Hi Steve, my first trip to Tehran was a complete disaster. I did this for a guy whose name I cannot tremember called John (The guy who got all the mercenaries for Angola), who had an office in Camberley and had about 80 trailers all parked up at the airfield beside Membury Services on the M4 with loads from all the well known freight forwarders of the time, namely Davies Turner, Schenkers, Kuehne and Nagel etc. I was as green as grass and did not realise that the price 0f £2200 was not going to be enough to make a profit, even if the trip went well.
It didn’t, for the simple reason that I was running on paperwork provided by him and the TIR Carnet had expired and the date had been altered with a John Bull printing outfit. As you well know paperwork has to be perfect when one arrives at Kapicule. I got tuned out and I spent 10n days at the border trying to solve the problem, even going down to Istanbul by bus to the Turk Ticaret Odesi, to no avail, so I left my truck at Kapic and flew home to get completely new paperwork all in my own name.
For the TIR Carnet I had to join the FTA (Freight Transport Association) International Branch. My bank provided the guarantee. but this solved the problem of dodgy paperwork and completing a Carnet was something that I took great care in doing. I also joined the AA so that I would be able to get the Carnet de Passage for the truck and the trailer, once again my bank providing the guarantee.
I wrote a letter to the IRFO and they were kind enough to put me right in respect of permits for this kind of journey and that I would have to use the train initially.
So to be brief I decided that no one would ever do paperwork for me again. I flew back to my truck at Kapic and with the right paperwork and a letter from the Turkish Embassy in London I was able to proceed. By now of course the total job is a disaster and looking as though my foray into owner driver works was going to be short, but after unloading in Shiraz, Southern Iran. I stayed there for six months running internally from Tehran, empty to Banda Abbass loading grain and to Korramshah loading steel back to Tehran. Weighed off and immediately paid in Rials, which as I am sure you know were easily changeable into any hard currency that one wished.
Those six months of internal work set me up financially well enough to carry on, which I did. Three years and two winters was enough for me so I managed to get work direct from a customer to Baghdad, which was a large contract and necessitated me buying more trucks and also loading subcontractors.
I don’t know if you remember the company with the bright yellow DAF’s fitted with fridges and axminster carpet based in Avonmouth and owned by an Iranian by the name of Hussein Jafari, called H.J.Atlas Management Ltd. He had 20 trucks, but unfortunately suffered with the quality of drivers that he employed. He had an F89 road train and I loaded him out of Manchester with the rigid and he then stuck a 40 foot behind it loaded again by me and I cannot believe that he got that combination down to Baghdad. They did not last long through poor drivers who were only intent on having a good time, siting in the Londra frightened to cross the bridge, which had replaced the necessity of getting into Asia by using the ferry from Eminonou to Hyderpasha ,with the efes bottles piling up like a pyramid against the wall. Londra to me was a shower and something to eat and then push on. It was so easy to be waylaid by many of the great characters that one met on this run.
My memory is fading now but I could talk on this subject for hours as little things jog my memory. Drivers I met in those days were people like, Johnny Williams, ■■■■ Snow, Johnny Holland, Geof Ruggins (Astran), Some wonderful characters driving for Cantrells Marauders, Colin Taylor especially. Great guy but you could not employ him, too slow and too expensive.
Youngs of Paisley, another Scottish company that made an effort when the Middle East expanded, but I counted fifteen of their trucks abandoned between the Bazargan and Tehran, only one was a genuine breakdown.
So I think I have made it pretty obvious that there were no legends at all in those days, just guys who did the job properly and those who considered it an adventure.
