In 1976, Scania commissioned a film to document the maiden trucking journey between Norway and Dubai on a route called the Dubai Road Express. More than four decades later, this film has become a piece of history.

The year prior, Norwegian trucking company Johan Evensen & Sønner had completed its last of 106 journeys to Bandar Abbas on the southern coast of Iran, and was looking for new opportunities.

It was the next year, when the tanker Serpens Constellation had an unexpected breakdown in the middle of the Atlantic, that Jan was given the mission of a lifetime. A necessary spare part, made in Norway, needed to be delivered to Dubai, where the ship could pick it up while en route into the Persian Gulf.

For the drivers of such routes, leaving home meant being away from their families for weeks at a time, often without knowing exactly when they would be back or what challenges they would encounter along the way.

In the end, the Dubai Road Express turned out to be short-lived. Once the inaugural trip was over, transport company Johan Evensen & Sønner made the decision to cancel the route. The loose sand between Doha and Dubai, accompanied by relentless heat that disabled important support systems, meant the route was just not worth the trouble.

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