Been doing a wee bit of scanning myself from the Freight Notes magazines I have.
Here is another company they took over in Feb 1978
Inter County Express
Some Kwikasair from Freight Notes magazine
ParkRoyal2100:
Darren Hingston:
With a smaller part of it being logistics until the mid 2000 when that was spun off as CEVA Logistics.Not too sure on how TOLL ended up with IPEC here … But I’ll do some digging
Interesting. CEVA I see around Sydney a lot (car-carriers mostly), I had no idea they’d been around that long. Toll seem to be everywhere and into everything, from car carriers to containers to BHP (Bluescope Steel) to IPEC and NQX to couriers and even removals.
Yes the Car Carriers is/was basically TNT Car Carrying … and NQX (North Queensland Express) and QRX (Queensland Railfast Express) were both TNT created companies from back in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
TNT had an international air courier division to expedite delivery of their freight. I myself flew for TNT from the USA to London,Dublin,Berlin,Sydney,Hong Kong,Toronto, Rio,Brussels, Amsterdam and a few other places I can not remember delivering their time sensitive material. It was a wonderful deal as TNT paid for my ticket and I had a wonderful few weeks sightseeing. Those were the days. Great outfit TNT.
Did anyone else travel as an on board courier for TNT?
Cheers
Mick Mc Grenaghan
Found on the web…
Did TNT Aquire Knowles Transport from Ramsbottom ■■?, Regards Larry.
ERF-Continental:
Found on the web…
That’s an interesting picture! For some reason unknown to me, you hardly ever saw a MAN F8 full sleeper cab with an Estepe-style after-market high roof. You saw the day cabs plus pod, which were called F9 cabs, but not the sleepers. Here is the only picture I’ve ever found of one (apart from your TNT pic). Another mystery! Robert 
old 67:
Hi Darren. I worked for a family run carrier,Ripponden and District Motors Ltd. for over 30 years. We had one large depot on the Lancs/Yorks border,operating 90 13 ton hgvs.
I think its fair to say if you were moving " smalls " in our area we were the best both on price and service. we had over 1000 customers in our area and many big manufactures outside our area,plus some of the big national carriers,would trunk goods into us.
In the early 70s, Kwikasair approached our boss to see if we we would deliver goods to our area if they trunked them in to us,and he agreed.Very surprisingly he allowed a Kwikasair manager to use a small office and telephone on our loading dock, and they duely started to bring goods in to us.
Anyone in the “smalls” game ( I never say " parcels ", to avoid confusion with the jiffy bag carriers of today ),will be familiar with the term “ugly traffic”. We would carry most things,but its fair to say the stuff we got from Kwikasair was mostly poorly rated stuff. The Kwikasair chap thought he owned the place and would make himself very unpopular throwing his weight about with OUR drivers and trying to overide the instructions of OUR formen etc. This was never going to work with our gaffer,a real old school gentleman,and it is my understanding that after a very short time Kwikasair were "asked to leave ".
I and many others I have spoken to, formed the opinion that Kwikasair came over to the UK expecting to " take over the world ",got it all wrong and left with their tale between their legs.
I do not offer this opinion as fact,it is interesting however that on the TNT website,in the company history section, the first menion of a UK operation is for 1978 when they took over Inter County Express. I cannot help wondering if the Kwiwasair UK operation was an embarrasment to them ?
P.S. TNT have certainly got it right now though eh ? !!
Regards. John.
I was always told that Bridges were the “top” smalls carrier in the North 
Bewick 
Bewick:
old 67:
Hi Darren. I worked for a family run carrier,Ripponden and District Motors Ltd. for over 30 years. We had one large depot on the Lancs/Yorks border,operating 90 13 ton hgvs.
I think its fair to say if you were moving " smalls " in our area we were the best both on price and service. we had over 1000 customers in our area and many big manufactures outside our area,plus some of the big national carriers,would trunk goods into us.
In the early 70s, Kwikasair approached our boss to see if we we would deliver goods to our area if they trunked them in to us,and he agreed.Very surprisingly he allowed a Kwikasair manager to use a small office and telephone on our loading dock, and they duely started to bring goods in to us.
Anyone in the “smalls” game ( I never say " parcels ", to avoid confusion with the jiffy bag carriers of today ),will be familiar with the term “ugly traffic”. We would carry most things,but its fair to say the stuff we got from Kwikasair was mostly poorly rated stuff. The Kwikasair chap thought he owned the place and would make himself very unpopular throwing his weight about with OUR drivers and trying to overide the instructions of OUR formen etc. This was never going to work with our gaffer,a real old school gentleman,and it is my understanding that after a very short time Kwikasair were "asked to leave ".
I and many others I have spoken to, formed the opinion that Kwikasair came over to the UK expecting to " take over the world ",got it all wrong and left with their tale between their legs.
I do not offer this opinion as fact,it is interesting however that on the TNT website,in the company history section, the first menion of a UK operation is for 1978 when they took over Inter County Express. I cannot help wondering if the Kwiwasair UK operation was an embarrasment to them ?
P.S. TNT have certainly got it right now though eh ? !!
Regards. John.I was always told that Bridges were the “top” smalls carrier in the North
Now now Dennis, I was always told Robsons were the best haulier in your neck of the woods 
Seriously though,I know that
Bridges were indeed a great company under Harold. They were the best in the areas they served as we were in ours. The two areas did overlap in South Lancashire,but we worked closely with Bridges,giving them traffic for North Lancs and ■■■■■■■■■■■ they gave us traffic for Yorkshire.
Nowt wrong with a bit of pride in the company you work for,as I am sure you agree,sadly lacking these days I am afraid
Regards. John.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Did TNT Aquire Knowles Transport from Ramsbottom ■■?, Regards Larry.
Yes, look back to my previous post, Knowles Van Lines and Dickinsons Transport merged and became Inter County Express which was taken over by TNT and the Ramsbottom depot was the UK HQ for a while.
matamoros:
Lawrence Dunbar:
Did TNT Aquire Knowles Transport from Ramsbottom ■■?, Regards Larry.Yes, look back to my previous post, Knowles Van Lines and Dickinsons Transport merged and became Inter County Express which was taken over by TNT and the Ramsbottom depot was the UK HQ for a while.
Thank you I missed that, Regards Larry.
Thank you everyone who has contributed so far … this has been more than I ever expected.
Now for a little cross cultural stuff … A british lorry in Australia in the late 50s/early 60s
This truck was fitted with a demountable tray called a Storklift and was used to deliver some of the first containers that TNT used here … but the most interesting part for me is the chinese six configuation
Hi Darren
I was with kwikasair when they first came to the uk and took the first truck to France for them.
If you want any info let me know and I can help you with the first year of kwikasair in the uk
Hi Mick, that would be great … If it’s easier you can e mail my
werkhorse(at)hotmail.com
Just swap the (at) for @ and you’ll be sweet
Cheers
Remember all TNTs leyland marathons had the TL12s in em, and went like stink !
Anyone any pics of the Iveco Turbostars they ran in the UK?
Anyone know where this was taken? Note the KAA Crusader hiding in there
Darren Hingston:
Anyone know where this was taken? Note the KAA Crusader hiding in there
Picadilly Circus. Jim.
I read over the weekend that the chief executive of TNT’s UK division has been dismissed because of the poor performance of the company.
TNT Avin a Bad Day