Although Neil MacDonald had been held up for five days, he was in a happy frame of mind when I saw him.
The 71-year-old truckie drives a Kenworth K200 for Pilon Transport which has its base at Dubbo, NSW.
Neil was sitting in the driver’s seat of his rig at the BP Cluden Roadhouse and was delighted to yarn to Big Rigs.
“I am waiting for the place to open where I have to deliver to tomorrow,” he said.
A very friendly driver, Neil has been with Pilon for the past nine years.
“I think I am their oldest driver,” he said.
His roadhouse of choice when in the area is the Gilgandra Shell in NSW.
“They make the best egg and bacon sandwiches I have ever tasted and they are so big,” he said.
Neil said the worst highway he gets on is the Gore between Goondiwindi and Millmerran. “I call it 40 kilometres of hell. You travel slow and it still is so rough that loads shift.”
Even though Neil drives all around the country, he lives at Port Douglas in far north Queensland.
“It is absolute paradise there. I have a 50 foot yacht and cruise around when I get time off,” he said.
A connoisseur of seafood, Neil has a wonderful way to obtain prawns and fish.
“When I go cruising I take supplies of cartons of alcohol which I don’t drink but barter with trawlers to get the freshest prawns and fish,” he said.
Neil has been driving for 50 years and was carrying steel when I saw him.
“It has come from Brisbane for Townsville and sometimes I take cars back south,” he added.
Neil may be in his seventies but I told him he looks a lot younger. “I don’t feel younger when I load or unload,” he laughed.
As for his current Kenworth, Neil raves about it. “It has a 650hp Cummins motor and an automatic gearbox and is a bit old but I just enjoy driving it!”