George Spenceley recalls his years as a long distance lorry driver, the friends he made and the incidents that happened along the way.

Very few of the transport Managers in the companies that I'd worked for had any knowledge of man management, most ruled by intimidation or arrogance, do what you're told or get out was their attitude.

The yard foreman every week would employ four or five new drivers, on the following Monday morning they'd turn up for work and be standing around the yard waiting for their instructions when the Manager would arrive.

Seeing the new starters he'd ask them what they were doing there and who'd employed them? If he didn’t like the look of their faces he'd sent them home and say to the others, ‘Divant tak your coats off yer ma not be stoppin’ then stamp off to his office.

After three months of keeping a low profile with the Manager I ran into problems. That morning my vehicle was in the garage being repaired and beside it was a new Leyland tanker awaiting calibration. The Manager came storming in on his way to his office and shouted to me, ‘Hey Spenceley, reverse that vehicle outside for me. Can you drive it?’

As there were only two vehicles there and mine had no wheels on it he could only mean the new Leyland tanker so I climbed aboard and started the engine. I've never seen anybody move so fast, he took two paces to cover the length of the garage and before I managed to put the vehicle into reverse he had the cab door open and was screaming at me.

‘Get out, get out, you haven't the experience to drive a tanker’. Being the quiet type I said nothing and climbed out, I imagined if I did say anything I'd get the sack. The fitters were quietly laughing at the Manager's antics and he asked them what they found so funny, they just said, ‘You'll find out in time Mr Fox’.

Later there was a message for me to return to the depot. I was quite worried as I approached the Manager’s office. ‘Right Spenceley, close the door
and sit down in that corner I want a word with you’. He kept me sweating for ages while he looked through some papers.

Eventually he looked across the desk at me and quietly, so no one else could hear said, ‘I want you to go home’ then he stopped for a while. ‘You made a fool out of me, didn’t you?’ I hadn’t a clue what he was on about, ‘Am I sacked’ I asked?

‘I've been talking to Wilton transport department and they've given me a glowing report about you. Why didn’t you tell me of your past experience?’ I said that most of the drivers and fitters knew. ‘I want you to take that new vehicle to Wilton ICI and work to their instructions. This is the first vehicle we're sending to work off site and with a bit of luck and good will we hope the depot will get a lot more work from ICI in the future’.

His whole attitude had changed completely. On the Sunday evening as I was getting ready to go out there was a knock on the door, it was Mr. Fox, he asked if I was prepared to work in Wilton again.

Another new vehicle was in the depot and the sign writer was putting finishing touches on the cab door. When I arrived at the yard the sign writer asked, ‘Are you George? The paint on the doors is still wet so be careful. Mr Fox wants you to load it with ethylene dichloride (EDC) then return it to the depot and it will be delivered in the morning’.

I had carried EDC before and knew what it could do if splashed or spilt. Here was I with a brand new tanker, it was beautiful and had a red chassis and blue cab with gold lettering, the silver tank shone.

I was to load it so I carefully placed it under the loading gantry, the plant operator guided me under the loading arm. I climbed up on to the top of the barrel and opened the lid and placed the loading arm inside. I could see the operator opening the valves in readiness.

When I was ready I waved to him and he set the pump in motion but as soon as the liquid reached the barrel I noticed all the joints on the loading arm were leaking. I yelled for the operator to stop the pump which he did and I strolled back across to my vehicle.

Looking at me he said, ‘What’s wrong driver’. ‘What’s wrong, what’s wrong’ I shouted and climbing down off the tank, ‘I'll show you what’s wrong’. I took his arm and guided him to the side of my vehicle.

‘You can see what’s wrong’, I pointed at the vehicle chassis. The leaking arm had sprayed the vehicle and caused the paint to blister and drop off. I grabbed a water hose from nearby and tried to wash the EDC off but all it did was remove more paint.

Panicking I phoned Mr. Fox and told him what had happened thinking this would be my last shift working for him. He was so livid I cannot repeat his words. I turned to the operator and commented that through no fault of my own the paintwork on the new vehicle was ruined and I'd be sacked.

The plant Manager in the control room had been listening to my conversation with Mr. Fox and he came across and asked me for my boss's phone number then went to ring him. A battle of words developed between them and ended with the plant Manager telling Mr. Fox that he must accept these trivial mishaps if he wanted more work from ICI.

The following evening when I got into work the Boss took me to one side and apologized for the previous evening. He said ‘We've to keep on the right side of the ICI Managers, but thank you’.

Over the following weeks whilst the firm was getting a foothold in to ICI I worked some very long shifts, at times twenty-four hours. Strictly speaking it was illegal to work so long, but I got well paid for my trouble.

That firm now named Lexus has continued to expand many times over since I worked for them and they now undertake many millions of pounds worth of work for ICI transporting liquid chemicals.

George Spenceley, 2002