apologies to dave young, craig111 et al before i start - there are quite a few transport companies that i know of who refuse to have anything to do with the trucking magazines, not from any practical standpoint but they are strongly of the opinion that shortly after you appear in there the bad luck starts, often leading to disaster…
i don’t regularly buy any of the mags but one article i remember quite vividly was m.j.graves out of suffolk, who have had well publicised problems recently - anyone else back up or ■■■ ■■■ this theory for me?
Well,what do I say here?
As many of you will remember,I had a story done about me several months ago by a certain journalistic chappie who posts on here (don’t worry Craig,I won’t mention your name.D’oh!) and two weeks after the aforementioned journo came with me I found myself out of a job due to the demise of the company.
However,the company was having problems prior to this so I can’t really blame the journo (still not letting on who you are Craig) and the story wasn’t even published until after the company went bang.
As an afterthought,the company I worked for in Sweden was bought by a guy two years ago who had several other companies.Three of them have gone bankrupt within six months! Dirty dealings somewhere me thinks.
Andy, you’re right, it’s known as the curse of the truck mags (not TRUCK mag, but all of them in general). At T&D we recently contacted a well known company down in Devon which runs superclean trucks; the son was keen but old man wasn’t having any of it: “All the firms which go on the cover of your magazine soon go bust afterwards”
I don’t think you’ve got any worries though chaps (even if your picture is in Commercial Motor this week, no names of course Neil, Keith and John!) as the phenomenon normally only afflicts those who have their trucks on the cover. And as we know many of the trucks which make the cover are the ones which have the flash paint jobs, and often are pulling traction for peanuts (I can think of several examples in the last three years I’ve been involved with the mags).
Here’s hoping you’ll all still be in business this time next week
Craig 111:
And as we know many of the trucks which make the cover are the ones which have the flash paint jobs, and often are pulling traction for peanuts
Yes- this phenomenon never ceases to amaze me. Many hauliers spend fortunes on cheesy paint jobs and chrome doo-daddery, simply to pull boxes out of Felixstowe, for example. In a lot of ways, I think it`s not coincidence that they quickly go bust, but simply reflects poor money management skills on the part of the owner.
My dad’s company based in the Spalding area and bought out by Turners of Soham in 1996 had a subby in their colours who had a Renault magnum with a mack engine, had the centre spread in trucking international in 1995 and he went bust just before the company did? What does that say. The company is Hargrave International and still runs in its own colours today but apparently Turners are going to have the trucks in their colours soon.
Well, I was having bad luck before I appeared in T&D…and since I appeared my bad luck has’nt got any worse…'corse it has’nt got any better either! (like they say,"if it was’nt for bad luck…I’d have no luck at all!)
you can hardly use graves as an example really, if the drivers had not been running bent and the management had not been encouraging them to do so then they would not have been in bother.
companies that are operating like that deserve everything they get and far more besides and same goes for the drivers too.
they are not big they are not clever but they are dangerous.
dangerous to us themselves and every other driver on the road.
johnny:
you can hardly use graves as an example really, if the drivers had not been running bent and the management had not been encouraging them to do so then they would not have been in bother.
your insight is astounding - ever thought about applying for a TC’s job?
Cliff Warby:
Well, I was having bad luck before I appeared in T&D…and since I appeared my bad luck has’nt got any worse…'corse it has’nt got any better either! (like they say,"if it was’nt for bad luck…I’d have no luck at all!)
But Cliff what your not saying is simply that It cannot get any worse for you
