Day in the life of a truck driver - Stock Journal - March 29, 2024 - video Dailymotion

Day in the life as a truck driver.

Transcript

00:00 This month's day in the life is focused on livestock carting. Wood Trans owner

00:05 Sean Wood met with Stock Journal on his voyage to collect sheep for a Loxton

00:10 feedlot. Mr. Wood has been driving trucks for 13 years and said navigating the

00:16 roads with caravans and other road users can be the toughest part of the job but

00:21 the best bit was the freedom that it offered and the many mates that he had

00:25 made at various stops. He said his weeks often began at 5 a.m. on Monday mornings

00:31 heading off before his children wake up and returning Friday evening or Saturday

00:36 mornings but not all jobs in the trucking industry had the same hours.

00:41 Mr. Wood owns his truck and tows the Westbrook feedlot trailers as majority

00:47 of his work was for the feedlot where he would do frequent runs to collect sheep

00:51 to bring them to the feedlot or otherwise be taking the sheep from the

00:55 feedlot to the abattoirs. He said he tries to avoid roadhouse stops in his

01:00 journeys as some people get funny with livestock transport and stock rattling

01:04 in crates. His rest breaks are usually planned for a parking bay or just outside

01:10 of towns. Mr. Wood carries two working dogs on route Kenny and Bandy to help

01:16 load and unload the stock at each point but claims one works and one doesn't.

01:21 Kenny a one-and-a-half-year-old Kelpie was sent for training for a few months

01:26 but Mr. Wood said he's still learning. Bandy though the seven-and-a-half-year-old

01:31 was already working when he was purchased and knows what to do. Mr. Wood

01:35 said they have a large wash bay at the feedlot where they empty effluent tanks

01:41 and hose out the mesh crates. He said they would only need to do it mid-route

01:45 if he unloaded near border town and then was heading west to Nundroo. He said the

01:50 Livestock Transporters Association of SA was good value providing updates on road

01:55 detours, wash bays and all of the regulations which change.

02:01 Hey I'm Sean from Wood Trans, we're from Murray Bridge. This is a 104B Aerodyne

02:11 we tow stock traits out of Loxton. We do a fair bit out of Nundroo back to

02:17 Loxton and into the eastern states. Yeah when I was a young fella I always

02:23 wanted to drive trucks and yeah dad drove trucks and yeah sort of just running

02:28 the family. 13 years now driving these things, well not this big but yeah a

02:36 couple years ago got the chance to buy our own so that's what we've done and

02:41 yeah just keep doing what we've done for the last few years and see how we go. I've just

02:47 been on the road, the freedom, catching up with your mates on the road and

02:53 having a good time. You know it's just a different world out here when you're

02:59 out here driving trucks and there'd be better places there wasn't as many

03:03 there's much traffic on the road and yeah anyway we'll just do what we gotta do.

03:08 It's not cheap being a truck driver with Mr. Woods tanks only holding a thousand

03:13 litres of diesel he fills up every day and a half on the road which costs about

03:18 $1,400. Off he goes to Nundroo to collect sheep.

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