Southpac Trucks Legends

Special K – Peter Richmond

TO 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 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

“doing a farming thing” in Raukawa They tried to get him to be a shepherd; “riding horses and having sheepdogs and things.” But that didn’t work.

“I wasn’t cut out to be a shepherd. I was more interested in the trucks that came to pick the stock up.”

Peter convinced his father to get a truck for the farm. It was a petrol Commer with no mod cons, not even power steering.

“It used lots and lots of petrol, something you wouldn’t want now.”

The Commer was more of a dump truck, so Peter began carting shingle for the tracks, expanding his skills while cementing his love for driving. “I enjoyed driving the truck, being by myself and moving around,” he says.

Keen to do more than shift shingle, Peter applied for a Goods licence, which was a real battle in those days.

“You had to prove that you weren’t taking work off other carriers and that there was a need for my services. But I luckily got one through a transfer and I started carting a lot of red metal for farmers around the district.”

From there his business expanded, including carting peas from the paddock to the factory and carrying dirt for the local council. Then he set his sights further afield.

“I always had a vision of doing the long-distance stuff, rather than just carting dirt from one side of the hill to the other. So, I reached out to an outfit called Reed’s Transport that operated stock trucks down in the Hawkes Bay.”

He says that Reed’s were doing long-distance work very early in the deregulation days and he began to do a fair bit of driving with them, carting stock pretty much all over the North Island, and thoroughly enjoying it.

“It was a good challenge. One of the trucks I enjoyed driving the most was the twin-stick F1800 International, 5-speed main/4-speed ancillary. A real challenge to begin with but once you’d mastered it, it was a beautiful thing to drive.”

From there Peter bought a truck of his own, a 310 MW ERF and started getting work through Nationwide Transport as their only owner/operator, plus doing a bit of work for himself. He says Nationwide’s Alan Powell looked after him pretty well.

Entering what he calls “the golden age of farming” Peter bought a brand new 1977 Kenworth and a 3-axle tip trailer, (a drop side unit), in order to move posts and fertiliser. He also purchased a stock crate and trailer off Maxi Transport so he could cart stock as well.

“I really enjoyed the job there because I always had something to do, different jobs and different places. They had a bulk amount of Fuso’s that were having reliability issues, but my Kenworth never stopped, so I did very well out of Nationwide.”

Unfortunately, about 18-months later “it went pear shaped” so Peter moved to Total Transport for a while, which he says was “very challenging”.

“It was horrendous hours. We didn’t stop much - it was either stock or some other blasted thing.”

Peter reckons that he got a little bit turned around after Total Transport and was going to throw the business in, but thankfully one of his mates wanted him to drive his old White Road Boss.

“He was contracted to Produce Freighters in Hastings. He paid me a good wage, but it wasn’t too long after that the bosses came and asked if I’d be interested in becoming an owner driver there. I said yes.”

According to Peter, it was long hours, but he’d been hardened into that. He bought himself a second hand V8 Mack but wanted to get back into a Kenworth, so worked hard and built up enough money.

“In those days the margins were good, if you wanted to work.”

He wanted a Kenworth Aerodyne and recalls that initially the bosses were against it. “It was a bit too flash,” they told him.

However, Peter was adamant.

“A few weeks later the manager of Napier pulled me in and said; `we’ve thought about it and you’re gonna buy it anyway and you’ll go and work for someone else. We don’t want to lose you so you can buy that truck’. I said thank you very much.”

He went ahead and ordered an ‘86 Kenworth, it was the first twin steer Aerodyne in NZ.

“I absolutely loved that truck - it was built for the job. It had a proper sleeper and everything in it.”

Peter stayed at Produce Freighters right to the end, when Mainfreight took it over, and then in `97 he moved to Gisborne and started working for Steve Weatherell at Weatherell Transport. His life was now heading in a whole new direction - quite literally.

“Steve said `I’ll tell you something now Peter, I’m not going to send you south (I’d always done Gisborne-south) because you know too many people and you won’t come back’.

“He stuck to his bloody word, and I’ve done 90 per cent to Auckland over the years I’ve been there.”

Peter has been with Weatherell Transport for almost 25 years, and he couldn’t be happier. He’s had numerous trucks with them over the years and has also introduced both of his sons to the business (however his eldest son now drives road trains in Australia).

“My youngest son Billy is an absolute asset to me, and my plan is to give him more and more rope and get him started in the business.”

He credits both of his boys moving into the industry to them riding in the truck with him as kids.

“They would ride along and come to the yard with me. They’d look at things and learn and even do a bit of driving when they shouldn’t. I’m proud to say that both of them are very good operators.”

Peter adds that both sons are mechanically minded too, another thing they get from being around him. He reckons that he’s always been more interested in the grease gun than the polishing rag, saying that if something does go wrong and the truck goes in for repair, he always asks the foreman; “what went wrong and how did you fix it?”

“In the olden days, when I got back to Gisborne on a Friday evening, I’d do a service before I went to sleep. I’ve always tried to keep maintenance a priority.”

With 50 years under his belt, Peter says that he’s seen a tremendous amount of change with all aspects of the industry, but still gets a kick out of it.

“I was never designed to work in a factory or an office, I always like being outside working. You meet a lot of new people, and the biggest percentage are damn good.

“Every day is different in some shape or fashion. I like the variety and the challenges it brings along. It’s been a good journey and I’ve had a few rises and falls but managed to get out of it.

Peter has no plans to throw in the towel just yet but has cut down a bit - although it would appear that this has got more to do with helping out his son.

“I still do a run to Auckland every week and that gives my son Billy time to spend with his family, to give balance. I think that’s important and it’s something we never did.”

He says that although they go to Auckland and back three times a week, he reckons that there is always something different.

“At the moment there are additional potholes that we’ve got to watch out for,” he jokes. T&D