Growing up on the west coast of South Australia, along the Nullarbor, Bjorn Docen – who turns 63 in January – says he had wanted to be a truck driver ever since he was a little kid.
“I remember out on the Nullarbor, we’d get flooded from the big rains and the trucks would have to come around the back way. There was one time, I would have been about nine or ten years old, and I watched these two semis out in the mud, getting through,” he said.
And from that young boy watching the big trucks in awe, Bjorn has spent almost his entire career behind the wheel. “I’ve been in it all my life, I love doing it,” he told Big Rigs.
Bjorn’s transport career started in the army. “I signed up in 1980 and got out in 1986. I did two years in Brisbane, two years in Townsville and two years in Sydney.”
He’s called Sydney home ever since, holding various roles, predominantly carting general and refrigerated freight as far as Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.
That was up until September 2020, when he began working for Truck Moves Australia. The company completes between 750-1000 truck moves each week, transporting new and used vehicles from point A to point B.
Truck Moves Australia employs a team of highly experienced drivers, just like Bjorn. “I had wanted to do this kind of work nearly all my life, where you get to pick up a truck and deliver it to the customer. Early on in my career, I thought I was two young so never applied,” Bjorn said.
“I got sick of running around town and doing interstate runs, so I walked into Truck Moves Australia one day and asked if they were looking for drivers.”
Bjorn says he hasn’t looked back. “It’s such an awesome job,” he said, adding that the work is also quite varied.
“You could go from Sydney to Melbourne, Darwin, Perth. They offer us the jobs and we can accept or reject them. So if you have a commitment or an appointment and can’t make it for any reason, you can say that you can’t do the run. It’s really flexible. If you need a few weeks off for any reason, that’s all accommodated too.
“Some weeks you might do a Sydney to Melbourne trip three times in a week, other times you’ll be going some place different. So you get to see different parts of the country and that’s what I really enjoy.
“I’m really happy here and plan to keep on doing this job for as long as I can.”
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