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Drivers on the or
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Driving to the Middle East means more than having an hgv licence
by bin Sherriff
THE MEN who drive to the Middle East come from all walks of life, and not all of them are lifetime drivers. Travelling with the Eastern BRS convoy along the 3,500-mile route from London to Tehran last month I met a former British Airways steward, an exAfrican mercenary and others who had given up managerial posts, the traffic desk and the workshop. All had been attracted to the road to the East for different reasons. For some. it was the urge to travel, others sought adventure, but a few were bent on developing their skills with an eye to running their own business in what should be a lucrative market for 20 years ahead.
The driver who gets his load to a Middle East destination safely and on time is on intimate terms with his vehicle, has surmounted language barriers, mastered customs procedures and unravelled currency complications. At a more personal level, he has developed the art of surviving in barren countryside in extremes of temperature. He is domesticated to the extent that he can produce an appetising fourcourse meal from tins and packets in primitive conditions with basic utensils and a propane gas cooker.
The further a man travels from home the more highly these skills are developed. The more often he does it, the more expert he becomes. It is from this highly skilled group of drivers that the real threat to established operators with illequipped management comes. They become more knowledgeable than the boss and a potential competitor.
The operator who recognises the skills and talents of the driver has little to fear. If the man is properly recompensed he will acknowledge the security of employment, but there are many men on the long haul to the Middle East and there are just as many types of conditions of service.
Men like Clive Bewley of Jenkinson International appear to enjoy first-class conditions. They are paid a good weekly wage, given more than adequate running expenses, they are not pushed for time and on their return, while the vehicle is being serviced, they are on paid leave. After his last trip Clive had two weeks at home before leaving for Kuwait. That was two weeks ago. By now he expects to be tipping and heading for home again. Not all the drivers or all the companies involved enjoy such a well regulated operation.
Incentive
Freelance drivers are tempted with offers of wages and running money of £500 for the single trip. It takes about £350 for fuel and food to get to Tehran. They are then autho rised to pick up a return load with the incentive of sharing in the profits. I heard one man on his way out being instructed in Ankara to get a return load at £2,000 "all up front" —paid in advance. The going rate at the moment for return load traffic is £450 to £500. Other drivers working for more enlightened employers told me they were on a basic pay of £28 per week but normally picked up £90. They were also expected to make something on the running money.
The three BRS drivers with whom I started the run, David Allan, James McAnearney and David Stroud, from what I could learn, were about the best paid men on the route, although their running money of £350 for each leg was proving a bit tight. This was supplied by U & B Transport of Cambridge to whom the vehicles had been hired.
Between the two extremes lies a multiplicity of other con
ditions, and it seems inevitable that unless the operators get down to settling standard conditions, then the trade unions will take a hand. Taking the best of all the conditions I heard of, and compiling a standard set, a driver would have a weekly wage of £125 gross while out of the country, £400 running money for each leg and £40 a week paid leave between trips with a minimum of one week at home.
Although David Allan and "Mac" had worked in Europe for a few years this was only the second time that all three men had been to the Middle East. However, they had developed a skill for estimating almost to within 10 per cent what they would require in the way of currency to traverse each country.
The formula was simple enough when explained. They divided the distance to be covered by the kilometres per litre which the vehicle returned; this produced the litres required and the cost per litre was multiplied by this figure, which threw up the fuel cost. The transit time was calculated and they estimated their subsistence requirement for this period; to this, were added any toll charges or agency fees which would have to be paid.
If that reads like an oversimplification of the routine, I can tell you that the skilled driver makes the calculation in less than five minutes.
The experienced and legitimate British drivers on the Middle East run have no peer. They know how to time the run, to catch borders before closing time and miss weekeno or public holiday delays. They can speedily pass through customs and generally find time to help a man who is lost with the paperwork.
Chatting
Bernard Willis, who drives for Whitetrux of Dover is a good example. I found him at most borders chatting to the new men and passing on advice. It was he who saved us the embarrassment of being picked up in a non-signposted but prohibited area in Turkey.
