Having become hooked on big trucks during his days in the army, Gordon Pearce‘s early career was like something out of truck driving folklore. In this second part of his incredible story, Gordon talks about life after Astran – which had no less excitement in store.

Having left the road to the Middle East behind him in 1974 and with his feet firmly back in Blighty, Gordon‘s next job saw him driving a rigid for CYB Fats, delivering supplies to fish and chip restaurants in Kent and South East London. “It wasn‘t a bad number that,” he remembered. “Although I missed the Middle East, it was nice to be home every night.” Then followed some European work, driving ERFs with reefer trailers for Lowes (Paddock Wood). Gordon would do two trips a week, often to Italy, Belgium or Germany, collecting produce like pate and margarine. “I enjoyed that job, and did it for three years,” he said.

Photo: Sharing a meal with co-driver John Frost.

Back to the East
In May 1978 Gordon had itchy feet again, and landed himself a year-long job in Saudi Arabia with Kent-based White Trux International. Initially he was thrilled to discover that he had been given a 6×6 Mercedes-Benz, whereas his colleagues had 4×2 Volvos. But it didn‘t take him long to realise that he had drawn the short straw. “It had no sleeper, and hooking up to trailers was difficult. The chassis was so high, on account of the big tyres. It was a real bugger.” On one occasion he found himself having to do three return trips to a Saudi airfield in Sharawrah, in the middle of nowhere, carrying military equipment. The last part of the journey took him through the ‘empty quarter‘, which was 300km of pure, unforgiving soft-sand desert. He didn‘t realise it at the time, but he had to travel through Yemen to get there. The going was incredibly tough and, not only did he have the worry of getting stuck, but getting lost was a real possibility too, even with his Bedouin guides. “There were no signs, and no tracks to follow. I had no compass, so I used the stars. I was in the boy scouts, so I knew which way was north, south, east and west.” On the final journey back Gordon decided to go it alone, which proved to be a mistake. The truck broke down, and he found himself stranded, all alone in the middle of the desert, with temperatures in excess of 120°F (48°C). Fortunately he managed to get himself going again. “You can do a lot with bits of hoses and jubilee clips,” he said. You can read the full story in his own excellent book, Where‘s Sharawrah?, which was published months before his death.

Photos: Mercedes 6×6 on route to Sharawrah. Right: Working internally in Saudi Arabia for White Trux. The Mercedes 6×6 was Gordon‘s.

In 1979, “to satisfy my wife”, Gordon got himself a job with Reed Paper Mills, but he didn‘t like it. He was working indoors, driving a forklift, and craved being out on the road again. “I like being a lorry driver because you‘re your own boss. You can decide when to stop, you can eat when you‘re hungry and sleep when you‘re tired,” he explained. Needless to say, he was soon behind the wheel again – this time working for Loughton-based Expo Freight, driving Scanias to Eastern Europe and Italy. Although he enjoyed the job, his treatment by the boss forced him to leave. One of their trucks had rolled over in Greece in the middle of winter, and Gordon travelled down there empty to help out. When he arrived, he checked himself into a hotel as it was -20°C and he didn‘t have a night heater. He managed to recover the truck and get it going again, saving the company a fortune. But when he gave his boss the hotel bill, he refused to pay it. “So I told him to sling the job,” he said. He spent three years working “on the trade plates”, delivering Volkswagen cars and DAF trucks, then in a complete change of career he had a few months working in a Canadian sawmill. But it was only a matter of time before he was truck driving again, this time with Swiss haulier Kentrag, and then Zurichbased Aslantrans.

Photo: National Benzoline Lorry Driver of the Year finals, Gordon on the right.

“I was getting 25 grand ($50,000) a year, but losing two or three nights‘ kip a week,” he said. “I‘d be loading in Birmingham and Manchester, toppingup in London, going down to Dover and clearing customs at midnight. I‘d drive through the night to Switzerland, and all I‘d have had was two or three hours‘ kip on the boat.” After three years he‘d had enough. “I‘m not a machine, I‘m a human being, so I handed in my notice,” he said. But he missed the DAF 3300 he‘d been driving. After a year at Kent-based G&H Transport, Gordon found a job with KB Davies International. He was driving artics and drawbars on the Continent, mostly to Austria. This would be his last international job.

