You’d be hard-pressed to find a more contented truckie than Ryan Friend, who works for Richmond Freighters in the Queensland outback.
Aged 40, Ryan lives at Richmond which is 500km from Townsville along the Flinders Highway.
I saw him tending to his load near his Kenworth T908 just before dark earlier this month at the Port Access Road breakdown pad in Townsville.
He loves the Kenworth and said: “It is a great truck and I just love driving it. My boss Scott Hinze is tops to work for and I’m really happy in the job.
“I came down from Richmond empty and have a load of timber from Townsville to Cloncurry,” he said.
Ryan, who has been in the industry for over 20 years, likes stopping at the Hughenden Puma Roadhouse, where he says his favourite food is steak and veggies.
To my surprise, Ryan told me that I had snapped his pic when covering a “hog n dog” event in Richmond 22 years ago.
“I remember it well, I was aged 18 at the time,” he said.
Although Ryan isn’t into feral pig hunting these days, he does enjoy fishing.
“When I have a break I fish the creeks around here in Townsville but haven’t had much luck lately,” he said.
Ryan’s eyes did light up when I told him that another driver caught a large barramundi in a waterway not far from the BP Cluden Roadhouse last week.
“I will be trying to catch a fish there when I can,” he said.
Ryan added that he rates the worst road he travels on as the Flinders Highway between Hughenden and Cloncurry.
After our 15 minute chin wag, I left with no doubt that this Richmond driver has a very apt surname.