UK to Morocco

[treadmill]

Looking at contract from UK to Morocco and being new to international work looking for some help. Have applied to change op licence to international. TM has international cert.. What documentation would I need to allow transport both for goods and vehicle including tolls etc. Journey would be via France, Spain into Gibraltar. Thanks in advance any help would be appreciated

[Grumpy_old_trucker]

Algeciras ferry, ferry from Gib goes once a week and as far as I know it doesn’t take accompanied freight.

[Gidders]

I believe there are quite a lot of ferries from southern Spain( Almeria,Motril,Malaga,Algeciras) to Tangier or a couple of ports in northern Morocco.Never been to Morocco myself.I do recall a friend from 35 to 40 years ago (lived near Sleaford? but forgotten his name)who used to do Morocco a lot.If I remember correctly he used to take bits of ladies undergarments down there where they would be made into complete garments for return.He could have been winding me up though.

[Mazzer2]

I would look at using the direct ferries to Spain, Poole/Portsmouth to Santander using them means you have still got 6 days to work with when you get to Spain, it used to be about 100 euro cheaper to go through France not sure if that is still the case. For tolls get an AS 24 box as this will cover both France and Spain, get a couple of fuel cards Repsol is probably the most common fuel station in Spain and does fuel cards.

[Franglais]

New to International work and looking at Morocco for a first contract?
.
Be careful....
.
Some people jump in and swim.
Some jump in and drown.
Those poor drowned persons make no posts.
.
Morocco is deep water.
.
.

[Suedehead]

Wind up

[treadmill]

Thanks for all the replies. Its not a wind up, just an opportunity has come up and we will risk one truck on one run initially. If it doesn't work out we can take the hit and if it does it could be quite lucrative

[Franglais]

I would look at using the direct ferries to Spain, Poole/Portsmouth to Santander using them means you have still got 6 days to work with when you get to Spain, it used to be about 100 euro cheaper to go through France not sure if that is still the case. For tolls get an AS 24 box as this will cover both France and Spain, get a couple of fuel cards Repsol is probably the most common fuel station in Spain and does fuel cards.

I dunno how quick Morocco customs are today, but getting a 48hr break when taking a load in wasn't a problem a few years ago.

[Simon]

I believe there are quite a lot of ferries from southern Spain( Almeria,Motril,Malaga,Algeciras) to Tangier or a couple of ports in northern Morocco.Never been to Morocco myself.I do recall a friend from 35 to 40 years ago (lived near Sleaford? but forgotten his name)who used to do Morocco a lot.If I remember correctly he used to take bits of ladies undergarments down there where they would be made into complete garments for return.He could have been winding me up though.

There used to be two big companies who did well out of a similar job, Maas and John Mann. The job was, rolls of denim from the UK to Poland, unload, wait for the denim to be cut, reload. Poland to Morocco, unload, wait for the cut denim to be sewn into jeans, reload. Morocco to Falkirk to unload, reload with rolls of denim, do it all again.
(It might have been Morocco to cut, Poland to sew, it was 20+ years ago and I didn't do it)
Mass is now Centrex and John Mann retired very comfortably thank you.
So taking ladies undergarments to Morocco to be sewn together is nothing at all unusual or surprising.

[Suedehead]

CEBE9497-28E4-4366-85AE-4EC8E676F18B.jpeg (41 KiB) Viewed 635 times

Its a shame that this legend is not around any more. He had certainly been there and had the T shirt.

[Wheel Nut]

CEBE9497-28E4-4366-85AE-4EC8E676F18B.jpeg

Its a shame that this legend is not around any more. He had certainly been there and had the T shirt.

But Will is still around

[Gidders]

I believe there are quite a lot of ferries from southern Spain( Almeria,Motril,Malaga,Algeciras) to Tangier or a couple of ports in northern Morocco.Never been to Morocco myself.I do recall a friend from 35 to 40 years ago (lived near Sleaford? but forgotten his name)who used to do Morocco a lot.If I remember correctly he used to take bits of ladies undergarments down there where they would be made into complete garments for return.He could have been winding me up though.

