slightly off thread william , but the vestey family are hated in scotland . when the missions to seamen were closed down about 5 years ago the local community wanted to buy it and make it into a resteraunt/community centre . the vestey family tried to block the move saying that they had donated the land (100 years ago ) and therefore it belonged to them . after a long fight the vesteys were in effect told to sling their hook and the community got their wish and made a great success of it . cheers , dave
Hi Rigsby, That’s something that I didn’t know about the Vestey family. However they had some bloody nice managers working for them, but if any of them made a slip up they were very soon made history. Our manager John Cooper travelled all over the Globe working for them. He found water for them in OZ and must have made the family a fortune. He told us that at one time he arranged royal transport but was treated very badly for his loyalty to union international. I remember that in the press they criticised the family for registerring their company in Canada to avoid tax and only paid about ten pounds a year in total. Their workers paid more. Regards, Bill,S.
Hi all, the writing was on the wall for UCC when the docks closed and the containers started,all the big unions,miners,docks,Smithfield all broken up,there was no hope for UCC,we where living in another world,as good as it was with the best drivers and the best conditions it could not last,it was loosing money hand over fist,trying to compete with cowboy firms,who ran over there times not getting night out money,my next job was on trip money so were many others,I was getting to do Baghdad and back £950.00 summer time I could do this in 2 weeks paying my own expenses,tank full of red diesel and a belly tank I could make £750.00,not bad in 1975,average drivers wage then £35.00 per week,but many drivers stuck in Istanbul with no money. Ucc could not compete with this,the drivers would not do it and that was right. You also found on returning from a long trip the same faces sitting in the canteen,picking there jobs and going out when they felt like it,some one had to pay there wages. The UCC union thought that they had control but it was Vesty,it suited him as he had control of Smithfield and the whole of the meat industry,having the control the unions had made it easy for Vesty as no one else could compete with him. That is why I left before it closed down,I could see that it could not last. Hope I have not upset anyone but that is the way I saw it. Terry
Hello,Tel. You hit the nail on the head.Even before I left (after the move to Warley) there were some of us who were always up the road and a “select” few who always managed to do Dock Shunting, local,no nights out,no Liverpools etc.Edzell was supposed to be on a rota,yeah right.I got two in a fortnight so the rota came round very quick! It used to grieve me to relieve a dock shunter when I had an Edzell the next day.Shunter home in time for tea,me getting home at 2000 and early start next day.The majority were good men but the “select” few were crap.Bit of a moan but it still was the best job. Regards,Ted. 
Yes I remember that Scottish run,done it twice and then swapped it with filthy Luker for a price,he loved the job all night out money,he used to get home 2 days early,dodgy nights out out. I went to his flat in Wimbledon to see his daughter,but he was home,thinking he was still up the road,he said he picked up a load of rags on the way back from Scotland,the back doors were unlocked,when I looked at his notes it was worth a million pounds,they were Irish linen for a shipping line with crest on the corner for the restaurants each worth £1.00 each.Made Shaw he was away the next time I went round there, ha,ha.
OOhps, hope I have not upset anyone,no reply s.
Hello,Tel. Thought I’d give you a shout,hope you’re OK.I don’t think you’ve upset anyone at all,it’s just that it’s gone quiet for a while (and the garden wants looking at) so never fear.Keep the anecdotes coming.It’s a bit sad though that there’s only you,Bill, Dave and myself who log in to the site.I’d have thought there would be more of the old Firm joining in.Anyway Tel,keep 'em coming,it’s always good to hear from you. All the best,Ted and Dave. 
Tel and Dave, regarding your comments. First Dave, when Lambeth and Bow Common depots were both tranferred to Yabsley St the BCL men all LOCAL and dock shunters were promised that they were still going to be local or shunting. There were some like myself who did not care to partake of this agreement and did journeys. ALL men taken on at Yabsley street and later Warley were taken on as journey men. That is why the same people did shunting or local with extra men as required were used as reliefs etc. Now for Terry, If he had a problem he asked for union assistance. Also don’t forget who negotiated the wages which were the BEST . In 1971 whilst I was on nights, Nick Goodwin the traffic clerk, phoned and asked me to take a load from the yard at 7pm and deliver it to Glasgow at 6am the following morning. He was told that at that time in the work books that we were on the law was that we could only do 450 Ks or 280 mls in a days work, which would have been Carlisle, he also said that the customer would give ne £25 in my hand for doing it. He was told to get stuffed and no other driver of UCC would be doing it either. The load was given to a Brains driver known as Yogi Bear.I also was asked at a later date to check this man out where he took one of our tralers to Harwich leaving our yard at 0800 then pick up one our trailers from Felixstowe and deliver it to colchester wher he was unloaded at 2300 hrs and then he was back in our yard at 0800 for another load. The Brains stewards branched me for saying that their drivers ran bent but on the day that i appeared at the branch ALL four of their stewards failed to appear giving various excuses. Regarding the load to Glasgow Tel you would have done it knowing you and todays favour is tommorrows order. You would not have thought about other drivers jobs. Look on the trucknet drivers site and see how many are concerned over low wages etc its blokes just like you who have ruined the transport industry. HAVE I UPSET YOU.? OOPS.
