would have been to much of an unknown for me got to be honest …always liked the look of it mind bit still on a lighter note it was as hot as a bugger driving trucks here in 76 went to work in shorts for 3 months could have been in the M E maybe…
Of course it was more difficult to do the job in the 70’s and 80’s. Once you get past the signs for Rijsel, or Keulen and arrive in Bulgaria and only see signs for Pyce or Solun but you still need to clear customs in either Russe or Thessalonika.
Once you get to Greece and find the signs are unreadable, no sat nav to help you and no one to ask. The Arabic signs are the same, but the roads didnt exist, the sand was moving, rutted or simply blowing away. Most of the blokes I know and knew who did the job had a smattering of several languages.
You only have to read this forum and see people asking for directions from Leeds to London or Portsmouth, they are asking what to do if there is a bulb blown on a trailer or how to change a wheel. I will say that it took a certain breed of driver, not all could hack it and i have seen grown men crying at a border post when they are so frustrated and those nasty guards have stopped him going anywhere.
When you have sat in a lorry for 4 or 5 days waiting for a friendly face or waiting for parts coming from England, then you can comment on those that went before you. I wouldnt dare!
Jelliot:
There are defence force personell from all over the world that are putting their lives on the line every day so we can continue to be free. What they are doing is appricated by almost everyone that lives in the free world.
What the defence force do and the kind of life they live is totally different from what the long haul guys do and did. The defence force move and act in general as a large group, and they have back up. Even though sometimes they are operating on the other side of the world, and in a culture that is totally alien to the conditions they are used to in their home countries, they take as much support and creature comforts with them as they can. They are in a group of people usually from their home country, or at least with people that speek their own launguage and share their home culture. Anyone that has delivered to an American base will vouch for that. There really isn’t much comparason between the defence force and long haul truckers, especially the guys that did it pre mid 90’s when the start of affordable mobile communications became wildly available.
In the 70’s you set off in your truck and as soon as you were beyond walking distance from the depot you were on your own. If you had a problem it was deal with it yourself with very little other options. The problems that you could encounter were vast and varied, mechanical, paperwork, war, diplomatic, personal health, and a lot of the time it was the mental issues that saw the end to many a driver’s career. Like the feeling of isolation, being 3 weeks travel from family, support or any kind of help at all, sitting at border crossings for days and sometimes weeks on end until some one you don’t know did something you didn’t know about to get your situation sorted out.
9 Ferdirici drivers sat in no man’s land on a border crossing for 13 weeks, with no, or little help from the outside world.
On January 4 1974 Ger van Rens left his depot in Holland went to Pakistan and didn’t get back until April 9th. Luckily for us he took a super 8 camera and recorded the trip fo us.
I’m not saying there were lesss than 11 drivers from Europe doing the job, that would be rediculous statment. All I can state is that the company I drove for only managed to recrute 11 drivers that they deemed suitable for the job. There were other drivers that were working of other comanies that were doing long haul jobs at the same time.
I myself have done many long haul drives, some as far as the China border, and a few trips I was out for up to 60 days. On many trips I didn’t meet any one that could speek any kind of English for the best part of 40 days. For me it was something I wanted to do all my life, and I was happy to put up with the situations that arose. Even after careful vetting by the company I worked for, some guys on the job for various reasons bottled it after the first few days.
If you want to do it then give it go, but be warned, it’s nothing like sitting in a truck driving a few hours to and from your house, AND DON"T EVEN TRY AND COMPARE IT WITH ANY OTHER KIND OF JOB ON THE PLANET.
No offence to anyone, but until you have actually been there and done it you couldnt possibly understand. I’m not saying we were/are some kind of elite breed of people, better than everyone else. It’s just something we did/ do and are willing to put up with the stuff that goes on to get the job done.Jeff…
That is a great post Jeff 
I am not trying to take anything away from the contributors to this thread, I admire anybody who has done the sort of work that yourself and the other posters have, I just take umbridge to Sinbin labelling modern day drivers as being wholly unfit for purpose.
Hello Fred, I don’t know if you saw this on Bubblemans Scrapbook Memories thread and I hope that Marcus won’t mind me reshowing it but maybe you know who this driver is, it’s not Kenny Searl is it 
.
Regards Steve.
