It can be a tough gig working as an owner-driver, but for Aaron Pearsall and his trusty Kenworth T609, working as a tow-operator for Prezioso Transport has been a successful association.
Based in Wodonga, Aaron runs up and down the Hume Highway towing a bulk powder tanker between Melbourne, Sydney and the Blue Mountains clocking up two round trips a week.
With over two decades working in a variety of roles in transport, he has seen a fair bit of Australia through the windscreen of a truck, having been brought up with a bit of diesel in his blood from a young age.
“My father, Trevor, kicked off his business in 1992 running newspapers to Wagga, he built it up to include general freight and eventually had three trucks and three vans on the road – I had a fair bit to do with that in the earlier days so that kicked things off for me,” Aaron said.
With a view to gaining a bit of work experience Aaron worked for Visy as a forklift driver before hitting the highway firstly with O’Brien’s and then Hume Transport.
“I was loading trailers for O’Brien’s, at the time they did a lot of steel so it was a good education in doing things properly.
“I then worked for Humes for a couple of years and it was also a great business to work for – Glen Elliot was a ‘hands-on’ operator and they really know their stuff,” he said.
With a desire to spread his wings, and with the mining boom kicking off, like a lot of others Aaron decided to head west and soon found himself in the thick of the action, an experience that he remembers fondly today.
“I thought I would head over there and see for myself and ended up working for BGC at Koolyanobbing with their off-road road train project. I first saw the road trains and the Komatsu loaders they had, that really got me excited to see the gear they were running!
“I spent some time on the water cart and loaders and then running one of the C510 Kenworths grossing 300 tonnes on their 100-kilometre private haul road. To operate that type of equipment is an experience I will never forget, it was an amazing job.”
After heading home to Victoria for a short while, Aaron again crossed the Nullarbor in 2012 to once more work for BGC, taking the plunge as a subbie and making his first foray into owning his own trucks carting cement and general freight.
“I started with a Western Star and then bought a new Volvo out of CMV here in Wodonga and took it over there.
“I had to come back in 2015 for family reasons and by then I had the Volvo and two Kenworths. I sold one and bought the other two back and ran as a subbie for Fred’s in Shepparton – Danny Borg was great to work for,” he said.
Taking a hiatus from the road, Aaron moved into an operations role for Border Express, looking after the Bluescope/Lysaght steel haulage requirements where he stayed for seven years, dovetailing this with some casual driving for Scholz Bulk Haulage in Wodonga.
“I learnt a lot doing the operations scheduling at Border Express, they were a really good crew and I did a bit of driving for Craig Scholz over Christmas and so forth to keep my eye in. This current job came about when I called Prezioso’s about a job for a friend and John Prezioso gave me an opportunity so I bought a Kenworth T409 and started hauling cement.”
Fast forward to today and the 2014 T609 has been Aaron’s weapon of choice for the last 18 months, having purchased it off another Prezioso subbie. With around 1.8 million kilometres on the clock, the Kenworth has had a couple of overhauls along the way and Aaron reckons there’s plenty of life left in it.
“The fella who had it previously put a Cummins X15 crate motor in it which has only now done around 500,000 kilometres, he also replaced the diffs and I replaced the Roadranger in it earlier this year, so it has a virtually new driveline.
“I had been considering upgrading to a T659 as the only thing this doesn’t have is a 50-inch bunk but I am not living in the truck for a month at a time – with the X15 I have got something pretty solid so this one should be good for a couple of million k’s, the 600 horsepower of the X15 does the job easily,” he said.
Aaron’s weekly run sees him load black char out of Bacchus Marsh, which is used to fuel the furnaces at Infrabuild Steel in Rooty Hill in western Sydney. From there he heads over the Blue Mountains to Mt Piper, loading fly-ash back to Somerton.
Doing the loop twice a week sees Aaron clocking around 4500 kilometres, with a Sunday afternoon departure from Wodonga usually seeing him back home for the weekend on a Thursday night.
“It is pretty good in that I can largely run my own race with our customers, it’s been a bit challenging lately with the roadworks on Mt Victoria running out to Lithgow but it is what it is. My run gets me home for the weekends to do a bit of other stuff – I have good backup there with Prezioso’s and a bit of variety if I want it.”
Aaron has recently purchased a Detroit-powered Western Star which he is working on to eventually get back on the road.
Primarily bought as a backup to the Kenworth if required, it would seem that the T609 will be gracing the highway pulling a Prezioso tanker with Aaron at the wheel for some time yet.
“I get in and do what I do and I enjoy it, and John has that understanding of what works and what doesn’t. You have to have a bit of passion for it and I am happy where I am.”