Category Archives: International Mega Trucking

I Love Dutch Trucks! 

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if I have my time again Lord please let me be Dutch. Not just the home of the best curry sauce in Europe, not just home to the tallest men in Europe, not just home to Europe’s only native wooden shoe and not just home to the most beautiful blonde  people in Europe (Sorry Sweden!), but home to what I consider to be the best looking trucks in Europe and possibly the world. The vast majority of Dutch trucks are painted and by this I don’t mean over the top or hideous colours. Very few trucks are sold in the manufactures standard white and plastic, but on the opposite side of the scale when have you ever seen a fleet of over top painted trucks?? Never. They all seem to be painted to just the right level, subtle, stylish, simple and generally stunning! Just look at the ever delightful Chickliner fleet…..


Living near to Harwich I see plenty of Dutch trucks, but even with all the gorgeous flower trucks that come in and out of the port with all of our Friday gifts for our partners(!), the fleet of Chickliner trucks stands out. White trucks yes, but full white paint with simple lines and painted wheels. As far from a plain white truck as a painted white truck can be! Match these gorgeous paint jobs to another Dutch invention, the full custom interior. The Netherlands is home to 3 or 4 custom cab interior companies but one of the original and best known is the one and only Special Interiour. The Hazelanger Scania is another of Special Interiours creations and sumptuous is probably the best English word to describe it, not sure on the Dutch translation though. I’ve not seen another custom Interiour company who make their work look so, hmm, look so right. The work carried out looks like a manufacturer finish rather than aftermarket if that makes sense. 


Yes I like Italian trucks and yes I like Spanish trucks, Danish trucks can be pretty close but for me Dutch are top of the league. Long live the Hoek Harwich ferry and long live the Truckstar Festival!! 

2016 Photo Review

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I virtually always start a blog with a photo but for this one I thought I’d do something a little different. Seeing as we are into 2017, Happy New Year by the way, I thought I’d do a little photo review. 2016 was not much different from any other year, a number of truck shows through the year and a good 1000-1500 photos taken I should think. Just having a quick flick through my Flickr albums I wanted to paste a few of my favourites up here for you to see. If you feel like voting for a bit of fun then please cast your vote using the number of the photo. 

  1. Taken by my pal James Cartwright on our way back to the ferry after another excellent weekend in Assen. A gorgeous old Volvo coming through!
  2. A classic line up from the Retro Truck Show at Gaydon. Taking me back to my childhood and the trucks that got me hooked!
  3. Another one from the Retro Show. Not such a retro truck but Shaun Burtons awesome T-Cab Scania parked near the lake. 
  4. Next up was this one I took on the Hipstamatic camera app on my phone. Great App that shuffles your camera settings and can produce lovely rich photos, in this case of my beloved Mercedes-Benz. 
  5. Next, the first of a few more from the Truckstar Festival back in July. A truly photographic place for trucks. A night of rain can produce some great results. Again taken through The Hipstamatic app. 
  6. One of the Englishmen abroad. There isn’t a finer fleet from the UK if not Europe in my book. Coles & Sons in Assen with Convoy and Vendetta. 
  7. Needs no words. Truckstar Festival, Assen. Mrs McKee and Mrs Gibson. 
  8. Pure 100% Dutch. If your new to the world of international custom trucks, then this photo sums up Dutch trucks in one. 
  9. Much like number 2 but a Dutch line up. Could be any year you like from the late 1970’s!
  10. Finally our man Steve Marsh and his little MAN up in the French Alps. Marshy is doing all the things I didn’t in my little Tonka toys, so I’m always grateful for his photos. Taken by Marshy himself. 

That’s just a selection of everything, if you want to see more then go to my Flickr page by clicking HERE and looking through the albums. Just for fun pleasecast your votes. Hopefully 2017 will prove to be as enjoyable with quite a few trips to various shows already in the pipeline and of course I think Assen is on the cards again this year. Fingers crossed! 

