Hi Nazmi,
Can you tell me why the German United ‘S’ was formed? Did that have a special reason? I read that you said that they had 8 Macks, but on this forum I read somewhere else a number of 11 Macks. Can you remember what was the correct number?
This post brings back good memories to me while as a small boy I saw the OHS and United trucks on the road and at Van Hove. I was allready very much interested in Mack trucks at that moment.
Regards, Gerlof
Hi Gerlof, do you remember the address of Van Hove at that time. Was it in central Brussels or had they moved out to their new premises?
Hi Andy, I visited the new address in Kobbegem, where I saw a lot of the OHS trucks, but that was allready in the early 80’s. I have to ask the old Van Hove when they moved from their old address in Brussels (Boulevard De Smet de Nayerlaan 115) to their new address (Brekerlaan 43 in Kobbegem). Later (around 1988) there where still a lot of the old OHS Macks at Van Hove, and I also saw a few old Macks of the company in the harbour of Antwerp). Regards, Gerlof
Van Hove still exists as a most loyal Renault-(Mack-)dealer in the region
of Louvain- and Antwerp-region with a history of around fifty years now.
Paul
I had Macks serviced at both addresses so the move must have been around 1973/74. Does anyone have any photos of the original address?
Willy Grieten was our contact there.
i’m afraid I don’t have pictures of the old address. Yes, Willy I remember him quite well.
Paul, as far as I know Van Hove stopped with the Mack allready 15 years ago. I heard that Mercedes, who bought the Setra busses, didn’t want another truck brand to be sold. Also sales allready dropped down very much in the last years after Mack had to stop building the Ultraliner after rhe cab factory burned down.
Gerlof, I now know Van Hove as active with Renault and Mack did
die a silent death in Belgium. A man called Monné in Holland took
over BENELUX-business rather succesfully after Van Hove & Zwaans.
Trudocars of Saint Trond (near Tongres and Hasselt) was a known
dealer for Mack just after the war for many years.
Hi Paul,
Monné I know very well, he did the restauration of my Mack F model.
I haven’t heard from Trudocars. Do you have more information about them?
Gerlof
Mack/Van Hove had regional sub-dealers, in fact well equipped and known garages. I saw
some of them in a small pocket-directory from the early fifties. Trudocars in Sint Truiden, Verschaete in Bissegem (Courtrai) but other names I don’t recall now.
Hi Paul,
That’s some very interesting information. Thank you. Hopefully someone has that booklet and can find out which other names were on the list. I think that the regional dealers didn’t have anything to do with the international hauliers like OHS.
Gerlof
Gerlof,
Well, it was a poor/simple edition, small (perhaps 40 pages) only stating
the dealers/garages at that time servicing commercial vehicles. Now I do
regret not buying that booklet (approx. 250BF in the late nineties) but I
saw so many things on Brussels’ oldtimer-show that you forget to go back
to the book-trader at the end. I was surprised that quite a number of un-
known makes were represented by garages you did not expect to.
I think tiptop can help you better as he knows Belgium as his pocket 
Paul
Hi Gerlof , United’‘S’’ Transport Gmbh .- No special reason , at the time I was against the idea of having another company&fleet in another country, we had 2 British company and a Turkish Company with a big fleet , but The BOSS decided to hv a company in Germany as well.As far as I recall ( that is some 30 odd years) United S had 3 Volvo’s and plus 8 Mack trucks, trailers were fm Kaesbohrer…Yes Mack was a machine,not good for driving comfortably for the drivers due to spring system and cab system, but ideal for the owners…Kind regards
Gerlof:
Hi Nazmi,
Can you tell me why the German United ‘S’ was formed? Did that have a special reason? I read that you said that they had 8 Macks, but on this forum I read somewhere else a number of 11 Macks. Can you remember what was the correct number?
This post brings back good memories to me while as a small boy I saw the OHS and United trucks on the road and at Van Hove. I was allready very much interested in Mack trucks at that moment.
Regards, Gerlof
Hi Gerlof,
OHS gone into liqudation late 1985 , after that period we hv operated under a new name ''Sahara Trans (UK) Ltd for 2 more years, then company was sold and later hv understand that they hv changed company’s name to COMPEX, the ones you hv seen at Vanhove and Antwerp must be under COMPEX name.
