better because my manager and me were the firms first two drivers and we’d been there and done it and never asked any of them to do anything we wouldn’t do ourselves but some of them weren’t interested! But don’t get me wrong I always stuck to my guns and we always had a large number of cracking drivers so once we got past the “militant” 70’s the job settled down and our workforce realised they had a very fair job ,well as far as the general haulage job went and we only had a very minimal turnover in staff as we were always adding drivers and not loosing them. Interesting times if ■■■■■■■ infuriating at times.PS Always after we’d had a stormy meeting I would meet the T & G rep in the boozer and he’d buy the beer 
before he returned to Carlisle always saying he wished all the employers were as “straight forward” as we/I were to deal with, needless to say I never let on to our Stewards that I had a regular pint with Bill McGregor the T & G Rep Cheers Bewick.
Hope you’re starting to feel better Dennis.
Any chance of continuing the tale to and beyond the takeover by WRM?
Fascinating stuff.
John.
John West:
Hope you’re starting to feel better Dennis.Any chance of continuing the tale to and beyond the takeover by WRM?
Fascinating stuff.
John.
Maybe up to 1995 John but I’m struggling to concentrate at the moment my bloody right arm and shoulder is giving me a bit of constant pain at the moment, taking the ■■■■ with the odd post is about all I’m capable of at this time sense of humour still intact and functioning 
although the mention of those three initials momentarily increases the pain. 
Cheers Dennis.
Sorry to hear you are not full MOT, if you were left handed like me it would be ok .so long as you can pick a nice cut tumbler up you will be fine,you know what driving with the window half down has caught up with you…or maybe load a few bags from a elevator just to get you going…all the best,southern roping /sheeting superintendent.visual pdb.
peggydeckboy:
Sorry to hear you are not full MOT, if you were left handed like me it would be ok .so long as you can pick a nice cut tumbler up you will be fine,you know what driving with the window half down has caught up with you…or maybe load a few bags from a elevator just to get you going…all the best,southern roping /sheeting superintendent.visual pdb.
Thanks “pdp” it wouldn’t be so bad but my left shoulder joint has been worn out for years and they can’t operate on it and then I go and knacker my right one !However, I can still raise a glass ( pint glass or small cut glass !)Cheers Dennis.
peggydeckboy:
Sorry to hear you are not full MOT, if you were left handed like me it would be ok .so long as you can pick a nice cut tumbler up you will be fine,you know what driving with the window half down has caught up with you…or maybe load a few bags from a elevator just to get you going…all the best,southern roping /sheeting superintendent.visual pdb.
Could just be something as simple as lifting his wallet in and out of his jacket pocket .
Dennis,
Hope you feel Better very soon.
E.W.
EW car truck & bus:
Dennis,Hope you feel Better very soon.
E.W.
Thanks E.W. Cheers Dennis.
shugg:
peggydeckboy:
Sorry to hear you are not full MOT, if you were left handed like me it would be ok .so long as you can pick a nice cut tumbler up you will be fine,you know what driving with the window half down has caught up with you…or maybe load a few bags from a elevator just to get you going…all the best,southern roping /sheeting superintendent.visual pdb.Could just be something as simple as lifting his wallet in and out of his jacket pocket .
Correction ! “Donkey choking wad in arse pocket” Bewick.
Come on Bewick, you can do it. Even us (well, me) - here in Australia eagerly await the next installment. Bet you never thought you would be world famous by now eh? Hope you feel better soon.
Hope alls well Dennis your posts are always interesting and the banter is spot on
Keep it coming as I’m not in the best of health at the moment and the leg pulling and Micky taking makes the day more bearable
All the best Gary
kmills:
Come on Bewick, you can do it. Even us (well, me) - here in Australia eagerly await the next installment. Bet you never thought you would be world famous by now eh? Hope you feel better soon.
