Spain: with his Actros 1853, José Ramón Alonso transports foodstuffs to Germany

Each Monday, it’s the same procedure: José Ramón Alonso loads up with foodstuffs in Olot (Spain). Then he joins the A‑26 motorway, also known as the Autovía Pirenaica, and sets off in the direction of the French border. His destination is Germany.

But before he starts his journey, José Ramón wants to show us something: he puts a hi-viz jacket on the ground behind the end of his trailer. Then gets back into the cab and then looks at the display of MirrorCam and shifts the line which marks the distance to the jacket. That way, over the course of the entire journey, he’ll be in a position to better estimate the length of his vehicle and trailer combination. “It’s really practical when you’re overtaking,” he says excitedly, “It gives you a totally new level of safety.”

A new truck for José Ramon.

José Ramón’s smile recently got even bigger: his employer Planellas Juanola assigned him one of the three Actros 1853 trucks which the company recently added to its fleet. José Ramón continues to be impressed when he sees how Active Drive Assist moves the Actros steering wheel automatically through his hands. “The steering wheel turns by itself – but I’m always in complete control of the situation.”

“The new generation of Predictive Powertrain Control is also unbeatable. And with a brief look at the Multimedia Cockpit, I have all of the information about the vehicle’s parameters available at a glance,” explains the Spaniard.

36 years of experience.

The driver can look back on 36 years of experience in this sector and has already covered many thousands of kilometres. In the time he’s spent on the roads of the world, he’s also experienced some pretty testing situations. For example, he once saw the driver of another truck jackknife and cause a serious accident.

“It’s one of the most horrible things that can happen in our line of work,” he tells us. He adds that his new Actros is equipped with Stability Control Assist which electronically controls the trailer’s wheels such that swinging of the trailer is corrected and swaying minimised.

José Ramón sums up: “Technology doesn’t just help save lives, it also makes the working week a more pleasant experience.” When you know that technology has your back, you can drive in a much more relaxed way.

Photos: Begoña Tremps