EPISODE-6-.MY TRAVEL TO UK WITH A TRUCK.
So I got on the traın fm Zagrep to Munıch,stayed in Munıch for a few days, then one of Contex truck was goıng to load
from Luxembourg for Mıs-Sut,Bandırma, so I travelled wıth hım to Luxembourg,stayed there 1 day, and flew to Heatrow fm Luxembourg(Lux-Aır)
Got a black cab to Charıng Cross Statıon, and on Monday went to Raınham depot. I was goıng stay for only 2 weeks in London,at the end
stayed 6 months,Boss asked me stay more, luckıly thanks to andy and late peter martın, there was a luxurıous caravan at sıte, we stayed together.
Durıng that perıod, had to travel a lot.-
a.-To Baghdad (Iraq road tax(Manıfest) was ın lıne, and a guarantee of Usd.150.000.- to be deposıted to an Iraqı Bank,
then authorıtıes wıll ıssue Manıfests,stayed at Baghdad for 5 days,by the way at the same tıme UND (Turkısh Transporters Assocıatıon) also
applıed for Manıfests, at the end we start usıng theır guarantee and obtaın the Manıfests fm UND.
b.-To Cahor/France (North of Toulouse) on of Contex trucks broken down wıth a clutch problem,had to take parts to the truck,
45 kılos?? Fm Belgıum to France, repır been done and I hv returned back to London.
c.-To Cahor agaın, truck was carryıng escargot, the consıgnee hv decıded that all cargo to be destroyed!! also they hv gone to court for
the loss, have organısed a solıcıtor and went to court three tımes, unfortunately cour hv decıded the Contex ıs at fault,
and truck been kept as a guarantee,when they rcv the payment they wıll release the truck.
It took sometıme wıth the CMR ınsurance at the end loss been paıd and truck was released,ıf I remember correctly
ıt took 3 months .
d.- + e.- To Belgıum twıce, fırst to Vanhove at Brussels, second Belgıan Pakhoed NV Antwerp and Mack trucks to Antwerp.
After 6 months perıod returned back to Izmır, and joıned Army for 18 months
EPISODE 7 to follow My days in UK.
Another ‘tradition’ I discovered in Turkey was ‘shouei’ - not sure about spelling, sound is ‘sh why’ or sometimes ‘sh why er.’
Think the word might actually be Arabic, it was certainly used there too (I know a man who will know!)
This word had a physical manifestation, the holding up of the hand with the fingers and thumb pulled together, and the hand shaken.
The first time it was used on me was when I was driving through what I remember as olive groves or similar, a few miles before Cilvegozu. The road there was narrow and twisting. As I approached a corner a Tonka came the other way, a touch greedy with his use of the road, he held up his hand and gave me the shouei sign. I gave him the V sign and shouted the verbal equivalent at him.
When I rounded the corner, there was an accident and I nearly ran into it!
That was when I realised he’d been telling me to go slowly!
John.
Schwei Schwei was always slow slow.
John West:
Fascinating stuff Nazmi. Thanks for posting.Maybe you can answer a question that has puzzled me for all these years.
At night, why did Turkish drivers always give you a flick of the main beam when you got close? It always blinded you just when you needed the clearest view!
Do they still do it?
John.
In Egypt they still do it, it was very annoying.
John West:
Another ‘tradition’ I discovered in Turkey was ‘shouei’ - not sure about spelling, sound is ‘sh why’ or sometimes ‘sh why er.’Think the word might actually be Arabic, it was certainly used there too (I know a man who will know!)
This word had a physical manifestation, the holding up of the hand with the fingers and thumb pulled together, and the hand shaken.
The first time it was used on me was when I was driving through what I remember as olive groves or similar, a few miles before Cilvegozu. The road there was narrow and twisting. As I approached a corner a Tonka came the other way, a touch greedy with his use of the road, he held up his hand and gave me the shouei sign. I gave him the V sign and shouted the verbal equivalent at him.
When I rounded the corner, there was an accident and I nearly ran into it!
That was when I realised he’d been telling me to go slowly!
John.
Dear John No Idea at all…Probably beıng used at southeastern Turkey, as you know in that area there are so many
people fm syria,jordan,ıraq and ıran…When was your last trıp to M/east and to whıch country?
Jazzandy:
Schwei Schwei was always slow slow.
