English - Nooteboom Giants on the Road Magazine English - Nr. 6 - 2019 | Page 21

COMPANY PORTRAIT WHERE DOES THE NAME CEPELLUDO COME FROM? Angel: “To tell the story about the name Cepelludo we have to go back to the fifties. Everyone here in the mountains was poor and during the winter there was not much work apart from chopping wood in the forest. My father found it difficult – when he was still young – to get up in the morning. One time he overslept and had to rush after his gang on his bike to the forest. When he got ■   Angel Perez Salces there he was sweating profusely because from the Salces village to the top of the mountain there is a height difference of 500 metres. The name of that mountain is Cepelludo. From that day onwards the nickname of my father was ‘Cepelludo’. And has remained so. ” ■  The office of Cepelludo in Salces ■  Cepelludo have been a customer at Nooteboom for many years HOW WAS TRANSPORTES CEPELLUDO BORN? Angel: “My father started out in 1965 with one single truck. At first he carried out transports in the region, but before long he went to the ports of Santander and Bilbao. There was more work there than where we were, in the mountains. After he transported the first vessel, around 1970, my father soon saw an opportunity to further expand the yacht transport business. To carry vessels you need special trailers and that’s how we began to specialise in abnormal transport. To start with it was on a small scale but from 1985 onwards Cepelludo fully specialised in abnormal transport and the transport of yachts. My father died in 2002. Together with my brother Javier we continued my father’s business. We are pleased that the next generation has also inherited our fascination for special transport. My nephew Francisco works in the traffic department with me and my other nephew Javier is active in the planning of the vessel transport department.” CEPELLUDO IS A REAL FAMILY BUSINESS Angel: “My brother Francisco and I grew up among trucks and trailers. We have divided the task within the company very clearly. I take care of the day-to-day management, my brother is responsible for the planning and his son looks after the planning of vessel transports. ” TWO DEPARTMENTS: ABNORMAL TRANSPORT AND VESSELS. Angel: “Cepelludo has been a specialist in the transport of yachts for a very long time. Particularly in the spring and autumn we take many yachts from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean and back again. Vessels are not very heavy and that makes it easier to get exemption in Spain. For the transport of yachts we have the very special Dutch Draco trailers. With these we can keep the height as low as possible. To transport vessels we use five permanent combinations. In total our fleet consists of 25 trucks and almost twice as many trailers. The work we do is extremely labour intensive. Sometimes we are busy with the preparations for one single transport many months ahead. We are not going to expand our fleet because in our opinion we are able to provide a higher quality and better service as a small company. ■  L  oads are getting heavier, that’s why the Nooteboom trailers we buy are getting heavier too 21