Dave as you know I wouldn’t really consider my self to be anything other than lucky, I just stumbled around until I found something good.
Chasser good commet about the world wide mobile phones. My first big outing was to Tunisia in the 80’s, when I arrived I was asked if I wanted to contact the office back home… by telex. They wouldn’t let me use the phone as international calls had to be requested through offical channels 1 week in advance, and they didn’t even know what a fax machine was. 2 weeks ago I was driving my mates B double on Melbourne Brisbane and was speeking on the hands free to my sister in her car in Canda, and thought nothing of it other than the cost.
Jeff
See grown men cry !!! you said it Jelliot I worked internal in Saudi for 12 months 77/78 and remember 3 of us were in convoy from Jeddah to Ras tanura on the gulf coast … one driver an ex army lad had blow out after blow out mostly trailer wheels so we exhausted all the spares and the Volvos did,nt have dish wheels so were no use … no help was available and no phones etc (until you hit some village even then it was useless) we were on our own but we got there and back one way or another anyway the point is this bloke just burst into tears after about the first 3 and was going to pull the pin and the rest of it ,but myself and the other driver managed to calm him down …he did his first stint went home and never came back … many times we were solo with no other trucks so when needs must you just get on with it …overland must have been even worse at least we had help available from Jeddah if you could get word through that is a big IF … not for the faint hearted ■■? I had a great year made a few bob and still think about it nearly 40 years on
I remember pulling into Weiskirchen Services near Frankfurt one night on my way to Austria and while I was having a wash in the toilets I started talking to an English driver who was on his way to somewhere in the Middle East. We went into the restaurant and ordered a meal which wasn’t cheap and the old lad who must of been in his mid fifties started telling me that it was his first trip down that way for I.I.R.C. five years or so. He had been having a few problems at home and since leaving Dover he had already had one puncture and had to sort out a breakdown of some kind. He had just phoned home when I met him and had been told by his wife that one of his kids had been involved in a motor accident and had to go to the hospital. We were just about to get stuck into our meals when another two English lads came in and asked where we were going and when he told them one of them replied “there’s a four day queue at Zacho”. I remember the old boy sat back in his chair, the colour drained from his face and as he put his knife and fork down and stood up he said, I am going to bed. I thought that he was going to burst out crying and I felt really sorry for him, so much that it is something that has always stuck with me. His meal was untouched and it was only about 7 p.m. Half an hour later I went round to see if he was O.K. but his wagon had gone and I have no idea if he carried on or turned around and went home.
I got a call one day form a guy I knew that had a motor dumped as the driver had botteled it. ( I assumed it was in Turkey or somewhere down that way ) I couldn’t do the job as I was doing something else, but passed on my mates name. The job was Greece via ferry, reload Istanbull and the truck was dumped at Reims by a first timer, I kicked my self after.
I also knew some Scottish drivers that wouldn’t go past Shap.
Jeff
Steve
Di you eat his meal then a doggy bag would have been helpful and who paid for the meal,and that Sin Bin is terrable,typical comments from an old codger ,mind you being shot while serving for Queen and country I think gives him the right to say certain things yes 
You know who 
Loose-wire:
Steve
Di you eat his meal then a doggy bag would have been helpful and who paid for the meal,and that Sin Bin is terrable,typical comments from an old codger ,mind you being shot while serving for Queen and country I think gives him the right to say certain things yes
You know who
Hullo,
You know who No, 
I don’t know who, Who is who
Poxy site is so bloody slow now, everything comes up twice. Sorry.
Archie Paice
Who is a grumpy,bald,overwieght middle east expert who never turned left at Ankara, goes by the alias rita,sinbin,loose wire and now old codger. Full of [zb] and still can’t spell.
