Dick

[twosmoke300]

Ex fleet vans were our family's income for about 20 years . Dad had a garage in Penmaenmawr , North Wales then in Woodlands in Dorset . He used to go to the auctions and buy these , often 10 or more at a time . The rest of the week was spent tarting the up for sale . He used to buy loads of non runners as the big fleets would sideline them for next to nothing when near the end of their working life .

Unfortunately our family weren't big on photos so I can't scan any in to show on here . Ha vans , dodge spacevans , itals, chevannes and Bedford cf's are now a big soft spot for me . That and the noise of car auctions . I honestly reckon a could fall asleep to the sound of a good auctioneer . Prob did as a kid too !

 

While on the Isles of Scilly I noticed the local post vans were petrol Peugeot Trekkas . Basically normal little vans with higher suspension . A good idea I thought

[Lacquer Peel]

What was BRITISH Gas doing with a fleet of VW vans anyway?

 

Are any Caddy-sized vans made in the UK? I'm pretty sure the last small van made in the UK was the Escort. A lot of small vans are made in Turkey now - I'd rather support Germany than a quasi-dictatorship with a history of repressing minorities (oh...).

You'll probably find that British Gas is majority owned by Chinese and Qatari interests anyway.

CHEERS NEOLIBERALISM.

[Sir Snipes]

If it wasn't the weird apricot Derbyshire Council vans, it was utterly knackered Blue Arrow transits that almost always looked like this once they left service.

 

Slidey door!

[vulgalour]

Sorry yes, WHITE arrow.  I must have got confused because it's a blue van.

[chaseracer]

Why don't they go to Luton for a British built foreign van? Or to SAIC for the authentic foreign built British van?

 

 

[Mr A Lawrence]

When I was a lad my dad had a viva ha van ex British rail, another viva ha van ex BT, a dodge space van ex BT and an ex white arrow transit with sliding doors.

 

There used to be a van centre in Leeds dark in the day that sold ex fleet stuff from Royal Mail, BT, white arrow, British Gas etc.

 

Royal Mail vans were properly fucked sherpa vans.

[simmo]

I loved my Ex Kodak sliding door 1600 OHV Transit.  I bought it directly from Kodak, an old gf worked there.  They would sell off there vehicles cheaply to staff but strickly one only.

 

 

So it was really lucky that her brother worked there as well allowing for the purchase of the unlivered 'Cake Bus'.

 

[Uncle Jimmy]

Get in the back of the Vaaan!!

[Uncle Jimmy]

Royal Mail's 2017 vehicle procurement plans were hit by budgetary concerns.

A funeral I attended some years ago featured a Scarab in use as a hearse.

[bramz7]

Proof that I wasn't fibbing about the Rediffusion Escort. It lives about a mile or so away from me.

 

1980 Ford Escort Base. by Sam Osbon, on Flickr

 

1990 Ford Escort L. by Sam Osbon, on Flickr

 

1990 Ford Escort 1.3 L. by Sam Osbon, on Flickr

 

Assumed both yellow Escorts are ex BT/BR.

 

1992 Ford Escort 1.3 Base Estate. by Sam Osbon, on Flickr

 

Hard to tell but this one was BT Grey. Looked insanely grim inside, super base model.

 

1989/90 Ford Escort Combi Popular. by Sam Osbon, on Flickr

 

1986 Ford Fiesta 950 Popular Van. by Sam Osbon, on Flickr

 

 

 

Probably got more somewhere.....

[Tayne]

Don't forget the bakers.

 

 

Nowadays its all vinyl wraps on white vans but there was a time when it was painted.

 

 

 

 

 

Now you might be thinking the Merc isn't ex-Thain's but merely the worst A-team replica van.

 

I assure you its a bonafide biscuit bus, a pukka pie wagon, it just happens to have a huge rust repair related tide mark.

 

If you don't believe me, have a look at the Mot history.

[Jams]

What happens to the cars they use around the airports?

 

When being at Manchester or Liverpool airport you can always see an old escort van or the like nocking about! Some foreign lands it's not unusual to see novas etc!!

[mat_the_cat]

My mate had an ex-BT Escort:

 

[catsinthewelder]

I'm currently using a small utility companies 2nd worst van,  a ten year old MWB Transit with 195k and 2 warning lights that is nicknamed Rusty.  The worst one is an ex BT workshop on a 54 plate that is currently being welded back together,  it is generally known as the Ice Cream Van and is really slow.

[sierraman]

What happens to the cars they use around the airports?

 

When being at Manchester or Liverpool airport you can always see an old escort van or the like nocking about! Some foreign lands it's not unusual to see novas etc!!

Went to Lanzerote earlier this year, at Arecife Cepsa still use the mid 70's Mercedes and Deutz tractor units to refuel the aircraft. They effectively live sheltered lives, given they are specialised vehicles, it's cost effective to keep them going for 40 years obviously.

 

Saw an Astra Mk3 at East Midlands recently as well, they cover very few miles so they don't wear out.

[martc]

Then half an hour later they get back in the van, move it a couple of hundred yards and repeat the process so the engines never warm up. Not good for a diesel with a dpf. The van I was in today has only done 14k miles in five years but it only does six miles a day, never goes more than two miles from the office and barely ever reaches fourth gear, let alone fifth.

 

It's a ridiculous way of working but someone upstairs decided this was better than bikes. Apparently the next lot of vans will be petrol which will be interesting. I didn't think anyone even made petrol vans anymore.