Photo: Driving for Swiss haulier Kentrag was a tough gig, so Gordon only stuck around for three years.

Retiring twice
In 1989 he did some agency work with supermarkets Asda and Safeway, until he finally found another job that got him back behind the wheel of a beloved drawbar. But this one was a bit different from his previous roadtrains. The truck was a Ford Cargo mobile bank, which he took to county shows. In 1991 he found a job with Tuffnells Parcel Express, which saw him driving his beloved drawbars again.

He did this all the way through to his retirement in May 2005. But Gordon being Gordon, he soon got itchy feet again, and less than a year after retiring managed to get his old job back with Tuffnells. “They were long days,” he said, “but I do like drawbars.” He did this for another five years, until finally retiring for good at the age of 72. Over the years Gordon saw a lot of changes, and not all for the better. He believed the job changed for the worse, ruined by automatic gearboxes, rules and regulations, and increasing health and safety legislation. “At Tuffnells I even had a sticker in the cab telling me what gear to set off in,” he said with disgust. It probably comes as little surprise to learn that of his 20-plus driving jobs, his favourite one was Astran. So why then was he never tempted to return to it? “Because it got spoilt,” he says. “As the roads got better, so it took the challenge out of it. I‘m told it‘s dual carriageways all the way there now, and you don‘t even go over Tahir. I feel like I did it in the good days.”

Photo: Gordon in 2014 with an old Astran Scania 141.

10 QUESTIONS

1. What is the best truck you ever drove?
“Well, Scanias certainly take some beating,” he said, without any hesitation. One Scania in particular that‘s worthy of praise was the Vabis he swapped the AEC for. “It was like getting out of an Austin and into a Rolls Royce. It had a synchromesh box, and not only did it have a radio, but you could also hear it. In the old AEC you had to shout three times to make yourself heard. It gave me tinnitus.”

2. What is the worst truck you ever drove?
“My National Benzole Foden. It had a 4-speed box, could only do 30mph (48kph), and didn‘t have any suspension. But it was built to last.”

3. What sort of bribes did you use to ease your passage through borders?
He used to pick up ‘dirty books‘ in Holland and bottles of Ballantines in the Bulgarian duty free, both of which he said were good for getting out of trouble.

4. What was your most memorable meal on the road?
Gordon says he ate well, and a typical three-course meal would consist of tinned soup to start, tinned stewing steak, tinned peas and tinned potatoes for the main, and tinned peaches to finish. But his most memorable noshup was one Christmas Day in Tahir. Because of the extreme temperatures all the labels had fallen off the cans, “and you didn‘t know if you were going to get meat or peaches”.

5. What is your favourite driving song?
“Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell.”

6. What was the friendliest nationality you encountered?
“Yugoslavs and Bulgarians were very friendly, but overall I‘d say the Turks were the nicest.” But he said drivers from all nationalities were equally as friendly, and he had fond memories of sharing a meal on top of a load with some Iraqi drivers.

7. What is your favourite road?
Although he liked any mountain roads, in particular the St Bernard Pass, his favourite was an asphalt road in Iran with a 180-degree banked curve. He said you could drive flat-out, let the trailer step-out, and give it a bit of opposite lock. “I remember passing an Iranian coach coming the other way with opposite lock on too,” he said. He also had fond memories of the Tahir Pass.

8. Who are the most dangerous drivers you ever encountered?
“Turkish bus drivers.”

9. Would you like to go back to the Middle East?
“Yes, but as a tourist. And not on a Turkish bus!”

10. Do you have any regrets?
“I have two fabulous daughters and four wonderful grandchildren, and the only regret is that I didn‘t spend more time with my family. The trouble with being away is you tend to go through wives! “I suppose in hindsight it was selfish of me because I put the love of the job first.”

PART 1 HERE.

Photos: Gordon recounts some memories of his days with White Trux. Top: Signing autographs in 2014, a year before his death.