There used to be two big companies who did well out of a similar job, Maas and John Mann. The job was, rolls of denim from the UK to Poland, unload, wait for the denim to be cut, reload. Poland to Morocco, unload, wait for the cut denim to be sewn into jeans, reload. Morocco to Falkirk to unload, reload with rolls of denim, do it all again.
(It might have been Morocco to cut, Poland to sew, it was 20+ years ago and I didn't do it)
Mass is now Centrex and John Mann retired very comfortably thank you.
So taking ladies undergarments to Morocco to be sewn together is nothing at all unusual or surprising.

John Mann.That's the man.I remember him from years ago.Thanks,Simon.

[Big Ben]

Looking at contract from UK to Morocco and being new to international work looking for some help. Have applied to change op licence to international. TM has international cert.. What documentation would I need to allow transport both for goods and vehicle including tolls etc. Journey would be via France, Spain into Gibraltar. Thanks in advance any help would be appreciated

Sent you a P.M.

[Simon]

[quote="Gidders"John Mann.That's the man.I remember him from years ago.Thanks,Simon.[/quote]

No problem mate.
I was wracking my brain trying to remember his name, to no avail.
I had to leave that almost written post, go away and do something else before it popped up in my head

[Gidders]

[quote="Gidders"John Mann.That's the man.I remember him from years ago.Thanks,Simon.

No problem mate.
I was wracking my brain trying to remember his name, to no avail.
I had to leave that almost written post, go away and do something else before it popped up in my head [/quote]


By coincidence,there's a picture of John Mann's truck in another thread. "North Africa?"

[Grumpy_old_trucker]

Many years running with John Mann’s drivers when I worked for G&S international, Saturday night on the Pride of Bilbao out of Portsmouth, usually quite a few of their lads on it and ran down through Spain with them.
There was some great characters on that firm, never did North Africa myself but used to see them down at Algeciras, we loaded a lot round that area as we had a yard at Chipiona just south of Seville.
Thought that the Morocco work had dried up but I hear that one or two guys are still running down there from the UK.

Is there any money in it nowadays? Very much doubt it.

[the maoster]

Living where I do there are still a few of the old Mann boys around propping up the bars. Some proper stories out of them guys

[Wheel Nut]

They have been shipping a lot of trailers unaccompanied in recent years. There is a bit of a drug/migrant problem at the ports.

Davies Turner and Daly Transport. DTS were big players too.

[Grumpy_old_trucker]

Living where I do there are still a few of the old Mann boys around propping up the bars. Some proper stories out of them guys

If memory serves me right the yard was at Heckington, John was a friend of my late brother, met him quite a few times many years ago, the question was always the same “come and work for me”, the answer was always the same, “No John I’m happy where I am”.

[Tarmaceater]

I heard that local kids were paid to disrupt foreign hauliers in Morocco, apparently stones and rocks thrown at trucks , red lines cut while moving in slow traffic so you are stranded with no air to move on .

[Mazzer2]

New shipping route opening from UK to Morocco will take 3 days

[Grumpy_old_trucker]

New shipping route opening from UK to Morocco will take 3 days

Not the same outfit that started running a freighter from the UK to La Rochelle years ago?
Can’t remember where it shipped from, could’ve been Hull or Immingham, don’t think it was from the south coast ports.
Didn’t last long if memory serves me right.

[Mazzer2]

New shipping route opening from UK to Morocco will take 3 days

Not the same outfit that started running a freighter from the UK to La Rochelle years ago?
Can’t remember where it shipped from, could’ve been Hull or Immingham, don’t think it was from the south coast ports.
Didn’t last long if memory serves me right.

It is being run by United Seaways and sailing from Poole to Tangiers on a weekly basis

[Gidders]

There used to be a ferry from Poole to somewhere in Portugal back in the 80s.All I recall is that apparently it used to roll around a bit judging by the many shades of green on the faces of drivers as they disembarked.

[Tarmaceater]

The freighter from Poole to Portugal went to Porto which was the dock of Leca de Palmeiria next to Matosinhos , but I think it went to unaccompanied trailers only and no drivers and there was a roll on , roll off service to Vigo in Northern Spain which is not far from Porto.
At some time , drivers did accompany their vehicles on the above services.

[Tarmaceater]

A lot of John Mann drivers met and married local girls in Morocco as the rent for flats was cheap and the cost of living , Tony Bradfield had an apartment there and a local lass .So in theory you could have a wife in every port , one in England and a few in Morocco.