Wanted: Joeri Van Veen

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Back in July I found this delightful Actros hidden away at the end of the pit straight at the Truckstar Festival. Being me I didn’t go over and have a snoot about but on this occasion I probably should have. One thing you may not notice from my photos are the 7inch twin exhausts up the back of the cab. The truck itself is a very much a less-is-more kind of truck and is by no means over the top, much more understated. For a number of reasons I want to know how the stacks work as we all know Mercedes-Benz trucks have a large exhaust box and I’m interested to know if the exhausts can run as straight through and this then leads me to wonder what the straight 6, 630hp, 16 litre sounds like. So now you can understand the title of the blog. I’ll need my Dutch friends to help with this please. A friends from Truckstar, Marco, gave me the name and he is on Facebook but I can’t send him a friend request. I’d love to know more so if you can put me in touch with Joeri then that’s just marvellous! A great truck. 

Transam Pre-Christmas Trucking by Mat Ireland

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It was one of those trips. I received a call from a good friend of mine asking if I would cover for him for a few days. He lives in the south of France, and his son’s 18th birthday was the day the tour was scheduled to finish. Originally his brother was going to cover for him, but he was so busy with his own work he could not take the time off, so I happily obliged. The schedule was easy enough. Take my friends car to the 02 in London, and take over the truck. Go to Dublin for two shows, ship back, tip off at Heathrow for the equipment to be air freighted to the States and go home, what could go wrong!

   Well we didn’t even leave London before it all changed! Just before I went to go and load out sunday evening I got told by our lead driver to go and wait at the coach parking as Dublin may well be off. Sure enough, due to illness we were not going to cross the Irish sea this time. Come the morning a desicion will be made what is happening. I was asked if I had my passport as there may be some equipment to go back to Holland, no problems, I would be happy to get back across the water one more time this year, where as everyone else had their sights set on home having been away for some time at this point. The first part of the new plan was to head north to near Wakefield, where several trucks would be tipped and the loads shuffled about depending on what would be going where. A few of us (myself included) were told to wait at Markham Moor truckstop initially as the loads we had would not be required initially. I decided to stop at Stibbington diner en route to eat as my culinary experience in the past of Markham Moor has left a lot to be desired, and sadly i think this is still the case, the place could do with a overhaul. We soon moved onto the Stockyard truckstop, which was closer to Wakefield and also Robin Hood airport, where the airfreight was planned to be going from instead now. Close to 5pm, I got the call from the lead driver. “I have just finished loading the trailer for you, you have Germany Belgium and Holland to tip, I will be with you soon to swap trailers” quite a change them, and as yet no details where exactly but they will follow tomorrow. So after swapping trailers I headed back to the yard to swap into my own truck for the trip, and made my way the following evening to Harwich for the night ferry out.


The Germany part was to just outside Stuttgart, over 8 hours drive from the Hoek of Holland. Upon disembarkation and with my split ferry rest finished I was off southbound. I decided to head across towards Nijmegen and then south towards Venlo as a couple of months previous one of the main motorway bridges to the north of Breda had been closed to anything over 3.5 tonnes, clearly some cracks had been found. It was a fast and uneventful route across, and with a 15 minute stop at the German border for a brew while my German OBU toll collect unit fired into life I was off again south. There is a choice of 2 routes south from here, either the 3, which is busy but generally 3 lanes, or the 61, which is a tow lane most of the way and a lot is no overtaking for trucks, not ideal. I plumped for the 3 because I did not want any hold ups. Luckily for me, the traffic flowed well, I think being so close to christmas helped. After contacting the company I was heading to I was going to get there just before they closed for christmas, but they would wait for me! Sure enough, 5:45 in the evening I arrived outside their gates, they had to unlock the back gates for me to get in as some builders had decided to park opposite their gate so I had no chance of getting in that way. Straight onto a bay, and within 5 minutes their equipment was off, probably one third of a trailer maximum. I decided I would be best putting in a 10 hour day with 3 drops still to do tomorrow I may need all the help I could get. I got back between Karlsruhe and Mannheim and managed to squeeze across the back of some parked trucks in an Autohof with about 15 minutes to spare on my time. Across the road I had noticed a 24 hour truck wash, that was plan one for the morning then as both the truck and trailer were dirtier than a tramps pocket!


