Before I had the luxury of AC, I used to wet a towel and drape it over my head whist driving, the hot air rushing through the drivers window ( LHD aswell) would cool down through the wet towel and keep you cool.
GS
I donāt think that you guys have got any idea - but this is the sort of trivia that an āenthusiastā relishes in. Itās the minor touches that add most detail to the ābig pictureā, please donāt let it end there. I may have mentioned the heat but would i be correct in thinking that it would be bloody cold at night in the desertā ā ? Seems odd to think of the 2 temperature extremes in one 24 hour period, but at least it would offer some respite from the heat.
Was it always a hard slog or were there times where you took some R&R at the expense of losing a dayās travel?
After reading so many posts, it has occurred to me that some of you drove for a fair number of different outfits - why is this?
Why did the road aspect of transporting loads to m/e go on for so many years? didnāt the trade become established because their ports were chocabloc, surely they would have improved their shipping industry to overcome thisā ā ?
Itās obvious that the UK had a great number of trucks going overland, but what other nations were also big players? Asian Transport is quoted as being the first truck to go m/e (i think iāve got that correct), but were there any other foreigners doing the same before or very shortly after?
I guess thatāll do for now, thanks in advance for any replies.
what2do:
I donāt think that you guys have got any idea - but this is the sort of trivia that an āenthusiastā relishes in. Itās the minor touches that add most detail to the ābig pictureā, please donāt let it end there. I may have mentioned the heat but would i be correct in thinking that it would be bloody cold at night in the desertā ā ? Seems odd to think of the 2 temperature extremes in one 24 hour period, but at least it would offer some respite from the heat.Was it always a hard slog or were there times where you took some R&R at the expense of losing a dayās travel?
After reading so many posts, it has occurred to me that some of you drove for a fair number of different outfits - why is this?
Why did the road aspect of transporting loads to m/e go on for so many years? didnāt the trade become established because their ports were chocabloc, surely they would have improved their shipping industry to overcome thisā ā ?
Itās obvious that the UK had a great number of trucks going overland, but what other nations were also big players? Asian Transport is quoted as being the first truck to go m/e (i think iāve got that correct), but were there any other foreigners doing the same before or very shortly after?
I guess thatāll do for now, thanks in advance for any replies.
I waited for more knowledgeable drivers to answer but in the meantimeā¦donāt believe that Asian Transport were the first to go m/e but they were one of the bigger players in the early days.
I only drove for one outfit whilst on the m/e runs. However, I was tempted to move to other firms and got a few offers but for me it was a case of sticking with the devil you knew rather than the devil you didnāt!! 
Like a lot of non owner drivers I was paid trip money and there were times when I would take the odd day off for a spot of āR & Rā. but with the many delays one encountered caused by events out of oneās control (borders/ clearing customs etc.) when I was able to progress down the road I normally took the opportunity to do so.
A spot of R & R with the girlfriend, I think on the way down to Izmir or was it on the Black Sea coast? Oh well, whatever!
what2do:
I donāt think that you guys have got any idea - but this is the sort of trivia that an āenthusiastā relishes in. Itās the minor touches that add most detail to the ābig pictureā, please donāt let it end there. I may have mentioned the heat but would i be correct in thinking that it would be bloody cold at night in the desertā ā ? Seems odd to think of the 2 temperature extremes in one 24 hour period, but at least it would offer some respite from the heat.Yes it did get cold at night if parked in the desert in the middle of nowhere but it also stayed hot in some places.
I remember having a new scania August 1983 with No A/C, the first trip out with it was for whittles to Basra on arrival i had to wait two days for customs. August never was not the coolest of months !! B-Hot in the day even in the shade and what seamed to be just as hot at night maybe a little breeze at night with both doors open but nothing to make it any more comfortable. First thing i got done on return was to have a roof mounted unit fitted best money i ever spent.
Muscat city was another place that i thought never seamed to cool down much in the evenings either, by about 4am you would wake up sweating unless you choose to run the A/C all night.
