Twelve months into his gig with Dorsett Transport in Tasmania, Justin Wood couldn’t be happier. He caught up with Big Rigs when he pulled up for a break at a local truck stop.
“I started out today with a load from Launceston to Margate and am currently on the way back as far as Perth tonight, then tomorrow I am looking forward to getting home, giving the truck a wash and then knock off, hopefully,” he said.
Wood was driving a Dorsett Transport Western Star W4800FXB Stratosphere with a 550 Detroit DD15 up front and had stopped at Mood Food, the Bennett’s Petroleum Caltex Truckstop at Kempton.
For Wood, Dorsett Transport is a perfect fit. “They are a really top family outfit who really look after us, and they are keeping us busy which is certainly pleasing just now, so all is good in the world. I’ve been on the road for nine years now, and would have to say I chose to drive trucks, and really enjoy being out on the open road, and I have never regretted that decision. I was working out in the bush previous to that,” Wood said.
He added that he’s glad to be seeing Big Rigs back in the truck stops as a paper. “I spend too much time on the phone anyway nowadays, as it is. It is good to be able to sit down, open the paper and have a good read and catch up with what is going on.”
Wood observed that it was a sad current trend watching the banks closing their branches in regional towns, often destroying the very fabric of the community, and making life difficult, especially for the elderly, and truck drivers and others who are often stressed for time to go to a major city for business.
Time off, he told us, was spent pursuing a variety of sports with the kids.