I’ve done European but never done Middle East, but 1 thing I do read as a common theme on these threads from so many of you guys that did this work was that you seem to hold the Turkish/Iranian etc drivers in quite high regard, they seem to value camaraderie very highly!
You’re right ADR,
Those guys were earning nothing like the money we were getting but they were all knights of the road.
The drivers I had no time for we’re largely speaking other Brits. There was a ■■■■■■■■ of great professional drivers but under this were many who normally only survived one or more trips.
They were drivers who couldn’t hold down a job in the UK.Many were little better than petty criminals stealing off each other and their bosses with no thought for the future of their companies.
One guy tells the story on a recent thread of how he stole another driver’s wheels because he had made the mistake of leaving his truck in the Tehran customs trusting the other drivers to look after it for him.
Sorry to say this but it was the truth. Trucks were dumped, running money was blown and the reputation of Brits on the road was rock bottom.
There’s even the story of one so called road boss who parked up a group of trucks in Holland, spent his and their running money on an American car and took it over to England before continuing his journey and claiming from his company that the money had been spent on accident s and running repairs!
keep the stories and pictures coming jazzandy , amazing stuff 
Here’s one taken on top of the Col de Bussang in the Vosges mountains in North Eastern France in Feb. '73 en route to a spinning mill with Iranian cotton on board.
That last pic brings back loads of memories. We used to clear into France in Strasbourg and spend the night at Eurostop, loads of good truckie company, beer, and Led Zep on the jukebox.
Then the Vosges valley and over the Bussang pass before dropping down to Le Thilot where the spinning mill was situated.
Final clearance arranged next morning after an evening in the Routiers, weigh bridge check, offloading and then a call to the office to find the location of the reload.
Happy carefree days. We shall not see their like again!
Anyone out there driven a quadruplex gearbox with two sticks?
Near Berlaimont France
Anyone remember whether these had splitters or range changes?
Or both!!!
What a lovely setting for a classic truck!
The village of Bussang in the Auvergne mountains in North Eastern France
Jazzandy:
You’re right ADR,Those guys were earning nothing like the money we were getting but they were all knights of the road.
The drivers I had no time for we’re largely speaking other Brits. There was a ■■■■■■■■ of great professional drivers but under this were many who normally only survived one or more trips.
They were drivers who couldn’t hold down a job in the UK.Many were little better than petty criminals stealing off each other and their bosses with no thought for the future of their companies.
One guy tells the story on a recent thread of how he stole another driver’s wheels because he had made the mistake of leaving his truck in the Tehran customs trusting the other drivers to look after it for him.
Sorry to say this but it was the truth. Trucks were dumped, running money was blown and the reputation of Brits on the road was rock bottom.
There’s even the story of one so called road boss who parked up a group of trucks in Holland, spent his and their running money on an American car and took it over to England before continuing his journey and claiming from his company that the money had been spent on accident s and running repairs!
Lovely thread this, and of a time that I remember well. Jazzandy, it is sad to reflect on, but it is very true that the standard of both British drivers, and many so called hauliers fell to such a low level. When in the 60s I was running France and Italy we seemed to be proud that we were British, and had standards to uphold. When I was first working in France and the Benelux, in the mid 70s, if I was around and about on my travels and saw UK vehicles parked at Routiers it was a pleasure to stop and have a coffee or beer, and a conversation in Gods English. By the late 70s, well, I would avoid like the plague Routiers with UK tilts outside, because the new breed of UK “lads” seemed like overgrown schoolboys ,off the lead for the first time, blowing their running money on beer that they could not hold down, and generally behaving like moronic idiots! Professional Lorry drivers they certainly were not! And as you say, our reputation fell to a low level, and sadly the good guys became tarnished as well. Nice picture of Bussang, did you eat at the little bar in the square? Cheerio for now.
Can’t see a bar, but most of the buildings including the church with its tower visible are still there, but the picturesque building with the open terrasse has gone to be replaced by a modern building housing the Salle des Fêtes.