Hats off to the guys that could work and sleep without an a/c but although I could run with no problem without it when i had to could never get a good nights kip unless i could cool down a bit first.
rondavies:
I waited for more knowledgeable drivers to answer but in the meantimeā¦donāt believe that Asian Transport were the first to go m/e but they were one of the bigger players in the early days.
i donāt claim to be an expert, but it tends to be acknowledged that wutthrich from lyss in switzerland, evensenās from norway and asian transport were the 3 who started overland runs from western europe - someone more knowledgeable may deny or add to this shortlyā¦
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 !!
GS what do you mean when you say āDROP THE BELLY TANK?ā
Marhaba Ashbarns !! 
I went to a hotel a couple of weeks ago to pick up a diver with the same name as you !! I thought that you were giving me a surprise visit, but alas noā¦! 
I realised that it wasnt you, you know why ā ā the diver cancelled. I dont think that you used to cancel !!
Oh well I suppose Florida is favoriteā¦
Ive just put the wife and baby to bed, cranked up the AC in the bedroom so that I dont get disturbed, Poured meself a Metaxa and Sprite ( yes I had saved a bottle !!) ooops the wife just came down, and stole a big sip of my drinkā¦
So now I will attempt to explain, Wiplashā¦
During my time driving to the middle-east, the Saudiās took a dislike to belly-tanks, they would take an oxy-acetelyne torch and cut them open,in search of contraband, rendering them useless. So to save the aggravation, some of us would leave our belly tanks at the tank farm at Taspinar near Aksaray, which is in central Turkey. we would pump out all the diesel that was left in the bellytank into drums,( bearing in mind that one would fill up everything to brimming in Bulgaria at 400ltrs for 100DM,) making note of how much we had and then pumping just enough back into the running tanks to get to Habur if transiting Iraq,or to Cilvegozu if transiting Syria. Later Musin, the guy that owned the tank farm fabricated tanks for us to deposit our diesel, but he also fabricated a way to get our diesel out of our fabricated tanks !! Thats another story. When transiting Iraq, I started to drop my belly tank at a truck stop at Osmaniye, between Adana and Gaziantep, they were more trustworthy there. My trucks had a capacity of 3000ltrs.
Then on the homeward stretch, because of the restrictions coming out of Syria ( 200ltrs) and Iraq (600ltrs), the diesel at the tank farm would enable you to get out of Turkey without buying squirt at the equivalent of 1DM per Litre on the pump, and getting back into Bulgy for the cheap stuff. Iraq had a limit of 600ltrs upon exit but some pillows, bananas and sometimes a bit of Baksheesh used to " raise the limit". Although get the wrong bloke and you could spend all day and night in the compound jostling to get the excess diesel pumped out. and that was like hell. Ask the
others!
This is what the Turks called ābelly tanksā I saw some that held over 7000 ltrs, and they were declaring that the trucks were empty !
They even used to get tanks made in Saudi, put them in the trailer like these in the photo and fill them, bribing everyone that needed it on the way back into Turkey.
It just didnt make sense,!! I used to come back through the Iraqi/Turkish border with 3 or 4, 45 gallon drums, full of cheap Iraqi diesel, strapped down in the empty trailer. It was all about where you strapped them down. The hardest part was finding the empty drums !! That could be a real mission in Iraq. I ended up getting empty drums in Qatar and the secret was to keep the lids in the cab, so that the Saudis could see that the drums were empty.
I found that if they were secured right at the back by the tailgate, when the Iraqi guard looked in the empty trailer through the corner of the tilt that was turned back open when empty, he didnt see the drums because he was looking further forward. The Turks didnāt give a toss !!
and so, thats how it was when we had cheap squirt from the Eastā¦
I hope that this clarifies the whole story.
GS
GS OVERLAND:
Marhaba Ashbarns !!
I went to a hotel a couple of weeks ago to pick up a diver with the same name as you !! I thought that you were giving me a surprise visit, but alas noā¦!
