At least you know what to expect when about to contact the Taliban, he said.
To all the usual third-world traffic mayhem of Kabul, add suicide carbombs and insurgents on motorcycles who slap magnetic bombs onto target vehicles.
Braving this chaos every day is a small group of Australian soldiers who transport Australian personnel, VIPs and occasionally journalists across town aboard highly modified Toyota Land Cruisers.
What starts as a standard 200 series Land Cruiser is extensively modified with armour plating and beefed up suspension.
Crews undergo extensive training. But none of that prepares you for Kabul traffic, said transport leader Corporal Chris Lunt of Brisbane.
"It is quite a thing to behold being out there and just seeing people walk across the streets and highways where you are travelling at 80-90 km/h. There are no road rules.
Driver Private Tammy Grant, of Townsville, said there were close calls every day.
"People step out in front of you. Cars pull out in front of you from the opposite side of the highway, cars start reversing down the highway in front of you," she said.
On September 16 when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device - or a suicide carbomb - killed two American soldiers and a Polish soldier, they were aboard an armoured land cruiser similar to those Australia uses.
Traffic cam vision shows the bomb car manoeuvring around the convoy then detonating, obliterating one vehicle.
Cpl Lunt said he showed his team this vision to remind them of the reality of their job.
"We can't be complacent. We are out there almost every day," he said.
So why not do all cross-town travel aboard the army's highly regarded Bushmaster armoured vehicles? These provide high level protection and are certainly used.
But the land cruiser is substantially more nimble than the 15-tonne Bushmaster and also less obviously military.
Despite the risks, the drivers reckon their work is as good as it gets.
"This is probably the best job you can have in MEAO (Middle East Area of Operations)," Cpl Lunt said.
