chilistrucker:
Cracking reads on here.
I started going away 94/95 as a lad of 24
I used to think I was king of the road, and that madrid and barcelona were a long way, how wrong I was.
It was a good crack though, used to be so many uk trucks at it back then and apart from the odd billy [zb] merchant most of the lads were great. People would stop and help each other out, and I’ve had some great weekends in the usual places, victors, freds, and nules that were all popular back then. We just did groupage up and down, hard graft at times but mostly fun with the odd ‘longer’ day thrown in. Our boss tried to keep making it pay in general, but threw in the towel in the end when it just didn’t pay anymore.
didn’t go to spain for a few years, and then landed a job going all over the place, and was shocked to see how much, and how quickly things had changed in spain.
You don’t even have to leave Britain to have an adventure. When I wasn’t doing tanks round the place I used to do occasional Scottish fridges to and from Spain and Italy in the 80’s and there was hardly enough time time to stop for sleep or fuel let alone having time of, or the weekend away. I think a scary experience for me would have been wearing a suit and doing a 5 day week, 9-5 in an office.
Just up from the beach on some waste ground u/o ,parked there loads of times never had a problem it was in the open,after that we used to stop in the beach bar nearby or if we fancied a walk take it in turns which suited me as it gave me a bit of a break from me cousin and he was addicted to goin in clubs,he even went with midget once who must have been in her 70s ,propper pervert
I used to drop the trailer at Zona Franca & park the unit with curtains drawn & radio going on the wide pavement at the bottom of the Parallelo. Never a problem.
Just up from the beach on some waste ground u/o ,parked there loads of times never had a problem it was in the open,after that we used to stop in the beach bar nearby or if we fancied a walk take it in turns which suited me as it gave me a bit of a break from me cousin and he was addicted to goin in clubs,he even went with midget once who must have been in her 70s ,propper pervert
I used to drop the trailer at Zona Franca & park the unit with curtains drawn & radio going on the wide pavement at the bottom of the Parallelo. Never a problem.
yea sometimes there if its the spot im thinking just enough room for one or maybe two units only a stone throw from the beach,used to get a few funny looks using the showers on the beach with shower gel half ■■■■■■ from the afternoon session on the sangria,happy days
harry:
Well,it was near Angelo’s restaurant & v.busy. Five mins from the Texas Bar.
ask me one on sport harry it was 20yrs ago,it was busy but i cant remember the names of the places,we used to park up at san cirio football ground in italy aswell and stand at the food vans drinking and eating their hotdogs all night
Hi Jeff,I was a subbie to Kepstowe Freight through Alan Johnson, running to mostly Moscow as well as other parts of the C.I.S. When Eurogate started running overland to the Gold mine at Zarefshan i was not long in going to work for them direct. there were quite a few O/D worked direct and more through other contractors. one firm offered to put a fleet of dedicated trucks on for them but they declined. Unfortunately the American mining company sent out their troubleshooter to try and streamline the operation and he decided it would be cheaper to send the goods by rail in containers.So another very lucrative job bit the dust.
Regards Jamie
Great stuff there Jamie, the M32 always had a bit of surprise in store for everyone. I’m surprised it was as bad as it was to the space station at Balkalour. I would have thought the Russian and Kaz government would have spent more the up keep for that bit. I can only assume that most of the stuff they required went either by air or rail.
I was bumping along there one day and got buzzed by a couple of MIGs, they were going supper sonic because about 4 seconds after they passed the windscreen jumped in and about about 3 inches, and there was feeling like something had sucked all the air out the cab and someone had slapped my ears with wet hands as hard as they could, all at the same time.
I was in contact with a Turkish driver a few years back that told me the official way to Almaty is now out to Ufa, Celyabinsk then down through Astana. Apparently it’s sealed all the way, not much point in going now lol.
When I get back from Australia in the early 90’s after a bit of agency work ( Tesco Didcot ) I got on with with this lot affectionately know as Fiasco International.