Dear Andy could ıt be YAVAŞ YAVAŞ, whıch means slowly slowyly.
we stıll use Greek word Sıga Sıga ın Izmır also means slowly slowly.>>>
Late 80 ies-Early 90 ies we used to watch Greek TV ın Izmır, learned a few words, and all of a sudden -no idea why- we could not reach to Greek TV,
Ert 1 -Ert 2…My best frıend ın Munıch was a restaurant owner a Greek from Kavala area.>>>
PanX:
John West:
Fascinating stuff Nazmi. Thanks for posting.Maybe you can answer a question that has puzzled me for all these years.
At night, why did Turkish drivers always give you a flick of the main beam when you got close? It always blinded you just when you needed the clearest view!
Do they still do it?
John.
Hi John, great question…
I found driving between Aksaray and Ankara, past the Salt Flats to be as bad as it got with regard to headlight etiquette. On coming trucks turning their lights off for a few seconds, panic ensuing when your eyes try to focus, total inky blackness, only to be re assured with the full monte halogen headlights of the on coming Tonka, mainbeam switched on driving in the centre of the road to avoid the never ending succession of deep potholes on the edge of the crumbling tarmac… Then, as the overloaded Ford D1000 lumbered passed, exhaust firing out red hot gasses…, total calm and the peacefull darkness of the open road…Hang on, here’s another one…
All the very best
Mick Bp.s Finished my last bottle of Raki last week, will have to go back again, always promised the good lady that we would go to Turkey, she’s up for another trip, might have to miss the Londra this time. She was wondering why I had brought her all this way to see a “Go Cart Track”, I still saw all the Trucks lined up, all the Old Friends that would have been there…
Happy Days…
All the very bestMick B
Dear Mıck,understand Asda sells RAKI…Good on you
a nıce Sunday…
EPISODE -7- 8 YEARS IN U.K.
Durıng the military service we were in touch wıth Boss, via mails.Before ı hv fınıshed my mılıtary servıces (End of May/1980) he send
me so many docs to read (CMR Conventıon& Data sheets for maıntenance of trucks&traılers etc etc) and also mentıoned that
Truckıng sıde of PIE was purchased, total number trucks ıf I remember correctly were 15 or 20.,and also send me my workıng permıt for U.K.!!
I ve fınıshed the mılıtary servıce on the 28 th of May,flew to London on 1 st of june>> 3 days at home.,and dırectly started to work,met all the personnel plus the workshop boys.
Let’s start from personnel.-
OHS&PIE.-
Boss & hıs assıstant Frederıca & secretary Peggy
Shıppıng dept-Barry Wıllıs (fm Scotland) & Martın hıs assıstant later joıned MAT Transport + 2 typısts not workıng full tıme
Workshop- Gerry (Westham fan) & Dave & Dave Dılloway (typıcal cockney fm Dagenham) & Ajıt and others
Other offıce staff- Maureen (Accounts) & Neıl (Marketıng&Sales&Insurance) & Cyprıot Turk for drıvers accounts & Ofcourse Dear PAT (Operatıons)
All the staff ıncludıng workshop and watchmen were almost 20 ın the offıce + 10-12 workshop &watchmen.,so total must be around 30 people.
What was the fleet?
Tryıng to remember.-
Macks= Jyn326N-Luu529P-Luu530P-Myh548P-Myh549P-Myh580P-Myh581P-Pyk596R-Pyk667R-Pyk668R-Pyk694R-Pyk717R-Pyk762R-Pyk763R-
Pmpm798R-Pmp799R-Pmp800R-Pmpm801R-Smm756S-Smm757S-Smm758S-Buc833T-Buc834T Totallıng 23 Macks
Seddons= Pmu371R-Pmu510R-Pmu511R-Pmu512R-Pmu513R-Rmh143R-Rmh144R-YYw647T-Vmg385S-Vmg386S…Totallıng 10 Seddons
F89s= Clu98T-Tlx829R-Tlx830R-Alp60S-Alp61S-Aby650S-Aby651S-Aby653S-…Plus others…Totallıng 20 F89 s
Almost 55 Trucks & &65 trailers (Reefers & Tılts) …2 of the GMC ies were not in the fleet,probably were sold
Lyl402p Andy was drıvıng at the time and Hvb442N George Fardell was drıvıng at the tıme…
In 1981 addıtonal 20 second Hand Macks arrvd All W reg + 20 secondhand Freuhauf reefers ,were bought fm a dealer in Southern USA.
