Scania R500 / TransPower (Scotland)

It might look every bit the show truck, but David Donaldson’s Next Generation Scania R500 was built for function and productivity. T&D heads to an Aberdeenshire forest to find out why

- Tom Cunningham

Forest Hump

It’s mid morning when we meet David Donaldson, wife Emma and daughter Katie for a pre-shoot chat. Today we’re in rural Aberdeenshire. In this part of the world it’s not Starbucks, Burger King or McDonald’s we head for but the Huntly Auction Mart café, where we join fellow Sunday brunchers enjoying, among other local delicacies, square sausage, tattie scones and haggis.

The name TransPower is a portmanteau of ‘transport’ and ‘power’, a blending of David’s occupation and Emma’s, who at the time of the company’s formation was an energy consultant for The Carbon Trust.

Plain but effective

“My father was a lorry driver too, so the die was probably cast a long, long time ago,” he explains, as we discuss David’s latest purchase, a two-weekold Next Generation Scania R500 complete with the high-roof option. Perfectly colour-coded in Post Office red, it’s plain but very effective.

“I wanted to go for something with a bit of a Continental look,” David explains; in other words, ‘less is more’, giving a hint to his past in the days before forest tracks and round timber became the work of choice.

“Like most young lads keen to start a driving career, I got my artic licence at 21. I told my school mates this was what I wanted to do and pretty much followed it to the letter.”

Taste for fridge work

Perth reefer operator McLaughlan gave the youngster an early taste for fridge work with a place in the driving seat of an ERF EC Olympic.

“The work there was mostly soft fruit and chickens from Perthshire throughout the UK,” he recalls.