Astran / Middle East Drivers

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OLD TIME LORRIES, COMPANIES AND DRIVERS (INTERACT
6041

GS OVERLAND:
HI guys
Here is some info about TAF. It has Knights of Old origins.
GS

KNIGHTS OF OLD.
Company History

William Knight began transporting goods for the local community back in 1865, using a horse and cart. With family members soon entering the business, more work could be taken on and a strong and reliable reputation soon developed. In 1918 the company began to use motorised vehicles and ‘A’ licenses were granted for three trucks on inauguration of the Road Traffic Act in 1933. The company, which became Knights of Old Limited in 1957, was making steady progress, mainly in the agricultural industry until the decision was made to focus on general haulage in 1968. This resulted in the need for a change of location and the company moved to Cherry Hill in the village of Old, Northamptonshire. The new site enabled the company to expand by introducing warehouse facilities.

In 1978 Donald Knight saw the opportunities the Middle East was offering and started a Freight Forwarding and haulage company, Trans Arabian Freight (TAF). TAF quickly became recognised as a creative and practical Forwarder and began to get pressure from satisfied customers to handle their consignments to other parts of the globe. The Packing Division was opened in 1990 which manufactures cases, crates and pallets.

In order to continue the successful progression of the company the decision was made to move to a ten acre purpose built site adjacent to the A14, Kettering which included 100,000 sq ft of warehousing facility. The new site was not only practical with its central location and links to major motorways, it also advertised to the outside world we wanted to progress beyond the image of a traditional family haulage business and move into the world of supply chain logistics.

Since moving to the new site in 2000, we have become a multi-functional distribution company which handles more shipments in two days than in did in one month when we first moved to Kettering. The transport turnover has quadrupled and the warehousing turnover has doubled. We have doubled the number of staff and have added a further 20,000 sq ft to the site.

I believe that Dennis Knight was a brother to Donald or related in some way or other. He used to run to Saudi in the mid/late 70’s and was quite some guy, another one who could survive on 4-6hrs sleep per night.
I don’t know what happened to Dennis and have not seen or heard from him since the mid 90’s.

6042

Well… After a vacation in Africa, I thought there would be plenty to read on this thread, but it appears to be slowly dying. There are so many of us with so much to tell, so come on guys get it together…

The Novice

Meeting so many experienced drivers in those early weeks in Saudi, I soon realized that I knew very little about trucking and transportation and yet, most of the drivers I met were prepared to help and teach me things I never knew about the world of transport.
There would be times when they would make jokes at my expense, as it was obvious to them, that I was a novice and I never pretended to be anything but that. I would listen to their tales and experiences with awe, each trying to out do the other with their stories, some of which, I now feel were slight exaggerations, but wow to this novice the stories sounded fantastic, they would tell me of their experiences driving overland from the UK to Saudi and I wanted that experience, I wanted to do what they had done, I was hungry to learn.

Prior to my arrival in Saudi, I had never changed a wheel on a truck and certainly never repaired a puncture on the side of the road, I didn’t know what a trilex 3 piece wheel was and certainly would not have known how to split one and put it back together, but I was listening, watching and learning from what I considered to be “the masters”.
As each day passed, I was serving my apprenticeship, I was the boy in their eyes, but I was also like a sponge, just soaking up information and knowledge.

In the early weeks I was mainly running between Riyadh and Dammam on the old road, fighting to get passed trucks loaded with 70 tons of bagged cement, always watching for the chance to overtake and remain alive. The journey was approximately 7 hours on the old road and the night drive was horrendous, I had never encountered such stupidity on the roads either day or night, at times having to partially leave the road to avoid the 20 foot container coming towards me being carried sideways on the trailer without marker lights. The accidents and deaths on that old two way road from Riyadh to Dammam were unbelievable; the desert littered with accident damaged vehicles that served as sorry epitaphs for the unlucky drivers.

It was while I was in Dammam that I first came across Rynart Transport, the drivers were mainly Turks, with the exception of an English guy who later, tragically got killed on the OGEM construction site in Dammam, named after the Dutch company that built it but now known locally as Wow City.

