FEATURE
Story and photos: Wayne Munro
At just 66, Spud Bonner has clocked-up 50 years with the same company...while it’s gone through four different sets of owners (himself included)
Spud: Strictly no BS TARANAKI TRUCKIE PETER (SPUD) BONNER’S CAREER BEHIND the wheel is remarkable. You might even say it borders on the incredible. He has, after all, driven fulltime for over 50 years….for the same trucking operation, in the same tiny township (Toko) where he grew up. Not only that: Before he started at Aitken Brothers (now Aitken Transport), at 16, he’d already put in four or five years with the company, working after school and on weekends! Amazing alright – but just don’t expect him to talk about it in those terms: Getting all excited and raving on about all that he’s seen and done as a truck driver is not the kind of bloke he is. He’s strictly no BS. And so, instead, the 66-year-old Spud says simply: “It’s been good.” Yeah but mate….seriously. It clearly IS pretty bloody outthere – staying in the same job, in the same town, for five decades! How come he’s been such a constant in Toko’s modest transport company – even while it’s had four different sets of
owners (him included). He reflects for a moment, then reckons: “Never thought about it really.” Then he does offer this: “Yeah well – didn’t really want to move on. “It’s a passion I ‘spose eh. You don’t give it up, do you.” The passion was sparked by a couple of things: “Always wanted to be a truck driver. Dad (Alan Bonner) always had bulldozers, trucks….” And the Bonner family home was, conveniently, straight across the road from the Aitken yard. Says Spud: “I remember in primary school deciding that driving trucks was what I wanted to do. I think working with livestock was an attraction too.” When Pete was a kid, given to hanging around the yard, Russell Aitken was running the company (which he’d started in 1952, with brother Errol), with Russell’s sons – Rod, Chum and Barry – doing the driving. Spud remembers “just goin’ in after school, jumpin’ in the trucks.” Truck & Driver | 83
