SNAP !!!
Thank you whirlinmerlin and I am now trying one photo! wish me luck
Brilliant thread whirlinmerlin,i remember you guys well,i used to pop in for a coffee now and then,ive got some pics here but have yet to scan them over to my computer,i will get on it today,thanks again for a great thread,
Chris
Well done Peter,
We now look forward, with baited breath, to more Saudi pictures.
PS. Now here is a picture of me posing with a real truck in 1983.
chris54:
Brilliant thread whirlinmerlin,i remember you guys well,i used to pop in for a coffee now and then,ive got some pics here but have yet to scan them over to my computer,i will get on it today,thanks again for a great thread,Chris
Glad you are enjoying it. It’s good to reminisce now and then. It’s strange the things you remember and somewhat scary and even more strange, the vast swaths of events you have completely forgotten.
When were you out there and who do you remember? Tell all!!
Martin.
Here is a more modern version of the picture you posted earlier
Since this Taseco thread has been hijacked by Saramat and Crescent, I’ll add a few of my own.
Sealand at first brought in a fleet of old two stroke ‘Jimmys’ and Dodges from their Elizabeth, New Jersey depot. Then some beefier Autocars.
I don’t think the Jimmys could pull 2 trailers, but the Autocars regularly ran ‘double bottoms’.
The drivers were mainly Philippino.
As with us at Caravan, the Philippinos learnt on the job. I had gone out to the Philippines with John Longhorn to recruit. John would start the morning with ‘OK, let’s see who can try to kill us today!’ before our road tests. We finished up with a good bunch of lads, I guess some of the bigger companies just used whoever they were sent.
The ‘swamp’ below was at the back of the Caravan yard - you can see all the Behring containers. Since there was no drain and the road was compacted sand, it used to flood every winter. This was a major shortcut from the Port road across to the main Dammam Riyadh highway, so everyone kept on ploughing through.
Here’s the opposite view
They had a few accidents too!
That one was labelled ‘Sealand/Crecent Rig, hit by Tonka’
This was a double bottom, you can see the second trailer on the left and the tractor on its side infront of the first trailer.
It was just captioned ‘Overturned Sealand Rig, Saudi Desert.’
On reflection, the tractor unit may not have been the Sealand one, both trailers are facing towards us!
John
Wirlinmerlin … Sallam alykhum …apologies did not mean to high-jack your thread …got carried away… keep em, coming it just brought back lots of memories my first trip in Saudi was from the docks in Jeddah to Ras Tannura …a 20 ft box loaded with scaffolding tubes that was near where you were based that was early 77.a wee bit before your time…great times and great to look back on …now one for luck
backsplice:
Wirlinmerlin … Sallam alykhum …apologies did not mean to high-jack your thread …got carried away… keep em, coming it just brought back lots of memories my first trip in Saudi was from the docks in Jeddah to Ras Tannura …a 20 ft box loaded with scaffolding tubes that was near where you were based that was early 77.a wee bit before your time…great times and great to look back on …now one for luck
Hi Backsplice,
Quayful Hal?, or to use the short version, quayfuk?
Good thread Merlin has started.
I remember saramat very well, spent several months in Jeddah in late '76 -early '77, moving Douglas freight trailers which came in at Jeddah and Yanbu.
Wish I’d kept a diary of names etc. spent a night in a Saramat portakabin type accommodation - anything to get in air conditioning! (Could be wrong, its a long time ago)The Saramat guy was a Londoner and had been given some curtains by the Saudi partner. He was trying to make them fit the surroundings - curtains from a palace to fit a portakabin?
Nice Volvos though! We were operating on a shoestring from the Addasco offices, Martin Wass, don’t know if you ever came across him. You had the might of Saudi money behind you, as did Taseco of course!
I went across to Dammam/Khobar in 77, and finished up buying my own truck over there, subbing from Sealand initially, later for ‘Al Qafila’, Caravan. Used to see lots of Saramat about the Kingdom including Abha, Khamis etc.
Happy Days!