Like many of the other drivers I had met in Saudi, most of the Rynart drivers were overland drivers who appeared to have been everywhere that I had not been, but then, prior to Saudi I had never been anywhere; this was my first time outside of England.

The Rynart Turkish drivers were true professionals who treated me with the utmost respect, their hospitality was like I had never experienced before in my life.
Even though, they must have known that I didn’t have the same level of knowledge and experience as they had, it didn’t matter to them. They were always polite and willing to show me a better way to do the job. I remained good friends and stayed in contact with many of the Rynart drivers for years to come and would often meet up with them on my future overland trips.

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try”……

6043

is this an interest to anyone.
gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/gener … s-1.608119

6044

Hi R.D.Fox, you were certainly thrown in at the deep end, I should of thought that after arriving from the U.K. to the heat of the Middle East and trying to adapt to such a different culture was bad enough on it’s own. It’s not surprising that there were such a lot of trucks abandoned down there and it also accounts for why there were so many one trippers. As you know there were lot’s of Turks working for the Dutch company’s of Rhynart Trucking and Stolk International and they also employed a few British drivers.
On my first trip to Turkey I went with a guy who had been doing internals in Saudi for I.I.R.C. a couple of years and had made enough money to buy a new flat ( as in house not trailer ) in the U.K.
John had been in The Fleet Air Arm, I do remember him telling me that he had been in Hong Kong just before he got demobbed and that it was in the early seventies. The Royal Navy got him the job with P.and O. Roadways, The Navy put him through his class one and soon after arriving back in the U.K. he was flown out to Saudi. His story sounded a bit different to yours though, in fact it sounded a bloody good job from what he told me.
They lived in the P. and O. camp where they had their own accommodation, mess, garage ( and a secret bar ) and they also had a servant to do their washing. I think that he said that they had brand new Volvo 88’s with air conditioning while all the locals had old American trucks or donkey carts. As you know the ports at this time were virtually at a standstill and as a lot of the time was spent delivering containers, there were also times when he would be sat around doing nothing but he still got fully paid.
It was a good job with great pay and hardly anything to spend it on but two years for John was long enough.
So is there anyone else on Trucknet reading this or does anybody know somebody who did internals in Saudi and worked for P. and O. or for any of the other British companies who were down there in the seventies, there must be some of those drivers still alive.
I didn’t know that you had been on holiday AGAIN Red :open_mouth: , I can never work out when you are in Kuwait, The Cape or anywhere in between and thanks for recommending that we should visit the old Mutra Souk and the Al Qaboos Mosque while we were in Muscat :smiley: . I don’t know when you or M.& C. Jamie were last down there in Oman but I bet there has been quite a few changes in the last thirty years. I shall try and get some photos of Muscat on here over the weekend. What an amazing place, it had a nice feel factor to it and the couple of Omani’s that I spoke to were really helpful and friendly.

Best regards Steve.

6045

Hi Steve…Holidays…I only take 3 months a year :smiley:

Some drivers for the major players in Saudi were very well looked after but spent most of their time doing what we called local runs Dammam — Riyadh. At that time the most popular Arab choice of truck was as it is today, Mercedes.There were however most other European and American trucks out there as well including FORD or was it DORF :wink:
We didn’t have any house slaves, mess rooms and bars albeit, managed to get a smoke and a drink from time to time, if my memory serves me correct a litre of Red at that time was around 200 SR, a little less than 30 GBP compared to the current price of around 90 GBP, thats why we drank Sid and Coke. :open_mouth:

We did our own washing and had the treat of a shower from time to time at a camp or on return to base.
While out there I got divorced and to celebrate I had procured a bottle of RED only to find out later from my lawyer there had been a bit of a problem and the divorce had not been finalized. :cry:
As John says the money was good and very little to spend it on with the exception of gold which at that time for 18 carat it was approx 2.5GBP a gram.
The job was tough and at the same time this is where I served my apprenticeship. It was a very special learning time of my life that I am pleased I never missed out on.
As you know, there are those who always expect the change to come from others, yet to succeed, it is we who must adapt and learn about the cultures of others. By doing this we grow as individuals.

