The website oldoppos.co.uk was set up to help men and women who had served in the armed forces to get back in touch with old comrades. Sadly it didn't survive long, and the company that ran it went out of business in 2012.
Fragments of their website were preserved however. We have trawled through them and have recovered hundreds of personal messages - some humourous, some sad, some mundane, but all intensely human. We have re-published these because we feel that it is vital that we, and future generations, can re-connect with those who have gone before us.
Unfortunately we were unable to retrieve contact details of any of the men and women that left these messages and so we cannot help anyone to trace them. If you recognise any of them though, and would like us to add a message of your own to theirs, do get in touch.
We have also managed to recover a number of photographs that were uploaded by these contributors. Again we have been unable to match photos to individuals so if you recognise any of them we would love to hear from you.
In the meanwhile: do you need any
If you deliver goods of any kind you will need a form of insurance known as Hire and Reward. This applies whether you deliver truckloads of building stone, a few parcels for Amazon or even a burger from your local takeaway.
There are many different types of hire and reward insurance which you can buy from this website, depending on what type of goods you deliver, the kind of vehicle that you use for deliveries, and whether or not you deliver the goods to single destinations or multiple ones. Some people call it 'Courier Insurance' but strictly speaking this is incorrect; a courier is usually a person in a van who picks up goods from a central stock and then takes it to several different destinations that the driver may never have visited before. Those carrying a load to a single destination need a different type of policy which is more focussed on the type of goods they carry, rather than the number of drops they make.
Yes it can be which is why if you are a delivery driver you need expert advice of the type of insurance you need, as well as help in finding the lowest quotations.
Home deliveries have grown tremendously over the last decade, helped particularly with the rise of Amazon which has built it's business on fast deliveries of all sorts of goods. This is why there is a huge demand for drivers; as well as for cheap insurance for them!