John
There were times when the seemingly endless wait for the next leave out of there, would have us doing anything to break the boredom of it all. We went through the stage of writing rubbish doggerels , usually insulting each other. I attach one here for your entertainment with names altered to protect the innocent!! : Title- “A…s Last Ride.”
Down at hut 4 the days drag by, and soon to England R… will fly.
There he can sup beer and brandy, and some for the misses, it makes her randy.
He’ll ride her round the bedroom floor, and hope and pray she’ll ask for more.
Then to his shed he’ll quietly creep, while B… lies fast asleep.
For now a ride of a different kind, has entered into his fuddled mind.
There it stands all shine and clean, looking fast and very mean.
One swift kick and up it starts, sounding like a bag of f…s!
But he prefers the sound of thunder, and for that he needs a Honda.
So off down to the dealer Sid, who agrees part ex for 50 quid.
Now our R… is a happy chappie, much preferring Jappy crappy.
Back to his house on fullest throttle, on the second bend he lost his bottle.
Down went the bike, it fell to bits. For our poor R… it was the pits.
Cos it meant he’d have to go, back to Saudi for more dough.
The moral here it is quite clear- Never ride your bike after drinking beer.
And if you want a long nice life,
Just stick to riding on the wife!!
What a sad lot we were.
If this passes muster and raises a smile I might be inclined to add another one or two from those days.
Hi Merlin,
Very funny 
Suspect I know who R was, in which case the a…s last ride needs an apostrophe in front of it?
In your first post, ■■?Morrison was, I think, George Morrison. He left Saudi about the same time as me and like me, wanted to buy an Amtrak franchise, but he couldn’t afford the fee. In the meantime he bought a van and started locals for B& Q. Lost touch soon after. Hope he did OK. That would be '87. So he’d worked all that time and still had very little money.
Unlike MM, The Royal Bank of Cheshire!
John.
ONCE again cracking additions to the thread.
looking at the back splice, money reply…,1000 per month ,not bad we were just over fighting for £5a hour as you probably new ,see my post… however you earned it …but what happened on your 3 weeks off in the uk ,you must have had some kind of surplus income ,black market cash to bring home■■? ?i do not know I WAS NEVER THERE…plus was it tax free and did they pay your national insurance for you while out of the uk, as on ships you had to be away from the uk for a year before you were tax exempt.and you paid national insurance every week…just working out if it was worth it to you all…
John West:
Hi Merlin,Very funny
Suspect I know who R was, in which case the a…s last ride needs an apostrophe in front of it?
In your first post, ■■?Morrison was, I think, George Morrison. He left Saudi about the same time as me and like me, wanted to buy an Amtrak franchise, but he couldn’t afford the fee. In the meantime he bought a van and started locals for B& Q. Lost touch soon after. Hope he did OK. That would be '87. So he’d worked all that time and still had very little money.
Unlike MM, The Royal Bank of Cheshire!
John.
You are right about you know who.
Re George Morrison, I heard that the reason he never had any money was because he spent all of it putting each of his kids through many years of private education.
As for me, I could never understand how anybody could go out to SA, earn very good money without paying tax, generally have all living expenses paid, have air fares paid etc etc and still end up with naff all. ( Having said that I didn’t have anybody sucking on the teat!)
In my first contract, I decided to do 6 months straight before going home on my first leave. In that time the only thing I bought was a two hundred pound stereo! The rest went into the bank and my first job on landing in Blighty was to go straight to my mortgage provider and give him every penny I’d earned in exchange for the deeds to my house… After that, every next penny was invested off shore and I rented out two bedrooms in my house to cover any UK expenses. I used most of the next leave opportunities to jet off further afield rather than return to the UK so saw quite a bit of the world. I continued to resist most materialistic urges for the rest of my time out there and this strategy paid off in the long run. My old mum’s adage-" Look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves" certainly stood me in good stead.