Take care…RED…

6046

RED

I see u mention red costing 200 SR a ltr are u refering to wine or diesel I remember diesel costing 5 to 7 SR for a 100 ltr, Red wine about 35 to 50 SR on the blackmarket and the Saudi nationals drunk more than we did :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: .

Roger

6047

Hi Scrummie Rog…. :wink:
The “Red” I mentioned costing 200 SR a litre was JW Red with the walking man logo produced in Kilmarnoch. :stuck_out_tongue:
The current cost is between 550 & 600 SR per litre. :open_mouth:
Indeed the Saudi nationals were never short of the stuff then, and are certainly not short now. I can always depend on a couple of litres at Birthdays and Christmas from the locals. :unamused:
As I remember,the cost of diesel was never below 7 SR per 100 liters unless you are talking pre 1977 in which case I would not know… :wink:

Take care…RDF

6048

Would i be right in thinking that THE book will be hitting the street corners soon■■? I know that there will be a ‘bit of a bash’ for the old Astran guys, just thought i’d post a request - please remember to take your cameras for the not so fortunate like myself!!! Will be a marvellous experience, i can bet. The power of word is amazing sometimes, despite not being old enough to have been in on the act when m/e was at it’s biggest, reading thru some of the gems put up here helps quench an otherwise impossible thirst for what it must have been like. The one thing that springs to mind at the moment because of the good weather, is the unrelenting heat that would have had to endure. I spent 4 years backpacking thru india, burma, thailand, etc. thus have experienced that heat but, and it is a big but, i didn’t have to work and when it got too much i could just find some shade and flake out. i don’t suppose for one minute that there was an awful lot of shade to park the cab in when driving thru the desert! It’s a reflection of the type of ‘old hands’ that post on here, because i’ve yet to read many grumbles or moans about the difficulties - i appreciate that a lot of time has passed, therefore, things never appear as bad as they were, it would be of interest to hear some of you to confess to what were the less than pleasurable aspects of the trip.

There’s got to be a load more tales/info/memories that ought to be posted, i’m thinking that maybe a lot of you have taken it all in your stride and probably don’t think it’s worth mentioning - you’re WRONG. All ■■■-bits are appreciated because every little helps build up a picture of the job.

Anyways…on that note…goodbye.

6049

Hi what2do

Downside to the job as follows not in any particular order
air con breaking down, changing wheels , sand in your food ( thats why they call them sandwiches )
Toilet facilities or lack of , and sand again if you get my drift :smiley:
To me as an ex o/d the delays at the borders and customs were always the biggest pain as time is money
And my other favourite gripe was turning staight round and going back out, Only did this twice though,
even though we knew what the job was about, we all wanted time at home with our families, Priceless !

Regards
Kenny

what2do:
Would i be right in thinking that THE book will be hitting the street corners soon■■? I know that there will be a ‘bit of a bash’ for the old Astran guys, just thought i’d post a request - please remember to take your cameras for the not so fortunate like myself!!! Will be a marvellous experience, i can bet. The power of word is amazing sometimes, despite not being old enough to have been in on the act when m/e was at it’s biggest, reading thru some of the gems put up here helps quench an otherwise impossible thirst for what it must have been like. The one thing that springs to mind at the moment because of the good weather, is the unrelenting heat that would have had to endure. I spent 4 years backpacking thru india, burma, thailand, etc. thus have experienced that heat but, and it is a big but, i didn’t have to work and when it got too much i could just find some shade and flake out. i don’t suppose for one minute that there was an awful lot of shade to park the cab in when driving thru the desert! It’s a reflection of the type of ‘old hands’ that post on here, because i’ve yet to read many grumbles or moans about the difficulties - i appreciate that a lot of time has passed, therefore, things never appear as bad as they were, it would be of interest to hear some of you to confess to what were the less than pleasurable aspects of the trip.

There’s got to be a load more tales/info/memories that ought to be posted, i’m thinking that maybe a lot of you have taken it all in your stride and probably don’t think it’s worth mentioning - you’re WRONG. All ■■■-bits are appreciated because every little helps build up a picture of the job.

Anyways…on that note…goodbye.

