Whoops!! I didn’t really mean it to sound like that. I meant a proper wash, all over. My apologies to any old hands that I may have offended.
Never having done ME work myself, I was going on what ME mates I met and what they told me.
Thanks for pointing out my error/insult Bullit
You are also right Rexyu some of the lads on the job were not to keen on washing very often i knew one lad who used to say he,ll have a wash on the ferry on the way home he also never changed his clothes either god he was rough 
Some of them on the way home would regularly have holes in their underpants by the time they got to Yugoslavia. They were not good at planning things… 
Right up to modern times I would always have a daily strip wash in the cab,
unless there was a really good shower without a queue in the offing, and
always in cold water. Hands, face, arms, neck, and all the smelly bits 
.
Never minded cold water, it’s like bashing your head against a brick wall,
brilliant when you stop The Magnum is the best motor for that, stand up
straight with the bowl on the back of the folded down passenger seat. But in
earlier days in smaller cabs there was always the great outdoors 
.
My wife was the same, I remember on one of her first trips watching with
admiration as she stood by the side of the wagon in a Turin backstreet
washing her hair in a bowl placed on the diesel tank. I might have put the
kettle on just a bit for that though 
.
klunk/■■■■■■■■
You are also right Rexyu some of the lads on the job were not to keen on washing very often i knew one lad who used to say he,ll have a wash on the ferry on the way home he also never changed his clothes either god he was rough
Reminds me of a time at the BP in Bordeaux many years ago. Queuing for a shower and the lad in front of me, who was a little ripe it has to be said, heard that the cost of a shower was 18FF. He went off on one saying “[zb] 'em, they can [zb] right off if they think I’m paying 18FF for a shower, [zb] 'em I’ll get a shower on the ferry on the way home.” “Oh, your heading home then?” I asked. “Nah mate, I’m on my way to Seville.” 
Thankfully I didn’t bump into him on the return leg of the journey, mind you he would have been easy to avoid because you would have smelt him long before you saw him.
You can always get a wash wherever you may be, it just takes a little planning and sometimes a bit of ingenuity.
You got clean drivers & dirty drivers. The youngsters these days are immaculate compared to the Trailblazers… :lol:
could anyone tell me if its at all possible, or commercially viable to travel by truck to india■■?
ill wait with trepidation,
paul
there was an old boy on rh whod gone overland to pakistan in the late sixties. barry swarbruck (r.i.p baz :cry: ) was his name, i cant remember who for, it may have been redcliffe roadways or possibly barton transport? so i would say indias possible, i dont know in the present political climate though! hope someone enlightens us paul. rgds jon
There was a few guys that went as far as Pakistan in the 70’s, tho the ones that i was aware of were sellers, ie they sold the lot down there, under the present political climate i would say no, dont know if you would be able to transit Iran now anyway, Afghanistan is a def no no. Even if you were to try coming in from the former soviet states dont think it would be possible. From a commercial point of view, it would be a disaster, I would guess that it would cost at least a third less to ship by container. What part of India was you thinking of? its a vast country, I should see a guy in Athens at the weekend that used to go overland to Pakistan, will ask him he would know better than me.
Steve
MAT Transport and BRS ran to Pakistan. MAT was then known as MATDAMAR SERVICES. They went in day cab Scania 80’s with a folding bed, and BRS International used Marathons,
Dont think the Pakistanis and Indians are friendly enough to allow foreign trucks through now, and Afganistan or Iran would be a no-no, I think
thanks for the replies, my local shop keeper is into imports on a big scale and we were just chatting, ill tell him its a no-no!
mucho gracias
paul
Have a read of coffees post about middle east in the 70’s
Its brilliant.
What does your neighbour import? Anything good
I once worked for Young Brothers at Dargate- they started out doing Middle East work, and although they had long finished doing it by the time of my stint, some of the “old boys” working there had been to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
I have never heard of anyone going to India though, and I imagine that these days it would be far cheaper to containerise the goods.
I bet it would be a fascinating trip though!
Vince
Vince:
I once worked for Young Brothers at Dargate
Blimey Vince,small world.I was born and bred in Yorkletts,just around the corner from Dargate and remember the Mack F-series that Young Bros had for the Middle East.That was when they had a yard on the old A2 at Faversham.
Then they moved to Dargate,into Speedfreights old yard and I remember they had a couple of dirty great big chrome Mack Bulldog statues outside the office.
After that they moved to where they are now,alongside the Thanet Way,next to the Lychgate Filling Station.
I seem to remember that two of the brothers were killed on the M2,they were returning from the London markets in a couple of Transcons and had a bad smash in the fog near Rochester.
