K S Easter’s longest serving driver was recently handed the keys to a new 2023 model Kenworth T610 SAR, complete with personalised plates.
Kathryn Mobbs, 57, has been in the driver’s seat for 36 years. Growing up on a dairy farm on the Pacific Highway in Moorland, NSW, she would watch in awe as the trucks went past – and that’s what helped to cement her future career path.
Mobbs started working at Easter Group/DTC in 1997. Based in Brisbane, she’s an express linehaul driver and was last year named the Queensland Trucking Association’s (QTA) 2022 Professional Driver of the Year.
Humble in her achievements, Mobbs said, “I just enjoy it, I’ve always enjoyed driving, but it’s also the work and the company. They’re very family orientated.”
Mobbs was handed the keys to the T610 about four weeks ago. “It’s got a microwave and that’s all I wanted – I asked for a microwave and they gave me a whole new truck with the microwave!” she joked.
“When I get a new truck, I like to keep it until it reaches its million. I don’t like to swap and change too much. I was in a Western Star I named Wilson before this one. It reached its million the week after I got out of it.
“The Kenworth is so different to the Western Star, but you get used to it really quickly. It’s really nice to drive.”
Though Mobbs knew she was getting the new truck to drive, her bosses kept the plates under wraps.
“I knew it was coming but the number plates were a big surprise,” she said. “They were a bit sneaky!”
The LK on the plates stands for “little kid”. As Mobbs explained, “When I started, I was with some really big drivers and I was really tiny, so I got the nickname Little Kid. But I haven’t been called that for years, now it’s just ‘LK’.”