Later on the journey he lost a precious hour helping a Frenchman complete his carnet. Neither had total command of the other's language.
In this respect they were unlike multilingual John Hastie who converses freely in German, French and Italian and can make himself understood in Serbo-Croat and Turkish. This was fortunate for a cer
tain driver who was about to be sent to prison in Jugoslavia over a permit irregularity until John Hastie used his linguistic ability to plead successfully on his behalf. Perhaps not surprisingly this man is more than a driver; he is also a Middle East transport consultant.
Long-distance lorry drivers have long been regarded as "loners" but in the view of Harry G. Brown and Son of Leighton Buzzard, the Middle East is too far for solo driving. However, having found two men to a vehicle unworkable both from the economic and driving viewpoint, he now operates two-vehicle convoys.
His men, who I met many times along the 3,500-mile route, Brian Green and Tony Jones, are perfectly suited for this type of operation. They run, park and eat together. One of the places where I met them was the telegraph office in Tehran from where they were contacting Mr Brown to say they had been delayed. The fact that Iranian customs thinking that the photo-copying fluid in their loads had a low flashpoint eventually delayed them for three weeks.
Charlie Richards, of Ian Clark Transport, and Bill Smith, of Alan Alhug, are two of the more experienced men on the Middle East run. They told me they were disgustei. by the activities of the "cowboys." Others with similar experience were on the verge of giving up the run until the "cowboys" were removed. It is to be hoped that experienced men like these do not give up too soon. Too many new men depend on them to get there and back safely.
Just as currency conversion comes as second nature to the experienced driver so do customs procedures, but without some guidance in advance or help at the time the new driver can waste hours crossing borders.
Every driver possesses a document case in which he carries his carnet de passage, CMR, TIR, Green Card insurance, manifest and other documents together with his passport. If Turkey is one of the countries to be transited, he should also carry four passport photographs. At every border he will be required to present the standard documents in the briefcase, but there are procedures which are peculiar to each country.
Leaving the UK the driver has to report to the ferry operator or his agent and have the manifest checked and then hand all the documentation over to the customs officer, who ensures that the vehicle is properly sealed, stamps the carnets and clears the traffic for loading. At the European port of entry the documents are again handed to the customs officer, who stamps the copies appertaining to his customs point and passes them back to the driver. This routine is repeated at every border.
In addition when passing from Holland into Germany the driver is required to complete a four-part form which gives details of the load, its collection point and ultimate destination. Two parts of the form are left with the Dutch authorities and the driver passes to the other end of the customs hall and hands over the other two parts again with the standard documentation to the German authorities. He, completes a further form showing the weight, load, loading and discharging points and hands these together with his German permit and passport to the officer.
A vehicle ern.ering Germany for the first time may carry only 50 litres of diesel before the driver is required to pay an increased diesel tax. However, when he passes out of Germany he is credited on paper with what he has in excess of this amount in his tank. When
he next enters Germany this credit may be added to the permitted 50 litres and so the process continues. The tankchine, as the system is known, applies to the vehicle specified on the form irrespective of who is driving. It cannot be used for any other vehicle.
Manifest
When leaving Germany the driver again shows the standard documentation together with his passport and makes application for his fuel credit. Once more a four-part manifest has to be completed. Two parts are handed to the German authorities; the other two with the standard documentation, Austrian permit and an entry payment of 60 schillings, are handed to the Austrian authorities. It is also necessary for drivers to have their manifest stamped by a border agent. The vehicles in our convoy were cleared by Schenkers Spedition at the Salzburg border for the equivalent 1 Deutschmark.
Going from Austria into Jugoslavia requires the standard documentation, manifest —described by the Austrians as a bill of freight—and a sight of the transit permit. The Jugoslays also now require a transit permit, having rescinded the clause in the bilateral agreement which allowed them to collect a ton-kilometre tax instead. It is worth noting here that the Jugoslays intend to imprison drivers producing false permits and turn back those who arrive without permits. Leaving Jugoslavia, the permit is once again checked, together with the standard documentation and here, for the first time, the driver will almost certainly require to give an immigration officer or customs man access to his cab for inspection.