As an aside,Speedfreights used to have a couple of old Maggie-Deutz’s parked up at the back of the yard,rare even then.The guy that owned Speedfreights was I think called Reg Moore,and after he sold up and retired had a small car museum just down the road from the old yard,before the ‘Dove’ public house.
I have recently tracked down and old friend of my brother,he drove for Astran’s during 1976-79 and he’s sorting out some pics for me.
His first trip was in 1975 to Lahore,Pakistan but not with Astran.He had a F88 with lift axle then.
I worked for them when they were in the process of moving from the old yard to the new one by the Thanet Way. This would be around 1990-ish I suppose.
The story I heard was that one of the brothers was killed, but otherwise the accident was as you describe. Sadly, the two remaining brothers, Jim and Sandy, fell out in a petty squabble over money and do not speak to each other anymore, despite the fact that Sandy runs the Renault dealership in Young`s yard.
Jim was a real character. Here`s a story from the days when the yard was in Dargate.
Jim had a son, Jeff, who had a moped. Like all 16 year-olds, he rode it with more enthusiasm than skill.
One day, he came hurtling through Dargate with his mate. Outside the pub were a group of morris-dancers doing their thing. With a hey, nonny nonny and all that.
Jeff and his mate did not slow, and sent them leaping for their lives. One of them recognised him, and went stomping up to the yard in a rage.
As he did so, the bells on his jacket jingled merrily :D:D
He got to the yard, and confronted Jim. He let forth his rage.
When he had finished, Jim stroked his beard and said…
“Hmmmmm. I see what you mean. I`ll tell him to slow down. After all, you never know when you are going to come round a bend and come across a group of grown men dancing in the street in their pyjamas”
Vince
i had a clothing importer contact me about 12 months ago asking about sending our garment vans to load in pakistan, went into it in detail and it was much cheaper and nearly as quick as airfreight which he was using, but i told him we couldn’t guarantee transit times due to many factors so it died a death, don’t know if india would be viable though?
As far as I’m aware foreign trucks, or atleast Western trucks have been banned from Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which is why the overland Pakistan work came to a sudden halt. For anyone who has read the Willi Betz website, they will know that Betz ran to Pakistan in those days. I seriously doubt that if a truck did get to Pakistan it would be able to cross the border into the desert of Baluchistan in Pakistan. Its usually closed off to Indians and Pakistanis so a bunch of British vehicles dont stand a chance. Any attempt to get to India by land would probably have to take you though Russia and Kazakhstan and into China (if you’re even allowed into China?) and then down into India (avoiding Kashmir ofcourse!) but that would have to be the most ridicious and unrealistic transport route on earth and it more resembles something of a long distance endurance trek a landrover would have trouble completing, nevermind anything else.
Your only hope would be containers by sea, which would most probably be faster anyway. Container ships can easily get from European ports such as Felixtowe and Rotterdam to Karachi and Bombay in 15 or so days, though most do stop off in the Med on the way. It only takes a modern container ship 25 days to go from Hamburg to Hong Kong or Manila.
robinhood_1984:
I seriously doubt that if a truck did get to Pakistan it would be able to cross the border into the desert of Baluchistan in Pakistan.
Sorry I’ve just spotted my mistake. You would indeed cross into Baluchistan from IRAN which is not going to happen. I should have put that you’d cross to India into either Indian Punjab or Gujerat. Either way, its an extremely far fetched idea to even attempt such a thing.
robinhood_1984:
(if you’re even allowed into China?) .
This has been under discussion before. I used to work for Kepstowe Freight, jj72 used to work for David Croome and we both spent several years driving to Russia.
Both firms used to run as far as Almaty in Kazakhstan, and although we have all heard rumours of British trucks running overland to China, the concensus of opinion is that these are simply “tall tales”
If anyone was running to China, then at least one driver from either of our firms, or from Ralph Davies, who were big in Russia too, would have met him/them.
Goods destined for China used to be transhipped onto Chinese trucks near to the border because we couldn`t get entry visas or road permits.
I am sure an overland trip to India via China would be a fascinating journey, but as also discussed, you could not hope to compete with a shipping container on either price or speed.
Vince
Vince,
I remember seeing a documentary years ago about these guys in either a landy or some sort of small canvass backed army truck driving from England to Goa by land and some of the absolute crazy “roads” they passed. I cant see a modern truck with all its delicate electronics coping with that sort of constant abuse, the prospect of a truck pulling it off is more unrealisitc than the trip itself.
I remember reading in the trucking mags a long while ago about the adventures of Ralph Davies running to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, do they still do such things? Also I’m sure some will remember the stories of ‘Asia Tom’ from Germany who’s ambition was to drive to Mongolia! Wonder if he’s pulled it off yet?