Calendar caps Kiwi’s comeback

After a near-tragedy to close 2020, expat Kiwi truckie Ben Overton has had the thrill of his customised Jade Transport 389 Peterbilt making the world’s most prestigious truck calendar

Story Wayne Munro Photos www.wowtrucks.com

AVING YOUR TRUCK MAKE IT ONTO WHAT IS ARGUABLY

the world’s most prestigious truck calendar is one thing: Enough to make any truckie hugely proud.

Achieving that as a Kiwi, driving in North America? Wow! Now that is seriously next-level.

But actually, having his 389 Peterbilt Pride & Class special edition feature in the 2022 Shell Rotella SuperRigs Calendar isn’t even the half of Ben Overton’s story over the past year and a bit.

Making the calendar caps off a fantastic comeback from neartragedy at the end of 2020 for the 34-year-old, who’s been living in Winnipeg, Canada for the past six years – driving all over North America.

He and fellow-Kiwi, close friend and workmate Andrew Worth were tobogganing near home on December 27, when their toboggan slammed into a concrete culvert buried in the snow.

Ben sums up the aftermath: “I nearly paralysed myself…. breaking my back in four places – bursting two vertebrae and cracking two others.”

Worth – who, like Ben, drives for Winnipeg’s Jade Transport – was also seriously injured.

Ben underwent an eight-hour operation to repair his back, a badly-injured knee and shoulder, and nerve damage….with no guarantees he’d be able to walk again.

“Nah….it was pretty sore,” he says with serious understatement, adding: “It was a pretty dark time.” Even when he went home “it was pretty tough….difficult: I needed people to help me get up and everything.”

There was, he says, one saving grace: For a long-haul truckie who’s normally away from home for up to 260 days a year, he got to spend some quality time with fiancée Megan (also a Kiwi) and their two girls, four-year-old Evie and Emersyn (now just one).

And slowly, painfully – after five months of recuperation, then rehabilitation (he and good mate Andrew “motivated each other to go to the gym every day”) – he returned to work….

To find that his boss had not only kept for him the brand-new 389 Peterbilt he’d been meant to get in January….but had also

taken the factory customisation that went with its Pride & Class designation to another level.

Customising trucks is part of the fabric of Jade Transport, which runs over 115 trailers – including 60 stainless steel tankers – and more than 65 tractor units…all of which have, at the very least, custom paint jobs.

The company also owns Shift Products, a custom truck accessories business, and Jade trucks have won awards at truck shows all over North America.

Ben’s Peterbilt, the April truck in the SuperRigs calendar, is one of about 10 company trucks that are highly-customised…..to a showstopping degree.

Without telling Ben that he was keeping the new Peterbilt off the road till he could get back to work, Jade boss Larry Dyck gave the injured Kiwi something to think about during his recovery – involving him in the process of planning its extra custom work: “Larry kept me updated with the build – asking questions on what I thought of this and that.

“Being able to have input on the truck was great. Looking back now it is pretty cool he included me in this process – especially as we didn’t know if I’d even be able to return to work! And he could have easily assigned it to someone else!”

It makes the pale yellow and black Pete, with its green stripes, “pretty special” for the Kiwi who dreamt for years of one day driving cool trucks in the States.

The changes to the Pete started with an imposing Starlight bumper, custom-pinstriped guards, seven-inch chrome exhaust stacks with Shift shields, plus a custom-made visor.

Then it was given an historic paint scheme from the 359 Peterbilt era – with a roof light cluster and aftermarket headlights to match…

And breather lights, mirror lights and underframe backet lights, and black vinyl wrap on stainless panels under the bunk and doors – leaving only a one-inch stainless strip….matching the visor. Many of the accessories were supplied by Shift Products.

The mods were on top of the Peterbilt Pride & Class extras that include a different grille and stainless strip down the middle of the bonnet, stainless louvres on the sides of the bonnet and interior embellishments including heated seats: “Great for North American winters and my back injury,” says Ben appreciatively.

The 11-year-old 46ft Brenner two-axle semi tanker put behind it for SuperRigs also runs Shift Products tub guards to match the truck.

Little wonder Ben was busting to return to driving, even when his back was still hurting: “That’s kind of why I went back to work – ‘cos I didn’t want anyone else driving it! He’d held it off long enough I think.”

So is Ben one of Larry’s favourite employees? “Haha – I don’t know about that!” But, he adds: “I think the accident brought us to more of a friendship than an employee/boss relationship. When I was in hospital he texted me every day – making sure I was alright. Even when I got home.” The boss and Ben’s workmates also helped out with meals for the young family.

