Pakistan and the Truck Artists from Rory Coxhill on Vimeo.

The Changing Trucks of Pakistan

Trucks in Pakistan are changing, large 500BHP Japani trucks are now filling the roads. These pull 50ft to 80ft long trailers which are also highly decorated. Most of these trucks are owned by transport companies in Northern Baluchistan, like this truck, FATA, NWF or Swat. The decorations are primarily images of the scenery in these areas. One image they all share is that of the Khyber pass as this is where these trucks will be heading; the drivers of these trucks take risks that most people could not comprehend, they do not do this through choice but necessity. If they don't drive these trucks they will not be able to feed their families; once sheep and goat farmers of the North, their way of life has been devastated by earthquakes in 2005, floods 2010 and an on going war; there is no other way to survive, unless, like thousands of others, they flee the villages to find work in the southern cities. Some of these drivers will never return once through the Khyber pass.

Images of Pakistan in November

We can't wait for Rory to come back to Luton, hopefully he will arrive safely by this weekend. Meanwhile to entertain you all, please have a look at our pictures of our Pakistan Trip below:




Detailed images of the trucks Anem took for inspiration:

Proud owner ready for the road

The owner ready to take the truck out; in 3 hours time it will be loaded with 12 tons of grain and will slowly head North across interior Sindh. He smiles as he tells me that "Bedford made the truck to take only a 5 ton load but in Pakistan we have made it take 12 tons".

Time in Pakistan draws to an end

My time here in Pakistan is coming to an end, I leave later this week. I haven't done much painting on trucks recently, the focus has been packaging up the items required to complete the truck in Luton. This involves making a large crate which can take all the items commissioned in Karachi back via sea, liaising with the shipping company and form filling for UK customs. This is a very slow process when New Year also gets in the way together with political rallies which shut the city down on Friday.

Truck is completed in old truck yard.

The truck in the old area of the city had a team of men working on it to get it ready for the road; it had to be finished by midnight so that it can travel through the city; trucks can only leave and enter the city at night, to pick up it's load and head North into the interior of Sindh.

The bumper at the front was decorated and fitted, all stainless steel added, hanging chains and cloth fitted to the body, tape and trim in the cab completed, woodwork cleaned, polished and the whole truck varnished; the varnish coat is very thin and contains more solvent than varnish, this ensures that the truck looks good on collection, 2 years in the sun and all the red colour is faded, the owner will then bring the truck back in for a redecoration. A well varnished truck should last 5 or more years but that is bad business for the truck yard owner, he wants it back in much sooner!

Work continued into the hours of darkness with the lone electrician connecting all the lights fitted to the truck, of which there are numerous, and can be of any colour, red at the front and white at the rear is not uncommon, the cab always has a red glow though.

The Luton Truck

Below is a photo of the Luton Truck to be decorated by the Youth Team, myself and Haider Ali in time for Spring 2011.

As you can see it's a standard TJ Bedford lorry looking very much like it did when it rolled off of the production line all those years ago, with it's dropside rear load area.

So what is the difference between this truck and the Pakistan Bedfords?

The answer: Quite a lot really.
The Bedford TJ in Pakistan has been modified to suit the needs of the country, the roads, the loads it is carrying and materials used to modify the truck, in fact the truck is so modified that the original design is barely recognisable other than the front wings, bonnet and windscreen.

You can see the height difference between the two trucks; the Pakistan truck has a much higher road clearance through the use of larger springs, so that it can take a heavy load over rough terrain. Extra clearance of the load area is gained by fitting a 6 inch/150mm piece of mahogany timber running the length of the chassis; this is clamped with large U clamps to the chassis and the bed of the lorry is then fitted to the timber. The bed is also concave in shape so as to accommodate a large and tall load of 50Kg sacks, this design enables the load to be more stable when stacking sacks beyond the height of the truck.

The other striking difference is the cab, it's gone! The only parts left are the wings, bonnet and half of the metal holding the windscreen in place. These remaining Bedford items are bolted to a mahogany frame to which the carved wooden doors and taj or crown board are also fitted. This new cab carries most of the heavily decorated woodwork picked out in coloured paint or inlaid with bone. The cab is then bolted to the steel load area behind, making for a very strong structure and one that can carry loads from the Arabian Sea to the Chinese,Iranian and Afghan borders. These trucks locally are called "Rockets" although they plod along very slowly with the standard Bedford engine pulling all that extra weight even before they are loaded with tons of barley, sugar or silk.

What will the Luton Truck look like?

It would be great to reconstruct the Luton Truck and turn it into one of the Pakistan Rockets. Unfortunately this will not be possible, due to cost, height restrictions at the museum where the truck is to be displayed and I'm sure the Department For Transport might have some questions about it too!

We will have to compromise in the design by building the load area higher, constructing a smaller taj which will allow the truck to get into the museum, fitting all the bright steelwork and covering the whole truck in decoration which reflects Lutons' cultural heritage. It's not going to be a replica of the Pakistan Rocket, more a truck which has a wheel in the UK and a wheel/hubcap in Pakistan!