I ran once with a chap called Tony Taylor, mid 80s, I used to drive for David Duxbury and Alan Dayson
Tony Taylor:
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Ah well, Tony How are the Mighty Fallen tell it not in the streets of Ashkelon. In retrospect it matters not whether you won or lost but how you played the Game,and it really was agame was nt it. I hope thats satisfied your curiosity Fred and maybe one day another event in similar vein may spring to mind. Cheers everyone and now back to Ludlam. Crow.A far more interesting incident Geoffrey was when I got locked up in a Turkish military prison.I don’t have the literary prowess of Jazzandy or Mushroomman,but this is 100% true.It was my first trip to Baghdad and I was with the 2 Daves, Ireland and Mason.We had left Baghdad in the afternoon and reached the border at Zahko in the late evening.I was the lead truck which was a bad idea because Dave Ireland had done the job before and should have been in the front.In those days the border wasn’t open all night,and as we approached it in the dark I saw line of trucks parked and I drove past all of them and went straight to front,I didn’t realise they were waiting for the morning, I thought it a queue for a garage.The border guard came up and he was pretty angry and told us to go to the back of the queue.There was nowhere to turn round or we would have gone back,so we negotiated to with him to stay where we were.He was open to a bit of backsheese and we asked him what he wanted in return for letting us stay.First off he wanted a kettle,so Davey Mason gave him his kettle,the guy wasn’t too happy with it(he wanted one with a lid,not one with a whistle) but he kept it any way.Next I gave him our last ■■■ book,he still wanted more so Dave Ireland gave him a broken calculater.He said “it doen’t work”,Davey told him it was solar powered and would work ok in the sunlight.He still wasn’t satisfied so I gave him 2 packets of marlboro,still not enough,he wanted my shoes and my shirt.We drew the line there and said enough is enough,so he let us stay.The next morning we were first through the border and set off on the way to Gaziantep.About 200 meters down the road there were 2 bulgarian trucks parked up half on and half off the road.The road there has quite a steep camber,As I pulled out to pass them there was a 4 wheel Tonka loaded up to the sky with timber coming the other way,the thing was already rocking side to side.When he saw me coming he panicked(there was enough room to pass) and drove on to [zb] at the side of the road and as he went to straighten up, the truck just fell over on to it’s side.I stopped, which was probably a big mistake because suddenly I was surrounded by angry Turks,god knows where they came from.I wound up the window and locked the door and just sat there nervously wondering what was going to happen next,I’d heard all the scarey stories about what happens to foreign truck drivers who have accidents in Turkey.The Turkish driver got out of his truck through the door that was now the roof and was holding his head in his hands.The border police came up and made me get out of the truck and go back to the border with them accompanied by the Turk.At the border the Turkish driver and the police were jibber jabbering away with each other and making gestures to me,I was getting pretty aprehensive by this time.The police started writing down what the driver was saying and when they finished he made his mark on the paper,the police then wanted me to sign it as well,which I refused to do.This made the policeman angry and he gave me a hard whack across the face,which made me angry and scared and I shouted for the 2 Daves (who outside) to get hold of the Britsh Consul and tell them what was happening to me.Sometimes I think the gods look down and smile at us,because just then along came the army(Turkey had a military government at that time) and wanted to know what was going on.They had a long talk with the police and then said to me “you are coming with us,go back to truck and follow us”.I and the 2 Daves followed them to an army camp at Silopi,where they put me in the cells,I didn’t expect that and I must admit at this stage I was starting to feel a bit frightened,the worst thing is not knowing what is going to happen next.After about an hour they took me and the Turkish driver to a room in which there was a big table with 3 army officers seated behind it.One was reading the paper that the Turk had signed and they wanted me to write down my version of the events.They gave me a pen and paper and so I started,but they wanted me to write it in Turkish,which I obviously couldn’t do and so they gave me Turkish/English dictionary.I don’t know if anyone has ever tried to write a description of events in this manner,but I can tell you I found it impossible.When I couldn’t do it they put me back in the cells.I was left there all day in the roasting heat with nothing to eat or drink, I was wondering what the 2 Daves were doing,whether they had found a phone and called the British Consul.About 4 in the afternoon an army officer came in and told me in English to go with to have a medical check.We went in a jeep to another building and went into a large room.The officer said he was a doctor and he was going to give me medical exam.I wasn’t happy about this, my imagination running wild and asked him why?,he said it was compulsory and he had to check for alcohol and also my eyesight.I relaxed a bit then and expected him to ask me to blow into the bag,but they don’t do things the easy way in Turkey,he came very close,pinched my nose with his fingers and asked me to breath out!! no problem there.Then he said “can you see those 3 letters on the wall over there” I said “yes”,“ok cover one eye up and read them”,“ABC”, “ok,cover the other eye and read them again”.“ABC”.“Well done you’ve passed both the tests” he said.“Ok good, maybe you can help me”.I explained that I had to write down what had happened in Turkish and if I could tell him, would he write it down for me.He said he would and just as he finished there was a knock on the door and in came Youngturks man,the agent we had used at the border.He had been looking for me to try to help.He read the paper that the doctor had written and said to me “You’ve missed out one very important thing.You must say that before you started to pass the Bulgarian trucks you put put on your flasher to indicate that you were going to pull out”.The doctor wrote this in and we went back to first room,the army officers were re-assembled and the both versions of the events were read.One of the officers asked me a question,which I obviously couldn’t understand and so Youngturk answered it instead.Everything happened very quickly then,they said I was free to go.If you’ve ever had a feeling of great relief,it’s the best feeling in the world and that’s what I felt at that moment.Later I asked Youngturk about the question,he said it was about the indicator and the Turkish driver had not repected it,and so the accident was his fault.I shudder to think what might have happened if the army hadn’t come along and I was left in the hands of that border policeman.But,alls well that ends well.And let that be a lesson to all drivers who jump queues intentionally or not.
