I read a story once about the major highway along the north of India, and about the local trucking industry. They showed pictures of the ammenities along the route: Stewed mutton vendors squatting on the shoulder, people who rented out hammocks in front yards for sleeping drivers, broken down vehicles and road washouts, cows wandering onto the road just about everywhere…
Why on earth would I wnat to drive there??
Because it would be an experience, it would be educational, it would be very different, it would be interesting, it would be something to look back on in your twighlight years and say “I did that.” Why does anybody do anything that is different from their normal daily routine?
Yes, that sounds like the Grand Trunk Road from Calcutta to Kabul, past Delhi, up to Amritsar near the Pakistan border. Then across that country and over the next border, climb up through the Khyber Pass and finally the superb Kabul Gorge. A spectacular road to drive, I never did get tired of it.
It could also be a thousand other places in Asia.
You are quite correct, you don’t want to go there, it’s not for most people.
Who in their right mind would even dream of it …
Sheeter:
You are quite correct, you don’t want to go there, it’s not for most people.Who in their right mind would even dream of it …
…
Me!!! 
I would!!
I’d rather see it by train or on my touring bike. Plan to go see the ghats and the foothills of the Himilayas someday, with a little sidetrip to the Dalai Lama’s compund. A combination of bike and train should get me everywhere I want to go, without having to worry about making some delivery as well. Oh, one thing an Indian friend warned me about: it seems that something like half of all hotels in India are for Hindus only.
Trucking in India looks like a blood sport to me…
BondiTram:
Someone mentioned Africa and it reminded me of when I worked for Ian Cheverall in Luton. We used to pull white tilt trailers emblazoned in large letters ‘UKWAL - UK West Africa Line’ and ‘This truck goes direct to Nigeria’Earned us a lot of kudos round the country but in fact we never went further than the docks to put them on a ship for - Nigeria!
Salut, David.
that did make i larfff! 
now that would be good, i know that chapuis from lyon in france and i think rynart from holland did go overland in the 70s - we have a customer in the oil game who we do runs to various places for who still have cargo for port harcourt but it usually goes by sea or air, we’ve never done it for them… yet? 
Somebody asked India - why?
Because when you’re young, with no ties, it’s FUN!!
To hell with the danger and discomfort. A real buzz. And if, into the bargain it is just the ultimate test for professional drivers, you want to take, and pass, that test. There is no pass certificate but if at the end you are still alive and not in gaol - you’ve passed!
From the death defying games of Turkish drivers on blind mountain passes who invite you to overtake and then speed up alongside till the last minute; to the incensed antics of a mechanic chasing you out of an Iranian town after a disputed repair bill and throwing rocks from the back of a pick-up truck; to pushing the vehicle up hill for mile after mile till a tankful of dirty diesel had been all used up; to the relief of leaving the dusty roads of Iran behind and speeding along the smart concrete and tarmac highways of Afghanistan built by competing American and Russian engineers; to the long awaited delight of eating roast beef and Yorkshire pudding in Kabul (not any more I bet); and the sinister historical beauty of the Khyber Pass half expecting a Pathan warrior behind every boulder - IT’S FUN!!
And I haven’t even mentioned sheltering from Iraqi bandits or discovering in a back street Damascus hotel that the friendliness and hospitality of the Arabs is unsurpassed (equalled in some places, not others) in the world.
Strewth, just me and the memsahib quietly whiling away a dreamy summer under French trees, I’ve almost talked myself into something again 
. Better go and chuck a few boules till it passes.
Salut, David.
BondiTram:
Somebody asked India - why?Because when you’re young, with no ties, it’s FUN!!
To hell with the danger and discomfort. A real buzz. And if, into the bargain it is just the ultimate test for professional drivers, you want to take, and pass, that test. There is no pass certificate but if at the end you are still alive and not in gaol - you’ve passed!
.
Completely, totally, agree. Ive never been to India, but Ive driven through Bugaria to Istanbul, into Siberia, down to the Crimea, to Tbilisi in Georgia, and a hundred and one other fascinating places. I became a truck driver because I wanted to travel, and travel I have certainly done.
When Im in my dotage, itll be the dirty, dangerous and uncomfortable trips I will remember, not the day I tipped 26 pallets of fruit juice at Tesco in Welham Green!
Vince
Does anybody remember LOBO in Iran?
Lloyds of Birmingham Overland.
I was with an ex driver who was babbling away in Iranian to a driver he met from Tehran in the Londra
Wheel Nut:
I was with an ex driver who was babbling away in Iranian to a driver he met from Tehran in the Londra
?
Londra usually means “London” in Turkish, which sounds like the Londra Campsite and Truck Park off the D100 road, near the Airport, in Istanbul.
The Tehran driver was most likely to have been babbling in the main Iranian language, which is Farsi.