After my 9 hours off, freshly showered and fed I rolled around to the truckwash at about 4am. two trucks stood in front of me, and before long a few behind, yet not much seemed to be happening. After a brew I wandered up to the front to see only one man working that i could see, I decided to give him a bit longer to see if things got moving, which they did of sorts, we all moved in front of one of the doors, but by now, with almost an hour lost nd still 3 trucks to wash i had to abandon my plans. After having a quick work, I drove straight into the wash, and straight out the other side and off north, sadly I didnt have the time to wait about and get the truck clean. Thankfully despite the lost hour i didn’t suffer with traffic issue. I had opted to return back via the 61 as I was heading to a small town called Tildonk just outside Brussels. I arrived here just before 12, and after backing in the man in charge said to me “Ah we were just about to go to lunch as the boys are hungry, but we will offload you first. Would you like a coffee?” English companies take note!! This is how to treat drivers, with a little respect, not disgust! With drop 2 prompty off, I now had the afternoon to get to Utrect and 2 deliveries fairly close to each other, but first I had to have a 30 minute break as I would not quite make it otherwise, so I opted for Meer truckstop. After a wander around the shop and in the rather empty parking area with my camera I was off again. The first drop was not easy to find as it was in a transport yard but the signs saying they were also in there were not too obvious. once again, straight onto a bay and with 5 people in the trailer I was almosty in the way trying to help!


With that done, one was left to do, so straight ‘around the corner’ (about 5kms roughly) to the last drop. A good friend of mine now works in the office here, and was shocked to see me appear at 4:30 on their last day before christmas! They had actually forgotten that any returns would be coming back. He made me a coffee and we chatted about work and also his newborn son, I dont think I have ever met a prouder dad! By the time the coffee had been downed, their warehouse staff had offloaded the trailer and I was empty and good to go. 


All that remained to was get to the hoek for the night ferry home. The traffic there was really quite busy, but I managed to make it in and park waiting with about 20 minutes driving left on my second 10 hour day, good job I decided to do one the day before too. 


Whilst on the boat I bumped into a friend of mine who works for a company I do casual work for, he was on his way back home for christmas after being away for the last 6 weeks. Once off the boat in the morning it was just a case of straight back to the yard, empty the truck and go home. That would have been it for christmas, but being very bah humbug and with a holiday looming I had volunteered to another company to work if need be, so christmas eve found me back down Harwich picking up a Visbeen fridge but loaded with post from holland for Hounslow and Slough and collecting mail to return, a nice easy run to round the week, and also the year off.

The Great Late 1980’s Debate

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So it’s Sunday night the week before Christmas 1988, you get to the yard in Aylesbury Sunday afternoon with a tip and load in Italy to finish the year. But the big question is this, your given the choice of truck you want to take. Your usual truck is in for MOT and there are keys for an 11 month old Volvo F12 Globetrotter or an 18 month old Scania 142. Both are 6 wheelers and both have loaded straight tri-axle tilts ready to go. Chop chop you need to get a wriggle on to make the boat this evening. Which set of keys do you pick up??

Please keep it clean and comment below with which one and why. 

ERF’s Anonymous 

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Edwin Richard Foden must have been a true British gent with a love of engines and eye for the finer things in mechanics and engineering. Afterall in 1881 the Foden family built there first steam engine but by 1898 Edwin had designed and built the first steam wagon that ran on very early single steel wheels the ore cursor to modern trucks as we know them. These days whether you love them or you hate them I’m convinced everyone one of us in the UK has a connection to an ERF for some reason. 

“Hello my name is Ben and I’m a member of ERF’s Anonymous.”

Go on tell me, on the quiet if you wish, we’re all friends here. I was brought up on ANC Parcels ERF E10 night trunks. The first trucks I drove as a young’un and they had the brilliant Eaton Twin Splitter!  Then my dad worked for a local company, Courtenhams, for a short time and I did night time deliveries (even on school nights!) with him in varying different vehicles of the all ERF fleet. 