G’day Mate ! thanks for your regards they are appreciated ! Cheers Bewick.
gazsa401:
Hope alls well Dennis your posts are always interesting and the banter is spot on
Keep it coming as I’m not in the best of health at the moment and the leg pulling and Micky taking makes the day more bearable
All the best Gary
Many thanks for your post Gaz and I hope that you will soon be feeling much better! Cheers Dennis.
I’ll do my best to tidy up the mid to late 70’s to-day. The '70’s were fairly eventful at Bewick Transport as I had to make more use of the fleet we operated as a result of increasing traffic flows particularly the loads of tissue product from Bowater Scott at Barrow to their RDC in West Thurrock, this was perfect traffic for trunking as we had regular tonnages of wood pulp ex the Thames mainly Tilbury but also from Purfleet, Dartford and Sheerness so we based a unit at Gravesend with a great driver which was quickly followed by a second unit and we also had a unit based at Daventry. Our Gravesend driver also gave us an “in” at Reed Transport Aylesford but in particular 20ton loads of Core Board ex Tovil Mill for Bowater Scott Barrow which was often about three loads per week. As well as this traffic we also had to look after our Local mill at Milnthorpe who were always my favourite customer and in 1974 they made us sole contractor for all the out bound traffic other than what their three own artics carried. We had also since late ‘72 been responsible for the maintenance of the Paper Mill fleet and we supplied them with two new Seddon 32/4’s in 72’ and '74 respectively and we bought their two G reg '68 units replaced by the new ones off them and used them as local shunters with GJM 248G biting the dust in Kent when it set on fire a couple of years later 
Then on Jan 1st 1977 we bought the Mill’s two 32/4’s L and M reg and seven trailers and became their sole contractor and on that date I agreed a 15% increase to our rate schedule at the Mill Our McGuffie Transport operation also did very well from the time I took it over in '74 for the rest of that decade, the medium distance traffic between W. ■■■■■■■ and Milnthorpe to South Lancs, Cheshire and N. Wales proved very lucrative compared to the long distance although don’t misunderstand me the intensive operation we ran between S. ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ and the Southeast was always very satisfactory. Without this quality traffic/Customer list I had it would have been quite impossible to have developed the operation as we did at that time nor could I have taken advantage of enlarging the depot with the acquisition of the old BR Goods yard in early '80( much to the distain of Nestles a few years later !! ) As we entered the '80’s I was presented with another opportunity by our Local Mill But I will save this for the next instalment as it didn’t stop at one opportunity but was the first of five traffic additions via the same source in '85 and '87 Bye for now Bewick.
Very good Bewick you must be very proud of the way that you built up the company from scratch, a great achievement.
Well Mr Bewick, having enjoyed this thread in particular, along with other postings you make (photos included) I would also like to add my best wishes for your return to good health. Your account of your haulage life is indeed a revelation, not many if any other fleet owners would give such a candid insight, by candid I shall quote from the dictionary the following connotions of what I mean
a candid critic…frank; outspoken; open and sincere
a candid opinion…free from reservation, disguise, or subterfuge; straightforward
a candid mind…honest; impartial
All the best
Cheers
Oily
Hi Dennis, Hope you are well on the mend and feeling better.
Have enjoyed these tales as I enjoyed your other postings on Bewick. At the risk of leaping ahead can i ask re the end of Bewick. I appreciate that you were very open on your reasons for in the end selling to the 3 who should not be mentioned. I just wondered if there has been any other approaches either prior to this or were there other interested parties looking to buy you out. I also wondered how you may have felt if someone had wanted to buy out the company and keep it and the name going forward.
If i’m jumping the gun and you had planned to tell us later as you went through your tales i am happy to wait.
I hope you were able to walk away in the end with a justifiable sense of pride in your achievements to go along with your collection of photos and tales of your journey and collegues.
Sean
PS was back in Rochdale visiting family and went past that hairdressers your driver had issues with. Just to let you know that over the years he hasn’t been the only one to have fun with the frontage.