6050

Hi Kenny

Reading your message, the border delay bit made me smile :smiley: Border delays never affected people like Andrew Wilson Young or Mike Walker…Get Gavin (GS Overland) to tell you of his experience running with Mike…If he has recovered from it that is… :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

6051

Reddesertfox:
Hi Kenny

Reading your message, the border delay bit made me smile :smiley: Border delays never affected people like Andrew Wilson Young or Mike Walker…Get Gavin (GS Overland) to tell you of his experience running with Mike…If he has recovered from it that is… :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Hi Red

Tell me more :smiley: Surely they did not wait in line Unthinkable really !!!

Kenny

6052

sgt major roadworks:

Reddesertfox:
Hi Kenny

Reading your message, the border delay bit made me smile :smiley: Border delays never affected people like Andrew Wilson Young or Mike Walker…Get Gavin (GS Overland) to tell you of his experience running with Mike…If he has recovered from it that is… :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Hi Red

Tell me more :smiley: Surely they did not wait in line Unthinkable really !!!

Kenny

Hi Kenny

Those two were flyers not drivers, :unamused: Border delays seldom appeared to slow them down. I thought I had done well to arrive in Mina Qaboos in 11 days :smiley: until Mike did it in 10 days. :cry: How did he do it ?. I don’t have the answers. It was not just a one off they did it trip after trip… :smiley:

6053

Hi Guys
As RED has mentioned, I ran with Mike Walker on several occasions and albeit hard work, the trips were good and quick. Mind you, a certain red desert fox didn’t used to hang about either…! :laughing:
My mind has gone a bit blank but I do remember one trip, Mike and I leaving Rotterdam after “topping up” and then it was hell for leather, richtung DDR. This was a favorite transit of mine because you could get out of Western Europe legally on 1 tacho from Zeebrugge and into the cherry quicker. We must have travelled so quick because I cant remember where or if we parked up. Mike would typically start his driving day at about 4.30-5am with a quick bowl of cereal and then set off.

As we were running together, I would get up early too. Drive until about 10. O’clock, blow some diesel over, quick coffee, gone again, drive until about 4pm, blow some diesel across,can of Pepsi, a quick sandwich, gone again, drive till about 9pm pump some more diesel, a sliced green Capsicum with a bit of salt, a quick coffee, gone again, drive until about 2am, park up, a bite to eat and a quick drink, hit the sack…Knock knock, “come on, we’re leaving”!!.
Look at the watch, it’s 4.30am. and so the process began again. These long days and big hits were only possible once in Turkey, Iraq and Saudi because as many of you chaps will remember, the Commie-Bloc borders could take for ever some trips depending on what time you got to them. So enter Turkey at Kapik and then go straight through to Ankara, early start, get to Aksaray tank farm, drop the belly tank, next stop Urfa !!
During the Gulf War, we had to transit Syria/Jordan and so we were all at the mercy of the convoys and borders, which at least meant a nights sleep because they closed at night. But then once into Saudi, it was back to the big hits. I remember one trip when Mike and I were tipped in Doha and back empty to Istanbul in 13 days, then we split up, I went to Bulgy to load and Mike loaded in Yugo for Alison.
My poor old 141 didnt know what was going on.
I didnt always do trips like that, I would do long days but have a bit of time in between. But then again, I didnt have a big Mortgage around my neck.
Happy days.
GS

6054

A story very well told Gavin - brings back memories of Mike to a T :smiley:

6055

BEING A (GOLD +) MEMBER OF ASTRAN,AND THERE IS ONLY 2 POSSIBLY 3 OF US IN THE ASTRAN EXPRESS CLUB…LAAA…THE EXPECTANCY TIME IS CURRENTLY 8 DAYS…TREDEGAR TO ANCONA…IGOUMENITSA TO HADITHA…(ARRIVAL TIME BABELHAWA NO LATER THAN 14.30 LATEST)…HADITHA TO DOHA…RAMADA REFRESHMENTS THANKYOU VERY MUCH…SO COME ON MR.SMITH PULL YOUR FINGER OUT

6056

The route must have been made easy by the pioneering men for the modern day boys…

Ouch :wink:

