any - car transporters

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Sun 13 Oct 2013 16:51
any - car transporters - wemyss

Have contributed little on this forum for many years now but always have a read. In particular I like Gordon Bennet's contributions and particularly his comment on those CVT etc type of gear boxes. Reminds me of several years ago when my son in law used to work out of Toyota exclusively on nights for a French company.

He would describe how he often had one of these half way up the ramp with the engine screaming but remain stationary. His method afterwards was to take a run at it and hope for the best.

Gordon can tell much more than myself but he described how they had a pole to use when loading which was basically to ensure they were within the heights of bridges across the road. However he would grit his teeth when he left the factory when going under the first ones.

A couple of other things I remember was how he used to grizzle about the lads who delivered the cars to the transporters. He would describe how they would abuse clutches for the fun of it. Perhaps because it was in the night there was no supervision around.

Lastly he insisted that any damage to the roof of any car resulted in the complete scrapping of the vehicle.

He used to deliver them down to the south of England so I assume it was a one drop at the port, and sometimes bring back Mazda cars as a return load but where he delivered those to I can’t imagine.

He did this job for a few years and has since been on fuel tankers which was a blessing in comparison.

I was lucky enough to go on a guided group tour of the Toyota factory once and found it fascinating and will describe this on another post.

wemyss

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Sun 13 Oct 2013 17:32
any - car transporters - gordonbennet

I worked regularly out of Burnaston among other makes sites, fastidious in every way quality control, which is reflected in all Toyota sites i visited and accounts in part for my deep respect for Toyota, only perfect will do.

From the marques and French connection your SiL and i probably worked for the same company, it was as he will have told you a very good job and was at one time one of the best companies in the industry to work for.

Such a pity what has happened in recent years and the hundreds of good people, both very good senior management and lowly scruffs like me who were either pushed out redundant or simply couldn't stand working there after the new regime(s) took over and scrapped perfectly good working practices which had made the company the biggest player....lots of babies slung out with the bathwater change, but thats hardly an exclusive.

I expect your SiL doesn't recognise anyone doing the job now, so many have gone and such a shame the loss of many years of hard won skill, they struggle to recruit competent people now where it was dead mens shoes at one time.

Coincidentally theres a good number of us have ended up on road tankers (easy life..;), i'm on a foodstuffs blower tank along with several others who worked on the cars previously.

I wouldn't go back, and doubt your SiL would either, he will have told you (though you and your daughter will have seen painfully with your own eyes) the work was shattering, and though we earned well we earned every ha'penny twice over...oddly enough my son who was on transporters has now found a tanker job too.

Edited by gordonbennet on 13/10/2013 at 17:35

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