Special ER Fs arrive in troubled Jordan and CM is there to meet them
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5,500 mile delivery service for Middle East order
from lain Sherriff, Amman
• At midnight on Monday of last week I watched a convoy of seven ERF /King Truck outfits roll into Ruseifa, 23km north of her after a 20-day 5,500 mile trip from Sandbach in Cheshire. This delivery and another of three vehicles due shortly will bring the total in Jordan to 37.
The vehicles are part of an order for 50 which ERF is supplying to Jordan Phospate Mines Company through its Middle East Agent, Jordan Resources Co. This was the agent's first ERF order and the British company's largest ever export order.
The-weather hazards of snow, ice and fog encountered in Europe in winter were minimized on this run by using the Southampton—Le Havre, Italy, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, .Syria route. This cut out Germany and Austria where snow chains are obligatory just now.
There were other hazards to be overcome, but the convoy leaders, Mr. G. Robinson and Mr. R. Butler, appear to have coped very well. One vehicle from a previous convoy had broken down in Bulgaria and before it could be repaired the driver's transit visa, which lasted Seven days, had expired. Left with Bulgarian money only, the stranded man was happy to see his fellow countrymen who made arrangements for his early release.
The three vehicles still to arrive were delayed at the Syrian border because their manifest did not include the spares they were carrying. A bond was arranged from London and to everyone's relief the vehicles are again mobile.
The journeys have been arranged by Holmes Travel (Cheltenham) Ltd. and almost all of the men have made at least two trips. The cost, I understand, is a third of the quoted shipping rate and the journey normally takes only 14 days. In addition, since the Six Day War, the only port for Jordan is Aqaba, where opposing forces are still only yards apart. So road delivery is most suitable in every way.
Accompanying the six Cheltenham drivers on this trip was an ERF fitter, Roy Wood, to attend to any mechanical defects encountered along the way. Happily, the only delaying factor was water in fuel picked up in Syria. This was soon cleared but not before John Broome, another driver, had had his shoes stolen. He finished the trip in carpet slippers!
I have just left the Jordan Resource Company's workshop where ERF service engineer Mr. W. R. Fitzsimons was supervising an end-of-trip inspection. Apart from some tyre scuffing resulting from 25 hairpin Alpine bends, there was neither-damage nor defect.
The King Truck Equipment Co. has five fitters in attendance to examine and repair any semi-trailer defects. The vehicles are to carry phosphates and the hopper bodies are covered with a tilt to prevent spillage; some of these tilts were subjected to minor damage but they were immediately stripped and repaired.
The ERF after-sales service will not end when the vehicles go into operation. The service engineer remains here for three years in charge of repairs.
Despite this service, since arriving here I have heard that there is a whispering campaign going on to discredit the vehicles before they even go into use. These are the first British heavies to come into Jordan and the order was won in the face of fierce competition from Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe.
However, the delivery drivers had no doubts about the capabilities of the Rolls
Royce-en gined tractive units. Fifty-fiveyear-old Basil Bolton, who has many miles of truck delivery behind him, said: 'We averaged 60km per hour for 10 hours daily over some of the most tortuous roads in Europe. These machines will stand up to anything."
In normal circumstance this renewal of the Phosphate Mine Company's fleet would attract a great deal of public attention. But things are not normal today in Jordan. There is concern for other matters. Only 1km from the workshop, I saw thousands of refugees from the west bank of the Jordan. Troops in the streets serve to remind one that another war may only be one indiscreet move away. So the arrival of these convoys of British vehicles goes unheralded—indeed almost unnoticed—by all save those directly concerned.