Back in 2017, things were going pretty well for Sharna Chapman.
The proud mum-of-four and her husband ran two successful companies, selling and delivering chicken manure across regional Victoria.
With business booming, they decided to take a chance and purchase a small transport operation with a fleet of five B-doubles.
The Runnymede Trucking Company was born, life was busy, and Sharna was happy – until everything came crashing down.
“In early 2018, on my 10th anniversary with my husband, our marriage ended,” she told Big Rigs.
“Suddenly, I found myself running an interstate transport company alone.”
What followed were two of the toughest years of Sharna’s life, as she grappled with going through a divorce, looking after the kids, and learning how to manage a now-expanded fleet of six trucks without her husband’s help.
“My ex-husband basically handed me the company and said, ‘Good luck’.
“The business side of things was mostly fine, but I hadn’t had much to do with the interstate side before.
“I had all these customers, in Sydney and Melbourne and all over the place.
“I really didn’t know whether I was going to be able to make it work.”
Because of the divorce, finances were tight, which added another layer of stress to Sharna’s situation.
Then after months of long days and late nights – and just when the Echuca woman was finally beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel – her operations manager quit, leaving another gaping hole in the business.
Rolling with the punches, Sharna swapped her financial controller’s hat for an ops manager’s one and kept trucking on.
But yet another spanner was thrown in the works when Sharna lost two of her trucks in accidents, just a month apart.
Without the support of her new partner, friends and family, the 37-year-old isn’t sure how she would have made it through.
“It’s been a hell of a ride, I can tell you that,” she said. “And it’s not over yet!”
In an effort to keep costs down, Sharna began doing her own maintenance and servicing, under the watchful eye of her mechanic.
“I had a mechanic in Benalla who was very good to me,” she said.
“He would say ‘This needs to be done, and I know you haven’t got a lot of money, so you’re going to come to my workshop and you’re going to do it yourself.’
“He pretty much taught me everything I know.”
These days, Sharna has no problem replacing a cylinder head or swapping out an engine.
“I’ve rebuilt the motors in every truck that I’ve got,” she said.
“I’ve had a lot of trucks break down, but I always get the load in when it needs to be in.
“I worked out pretty quickly that you can do anything, even if you don’t think you can.”
She’s also not afraid to jump behind the wheel to give her drivers a rest or fill in where needed.
But with kids aged 8, 10, 15 and 17, she prefers not to drive interstate too often.
“My eldest daughter is a great help getting the kids ready for school in the mornings, and my partner helps out too,” she said.
“But I still prefer not to be away from home for too long, especially as my youngest got diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes last year.”
After years of running a tight ship and keeping the trucks rolling around the clock, Sharna’s hard work has finally started to pay off.
She bought her first brand new truck, a Kenworth K200, in 2021, and has just brought home another of the same model.
Buying the K200s has been a major highlight for Sharna, but she admits her life is so hectic that she hasn’t had the opportunity to stop and think about how far she’s come.
“I don’t get a lot of time to sit back and look at what I have achieved. I just have to keep going!”
When people ask her how she’s managed to make the business work on her own, she says she never had a choice.
“I don’t know anything else. If I was to give it all away, there’s no way I would get another job that pays well enough to support my family.
“I needed to feed my kids and pay the rent, so they have a house to live in.
“To this day, I still haven’t managed to buy a house, so we can have that security.”
Despite all the challenges she’s faced at the helm of Runnymede Trucking Company, which is now based in Echuca, she still has a lot of love for trucking.
“Driving is what does it for me,” she said. “Every time I get behind the wheel, it changes my whole attitude.
“I’ve just picked up a new Pearlcraft steering wheel for my K108, and I’ve switched the outside lights so they turn from amber to purple.
“You’ve got to have a bit of fun with it, don’t you?”
Sharna grew up around trucks – her dad was a driver for most of his life and used to tell her stories about his adventures on the road.
“One day when I was about ten years old, I was out with him when he was loading some hay,” she said.
“He asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, and I said I was going to be a truck driver.
“He said ‘No you’re bloody not, it’s not a female’s job.’
“He passed away in 2015, but I wish he could see me now.”