 

 

Saw an Astra Mk3 at East Midlands recently as well, they cover very few miles so they don't wear out.

 

Does not compute; one comment cancels the other leaving a void of ignorance...

[sierraman]

The Astra wouldn't wear out in that use, it'd be a 1.7 old type direct injection diesel. The bipper has a much more harder life stopping and starting id have thought.

[Ghosty]

My dad borrowed a Laguna 1 1.9DCi estate from his old work that was a (registered) airport field car his company used to get to hangars etc.

He actually spoke well of it (strange as he despises French cars - but that's probably the only one he's ever driven), it was dirty but fundamentally tidy.

[AnthonyG]

I think airport vehicles get used until they die. They never venture outside the airport so don't need Mots etc. Andy CMS has some great stories about Glasgow airport shitters. From what he was saying Scottish weather and abuse kills them eventually.

 

I imagine a 1970s German lorry in somewhere like Portugal would probably keep going until lack of a crucial part like a clutch plate stopped it.

[eddyramrod]

In Southport in the 70s and 80s there was an industrial heat-treatment firm called Cooperheat, which had a fleet of black and orange HA vans, later joined by Marina vans IIRC.  Can I find a pic of one online?  Take a guess.  For many years, you could tell who'd bought one of their cast-offs as the livery was so distinctive.

 

Before I was born, and for a little while after, my dad worked for Tyresoles, which was absorbed into Dunlop.  They provided him with an Austin Three-way van, and later a Bedford CA, neither of which I can remember but apparently I loved a ride in the Bedford in my carrycot.

This is the only halfway decent pic I can find online of a Tyresoles van, and it's bigger than either of his.  Somewhere I believe I have a small snap of the CA, featuring me in my pram.  If I can find it I'll scan it in, but the reason I'm fairly sure is that I found it a while back and then bought an old Matchbox CA to paint up in the livery (which I still haven't done, tut).  I was told the livery was navy blue and light yellow, almost cream.  One would expect to recognise these even after they left service, I imagine.

[2MB]

My 1st work van was a t reg ex royal mail escort in 2003. When I put it in for an m.o.t. at 4 years old it needed brake pipes and a patch on the passenger sill. I watched him poke his pokey thing straight through it. It was the slowest vehicle I've ever driven as well. I reckon it was restricted.

They're all that slow

[Pillock]

Rumour has it Kodak and Rediffusion had a deal where they would buy equal quantities of white vans and yellow vans, slice them horizontally with a really sharp saw and swap tops and bottoms over to create their liveries.

[Pillock]

You can often tell an ex-BT van of 1990s vintage as they almost always had an O as the middle letter of the registration. All Birmingham reg I believe

[tooSavvy]

My MM1000 yellow '70 was VDC846J... My mam didn't like the reg

 

TS

[doug]

Don't forget the bakers.

 

IMG_6006.JPG

 

Nowadays its all vinyl wraps on white vans but there was a time when it was painted.

 

 

 

 

 

Now you might be thinking the Merc isn't ex-Thain's but merely the worst A-team replica van.

 

I assure you its a bonafide biscuit bus, a pukka pie wagon, it just happens to have a huge rust repair related tide mark.

 

If you don't believe me, have a look at the Mot history.

The reg plate on that Merc is worth a few bob around these parts!!

[Rod/b]

Don't forget the bakers.

 

IMG_6006.JPG

 

Nowadays its all vinyl wraps on white vans but there was a time when it was painted.

 

 

 

 

 

Now you might be thinking the Merc isn't ex-Thain's but merely the worst A-team replica van.

 

I assure you its a bonafide biscuit bus, a pukka pie wagon, it just happens to have a huge rust repair related tide mark.

 

If you don't believe me, have a look at the Mot history.

The MOT history on that is epic! Most years take at least 3 attempts! Deffo one for the "Just Fucking Scrap It" thread.

 

A1 FUD indeed

[Shep Shepherd]

I recall seeing a lot of ex-Central Electricity Generating Board vans in the late 1980s in my neck of the woods, mainly mark 2 and 3 Escorts and mark 2 Transits; their orangeness gave them away:

 

 

A black and white photo, but the only decent photo of CEGB vehicles that I've been able to find. That Ford A Series .

breakdown truck is a beast!

 

I happened upon a really rotten early model mark 3 Escort 55 van still sporting its CEGB paint and logos in my local scrapyard in 1996, which belonged to my local power station (Richborough, which at the time was closing) and must have been taken out of use well before the station transferred to Powergen ownership in 1990 or so; I imagine that being subjected to the corrosive effects of power station fly ash sealed its fate at an early age.

[Tayne]

This orange

 

[ProgRocker]

Isn't that a White Arrow Van? id forgotten about them loads of them were sold off cheap too!

 

My late mother used to be an agent for Kays mail order catalogue in the 1980s and 90s and the delivery driver would turn up with orders in something like this (or from memory the older boxier Transit from the 80s).

[LabRat]

Back when I was growing up in the late 80's early 90's, grandfather LabRat used to work for Fletcher's Bakery in Sheffield on their bread vans. They had a fleet of vans liveried up in Burgundy and cream and used them as mobile shops going round the various estates. Don't know how many survived as the drivers got the chance to buy them off when the company stopped the rounds.

 

I've got fond memories of rattling around in the back of his old mk2 transit v4 and stuffing myself silly on pastries!

 

He started out with an old Bedford van and ended up retiring with the transit- terminal rust was getting to the pair of them by that point. Unfortunately this is the only photo I can find of the fleet that isn't black and white.

 

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