Tel , a further point comes to mind, in 1958 the meat drivers went on strike over wages and the strike lasted six weeks. The union backed us but would not make it official as the busses were also out and the T&GU made their strike official, wherein they were paid strike money, we were not. With my father and four of our drivers we picketted the Romford depot and watched a funiture lorry deliverring their beef and the driver was a busman complete in uniform. At the end of the strike we returned to work with no discrimination on either side. But we lost our holiday entitlement as a result because we did not complete 48 working weeks that year. On return we meat drivers were issued with meat trades tickets so no unregisterred driver would be handled at the meat market, so Mr V would have had trouble getting his meat unloaded.
First off Bill,I never run bent for the firm,only for myself like many others,having dodgy nights out,also was that the same lady you used to feed with drinks and help her into your tractor unit,you seem to know a lot about it. The union did all those things for wages and conditions,but also in the end did not go with the times,when the continental work stopped,I asked Cookie if he could negotiate my leaving,the writing was on the wall,even though I was only 32, he got me full redundancy pay and also severance pay,which I was asked not to reveal,so yes the union was good in that way. The Scotland job I was talking about was the American bases, Holy Loch,Edzel,Thurso,which took a week to complete,never done Glasgow by itself. I think it is time to leave this forum, its been nice communicating with Ted and Dave,but is getting to personal now,especially talking about my dad who is no longer here to defend himself.Ray Smith was quite shocked about Bills comments,as he saw things from the office side of things. Terry
Hello boys, been reading your last posts, Bill I take on board what you said about some tractor men were classified as being local when you all moved to yabsley street. This was news to me when the guaranteed 11 hrs across the board was agreed I was led to believe we were all the same namely all would do nights out etc. What I would have liked to have done was the dock shunt be relieved at 3pm and be home by four pm, that never happened I used to relieve those men and work my 11 hrs and then do a edzell the next day.That used to pee me off all supposed to be equal.Like I say its the first I heard it was of from you .Never knew till now that it existed. There has been a lot of water under the bridge since then. Terry don’t leave the forum you adventures would be missed there aint that many of us left. Cheers to both of you.Dave and Ted.
Hi Ted, there was a lot of friction between the south London drivers and the bow common drivers, east London and south London,when I started nobody would talk to me,even though my farther was working there,it was only when the new drivers came that the place made any sense,a lot of the old drivers had been in the second world war,some were prisoner of war,so I think they did not want to be away from home,which was fair enough,but when we moved to Warley it should have been a new start,we had the best lorry’s best depot,best conditions,the best work,it should have been ideal for the younger drivers,we had people sitting in the canteen who were never voted in making decisions about what we had to do. When I done Kuwait I ask my sister who is an accountant to tell me if my lorry had made any money,I think Union got £4000 for the job,all deductions including,wages devaluation of the lorry came to £2200, profit of £1800.Lots of the drivers made money for the firm,but look at the waist, still that’s all in the past have to get on with what’s around us now, vote UKIP. Terry
Tel, you say that your accountant sister worked out a profit of £2200 on a payload of £4000. She would not have known the company costs of vehicle depreciation/tax/insurance both vehicle and load/ yard cost and rates/ office staff so she could not work out the profit margin just on fuel and youwages. Also which trip was it?, when you and Chris were making the Film Wolfs dont eat meat, or another when you were being held by police for a week and Chris waited for you as your past entries state. Mac and I did a trip to Anzio on a tachograph with full loads of peas in 56lb sacks and they went through the Anzio factory in about 3 hrs and reloaded as 1lb sealed bags. We returned home asap but stopped once by Italian police for only having one driver and a small fine was taken and later south of Paris on the autoroute for running on a sunday and fined about a fiver each, then we were the thrown out of their yard to continue as they didn’t like our fridges running. as we arrived at Calais we were put straight on the ferry and returned to Warley. When the loads were costed we lost £19 on each load.
You also said that unelected men ran the job. NOT true. the elected men on day one at Warley were Ted Cook, Sam McAuley Frank Evans and myself. At the next election Frank Evans was voted Steward, the commitee were McAuley Midge Galbraith and myself, ALL voted for and elected. There was a problem with Ted Cook which was that the stewards job was as a yard man but Ted didn’t want to go out on the road but wanted to stay in yard, which wasn’t on. He therefor left the job after saying that the guvnor would be angry over the decision. There seems to be a problem with Edzell. I did about four trips to Banchory a little bit further but it didnt worry me it was just part of my job at that time. I wonder that your mate Ray didnt sell that job to Fransens like he did with a lot of our work for a bit of pocket money, no wonder he’s shocked, we thouight that it was Ron Freeman.Bill
Somebody needs to take a chill pill 
Newmercman,DITTO. Regards,900x20.
Fully agree keep it light. we have all been there and done so lets just think about the good times. lets face it was 40 years ago. fond memories Dave and Ted.
Have just received an email of some of the old Ucc fleet,horse drawn,steam driven,lorry in the tunnel,if it has not come to you it is, flicr.com/photos/32200120@no8/ Terry
The link above not working, letter k in flickr missing
flickr.com/photos/32200120@N08/ This is the link to some old UCC wagons & everything Vestey & meat,
I have more UCC pics which at the request of the owner i cannot publish, I can send to your email for private use.
I am the meat Trade Historian on FLICKR & can be contacted there, norman.finnimore@yahoo.com, Enjoy,
4.50 AM 15-06 2014 just getting up for the long trip to Gaydon.
Another old UCC man has parked up for the last time, Gordon (George) Hampshire. RIP Gord.
How did you find out,where was he living.?