my names zaki and i came across this site by accident,now am hooked.
i run a small operation in Botswana.2 volvos fh12 420 one is a 2005 and the other a 1994,these 2 are 6x2 which i imported from uk and i have a mercedes powerliner 6x4 which is a local truck.i find the volvos to be quite lighter on fuel as they are really single diffs wheras the merc is a bit heavy due to the double drive.however the merc i use for tipping where double drive is a must and the volvos for long distance wok.
you might be interested in the trailers we use.we call them links becoz its essentially made up of two semi trailer and can come in various sizes,mine are both 6/12,handy for container loads and regular steel lenghts.
also we load upto 34tonnes payload and sometimes 40 tonnes if our route is free of weigh bridges.
anyways please feel free to ask about the transport scene in africa, i have done south africa,botswana,zambia ,congo etc.
thanks for the welcome.was in uk for about a month just came back on the 23rd of jan.
yeah it was ice cold over there and next thing you know back in africa and its in the 30’s phew.I think truckers all over face the same problems and differ only on area specific issues like regulation etc.for example my truck may have its roadworthy expiring tomorrow(mot)and it maybe a thousand kms away and i can just pop over to the testing station and come back with a new mot without even taking the truck there-try that in the uk lol.
yeah with africa being as vast as it is the double trailer is a way of moving higher volumes over great distances faster,the gross mass acceptable nowdays is 56 tonnes including tractor ,so this is actual tonnages of anywhere between 33-38 tonnes depending on weight of trailer.yes its a ■■■■■ to reverse however my drivers claim its easier than a triaxle once you get used to it.i have a zimbabwean driver who can reverse in circles with it lol.
Hi Zaki, bit tricky to phrase this but my South African friends told me that truck driving there is not really a white mans job. They reckoned a white English guy like me wouldn’t get a job driving trucks.
There isn’t much that could take me away from the UK these days but I always thought I could make an exception for a couple of years in Africa.
There is no way I would ever entertain going out there to work if I thought I was doing some hard up local guy out of a job at the expense of my ‘adventure’.
yeah unfortunately the econoics of the situation does mean that most drivers are black locals and foreigners like zimbabwe etc.however there are white drivers quite a lot actually even indians down durban way.the majority are however a product of the population and the black pop being larger and more economically disadvantaged hence more drivers.
The transport scene is an array of characters from owner drivers to corporates such as eddie stobart types mostly dominated by whites due to the economic advantages they enjoyed during the seclusion years but leaps and strides have been made by other races as well.
a scenario you dont get much in uk maybe hijackings which are often fatal is common occurence and as such not many aspire to become drivers,but you could have your african adventure get a landrover and drive through africa(this is a personal dream of mine)to drive from botswana to uk-maybe b4 i retire ha ha.
I hope you get the chance to do your overland trip one day. Somebody once told me that Land Rovers were the British revenge on the South Africans for losing the Boer War. I wouldn’t know, I’m more of a bike man myself… haha.
Do you know who used to run your trucks when they were in the UK? It would be pretty neat if they were driven by a TNUK member in their previous life.
unfortunately i bought most of my trucks from dealers such as walker movements in coalville,em rogers in northampton and just bought my last one from pawsons in rotherham-still waiting for my volvo should arrive in a couple of weeks(version 1 fh12 the best truck ever with the best 8spd box).
the only truck that had some indication was the fh12 gtxl i bought from em rogers had a sign that said european food at the top.
and thanks for the compliment shropsbri,you might not be aware that we follow the uk based learning in Botswana ie o levels and a levels.Almost everyone in Botswana save for a very small part of the population (2-5%) is able to read and write in english.
Botswana was a british protectorate untill 1965 and we gained independence in 1966,we were basically a small country which served as a cololnial base for the english in their tribulations with the boers in neighbouring south africa.the british left in september 1966 and diamonds were discovered shortly thereafter ha ha.
our first president sir seretse khama was in exile in england and subsequently married a british lady ruth khama.After his demise we had two presidents and the current president who is the son of sir and lady khama-lft major Ian Khama.