Ben adds: “I’m not too sure why I was picked to drive this one. I guess Larry knows I take pride in my trucks. I like to put on a lot of miles and I keep them well-maintained and polished up. I treat them as if they were my own.”

Back at work, Ben found it difficult to crank landing legs, swap trailers – “so they gave me my own trailer. That was one less thing that I had to do – swapping trailers and that all the time.

“I was also given time between loads…to get out and stretch and walk around.”

Better still, says Ben: “I really love this truck! From all the custom parts, to the big 72-inch sleeper – which has tons of room. Basically I live in there – it’s got everything I need: Bunks, microwave, tv, fridge…”

And then there’s “just the fact it’s a long-hood Peterbilt, which

Clockwise, from above: Ben’s calendar 389 Pete came from the factory as a special edition – and then was given an extensive list of custom mods....the prized Peterbilt is parked-up for the winter to protect it, with Ben jumping into this Kenworth W9B – his so-called “winter beater”..... the Kiwi has had four brand-new trucks at Jade Transport, including this 2018 389 Peterbilt..... another 2021 highlight was being invited to an exclusive truck show at the Peterbilt factory.... it’s been a helluva comeback year for Ben, after a serious injury last Christmas..... driving all over North America at the wheel of the award-winning truck sees the Dunedin-born Kiwi living the dream

has been a dream of mine to drive for many years.

“This is the best truck I’ve had….absolutely. It’s all air-ride – front-end, cab, back’s all air-ride: It’s like driving a Cadillac. Plus the nice heated seats, leather interior, big bunk. Pretty nice truck.”

The 2021 Pete has a 525-horsepower Cummins X15 engine and – in true traditionalist style – an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox.

Calendar truck that it is, the 389 “does work fulltime” – although, Ben adds, “we try to fit in as many shows as possible with a busy schedule.”

It does get babied a little: Along with the other highlycustomised trucks on the fleet, it has been parked-up for the winter – Ben and the other drivers instead climbing into so-called “winter-beaters.”

Ben, for instance, is now driving a 2019 Kenworth W9B until the northern spring: “The yellow one’s put in the shed – just because of how brutal the winter is here. And the salt and everything just destroys it. Especially with my fenders – how they sit so low. They’d just take an absolute blasting.” It is, he adds: “Because we did so well with it over the summer.”

At the 39th Shell Rotella SuperRigs Truck Show in Illinois in July, Ben’s Peterbilt took second place in the tractor/trailer division. He was still enjoying that standout achievement – it is America’s most famous truck beauty contest, and “the trucks that I beat were next-level,” he says incredulously – when he got told his truck was one of 11 that would be on the 2022 SuperRigs calendar.

“I was pretty excited. It’s pretty cool…a pretty proud moment. I’m the first person from NZ to ever make the calendar.”

Jade trucks have featured in the calendar four times over the years – “but we hadn’t made it in 11 or 12 years though.”

Says Ben: “That’s one of the biggest achievements I’ve had in trucking, for sure.”

He also got to take the 389 to an exclusive, invitation-only truck show at the Peterbilt factory.

Ben says: “My passion for trucks began when I was a young child. As a kid I would go for the odd ride with my cousin Aaron Callender.”

At 18 he started driving a furniture truck for Dunedin’s John Milnes Transport – graduating to linehaul work on general freight. Then there were spells with Brenics Transport, Central Southland Freight, Southern Logging, Dynes Transport and STL Linehaul.

But the dream was to drive in North America and in 2013 he made contact with Jade Trucking – and was immediately offered a job. The company would, it said, also organise the necessary immigration approval and pay his airfares…

“But it took two years! I just about gave up. Every week I called them.” Finally, in late 2015, the visas were approved for Ben and Megan.

Three months later he was driving his first brand-new truck – the only Western Star in a fleet of Peterbilts and Kenworths: “Since then I’ve had three new trucks, including this one.”

“I’m usually on the road for around two-three weeks at a time. In a typical year he clocks up around 240,000 kilometres, running at 36.2 tonnes all-up.

“I have been to 47 different (US) states, and 12 out of the 14 provinces in Canada. I’ve also done a season on the Ice Roads” – carting diesel 400kms, in an 18-hour loaded haul across frozen lakes, to a diamond mine just 200kms south of the Arctic Circle.

Ben Overton says he’s not “fully recovered. No, not really – no. I don’t know if I ever will be. Like, it hurts…every day. First thing I feel…last thing I feel at night. I still need to take painkillers twice a day.”

But, after the nightmare start to 2021, getting a new truck – and having it feature in the SuperRigs calendar, is way beyond his expectations: “Yeah nah – from January last year….I definitely wouldn’t have thought I’d be doing so well. And just…getting back to normality.” That is, in his terms, living the dream. T&D