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A unique and eye-catching colour scheme for a new DAF CF 530 livestock unit is keeping the well-known Soppet’s name and colours on the road.

Twins Rodney and Lindsay Soppet established their Maramarua-based rural transport company in 1975, running it for 47 years before selling to OnRoad Transport in January 2022.

And in November last year the Soppet brothers were back in the yard to be surprised by the handover of the newest truck in the OnRoad fleet to driver Kelvin Soppet, the son of Rodney.

The DAF carries a modern tribute to the familiar Soppet’s green livery and also carries the Soppet’s name on the cab and crates, in addition to ORT branding.

“OnRoad Transport bought Soppet’s about three years ago and we thought it would be good to keep something of the Soppet’s name and the colours in the area,” says OnRoad Transport owner Don Wilson.

“It was certainly an emotional day when we handed over the truck to Kelvin. We made sure that Rodney and Lindsay were there and that they knew nothing about it beforehand.”

The unique DAF livery is a blend of ORT and modernised Soppet’s branding.

“John at The Sign Shed in Tuakau came up with a couple of design options for us. It’s all vinyl [the signage, stripes and murals] on the factory paint and it’s slightly different because it’s green and silver on white and doesn’t have any of the black,” says Don.

“I think it has come up extremely well. I wasn’t completely certain about the bright green at first, but it works well with having more white on the cab.”

The truck is mainly working in the Auckland, Waikato and BOP regions – based at the Maramarua yard – and is getting plenty of feedback wherever it goes.

“We’ve had nothing but positive comments about the truck,” says Don.

“Quite a few people saw it for the first time at the Bombay Truck Show and there were a lot of nice comments about it.

“And I was at the Maramarua Rugby Club a few weeks ago and one of the locals came up to me and told me that it means a lot to people in the Maramarua district.”

The 530hp CF went on the road in November last year and was the last of four new DAFs to join the OnRoad Transport fleet last year. Three are working as dedicated livestock units and one is set-up as a swap-body tanker/stock unit. The new arrivals boost the ORT fleet up to 14 DAFs for its livestock, silage and rural bulk operation.

The 8x4 DAF Space Cab has a Euro6 spec Paccar MX-13 and the 16-speed TraXon automated transmission. A Jackson Enterprises body is fitted with Nationwide stock crates and the 5-axle trailer is a recent refurb unit from Jacksons, also equipped with Nationwide crates.

“Kelvin seems to be enjoying the truck,” says Don.

“It’s certainly a pretty big change from the 470hp Mitsi HD Euro he was driving before.”

Don says it may not be the last time that something with a special look is added to the OnRoad fleet.

“I haven’t decided yet if we’ll do anything else along the same sort of lines. It was going to be a one-off as a tribute to the Soppet family and their 47 years in business but it’s `never say never’ at this stage,” says Don.