would that be RJ freight from stockport? they do go every place!
MOC:
Any stories on this one fellas.
brenics77:
would that be RJ freight from stockport? they do go every place!MOC:
Any stories on this one fellas.
I thought it was just one of there trailers 
Is it this new unit do ya think
MOC:
brenics77:
would that be RJ freight from stockport? they do go every place!MOC:
Any stories on this one fellas.
I thought it was just one of there trailers
Is it this new unit do ya think
The first photo; I showed this to Bob Paul when I was writing the book and he was unsure if the unit still belonged to Astran at the time of the photo. SheepLady may well be able to shed some light on whether they did work for R&J.
Second photo; Taking delivery of the first Merc to go into the Astran fleet from Merc dealer Sparshatts Kent. Astran managing director Uve Ploog (2nd from right) and Bob Paul (3rd from right).
You should buy a copy of my book MOCā¦ itās all in there mate. Itās called; āThe Long Haul Pioneersā Apparantly itās very good! 
Yes, I can certainly vouch for that 
Thanks truckerash for the info,i most certainly will be getting one ,have heard its a good read.
I dont think Astran ever worked with RJ International - nor Dow Freight before.
The 2nd photo above - that is Chris Douglass standing to Uweās right. He was the Commercial Manager at that time.
Sorry, Iām not much help.
SheepLady:
I dont think Astran ever worked with RJ International - nor Dow Freight before.
The 2nd photo above - that is Chris Douglass standing to Uweās right. He was the Commercial Manager at that time.
Sorry, Iām not much help.
Guess if the merc was owned by an o/d then if he worked for Astran he may have moved onto RJ as they both do Mega long distance. If you look close the number plate on the old truck and the new truck do have an 8 on the number plate but the other number is different so diff truck i think. Sheeplady you say ānor Dow freight beforeā was it just a comment or did RJ evolve from Dow? Cheers John
brenics77:
Guess if the merc was owned by an o/d then if he worked for Astran he may have moved onto RJ as they both do Mega long distance. If you look close the number plate on the old truck and the new truck do have an 8 on the number plate but the other number is different so diff truck i think. Sheeplady you say ānor Dow freight beforeā was it just a comment or did RJ evolve from Dow? Cheers John
Roger and John Dowsett of Dow Freight fame were/are R&J although I wouldnāt get over excited about their āmega long distanceā credentials, unlike when they were Dow, they evolved into mainly a middle man for East European hauliers carving the job up 
cheers jj72, we have pm before about such stuff and i did ring RJ a few years ago about work and was told āsorry pal no chance as your local!ā RH notts R,J stockport and i see even Astran dont say ādelivered by uk driversā on the new web site now. guess time moves on 
brenics77:
cheers jj72, we have pm before about such stuff and i did ring RJ a few years ago about work and was told āsorry pal no chance as your local!ā RH notts R,J stockport and i see even Astran dont say ādelivered by uk driversā on the new web site now. guess time moves on
There is one thing I knew then and something that often appears on these forums is that much of the Astran work didnāt originate from the UK, it was loaded from all over Europe
Wheel Nut:
brenics77:
cheers jj72, we have pm before about such stuff and i did ring RJ a few years ago about work and was told āsorry pal no chance as your local!ā RH notts R,J stockport and i see even Astran dont say ādelivered by uk driversā on the new web site now. guess time moves onThere is one thing I knew then and something that often appears on these forums is that much of the Astran work didnāt originate from the UK, it was loaded from all over Europe
we all know this but they use to say āUK driversā even if most loads come from europe. think thats the point jj72 was making, does every freight forwarder have to employ eastern drivers?
brenics77
Your quite right a lot of Astrans work did come from europe ,but in the early days 80% was from the UK as most deliverys were Oil or Gas cargo based ,and supplies involving the production of the Black Gold ,as you can imagine the cargo could be most varied and the British had the Monopoly of the products required,until it became cheaper abroad ,I loaded many times from Holland ,Germany.and Luxemburg,I was lucky having contacts in Germany and Holland and aways found a load out which paid for the Ferry and a bit of Juice ,to keep the pistons going ,Im sure Astrans didnt load any of Dow freight vehicleās most loads went by Subbies, their own Trucks ,MC ,Transport, and Promotor swapped a load here and there,but Freight must have come from other UK freight forwarders ,as was and is the norm in all transport,and lets not forget the Astran importer, Ali Bin Moss Trans ,live stock transporter of Sheep 
Roger
cheers roger, just seems a shame for a few bucks more the forwarders employ the eastern drivers. BUT guess its all about keeping the money coming in. As most of us will read the Kazack tales too it all seems a shame that went the same way. Sorry to put a low eb on it! Moving on (trucker joke)
brenics77:
SheepLady:
I dont think Astran ever worked with RJ International - nor Dow Freight before.
