Trans Arabia /S. Jones of Aldridge:A few pics

[kenb]

John West:

Kenb:
John - most interesting
Tell me - how much did Kanno pay per trailer load Dammam - Riyhad ■■

Ken b

Hi Ken,

Sorry, of course, that should have been Abdul Latif Jameel (servant of the the most beautiful? Robert will remember!) not YBA Kanoo.

I don’t remember the rates exactly. I don’t know what John Lancaster was getting.

At SeaLand, we started off at 2200 riyals per trip (this was down from the original 3,000 when they were desperate! Then they reduced it to 2000, plus you had to tip the trailer instead of running ‘line haul’.

At this point, ‘Ernie’, the tightest Brummie you’ve ever met (he wired his UJ together after it split, to get one extra trip in before going home) was complaining to me about the new rate. I said to him ‘Ernie, you miserable bast*** you can still easily earn £1,000 a week (lorry drivers in England would be lucky to clear £150 at the time!)’

‘You’m gettin’ a bit thin at a thousand a wik John!’

Then I think it dropped to 1800 and we were doing some sitting around!

I think Pat offered me 1600 riyals with their trailer. I figured I could do 4 per week, 2,400 hot dirty miles! I usually did, so with a conversion rate around 6 - I was still earning about £1,000 per week, with minimal expenses. Diesel was so cheap! What was it? 2p per gallon?

Happy days!

John

John

Interesting

The general rate from Jeddah to Riyhad was SR2000. But more miles and the Taif climb

The Merc sided vehicles charged SR750 for loose cargo

Binzagr initial envisaged us moving his stock to the various wholesalers and retailers around the country but it was totally uneconomic

In principle I kept our lads on local it was far more lucrative - 600 per box out of the port 2 per trailer X 3 per day SR3600 6days SR21600 (£3kplus) a week when in the uk truck were earning £300 a week - all this and no risk of breaking down miles away from base etc etc
We want thru a sticky patch when another joint venture with Binzagr by Unilever as a shipping and transport agent pushed the rate down to 400 and refused the work and waited for them to ■■■■ it up and they did big style one Thursday afternoon - Binzagr then insisted that it went back to Transport Arabia

The general rate was SR500 but I always held out for 600 because of our service etc etc. And in the end P & O took the bait

The Almasane job was SR12000(£2k) per trip and in general the Khamis Andy Abha rates were SR5000

The empty container rates back into port were SR200 per 20 foot so with road trains and gppd volume on nights this was a good payer especially with the container yard in our hands

The overland rate to Dammam area was SR3000. Again the road train made this a good payer but the risks were high

When Russel Davies started in 1976 with 60ft trombone jobs into Riyhad they were getting SR15000 per trip and ended up subbing them at SR2500/3000 making a huge margin - that’s what funded their huge growth in the uk via the Swiss account!! I guess

I wonder what the rates are today?

Interestingly your Toyota man was the Behring the New Jeddah Prep School that was built - TA was involved with the transfer - I way I had kept the letter that I received from the headmaster about how we did it over a weekend etc etc

Interesting times

Cheers

Ken b

[eddie_heaton]

Thanks for the information regarding ’ The Dammam Sweet Water Company ’ John.

For someone like myself, who never experienced the conditions out there in those days, trying to form a mental image of what life must have been like, is somewhat akin to trying to piece together a rather large jigsaw puzzle without the benefit of having the box lid to refer to.

Thanks to your explanation, as well as other little gems gleaned from this thread, another couple of pieces have gone into the puzzle and the picture is beginning to fill out and take shape.

All the best for now.

Cheers. Eddie.

[john_west]

Out of interest, does anyone who worked in Saudi have any sympathy for Karl Andree, 74, who probably won’t be flogged for possessing alcohol in Jeddah?

Should David Cameron exert any political pressure?

For the record my opinion is that we knew the risks. You either didn’t drink, in which case you never had a problem, or you did, in which case you ran the risk of - well, being flogged and sent home! It was up to you. I have no sympathy and am not happy that a company has lost a £6,000,000 contract because he didn’t obey the law!

John

[robert1952]

John West:
Out of interest, does anyone who worked in Saudi have any sympathy for Karl Andree, 74, who probably won’t be flogged for possessing alcohol in Jeddah?

Should David Cameron exert any political pressure?

For the record my opinion is that we knew the risks. You either didn’t drink, in which case you never had a problem, or you did, in which case you ran the risk of - well, being flogged and sent home! It was up to you. I have no sympathy and am not happy that a company has lost a £6,000,000 contract because he didn’t obey the law!

John

Absolutely! We soon kick off when Saudis are cavalier with the rules here. When I was driving, and even now when I am travelling, I have a good drink in the last ‘wet’ and go dry till I am back in a ‘wet’ country again. Actually, there are very few truly ‘dry’ countries like Saudi. Robert

[backsplice]

Talking about money ( Flus)…it was 6 Rials to the pound in 78 at SARAMAT our wages were $1800 US a month all found with trip money and fuel money and a flight home every 15 / 16 weeks…I think the rate was about $ 1.80 US to the pound at thye time … there was always a few bob to be made on the side if you were game enough and of course fuel was dirt cheap so consequently a driver who used his loaf could get his spending cash from that …as for drink I said earlier about a bottle of scotch from the Swiss but I was on the camp out of sight ■■?.. I do recall though Johnny Walker was,nt unknown to some of the more affluent Saudis … I had a great time would,nt have missed it for quids …whirlin has his working head dress on here,s me in my best head dress

inshalah

[kenb]

robert1952:

John West:
Out of interest, does anyone who worked in Saudi have any sympathy for Karl Andree, 74, who probably won’t be flogged for possessing alcohol in Jeddah?

Should David Cameron exert any political pressure?

For the record my opinion is that we knew the risks. You either didn’t drink, in which case you never had a problem, or you did, in which case you ran the risk of - well, being flogged and sent home! It was up to you. I have no sympathy and am not happy that a company has lost a £6,000,000 contract because he didn’t obey the law!

John

Absolutely! We soon kick off when Saudis are cavalier with the rules here. When I was driving, and even now when I am travelling, I have a good drink in the last ‘wet’ and go dry till I am back in a ‘wet’ country again. Actually, there are very few truly ‘dry’ countries like Saudi. Robert

morning all
Interestingly yesterday on a social media site - the same questioned was asked - Their were over 200 replies - not one in his favour - most interesting

My view - he has been there for 25years he knows the rules well - abide by them or take the punishment.

Also he must have been doing something to draw attention to himself - either drunk on the street or supplying to Muslims which would not go down to well

In my time booze was available - whiskey was available at about £100 a bottle. Most of it being brought in via Italy in soft juice consignments organised by the the higher Arabs !!

Expats were making wine out of grape juice - the wine was terrible but the grape juice wonderful

Cheers

Ken b

[ronhawk]

Now come on you lads ? Not knowing the circumstances of that chap ,but we have all done it ,when you are stationed in one place ,The west was drier than the east but it was there ,walking on a bright Friday morning to Roy’s place having cool bear chatting with Ray And the lads was Wonderfull

[ronhawk]

Jerry, could have done with this stacker on the Abqake rd Jonnie Mathews looking on ,Ron

[john_west]

ronhawk:
Jerry, could have done with this stacker on the Abqake rd Jonnie Mathews looking on ,Ron

Ah, yes, the oil.

Whenever you had a ship in with the oil, Merlin used to come round to borrow trailers. Ours were standard American road trailers, not like your specially built heavy duty ones, so I wouldn’t let him load more than 25 tons, but he always used to abuse that! We had a 50’ trailer which he liked because it was longer, but I didn’t like him having that one - most of the boards had disappeared from the back and I had visions of oil all over the port road. We finished up rebuilding quite a few trailers with a third axle at the back end. I think that may be it in the background of the photo below.

I see that you loaded 40 tons on yours. That must have made the old A series grunt a bit!

John

[ronhawk]

Trans Arabia , well done Jonnie Mathews to get the chains over this hole ?of all the pipes in all the world KB had to choose this one ,looks good for the thread .Ron

[kenb]

ronhawk:
Trans Arabia , well done Jonnie Mathews to get the chains over this hole ?of all the pipes in all the world KB had to choose this one ,looks good for the thread .Ron

Clearly there’s another one behind with company pickup - cannot remember where, when and who this was for!!! I guess the money must have been good!!
Ken b

Ps
Wish I was that thin today !!!

[ronhawk]

Talking of wide loads ? I don’t know whether I am dreaming ? But I remember helping someone welded 2 x 40fts by side by side ■■? May be ? Peter Best Or heart brake hotel crew !!! John West may recall this ? Fabricating a King pin in the centre of the 2 trailers this was to haul a concrete beam for Safeway’s superstore on the Damman Rd just out of Khobar ■■ supporting this gigantic bow shaped section roof span support ? Ron

[john_west]

ronhawk:
Talking of wide loads ? I don’t know whether I am dreaming ? But I remember helping someone welded 2 x 40fts by side by side ■■? May be ? Peter Best Or heart brake hotel crew !!! John West may recall this ? Fabricating a King pin in the centre of the 2 trailers this was to haul a concrete beam for Safeway’s superstore on the Damman Rd just out of Khobar ■■ supporting this gigantic bow shaped section roof span support ? Ron

Hi Ron, gosh, you do evoke some memories!

I well remember the building of the safeways supermarket. I think it was on the ‘Corniche’, as you travelled from the old Dhow port of Al Khobar towards Dammam, as you say, down the coast road. This was after the ‘Simons International’ crew had left. Peter Best was transport manager.

Caravan was in partnership with Behring International from Houston. The owner of Behring, Alan Newhouse was living there at the time with his wife. Their son Chris came over to stay (Ali, the Caravan owner was a whizz at getting hard to obtain visas!)

Chris was about 26. Because I was the youngest - about 30, Peter asked me to take Chris down to Khamis Mushayt, maybe 3000 miles round trip , across Saudi to Taif, then down the Asir mountains. I loved going to Khamis, but wasn’t that keen on having a passenger - you know how it is - you can’t ■■■■ or sing along with your tapes…

Chris was great company and we got on well together. I see on the internet that his dad, who was a great guy, (sorry, Robert, chap, but he was American!) died a couple of years ago, and Chris still lives in Houston. I’d love to contact him and see if he has any photos of our trip.

Alan came to see Peter in our Traffic office - a container in the yard with an A/C, and told us about the job Ron mentioned. The roof beams for the Safeway Supermarket in Al Khobar. I can’t remember how long they were - at least 100 feet, maybe 150. This was to be the largest structure locally without pillar support. They weren’t concrete, they were from Sweden or Norway and were made from timber pieces, glued together into these beams. Sideways on they looked like a timber floor. Apparently this was lighter and stronger than steel.

Another person who was around at the time was Alfie Howes - a ‘full strength 01er’ as Geoff and Ginger described him,he had an ex army truck with a massive petrol generator, which easily powered about 3 A/Cs, it drank petrol at a prodigious rate, but of course that didn’t matter. Where he’d got it from I can’t remember. When he sold it, we went back to one A/C!

He owned and drove an F89 I think, my minds eye video sees him hanging out of the left hand window looking backwards, haranguing me, but we’ll come back to that.

Peter and he decided on how they were going to accomplish the delivery from the port to Al Khobar. I’d forgotten the two trailers that Ron welded together, and I can’t remember why that was necessary.

The front of the beam was on those double trailers. The rear was on some sort of dolly at the back. Peter drove the front truck - I think it was his F88, the rear truck was driven by Alfie in his F89.

We had a Jimmy ‘convoy’ pick up at the front and I drove the ‘convoy’ pick up at the rear.

That’s why I have the image of Alfie, hanging out of his cab, shouting at me. I don’t think we could get round the corner to the coast road, so we went straight across that crossing and turned left at the main Dammam - Khobar road. I can’t remember why Alfie was looking back at me and shouting, but I was trying to get his attention on the fact that he was heading towards a concrete wall on the other side!

He realised at the last moment and all was well.

By the time we had done a couple, we had it down to a fine art.

This must have been 1980, I remember listening to ‘video killed the radio star’ by Buggles on radio Bahrein as we pulled onto the delivery site. Funny how musical memories can fix a time and place in your brain!

Alfie had somehow managed to get his girlfriend out to Saudi, how, I can’t remember. When it was time for her to go home and she went for an exit visa, the sh** hit the fan - how was this unmarried woman in the country? It looked like jail sentences all round!

Alfie was called through to the departure area to see the customs officer who was asking the questions. Alfie confidently placed his own passport on the desk.

‘See, Alfred Howes!’

‘But this woman is not called Howes!!!’

Alfie pointed to the ‘Occupation’ line.

‘Look, Housewife! Howes Wife!’

The Arab shrugged and stamped the exit visa. True or not, I don’t know, but she certainly got out!

John.

[robert1952]

JOHN WEST: I loved going to Khamis, but wasn’t that keen on having a passenger - you know how it is - you can’t ■■■■ or sing along with your tapes…[unquote]

Blimey, I can think of a few more things - even worse than picking your nose - that you can’t do! Mind you, that didn’t stop ■■■■ Rivers singing Kiss me once again with a BBC camera crew in his cab, in Destination Doha! Ma3asalaama for now. Robert

[kenb]

John West:

ronhawk:
Talking of wide loads ? I don’t know whether I am dreaming ? But I remember helping someone welded 2 x 40fts by side by side ■■? May be ? Peter Best Or heart brake hotel crew !!! John West may recall this ? Fabricating a King pin in the centre of the 2 trailers this was to haul a concrete beam for Safeway’s superstore on the Damman Rd just out of Khobar ■■ supporting this gigantic bow shaped section roof span support ? Ron

Hi Ron, gosh, you do evoke some memories!

I well remember the building of the safeways supermarket. I think it was on the ‘Corniche’, as you travelled from the old Dhow port of Al Khobar towards Dammam, as you say, down the coast road. This was after the ‘Simons International’ crew had left. Peter Best was transport manager.

Caravan was in partnership with Behring International from Houston. The owner of Behring, Alan Newhouse was living there at the time with his wife. Their son Chris came over to stay (Ali, the Caravan owner was a whizz at getting hard to obtain visas!)

Chris was about 26. Because I was the youngest - about 30, Peter asked me to take Chris down to Khamis Mushayt, maybe 3000 miles round trip , across Saudi to Taif, then down the Asir mountains. I loved going to Khamis, but wasn’t that keen on having a passenger - you know how it is - you can’t ■■■■ or sing along with your tapes…

Chris was great company and we got on well together. I see on the internet that his dad, who was a great guy, (sorry, Robert, chap, but he was American!) died a couple of years ago, and Chris still lives in Houston. I’d love to contact him and see if he has any photos of our trip.

Alan came to see Peter in our Traffic office - a container in the yard with an A/C, and told us about the job Ron mentioned. The roof beams for the Safeway Supermarket in Al Khobar. I can’t remember how long they were - at least 100 feet, maybe 150. This was to be the largest structure locally without pillar support. They weren’t concrete, they were from Sweden or Norway and were made from timber pieces, glued together into these beams. Sideways on they looked like a timber floor. Apparently this was lighter and stronger than steel.

Another person who was around at the time was Alfie Howes - a ‘full strength 01er’ as Geoff and Ginger described him,he had an ex army truck with a massive petrol generator, which easily powered about 3 A/Cs, it drank petrol at a prodigious rate, but of course that didn’t matter. Where he’d got it from I can’t remember. When he sold it, we went back to one A/C!

He owned and drove an F89 I think, my minds eye video sees him hanging out of the left hand window looking backwards, haranguing me, but we’ll come back to that.

Peter and he decided on how they were going to accomplish the delivery from the port to Al Khobar. I’d forgotten the two trailers that Ron welded together, and I can’t remember why that was necessary.

The front of the beam was on those double trailers. The rear was on some sort of dolly at the back. Peter drove the front truck - I think it was his F88, the rear truck was driven by Alfie in his F89.

We had a Jimmy ‘convoy’ pick up at the front and I drove the ‘convoy’ pick up at the rear.

That’s why I have the image of Alfie, hanging out of his cab, shouting at me. I don’t think we could get round the corner to the coast road, so we went straight across that crossing and turned left at the main Dammam - Khobar road. I can’t remember why Alfie was looking back at me and shouting, but I was trying to get his attention on the fact that he was heading towards a concrete wall on the other side!

He realised at the last moment and all was well.

By the time we had done a couple, we had it down to a fine art.

This must have been 1980, I remember listening to ‘video killed the radio star’ by Buggles on radio Bahrein as we pulled onto the delivery site. Funny how musical memories can fix a time and place in your brain!

Alfie had somehow managed to get his girlfriend out to Saudi, how, I can’t remember. When it was time for her to go home and she went for an exit visa, the sh** hit the fan - how was this unmarried woman in the country? It looked like jail sentences all round!

Alfie was called through to the departure area to see the customs officer who was asking the questions. Alfie confidently placed his own passport on the desk.

‘See, Alfred Howes!’

‘But this woman is not called Howes!!!’

Alfie pointed to the ‘Occupation’ line.

‘Look, Housewife! Howes Wife!’

The Arab shrugged and stamped the exit visa. True or not, I don’t know, but she certainly got out!

John.

Hi John
What was the purpose of your drive to Khamis? Did you have a good look around the Souks of Khams and Abha? Wet you in a car or truck ?
Some really good Arabia old silver items and Arab belt knifes the arch type at good prices - the silver was mined locally!!

Ken b

[ronhawk]

Khamis Mushait the town was up and down stone coloured dwellings bunched together on the mountain sides the centre I remember was very dark on the night and dimly lit with sparsely yellow street lights the people dressed in dark clothes , it was cold as well ! I went to the market this was an experience at night looking for mementoes and I found a stall selling old Bedowin jewellery , this was just what I wanted ,having paid a few rats for the items I started putting them in my pocket ? An old woman ? I can still see her with wrinkly skin grey hair dressed in rags she started to pull the stuff out of my pocket ! I mean really so much so I thought they must be her jewels ? Any way I got them back and I love them , they are not worth much ? But to me every time I go upstairs I go straight back to-that dimly lit market in Khamis , the drive down was fantastic, the mountain roads with scull & cross bones placards ,saying low gear , to ignore this at your own peril ? And evan worse to Abha & Jazan , I was not making any big money like the other lads on this thread ? This was Trans Arabia , But to have the experiences is ever lasting Ron

[backsplice]

We all have little stories that stick in our minds sometimes the laugh is in the telling I would like to tell you what I thought was funny and I laugh when I think about it
there were 4 of us sent to a new container park to run empties to the port we all parked up and the Philipino with the clip board came up and asked our names the lads told him their names and I said I,m Bob
he said pleased to meet you Bob I,m Bic
I said pleased to meet you Bic he said no not Bic …its Bic !!
I said yes pleased to meet you Bic … again he said NO ! NO! not Bic its Bic
well ok pleased to meet you Bic … NOT Bic !!! … its Bic !!!

then in desperation and frustration he pointed at the F89,s its Bic just like BOLBO

I should have Known better from my time at sea that Orientals have a problem with particular letters
V being one of them
MaSalahm

[ronhawk]

Wirlinmerlin , outside the villa in Damman , this load of ice cream for Jeddah , I think it was a philo named Mani !! Who had a the same as this ? On his way across well past the Red sands , and Riyhad , the thermo engine broke down about 400 miles out ? In 40+deg !!still 400 +miles to go , he drove on and on getting to Jeddah the next morning , I remember opening the 40 ft and the temp was boarder line ? At the back end This was Vic Turners box Uni Leaver , I think ? Mani did well. There was along line of freezers that we used to fuel up in the port in Damman , Revving flat out trying to cope with the red hot sun ,no shade , Ron

[robert1952]

ronhawk:
Wirlinmerlin , outside the villa in Damman , this load of ice cream for Jeddah , I think it was a philo named Mani !! Who had a the same as this ? On his way across well past the Red sands , and Riyhad , the thermo engine broke down about 400 miles out ? In 40+deg !!still 400 +miles to go , he drove on and on getting to Jeddah the next morning , I remember opening the 40 ft and the temp was boarder line ? At the back end This was Vic Turners box Uni Leaver , I think ? Mani did well. There was along line of freezers that we used to fuel up in the port in Damman , Revving flat out trying to cope with the red hot sun ,no shade , Ron

Ken Broster tells a similar tale on p49 on the ‘ERF European 1975’ thread. I’ve copied and pasted it here for you:

Update by Ken Broster October 2014

The trailers were only shipped into Jeddah and Dammam and offloaded into Binzager cold stores.
No onward distribution was done on these trailers - they w ere unreliable - ok whilst plug on aboard the ships.
We used to inspect every 2 hours on the quay whilst awaiting customs clearance. They stopped on a regular basis.
Remember one customs officer demanding a strip out onto the quay as there was not refrigerated transshipment area on the dock - the ice cream got a bit soft.
We also did an overland stock shipment from Dammam to Jeddah. I was in Damman when it left - I flew back to Jeddah that night - at lunchtime nxt day the driver walked in - a Philippine driver. - I looked at him and said “that was quick driving” he replied fridge broke down at Riyhad so just drove non stop. JD fixed the fridge in minutes and we left it running to get the temp down before delivery. Load was ok

[john_west]

All interesting stuff, with so many connections to what we knew.

As per Backsplice’s language misunderstandings - Pat Conway, best man at my second wedding in 1984, told me his best joke for the next day. It involved one of the owners of the sweet water company. He was the one who was struggling to keep the business afloat (sorry) before Pat took it to another level. He was still nominally in charge and he and Pat had meetings a couple of time a week.

Can’t remember his name, but he was in his late 20’s and was about to get married. Pat asked him if his prospective wife was a good cook. He coloured up and immediately and erred. Pat then said, ‘well, does she do a roast dinner, or chicken?’

His reply was ‘Oh, Cook!’

‘Ah, sorry Pat, that’s not a good joke for this wedding!’ His other slightly blue jokes were then discounted one by one, on the basis that I had a mother in law for life! (She’s now 94!)

On the video, Pat’s discomfort is obvious, he’d had a few whiskys to fortify himself. And I’d stolen all his speech!

John