Get the Ricochet app
Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.
Human Ingenuity In Action
Where-oh-where will a Ricochet post lead you?
How about to learn about the vehicle distributor that upgrades Toyota vehicles to serve humanitarian organizations in some of the harshest environments on Earth?
While reading the post Celebrate America250; Siege of Gibraltar by @SteveFast (his whole “Celebrate America250” series is full of fascinating history stuff), I was intrigued by the tiny British overseas territory of Gibraltar at the tip of the European Iberian Peninsula.
I tend to be curious about daily life in odd places. Places to which I would never go, but nonetheless find interesting. How does daily life work in remote or off-the-beaten-path locations? In contrast to my suburban life with Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, Home Depot, gas stations, car dealers and repair shops, multiple supermarkets and restaurants, and several churches within a few minutes’ drive?
Being somewhat of a car guy, I often look particularly for vehicle-related stuff.
The first Gibraltar odd thing I came across: The road into the Gibraltar territory crosses the runway of the airport. Careful coordination of road vehicle and airplane traffic required!
The second Gibraltar odd thing I came across: There’s a HUGE Toyota vehicle distributor in Gibraltar, despite the territory being less than three square miles and having a population of only about 35,000 people. Huh?
Well, it turns out the huge Toyota vehicle distributor is Gibraltar Stockholdings, which modifies Toyota vehicles for the United Nations and humanitarian aid and environmental groups all over the world, to operate in harsh environments and to support tasks few vehicles are called upon to do.
Toyota vehicles are used in all types of places around the world, and have long had a reputation as being rugged, reliable, and durable.
According to the company, the Gibraltar distributor started by supplying spare parts for Toyota vehicles to agencies that operate in particularly difficult places. I guess the relatively central location in Gibraltar gave them an access advantage.
At some point, the customer agencies started asking the Gibraltar Toyota parts distributor to add accessories and otherwise prepare their vehicles for harsh environment service, and to add features that would assist the agencies’ work.
So Gibraltar Stockholdings got into modifying new vehicles before delivery to meet the needs of the agency that will use the vehicle. The company claims it works only with humanitarian, environmental, and conservation groups, and does not work with military or quasi-military groups.
Now Gibraltar Stockholdings works with Toyota Motors of Japan to prepare hundreds of vehicles per month to meet specific requirements for organizations around the world.
People with particular skills and knowledge who found a way to use those skills and knowledge to help other people who have needs and wants. Human ingenuity at work. People working with people. Minimal (if any) government direction required.
Where will a Ricochet post lead you?
Discussion (18)
CONTRIBUTOR
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
CONTRIBUTOR
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
And the very first thing I thought of was that meme Seawriter just shared. The phrase "humanitarian organizations" gets my paranoia revving.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
I've walked across it.
If both are there at the same time. I didn't see any road vehicles the morning I crossed. Or airliners for that matter. I doubt many Spaniards or Britons come or go. Gibraltar is a geographical and I suspect political dead end.
Huh's the word! The presence of any big anything there surprises me.
I'm surprised any vehicle would be ordered, or delivered, from there. I don't recall the harbor being big. And as indicated above, there's only one land passage out. It's Spain, not England, which determines the nature of local commerce.
Not many places, since Ricochet is mostly a politics website. But hearing about curiosities like Gibraltar is very nice. Thanks!
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Of course you did.
Someday we may learn more about you, but I fear we most likely will have to wait for your departure from this earthly place, lest we find out earlier, and have to be .... ahhh... silenced for knowing what we shouldn't have known.
You're seeing five of 18 comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.