Danish haulier Poul Schou A/S yesterday announced it had become the first road transport company in Europe to receive a delivery of Tesla’s Semi Truck.
Although it has yet to be 100% confirmed that the haulier’s Facebook post was indeed an April fool, it almost certainly is.
Just days ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that production of the Semi Truck may be delayed until 2022 due to battery cell constraints. Therefore, the chances of Poul Schou A/S actually receiving shipment of one of the trucks yesterday is nigh on impossible.
The comments section under Poul Schou A/S’s Facebook post contains plenty of laughing emojis and references to April 1st, indicating that many of the haulier’s followers didn’t need convincing the announcement was a prank.
However, the haulier’s April Fool was hardly of a ridiculous nature, and people could be forgiven for being taken in by the announcement.
The photo Poul Schou A/S used of a Tesla Semi Truck in its green colour scheme was very convincing. On top of that, the story was published by Danish Road Transport website lastbilmagasinet.dk, who were seemingly in on the joke.
When sharing the news on Facebook, lastbilmagasinet.dk used a wink emoji to indicate that the article was indeed a joke. The followers of the page seemed to find the story funny, with the majority of Facebook users clicking the laugh emoji in response.
The story, if it were true, would understandably be interesting, and given that the lastbilmagasinet.dk article didn’t look all that different from a standard press release, two Spanish road transport sites ran with the story. Another website from Croatia has done the same.
The April Fool arguably didn’t embrace the concept of picking a completely ridiculous story that would spark plenty of laughs if someone believed it to be true – at least from an international perspective.
On the other hand, there were plenty of outlandish April fools raising smiles elsewhere in the European road transport environment. Eurotransport.de said that Dacia would be getting into the HGV market, while Belgian site Transport Media joked that Evergreen had invested in a Hyperloop link between Suez and Antwerp.
France’s blind spot stickers featured in two other April Fools; routiers.com said that England was about to introduce its own sticker requirements, while 40ton.net suggested France would make it mandatory for truckers to put the stickers on their steering wheels.
Photo credit: Poul Schou A/S