South america home to true veterans of the road we join them on a voyage of discovery from the state of go us in brazil to sao paulo and the state of Santa Catalina and finally to the small city of us in northeastern argentina. Be awesome up along the good news you can. Do what you. Think of. These trucks maybe museum items back in germany but are still valiant leave rolling back the years on the roads of brazil. In the back of. The. Car journey begins in the brazilian stay. A call us at a truck stop thats packed with old timers this one looks a little worse for wear head is definitely on the rusty side. Of the middle you. Know the only way from bellaire. I want to try and load up some watermelons here and bring them to sao paulo. You and i always go the same way. With the prophecy ive been taking the same route for 38 years from sao paolo to bel air and from the south part of what it would be one when i get back to south hollow ill have a 970 kilometer journey hi im a woman i was pretty sure my truck is still going after 6000000 kilometers on the clock although i have had to replace the engine a few times i spend more time caring for it with than for my family. That. Will not be that big and my life is spent in the truck. I did go to school but i dropped out to fulfill my childhood dream which has now become a nightmare. Life but if you love roses you have to live with the thorns to write. Love in a bad. Song what are those thorns. Roberto if it ever does is no 64 years old. His truck has helped him take care of 3 wives and 10 children he says with pride. This is el sites a popular truckers diner in the area. Roberto lovingly calls his truck im not allowed the yellow one its 40 years old. Over your money elses husband was a truck driver too. Thats. Same here with the 1113. There are a load of them still on the roads of brazil 1313151320 extension 13 the 1st from mercedes brazil good vehicles from the ruble. Probably its diesel not blood that runs through the veins of these men even their families get the bag. And yes cut me open and youll find these all. The Truck Driving is in our blood nothing. But drive us can get a meal at el cells for 15 play ice the equivalent of 3 euros 50 party and affordable fair. Amount of heat and if i have the money to get a new truck it would be another mercedes you know who. The diner is located by the truck stop near sardine polish a small town about 1200 kilometers north of south palo. From here its just a few minutes drive to the offices of a fruit wholesaler. The company purchases entire harvests from farmers and then sells the product is sent markets in the cities. Roberto is hoping to get a delivery to sao paulo because its close to where he lives. Have faith in the lord with all your heart reads the company sign. Roberto joins other drivers sitting outside. Their own waiting to be assigned a delivery. Model. That will be lovely to listen a little that way it can take hours if not longer. Sometimes its 2 or 3 days depending on demand of anger at long last a Company Representative emerges and has deliveries to assign to come. Out for 150 a day ice. With that money youd be broke by the time you got to sell palo but thats all she has to offer a. Choice. Its all about supply and demand when there are fewer trucks available the price rises when there are a lot like now the price goes down market patience is a virtue in brazil and specially for Truck Drivers its the only offer they receive all afternoon. Maybe itll work out tomorrow god willing. People in. The middle class it is an easy. Nothing. Much fun plan to send them out to play. At elsa steiner the truckers can recharge their own batteries while also feeling old. In homesick coming. To slow cutting the legal battle has been on the road for 12 days and today is his beloved wifes birthday. Love. He sends her happy return stole her. Plane her. Dad to. The love she told me tomorrow ill probably be able to load a delivery and be in sao paulo on sunday. Love. Love. Love love. Love the next morning there were even more trucks lined up outside the wholesaler. The cost of the competition and speculation among buyers is paid by the drivers. Love. Of it is no good for trucks drive off without a buyer for the watermelons. They load up and set off you but they dont know where they will ultimately be unloading. What the wholesale or fruit talk now does is try to find a buyer. You know they then send a fax for the driver to print out of the gas station. Thats the sales license which the driver needs to be allowed into the market yet. The beer double for my vehicle he will but i dont set out until i know where im headed to avoid stress on the road. Please it gets us who are left with any law. Also there the day its our time thats being spent and money for food theres no point getting the union involved they might resolve your current problem but then youre blacklisted and you wont get any more jobs from anyone to go back to him which might explain why religious mantras are rare a source of comfort also seen on the trucks themselves thanks bill so i cant say if i get on the road today well see about the way thanks thanks at midday roberto decides to set off despite not having a precise destination for his delivery 1st he has to have his truck wait while empty to ensure the weight of his load can be verified when delivered at the other and thank god then he continues to the plantations to pick up 15 tons of watermelon thanks to. The state of going us is dominated by big landowners especially cattle breeders. They control the farming sector while also Holding Political posts in brasilia the connections they enjoy in the capital enable them to constantly expand their land assets they then lease their fields to local farmers. The farmers sell their produce to the wholesalers