Onwards and upwards: Raúl Melendo and his Actros 1851

Raúl Melendo’s Actros majestically rolls between the Mudéjar Towers in the Spanish municipality of Daroca. The truck is only 15 days old – with it, its owner wants to continue a family business founded half a century ago.

“It’s still got a strong new-car smell!” Raúl breathes deeply. He received the truck a good two weeks ago. “I drove 1.6 million kilometres with my last one,” he says with satisfaction.

Raúl comes from the Autonomous Community of Aragon, from the municipality of Daroca, located in the south-west of the Spanish province of Zaragoza. Only 2,000 inhabitants live here, surrounded by a four kilometre-long city wall, which once had 114 towers. The Mudéjar art monuments in the municipality have been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. “For me, there’s no lovelier place,” says Raúl enthusiastically.

30 years of experience.

Raúl joined his father’s transport business at the age of 18. “I’ve been doing the job for 30 years now. For me, my customers are part of the family – their loyalty makes me proud.”

Alongside Raúl’s Trans Melendo company, a local pasta retailer also developed here. Raúl: “The wheat we cultivate here is used to make pasta that we sell from Daroca. In this way, we are both contributing to strengthening the regional economy. One produces pasta, the other transports it.” Raúl’s journeys take him to Valencia, Barcelona and Bilbao. On his return trips, he transports biomass pellets or fruit. “We have already gone through a number of crises, but we always get through them in the end,” says Raúl. “There will always be a need for goods transport.”

Photos: Begoña Tremps