Since making the switch into the trucking field four years ago, 42-year-old Nat Smith says she has only one regret – that she didn’t do it sooner.
Based in Adelaide, her work takes her to all corners of Australia. “I go everywhere, any capital city, any dirt road and any mine site,” she said.
Nat works for Energy Logistix Transport, running double and triple road trains out of the company’s Largs North depot.
Her start in trucking came four years ago. As she explained, “I was a keyboard warrior for about 20 years until my kids grew up. Once they finished school, I decided I wanted to do what I want to do!
“I’ve always loved being on the road and have always been an outdoors person. Even when I was in those office roles, whenever I needed to take a step back mentally, I would go back to an old job I had of driving lunch vans.
“That’s when I decided to look at other avenues where I could get out on the road – and stay out on the road. It’s all grown from there and now trucking has become an addiction!”
Nat had worked in various office roles including consumer finance and customer service. As she explained, “Those jobs weren’t ever a career for me, whereas this is.
“My kids are 20 and 22 now and they both live out of home and are doing their bit in life. I would have loved to have started this 20 years ago, but then I probably wouldn’t have had the life I’ve had with my children.”
Nat’s first role in the industry was with Remote Transport Australia (RTA). Four years ago, she started there doing yard work, before she even had her truck licence. “It was through friends that I was blessed to have that opportunity at RTA. I was washing trucks, loading trailers, learning to back trailers into bays, snapping combinations together. Then once I got my truck licence three years ago, I began driving for them, doing local work,” she explained.
“I’d go out to Port Pirie or load freight around Adelaide, and it progressed from there. Eventually I was heading out to the mines. That job at RTA gave me the opportunity to understand where to place things on trailers, how to restrain things, how to take care of the equipment.
“I was so new to the industry. And I still am compared to other drivers.
“There’s a big gap I think – a lot of people don’t understand that being a truck driver is not just sitting behind a steering wheel. You need to know how to maintain your trailers too.”
From there, Nat went on to work at Bonetti Transport and Hire. “I loved this company but the work was very city-based. I wanted to get back into the dirt work. They understood that was my end game. Now I keep adding more and more trailers.”
Nat started with ELX in October 2023 and says she’s loving every minute. Often the work sees her on the road for numerous weeks at a time, pulling anything from double road trains to AB triples, and carrying general freight.
“The longest I’ve been away in the truck is five weeks. I love those long trips. I’m privileged enough that my kids have grown up so I can make that commitment and spend that time out on the road,” said Nat.
“You always try and be home for the events you need to be at and work is really good like that. If I need to take annual leave, they make it happen. It’s a two-way street. They know the commitment we put in and the effort. We give our all to the job and they give their all to us.”
In terms of the freight she transports, Nat explained, “I could carry anything from drill rods, to chemicals, iso tanks of nitrogen, motor components that go into a beam pump, to the massive beam pumps themselves. Whatever our client requests is what we’ll carry. Sometimes loading the trailers is like playing Tetris.”
Starting in Adelaide, Nat travels wherever is needed to service ELX’s clients, which are based Australia-wide.
“From that point, I could be on the road for however long it needs to be. This job I just did went from Adelaide to Perth, then to a mine site past Newman, back to Perth and now back to Adelaide,” explained Nat.
“The majority of our clients are in the oil and gas field. There’s no client too big or small. If anything needs to be done, I’ll do it.”
Nat was recently handed the keys to a 2020 Kenworth C509 named ‘Odin’. “I love it, it’s so nice to drive and very comfortable. To have to live in the truck as we do, we are incredibly blessed with the space. I’ve got two fridges, a microwave, TV, sound bar – it’s got all the creature comforts you would want in a truck. Even the cupboard space is great. I have a pantry and a cupboard with washing supplies. It means you can set it up like you would your own home.”
Prior to that, Nat was in a T909 named ‘Maximus’.
Nat added she spends a lot of time on the Strzelecki Track. “It’s our gateway coming into Queensland.”
She’s also tackled the Great Central Road and the Tanami up to the Tanami Gold Mine. “But there’s still much more of the Tanami up north I haven’t done yet. I also haven’t done the Birdsville Developmental Road but would love to do it.”
Nat got her MC licence in January 2024, while working with ELX. “I had wanted to upgrade to my MC, but I wanted to make sure I was competent with my HC before I started adding trailers. I had a really good support team at ELX and they gave me that opportunity to upgrade my licence. I’m slowly adding more trailers as I go.
“ELX has been fantastic with the career progression I wanted. They’ve put a massive amount of trust in me by handing over the keys to this equipment. I’m forever grateful and blessed to have been given that opportunity.”
Asked what she loves most about the work, Nat responded, “It’s the remoteness and the scope of work I do. I do enjoy my solitude and my quiet time, being away from noise and city life. There’s also the people you get to meet, and seeing some of the machinery that gets moved around.
“Some of the landscapes you get to see are absolutely magnificent too. In the Kimberley coming down towards Stuarts Well on the way to Alice Springs, there’s this stretch of landscape filled with mountains with flat tops on them, there’s the cloud formations coming into Darwin where it can look like Armageddon, the epic sunrises in Moomba, driving past Uluru with a triple road train on. The photos just don’t do it justice.”