Oh well I suppose Florida is favoriteā¦
Ive just put the wife and baby to bed, cranked up the AC in the bedroom so that I dont get disturbed, Poured meself a Metaxa and Sprite ( yes I had saved a bottle !!) ooops the wife just came down, and stole a big sip of my drinkā¦Hi GS.
You may be right, the page with the word cancel was missing from my dictionary although i did know what forced delay means and how to make the best of it.
Intend packing up full time work this year before Christmas, Her in-doors and myself then intend spending the winter months in Florida so may surprise you next winter with a visit, would be good to see how the other half live and if you are still allowed to cancel.
DR
Hi GS.
You may be right, the page with the word cancel was missing from my dictionary although i did know what forced delay means and how to make the best of it.
Intend packing up full time work this year before Christmas, Her in-doors and myself then intend spending the winter months in Florida so may surprise you next winter with a visit, would be good to see how the other half live and if you are still allowed to cancel.
DR
[/quote]
Yes it would be a nice surprise if you made it down here. I can still cancel !! Do you remember when I would have my time off in Doha and then turn round quick in the UK, to get back down.
Windsurfing, deep sea fishing etcā¦
GS
what2do:
Was it always a hard slog or were there times where you took some R&R at the expense of losing a dayās travel?After reading so many posts, it has occurred to me that some of you drove for a fair number of different outfits - why is this?
Hi what2do, everybody ran differently usually to suit ones self or should I say that I.M.H.O. the majority of the drivers did. If you worshipped the Money God or you were just cab happy enough to drive 24/7 then that was up to you. Once a driver had left Western Europe it was not always an easy job if you were trying to contact the U.K. so were on you own. The best way was with the use of a Telex machine if you could find one. Some hotels and factories had them and if you wanted to use a telephone then this often involved booking a call and a long wait in a post office. The longest wait that I can remember was over five hours in the post office in Sinop on the Black Sea for what resulted in a two minute conversation to give me a reload address.
Having passed such interesting places like Ephesus, Troy, Crusader Castles and Gallipoli etc only by hundreds of yards or several kilometers away, it was always a case of I will have a good look around next time. Of course I never did get to see them properly, in fact it was only a couple of months ago that I actually did the tourist trip around The Acropolis some 25 years after I used to see it from the bottom of the hill. After being weekended in Athens on several occasions I am afriad now to say that I was led astray by the older drivers and the lure of Glyfadia Beach and the bars 
. Itās time like now that I think to myself would it of changed the world if I had spent four hours exploring these places probably not but having to wait another four hours for a ferry in Zeebrugge never did either 
.
I only worked for one company for over seven years and I agree with what Ron said, it was amazing how many drivers you met who said that it was their last trip as they had been offered another job with another company getting twice as much money as I was and a brand new motor. It was often the same people who you would meet a few months later who were working for another firm but driving a pile junk but now they were getting three times as much money as I was 
.
Once again i find myself saying āthanks a millionā because the latest posts have been enthralling, especially because they describe the some of the actual day to day conditions (truckers tan, etc.) and the aspects such as belly tanks which were unique to driving in that part of the world. Good to see that iām not alone in my questions of the m/e job, ie. Whiplash, perhaps he can come up with a few more!!
It also intrigues me as to where (not necessarily the towns/cities/countries) you were delivering to in the early days - nobody has really mentioned it before. I appreciate that it wasnāt all desert but i canāt imagine that there was a huge amount of industry at the beginning, hence, everything had to be imported - but what kind of locations were you delivering to?
As this was about the same time as the Hippy era, did you encounter many of them in their vans, buses and bikes? Iām not going to ask anything incriminating such as weather or not you got involved in the āfree loveā lol, but were they about? I know that they used to go as far as India, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia, so Iām thinking that you must have shared some road routes with them - iām probably wrong!!
