yous lads must be ravin bonkers bagdad to uk to dagdad in 6 days i know peter very well and he could go to work but he was not a magician we collect our run money in the morning then run empty non stop to italy. load in to ancona night of do customs and sail by 6 am the next day if we get the super fast we are in igumenitsa we 1 hit greece our delay in italy and the ferry is only 20 hours you couldnt drive it to greece in that time from italy we one hit greece thru ipsala and usually make the mc donalds at izmet 5 hours kip into aksoray for the afternoon do repairs then on the syrian border that night thats 5 days to the syrian border with 6 hours kip on the rd and a 20 hour delay for customs and ferry so how do you do bagdad in 3 days did make me smile though
keith the thief:
yous lads must be ravin bonkers bagdad to uk to dagdad in 6 days i know peter very well and he could go to work but he was not a magician we collect our run money in the morning then run empty non stop to italy. load in to ancona night of do customs and sail by 6 am the next day if we get the super fast we are in igumenitsa we 1 hit greece our delay in italy and the ferry is only 20 hours you couldnt drive it to greece in that time from italy we one hit greece thru ipsala and usually make the mc donalds at izmet 5 hours kip into aksoray for the afternoon do repairs then on the syrian border that night thats 5 days to the syrian border with 6 hours kip on the rd and a 20 hour delay for customs and ferry so how do you do bagdad in 3 days did make me smile though
Ya can get on a bit when you only do 4 trips a year Driver 
Peter switched trucks somewhere in Europe. He didnât come all the way back to UK. What we need to know is where did he do the switch?
Jazzandy:
Peter switched trucks somewhere in Europe. He didnât come all the way back to UK. What we need to know is where did he do the switch?
Hullo Andy,
Probably at Plovdiv ? and through Zhako, not too bad.
Cheers, Archie.
I can remember Mervyn King and his Cousin Peter King, arranging a back to back weekâs demonstration of a 480 Iveco Turbostar. What they didnt tell the dealer was that they intended to do a double manned round trip to Baghdad. They borrowed Alan Johnsons ex Polar express 40ft Tilt and probabley loaded for Andy at Orient Freight. They did the round trip in the two weeks and when they returned to Braintree I was waiting to ship out to Barcelona with the same truck, as Bob Gower had it on demo for the third week. I remember one of the front cab suspension struts had come out of the cylinder and jammed the cab in a solid raised position, this had been caused by going into a hole in the road at a great rate of knotts. Where the strut had jammed prevented the engine oil dipstick from being removed, so i had a week of hoping that the oil level was ok whilst i went to and from Barcelona . They had also broken the key in the drivers door which meant that i had to pretend locking the door each time i left the truck . Oh the Joyâs of working with the So Called Braintree Mafia. Regards Jamie.
Hi boys
I have just seen a photo of a F89 that belonged to M S White It is in Ferdyâs Toprun Volvo F88-89 at work collection, It is photo no75 showing the driver with a broken leg. Do any of you have any info on that photo or the driver as I remember meeting him in Turkey on our way home from Bagdad. that would have been 1976. He had earlier in his trip burnt the same leg when rescuing someone from a burning cab, only to go on to brake his leg latter the same trip. the doctors left a hole in the plaster so he could dress the wound. I have spoken to Ferdy and he says he has had the photo for at least 10 years but doâs not recall where he got it from. He suggested maybe he had it of Gordon Pierce as he used to work for them but havenât been able to contact him. Sorry but am not technical enough to copy the photo onto here is there anyone out there that could do that for us.
Regards Keith
Iâve done Rotterdam/Istanbul in 4 days and many have done Baggers/Istanbul in 3 days on the way home. So it is possible to get a load from the UK to Iraq in under a week with everything going in your favour. That saidâŚHow come a round trip always took a month?
my uncle bob done from just outside lincoln 16 drops around stuttgart andback in 7 hours and that was in 1943
ChrisArbon:
Iâve done Rotterdam/Istanbul in 4 days and many have done Baggers/Istanbul in 3 days on the way home. So it is possible to get a load from the UK to Iraq in under a week with everything going in your favour. That saidâŚHow come a round trip always took a month?0
That is a fair hit from Dover to the Motorest in Plzen. You would be shagged when you got there⌠Literally 
Pete Andrews and I used to have races to Oktay, the fastest, and the one who did it on least money won, a cup of tea or something!
littlelegs:
my uncle bob done from just outside lincoln 16 drops around stuttgart andback in 7 hours and that was in 1943
Are you sure it wasnât 20 drops : 
Surely nobody thought I was serious when I said I did B/pool - Kuwait in 3 days!! 
I donât believe itâs possible today let alone back in the seventies considering the roads and border controls .
John McVey:
Surely nobody thought I was serious when I said I did B/pool - Kuwait in 3 days!!
