With his impressive beard, truckie Jamie Jansen would be an ideal Santa Claus over the fast looming Christmas period.
But the 52-year-old, who was driving a Western Star 4800 when Big Rigs saw him recently, can’t see that happening.
“I have taken a few years to grow the beard but have never been a Santa. Although my seven-year-old granddaughter thinks I am around that time,” he said.
Jansen works for CNQ Freight Services and was parked up in Townsville when I saw Jansen at about 4pm one November afternoon.
“I have picked up a load of watermelons from Cairns for the Brisbane markets,” he said.
Jansen reckons drivers need more rest areas which are bigger and with suitable facilities; and rates the worst road he travels on as being part of the Bruce Highway.
“I have to travel it from Cairns to Townsville but dodge it most times and go the back way,” he said.
When off work Jansen enjoys spending time at his small farm located at Wallaville between Gin Gin and Childers.
Wallaville is a rural town and locality in the Bundaberg Region and is 372km north of Brisbane.
Jansen says his New Year’s Resolution is to lose weight.