After reading Jazzanys superb account of his first trip, this is my offering:
Part 1
CUTTING IT FINE
1990, Got talked into working for a mate (let’s call him John), a proud owner
operator of a Scania 142, he’d been doing some Greek work and decided to try
Dornacs, (A freight forwarder), Turkish work, (he was a frustrated middle east wanna
be really). He knew I’d done a few Baghdads about 10 years earlier, and he decided
that I was going to drive for him.
The early eighties were probably the swansong of British trucks operating on a
regular basis, carrying freight from the UK and Western Europe to the Arab States.
The first Gulf war almost stopped this trade entirely. Quite a few of the men that had
plied this route were almost forced to go to different destinations, Turkey, having
been a through route for many years, became their cargoes destination!
That decade also saw the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, making transiting
these countries that much easier, in most cases, although it took some time for their
population to adapt to their new found liberty! Suffice to say, it wasn’t an overnight
transition.
When John told me about his plan, I must say that it appealed to me, it had been a
while since I’d been abroad in a wagon.
I played devils advocate for a while, saying things like “Are you sure you’ve got
enough money? Things can go wrong with trucks, and if it happens over the water it
can cost an absolute fortune”, his answer was an emphatic “Money’s no problem,
don’t worry about that”. I knew him well and he always seemed to have plenty so I
accepted it, and also I stipulated that on no account did I intend to do servicing and
repairs in between trips!
In between trips, those few days were mine to spend with my family, John agreed
and said he would do all the servicing of both wagons himself, as and when
necessary.
Out of the blue one day John turns up at my house and says “Com’on Pete, I’ve
bought another Scanny 142 with a tag axle, for you to drive, and we’re going to pick
it up now!”
And that was that for a few months, Ankara (Turkey) with steel pipes for a gas
pipeline contract, and reload furniture from Timisoara (Romania) for delivery in
Southend, and all that goes with that kind of job (if you know what I mean!).
Meanwhile, John was doing all the servicing etc., of both wagons in between his
trips. I’d managed to get him the use of a proper truck workshop facilities (he was
doing it all in the street prior to this), with access to all the oils, anti-freeze and bits
and bobs needed to service and maintain a truck.
About 6 months later came that fateful last trip in December, 3 weeks before
Christmas. The pipe job had all but stopped and I was loaded for Yugoslavia and
was shipping out on the Tuesday, John was to load and ship for Greece on the
Wednesday. This was going to be the last trip before the Christmas break, shouldn’t
take more than 8 - 10 days at the most.
To be continued?
can’t wait for the next installment.
Mike