Oh Kuwait John 
. We all thought you meant Carrisio 
.
JM
If, by chance, you are asking your question seriously Legend_Scania then for goodness sake donât take any notice of the old toss you are being told.
The correct answer from one who trundled up and down the dusty road to the Middle East for years - and not just for a couple of hero trips - is that all the common destinations, Gulf and Tehran, were about the same distance and all took about the same time, give or take. Normally the greatest thing that could make or break a quick trip was the time it took to clear the customs controls at the borders and that could vary considerably according to the mood of the border Officers or the amount of traffic. In the early days, early 70âs, there were no real border delays - all could be done within a day - but the roads were very poor and slowed us down a lot. Later on the roads got much better but the amount of traffic meant that the same borders could take 3 days. Of course if they found a problem with your papers then you could look forward to a long holiday. My personal best at the Saudi border, with 2 20 foot containers that they had mixed up the paperwork in Holland and listed the contents of 2 different containers, was 26 days. In the winter the weather could also slow you down seriously especially on the Tehran run.
The honest answer is that most employed drivers took between 3 and 4 weeks per round trip whilst some of the really fast owner drivers, Sim Jones or Bob Dodds-Brown for instance, could knock them out in 15 or 16 days average.
Actually you can work it out for yourself. Qatar was around 8,800 miles, Tehran was 6,800 and Bagdad around 6,400 round trip and mostly, from Austria on, on crap roads. Add to that from 7 to 10 border crossings each way which, even if you were very lucky, would take 3 hours each and you can figure how long it would take. Additionally you should allow some time off when you met your friends, known as an Efes Kontrol after the most popular Turkish beer, and that could add quite a a lot of extra time depending on your thirst.
Hope that answers your question.
David
Lots of stories on this thread dont know what to believe ,do I take them with a pinch of salt,or are they old Drivers tales ,exploded with thoughts of bygone days ,which they cant realy remember as the greymatter,has clouded over so they make it up ,but it makes good reading all the same,but im sure some are the real Mcoy
JM
David Miller:
If, by chance, you are asking your question seriously Legend_Scania then for goodness sake donât take any notice of the old toss you are being told.The correct answer from one who trundled up and down the dusty road to the Middle East for years - and not just for a couple of hero trips - is that all the common destinations, Gulf and Tehran, were about the same distance and all took about the same time, give or take. Normally the greatest thing that could make or break a quick trip was the time it took to clear the customs controls at the borders and that could vary considerably according to the mood of the border Officers or the amount of traffic. In the early days, early 70âs, there were no real border delays - all could be done within a day - but the roads were very poor and slowed us down a lot. Later on the roads got much better but the amount of traffic meant that the same borders could take 3 days. Of course if they found a problem with your papers then you could look forward to a long holiday. My personal best at the Saudi border, with 2 20 foot containers that they had mixed up the paperwork in Holland and listed the contents of 2 different containers, was 26 days. In the winter the weather could also slow you down seriously especially on the Tehran run.
The honest answer is that most employed drivers took between 3 and 4 weeks per round trip whilst some of the really fast owner drivers, Sim Jones or Bob Dodds-Brown for instance, could knock them out in 15 or 16 days average.
Actually you can work it out for yourself. Qatar was around 8,800 miles, Tehran was 6,800 and Bagdad around 6,400 round trip and mostly, from Austria on, on crap roads. Add to that from 7 to 10 border crossings each way which, even if you were very lucky, would take 3 hours each and you can figure how long it would take. Additionally you should allow some time off when you met your friends, known as an Efes Kontrol after the most popular Turkish beer, and that could add quite a a lot of extra time depending on your thirst.
Hope that answers your question.
David
Hi david
Yeah it was a serious question
Cheers for getting back
Jazzandy:
Think you misread my post - Peter King left Baghad Fair to go back to UK to pick up an emergency load for the Baghdad Fair and was back within six days thatâs three days each way!!!
YawnâŚ
Not possible!
There isnât half some â â â â going on here!
Just to clarify again. The load left UK and took a total of 7 days to get to Baghdad. Peter left Baghdad a day after the load left UK switched over trailers somewhere enroute and was back in Baghdad within six days.
Sorry for the initial misrepresentation. Blame it on the Alzheimerâs!
Jazzandy:
Just to clarify again. The load left UK and took a total of 7 days to get to Baghdad. Peter left Baghdad a day after the load left UK switched over trailers somewhere enroute and was back in Baghdad within six days.Sorry for the initial misrepresentation. Blame it on the Alzheimerâs!
The story is fine, it is like saying Stobart drivers go to the moon and back every year, they donât but the company might in total kilometres.
A misnomer like saying Paris Dakar Non Stop or London to Sydney Rally Winner