Eastern promise
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It’s a name well known for its impressive history, but Astran Cargo Services also has great things to come
Words/Main image: Will Shiers
If you thought
Astran was no more than a blast from the past, then think again. Yes, this Middle East specialist has a rich and exciting history, but it’s also got an incredibly rosy future.
There’s a lot more to Astran Cargo Services than just classic Scania 141s and Destination Doha.
The company has undergone something of a rebirth over the past six years, thanks to new owners Hugh Thompson and Peter Carroll. Before they bought the company in 2004, it’s fair to say that Astran was a shadow of its former self and was simply treading water. However, with the help of MD Kevin Letham, the pair have successfully turned it around. Today, the freight-forwarder is responsible for shipping tens of thousands of tonnes of freight to the Middle East each year, via air, sea, and, of course, road. “The last two years have been incredibly busy,” says Letham. “We completed 200 trailer loads for just one company, which is fantastic considering the state of the economy.” Although the UK is not the big manufacturing base it used to be, there is still lots of freight to be exported to the Middle East. Astran recently carried three trailer loads of manhole covers from Derbyshire to the Gulf, and last year it hauled 70 loads of time-sensitive steel from Wales to Doha. “We get the work because no other European company offers an overland service to the Middle East,” says Letham.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar
And it is expecting to get a whole lot busier soon, following the announcement that Qatar will host the 2022 Football World Cup. “They are building 10 stadiums, 90 hotels and two new cities,” says Carroll, who with Letham has just returned from a trip to Doha, the capital of Qatar. “Dubai might be deathly quiet, but Qatar is a hive of activity,” he says. “And the skyline has changed beyond recognition in the last decade. It’s amazing. It looks like Manhattan.” At the moment, the bulk of the work is from mainland Europe, in particular Germany, Spain and Italy.
When CM dropped into Astran’s Maidstone, Kent, head office, 12 of its pool of 25 subcontractor drivers -(23 Brits, one Belgian and a Greek) were on the road, somewhere between Europe and the Middle East. One reason for the Doha trip was to get the company registered there. Although Astran has had a presence in the city since the 1970s, and had a member of staff stationed there for the past 30 years, the previous owner never actually registered the company, which meant it couldn’t officially trade.
“We decided to grab the bull by the horns, so found a sponsor and registered the firm,” says Letham. It was also a good chance for the two to catch up with some of Astran’s customers. “I love business meetings out there,” says Carroll, “a lot of tea gets drunk.”
Campaining for fuel
One thing Carroll likes even more than good tea is cheap fuel. He’s the mastermind behind the FairFuelUK ▼ Everyone wants to be campaign, so naturally takes a healthy interest in fuel an Astran driver!
prices, and was keen to witness the reaction on the streets of Qatar following a recent 42% increase in the cost of petrol. “They were a bit grumpy, because it now costs £8 to fill up a Range Rover,” he laughs. “But it’s still more expensive to wash a car than it is to fill it with fuel.” Back in the day, Astran drivers were frequently away from home for months at a time, which isn’t surprising considering the state of the roads they had to navigate. Some drivers found themselves buried in several feet of snow, run off the road by kamikaze Turkish bus drivers, or up to their axles in sand. It was very much a case of turn right when you reach the desert and hope for the best. “These days its motorway all the way,” says Thompson. Journey times have been slashed, and an average one-way trip from London to Doha takes between 12 and 14 days. That’s almost two weeks quicker than sending the same cargo by sea. The journey across the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal and into Dubai takes about 18 days, says Thompson. Then the product has to be loaded onto a feeder vessel for its journey to Qatar. In total, that’s about four weeks port to port and, points out Thompson, you also have to fit in with the ship’s sailing schedule.
In contrast, the Astran truck will turn up at your premises, and in less than two weeks your product will be unloaded at your customer’s premises having never once left the truck. “While shipping will always win on price, we have speed and convenience in our favour,” says Thompson.
In the old days, Middle East drivers used to carry passports as thick as phone books, but the opening-up of Europe means it’s now easy to drive across the Continent without stopping at a single border.
However, life is still difficult when you get into the Middle East and if your paperwork, visa and passport aren’t exactly as they should be, you can expect lengthy delays. Astran is experienced in this department and has agents in place at all the borders. It is also fortunate enough to have operations manager Jan Payne on its staff, and there’s nothing she doesn’t know about preparing official documents.
Payne has been working for Astran since the early 70s, and is a huge asset to the company. She is in charge of preparing the documentation and arranging particular visas. One of the most problematic countries to get into is Saudi Arabia. The quickest she has ever known the Arab British Chamber of Commerce approve a driver’s visa is two weeks, but it’s normally closer to a month. Payne says all the drivers have at least two passports, so that they can still travel while waiting for a visa.
Destination Iran and Turkey
Although Doha is Astran’s main destination, it also runs a lot of trailers into Iran and Turkey. In the 1990s, it started carrying loads into the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries and these still account for a sizeable chunk of its contracts. In 2009, Astran acquired Lema International Shipping, adding Iceland, Malta and Cyprus to the countries it serves. It was hoping to add China to its list of overland destinations, but according to Letham, low shipping rates currently rule this out.
Not only is Astran Cargo Services beating the recession, but the company is also growing in popularity all the time. The legendary documentary Destination Doha (see pages 42-45) was launched on DVD by Old Pond Publishing in 2009, and last year saw the publication of the book The Long Haul Pioneers charting the company’s entire history.
Earlier this year readers of our sister publication Truck & Driver voted it the third Greatest Haulier of all Time, a model of one of its Scania 111s sold out within six hours of being announced, and now the firm’s entrepreneurial owners have launched a range of branded clothing (see http://www.astran-cargo.com/shop.html). How many other freight forwarders are this popular?
“When we bought it we had a feeling that it had a big following,” says Thompson, “but we didn’t realise quite how strong it was.” ■