Small fleet operator Matt Binsted was hooking up trailers loaded with hay when Big Rigs saw him in the parking area of the Caltex Calcium Roadhouse just after noon recently.
Based in Charters Towers, his company is called BRT Transport and Contracting.
He was in a 1993 Kenworth.
“This is the oldest truck in my fleet and it is a good one. I purchased it about five years ago from an Ingham station,” he said.
Binsted’s B-double was heading back to Charters Towers, about 85 kilometres away, after it had picked up hay at a property not far away from the roadhouse.
“I like stopping here as the facilities are clean and there is lots of parking space. I also enjoy pulling up at the Hann River Roadhouse in Cape York,” he said.
The worst route he’s been on this year is Einasleigh Road heading to Kidston due to the solar farm traffic along with the Peninsula Development Road to Weipa in the far north, after the tourist season.
Outside work this super friendly driver enjoys fishing with some success.
“I like to go to Lucinda and fish in the Hinchinbrook Channel,” he said.
Just before I saw Binsted at the roadhouse, one of his drivers Graham ‘Spence’ Spencer had been at the same spot.
I only missed him by about 20 minutes.
Spence is a golfer of some note around the Charters Towers area.
He has tried to encourage his boss Binsted to have a game, but isn’t having much luck in convincing him to join him on the fairways.
“I just don’t see the point in hitting a ball with a golf club in the sun, when I can be sitting in a boat drinking a beer!” he said with a grin.