A farmer-owned creamery has invested £600,000 updating its transport fleet with four new state-of-the-art trucks which are also kinder to the environment.

The DAF trucks will help South Caernarfon Creameries reduce their carbon footprint because they have lower carbon emissions and increased manoeuvrability on rural roads.

They have replaced older models in the company’s 13-vehicle fleet which operates seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year.

They are helping the cooperative maintain its extensive milk collections during the coronavirus pandemic to keep local shops and supermarkets stocked up and feed the nation

The 32-ton eight wheelers are fitted with tanks supplied by Sayers with reload trailers by Crossland tankers, enabling each to carry more than 19,000 litres of milk daily from the top cooperative’s 135 independent member farms stretching across North and Mid Wales.

Transport manager Dylan Owen said: “They couldn’t have come in at a better time – at the height of our year when our farmers’ cows are out to grass and milk production levels are at their highest.”

With the SCC milk collection run covering an average 60,000 miles a year – 1,000 miles a week – Dylan said they chose DAF because they are reliable, strong and robust.

He said: “We’ve partnered with DAF previously and always been impressed but they’ve undergone a design transformation in recent years. One of the big attractions to us of these latest DAF CF 450 models was their exceptional manoeuvrability.

“That’s hugely important to an operation like ours when you think of the type of roads our drivers travel on. You’re talking narrow rural lanes, rough terrain and compact muddy farmyards. We need vehicles which can negotiate these specialised conditions."

The new trucks comprise three DAF CF 450 8x2 rigids and a CF 480 6x2 tractor-trailer unit.

They feature DAF’s industry acclaimed FAX axle configuration which provides the capability for a 10 per cent smaller turning circle than a conventional 8x4 double-drive chassis. On turning, the ingenious device reduces the chassis kerb to kerb distance by two metres.

The investment continues a decade of expansion and improvements for South Caernarfon Creameries, which is Wales’s oldest dairy farming co-operative, having been based on the Llyn Peninsula in Chwilog near Pwllheli since 1938.