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Comment by Pat Hasler on April 16, 2011 at 9:26am

I know what you mean by lack of comfort ED ... eastern european comanies, Hungary in particular treated drivers like dirt, the old comunist run transport company 'Hungarocon' I think it was called ? had a fleet of Fiat (Iveco) trucks with very small sleepers, the drivers were given and allowance when the travelled out of the country to western europe and the UK and the huge boxes under the trailers contained food etc. We used to feel sorry for the drivers becaus the allowance in the 80's was equivalent to 17 british pounds and they could be away for a month or more ! that wouldn't even be enough for one night for a brtish driver at the time.

I remember one Hungarian driver who was stuck at the terminal I worked out of for 3 weeks because his bosses had not paid in advance for the frieght, we were Fed Ex based in Matchbox toys distribution center and each of us took it in turns taking him home so he could shower and eat proper food, sadly he repaid us by walking through reception the day he was released and empying the display cabinets of the range of matchbox and models of yesteryeay toys to take home, he was seen on camera by security .... Even then the CEO of matchbox felt sorry for him, searched his truck with the policem got all the toys back and set him free, not only with no charges but he even gave him 3 gift sets for hs children.

We would often see these comunist block drivers sitting at the roadside on camping chairs with the side box on the trailers open and eating there accompanied by a bottle of red wine LOL

Comment by Pat Hasler on April 16, 2011 at 8:57am

Ed, I drove trucks in Britain and Europe from 1975 to 2000, started with a Volvo F86 whch was very cramped and had basically a bookshelf for a bunk LOL. I progressed through F88's to F10's which were very comfortable then on to Scania's the later of which to this day was the most comfortable vehicle (including cars) I ever drove, like riding on a cusion of air and didn't even ave to move and inch to reach any control, even had a 16 speed syncromesh gear box.

Comment by Ed Harris on April 16, 2011 at 7:37am

What a beautiful rig...my wife is Hungarian and we travel thru Central Europe and never see pretty rigs like we have in North America. They don't cater to driver comfort much in Europe.