With the advent of retro truck shows and social media where people post various things up for sale or we can follow trips and runs each of you are doing. I have noticed recently that nearly all of you have had an ERF moment at some time. I’ve seen some Cummins videos online in a Land Rover and the noise instantly makes me think of an ERF. I’ve seen some for sale with the big Hummin Cummins and 525hp on tap. I’ve seen someone has bought a LHD 4×2 one back from Spain and is now using it on long haul trips from the UK out across Europe. I still see ex Spanish ones up for sale and I have to say they are getting more and more appealing! Can anyone tell me why?? I can only deduce that the simplistic, pre computerised, Cummins humming, British built old boy of the road just has English-appeal. Not sex appeal, English-appeal. Ok they can be a little shy of a hill but I’ll struggle to believe anyone who says they have neither a closet-love of the Cheshire beast or have never had to drive one for work whether they wanted to or not. Just look at the green beast above (not my photo but thanks to the taker. Carl Jones??). What isn’t there to like? Big lightweight cab, tag axle, 525hp Cummins, aftermarket exhausts, Built in Britain. If not the green ECX how about the black beauty below? Big lightweight cab, tag axle, 525hp Cummins, aftermarket exhausts, Built in Britain. 

Don’t tell anyone but I like an ERF.

International Trucking is The Cure!

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Perhaps being away on tour for months on end can take its toll on ones marbles!! If your one of the few lucky drivers to be touring Europa with a huge international band then it can be all go go go, not a lot of sleep some nights, odd days off, time to mooch about all the cities you can mention, so be prepared for anything. So if your travelling between Hungary and Italy then why not stop off in Slovenia on your way through. Just because I was stuck in the office in Ipswich on an overcast morning last week, shouldn’t make me jealous, but I was. Mat Ireland sent through these photos of the lads from Transam Trucking on a stop off and fuel stop. 

If your a Facebook user then you can keep up with Mat and his truckspotting as he travels around all of Europe. Go onto FB and in the search box type “Mats Trucking Photo Page” – there you will be able to see everything that catchs Mats eye. Hopefully as the tour continues the photos will keep coming and we can all take our shirts off to celebrate!!

If you want to join the tour, you can buy tickets I’m sure and all the info and dates are here on The Cures website. 

Simple Swede

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Another Truckstar Festival corker in the shape of Swedish registered Volvo. The new Volvo has long been a love it or hate truck for me. Out of all the new trucks on the road that need the plastics painting to make them look better I have to say the Volvo needs the extra paint more than most in my opinion. An FH with painted grill can look awesome and one of the best examples from Assen is this. Keeping with this years top truck fashion tip “Less is More” this big Swede was in my top 3 from this years Truckstar Festival. 


Taking a closer look the truck is painted from roof deflected down to the tyres in just two colours, a deep red and black. Painting the front end to disguise the plastics and also painting different parts in either colour really makes this truck stand out. I think I also like the debaged look. Everyone has different thoughts on the Volvo badge placement and whether you should stick to the old look or embrace the new badge position, so remove all badges and it solves the debate! Also it really keeps to “Less is More”. The other this that makes this one of the best I saw was the tag axle or as we are Dutch, the rear bogie lift! These Volvo’s are just perfect with the rear lift and I have to say one of my other favourite FH’s at the show was also tag axle. On the flip side there was a very similarly painted FH to this one but it was a midlift and for me it was no where near as attractive. 


Not sure what the interiour was like as the doors were shut when I took the photo above probably because of the rain that you can see falling. The Scandinavian style lights down each side and the orange ones on the front end we’re all set off by a proper police type light bar on the roof. Flashing in red and blue in the dark made the truck a real understated show stopper and it was interesting that it didn’t seem to get so much attention as some of the others parked in the show truck area. Cracking truck with Swedish style and perfection. Subtle, simple and stunning. 

Delightful Dutch DAF’s

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As you’ll be aware by now I had my  annual weekend away from the family and once again this year we went to the Truckstar Festival at the Assen TT circuit in the north of the Netherlands. On the drive up, the closer you get to Assen the more you convoy along with show goers and show going trucks. One of the first to come past was the above big white DAF. Like many of you I love a good sounding engine and I have to say that sadly DAF’s seem to get over shadowed quite regularly, but the sound of a straight through pipe on a DAF is a sound to be enjoyed. Much more of a purr than a thump like its Scandinavian competitor, but easily as enjoyable to the ear!

