Top: Kenworth K124 with 350hp engine was an ex-Shell unit. Here on the TNT work with its awkward B-train trailer format
Above: Back in the days of hauling potatoes to Auckland. Beside the Mack is Ray’s first-ever Kenworth, a W924, alongside a Leyland Crusader and an ERF
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ANAWATU TRANSPORT OPERATOR RAY REID RECKONS it’s a simple business: “You say you’re going to do something…and you do it.” Reid should know: He’s something of a past master at this business – now into his second or third incarnation of running his own successful trucking operations. There is a rider to his summary of what’s required: “You’ve gotta stay in touch with people. If you’re gonna be late, you’ve got to ring them – you don’t make them ring you. And if you can’t do it (a job), ring them and let them know.” Of course, when he first started driving, in 1969, that was almost impossible: “Well, in the old days…you left in the morning, you had your job to do and you did it. Your day was set out and you just went out and did it.” The arrival of “brick” cellphones in New Zealand in the late 1980s was a Godsend for Ray – by then running an 18-truck linehaul fleet: Simply by toting a briefcase – the phone, he laughs, “took up half of it!” – he could run the business from whatever truck or company ute he happened to be driving at the time. Now, of course, it’s even easier to do things Ray’s way – keeping the customers satisfied (and informed): He constantly wears a headset for his smartphone so he can stay in touch in a truck, his ute, the workshop or around the Reid’s Transport yard – at Rangiotu, about 23 kilometres west of Palmerston North. Or wherever.
And in the office, wife Fiona can see exactly and instantly where trucks are, courtesy of the Precision Tracking GPS system the fleet runs. The do-what-you-say-you’re-gonna-do credo has been one constant through Ray’s 49-year career in trucking. Here’s another – one that’s been a vital part of Reid’s Transport for maybe 40 of those years: Kenworths. Even though Reid’s has never been a huge operation – around 18 trucks tops, at any one time – Ray’s owned so many Kenworths he simply can’t remember exactly how many….just that it’d probably be at least 70. He’s loved the North American classics since he was a young bloke and the Kenworths in the movie Smokey & The Bandit and tv shows Movin’ On and B.J. & The Bear caught his eye…and his imagination. Funnily enough, what got him wasn’t the whole truck – just the dashboard!: That, he confirms, is “what probably made me always be a Kenworth person….I was always so impressed with the dashboard. And that’s what I was gonna have.” His love of trucks in general though had started much, much earlier – as far back as he can remember, in fact….since he was born just four years after his Dad (Ken) and Grandad (Jack) started Reid’s Transport, in 1949. He grew up living right beside the company yard – still the company’s base today. Truck & Driver | 53