Doe’s anybody remember Bill King with his Transcon?
Hi Dave I remember Bill King (grandad) well , unfortunately I went to Cassablanca and brought the Transcon home when grandad was taken ill
and flew home. He never drove it again.
dave docwra:
Doe’s anybody remember Bill King with his Transcon?
Many of us enjoyed running with Billy. And many of us attended his funeral. You’ll find plenty of references and pics if you look back through this thread. Here’s a blurry pic I took following him down ‘the gorge’ on the N1V in Spain coming home from Morocco one trip. Robert
North African fridgework - unloading hanging lamb on the side of the road. This is my Dad, I’m not sure if it is Algiers or Tunis, but the year is 1982. Sorry about the size, I edited it, but it went back to original size when I uploaded it.
Cliff luxton:
Hi Dave I remember Bill King (grandad) well , unfortunately I went to Cassablanca and brought the Transcon home when grandad was taken ill
and flew home. He never drove it again.
Did the weld I did on the cracked block hold up, about 1993 he joked with me that the Transcon will out last him.
robert1952:
dave docwra:
Doe’s anybody remember Bill King with his Transcon?Many of us enjoyed running with Billy. And many of us attended his funeral. You’ll find plenty of references and pics if you look back through this thread. Here’s a blurry pic I took following him down ‘the gorge’ on the N1V in Spain coming home from Morocco one trip. Robert
0
Bill was certainly a decent bloke, Bless him.
kmills:
0North African fridgework - unloading hanging lamb on the side of the road. This is my Dad, I’m not sure if it is Algiers or Tunis, but the year is 1982. Sorry about the size, I edited it, but it went back to original size when I uploaded it.
I have no doubt he did North Africa with that Scania, but the picture looks as if it’s been taken somewhere in Europe IMHO judging by the architecture. Robert
Some Morocco-bound lorries from the past on ebay today. Robert
If you google Breda Transport DVD youtube, you’ll find hundreds of photos of lorries and drivers and other characters on Morocco work. Shame the images are all squashed up to make them fit the slide shows! Robert
Here’s one for you North African driver, Swiss motor English driver Ian Gibbs, retired now…
Ossie
OssieD:
Here’s one for you North African driver, Swiss motor English driver Ian Gibbs, retired now…0
Ossie
There were some good chaps on Dreier! Cheers, Robert
robert1952:
OssieD:
Here’s one for you North African driver, Swiss motor English driver Ian Gibbs, retired now…0
OssieThere were some good chaps on Dreier! Cheers, Robert
His run was load Morocco, tip Swiss, Germany and north of Holland, reload Holland for Dublin, tip southern Ireland reload Belfast northern Ireland for Morocco, and he was only supposed to be part time.
OssieD:
robert1952:
OssieD:
Here’s one for you North African driver, Swiss motor English driver Ian Gibbs, retired now…0
OssieThere were some good chaps on Dreier! Cheers, Robert
His run was load Morocco, tip Swiss, Germany and north of Holland, reload Holland for Dublin, tip southern Ireland reload Belfast northern Ireland for Morocco, and he was only supposed to be part time.
Those runs could be quite hectic. Although the companies tried to keep us on sensible UK-Morocco return trips, they often ended up taking in loading or unloading in Holland, Spain, Gibraltar or Portugal - and Italy too if it was a Tunisia run. Robert
Just to bring this thread up to date, here are some recent pics from two sides of southern France:
Firstly, these are crowd that now do North African work out of Marseille, Jost Group who took over Maas a few years back. Cluj-registered units are double manned and mostly run trailers to and from Marseille with the trailers going unaccompanied across to Algeria or elsewhere. This pic is from an early Saturday morning, by Sunday night there were more than 20 units parked at the services just outside of Gignac.
Meanwhile over in Bordeaux one of the Moroccans’ preferred stops is the AS24 station at Begles. Plenty of French manufacturers now have subsidiaries in Maroc and the transport between the sites is done by firms from down there. Here at Agen two artics per day tip at a food producer next to our depot, bringing up tomatoes from the south of the country. They now have decent high-power trucks, but are still relatively low paid compared to us in Europe. My best mate here is originally from Casa and sometimes stops to take tea with the drivers from back home. He says they’re always very friendly and polite despite the fact that they’re paid a pittance (which unfortunately isn’t always the case with low paid drivers from far off places)
I last went to Morroco in 96, by motorcycle. Will be interesting to see how it’s changed in the meantime
Craig
A fascinating update - thanks for that! You mention tomatoes: I remember customs opening a fridge trailer in Tangier port with Moroccan tomatoes in. The first thing I noticed was that they had ‘EU produce’ stamped all over them 
. Robert
yes robert i was in tangier 1 day shipping home when customs opened up spanish fridge with full load of toms they went right to front of trl and found 1 pallet of drugs they were pretty busy that day .gd fun watching them chase driver round export yard gd ol days 
pv83:
As promised Robert…
Ah! The Ibn Batuta: I crossed the straits in that old tub many times. And Ibn Batuta himself was an adventure traveller in ancient times whose meanderings knock those of Marco Polo into a cocked hat! He hailed from Tangiers itself. Both pictures below were taken by me in Tangiers around 1999/2000. Robert
robert1952:
pv83:
As promised Robert…Ah! The Ibn Batuta: I crossed the straits in that old tub many times. And Ibn Batuta himself was an adventure traveller in ancient times whose meanderings knock those of Marco Polo into a cocked hat! He hailed from Tangiers itself. Both pictures below were taken by me in Tangiers around 1999/2000. Robert
10
Hi. Robert.
That picture of Tangiers jogged my memory of the first time I went to Morocco in 1970 , I was told if you get lost in the kasbar just walk downhill to the dock!
ANDREWDAX:
robert1952:
pv83:
As promised Robert…Ah! The Ibn Batuta: I crossed the straits in that old tub many times. And Ibn Batuta himself was an adventure traveller in ancient times whose meanderings knock those of Marco Polo into a cocked hat! He hailed from Tangiers itself. Both pictures below were taken by me in Tangiers around 1999/2000. Robert
10
Hi. Robert.
That picture of Tangiers jogged my memory of the first time I went to Morocco in 1970 , I was told if you get lost in the kasbar just walk downhill to the dock!
It was good advice! Anything downhill from the kasbar did indeed lead to the port area. You were 30 years ahead of me there! Robert