Firstly every truck should be painted and therefore every grill should be painted. All manufacturers love the use of horrible grey plastics these days but if you paint them they can look a treat. None more so the XF grill on the big Dutchman. I wasn’t a fan of the lower than previous DAF  badge but again bring paint into the equation and it becomes a different beast. Pick out the lines on or around the grill and add a couple of Dutch lights and its instantly transformed. The one accessory that all you DAF drivers need to get is the light up DAF badge. I love them! So simple but such a great idea, we had these years ago picked out in LED’s but these as you can see are back lit badges. I’ve got no more detail on them but I’m sure it wouldn’t take much effort to find them. This year is definately the year of “less is more” styling, so a painted grill with a back lit badge and Roberts your mothers brother. 



I’ve lived in DAF’s and I yes I do have a soft spot for them. They’ve not changed much in the 20 years of the Super Space Cab but they are still popular and still loved by both operator and driver and rightly so. A simple all one colour paint job makes it a very attractive truck in my book. There were a couple of plain coloured examples on show and each one stood out from what is was parked next too. The black one above is nothing special but again a couple of lights and that gorgeous deep sun visor and it instantly becomes a standout truck. Don’t forget folks, this year less is more. 

Truckstar, Assen – Day 4

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Day 4 (Sunday) the last day. A late night last night but I’m glad I slept in the truck, I think I may have drowned judging by the lake we woke up to. Anyway the rain cleared and another pleasant day followed. As is becoming the norm, on the second day at the show proper we walk the other half of the track and see the rest of the working trucks. The idea of parking all trucks around the circuit (essentially a circle) means that you don’t miss anything. If everything is parked up in different sections and different areas it’s very easy to miss something, perhaps some of the U.K. shows should take note. As you don’t miss anything you find all sorts, ex show winners, everyday trucks and also the odd golden oldie. Although we were parked in the Oldtimer section, there are still some working that obviously park with the working trucks. The red 143 was adoreable! If Father Christmas is reading this, then I don’t need to write my letter this year. 



The rest of the day was spent wandering the main show trucks and also around the manufacturers stands. I’m not a big Iveco fan but they did look a treat sitting in the sun. Just to clarify the only reason I’m not so keen is down to an old dog I used to drive a few years ago, nothing against the new ones! Most of you will have worked out that I’m a fan of the MAN TGL LX, also a fan of old Scanias, 1995 backwards and also a very big fan of the new Mercedes-Benz Actros. Knowing  a fair bit about them they aren’t a truck that regularly gets pimped up, before you all comment yes I know there are a few. But in general there aren’t many so what a pleasure it was to find one. A GigaSpace with 630hp on tap. Very subtle in black with some well placed orange stripes, a nice set of fuel tanks and lockers on the chassis making use of the limited space, a few lights mixed in but best of all a pair of 7 or 8 inch straight exhaust pipes up the back of the cab. I had to sit down.


As it’s the last day of the show we packed up all of our stuff back into the little cab of the 141 and waited for the 1630hrs exit. We had to get away sharply so we had the best chance of getting back to the boat. This was of course fine, a good run with 1980’s tunes on the radio and the sun beginning to set (although we all know the sun never sets on a long distance lorry driver!) and a co driver feeding me sour pastimes and hanging out the window taking photos! These will follow at some point. As is customary in the Netherlands thousands and thousands of people come out on Sunday evening to watch the trucks leaving the show. The devices on the motorway way are packed, people sitting in parks and gardens waving and thousands on bridges over the motorway virtually all the way back to Utrecht, that’s about 160km. I can’t do it justice but to see this many people enjoying watching trucks come pass is almost mind blowing. I think I struggle with it as trucks are so hated in the UK it’s just an alien concept. Anyway a good run back and a good shower and hot meal onboard Stena Brittanica saw out what can only be described as my best non-family weekend of the year. If you’ve not been but you like trucks, I know you do otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this, then get yourself out to next years Truckstar Festival, it’s just awesome. TB out.