Moving into Bulgaria a different procedure is adopted. The passport and the equivalent of £7 is passed to immigration authorities who issue a visa. At the second window, the documentation is examined and stamped, and in our case the Bulgarians were particularly interested to see the Green Card.
On the opposite side of the passageway from the customs officer, almost unnoticed, there is a desk where a Bulgarian sells fuel coupons. Using these coupons, drivers purchase fuel at 40 per cent discount. By the time this procedure has been completed, the passport and visa are ready for collection at window number 2. The driver then picks up a customs seal which he later hands to a Bulgarian official to have the load sealed. This takes place immediately before the cab control is carried out before the customs barrier is lifted.
Moving from Bulgaria into Turkey we experienced considerable delay—about 28 hours. It took only a few minutes to pass through the Bulgarian border when we eventually reached the head of the queue. Our documents were cleared within seconds, the cab control was simply a case of driving past an officer with the door open while one stood on a raised platform and looked down on the top of the tilt.
Inside Turkey the documentation was handled by an agent. Once the vehicle had been parked and the passports stamped, all the documents together with two passport photographs and 200 Turkish lira were handed to the agent. I found that most of the experienced men were using the Young Turk agency, who completed his part of the operation in just over one hour.
When a driver takes a vehicle into Turkey the details are marked on his passport and only he can take the vehicle through the exit border. In our case, this was at Bazargen, Iran.
The customs area here resembles a large farmyard. Inside Turkey on the righthand side there is a small agents room where all the documentation has to be presented together with the passport. Once cleared, drivers park their vehicles in the Iranian customs park and then return to complete their entry documentation.
This amounts to making application for a visa. There is no clear signposting and it is very much a case of following the crowd. Visa application forms lie in disarray on the customs officer's desk ; they are small white and pink forms, which are completed in duplicate and handed to the officer. It is folly to be too courteous and queue up here. The order of the day is to push your way to the front, force the passport and visa application into his hand, and with luck it will be returned inside ten minutes.
It is also necessary here to take out Iranian insurance, for which the charge is 700 rials, and to change money at the bank. Between collecting the visa and changing currency, drivers should cross the yard to the agent's hall, hand over the carnet and two photostat copies of the CMR note. One or two hours later the documentation will be cleared. Before leaving the customs car park the vehicle has to be sealed with an Iranian seal and the driver is then free to proceed to the inland customs terminal at Tehran, remember ing on the way to pass over the statutory weighbridge checkpoints.
Where there is an obvious border delay, when the vehicle is within 20 places from the head of the queue, the experienced driver begins to clear his documentation. Final clearance in Tehran is perhaps the most difficult part of the trip. This area is as yet undeveloped. Agents are difficult to find, customs men the more so.
More than 500 vehicles were occupying the approach roads and car park when we arrived and it was a case of joining the queue and looking for an agent and then being directed to park up and await further instructions.
Clearing customs was taking anything up to 10 days and I was unable to spend the time waiting for the final curtain to my 18-day drama. I learned later that the Crusaders were eight days in Iran before they were finally discharged, and although this could be put down to pressure of business in this booming country, I was told there is a way of speeding things up.
Quick turn-round
Mr L. Wilkins, a director of Arrowfreight Ltd, of South East London, had travelled over the entire route with two of his vehicles. On learning of the delay at the Tehran customs point he paid E10 to a customs officer to get a quick turn-round on one of the vehicles, leaving the other to take its normal course. Of course, this is something which could soon become a Dutch auction, with the lowest bidder still waiting 10 days.
The old hands know where " a few coppers " will oil the wheels. The even more experienced know how few, but all will tell you that it is wise to carry some loose change on the trip.
Next week I shall be looking at the vehices which are used on this run and recounting what some of the drivers think of them.