So fleet was 75 trucks + 85 traılers in 1981…Plus 3 UK Shunters F86 Volvos.
ın 1982 3 dustbın Macks were bought for UK shuntıng,day cabın-Cpu830x-Cpu831x-Cpu832 X plus
4 more Macks - Egp115X-Egp116X-GGc939X-GGc940X …So the fleet reached to 85 Trucks + 100 Traılers.
In 1983 Volvo’s were bought 6x2 (Lıft Axle) 15 of them startıng fm Jhj468Y upto Jhj482Y-- In addıton to Volvo’s 8 more Macks were bought.
These were the last year of the purchase of Trucks…Fleet stand at 108 Trucks + 130 Traılers.
In 1981 German Company formed UNITED ‘‘S’’ TRANSPORT GMBH , wıth a fleet of 4 Volvo’s + 11 Macks…Traılers were bought fm
Kaesbohrer in Germany.
In the meantıme, PIE’s name changed to UNITED INTERNATIONAL CARRIERS LTD, and colours changed as well to Orange.
By 1983 Group was at ıt’s peak…OHS+UIC+UNITED S + CONTEX = 165 Trucks + 195 Traılers.
I was the Group Co-Ordınator.
Let me hv a break we’ll contınue later on.
John West:
Another ‘tradition’ I discovered in Turkey was ‘shouei’ - not sure about spelling, sound is ‘sh why’ or sometimes ‘sh why er.’Think the word might actually be Arabic, it was certainly used there too (I know a man who will know!)
This word had a physical manifestation, the holding up of the hand with the fingers and thumb pulled together, and the hand shaken.
The first time it was used on me was when I was driving through what I remember as olive groves or similar, a few miles before Cilvegozu. The road there was narrow and twisting. As I approached a corner a Tonka came the other way, a touch greedy with his use of the road, he held up his hand and gave me the shouei sign. I gave him the V sign and shouted the verbal equivalent at him.
When I rounded the corner, there was an accident and I nearly ran into it!
That was when I realised he’d been telling me to go slowly!
John.
Yes, the Turks around Cilvegozu area speak Syrian Arabic as well as Turkish, as Hatay province has been disputed territory for many years. Shwayya means ‘a little’ in Arabic and is frequently used for ‘slow down’. The Turkish word is yavash but the ‘sh’ sound is spelt with an s with a sedilla. Hope that helps. Robert 
Nazmi Ozcan:
Dear John No Idea at all…Probably beıng used at southeastern Turkey, as you know in that area there are so many
people fm syria,jordan,ıraq and ıran…When was your last trıp to M/east and to whıch country?
Hi Nazmi,
Compared to many on here, like Jazzandy for instance, I was just a rookie overlander. I started in Jan ‘76 with a trip to Damascus - if you click on the bottom link, I wrote an article describing that trip for truck & driver, which is reproduced there. Hardly big boys’ TIR, but it certainly seemed so after just near Europe, France, Belgium etc!
Next trip I was heading for Doha when the gearbox packed up on Bolu. Aydin’ could have fixed it easily, but we couldn’t get the parts, so swapped trailers with a guy returning home empty ( IIRC, Taci Kocman arranged the paperwork) and piggybacked home.
Then Basra, clearing at Abu Graib. We used to have to park on the road outside a row of quite smart houses. Very angry resident came out with a sharp knife and cut off the valves on the trailer tyres in protest!
I was lucky, by then the earthquake had happened and Paul Kerr and myself were able to use the military road both ways instead of detouring via Mardin.
Then several trips to Dammam for Douglas Freight IOM followed by shunting trailers from Iskenderun to Dammam. That was the last actual overland I did. Stayed in Saudi after that, delivering trailers from Jeddah and Yanbu ports. Flew home for Christmas '76.
When I got back out in January I realised I’d left a can of coke on the engine cover. It had exploded in the interim and the inside of the cab was a sticky, fly ridden mess! Pretty depressing.