At the interview the boss and his son ( also the boss ) told me they didn’t run bent nor encouraged any of their staff to do so either.
First trip out was Sicily in this 420, the drivers door was of a 360 hence the badge. Full load of Gaming machines from Hellmans just of the A 13 round the back of Tesco near the railway lines, load on Monday back Saturday evening.
I was also encouraged to paint the trucks for him as well…
380 baby v8 went pretty well Twin steer lift.
Regular driver ex page 3 girl, and monster truck driver Kim Stevenson, regular run was Italy and Spain, sometimes Turkey or Ukraine.
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I think she was interested in Owls because I took it out one night ( the Iveco ) and all I could see in the headlights were the tops of trees.
She was quite partial to Cuban cigars, we band her from smoking them in the flat. But that looks like a mini bottle of something. Could have a one of them sample bottles of Terme Di Recearro as that was one of her regular collections.
Could also have been the bosses ■■■■ cause she was always threatening to cut it of.
harry:
We’ve all been around,why is it just in UK they wear the full BS?
Me: Libya ,Algeria,Maroc ,Turkey ,Iran,Afghanistan ,& Pakistan .
Saw it years ago in Afghanistan ,& in Rammadan in Maroc .
It’s the reverse of those Brit drivers in white socks and sandals who fetched up at places like Victors in Spain or the Cabbage Patch in France, who simply had to be EXTRA British because they were abroad. These Bin-liner addicts are the same - extra, super, over-the-top when abroad but comfortably flexible when at home (as long as ‘home’ isn’t Saudi). R
We’re not back on about dealer boot again, didn’t we just do that on the Astran thread…
The ones that made me cringe/laugh were the professional, in your face Brit abroad type that use to hang about in the services drinking coffee and being loud just so other people could see them. Not everyone was a total plonker,I did meat a load of really good blokes on the runs as well.
Jelliot:
Hi Jamie if remember right 68 was the phone, fax code for Tashkent anyway, so they might have been changing things at that time. I remember a lot of Muslim Turks getting about as well, they didn’t seem to have as much trouble getting places as Western Europeans. They used to come up from Iran and use the old silk routes. We used them on occasion if there was to much work for our permit location, Helen and Tuna ring a bell, and I have a feeling they were connected somehow. If remember they were all red with big white sign writing on both the trucks trailers. I didn’t see many Wily Betz, only the odd couple here and there, mainly south or east, west of Moscow, but none down towards Kaz. Rynart Trading ( the ones with peacock green and red graphics ) were quite a common site but must of them were Polish subbies, and I was told ( not confirmed ) that most of them were Muslim as well.
I was running containers to and from the Devonport docks last weekend and saw a mustard yellow FH with a red oxide chassis and my first thought was that it must be ex Peekes of Warsaw, pretty unlikely, but old habits die hard.
Were you running with Dave Mackie, Colin, Gilders, Nick Bull etc, or working at the mine?
Jeff…
Hi Jeff
The Rynart with the green trucks were a mix between Turkish and Estonian drivers in the mid nineties and the ones I met were very knowledgeable lads. They were running to Tengiz in Kazakhstan with food products and don’t know if it was along side Gilders or for a different contractor. There’s a few ex Gilders on here would know more. I went with Frank to price work for that region for a company called Kelvin catering but they seemed to expect us to undercut so never did go to Tengiz just by passed it on the way to Turkmenistan. In Nebit Dag Turkmenistan Rynart were also servicing the ex pats there at the gas plant but because they were on Dutch plates with Turkish drivers they were ok to run into Iran for a back load or anywhere else in the region. As far as the Betz goes they were always kicking about somewhere when I travelled out that way. They used to load regular in the UK and double man it to Bulgaria or closer with change overs with the big cabs then the drivers with the small Merc cabs would then hop on the somat ferry for Bourgas to Novorossiysk in Russia for delivery to most of Russia then if it was for Georgia or Azerbaijan they would sail in to Poti in Georgia.
keith
