Back in September 2010 I popped off to Hanover for the day to the IAA Show. A good day a out Hanover’s equivalent of the NEC. One of the halls had a load of old classics in, so as you can expect I had a wonder round and came across a Deutrans Volvo F88. I had only ever seen models and photos of a Deutrans truck, so seeing one in the flesh was fairly impressive, with the bright orange paint work. It was only recently that Neil Jarrold from www.euro-wheels said; “I’ve got an original just like that” So here it is;

Not knowing a lot about the company I have just been on the Deutrans Website, which give’s a lot of info and some good photos too. This little statement is from Wikipedia, so is free for you all to find;

“After the Second World War, the Soviet military administration in urgent need of a shipping company that took care of reparations and the removal of all foreign trade shipments between the Soviet occupation zone in Germany, later, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Soviet Union safe. Therefore, the “Derutra” on
26 March 1946 in East Berlin re-established. She acted initially as a carrier, ie they vermakelte freight orders to the now established state-owned road transport companies. The vehicles had to be satisfied with what had been left intact the machinery of war or give up what the Soviets from their military stocks were
prepared. By 1950, the VVB (combination of state-owned enterprises) established German shipping. Her were under the VEB (state-owned enterprise) German shipping in the various districts, which in turn has its own fleet. The German shipping was responsible above all, the inter-zone traffic and the handling of shipments into the so-called non-socialist countries. But in all activities, the problem of obtaining suitable truck. The commercial vehicle industry in the GDR was still in its infancy, and until 1952 was the first with the IFA H6 serious truck on the market. But in
1959 the Schwerlastwagenbau in the GDR was completely suspended. So there was only the import, and if possible from the “brother countries”. But besides the Skoda from Czechoslovakia and the rest of the Eastern bloc could offer no useful first
truck.

But first, 1954, the DEUTRANS – International Freight
Forwarding was founded. This acted as a pure forwarder and instructed the
state-owned road transport companies, the German Reichsbahn, but also shipping
with the transport execution. They tried to handle the bulk of the shipments by rail.
In the 1960s, but also had to recognize the GDR leadership, that you do not follow the
international trend to road transport could be closed longer. The procurement of
appropriate vehicles proved to be a serious problem in terms of foreign exchange
for the chronically strapped East Germany. That each invested would pay more
than market value, could anyone seriously imagine that time. First they tried to conduct
business on the basis of compensation. The East German industry would
actively trade relations with Sweden. What could be better than to swap
machines for Swedish Volvo Truck?”

That was all translated from German I think, so apologies for the slightly dodgy grammer! No different to my normal standard!! Hopefully this may spark a few response’s to Deutrans, if you have any thing to add please email me ben@truckblog.co.uk or leave your comments here. Another good photo from Neil Jarrold, head over to www.euro-wheels.com to see many many more!!