LABOUR

produces long-life products. The company produces a range of cold-fill juices and flavoured milk products in various sizes and have more than 200 employees. It sells about 10 million-litres of juice and 10 million-litres of flavoured milk each year.

“I think my grandfather would be pretty impressed,” Ben says. “He’d probably shake his head at a few things I’m sure, but overall, he’d be pretty proud.”

One of the biggest benefits to the DAF trucks, Ben says, is the fact that they are a cabover and therefore don’t have a big bonnet, making squeezing into smaller properties for fruit collection a lot easier. “Our own orchard isn’t too bad,” he says. “It’s a pretty big property with large turning areas, but some of our grower suppliers have fairly tight properties and the DAF is very manoeuvrable.”

Launched in 2020, the Euro 6 DAFs feature a number of safety upgrades over its Euro 5 predecessor including lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking and left side mounted camera. The engine meets Euro 6 compliance using selective catalytic reduction (SCR) as well as exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), which acts only on three cylinders, and a diesel particulate filter (DPF).

The other big benefit is fuel economy which DAF quotes as 10 per cent better than the previous Euro 5 versions. Fuel efficiency is definitely noticeable, says Ben, adding that travelling along a highway is always remarkably smooth.

“We’re not driving around towing three trailer roadtrains,” he says. “We’re driving using mass management and we are going around 45 tonnes and there is plenty of horsepower and plenty of torque.”

It even revs less, Ben says.

“Going down the highway at 100 km/h, it’s only revving at 1450 rpms,” he adds.

“It’s really smooth and quiet.”

For Ben there is no reason why he won’t continue on the DAF path

“They are easy to operate, and they are comfortable, quiet and very reliable,” he says. “It’s a beautiful drive. I’ve bought six and if I needed another truck I would buy another DAF — in a heartbeat.”