LEGENDS
Special K – Peter Richmond
T
O MANY, THIS MONTH’S SOUTHPAC LEGEND NEEDS LITTLE by way of introduction. With his `Farmer K’ nickname, ‘been there-done that’ breadth of experience and 50 years behind the wheel, this incredibly hard-working trucker retains an unquenchable enthusiasm for the industry. Yes, Peter Richmond is very special indeed. Peter’s ‘Farmer K’ nickname was given to him by another industry legend, Cliff `Snowman’ Guy. “It comes from my days at Total Transport. I used to wear a towelling cap and drove a Kenworth. Snowman said I looked like a farmer, so started calling me `Farmer K’,” says Peter. This moniker has even more relevance when you discover where Peter has come from and more importantly, what he could have been. “I was born and bred on a sheep and cattle station in Hawke’s Bay at a place called Raukawa. My father wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer and then later a shepherd, but I was never remotely interested in any of that. I always had a passion for machinery.” Peter says his passion was initially with the tractors and stuff on
56 | Truck & Driver
the farm; “Crawler tractors and disking, all that type of thing.” But then unfortunately his brother got killed on the farm which pushed him towards academia - but not for long. “I never liked school, I just wanted to get out there and work,” Peter says. And work is what he did. Leaving school, his first role was working for a local hay baling contractor and that’s where Peter got his first introduction to trucks. “They had an old Bedford truck, but I had to get a licence for the job. In those days, with the country cop, you only had to drive around the block and answer a few questions and you were away. So, I got a heavy traffic and car licence at the age of 18.” Recalling carting hay over the old Napier-Taihape Road, Peter says that in late 1960s the road was much narrower and twistier, with grass growing up the middle in parts. “The cambers on the road were so deep that when you went around the corner the deck would rub on the wheels at the back, so there was smoke coming off the back. Geez that would slow you down,” says Peter, jokingly suggesting the Bedford had the best retarding system of anything he’s ever driven. From there, Peter went to work with his father and uncle