6057

Eh up Laa…Where ave you been ? Have you settled in. BBQ and tinnys on the beach.
We didnt have motorways all the way in my day !!
Have you just done a trip.
Well said Alison.
GS

6058

THATS CORRECT,28 YEARS AGO EN-ROUTE TO TEHRAN,WITH PILOT HOUGHTON I DO RECALL IT BEING SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT,WITH A LITTLE LESS POWER AND NOT SO MANY AUTOBAHNS,ON OUR RETURN FROM BAZAGAN, PILOT HOUGHTON DECIDED TO TRANSIT TURKEY VIA GAZIANTEP IN THE SOUTH,FOR SOME DODGY UNKNOWN REASON NEVER TO BE MENTIONED AGAIN TO THIS DAY.BIG MEMORIES OF SITTING ON A WASHED AWAY ROAD ON TARSUS PICKING GRAPES WATCHING TONKAS AND PILOT HOUGHTON TRYING TO DEAL WITH THE SUBSIDED TRACK IN HIS 111 DUTCH SCANIA…ACTUALY WHEN I WAS DOING A TRIP TO AZER/BAKU 14 YEARS AGO IT REMINDED ME A LOT OF THE EARLIER DAYS, ROAD/BORDERS/TERRAIN/ETC…BUT LIKE I SAID THESE TRIPS CAN BE QUICK IF YOU KNOW HOW TO WORK THE HEAD AT THE BORDERS…HADITHA BEING A FAVOURITE OF MINE.

6059

OR RITE LAA, CANT HELP MESELF, JUST LOVE SOME OF THE REPLYS, SAD I NO…QUIET ON THE TRIP FRONT AT THE MOMENT, FINGERS CROSSED NOT TO LONG NOW…JUST COLLECTING AIR MILES @ THE MOMENT,GLOBERLY…BEST THING WE EVER DID GETTING OUT OF THE UK, EVEN THO I AM HERE NOW SORTING A FEW THINGS OUT(CAR,PERSONAL AFFECTS ETC)HOWS IT GOING

6060

sgt major roadworks:
Hi what2do

Downside to the job as follows not in any particular order
air con breaking down, changing wheels , sand in your food ( thats why they call them sandwiches )
Toilet facilities or lack of , and sand again if you get my drift :smiley:
To me as an ex o/d the delays at the borders and customs were always the biggest pain as time is money
And my other favourite gripe was turning staight round and going back out, Only did this twice though,
even though we knew what the job was about, we all wanted time at home with our families, Priceless !

Regards
Kenny

what2do:
Would i be right in thinking that THE book will be hitting the street corners soon■■? I know that there will be a ‘bit of a bash’ for the old Astran guys, just thought i’d post a request - please remember to take your cameras for the not so fortunate like myself!!! Will be a marvellous experience, i can bet. The power of word is amazing sometimes, despite not being old enough to have been in on the act when m/e was at it’s biggest, reading thru some of the gems put up here helps quench an otherwise impossible thirst for what it must have been like. The one thing that springs to mind at the moment because of the good weather, is the unrelenting heat that would have had to endure. I spent 4 years backpacking thru india, burma, thailand, etc. thus have experienced that heat but, and it is a big but, i didn’t have to work and when it got too much i could just find some shade and flake out. i don’t suppose for one minute that there was an awful lot of shade to park the cab in when driving thru the desert! It’s a reflection of the type of ‘old hands’ that post on here, because i’ve yet to read many grumbles or moans about the difficulties - i appreciate that a lot of time has passed, therefore, things never appear as bad as they were, it would be of interest to hear some of you to confess to what were the less than pleasurable aspects of the trip.

There’s got to be a load more tales/info/memories that ought to be posted, i’m thinking that maybe a lot of you have taken it all in your stride and probably don’t think it’s worth mentioning - you’re WRONG. All ■■■-bits are appreciated because every little helps build up a picture of the job.

Anyways…on that note…goodbye.

I never had the luxury of air-con…so no problem with that breaking down. :frowning: I do recall how my left arm used to get terribly burnt (left ■■■■■■) with the sun beating down relentlessly on it and I would end up draping a towel over it for protection. Looked like a waiter about to serve someone! :laughing: :laughing: