Seems a shame that Astran (Asian Transport originally before they went bust), get so much publicity you’d think they were the main British Middle East haulier. Not so, they were not even the first. That honour probably goes to meat haulier Union Transport who ran fridges out to Tehran. Astran however were a very well run organisation and had a crew of very professional drivers. But don’t forget the expat drivers on ICC (Iran Container Company) and Pars International Containers. I drove for both these companies plus UK Europe Express, Freightlanes, and was one of the first drivers on OHS where I came off the road and became transport manager. Then I was with FG Hammond International as sales manager and then started Orient Transport Services in 1985 from which I retired six years ago.
Also don’t forget Oryx which grew out of JTT?, Promotor and countless others.
I’d love to hear from any of my old mates on these companies. Happy days on the road with no responsibilities, then I got married!!!
The story of Asian / Astran is well documented on here, as Roger said, they didn’t go bust, they sold the company to grow and develop other business interests. I did it myself after asking the horse outright.
Jazzandy, the clue is in the thread title. Why not start a new one about ICC and PIC?
Lots of people are interested in the Middle East and all roads that took them there.
Bring back the thread about the Atki F88!!! we all need to know about that truck!!!
Guys i think we would like to know about the 1st commercial truck run to the middle east who ever it was. Ash you are the guy to ask, what do you think? Its not a dig its interesting. John
Seems a shame that Astran (Asian Transport originally before they went bust), get so much publicity you’d think they were the main British Middle East haulier. Not so, they were not even the first. That honour probably goes to meat haulier Union Transport who ran fridges out to Tehran. Astran however were a very well run organisation and had a crew of very professional drivers. But don’t forget the expat drivers on ICC (Iran Container Company) and Pars International Containers. I drove for both these companies plus UK Europe Express, Freightlanes, and was one of the first drivers on OHS where I came off the road and became transport manager. Then I was with FG Hammond International as sales manager and then started Orient Transport Services in 1985 from which I retired six years ago.
Also don’t forget Oryx which grew out of JTT?, Promotor and countless others.
I’d love to hear from any of my old mates on these companies. Happy days on the road with no responsibilities, then I got married!!!
Looking forward to some tales and pics then jazzandy! Welcome to the site.
brenics77:
Bring back the thread about the Atki F88!!! we all need to know about that truck!!!
Guys i think we would like to know about the 1st commercial truck run to the middle east who ever it was. Ash you are the guy to ask, what do you think? Its not a dig its interesting. John
It’s not a plug, it’s interesting, but Ash will sell you a book, the clue is in Bob Paul
sinbin31:
Jazzandy, Just a small point Asian/Astran never went bust ,if they had they would no longer exist ,they may have had the receiver in but thats not the same,And why the same old run down of Astrans ,does it matter who was first to get there ,we all know there were other freight hauliers going to the ME this type of story is so boring now, think of something else ,not pitting one haulier against the other.U can if u wish pit driver V driver ,would a modern day driver cope with what the drivers did in the early days,who knows no one, as the tech has changed ,everything is now controlled by the littleman behind a desk and a PC,who as I have found out isnt interested in the Driver as a Driver just a means of steering the vehicle like a robot to the destination ,I still have a passion for truck driving but I know I will never drive again.
Roger Haywood
Rodger, you are so right… if they could teach monkeys to do it they would… some companies do!!!
electriclips:
■■■■ Snow was another ledgendary name on Astran. I don’t know this story to be true but it sounds about right
…As ■■■■ comes out from under his trailer, adjusting his trousers, his worst night mare comes true…
a green and white pulls up, two German cops got out, they were enormous, with guns, even made ■■■■ look small, they pointed at this dump which, I hasten to add was a mountain, you would of needed snow chains and a JCB to get over it… One cop points at this dump and say’s “vos is louse” ■■■■ replies in his best German “it was ein grosser hound”. The cop comes back with perfect English “In Germany the dogs are very clever but we do not yet teach them to use paper”. That dump cost ■■■■ 50DM. Absolute Class
■■■■ was one hell of a character and there are some terriffic tales about the great man, but sadly this was not a story concerning ■■■■, instead it came from John Williams who takes great delight in reliving it during the greatest trucking documentary of all time…
Destination Doha.
Jazzandy:
Hi all, Seems a shame that Astran (Asian Transport originally before they went bust), get so much publicity you’d think they were the main British Middle East haulier. Not so, they were not even the first. That honour probably goes to meat haulier Union Transport who ran fridges out to Tehran. Astran however were a very well run organisation and had a crew of very professional drivers. But don’t forget the expat drivers on ICC (Iran Container Company) and Pars International Containers. I drove for both these companies plus UK Europe Express, Freightlanes, and was one of the first drivers on OHS where I came off the road and became transport manager. Then I was with FG Hammond International as sales manager and then started Orient Transport Services in 1985 from which I retired six years ago.
Also don’t forget Oryx which grew out of JTT?, Promotor and countless others.
I’d love to hear from any of my old mates on these companies. Happy days on the road with no responsibilities, then I got married!!
Hi Jazzandy and welcome to Trucknet;
You don’t know me, but I was helping Nick Garlick with his book about the Middle East which he started many many years ago but never finished. He visited you and we copied your photos. You have some fantastic images!
As far as Astran is concerned and as far as I am aware; Michael Woodman (founder and owner) and Bob Paul (his friend and transport director) were the first Englishmen to make a commercial journey overland to Kabul in 1964. If you (or anyone else) know different, then please let me know, I’d be very interested to learn more. Asian Transport was Woodman’s company which then “rebranded” into Astran in the early 70’s. The “troubles” never happened until mid-late 1970’s when the administrators took over until a new owner was found. Astran continued to trade throughout. I think the company gets so much publicity because they have always had such a high profile and reputation.
BTW: Do you remember David Miller and Kenny Sealre from Oryx? David recently had a heart attack but is slowly recovering and Kenny has dissappeared from the planet! I for one hope he is OK and would like to make contact with him again. If you know him, or have any idea where he might be, please let me know.
I am sorry to hear about Davids heart attack but I am not surprised,the last time I saw him he was extremely active but massively overweight. He was using a Majorcan restaurant every day where the food was swimming in fat .Me in contrast eat lots of fruit & veg & avoid fried food…& had my heart attack in June 2011.LOL
I think its all down to retirement,when you hang up your spurs the immune system relaxes & you are in line for anything going. Get well David & don’t forget to take the pills? Hope Verity & Laura are OK.
harry:
I am sorry to hear about Davids heart attack but I am not surprised,the last time I saw him he was extremely active but massively overweight. He was using a Majorcan restaurant every day where the food was swimming in fat .Me in contrast eat lots of fruit & veg & avoid fried food…& had my heart attack in June 2011.LOL
I think its all down to retirement,when you hang up your spurs the immune system relaxes & you are in line for anything going. Get well David & don’t forget to take the pills? Hope Verity & Laura are OK.
freshir wrote :- So sorry to learn of David’s heart attack, I wish you well mate it was not so long ago that you were posting on here, you’ll be ok mate - Good luck - As for Kenny Ward as far as I know he is keeping ok, I had a Christmas card from him
(No stamp on it ) and he is on this thread but does not post anything and for obvious reasons I can only mention that he resides in the Burton on Trent area - Good luck Ken if you read this, I knew a chap who had a cheese sandwich and put some jam on it - Yuck - regards Phred !!
Ash
Im sure u are right about the dump thing I was only relaying info passed to me,but the dump under my trailer is genuine ,■■■■ was a great character but a sponger if you had it ■■■■ wanted it his trailer box was full of borrowed stuff including food,you never invited ■■■■ for a meal ,round your trailer box if you did you would get the tiny portion,but lets not speak ill of the dead ,I got on with ■■■■ ,most didnt ,but he knew the Job in and out ,if u wanted to get ■■■■■■ the ■■■■ was your man,but you had to be shure ■■■■ was paying his share of the bill
Only met ■■■■ once & that was on the Ostend-Eastern dock boat. I got as rat arsed as him & he was taking the ■■■■ out of this 6’.6 driver at the bar. I thought he knew him but it turned out it was this guys first trip to Italy as an O/D…V.embarrassing when I found out.The driver was OK when I bumped into him a coupla times later but I never tried to explain. Snowy was never seen again.
freshir:
Good luck - As for Kenny Ward as far as I know he is keeping ok, I had a Christmas card from him
(No stamp on it ) and he is on this thread but does not post anything and for obvious reasons I can only mention that he resides in the Burton on Trent area - Good luck Ken if you read this, I knew a chap who had a cheese sandwich and put some jam on it - Yuck - regards Phred !!
Would I have met Ken Ward in Chez Jo (Hautvillers) about 3 or 4 years ago? He was certainly a Ken who had done the business and he gave me his business card (mislaid). Lovely interesting man and we quaffed several extra bottles that evening.
What an amazing site, and network of friends, this site has become. I didn’t even know that word of my, actually, 3 heart attacks had reached the outside world but I thank you for your kind wishes — though I might take issue with ‘massively overwieght’ though Harry. A certain roundness had become apparent I grant you but massively? Still it proves the effectiveness of the grease diet.