It was the context, not were it is that i thought strange, besides didn’t think anyone used Londra anymore, became a bit of a tip after the bottom fell out of the middle east work and europeans stopped coming down so much, but thanks anyway.
sdj
Vince:
it`ll be the dirty, dangerous and uncomfortable trips I will remember, not the day I tipped 26 pallets of fruit juice at Tesco in Welham Green!Vince
i should imagine welham green can be dirty, dangerous and uncomfortable anyway vince? especially a tesco rdc
well what an interesting read…as you all know i am an ex middle easter,asian transport, astran, (same company) amongst others, i did a trip to karachi in the 70s..loaded out of philips in holland for the same company in india..i honestly dont know how they made it pay in those days cos most of the drivers seemed to be on a holiday trip, myself included, but it brings back memories of some of the company i used to run with..lets jog your memory..PIE (jeff ruggins) OHS..Falcongate..Dow..HRGoodale..H.Messenger..Hicks..Whitetrux..Mondial..B.Titterell..L.e.p...Steve rendell..Alan brooks..U.F.O. .Chivers..Whittle..Mode Express. Rynart .to name a few....what about..■■■■ snow..Johnny spiller (the baron). Budgie..Mick Hawkins. Kamal..Barry (no fingers r.i.p.) do you remember his F88 conversion.raised the roof and extended the cab to look like a yank..and finished off in black paintwork..to name a couple. the 60s and 70`s were the greatest times in terms of transport…had great times in the Londra till we moved to Octay parking down the road cos they wanted to put the charges up, the swimming pool was great though (at least we had clean showers and uk toilets) no more hole in the ground, my mate (egg on legs) actually dropped his wallet down once, and had to retrieve it ha ha. The more i look at this site …the more the memories come flooding back…but i would do it all again even though it cost me 2 marriages.(on my third and last now) ha ha, but she is Bulgarian,
have a nice day
Truckyboy, the egg on legs you are talking about, his real name aint Kevin (think thats right as every one calls him egg) rather a large chap, to say the least, tho he has lost a lot of weigh from the days when he was down in Turkey, if it is him he now lives in Thailand married a girl out there, was over doing a few trips to Greece the other month, met him in Athens.
sdj
Sorry think is name was Ken, not Kevin, as i said he only told me his real name quite late on in the evening, after a few jugs of retsina you tend to forget things like names, and kept calling him egg for the rest of the time i was with him.
sdj
Joe Toole is also living in Thailand too, but was spotted the other week in the Mistral. Keeping his hand in he said 
A few names there to remember Bob, some I knew, some I heard of 
I met “the Egg” AKA “egg on legs” or “Kenny The Egg” about 12-14 years ago, early 90`s, he was a mate of a mate of mine who lives in Charlton.A “large chap” to say the least!!! How he got behind the wheel amazed me, apperently sometimes he used to sleep sitting up (allegedly)!!
Seemed a real character though, heard some strories about him, one in particular was about being stuck in Rumo/Bulgaria with a trailer load of wine (did he roll it or something?), when my mate went down to Turkey he was there and when he was comeing back, the egg was still there minus a good deal of wine!! (allegedly)
I think they were both doing turkey for a guy running out of a yard just of the A13, plain blue step frames with belly tanks.My mate was running down there in a beaten up old Iveco.!
Cheers, Bullitt.
reading about this foreign stuff has gotten me all hyped up about being a truck driver again. i got into it for the adventure, not the money. i used to pull for alcoa and although my usual run was from the plant in cresona, pennsylvania to montreal, quebec, i had occasional runs to some very remote areas in northern quebec, the island of newfoundland and one to labrador. mostly what i saw was miles of wooded two lane road with plenty of mosquitoes on my windshield. alaska requires all trucks in alaska to have an alaska number plate. for almost that reason alone i wanted to go so that i can have that “badge” on my truck. the closest i got was edmonton. from there i was going to get reloaded for alaska but something came up and i had to go home. now i’m working part time and going to college. i pull for bax global and my run is 134 miles a day, 6 days a week. sometmes i read the labels on the stuff coming off my truck and wish i could go to some of these far off places. there is something in my blood that makes me want to constantly travel. thank all of you for your stories and please keep them coming. i feel like with my government being stupid in iraq, and the ukranian election thing, more borders will be closed by the time i get over there and start driving, but then, who would of thought of taking a truck from london to moscow in the 70’s.
Ol trucky did a trip to karachi from holland in the late 70s but it was via Afghanistan…i dont know if we are talking about the same baz or barry…no fingers we used to call him who did indeed make the same trip and i bumped into him in istanbul(Londra) god rest him on the way back…he used to have a black f88 which had been altered to a high cab extension and extra length cabin and the usual bogie lift as we all had in those days…anyway i loaded electrical stuff in holland for their own company in karachi…they were called phillips…it wasa rough trip plagued by problems as it was a winter trip…i used to fill the fuel tank up with a quarter of petrol before adding diesel as most of the other additives which guaranteed the fuel wouldnt freeze never worked anyway…but i had no problems in that department…brakes freezing was the main problem…till i could get hold of some spirit to put down the air lines and into the main air tanks…the other problems were the snow chains snapping links.but like the turks the afghanis were good repairers (bodgers) but got us out of trouble…also the kids were a nightmare…so we always had to carry bags of sweets or they would do the windscreen…but didnt encounter too many problems…it was a one of to that neck of the woods, and then i continued on the mid east work…and met some characters…but we were a family…and always stopped to help each other…and of course to have the occassional beer…there were a lot of spread axle trailers on that work back then…and was a bit frightening when negotiating bad roads and pot holes and i saw many that had gone over…but although i enjoyed every minute of the long haul work…it cannot be done today…the cost is not viable and as said previously it is cheaper by container…but although we import a lot of goods from india…trust the indians in the uk to look for it even cheaper…
have a nice day