If the previous posts are anything to go by, i wonāt be disappointed with the replies/pictures - fingers crossed and thanks for your efforts.
what2do:
As this was about the same time as the Hippy era, did you encounter many of them in their vans, buses and bikes? Iām not going to ask anything incriminating such as weather or not you got involved in the āfree loveā lol, but were they about? I know that they used to go as far as India, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia, so Iām thinking that you must have shared some road routes with them - iām probably wrong!! .
Top Deck Travel with their orange and cream double decker buses used to stop at The Londra Camping in Istanbul where their drivers used to service the vehicles. Most of their passengers were Aussie Shelias or Kiwi girls who liked a good laugh and could drink one or two drivers under the table. I do know that one Trucknet member used to drive buses to India in the seventies full of backpackers so I bet that he has a few interesting storys to tell. Although it seems that for most drivers on here things that happened over thirty years ago are now just a distant memory .
Anyway for M.&C. Jamie and The Red Desert Fox, here are a few photos that I took a couple of months ago when I stopped off in Muscat, it would be interesting to know if PILS was here on the same day .
A Fort in Muscat.
The Souk, Muscat, Oman.
Now I have always been fascinated in what you can find in ports and docks and there were certainly some interesting things waiting to load or unload in Muscat.
I havenāt seen one of these for years .
I wonder where this one was going to maybe Neil knows ?
Regards Steve.
I have enjoyed these latest snippets from the Astran thread and met many of these blokes as they queued on the stairs, called in the National for a Biftek and to read the telex messages, or were busy working the system in Kapik. Unfortunately my trips ended in Turkey and Greece generally but, I can honestly say that I wasnāt as tempted with affairs of the flesh on Glyfada beach. I must have been one of those cab rats, or more likely, just enjoyed the lorryist stories in St Nicks or Peters more.
I spoke to a friend on facebook recently who has just returned from Greece, almost 25 years since I took him out on his first trip, this time it was on a Boeing and a ferry. He reminded me of the good times and the various establishments we frequented, it mainly involved beer or metaxa rather than trying to fight the American Army
I canāt remember where it was, but certainly only a short drive from Keratsini, but I used the Fish Restaurant as often as I could after been taken there by a German driver. My first trip consisted of a 3 day delay in Brindisi because of the hazardous weedkiller I was carrying. it was banned from the world market & I was ārescuedā by a bloke from Portsmouth way I think who weighed about 25 stone and only ate icecream. He taught me how to bribe officials and in this case the capitanerie di porto. (Harbour Master) this drivers name was Ken and I came across him once again near the Corinth Canal when he had a puncture. I ended up lending him a spare wheel which I never got back. I also learnt that he had died while driving his green 142 Scania about 20 years ago. That was the one and only time I used the easy āholidayā route and opted for the longer but cheaper overland passage. It was on these overland trips that I came across the old men of the road, and some younger ones who were already well experienced mighty 141 pilots
At the time there were a few of us young upstarts, Neil from Landfast, David who drove his Dad,s new yellow Iveco and a few old hands who had been on for Chris Brearley. Dave Davenport, Carl Ryan, Mick Moody, father of Moody International and Pete Andrews mentored me. Pete and I had competitions as to who could round Istanbul on the least money. I often beat him and he was most upset, it took another Yorkshire man though Pete 
As fuel and belly tanks were mentioned earlier by Gavin. I knew about the tank farm and had the theory demonstrated to me by the master himself; John Williams, while we were making breakfast in a layby near Plzen. we were blowing diesel and he was interested in my belly tank, it was an old DOW Freight trailer I had purloined and it had an 1600 litre tank slung underneath, John was crawling about under it and showed me the quick release straps and the fact it was held on by these over centre clips and just 4 large nuts that were undone with a wheel brace. The tank was round and could then be rolled out from under the trailer by one man. I never came across that one man who could move a tank weighing about a tonne and a half on loose sand 
After that I used to demonstrate the tank to other drivers and wanted to remove it just to see how easy it was. I never did and the trailer ended up at auction.
