TEHERAN, HERE WE
Page 23
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
By H. Brian Cottee
AN ambitious and adventurous gamble based on the conviction that this service can be of immense value to exporters in their marketing campaigns." That is how the first scheduled road freight service between London and Teheran, which was launched on Tuesday, was described to me by a spokesman for Conemar Ltd., the international shippers and forwarders. They have chartered the trailer section of the road train which Asian Transport Ltd. are operating.
The service's strength in building a customer demand lies in offering a 11R-sealed end-to-end facility which lops eight days off road/rail times and is scheduled to cover 7,500 miles in 16 days (COMMERCIAL MOTOR November 18).
The rugged outfit chosen is an AEC Mammoth Major built to export specification but cut down to a double-drive six-wheeler and carrying an 1,100 Cu. ft. Crane Fruehauf container; it tows a C-F Vanguard 1,400 cu. ft. semi-trailer with dolly added to make it usable as a drawbar trailer, with twin wheels all round.
Oswald Tillotson have extended the AEC cab by 18 in. and Asian Transport have added a 6 ft. bunk across the rear of the cab and a shorter bunk for occasional use which, for transit, is slung across the roof over the crew. For some of the journey it is thought that Bob Paul and co-driver Gordon Pearce will take it in turns to sleep and drive.
From London via Felixstowe to Rotterdam is
the planned regular departure route, but the first run was via TFS from Tilbury to Rotterdam on Tuesday evening, The total payload capacity is 24 tons. On the first journey they are carrying a mixed cargo including electrical machinery parts, baby food, cosmetics, ornamental ware and personal effects; Michael Woodman, who runs Asian Transport, told me that return loads would be largely carpets, hides and personal effects; he has recently been out to Persia—as have representatives of Conemar– to arrange traffic.
This first direct scheduled London-Teheran road service may be something of a gamble traffic-wise, but both Michael Woodman and Bob Paul have learned their transcontinental freighting on three loaded trips to Kabul, Afghanistan, and to them Persia probably rates as a "milk run".
Tees Dock Link: North Riding County Council has been granted ,E.338.700 towards the construction of a £451,600 link road (Greystone Road) between the Middlesbrough-Whitby road (A 174) and the Middlesbrough-Redcar road (A1085). The scheme will make access to the Tees Dock area easier and will relieve traffic congestion in the modern industrial area of Wilton.