Claudio Lecis and his Arocs 4143 concrete mixer

The red Arocs is one of 60 vehicles at the Umbrian company which specialises in concrete production and is one of five Arocs vehicles which are equipped with a simple mixer as well as a concrete pump. The company was founded in 1946 when Luigi Metelli first delivered materials for railway construction. It then grew thanks to aggregate mining and concrete production and began operating at a national level in 2007 when it participated in important public works such as the Marche-Umbria interchange and the Pedemontana Lombarda motorway. Claudio has been working at the wheel of a truck since 2000 and has been employed at Metelli for over ten years. He has specialised in driving concrete mixer trucks and sometimes he also drives tractor/semitrailer combinations with a container for the aggregate.

Concrete cannot be stored; it has to arrive at the construction site at precisely the moment it needs to be laid. And work begins on construction sites in the early hours of the morning. As a result Claudio switches his Arocs on just before seven and starts loading. Then, with the drum rotating, he drives off to his destination. "Depending on the distance to the delivery site, we can do up to five trips a day, but the driving is only a part of my daily work. Loading and unloading takes time and must be monitored at all times," he says.

Claudio must clean out his concrete truck mixer several times a day. "We don't do that to make a good impression, but because its a technical necessity," he explains. "No concrete can be left in the drum, because once its dry, its difficult to remove. That is why we wash the interior of the concrete mixer truck every time we unload and at the end of a working day we clean the whole vehicle thoroughly."

Physically, this work on the ground is very demanding and as a result it is particularly important that the work on the road is in a comfortable environment. The Arocs has made a big difference to Claudio's working day: "First of all, I have changed from a manual to an automatic transmission and as I am often on busy roads, this is a great advantage with regard to comfort and safety. In this line of work, road holding on dirt tracks and wet ground is also very important. This is where the drive and suspension system counts and in the Arocs you can rely on it even in the most difficult situations; on muddy uphill and downhill gradients, for example."

The third characteristic which Claudio particularly appreciates on the Arocs is its agility when manoeuvring, which you wouldn't necessarily expect from a four-axle vehicle. "Steering is smooth and precise, even when the concrete mixer is fully loaded," he says. The difference to the models with which he previously worked becomes apparent every evening when he parks the truck: "I am less tired and have no back problems at all now."

Photos: Michele Latorre