Regards
Nazmi
Gerlof:
Hi Andy, I visited the new address in Kobbegem, where I saw a lot of the OHS trucks, but that was allready in the early 80’s. I have to ask the old Van Hove when they moved from their old address in Brussels (Boulevard De Smet de Nayerlaan 115) to their new address (Brekerlaan 43 in Kobbegem). Later (around 1988) there where still a lot of the old OHS Macks at Van Hove, and I also saw a few old Macks of the company in the harbour of Antwerp). Regards, Gerlof
Hi there ,
Mack also had a spare part shop in Antwerp ,Mack Antwerp ,and was a beatiful lady in charge of Europen sales.
regards
Nazmi
Macadam-woman:
Gerlof, I now know Van Hove as active with Renault and Mack did
die a silent death in Belgium. A man called Monné in Holland took
over BENELUX-business rather succesfully after Van Hove & Zwaans.Trudocars of Saint Trond (near Tongres and Hasselt) was a known
dealer for Mack just after the war for many years.
Correct Andy ,
The only place I recall of Vanhove was around circular Brussels.
There was a spare part dealer in Antwerp, Mack Antwerp , we seldom purchased spare parts fm them.
Yes Will the Grieten , and 2 chief mechanics at workshop , names sorry forgotten .
regards
Nazmi
Jazzandy:
I had Macks serviced at both addresses so the move must have been around 1973/74. Does anyone have any photos of the original address?Willy Grieten was our contact there.
5 th of July 2016 , The Boss will celebrate 90 th Birthday
Jazzandy:
This is a photograph of Orhan Hakki Sertel the founder of Contex and OHS taken in 2008
Hi Nazmi,
Thank you so much for your information! I wondered, what was the reason to open up a company in the UK? And why wasn’t PIE company integrated in OHS instead of being transformed in United?
Yes, the COMPEX name now I remember. At Van Hove I saw the former trucks of OHS, but I think they were allready sold then to Van Hove. The Macks I saw in the harbour didn’t all have names on the door. Now I understand why.
What were the colours of Sahara Trans? Did they also use some of the Mack trucks?
Unbelievable that mr Sertel is still around. I wish him a happy birtday on July 5.
Regards, Gerlof
Hi Paul,
Yes, if we know now what we didn’t know at that time. 250 bF would have been worth the investment. And then I would have made much more pictures. For example; I just took a few pictures of OHS (I will try to scan them and post some when I have a new scanner); just because all the trucks were orange/white or white or blue. They all looked the same at the moment. Now I would make a picture of every truck for the collection. But at least I’m very happy that I saw some of the trucks and had the last portion of a very interesting era in trucking history.
Gerlof
Hi Gerlof,
OHS Transport Ltd was formed in 1974 , at the time had good business Turkey>UK>Turkey and the Boss decided to have a company instead of Liasion Office ( before 1974 had a liasion office of Contex in London and one in Munich)
PIE was bought for European work , and Boss decided to hv two seperate company/seperate operation, did not work well, at the end PIE trucks were also used in M/East runs.
SaharaTrans Orange&White , had 5 Macks & F12 Volvo at the time.
Regards
Nazmi
Gerlof:
Hi Nazmi,
Thank you so much for your information! I wondered, what was the reason to open up a company in the UK? And why wasn’t PIE company integrated in OHS instead of being transformed in United?
Yes, the COMPEX name now I remember. At Van Hove I saw the former trucks of OHS, but I think they were allready sold then to Van Hove. The Macks I saw in the harbour didn’t all have names on the door. Now I understand why.
What were the colours of Sahara Trans? Did they also use some of the Mack trucks?Unbelievable that mr Sertel is still around. I wish him a happy birtday on July 5.
Regards, Gerlof
Hi Nazmi,
Once again, thank you for this great information. It seems that Sahara trans was a very decimed run off from OHS/United. Is it correct that al least one of the Shunter trucks (the small MC Macks in the UK) was transformed in the Compex colours, but was also in a red colour before?
Can you, or maybe Andy explain me why the M/East trucking was so booming in the seventies? Did it have to do with the prices of transport, or maybe the reliabilty or speed of transport, or did it have another reason.
I read somewhere that the company transported chocolate and Mohair wool. Was that the main transport, or did you transport other goods as well?
Kind regards,
Gerlof