The Len Valsler story – Part five

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By Alan Barnes

Following his acrimonious departure from Bewicks, Len was now faced with having no job, no money and no lorry but still with the ambition to begin his own haulage company.

After leaving Bewicks I went along to see Bill Wallis, not to ask for a driving job but to see if he was willing to sell me a lorry. He had an old Guy tractor unit which he said I could have for £1500. The only problem was that I had no money. Bill suggested that I sell my car for £500, he would let me have the Guy and I could pay him the rest when I got back on my feet. The deal was done and I took possession of Guy Big J DKM 98K and duly applied for my operator’s licence. Ken Brown agreed that I could keep on using part of the Hardy yard and I took on one of their few remaining drivers, Les Harpley, as he was about to be made redundant. So there I was, a garden shed for an office, one lorry and one driver and LV Transport was born.

The restored
Seddon SMU
412 – the
LVT livery
suits
it very well.

I telephoned some of the local customers and explained what had happened and as I had played fair with them in the past they stayed with me, my gain was Bewick’s loss. Tower Wharf Services let me borrow some of their trailers if I did their dock work for them and Dougie Brass from Northallerton agreed that I could backload his lorries when they were in the area. Tony Henderson at JH Henderson agreed to send down a trailer which would be left at my yard and used for any loads to Westmorland or Scotland and he would send one of his lorries to use for the changeover. I was really pleased that these two men were able to support me in my new venture and their help at this difficult time was something I will always be grateful for.

One of the first jobs we got was for Wallis Haulage and when Bill’s cheque arrived, being the first payment for LV Transport, I had it copied and framed and I still have it today. Needless to say the original was banked straight away. I even managed to upgrade the office accommodation as Ken finally agreed that I could replace the old shed with a portable building which had electricity, heating and a telephone – what luxury.

During that first week the Guy was busy working out of Reeds Tovill Paper Mill near Maidstone with loads for Chesham and Thatcham and local deliveries from Tovill to Aylesford on the other side of Maidstone. Ken Burrow, an owner driver, joined me as my first sub-contractor and he took out one of my first return loads. Ken stayed with me until he finished driving and sadly he died a few years ago. The ‘floodgates’ then seemed to open and in a short time many more firms had come on board. These included Ian Ormrod from Grange-Over-Sands, Norman Bradshaw from Kirkby Lonsdale, Darbyshire & Horabin from Garstang, Spinks from Darlington and James Cropper from Kendal. I back loaded all of these during my first week and they carried on working with me for many years.

Things were building up nicely and by now I had managed to pay back Bill the amount owed on the first lorry and I told him I was looking for a second vehicle which I badly needed to cover the local runs. He agreed to sell me another Guy JKL 601L with a deposit put down and the rest over time and I took on Roy Harpley as my second driver. The third vehicle on the fleet turned out be one I knew very well. Now owned by Tower Wharf it was RKT 479G the Guy I had driven at Wallis when it was brand new. Now it became part of the LV Transport fleet and I kept the unit for many years until it rusted quietly away. The three units were all pulling Tower Wharf trailers and on occasion I would nip over and borrow one of Bill’s if I needed to. He used to go ballistic as I didn’t always ask him but we used to smile about it – eventually.

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