ZZAR BEAN'S WORLD

Home Words & Meanings Dolly Knot Tales of the Road 40 Years Emma

Forty Years On The Road

To make the claim of 40 years on the road I have to start way back when I was just a lad at school and my first part time job was that of a grocery delivery boy equipped with a bike that had a big wicker basket on the front. The combination of a small front wheel and a heavy load made control a bit of a lottery. I was lucky that for the more distant deliveries the bosses niece would chauffer me around in a minivan: - my first 'Truck'

Leaving school my years of experience in the grocery trade stood me in good stead as I was taken on as a Van Assistant for T Wall and Sons on one of their sausage and pie vans. Our area was Cheltenham and the Cotswolds visiting many delightful towns including Winchcombe, Broadway, Stow on the Wold and Bourton on the Water where this photo was taken. The keen eyed may spot me perched on my seat just inside the door, this was a fold down piece of wood with a little padding. Stacked up behind me were all the trays of sausages which, if the driver braked hard, would come crashing down on me. I had to be quick to get round behind the drivers protection cage while also making sure I didn't go through the windscreen. Seat belts? What were they?

I stayed with the sausages until I passed my driving test whereby my supervisor told me he didn't think I had the potential to become a salesman which, to be truthful, I couldn't argue with. So it was time to move on from sausages to ice cream and the Gloucester firm of Tartaglias who apart from running their own fleet of vans also had a few in the Walls livery. Again my round was mainly in Cheltenham where I discovered places the tourist never saw but the customers would still come out and buy ice cream in all weathers. In the summer the days were long and business brisk but the winters dragged a bit. One particular day when it was snowing I think I made one sale all day. I never did make out why.

After two years it was time to move on again this time to a bike and toy wholesalers and a Transit Van. Yes I became 'Grey Van Man'. I couldn't believe my luck after two years of working every weekend I was now on a Monday to Friday job with evenings and weekends off. My horizons lifted once again and I now found myself going as far as Birmingham, Oxford and Weston Super Mare. It was not all plain sailing as the van had a roof rack and apart from being full up inside the boss wasn't happy unless the rack was full to overflowing before I set out. The trips to Birmingham were to collect bike wheels and again I would pack as many as I could inside before stacking them on the roof. Looking back I put a lot of faith into elastic bungee straps.

By now I had reached the key age of 21 and it was time to move on again. I am indebted to Mr. Eric Vick who must have seen someting in the skinny young lad who presented himself at his door in response to an advert for trainee drivers. He took me on and put me through my HGV1 test whereby I became a fully qualified truck driver. Little did I know the learning had just begun. This was one of my first trucks but before it came to me it had been involved in an accident and had been cut down to an articulated tractor unit. I was put to work for a feedmill engineers and here I leant my way around the U.K. It was nothing to leave on a Monday with 18 deliveries on board maybe for the east coast or Scotland. As every load was a different shape I had chance to learn roping and sheeting as well.

I stayed with Eric Vick for 13 years during which time I worked on various contracts including; traction, where I pulled a ferry companies trailers, containers and low loaders. Whatever the job I gained a certain amount of specialised knowledge in each branch of road transport. It was about this time that the company started running to the middle east which was not for me having a young family at the time. I did dip my toe into international transport though, first of all to Ireland and then some European runs to Dusseldorf. By the time I left this was my pride and joy, for the technically minded it's an ERF A series powered by a 240hp Gardner straight eight engine which was the bee's knees of it's time. The actual cab left a lot to be desired compared to other trucks but it was home.

With a young family and a slight fall off in work it was time for a change of direction and I began working for a small parcel company. It was Dutch based but along with someone to run the office side of things I became it's Gloucester depot. It was a complete change from driving big trucks and the hours were different, getting home every night felt very strange for a while. As the business grew more staff were taken on and we eventually moved into larger offices. After five years or so we were taken over by a bigger parcel company and some of the fun went out of the job. I eventually found myself running the transport side of things which lasted a year or so before the bug bit and the urge to get back on the road became too strong to ignore.

The way back onto the road was through a driving agency and for three months I drove a variety of trucks on various contracts. The main work was delivering milk to supermarkets. Eric Vick must have heard I was back on the road as one night he rang me to offer two weeks work as holiday cover. That was twelve years ago and I'm still there. The work was all European, staying away for up to two weeks at a time and the first truck I was given was this Left Hand Drive B series ERF again with a Gardner straight eight engine but this time with a turbo fitted to increase the power to 300hp. Now this really was an old war horse as it's previous driver claimed to have taken it to every country in Europe and some outside as well. This is very possible as in the nine years he'd driven it he'd been to the Middle East, Scandinavia, The Soviet Block and North Africa as well as all over Europe.

With the opening of the Channel Tunnel and the dismantling of internal borders the work pattern changed and I was getting home every weekend. I then started to do a Night Trunk to Holland and France and my hours became very regular. I'm now back on days still running to Europe and this is the latest in a long line of trucks, a 400 hp 'EC' ERF plated to pull 44 tonnes, which I must admit is a very long way from the grocer's bike.

A couple of years have past since I first published this page and apart from being two years older and having another granddaughter not a lot has changed. One thing that has altered is my home from home, which is now an Olympic model ERF. It has the same engine as my previous truck but I now have an upstairs as well which gives me more room to store all the home comforts I need for a week away. An added bonus is I can now stand up while getting dressed, luxury when compared to some of my previous homes.

All Text amd Images Copyright © 2003-5 E.A.Boucher