Growing up around his late father’s W-Model Kenworths, this second-generation truckie always knew he’d end up driving trucks.
But despite over a decade in the game, Owen Weir still considers himself a newcomer to the trucking scene. “I’ve been driving trucks 11 years but that’s nothing when the person you looked up to was in trucks for over 50 years,” he said.
Owen revealed his parents ran their own transport operation for 28 years. “Dad was a driver to start with, then back in the day – before I was born – he bought his own truck, a T-Line. He had that for a few years and then bought a W-Model Kenworth, which he had for a long time.
“I grew up in a family business. My entire childhood and teenage years were spent around that truck. Dad ended up buying another W-Model and was running two trucks. That one was called ‘The President’.”
Sadly, Owen lost his father in 2021, and his mother Kris passed away just nine months later.
But he fondly recalls the memories of growing up in the 1980s, as the son of a truck driver. “There’s a lot of stuff I did as a kid that you’d get crucified for now,” he laughed. “I’d love to be able to do that with my kids, but you just can’t these days. There are a lot of places you can’t even walk into now without an induction card.
“Back then though, as a kid, every minute of it was so much fun. I remember my first time going to Rockhampton with Dad and seeing the big coal trains, which were kilometres long. I would have only been five or six years old.”
Now aged 40, Owen’s career has spanned from under the bonnet to travelling the highways.
As he explained, “I always wanted to drive trucks but Dad wouldn’t let me drive until I had a trade. I respected his wishes and that’s what I did.”
Owen grew up in the Northern Rivers region of NSW but has also spent time living in Queensland.
After completing his apprenticeship as a light vehicle mechanic, Owen progressed to becoming a heavy vehicle mechanic – working for the likes of Blenners Transport in north Queensland and Jon Kelly in Brisbane.
“I didn’t enjoy that side of it as much though,” Owen admitted, “but it does come in handy.
“Blenners was my first move into the heavy vehicle mechanical side. Then I finished there and did the cane trains for a season, and then I worked for Jon – and I don’t have a bad word to say about him. I was with Jon Kelly for about 12 months and he was one of the best bosses I ever had.”
Owen then got his first driving job with Mark Menz Transport, where he got to drive a 1978 International Transtar 4200. “It’s still the coolest truck I’ve ever had. That was my way into truck driving, doing local work. I was there for about six months before going to Bondwoods Transport for about 12 months. I started on local and then eventually did interstate,” he explained.
But with two young kids and two step kids at home, he says it was difficult being away so much, so he ended up doing local wharf work for a while – until eventually securing a role with his current employer.
Owen has worked for Nicholson & Page Transport for about eight years, most of which was spent carting general freight – until a major change within the business occurred early last year.
The company’s owners Graeme Nicholson and Meredith Page decided to sell half their fleet, in order to scale back as they eventually transition towards retirement. With this, Nicholson & Page Transport moved away from general freight, focussing solely on its pneumatic tankers.
His previous truck was sold to Schaeffer’s Transport. “I worked for Trent and Elena there for a short time, they were also excellent,” Owen said.
However he decided he wanted to try his hand at other adventures for a brief stint in Western Australia before returning home and starting in his current role with Nicholson & Page Transport.
“I went away to the west and played road trains for a couple of weeks with four trailers, but I found it just wasn’t the job for me. I came back and worked for another guy in Sydney. I got the dream truck I always wanted – a T908 – but then this job came up and it was too good to pass up.”
From behind the wheel of a Kenworth T610 with sleeper cab, Owen pulls up to three pneumatic tankers throughout Queensland and New South Wales.
“This is all new for me. I’ve been on pneumatic tankers for about six months now. I’ve turned myself into a snowman a few times,” Owen laughed, adding that he’s really enjoying it.
“With this work, you’re not working to timeslots so you don’t have the same level of pressure I had when I was doing the general and tautliner work. Generally if they’ve ordered the product, they want it and people are there to help you when you arrive.”
Owen says it’s the people that have also helped to make the job so enjoyable.
“The people I work with, the other drivers and the team that we have, we’re all working towards the same goal. No one is better than anyone else. If you have a question, you ask it and someone is going to know the answer.
“There’s two other people doing this same job. We were the three longest serving drivers when the company was restructured. Even the allocators up here are unreal too. It’s just a really great group of people, so nothing is a drama. The company is excellent – and Graeme and Meredith are great bosses too!”
Owen added that he also gets to travel through some great landscapes. “Nearly everywhere we go, it’s like a postcard over the bonnet. When I went to Far North Queensland recently, it was very pretty up there. There were a couple of big storms – and I love seeing the lightning storms.”