Hi,
Anyone have info on running from Durres to Skopje, we have been asked to quote and befor we do I would like some
info regarding roads/police/thefts etc.
We intend to ship from Bari to Durres and back to either Bari or Ancona.
Many thanks
jjsl
First of all, when boarding the ship the driver should stay by the vehicle until the spaces around the truck have been filled, its a matter of centimeters and they don’t make a big deal about hitting anybody elses truck if you’re not around.
When off the boat at Durres, you go throught the customs and buy a visa, for €1 and then drive towards the Qafesan border, its by a big lake, which name I have forgotten. The important thing is, that you CANNOT take the direct route to border, which goes through Tirana, as it’s impassable with a truck. you must take the route south, towards Kavaje and Greece and after a while it will have signs for Elbasan, that’s where you should go. And don’t think of taking any other border, the northern ones are all up the mountains with a double-drive necessary most of the year. The border is fast ,as long as you remember to leave a few euros here and there, same for the macedonian side. The Albanians have a road tax though, it’s computed from the weight of the cargo and km travelled, it was not cheap, 130 km was around 40 euros. The roads in macedonia are great and there’s also a fair amount of motorway leading into Skopje. the traffic police likes to remind you of the 80km/h speed limit on the motorways also, the last time they started talking about a €300 fine for that I just laughed in their face and upon my request to just ask for money if needed and not waste everybodys time with the circus I got my papers back right away, I guess they were ashamed 
I’ve been stopped in Albania too, once by customs, who just wanted to see the carnet and the other time by the traffic police, who could not speak any other language than their own and so we just parted ways.
You also better check your green card for Albania and Macedonia.
Hi Milodon,
Great, many thanks for the info, we run some of our trucks overland to Greece with no problems, but every time
you mention Albania and Macedonia people say keep away !!
Again many thanks
Tony
jjsl
Ahh, Albania…
on the motorway
Beware the car drivers, they dont care if theyre coming to a sharp blind bend or to the grest of a hill, they WILL carry on!
This is the way to Tirana if you go up from the Rio Bridge, seems trucks arent allowed in Tirana at night, doing carnets took around 4 or 5 hrs as they had no idea what to do, the roads are abismal (these pics are a main road!) look out for shepherds with their entire flock on the roads, (sometimes the motorway) blokes on donkeys, tractors, roads that just stop, and count yourself lucky if you get on tarmac!!! We did have an ■■■■■■, ( apparently undercover coppers, but we thought mafia) they were quite happy to wave their guns out the window to anyone who got too close, so we actually never got a problem with coppers.
Hi Kindle,
Many thanks great photo’s, were you running Lowride units and Mega box ? if so, any problems with clearence ? because the roads in your photo’s look S h i t e !!!
However, unless they increase the rate for the job, I think that to much damage to the vehicle, so will keep going mainly Ancona to Greece
and one or two overland to Greece.
Have you hear anythnk re Kim !!!
Regards
Tony
jjsl
Can i ask what venue and band the journey was heading to?
peter mill:
Can i ask what venue and band the journey was heading to?
It was last summer, i was on a one truck tour with Whitesnake, in Albania we played at the national stadium, the 2 McGuinness trucks were doing Def Leppard.
JJSL:
Hi Kindle,
Many thanks great photo’s, were you running Lowride units and Mega box ? if so, any problems with clearence ? because the roads in your photo’s look S h i t e !!!
However, unless they increase the rate for the job, I think that to much damage to the vehicle, so will keep going mainly Ancona to Greece
and one or two overland to Greece.
Have you hear anythnk re Kim !!!Regards
Tony
jjsl
hi Tony, yes we were runnung low ride truck/trailers, i dont remember any damage due to roads off the top of my head, as you see by the photos its not a country where you can get a good speed up, so takes longer than you think to get anywhere. Not all the roads were like that, just mst of them! Last i heard about kim was from a daf dealer in Ipswich, he got caught with a lot of ■■■■ whilst driving for an irish firm and as doing tme for it, not sure how correct that info is/was. i ws told this around 10 months ago.