January 2011

Living The Dream

Written by David Kinch

On a recent trip to the North Island of New Zealand I caught up with a friend who in recent months had shifted back north from Christchurch.
Jon Murray was born and raised in the small North Island town of Taihape and used to take photos of the local trucks and the linehaul units that passed through daily. After school,in weekends and in the holidays he worked at the local Brown Sugar Cafe as a Kitchenhand for three years but he also kept his foot in the door with the local transport industry cleaning trucks for Byfords Construction Limited.

In March 2008 Jon landed a job with Christchurch company Brenics Transport and made the big move south to pursue his dream. Working his way through the different classes of license You always knew which truck in the fleet Jon was driving at Brenics as it would always look good and in near show condition when possible. Wether it was the yellow LF DAF known as "Spongebob", the orange sunkist CF DAF or the 8x4 Tractor unit Aerodyne Kenworth extras were always added and the trucks cleaned reliously.

Eventually Jon decided to move back north and took a job at Owens transport in Palmerston North co-driving a 2006 4964 Western Star owned by Mr Robin Jago. This truck already had plenty of extras including the "Turbo Wing" on the roof and lots of other shiney bits for Jon to polish.
As soon as he arrived in Palmerston North the Tractor Unit got a good going over and was brought up to Jons standard and the b-train wasn't far behind.
Before long this 20 year old from Taihape had the whole unit looking it's best once more.

With a eighteen speed roadranger gearbox and five hundred and eighty horsepower under the hood Jon and his co-driver Mike take turns working the night shift running a trailer swap from Palmerston North to Taupo and doing containers and freight during the day usually to Wellington or Napier but that can vary.
So far the Western Star has racked up over eight hundred thousand kilometres on North Island roads and it'll continue to turn heads with Jon polishing every chance he gets. Jon is a great example for every young aspiring driver out there and I'd like to thank him for polishing the Western Star for the Global Trucking Feature to kick off 2011.

Living The Dream

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