mushroomman:
Hello Fred, I don’t know if you saw this on Bubblemans Scrapbook Memories thread and I hope that Marcus won’t mind me reshowing it but maybe you know who this driver is, it’s not Kenny Searl is it
Regards Steve.
Hi Steve, (Where have you been , has your past caught up with you?) Sorry but I don’t know the driver at all but it is certainly not Kenny Searle, this must have been before I went onto G’Woods - BUT perhaps David Miller can come up with an answer - Thanks for the photo, most interesting, lets hope we get a response from DM, Regards Fred Ps on second thoughts it could be Johnny Holland (A Guess) or perhaps the health inspector come doctor or whatever title he may have adopted on the day
No Fred my past hasn’t quite caught up with me yet but it might do when truck loads of Rumanians arrive in Britain next year and enquire about what happened to thousands of litres of Rumanian state owned diesel that went missing back in the eighties.
I can’t think what that guys name was but when I saw that photo I had a strong feeling that our paths had crossed on a couple of occasions a long time ago. Maybe those old wise fellows were right when the said that too many Efes rots your brains. 
Regards Steve.
Loose-wire:
Steve
Di you eat his meal then a doggy bag would have been helpful and who paid for the meal,and that Sin Bin is terrable,typical comments from an old codger ,mind you being shot while serving for Queen and country I think gives him the right to say certain things yes
You know who
Hello Roger, no the old guy paid for his own meal and his beer at the counter when we ordered our meals. If you remember at Weiskirchen they stopped selling draught beer over the counter at midnight but for one Mark you could get a bottle of beer out of the beer machine in the hallway.
P.S. no we have no idea who you are so can you give us a clue.
Hey Bottlejack
… and as far as turning left in ANKARA I have there is a very nice meat shop on the second corner ,sells great lamb ,
and if I cant spell who gives a [zb]
F.A.O. two posters. 
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dieseldave:
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R.H,
You have been warned ! Do not reply in Drivers Language, or you will get the back of your legs slapped. Personally I thought it was a good retort, well it made me laugh.
Cheers, Archie.
Archie Paice:
dieseldave:
F.A.O. two posters.This is a friendly message to advise you that you have already agreed to the forum rules.
The forum rules are here:
Forum rules and sanction system - WEBSITE INFORMATION - Trucknet UKPersonal attacks and dodging the auto censor are against the forum rules.
Forum Rule #3
The quickest way to find out if a word is allowed or not is to include it in a posting, and if the auto censor gets it, it is not allowed.
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Rule 3 also covers Personal Attacks. Attack the post but not the poster.
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R.H,
You have been warned ! Do not reply in Drivers Language, or you will get the back of your legs slapped.
Cheers, Archie.
Hi Archie,
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By posting, a poster makes their post fair game for attack, BUT… it’s the petty name-calling and personal stuff that the TN site owners really want to keep off the forums.
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Well Well what a load of brown stuff ,certain people on here need to stop posting dont knock me or you will get it back ,most of my posts have been in jest but if drivers are no longer MEN and cant hack it my middle finger is raised high in the air this will be my last post most likely as Im off to Sweden to live in peace and fish 50 mtr from my back door have a good life them that deserve it
Roger Haywood