Maybe the above will go some way to answer Deckboypeggy’s questions but in addition, we were paid full wages whilst on leave but of course not our uk national insurance which was our choice to pay or not to pay. In those days it was possible to seriously change your life with the money earned but however, if you became seduced by the whole business, it was easy to blow it on the proverbial wine, women and song. It’s always been that way I suppose.
deckboypeggy:
ONCE again cracking additions to the thread.
looking at the back splice, money reply…,1000 per month ,not bad we were just over fighting for £5a hour as you probably new ,see my post… however you earned it …but what happened on your 3 weeks off in the uk ,you must have had some kind of surplus income ,black market cash to bring home■■? ?i do not know I WAS NEVER THERE…plus was it tax free and did they pay your national insurance for you while out of the uk, as on ships you had to be away from the uk for a year before you were tax exempt.and you paid national insurance every week…just working out if it was worth it to you all…
Further to Merlin’s comments. If you were away 9 months of the year, you paid no tax. However, you did need to inform HMIT that you were away and IIRC had to let them know your arrival and departure dates. Some guys didn’t bother & may have struggled sorting it out when they came home!
I was careful to do all that and also paid my self employed national insurance while I was away. When it came to old age pension time last year was glad I had - then read that they would have paid me the basic pension whether or not I’d paid while I was away.
Living wasn’t expensive there in that while driving for myself, I drove, ate and slept. We did eventually rent a villa between us, but even then, we were making so much money it was a small proportion. When I took the job at Caravan as transport manager, I halved my income, but then everything I had spent money on was now included.
It was hardly ‘black market’ cash. Every penny earned abroad & spent in the Uk was an input to the economy with no outgoing.
John
When I think back on it all …I had a good year all my wages went in the bank and I was never ever short of folding stuff while I was there …at SARAMAT we were on a trip bonus paid in cash and we were also allocated fuel money for which we had to produce “receipts” all in all pretty fair and them that were there know how much diesel was !! it was dear to by a gallon of engine oil I remember that I think it was hard to get a job out there but once you were in there were jobs to be had I was approached on several occasions with job offers but better the devil you know …my worst experience was 4 days in the jail in Tief through a MVA but it was the beginning of Ramadan or I would have been out in a day or so still that,s life could have been worse I made a few bob a lot more than I would have at home and I can honestly say I never had any bother at all … mind you it was 5 years before Wirlinmerlins time !!!
backsplice:
When I think back on it all …I had a good year all my wages went in the bank and I was never ever short of folding stuff while I was there …at SARAMAT we were on a trip bonus paid in cash and we were also allocated fuel money for which we had to produce “receipts” all in all pretty fair and them that were there know how much diesel was !! it was dear to by a gallon of engine oil I remember that I think it was hard to get a job out there but once you were in there were jobs to be had I was approached on several occasions with job offers but better the devil you know …my worst experience was 4 days in the jail in Tief through a MVA but it was the beginning of Ramadan or I would have been out in a day or so still that,s life could have been worse I made a few bob a lot more than I would have at home and I can honestly say I never had any bother at all … mind you it was 5 years before Wirlinmerlins time !!!
Yes, ‘being there’ was the thing! I think a lot of the lads who did overland had no idea how much money was to be made doing internals.
I only went from Taif to Abha & Khamis after they’d finished the road, but it was pretty hairy in '75 and earlier. Saw photos of wrecked trucks. But they were paid about £3,000 for 10 days work - if they survived!
I did go to Jizan in about '79 or '80 before they built the road down the escarpment and it was one of the most frightening things I’ve ever done. Twice the height of Taif, but no Tarmac - or barriers!
John.
Whilst at Taseco in 1983, my operations manager was Vic Turner, a larger than life character who seemed to have the ability to walk on water as well as the amazing skill of getting all those around him on side and doing his bidding. Except on just one occasion that I can recall although he was really clever in the way that he dealt with the problem.
