Recently at work we have been loading quite a few Spaniards back to Spain or back to Paris so they load from the french markets and then head back to Spain. Also recently I have scanned the next batch of 750ish photos from the David Scarff collection. What is the link I hear you ask?? The answer is that some of the haulage companies that Scarffy used to photograph back in the 1980’s are still the same firms that I am loading back to the continent. How many Spanish truck spotters can say the same for the British firms still running to the sun and back. Two Spanish firms that are still doing the run and providing our super markets with year round goodies such as Strawberries, Broccoli and of course those gorgeous Spanish oranges, are the names of Campillo Palmera and of course Transportes Caudete. I’ll start with Palmera.

The livery on the original Pegaso above has developed into the livery on the trailer behind the Magnum below. I think you can see how its developed. The Magnum has the trailer livery that I know and recognise as being Palmera, with the Palm Tree logo on the back doors. Where did the Palm tree come from?? Was it on the back doors of the Pegaso? I’m not sure.

But you can see the livery on the Magnum has moved on a bit and as an outfit the truck and trailer show the earlier livery and the newer livery. These days the new Campillo Palmera trucks still have the Palm tree on the side but the overall livery is much more of a European logistics company rather than a classic Spanish haulier. This doesn’t mean they don’t still look good! The new black cabs are smart and I guess these days with air conditioning, climate control and roof top coolers, the cabs no longer need to be white to reflect the sun and keep the heat down in the cab. Even so it’s still good to see the company are still going and are still coming to the UK for our enjoyment in all respects!

Now as for Transportes Caudete, they still have a fairly traditional livery that is very close to how its always been. Red tractor units and white Spanish looking frigo trailers. Much the same as British hauliers the Spanish used to favour using their own trucks, like the Pegaso, the Spanish Seddon Atkinson. But now due to the demise of these small manufacturers, the Spanish, like the rest of Europe, use the same as everyone else. Although Renault and Iveco seem to be the favourites for these 2 hauliers, we have had a couple of new Volvos come in for Palmera.

Most of the Caudete fleet nowadays are Iveco with a few MAN. This Iveco was only a week or 2 old as the tyres were still immaculate and had that look of brand new tyre about them (good description huh!). The driver was quite happy with it.

As you can see the Caudete trailers have remained very much the same. Old and new just having what they need to have on them, the company name and what they do. The older trailers do look more continental but again this is down to the improvements in modern trucks I think. There is no longer a great need to keep water and food on the side of the trailers as a modern truck cab has plenty of room for storage inside. I do still like the idea of a water tank on the truck some where, there’s nothing like a cold wash to cool you down or wake you up!

The one thing that is missing on the modern trucks is the 2 light up sign boards on the top of the cab. The yellow square one and the yellow triangle with the blue background. As I understand it these used to be some thing to do with the ferries, but I need one of you lot to tell me more please? Email me, ben@truckblog.co.uk or leave a message below.

Hopefully more Then & Nows to come, thanks to David Scarff’s collection of photos. It’s possible to find photos of everything, so a big thank you to Mr Scarff and I look forward to the next batch to be scanned (the wife’s not so keen on the idea!). For those whho didn’t get it, the blog title is “Spanish Trucking – Then & Now.”