thanks. Love. Love. Love. This is the best part of the journey when the trucks loaded up and we can finally get going. Whatever the young ones can do so can the old. 15 tons of watermelon on board headed for the state of south palm its a 1200 kilometer journey from here which will take him 3 days. Over half of all goods transported in brazil are delivered by truck along very poor roads roberto has his own motto adorning his precious truck for the sake of life is worth living. God is a video game. We should. Be as he thought of the youre. Going to make the most of. The end. Somebody. A year after that film was shot german car maker mercedesbenz opened a factory on farmland just 20 kilometers outside sao paulo the factory would make diesel trucks and later buses to. Almost half of the trucks and buses on the roads of the country were built by Mercedes Benz told brazil but despite the companys high profile our film crew were not allowed inside the factory gates here in sao bernardo dot com poll. But a privately run newseum in the town does open its doors specially for this man a nice surprise for 80 year old quality engineer descended down jal who used to work at mercedes dope are still on it. Its in the mail this ones from my time at the company it has the heart of mercedes. Although the body was made by nicola fadia soon a call. From there so i feel nostalgic. Thank you. It. Went so i really miss that time. Im missing the workers used to call the company by my mercedes and pray god i want my money yes its. In my time there were 15000 people working there he was the there were 3 cooperative stores for the workforce you could buy everything you needed for one month people even clothes and Household Appliances and at the end of the month it would be taken off of your wages afforded by me but it was way cheaper than regular stores because the Company Bought it and even then our bass that. I mean you also had excellent medical care provided inhouse for staff and their families that ministers have a company also had a football pitch for staff and a club where we could have dances to celebrate the 1st joining us we were there all the time on friday we go home but on saturday well be back again. And saying awful stuff. Mama mercedes says now a distant memory priscillas serious economic crisis demand on the truck market has slumped and Mercedes Benz dough brazil has already seen redundancies and severance packages perhaps its no coincidence that the management are not keen on a foreign t. V. Crew taking a look around. Its day to have robertos trip to south that theres a bit. Late edition bag as follows the monday. Love to. Be. Wrong. The old trucker songs help to keep his spirits up while hes on the road. Laughing. Love. To. Play. It was a. Candidate. To change. Their last. Done. The boy. Who wouldnt fancy something new and better in life. But given the chance to swap im not sure my heart would be a not. The only thing weve been partners for so many years and my trucks never made me unhappy oh you can watch it makes my expectations its a really sound truck but well get there its perfectly happy when i drive slowly. Get up but when i step on it because i have a deadline to meet also not a problem of the doc i think of i cant help it i like it. That i feel comfortable with it even when im asleep busy the best thing for me to. Live this is. That. Every cent counts says roberto you have to watch your budget to end up with any money in your pocket that means only getting gas where he can get a discount. Diesel here costs 0. 70. A coup for the moment lose the freeway isolator but i get a discount if we dont move my feet if he comes. Home to me a plea. Of. A. Feeling that we have to cover highway toll charges then Everything Else ourselves the companies dont pay a cent to hold. On to as long as the drivers are on the road the wholesalers. And Distribution Companies continue to play the market and the drivers. Roberto goes to ask if a fax has arrived for him. Hes expecting one his delivery order from the company for tuck. In the of course i still dont know where ill be taking the watermelons these are the forms of the strong. The only information he does have is the approximate direction hes heading with his 1513 model truck and its 15 ton load of melons. It is a relief. To see his journey takes him through the state of maine us. Past and ending sugarcane fields. The lights on the horizon are not a city they belong to the enormous Sugar Refinery is. Another tiring day at the wheel comes to an end. Its friday and bankers short and patrons is looking forward to the weekend hes checking the weather and. Where in the state of pattern in the southwest of brazil. Showdown lives here on a farm belonging to his mother in law together with his wife letitia. And then to his mini mercedes and their city leo 608 he was telling you. So you can push. For the. 23. 00 jordan is 24. 00 the couple are sprucing up a small framed truck for their sunday excursion. Jordan bought it secondhand and restored it himself. But ive always been crazy about mercedes. You know when i was 16 i made a paper model of this truck which i still have today. Yes. Its an old love. The top hole and its taken from my fathers 1st truck childhood memories. To that it was really difficult to find the original parts for the restoration. But i spent 2 years searching for the white protective hubcap for example. Now they could sit in the 1970 s. And eightys people thought that chrome elements would bring good luck and more jobs. This number plate holder was already made like that by mercedes to sort your feet from or say its an original part that i found and restored to. The economy. And i got married in december during the summer in brazil. There were 3 of us you me and our truck. Plant every little detail. I had my dress down with