Spardo:
Can’t see a bar, but most of the buildings including the church with its tower visible are still there, but the picturesque building with the open terrasse has gone to be replaced by a modern building housing the Salle des Fêtes.
That was before Harrys Total Station opened at St.Marie Tunnel a few miles down the road. When the tunnel was closed we used to go over the Bussang to Swiss, bit tight in places. Anyone remember Harry,Violette,Rachel,Pasha the Great Dane & the cockerspaniel?
Re;Lovely thread this, and of a time that I remember well. Jazzandy, it is sad to reflect on, but it is very true that the standard of both British drivers, and many so called hauliers fell to such a low level. When in the 60s I was running France and Italy we seemed to be proud that we were British, and had standards to uphold. When I was first working in France and the Benelux, in the mid 70s, if I was around and about on my travels and saw UK vehicles parked at Routiers it was a pleasure to stop and have a coffee or beer, and a conversation in Gods English. By the late 70s, well, I would avoid like the plague Routiers with UK tilts outside, because the new breed of UK “lads” seemed like overgrown schoolboys ,off the lead for the first time, blowing their running money on beer that they could not hold down, and generally behaving like moronic idiots! Professional Lorry drivers they certainly were not! And as you say, our reputation fell to a low level, and sadly the good guys became tarnished as well. Nice picture of Bussang, did you eat at the little bar in the square? Cheerio for now
A young O/D left his Volvo in Congorezzo to fly over the weekend to UK & back to get a spare part for his truck. He made the fatal mistake of asking Cantrell drivers to keep an eye on his truck. They had the cab up & ripped out the pump before he was at the airport. He came back on the Monday to a truck that was savagely ripped apart by the the cheap crims that used to run on Brit plates. The scum sold the parts to their wonderful bosses at a knock down price.Lovely days where I ran on foreign plates & avoided UK plated trucks as much as poss.
There were so many of these stories. That one about the ‘road boss’ who bought the car with his running money is absolutely true and he knows who he is. His name appears in Ashley’s fabulous Astran book.
The attitude of those latter day drivers was I’m British and therefore superior to everyone else even though ny behaviour is despicable and my standards below those of everyone else on the road both sanitary and moral.
Despising foreigners is unfortunately a typically British chav trait. I ran with a driver once for several trips to Tehran who wherever we stopped would make the comment, ‘this is the arrsehole of the world’
This when he was driving through some of the most spectacular scenery inhabited by the most beautiful hospitable people you could wish to meet.
Why didn’t they just stay at home and give us all a break. I also thank God that most of my driving was on foreign plates!
I agree ,we would be in Alpine France on the terrace of a lovely old chalet on a Sunday midday drinking beer in Summer & the moaning was non-stop. I thought these guys lived in Paradise until I visited their impoverished ,shabby places called home. Always heard about the fabulous Chequers-until I went there ,the carpet was like walking in a swamp…Grimmm!
As you say,WTF didn’t they stay at home?
I had no idea anyone else had heard of Bussang actually in the Vosges mountains (not the Auvergne),
We used to tip cotton from Iran at Le Thilot at the bottom of the Bussang pass quite regularly.
Customs clearance was in Epinal and I remember my daughter, about 9 years old at the time, vanishing from the cafe next to the Douane (and railway station) to use the toilets only to return a couple of minutes later with a horrifed look on her face. ‘Daddy it’s a hole in the ground!’
Anyway here’s a pic. of my truck being offloaded at the Le Thilot mill.
Oh and I used to have lovely breakfasts at that cafe in Bussang. Fresh coffee with croissants and new French bread with butter and jam. Yum!
This was in 1969 heading home down the Bussang,
Really strange that all the times I offloaded in Le Thilot I never saw an English truck on that road!
Jazzandy:
Really strange that all the times I offloaded in Le Thilot I never saw an English truck on that road!
I used to load expensive cotton sheet at Le Thilot when I was working for Gondrand Colmar depot, sometimes took it to Belfort for groupage & other times back to Colmar to fill out for UK.
Ross.