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ASF Srl was founded from a family tradition in the field of road transport. Bartolomeo Merlo, a professional 'carrettiere' (carter), was awarded the honour of Cavaliere di Vittorio Veneto, after serving in the Great War and facing the subsequent hardships.
This family company did not emerge from nothing but is rooted in a past of road transport and labour. Indeed, his father Costanzo Merlo and grandfather Giovanni Merlo were both carters: since the 1800s, they were engaged in freight transport and street clearing with carts and horse-drawn vehicles, as well as in the transport of people on carriages, which were the forerunners of coaches and ultimately today’s modern coaches.
Bartolomeo Merlo thus followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, and his sons still recount his journeys with the 'tumbarel', a horse-drawn cart with which he transported various types of goods. He would cross the old bridge or the passage over the Stura river between the Basse di San Giacomo and the Basse di Sant’Anna, since the Soleri Viaduct did not yet exist.
Having launched the business with road haulage, the sons initially focused on domestic services and subsequently expanded into international transport.
After a period of shared activity, Merlo Autotrasporti split into three separate companies, each dedicated respectively to the national sector, the international market, and local service combined with domestic transport using articulated lorries.
By the end of the 1960s, the company’s structure was as follows: Michele Merlo handled local, national, and Swiss transport, while Achille Merlo strengthened international relations, particularly with France.
The two brothers brought their activities to an end upon reaching retirement age at the close of the 1990s. The thousands of kilometres travelled and countless encounters with clients from many places left behind a legacy of dynamism and initiative.
With the handover of this baton from one generation to the next, in a relay that has lasted nearly two centuries, the long-standing tradition of the Merlo family continues into the new millennium, renewed in form but with the same commitment.
The fleet of vehicles continues to grow and modernise, offering increasingly advanced and efficient transport solutions in response to evolving customer needs.