Actually a funny story about the attack; I was working in a shipyard in Livorno, Italy and got to feel worse and worse but I am not one to have much to do with Doctors — there was never one when you wanted him on the Tapline as I recall — so I had been trying to pretend that there was nothing wrong. When that stopped working and I had to do something so, via a friend of mine who is a Doctor in Viareggio, I got booked into their very nice modern facility. After a long time and a lot of machines and cables attached to my person, the head bloke said,’ OK. You have Pneumonia but there is no difficulty about sorting that out. No, the problem is the three Heart Attacks’ ‘The what??’ I said ‘Oh, the 3 heart attacks that you have had, one as recently as 2 weeks ago’ said he. ‘But, but’ said I feeling strangely cheated ‘I have no memory of any such thing.’ ‘No, probably not, you were most probably asleep — people normally are.’ I still feel cheated! Anyway they fixed me all up and even took me for a trip on this fantastic machine they have which pokes stuff up blood vessels from your arm into your heart and can fix all kinds of problems therein without any kind of surgery! Absolutely fantastic — and they even let you watch the whole thing on the tele and give it you on a DVD to keep. “My adventures fiddling about inside your heart”
So they let me out at the beginning of December and Kenny Ward decided that it made a good excuse for a trip so he came out in his car and fetched me home with hardly a yard on Autoroutes and a number of good meals in the old Routiers that, surprising, still exist and prosper.
So now, let’s talk about transport. I see that we have 2 new lads present in the bar, electriclips and jazzandy who are from the right time and so we must know each other. You mentioned J and T and Orxy who I both worked for and before that I had been in the thick of it with John Ellingham who, by then, was trading in his wife’s name — Eileen Ellingham Middle East — the Bailiffs having done their best, though had not had a lot a success repossessing the Bosporus Express fleet. After that there was Altrex Transport Bedrijf BV in Holland and Grangewood. It’s a pleasure to have you along lads.
Ash has mentioned Ken Searle who was one of my great mates on Orxy but who we have heard nothing for some years now. He was working as a ‘security’ bloke in Iraq and I have always hoped that he did not suffer an accident there.
And just because it’s been a long time I’ll put up a picture of Kenny Searle and one of me as we once were. Massively overweight indeed!
Destination Doha is available in small parts on Youtube
MINUS
Bad/dirt track roads, kamakazzi drivers, long delays at customs, breakdowns, blowouts, up to -30* of frost and ice, up to 50* of heat, eating out of the trailer box and long way away from home.
PLUS
Made some great friends, met some of the best of the best drivers, absolute quality all of them.
First truck on ME was F89 NMC331R brand new (Funny how you remember these things)
I wouldn’t of missed it for the world!
LOL; That first picture of you,David is how I remembered you at the quayside in Italy.Next time we met you had put on the pounds big-time but because the locals had such respect for you they kept their mouths shut -except me when I mentioned the value of eating salad & watched you turn purple with controlled indignation. The prob at the time was I had my first serious attack of gout & took double the amount of capsules( indomethacin) more than the normal dose & that with the big no-no alcohol turned me into a ■■■■■■-babble nut job. I would listen to the crap I was talking & couldn’t believe the negative stuff coming out of my mouth. I remember one night I was going to sort out a complete Spanish football fan club in their own bar???You deserved a medal for putting up with it all. Lately I spent the Winters in Thailand but in June I had 4 heart attacks in 24 hrs. in the comfort of my own home.On the last H/A I called 999 & they were inside my house before I put the phone down -lucky day! Like you I had a stent put in & 7 pills a day ,no probs.What did me was the cholesterol from the gallons of cheap beer from Tescos . Since June I have lost 14kgs by cutting out beer,salt,sugar & fat. The drugs have affected my voice,I got like a whiney sore throat sound now.Funny thing is ,travel is on the back-burner now -I just can’t be arsed.Anyway -stay lucky! …( Moderately overweight?) Happy in my misery ,all the best.
PS.I dropped that camera into the ocean in Thailand when I was on a photo shoot with 2 beautiful models-
PPS.Costa Concordia…whats your thoughts David. La Capitano Italiano observed the long tradition of ‘me first’ when the seven bells tolled.
electriclips:
Promotor was the only company that I knew who could leave half a load on H4 and still get a clean signature.
Johnny Hunt got a clean signature for a full load of cocoa butter from the ice cream factory in Baghdad after he’s rolled the drag of his F12 roadtrain at the bottom of the hill approaching Damascus and left the drag and it’s load there.This was when he was driving for Jeff.
He collected the drag and topped it on his way home.