The 2nd photo above - that is Chris Douglass standing to Uweās right. He was the Commercial Manager at that time.
Sorry, Iām not much help.Guess if the merc was owned by an o/d then if he worked for Astran he may have moved onto RJ as they both do Mega long distance. If you look close the number plate on the old truck and the new truck do have an 8 on the number plate but the other number is different so diff truck i think. Sheeplady you say ānor Dow freight beforeā was it just a comment or did RJ evolve from Dow? Cheers John
little chuckle, dow freight ā¦number platesā¦
brenics77:
cheers roger, just seems a shame for a few bucks more the forwarders employ the eastern drivers. BUT guess its all about keeping the money coming in. As most of us will read the Kazack tales too it all seems a shame that went the same way. Sorry to put a low eb on it! Moving on (trucker joke)
As Roger stated astran did also load us direct from other countries other than the UK & like Roger says it was nice if you could earn a bit extra with a quick load to take out with you. Its also worth noting that even if you ran out empty to Germany or Italy to load direct at the customer, astran actually paid you extra money for the empty mileage. I am not 100% sure but i would imagine the extra they paid for the empty miles was a portion of what they would have had to pay for a euro truck to run the goods up to Rotterdam, which was a regular loading point for us.
As for the Eastern trucks doing the work cheaper, that could be a case of get what you pay for. I loaded back quite a few times from Syria to Italy, Germany & Ireland and know for a fact that i was getting paid more than the Eastern euro trucks but i did guarantee the exporter to be at the off-load point a lot quicker that than they would. OK they could only pay the extra on certain loads but by booking a load on the way down and confirming you due arrival date on the way back, there was a more than 50% chance of haveing a good paying load waiting by the time you got back to Syria.
All companies want to cut cost where they can and if that means cheaper labour then thatās the way it will be but i think there will always be a business for companies like astran who can ask for a higher rate buy offering a good service.
Have a nice day Folks
Dave.
And in response to the last post, there were much worse out there than Dow Freight.
Due to the wonders of history and the internet, the discretions are quite hard to find, there were a lot of men got rich from Roger and John, there were a lot of men got rich from Bob Paul. It was the time of year and the world we all lived in 
Stop the fighting and keep up the memories
Well i thought i would let you all know i have just been weekended with dave gracey up in edinburgh and we went for a pint in a pub in nehaven in leith called the annfield and in this pub we got talking to a driver that was known as franky goes to burgos And what a great weekend it was with both of them 
Ali Bin Moss Trans
Brilliant.
brenics77:
cheers jj72, we have pm before about such stuff and i did ring RJ a few years ago about work and was told āsorry pal no chance as your local!ā RH notts R,J stockport and i see even Astran dont say ādelivered by uk driversā on the new web site now. guess time moves on
Hi Brenics77, I will try to get the web page changed as we DO still only use Brit Subbies on M/E work as they are the best and quickest!
Due to the political situation with Iran, we use Iranians or Turks on this route as they dont like issuing visas for Brits.
jj72:
brenics77:
Guess if the merc was owned by an o/d then if he worked for Astran he may have moved onto RJ as they both do Mega long distance. If you look close the number plate on the old truck and the new truck do have an 8 on the number plate but the other number is different so diff truck i think. Sheeplady you say ānor Dow freight beforeā was it just a comment or did RJ evolve from Dow? Cheers JohnRoger and John Dowsett of Dow Freight fame were/are R&J although I wouldnāt get over excited about their āmega long distanceā credentials, unlike when they were Dow, they evolved into mainly a middle man for East European hauliers carving the job up
Freshir wrote ;- I didnāt know that Roger Dowsett and John were brothers, I was in their office once when John was talking on a āDeadā phone to someone supposedly in Austria trying to impress a drivers wife whoās husband was hospitalised and I recall his conversation was about as German as Welsh Rarebit. - - Not intending to offend but just share a giggle Regards Fred