Summer series: Father and son of the Veegaete under the spell of vintage trucks

Antoon got a taste for trucks as a young lad. The location of his parental home, situated along the R14 (today’s N43) in Sint-Martens-Latem played a decisive role. “Before the construction of the E17, it was the traffic artery between Ghent-Dampoort and Kortrijk. Not only did I see the lorries drive past it, they also parked there, as drivers could stop at the establishments ‘Dikke Pier’ and ‘Bij Lisette’. Too bad I didn’t have a smartphone back then, because I would have loved to immortalise all those trucks on film,” Antoon muses.

Later, he would turn his passion into his profession. He went to work for truck manufacturer DAF, where – during a career spanning more than forty years – his responsibilities included order administration, sales, starting up a dealership and the public sector. Moreover, he was also active for years as a demo driver and is still associated with the DAF museum in Eindhoven.

maverick

“In 1969, I started my collection of truck folders and I never stopped,” says the board member of the Belgian Oldtimer Truck Club. “We are a maverick in the world of oldtimer collectors. Most of our vehicles are big, heavy, rather difficult to fit in the average garage and you need a C driving licence. We therefore see that most of our club members have something to do with transport professionally. Think professional drivers, mechanics, garage owners, dealers and transport entrepreneurs.”

That kite also goes for Antoon’s son Thomas, who works as an account manager at DAF dealer TH Trucks in Kortrijk. In Zwevegem in West Flanders, he enjoys tinkering with his collection of vintage trucks in a shed next to his home on weekends. “One of our showpieces in the collection is a 1964 DAF 2300 DO, a rather rare model that we never thought we would find,” says Thomas. Brands like Scania and Magirus also return to the van de Veegaete family’s collection.

Parts

One of the biggest challenges for vintage truck enthusiasts to get back to driving them is finding the suitable parts. “Restoring such a truck is a work of years. You rely on a network, without which it is very difficult to start this passion,” says Thomas.

His father also sees a big difference with our neighbouring countries. “The Belgian scene for vintage trucks is rather modest. There is some catching up going on, but if you compare with the Netherlands, for example, there is a greater interest from the transport industry to restore and cherish trucks from the past. Therefore, I would like to make a warm appeal to that profession to embrace the ‘vintage trucks scene’, as the British describe it so nicely.”

Driver shortage

Antoon also sees it as an opportunity to address the acute driver shortage. “If you want to get young people excited about a profession, it is important that they can see, feel and try things.”