One final part about the fuel was that on my first few trips, it was a sharp learning curve. I had heard you could buy black market diesel in Hungary and that there was a government voucher scheme for foreigners, you were supposed to buy them from the border ātouristā office. I never did and went to a fuel station in a small town and just expected to fill up and be on my way. The things that followed was reminiscent of scenes from Hello Hello with the āI shall say ziz only onceā Michelle. Apparently the garage owner was perfectly willing to sell me 1000 litres of diesel for 300 deutsche marks, about Ā£100 I seem to remember. forgive my figures but it was 25 years ago.
But the cloak and dagger antics continued, they made me park near a disused building and pointed to a clock, they were pointing to about 7pm and I didnāt understand. Maybe they were expecting a delivery, maybe they closed at 7, but no, it was because they closed at 5 and locked up, eventually out of the shadows crept the girl from the resistance in Hello Hello and the āstupid policemanā. Michelle took my money and counted it, meanwhile the āstupid policemanā unfurled this hose out of this disused shed and it started to pump fuel into my belly tank. I donāt know how this blatant theft ever worked or was covered up but as an owner driver I was very happy, I used to buy red diesel in Belgium as it was half price of the UK and always bought some fuel for the return trip in Greece, again cheaply.
what2do:
Once again i find myself saying āthanks a millionā because the latest posts have been enthralling, especially because they describe the some of the actual day to day conditions (truckers tan, etc.) and the aspects such as belly tanks which were unique to driving in that part of the world. Good to see that iām not alone in my questions of the m/e job, ie. Whiplash, perhaps he can come up with a few more!!It also intrigues me as to where (not necessarily the towns/cities/countries) you were delivering to in the early days - nobody has really mentioned it before. I appreciate that it wasnāt all desert but i canāt imagine that there was a huge amount of industry at the beginning, hence, everything had to be imported - but what kind of locations were you delivering to?
As this was about the same time as the Hippy era, did you encounter many of them in their vans, buses and bikes? Iām not going to ask anything incriminating such as weather or not you got involved in the āfree loveā lol, but were they about? I know that they used to go as far as India, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia, so Iām thinking that you must have shared some road routes with them - iām probably wrong!!
If the previous posts are anything to go by, i wonāt be disappointed with the replies/pictures - fingers crossed and thanks for your efforts.
I did the āhippyā thing back in 1967 and 68. It was whilst doing this that I first saw the odd British wagon abroad. That was when the seed was sown. I thought, āblimey, these blokes are getting paid for what Iām doingā. A somewhat naive view but I had never considered lorry driving before then. Anyway, thatās what I did for the rest of my working life!
My own experiences as regards to loads and where they were delivered on the m/e runs where that most times I would tip at customs areas and the loads would be distributed after I was long gone. There were however exceptions. I took loads direct to a Wimpey site down in Bandar Abbas in southern Iran. They were involved in building a dry dock for the Iranian Navy. Another time was when I had to take a load to one of the Shahās summer residences on the Caspian sea. Marquee, furniture, carpets etc. All for just a party for a day he was having! You can read more about that on the āSimon Internationalā thread.
mushroomman:
what2do:
As this was about the same time as the Hippy era, did you encounter many of them in their vans, buses and bikes? Iām not going to ask anything incriminating such as weather or not you got involved in the āfree loveā lol, but were they about? I know that they used to go as far as India, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia, so Iām thinking that you must have shared some road routes with them - iām probably wrong!! .Top Deck Travel with their orange and cream double decker buses used to stop at The Londra Camping in Istanbul where their drivers used to service the vehicles. Most of their passengers were Aussie Shelias or Kiwi girls who liked a good laugh and could drink one or two drivers under the table. I do know that one Trucknet member used to drive buses to India in the seventies full of backpackers so I bet that he has a few interesting storys to tell. Although it seems that for most drivers on here things that happened over thirty years ago are now just a distant memory
Anyway for M.&C. Jamie and The Red Desert Fox, here are a few photos that I took a couple of months ago when I stopped off in Muscat, it would be interesting to know if PILS was here on the same day
A Fort in Muscat.
