The long life of a food vendor
The food vendor’s profession follows a long tradition. Food vendors have existed all over the world since ancient times. Joachim Zehle’s family also has a long history of practising this profession. He himself is a fourth-generation food vendor.
“My destiny has always been to be a food vendor,” he explains, so anything else would have been out of the question for him. “I can’t imagine anything more beautiful.” Being on the road is an integral part of the job. From the start of the season in March until the end of the Christmas markets, it means a great deal of driving, setting up stalls in one place, taking them down and then setting them up and taking them down again in another place. The vintage MAN F7 19.230, which has been in the family’s possession since the early 1970s, is one thing that has accompanied Joachim Zehle tirelessly and enthusiastically throughout his entire life as a food vendor. It was Joachim’s father, Joachim Zehle Senior, who purchased the handsome truck back in the day.
The vehicle has not left the family since. “Driving is an integral part of our lives,” says Joachim Zehle, who also develops a fondness for certain vehicles as a result. “Back then, having a MAN was the ultimate achievement,” says Zehle, who was still a small child when his father bought the truck. He acquired it from an acquaintance who was very keen for the MAN to be in good hands. In fact, the MAN F7 was and still is very popular with the Zehles. “We have cherished the vehicle all these years,” says Joachim Zehle, who still spends a great deal of time looking after the sprightly old-timer.
After all, he is more than a little bit proud not only to be in possession of the charming truck, but also to be able to drive it. It is quite different from modern vehicles in which you almost feel like you’re sitting on an aeroplane, laughs the 52-year-old. He himself was shown everything by his father. “And I wouldn’t have been able to do it otherwise.” In fact, driving the MAN F7 requires a fair bit of handling and footwork – starting with the steering wheel gearshift or the fact that disengaging and engaging the clutch requires double de-clutching.
“I know that the truck is very special and I take very good care of it.”
And it’s not just driving the truck that presents a challenge. The classic MAN also needs a lot of attention and care to stay in good shape. That’s why Joachim Zehle is always under the truck himself, “there’s a lot of greasing and lubrication work to be done,” he explains. You have to accept that you will end up with a few black marks yourself. Since the MAN F7 spends the whole summer outside, the sun, wind and rain leave some marks on the paint of the old-timer. For larger jobs such as these, Joachim Zehle has long relied on the service company Toni Maurer in Mauerstetten: “For the last 20 years, the MAN F7 has only ever been to this company for servicing. The foreman there used to learn on this type of truck himself as an apprentice, so it always feels quite special when I take our vehicle there.” The food vendor’s vehicle, which has been faithfully pulling trailers for the Zehle family for 52 years, is also acknowledged time and again out on the road. This tends to be by other truckers who appreciate the fact that “you are still on the road with a vehicle like that”, says Joachim Zehle, and they quite often express this sentiment by honking the horn.
For him, the MAN F7 is inextricably interwoven with his life as a food vendor and with that of his father, who died in 2018. “In Memory of Joachim Zehle” is written on a sign behind the windscreen along with a photo of his father, who always wanted the old-timer to be cherished. “Maybe he looks down on it from above and it makes him happy,” says Joachim Zehle. He is about to leave for the next folk festival, the Tänzelfest in Kaufbeuren, in the freshly polished and prepared MAN F7. As soon as his trailer, from which he sells grilled sausages, shish kebabs and other delicacies, is set up there, he takes his good old vintage truck home again. He himself stays on site the whole time and lives in a caravan during the folk festival. However, he wants a bit more shelter and peace and quiet for the MAN F7 and prefers to park it safely at home – until the next assignment and change of location, which for food vendor Joachim Zehle and his MAN, starts as soon as one festival ends and the next begins. That’s the life of a food vendor.
