JOHN HOLLAND:
I am trying to contact Peter Cannon Ex transport manager from Asian Transport as I also worked for Asian Transport in the 1970 - 76 if any one has Email address for Peter please PM or give him my which is johnholland042@gmail.com I would appreciate it. Regards John Holland
Hello John
I’ve sent you a p.m. to your email with Peters details
Rip to Roger, met him a couple of times, as you do, a great guy to be with.
tonyive, i believe i met you sometimes, you certainly jog the memories of Asian transport, with most of those names. yes i started with them when they had just the office in Chislehurst, with Jeff ruggins having took me on my first trip that far. I too had an Avis Volvo, picked it up along the euston road, with john holland, and brand new as well, an N registration.
Hi truckyboy. I must admit I don’t recognise the name “truckyboy”. Suddenly I’m starting to remember many of the names and some of the reasons why I remember them.
See if you can remember who I am describing. We’re sitting round the pool at the Mocamp, this gentleman turns, I believe he’s wearing a tartan cap. Everyone knows him,
he orders 10 Efes, there’s only five of us at the table he makes six. We each have a beer and start to drink, by the time we have finished one beer all the beers are empty.
I order the next round of 10 beers, you’ll recollect the first order was 10 beers, it would have been churlish not to follow suit. By the time each one of us had bought a round
60 beers had been bought. I only drank 6 of those 60 as did most of the others. I suggest that was a very cheap session for the man who bought the first round. That man
could drink a bottle of Efes quicker than I could sink a tot of whisky. I only got caught once. After that session I always insisted I bought my own when in his company.
Other names that pop up are David Miller, Mickey Fitzell, Alan Warner, Barry Clarke, Freddy Wilmot. I can see so many that I can’t remember the names of. I’m sure there
are a lot on this site who I knew but don’t recognise the pseudonym. How about Fredde Clousen, he drove for J&T then ran their Kuwait office. I believe J&T only ever pulled
for Astran until they became Oryx.
You’ll remember that we would use TIR trailers. My first trip out of Europe was pulling one of these. The problem was that the brakes must have been pretty near shot when
the trailer was picked up. I was coming down Toros before I realised the unit was doing most of the braking. Now I was a tyro on these roads so I might have contributed to the
problem by perhaps driving faster than I should. Luckily Bob Paul and Peter Cannon accepted my reason. When I got back off the next trip there was no more than basic wear.
That return trip from Kuwait to Ordu back to Mars was just about the steepest learning curve I ever experienced. Soggy pants just thinking about it.
Sorry about the brakes on your trailer Tony -
I ran TIR trailers and had a " love - hate " relationship with Astran ! Loved the guys at Astran and still keep in contact with Peter Cannon but hated the wear and tear on trailers used on M.E. route.
I first got involved with Astran when I worked for TIP trailer rentals and Astran had offices over a greengrocers in Chislehurst.
Another name you probably knew was Dave Poulton and another I only knew as Joe Ninety.
Enjoyed reading your narratives - I went on to operate into Northern Europe and enjoy all your experiences.
Hi OzzyHugh! Most of the time I had no problems with TIP. One trip does spring to mind though.
I picked up a trailer from TIP’s yard and thought great, new tyres. I should have looked closer. Everyone of those tyres had visited the barber.
I got down to Kuwait with only two punctures. I loaded 20 tons of nuts at Ordu then my problems started. By the time I got back to Chislehurst
I’d had 13 punctures and 5 blowouts. I lost one tyre in Germany, I didn’t have enough rope to tie it on properly. Peter Cannon is sure I sold it.
He got annoyed when I suggested that only he would buy re-cut tyres. I think I put 6 new tyres on when I got to Austria.
Here’s a story about Bob Vallas that will raise a few smiles. Peter Cannon was a stickler for receipts, no receipt, no pay was his method. Consequently
we all had little ways to get paid for those things you didn’t get a receipt for. They could add up to a few quid per trip. Bob Paul came into the yard
and said to Bob Vallas you’ve been caught, I’ll swallow what you’ve drawn so far but it stops here. M. Vallas looks suitably concerned and ask Bob P. what
he means. By this time Bob Paul is starting to laugh. He said I gave your trip sheets to Caroline to check last night. I believe Caroline was French. He went on,
" She laughed for 20 minutes before I could get a sensible word out of her. Every time she opened her mouth she started laughing again". By now Bob V had
caught on but still tried to keep a straight face. Bob P. just said, “Pample menthe”. Now I always thought that pample menthe was grape fruit and still do.
However, in colloquial French it means a “■■■■■■■■”. Bob V had been claiming this for years and got paid, no one bothered to query it until Bob P asked his wife
to save him a bit of time by looking at Bob V’s trip accounts. According to Bob V, he’d claimed for grapefruit four or five times a trip at £5 a time.
There’s another 10,000 miles on the clock.
Great stuff Tony - seems like you’ve got a lot of tales to put up on TruckNet about ME life as a driver.
Just going back to trailer tyres, we all used to re-cut the Michelins. When I ran TIR, I only used Michelin tyres but as I ran the tubeless 1100 x 22.5 on normal 12M TIR Tilts and 1000 x 20 on step frames, I always put on a spare wheel and a couple of inner tubes out with the those trailers going to M.E. but always had a feeling that somewhere along the line these got appropriated for other use ? I tried to help and be reasonable but the condition on return and some repairs done left a lot to be desired - the ingenuity of some of the repair shops doing running repairs and indeed the drivers was beyond belief in replacing springs, hubs etc,
Here’s one you may remember OzzyHugh. I was coming back from Saudi when I had a Left hand, front axle bearing collapse on my trailer.