The Souk, Muscat, Oman.
Now I have always been fascinated in what you can find in ports and docks and there were certainly some interesting things waiting to load or unload in Muscat.
I havenāt seen one of these for years
I wonder where this one was going to
Regards Steve.
what2do:
Once again i find myself saying āthanks a millionā because the latest posts have been enthralling, especially because they describe the some of the actual day to day conditions (truckers tan, etc.) and the aspects such as belly tanks which were unique to driving in that part of the world. Good to see that iām not alone in my questions of the m/e job, ie. Whiplash, perhaps he can come up with a few more!!It also intrigues me as to where (not necessarily the towns/cities/countries) you were delivering to in the early days - nobody has really mentioned it before. I appreciate that it wasnāt all desert but i canāt imagine that there was a huge amount of industry at the beginning, hence, everything had to be imported - but what kind of locations were you delivering to?
As this was about the same time as the Hippy era, did you encounter many of them in their vans, buses and bikes? Iām not going to ask anything incriminating such as weather or not you got involved in the āfree loveā lol, but were they about? I know that they used to go as far as India, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia, so Iām thinking that you must have shared some road routes with them - iām probably wrong!!
If the previous posts are anything to go by, i wonāt be disappointed with the replies/pictures - fingers crossed and thanks for your efforts.
When I first started m/e in '75, working for Brit European,most of our work was out of Twyfords in Alsager,the well known toilet manufacturer.We would deliver sanitaryware packed solid in box vans full of straw,mostly to Baghdad,but I also delivered to Al Hilla,(Babylon) and Teheran.
We also did a lot of work for Exide delivering equipment to a new factory in Baghdad for manufacturing batteries.
On one trip I delivered a complete batching plant complete with fork lift truck for making breeze blocks to Baghdad.
I have delivered steel coils to an electrical component manufacturer in Nasariya,half way between Baghdad and Basra.
When I worked for Chapman and Ball,we had a contract with British Aerospace delivering equipment for servicing the planes theyād sold to the Saudi Air Force,at Dahran military Air Base.
On another trip for C & B,I did a āMilk runā of 5 drops.First drop was 1 tonne of āRenniesā to Amman customs.
Drop 2 was a couple of crates to an address in Jeddah that I could not find,so I called in Mickey Whiteās yard and they took the goods off me and delivered them.
Drops 3 & 4 were to shops in Dammam High Street,while drop 5 was a set of curtains for a professor on Dammam university campus!
There were a lot of hitch hikers about in the early days.Lads were alone or in twos,girls were in pairs or with a lad.There destination could be anywhere from Greece to Nepal.This was where one could find messages on the notice board in the Pudding shop in Istanbul of people asking for a lift or just a progress report for fellow travellers.
There were some groups travelling in ex army Bedford MKās,and I met an old couple in Southern Turkey who had run out of camping gas and showed them where they could get their bottle refilled.
I met a family in a converted bus who were having engine problems in Ankara,I helped them to Istanbul and showed them the way to Aydinās garage.
Delivering to the Exide factory in Baghdad.
After delivering sanitaryware to Al Hilla,thereās always someone willing to claim the straw packing!
Reddesertfox:
Hi KennyReading your message, the border delay bit made me smile
I was once running down with Mick Eckersley when we ran into Andrew on tha salt flats on his way home.
This was on a tuesday, I asked him was he stopping at the Londra, meaning to cancel for the night. he replied " yes I will have a cup of tea with the boys and then press on to Dover, I have to tip Leeds on Friday" and he did
Roger loading at WestMalling in 1979. 7 drops Saudi
sinbin31:
Roger loading at WestMalling in 1979. 7 drops Saudi
Must have been a good earner Roger ,not all bad, clear the lot at the borderā¦ then the rest was just like doing internals?
Can you remember where you tipped?
great topic this ive got half way through reading cola cowboys and enjoying it.i saw a truck not so long back with youngturk on is it the same guy from the book