Well forked Daf

Remember, we like to cover all sorts of different trucks here at T&D – like this impressive new CF rigid complete with Moffett Mounty forklift

- Lucy Radley

At a glance

Make & model Daf CF 340 FAS 6x2

Engine Paccar MX-11 10.8-litre six-cylinder

Power 340hp @ 1675rpm

Torque 1500Nm @ 900-1400rpm

Gearbox ZF TraXon 12-speed auto

Operator Baileys Horse Feeds, Braintree

When Phil Brown got in touch to say he’d been given a new Daf CF 26-tonner, one look at the pictures was enough to perk us up. When we found out it was an updated version of one he took over seven years previously, however, we couldn’t miss the chance to see how things have changed in that time and arranged to see it in the metal.

Baileys Horse Feeds does exactly what it says on the bag, and the trucks it runs from its Braintree, Essex manufacturing site are there purely to deliver to its customers. There are 15 on the fleet today: four rigids and nine artics on deliveries plus a further two dedicated to bulk collections of grain.

All the vehicles are Daf CFs, the firm having stuck with the Dutch manufacturer since they started buying brand new in the early ‘90s. But there were trucks running out of Baileys for many years before that, as MD Joe Venner explains, “We were a waste bread processor originally, which we turned into breadcrumbs for dog food, and ground bait for fishing, so we had lorries to collect the bread.” A family-owned business, Joe’s father and his business partner loved horses, so they found a way to get into horse feed too. “We got our first delivery truck when that started in 1981 – although we don’t use breadcrumbs now, we’ve moved on somewhat!”