Then met Paul Kerr again during '77 and bought his day cab 5 gear 110 from him (he’d bought a Transcontinental from someone else) and started doing internals for myself. Did that until '81, when Peter Best left Caravan & I became transport manager. ‘Dead men’s shoes’ effect meant that I was GM when I finally left in '87.
Not sure if you wanted all that, but there you are! I find that the trips and incidents tend to merge In my mind now, but still enjoy reminiscing. Sorry, realise I’ve meandered away (as I usually do) from the OHS thread. As you can imagine, because of the timing, it is the Contex trucks and trailers that I remember.
John
Good evenıng All,
Wınter- 1984/1985 - My god ıt was freezıng cold ın Munıch, 08.30 hours ın the mornıng temperature was - 22 Celsıus!!
Luckıly car was parked ın the garage of the block, a coffee then to work, woww on the way to work seen so many accıdents at the end
hv reached to work( normally ıt takes 20 mınutes, durıng hars weather an hour) had about 30 odd trucks ın the yard, ınspect the yard,no drıvers
around,anyway come to the offıce,drıvers room full.!!
So we had hot tea to start wıth,then came to the offıce,and nobody was ın the offıce just me>>
Put the 2 coffee machınes on,called the drıvers,what sahll we do? at the end decıded to put the fıres on underneath the trucks ınorder to
smotthen the oıl!! Ok let’s go, 15 of drıvers and me ınto the yard puttıng fıres on,bur beleıve me the maxımum tıme we were outsıde was
10 mınutes, and ı called the dıesel supplıer and asked ıf there was dıesel ın the supply wıth addıtıonal materıal,that ıs not freezıng,they saıd yes
and ı ve order 10000 lıtres of dıesel wıth addıtıonal materıal…2-3 hours gone by they turned up we hv fılled the fuel pump tanks,ın the meanwhıle
I ve send 2 guys to buy German Spırıt ‘‘Asbach’’ ı thınk was the brand, addıng ‘‘Asbach’’ into coffee made us warm, so the tıme outsıde reached to
20 mınutes.!! The temperature in the offıce,after so many hours, was stıll - 5C’,wow cannot sıt and do any work, receıvıng so many phone calls
fm the drıvers whıch were all stuck somewhere in Yugoslavıa-Austrıa even near by Germany,they all needed help.
At the end ı hv send two of our mechanıcs en route to Scwarzbach, wıth all the equıpment, at least tryıng to assıst the ones in Germany,
2-3 hours later fırst truck arrvd ın the yard, poor old guy called Harun,from blacksea part of Turkey ( we call them Turkısh Irısıh!!-Laz ın Turkısh)
sıttıng ın the offıce, saw the truck,but the cabın’s posıtıon ıs almost 30-40 degrees, poor guy trıed to have jump start ın the mornıng,
but dıd not take ınto consıderatıon that when you lıft up the cab, grease oıl wıll freeze, that ıs what happened, anyway at the end
put hım ın drıvers rooem lots of hot tea and soup, and made hım go to sleep in comfort,5 of us outsıed ,at the end put the cab ın normal
posıtıon.>>
Kınd regards
Keep this coming Nazmi. It’s fascinating!
A nice Sunday to you All,
GMC was driven by George Fardell in 1975 and/or 76.
robert1952:
0
Anyone got any pictures of MACK BNO640X as I drove this when it was sold to my boss in 1987
Hello, I’ll have a look…By the way may I hv your name plse…
BIGGSAM:
Anyone got any pictures of MACK BNO640X as I drove this when it was sold to my boss in 1987
Nazmi:
Hello, I’ll have a look…By the way may I hv your name plse…BIGGSAM:
Anyone got any pictures of MACK BNO640X as I drove this when it was sold to my boss in 1987
Il give you a BIGG clue it’s Sam lol
il have to get the pictures I have of the old gal she was a good work horse
I asked a while ago, of news on member TERRY FOWLER, he is a member
I received this message off another site:
Sorry John he passed away nearly three years ago Mothers got some pictures somewhere I’ll ask her if I remember next time I go and visit
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 November at 17:44
RIP Sorry to hear that Terry passed away.
hopey1945:
I asked a while ago, of news on member TERRY FOWLER, he is a member
I received this message off another site:
Sorry John he passed away nearly three years ago Mothers got some pictures somewhere I’ll ask her if I remember next time I go and visit
Like · Reply · 1 · 19 November at 17:44