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A pioneering

17th November 2011
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spirit

Words: Ashley Coghill

Bob Paul, a founder of AsianTransport (Astran), was one of the first truck drivers to travel overland from the UK to Afghanistan in 1964. Ashley Coghill, author of the history of Astran,remembers this haulage pioneer

In all walks of life there are people who strive for excellence, who go the extra mile and take up challenges far and beyond the norm. Sometimes those challenges are way out of the comfort zone, or simply defy belief. One person who its this statement perfectly is the late Bob Paul who was transport director of Astran (formerly Asian Transport), famed for its unrivalled services in overland transport to the Middle East.

Sadly, Paul died in July 2010 at the age of 81, but his legacy lives on. What made Paul so special was his sheer perseverance and stamina in achieving an incredible journey that allowed thousands of truck drivers to follow in his footsteps. In 1964, he accompanied his best friend Michael Woodman on a pioneering commercial overland route, which took the pair through nine countries and across two continents. They started in Manchester, England, and ended up 31 days later in Kabul, Afghanistan.

What made that journey remarkable was the fact that neither man had ever driven a truck before, or in fact had anything to do with the road transport industry. The pair shared a second-hand Guy Warrior tractor unit coupled to a box trailer loaded with printing presses. Armed with only some basic relief maps, a compass and a few essential supplies, Woodman and Paul never once gave up on their task of delivering that irst prestigious consignment. Even though they broke down on numerous occasions, became lost, found themselves stuck at border crossings for many days, ran out of food and water and nearly wrote the truck off, extraordinarily, they inally made it to Kabul. In so doing, the men were responsible for opening up the irst commercial route across Europe and deep into the Middle East. The ‘overland run’ was conceived and the rest, as they say, is history.

Medical training

Born in France to a French mother and English father, Paul spent much of his childhood in boarding schools split between England and India where his father was a doctor in the British army. After leaving school, Paul began a medical training course at Guy’s Hospital, London, but throughout his studies he was never convinced that it was what he really wanted to do. Nevertheless, he persevered and to help pay the bills he took up several short-term stints in driving-related jobs, including ambulance and taxi driving. Even at nearly 80 years of age, he was still able to navigate his way around London via the back streets.

Even though Paul trained long and hard to follow in his father’s footsteps, he continually contemplated the fact that he would inevitably end up sitting behind a desk prescribing pills and lotions to his patients, knowing he would never be truly happy in his job. He was an outdoor man with a true zest for life and deep down secretly yearned for something far more adventurous, so when his college pal Woodman suggested driving a truck to the Middle East, Paul jumped at the chance to accompany him. He explained what attracted him.

“It was the ultimate challenge, something I had never dreamed of doing. I had no knowledge of what we were about to embark upon, but the whole point of not knowing what was round the next corner or what problems we would come up against appealed the most. I thought it would be a real adventure. As it happened, it turned out to be a totally unique and exciting lifestyle. It was a job that very few people knew anything about, but one which I was extremely proud of doing.” After the irst successful trip to Afghanistan, Woodman’s new company – Asian Transport – found itself with more work, but it soon transpired that Woodman was not so keen on being away from home for such long periods of time and chose to concentrate on building the business from his ofice in Chislehurst, Kent. Paul, on the other hand, had found his niche and revelled in driving to and from the Middle East for a number of years.

n The Long Haul Pioneers: A Celebration of Astran: Leaders in Overland Transport to the Middle East for Over 40 Years by Ashley Coghill is published by Old Pond Publishing


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