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From Brazil to a bread van...
Page 66
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Brian Lee, managing director of Allan Morris Transport in Deeside, begins his monthly column by reminiscing on how he got started in road transport..
The glorious weather we've enjoyed over the past few months takes me back to the sunny summer of 1976.That was the year I made the move from sea to road transport by way of Rio de Janeiro and then the Blackburn Job Centre.
I was finally dispatched home from southern Brazil and 36 hours later found myself in front of the clerk at the employment exchange. We don't have much call for a ship's captain in these parts. Can you drive a bread van?" he asked. With a wife and two children to support and a third on the way I had no choice.
The next morning as the sun rose over the mill chimneys of Darwen, I found myself being inducted on the carriage of meat pies, balm cakes and Devonshire splits and then set loose on the highways and byways of northeast Lancashire.
Set fair
After a couple of days. I mentioned to my wife that the freedom commanding a bread van was not too dissimilar to that of running a merchant ship. Assisted by a bottle of Cote de Rhone I then added that I would hate a job where! knew what I was going to do all day and every day.That comment has haunted me ever since!
A couple of weeks ago I had a phone calhfor the first time in years we had a tipper fall over. Thankfully nobody was hurt,but a recovery was necessary.
Mechanics Walter and Terry and his mate Martin were summoned from the garage and briefed on the problem. Walter then started to go into greater detail than Eisenhower put into the D-Day invasion.Terry, who as a youth recovered Centurion tanks for Her Majesty. brought the meeting to a conclusion with his well-worn phrase of "Just get on and ******* do it!"
I blame myself for the further delay when! mentioned the depression brewing 200 miles west of Biscay so the rescue party had to go back to the garage for more kit. Finally they departed, carrying more chains than can be found in an Amsterdam S&M brothel and the radio tuned into the BBC shipping forecast.
Although provided with means of communication we heard nothing for eight hours, Fearing the worst,Sonya set about dismantling the bunting left over from last year's Asda Welsh Cheese week and, just as soon as Caerphilly hit the desk, the convoy came into view.
Safe return
The sorry-looking trailer was lashed down to withstand a nuclear explosion that Walter had got wind of from talking to a Stobart driver near Stoke and we gathered around expecting tales of how he fended off the marauding tribes of Rutland.The only revelation was the A50 had changed since he had been on the road and greasy spoons weren't like they used to be.
Reflecting on the career change 27 summers ago, I'm glad I could drive a bread van,a skill that introduced me to a great profession full of wonderful characters.