slots down the side to make it easier to get in and out. When you made a little truck for our. People here we were so happy that day. Many of the people in the region are the descendants of european settlers and economic refugees families who have now been here for 5 generations and. I mean your son this will be my forefathers come from tree here in germany they started to farm the fields here back then the brazilian government gave away land to immigrants says in the. Immigrants who settled all the way down to floaty are no police on the coast of Santa Catarina state they also included many italians such as the forefathers apollo luis. Theres a little film playing in my head when i look at this vehicle my father used to drive it i learned how to drive while i sat on his lap. When i was 14 i started helping him at the wheel although i didnt have a license. Pollo is now a Building Contractor and a collector of vintage mercedesbenz models. Well the areas today covered with tower blocks used to be dense forest land. Back then we were given permission to cut down trees. We would load up a truck like this with timber 4 times a day and then take it to hospital as a shop some floor not. For heating fuel. Has tracked down veteran mercedes models all over the country hes now restored 8. But if you. Look at the. Whole of his most recent acquisition is this 312. He was already 10 years old when i was born i was born in 67 and the truck in 57. Trucks like this helped to build the roads in brazil by transporting materials. This was the 1st mercedes model the engine brakes tires and axles are all original parts. Take it for a drive 1st to see if you like it says his mechanic. The starter the clutch theyre all from 1957. To here they do. You think you know theres no secret to these engines with a pair of pliers and some wire youll never have a breakdown like this one. All started up and ill see you. Thank you all those veterans are not exhibition items theyre used for their original purpose thank you. Theyre in good shape and because theyre more than 15 years old i dont have to pay any road tax. The maintenance costs are really low to. Those in my since i use the flat face as we call the 320 want all the time insurance for a new one would be too expensive plus theres no place a new model can get to that this baby care the my good. Daughter. Bill sloan paid to buy sound when i knock on the tires tells me whether they have enough air in them to think i would like to boast about there might be a puncture from a nail somewhere was missing was a build a sucky a tire like this currently costs 800. 00 re ice which is too much. Like it so after a while i swap the front tires to the rear and then get them retreaded. Its a series of key that only costs 550. 00 s. It will dog the positive for me and id love to give it a general overhaul but earning so little and having to pay for all those things while on the road means you have to choose. Either get the truck restored or feed your family so im constantly having to postpone it and in the meantime the rust is getting worse to my. Its sunday and roberto is around a 100 kilometers away from some polo and was. About to. Go on but my. Mother was a. Casual mailbox man these guys were most posed to go with these melons not to. Sell pollen the sprawling metropolis that never sleeps the main wholesalers market is located in the downtown area its late by the time roberto arrives and he still has no delivery order but he heads down to the market nonetheless. The woman at the gate wants to know what goods he has on board having no delivery order means roberto will have to leave his truck by the entrance to the car park. It will be safe there she assures him. Roberto is now just 50 kilometers from home but hes worried that parking his truck unload there would put them at risk of being stolen. Night and day trucks roll up here from all over brazil 12000. 00 a day in total. Was. Many of the drivers have been waiting several days to unload their deliveries not a good sign for roberto. Their patients men but sometimes the Truck Drivers get fed up especially when they see their fruit beginning to rot sometimes reports roberto they open their truck bed side panels and dump fruit onto the street but unloading their anger like that will only hurt themselves he says theyre basically throwing away their own pay just yet but you can often wait for 4. 00 days or more at the market and no one is paying for your meals let alone all those last days. Some drivers resort to trying their luck in the lottery. But. The baritone has had enough he goes looking for the representative of his customer for talk who he was supposed to meet here with other women he. Was. And this is where the city supermarkets and other retailers buy their property is. Against the backdrop of the economic crisis crime is a growing factor there have even been robberies at the market itself the newspapers have almost daily reports of trucks being stolen and their drivers abducted many do not survive says roberto. The market is a good shooting location for pain is thought out at a t. V. Show. That caters to Truck Drivers oh look im you know go up with. Bare toes vocal in his praise of his beloved truck but silent about the conditions he has to work under. He finally tracks down his crew tack contact. So i am still there when the man is still making calls to find a buyer salvi i just want to unload mr begala bring them to a Company Warehouse in about 2 hours while if it does or not all i want is my money but all i have left is 2 and a half 1000 re ice about 640 euros for a journey of 6000 kilometers and 13 work days to this indias full of. Water all of you know me great complete the divine book b i was pretty shocking tina got me orders in. Your defense he meant that i could all see somebody