Hi Ted, you are preaching to the converted with regard to tyres on our Scanias. But after arguing for some time we could not get Mr Dodge to change his mind. I remember driving down near Orange and could smell the aroma of powdered milk fo;;owed by a bang and my front os tyre flew up the bank, but the lorry kept straight. After, if I ever smelt milk I stopped and went round the tyres knowing that one of the sods needed changing. Ted, what happened to Georgie Bruce, I remember him doing a bit of cabbing work, but did he stay with us?. Bill.
Hello Bill,
Re. George Bruce,I haven’t heard any news about him since I left 
The only drivers we kept in touch with were Jim Bellman,Eddie Curtis (sadly no longer with us) and George Curtis,as we were all local to each other and working at Shell, Wandsworth Depot I didn’t get over to the East End at all so I’m in the dark.It was quite a pleasant surprise though when Terry Keating, Midge and yourself got into the site - Meritor too, with the wealth of photos, as I thought we were a dying breed.I hope you all keep looking in as I’d hate for it all to dry up.It was a good job!! Regards to you all,900X20. 
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Hi Meritor, UCC owned a firm called Van De Meersch in Antwerp and they used to deliver loads sent over unaccompanied, they did send a telex to Warley saying that the English drivers should be got rid of and they would cope with all of the continental work. With regard to uk haulage Brains were the only ones in the UK. McAuley did ask me to investigate a Brains man called Yogi Bear, who took a load to Felixstowe leaving our yard at 06 00 and then pick up a loaded trailer from there for delivery to Colchester, They unloaded him starting at 2200hrs with him assisting and he was back in our yard for another load at 0800. When I said that he had run bent,their stewards branched me, but never turned up at the branch to face me. Regards Bill,
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Meritor, one thing always puzzled me about UCC, when we first started continental we used ferries from Southampton, when Dover was easier and quicker. I remember one trip, on the overnight ferry to Le Havre, four drivers in our cabin were fast asleep with lights off. Then about 02 00 hrs somebody in the cabin started shouting “Help” “Lookout” “Let me out”. Well imagine three drivers in the dark trying to find their clothes and get dressed, ready for the lifeboat. When someone finally put the lights on, it turned out that the fourth man had been in a bad accident where the “rep from above” had read the last rites over him, but he eventually pulled through and this was his first trip back on the road. I dont know if we had the nightmare or him. Regards Bill.
Hello you all,
This thread gets better by the day.The old ERF photos- I could cry when I recall driving them on a motorway:we nearly got fined for parking! Admittedly they only did “local” jobs but they all needed a somewhat more than muscular right leg to keep the throttle on the floor…approx 32 M.P.H. on a good day.Still,it was part of the job.Keep it going gentlemen,it’s a connection with the past.Regards to you all,900x20.
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Hi glad your all doing well dont know if you remember me i worked with wally and John in workshops cutting down them 6 wheelers into 4s
went to weston a fewtimes at forseys to help them out remember Bill Midge with his curls and George sad to here about eddie changed now not like Mr Dodge days
Meritor nice pics mate did you work for conserves think i remember you scouser with a little fiat raymond or was that the other bloke glad i found this be on again god bless you all Glad your ok Bill and 900x20 dont make them like yous any more bye for now micky
Hi edlight, you are mixing me up with some else, I never owned a Fiat! Who was conserves?
Cheers, Meritor.
Hi,I remember being sent to Franz buttila of Boston,with the first euro permit before we went into the common market,loading and going to Van de meersh and taking orders from them,working from Italy,France,germany,holland,for one month then I had to come home,as in those days you could only reload back to england from europe.Can some one tell me how to download photos to this post? Terry
Hi Meritor sorry mate only thought that was you. who was the chap came from liverpool then worked for conserves sure had a little fiat or jap car sure his name was Ray very knowledgeable chap looked like him in that big j picture wondered if hes still around always ill then
Hi edlight, the only driver who came from up country was Ron Blakeway. He came from the Manchester area and his claim to fame was that prior to joining UCC he was a pop singer up there. He also stated that he was the fastest champion drinker at the embassy in Kuwait. I dont recall anyone being taken on to assist in cutting down the units, and didn’t understand why it was done except to cut down the weight. Anyway I don’t know how you had the nuts and bolts to do it because us drivers were always in the workshop nicking nuts and bolts out of the racks. Nice to see that you are on the site, we could still do with a few more though. Terry asked about putting photo’s on here, but I have half a dozen photo’s and cant work it out after following the advice at the start of the site. Regards, Bill Sparrow.
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Hi Bill no the bloke i thought it was was in the office at conserves in our yard not a driver and i wasnt only cutting down the units i was the youngen in the workshop.They were cut down because of the weight John had lots of pics to he also had the one of the ERF near blackwall tunnel and one of a scania in side if a shop in dover some where .I also used to wash a ERF of copseys bet no one remembers that ugly big thing think was the only one in this country
Hi edlight, the photo that Dodge had was probably of the accident at Bridge, when Timmy Christopher had a heart attack and went into a row of houses. that was the only accident that I can remember down that area. I can recall an accident just north of Munich, a few of us had been down to Vienna to pick up loads of Belgian butter and after coming back into Germany we all swung into a service area. Unfortunatly, Reggie Revell hit a yatch which was parked on a trailer, the owner was Austrian and went loopy, saying “I have driven up from Austria and had been given a hard time at the border, I am on my way to race in the Baltic and youve knocked a bloody great hole in the hull, so now ive got to take it home.” Well Bill Staples was on his first trip and thought that he would cool the situation with his newly learnt German And kept sayng to the bloke “ist gut, ist gut” Well the boat owner completely lost it, especially when there were four or five English drivers falling about with laughter. Regards, Bill S.
Hi Bill,I think you will find that using the ferry from Southampton was when we were going to Lisbon,the boat was called the Eagle,P and o,I recall doing 2 trips I had about 8 trailers on and had to pull them off as they did not have tug masters in those days,then on to union cold store in Lisbon,tip then back to the docks.The ferry was a cruise ship,it then went on to tangiers and back to Lisbon,so I had about 3 days to explore the night clubs,I should have had Bill there to keep me in check.Ray Smith knows more about this I know he reads this forum,come on Ray. Terry
Tel, when we first started it was definately out of Southampton, in fact my first was down to Tours to collect a load of S African frozen beef which they cut off the S A produce stamp and remarked it Produce of France, and then the return was through Dover. The place that they loaded me from was Montreil Bellay airfield and as I was leaving there a young lad asked me to bring him to England, as a Forsey driver had said he could visit his home in Bristol. the boy got off on the South Circular with a map etc and he was going to hitch to Bristol. When I got into the depot at Poplar I phoned the Forsey drivers’s home to say that he was on his way but the wife said that he had already arrived and she would kill her old man when he got home. Keep taking the tablets. Bill.
Tel, when we first started it was definately out of Southampton, in fact my first was down to Tours to collect a load of S African frozen beef which they cut off the S A produce stamp and remarked it Produce of France, and then the return was through Dover. The place that they loaded me from was Montreil Bellay airfield and as I was leaving there a young lad asked me to bring him to England, as a Forsey driver had said he could visit his home in Bristol. the boy got off on the South Circular with a map etc and he was going to hitch to Bristol. When I got into the depot at Poplar I phoned the Forsey drivers’s home to say that he was on his way but the wife said that he had already arrived and she would kill her old man when he got home. Keep taking the tablets. Bill.
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