Truckie Profiles

Towing operator celebrates 32 years in business

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For more than half of his life Cam Duffy has run a towing business on the scenic Atherton Tablelands in North Queensland.

The 60-year-old owns Cam Duffy Autos & Towing and has been in the business for 32 years.

The company has four trucks: a flashy new Isuzu, two Nissan UDs and a Hino and has depots at Atherton, Mareeba and Malanda.

His wife Andrea is a partner and an integral part of the operation. She says the Isuzu is the pride of the fleet.

A lot of their work is around the Atherton Tablelands and they have secured the RACQ contract for the area.

“But we have been as far away as Brisbane, Gold Coast and western destinations to return people home when they have had car issues. We have been doing that from Malanda for 27 years and since then from Atherton for the past 13 years and we recently picked up Mareeba district as well,” Andrea said.

“It is very hard to get drivers these days, but we have 12 in the business.”

Big Rigs was told about the company by Townsville man Phil Burnett whose car broke down whilst towing his caravan at Millaa Millaa.

“Cam brought myself and wife Judy back to Townsville which is 300km away and had the car on the back of the Isuzu and towed our van. He was fantastic and a real gentleman. The trip took about four hours. It was a comfortable ride and we thought it would be rough. We stopped at Cardwell on the way back and I would recommend him to people,” Burnett said.

The trip took them from Millaa Millaa along the Palmerston Highway to the south of Innisfail and then along the Bruce Highway for the 250km journey to Townsville.

Burnett said Duffy even dropped his van off at his Vincent address and then delivered the 4WD to a Garbutt mechanical workshop for repairs. “Nothing was too much trouble for him,” Burnett said.

Andrea was asked what was the most challenging road to travel on was: “It would have to be the stretch between Millaa Millaa and Malanda. It has lots of potholes. They put in bitumen to fill the holes and expect vehicles to go over it and harden it. But you can get tar on your truck so we avoid doing that,” she said.

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