One morning I was met with all the Shri Lankan drivers and camp workers refusing to go to work for a whole host of reasons. Vic came down to the despatch office, stood on the top step and gathered the drivers in a big crowd in front of him. They were all being quite vocal!! He then said, that in order to quietly talk through and sort out the complaints they had and to resolve their problems, it would be best if they elected, there and then, one driver and one camp worker to act as spokesmen. After about five minutes of general mayhem, two men stepped forward and were sent inside to Vics office. The drivers and camp staff then went off back to their duties. Meantime, Vic had me and another supervisor sit with the two elected spokesmen and promptly locked us in!!! He then called the police. They were down in no time and, quite forcefully, carted these two lads of to prison ( it’s illegal to strike in Saudi!) where they remained until they were thrown out of the country at their own expense. It created so much furore at the time that even a Shri Lankan high official tried to get involved and have the men compensated but to no avail. ( we had no more moans and groans after!)
When Vic returned to the UK, he set up his own transport business, ending up with quite a few trucks, but his fortunes changed with drastic changes in interest rates and so he went into other ventures, eventually ending up driving a truck for somebody else, something he has continued to do to this day, and at the ripe age of 76.
( Vic am looking forward to coming down to see you in the near future and to collect that fake watch you promised me!)
Very informative replies to my curiosity concerning how the tales of men earning lots of cash while driving in the M.E have never been substantiate to me before by the actual men who did it and i thank you all for being so candid.
It is easy now for me to say ,"yes"that will do me.as i think i would have enjoyed the money however i did then at that time have 3 small children [my choice].
and of course if you new who to see about working .ME not so common back then ,i can see the advantage of a owner driver, once there you had it made… i do not know about a employed driver, as you would have been wanted back or to do another run…or did they stay on down there on their own back to do a few foreigners for the cash themselves… these may seem odd question ■■..to all who did do that work , however we all heard all the stories of this and that concerning cash brought home in the cab all them years back …what sort of driver would have gone to the ME for trip money?.. not one who was a regular driver for a company ,or would they have done? thank you…
Wirlinmerlin:
Whilst at Taseco in 1983, my operations manager was Vic Turner, a larger than life character who seemed to have the ability to walk on water as well as the amazing skill of getting all those around him on side and doing his bidding. Except on just one occasion that I can recall although he was really clever in the way that he dealt with the problem.
One morning I was met with all the Shri Lankan drivers and camp workers refusing to go to work for a whole host of reasons. Vic came down to the despatch office, stood on the top step and gathered the drivers in a big crowd in front of him. They were all being quite vocal!! He then said, that in order to quietly talk through and sort out the complaints they had and to resolve their problems, it would be best if they elected, there and then, one driver and one camp worker to act as spokesmen. After about five minutes of general mayhem, two men stepped forward and were sent inside to Vics office. The drivers and camp staff then went off back to their duties. Meantime, Vic had me and another supervisor sit with the two elected spokesmen and promptly locked us in!!! He then called the police. They were down in no time and, quite forcefully, carted these two lads of to prison ( it’s illegal to strike in Saudi!) where they remained until they were thrown out of the country at their own expense. It created so much furore at the time that even a Shri Lankan high official tried to get involved and have the men compensated but to no avail. ( we had no more moans and groans after!)
When Vic returned to the UK, he set up his own transport business, ending up with quite a few trucks, but his fortunes changed with drastic changes in interest rates and so he went into other ventures, eventually ending up driving a truck for somebody else, something he has continued to do to this day, and at the ripe age of 76.
( Vic am looking forward to coming down to see you in the near future and to collect that fake watch you promised me!)
Or as big Jim, the American Transport boss at Crescent/Sealand (known as Santa Claus to Geoff and Ginger, they sold him so much tackle, including 2 low loaders they ‘found’) said
‘I shot 2 when I first arrived, now I just have to show them the rifle!’.
John.
If you felt like a skive when you saw the transport lads with a handful of paperwork heading your way if you avoided them they just found someone else or if you wanted a break get a Jeddah local (40ft box full of tiles ) that would take all day so just lie in the bunk listening to Conway Twitty on the quadraphonic stereo A/C going of course … there are lots of things to write about lots and lots
