Scania’s secret serviceman

Field-test driver Steve Pope spent 20 years driving trucks for the British Army in Bosnia, Iraq and Kuwait. Now he’s spent four to five nights per week in the new Scania cab, conducting long-term testing along his regular transport runs across the United Kingdom. He now calls it his second home.

“I work and sleep here, cook all my food here, and it’s also my office,” says Pope. “Even compared to the Scania R-series that I previously had, everything I’ve experienced represents a big boost. All the new technology makes life so much simpler for me as the truck does it all for me. Sometimes it feels like all I need to do is push a button and point it in the right direction!”

Asked to rank the improvements in Scania’s new truck, Steve thinks for a second before listing the field of vision, the driving experience, the general level of comfort, and the bed. Also, the forward and outward shifted driver position and narrower A-pillar have given Steve a whole new perspective of the area around the truck. 

Steve describes the driving experience as being, ‘very much Scania’. “It’s the same feeling that I had in my previous Scania, but with a much better field of vision. I love the design of the new dashboard. When you sit behind the wheel and drive the truck you have everything you might need around you.”

Steve Pope sees his year as a field test driver for Scania as a high point in his action-packed life. “It’s a fantastic feeling to be involved in developing tomorrow’s truck,” he says. “Sometimes when I’m drifting off to sleep in the cab, I think about how good it will feel a few years from now when I see this new truck out on the roads – I got to be involved in developing it!”

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