I shoved the two wheels in the trailer. Knocked a hole through the trailer floor, jacked the axle up and chained it up round the chassis.
I then drove up to Ankara and took it into a shop to have the bearing replaced. Problem was they had no bearings that would fit so they
had to fabricate one. Two days later I was on my way to Ordu. I was checking the wheel nuts every morning , just cracking them up.
I was almost back to Austria when the wheel flew off and shot into a field on my right. Luckily there was a couple of English boys following
me so recovering the wheel was no great problem. It would seem that the Turkish mechanic had removed the opposite wheel and drum to
take bearing measurements. When he had made the bearing and refitted the two back he fitted the drums back on the wrong sides of the axle.
Every time I cracked those wheel nuts I was loosening them. I could only find a couple of wheel nuts so the other two lads took one off of each
of their wheels so I could have a full set. I got a few strange looks from drivers who couldn’t understand why I seemed to be tightening my
wheel nuts up in the wrong direction. Still no one got hurt.
On another occasion down in Iraq at Baghdad I sheered all the rear wheel studs on one wheel of my Volvo. I had to get my own stub axle from
a breakers yard. Those lads made me a complete set of wheel studs plus a couple of extras in just over a day.
G’day Tony - You’re bringing lots of old memories back now.
I do remember one rental trailer coming back with axle chained up and another ingenious running repair done on a trailer bearing were the bearings were contained in an old tin can packed with grease and it ran perfectly.
The wheel nut problem you mention wasn’t helped by the fact that UK trailers and Continental build trailers tightened in different directions (and TIP had both UK & Dutch, Belgian & U.S. built trailers). I can’t remember which way it was, I think UK trailers had left & right hand tighten threads, to throw the nuts tighter, and Continental all right hand tighten - maybe it was the other way round ? Such a long time ago now.
Another memory was those hazel nuts you used to bring back to Mars as a return load - I had a sack of them once and everyone who eat them suffered the trots as they were so rich and more’ish, couldn’t sit down for couple of days. Mind you it was more fun renting to people like the famed Augustus Barnet off licence hauliers and getting a few bottles of vino or Holstein beer from Germany in the days before computerised stock control took over.
I retired to Australia years ago and we have a lot of owner drivers out here - you may remember one - John Hollands who drove and subbed to Astran, who lives in Perth now. We still have a good few O.D’s and it’s a treat to see the customised cabs with chrome stacks, wheels etc, like the U.S.A. jockeys.
Glad to see the vote went to leave the controlling EU crowd, they’ll probably bring back TIR Carnets when that happens and start running tilts again ?
Cheers Hugh
Apologies if this has been posted before, but I’ve just found a you-tube '70s film called ‘La Route’ which appears to be a sort of French version of Destination Doha (except it goes in the Iran direction). It’s brilliant! Here’s the link. Robert
gd viewing robert memories of stories our kid would tell me and to see the wavy hand in window he had couple in the marathon and gave them to me wish i still had them 
Well just to tell a story about Jeff Ruggins and me. I started at Asian Transport at the same time as Jeff and over the next couple years we became good mates and I met Rita Jeff partner at the time but on one trip Jeff told me that Rita was putting the hard word on him to get married. On returning to the UK Jeff told me he was going to ask Rita to marry him and that we should catch up for a drink so after a couple of days at home I phoned Jeff to find out what was happening. Well the phone call went like this. Hi Jeff when the wedding then. Jeff Your not going to f…king believe this I got home and on the front door was a list. Number 1 in Jeff Ruggins life-- AMY the truck he drove. No 2 The Pub. No3 Chelsea Football Club and so on and she put herself at number 10. So Jeff said to he was in the ■■■■ and open the door and went into their flat and started to ask her to marry him. Then Jeff said to me on the phone your not going to believe what she said after I ask her to marry me. In his words she said that she wouldn’t marry him if he was the last f…king man in the world. F…k it he said meet me down the pub will have a few drinks. Jeff stayed with Rita until his death and I was with Rita at the funeral a really great couple RIP Jeff my old mate
Got to know Jeff very well when we were on SI together, a real gent, sadly missed.
I started driving 1980 done lots in Europe wish I had a go at Middle East. Fascinating reading the stories. How did firms work a rate out when there were so many things that could go wrong.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
try and learn method ı think first couple of trips wrong others less wrong and finally you find the true rate.
maybe thats why there is not so many rich people around from that business. for the drivers adventure couriosity etc more important than profit for the companies eh in the beginning (70-80 ies) i think the payments were highest rates of whole transportation history included camel transport someone who could catch that beautiful years as a middle east driver they lived a really different era regards
I am intrigued by this picture. It seems to be a preserved unit in Astran livery. Not sure about the registration plate! Robert
It’s a Frenchman that did that Robert.
newmercman:
It’s a Frenchman that did that Robert.
Ah! Thanks NMM. They seem to have done a good job with it - perhaps worthy of Anorak’s restorations thread. Robert
I believe he has a period tilt to put behind it too.
C’mon Robert,get sleuthing[you the man] 
.'Who is he,what [if any]Connection to Astran,where is the truck from originally,and so on.For us of more limited capacity. 