come over the last hour you. Can go on Sally Robbins i want to show you. It was the automakers 1st factory in latin america mercedesbenz argentina was founded in 1951 specializing in trucks and buses. Its management would later face accusations of having collaborated with the military dictatorship in argentina but its products are to this day idolized by many in the country. This is northeastern argentina. The heartland of the countrys cowboys and rangers the gauchos. Can you. Believe. This small city in this province with a population of 45000 just so happens to be called say this great. You. Got a life. Goal in. Mind out. Here you see. The region is the birthplace of the gauchos but also has strong associations with the national drink tonic wheat im at 81st consumed by indigenous peoples. Mercedes the town that doesnt take its name from the card which it predates by several decades mercedes is a name given to girls in spanish. A mercedes means our lady of mercy in the months dedicated to families she comes to visit School Children at home in the evening. Public transportation in the city of my say it is comprises a fleet of old buses all of the vintage Mercedes Benz models. That he is drunk everywhere including at this family run car workshop. We suck at and his 19 year old son for a condo are the owners of the buses used to ferry mess a day knows all across their city. And a lot and yet. I for one i think it was all the work that you will never sell them. And theyre part of our family heritage. It is going to get something handed down through the generations my father was a bus driver and ive carried on the tradition and hopefully my son will too. See im putting most of what weve only ever had mercedes are easy to repair and are super reliable and its. A comfortable ride for the passengers. There also was very affordable ride for people from the countryside who come to work in the city. To come. To me. According to my mother when i was 4 months old and she would put me in a basket to ride on the bus with my father. And i would always fall asleep it was like a swing and the noise from the bus like a lullaby that you know i mean. For the youngest passengers its their school bus. And the other. When one of them drives past i can tell from the sound which model it is. Its. The suckers have 3 bosses which set out from the main square in 3 different directions. And his province was also among the destinations for european settlers in the 19th century such as the soccer family. Featured in the sas in few minutes with german roots. The sagas host reunion events a few years ago we had a gathering of 600. 00 solders so. I checked our family tree and im the 5th generation here in argentina in fact made us young. To love and to care for until god to us parts of the sagas and when the seats for the passengers have reached the end of their tether here in my state is people give the agent trucks and new lease of life. No these eggs werent broken by the bumpy ride that happened while we were loading the trucks and the 2 men up front there are the sons of the citys main vegetable trader who say be a down to. The Convenience Store is also a family run enterprise. This is their boss their father and save you don take. Care of them i bought this off the solders. It was the 1st public bus in our city and now ive had it for 24 years its never had a breakdown. More than the one. But i would never sell it im going to market such a great boss are going to. Look at me. When i go back in brazil. Its sunday and the young bankers and his wife leticia a town official are all fun a day trip to the coast and then on to the mountains. Its a breach and with scenic landscape that the roads are lined with pine tree forests. G. O. C. Behaves room steward. When i turned 18 i told my father that i wanted to be a truck driver you see my father said no way you cant make a living out of that but they dont you think im grateful that he said no i could use the same i really like being a banker so that was what i would also fancy working with a truck over all the better you know. The right i drive during the day and night my so i reckon well do that one day. Joining the couple on their day out to luis from floating. There touring the. Region in the foothills of the central. Range. To. Try to. Follow is eager to prove that his elf 312 built in 1957 will have no problem scaling the 1500 meter high set. Was which it does passing by a new truck that appears to have broken down. Was and indeed a tow truck soon comes to the rescue. The old timers on the other hand reach the top in top form where they have a fair share of admirers to the delights of the proud owner of palm. Beach. Good trucks donate they just change owners as if it were a really really really leverage and they never let us down im like the new trucks that have to be towed and youve seen the proof of the fuel for overkill referred to you know every and theyre not all there antiques veterans come get it on the move. On. To a female rather. More and more women in the indian state of maharashtra becoming lawn tennis. Only taking a sustainable approach to land. For the environment around stefan mason. And 30 minutes on t w. 50 years of religions for peace and people from any difference. Its for working together toward a common goal the peaceful resolution of religious conflicts. Now the female members are for allegiance for peace from the middle east are demanding the larger. The female peacemakers stores can resist t. W. This is deja vu news live from berlin the world of rings in a new year and a new decade berlin welcomes the 20 twentieths with a fireworks display down the Brandenburg Gate celebrations have been underway from new york city to look also on the show. The new year begins in australia with no end in sight to the bushfire crisis