No job for the faint-hearted - roadtrain driver

By: Richard Middleton

Date: Wednesday, 15. July 2009

Few drivers in the world cover more kilometres than Australian roadtrain truckers. These huge vehicles and their drivers regularly complete epic trips across some the hottest, driest and loneliest parts of the country, covering nearly 4000 miles (6,400 km) in a week with loads that weigh up to 115 ton.

Shane Cordwell is one such man, a veteran of the trucking world here and someone who's seen much of what Australia's outback roads can throw at him. This is a place where drivers die from heat exposure and emergency services can only get to you via plane. It's no job for the faint-hearted.

I meet Shane in Toowoomba, a bustling transport hub in Queensland, eastern Australia and climb aboard the 500 BHP Mack Fleetliner which will be our home for the next six days. Ahead of us is a 4,100 mile journey, or say, Anchorage - Detroit, and as Shane clicks through the truck's 18 gears the immense vehicle moves off. Around 250 miles down the Warrego Highway, we pick up the third trailer making the entire rig measure 53.5 metres long.

It's a mental challenge

"'I've been driving for about 30 years now and roadtrains for about 20," Shane explains as we trundle out of town. "It's not physically tough, but it's hard in a mental sense. We face the same rules as your normal car driver, despite the fact I drive around 200,000km (125,000miles) per year -you need to give 110% to the job."

Passing through outback towns with their wide main streets and tin clad pubs, the scrub bordering the two-way road becomes drier and signs of life sparser. Safety is the main concern to long distance truckers in Australia, and the length of the vehicles, isolation and a lack of services mean working out when to stop is essential.

"The trick is to have a sleep before you get really tired," he says. "You need a bit of maturity when you drive road trains and you're out there in the middle of the Barkly (a large, uninhabited expanse of grazing land). If you have three trailers worth of prawns, you're sat there pulling over US$1.5m worth of gear on the road. No boss is going to give that to someone they don't trust."

After a night in the cab, we're greeted by a stunning outback sunrise. Shane gets the wheels rolling until a warning on the two-way radio comes in from a fellow trucker. Several ranchers on horseback and well over 100 head of cattle are strolling across the highway ahead, and Shane has to quickly slow the 105-ton vehicle to a stop.

No sudden reactions

"You have to try not to react suddenly, or you're going to have problems. You just have to slow right down and wait, then try to get through as best you can. The most important thing is not to swerve quickly, or that third trailer will just kick out, usually onto the other side of the road or the dust, and can tip over," he says.

Although Shane stops for cows, avoiding kangaroos can sometimes prove impossible, usually getting swiped out of the truck's path by the truck's huge bull bar. But there are times when this Aussie symbol causes real problems. "I was going along once and caught the thing mid-bounce - it just blew up in mid flight, caused a lot of mess to my windscreen too," Shane says.

With the cattle cleared and Shane back up to cruising speed, we make good ground, hitting the Landsborough Highway and passing tiny settlements such as Tambo and Blackall, where a popular roadhouse offers a feed and a spot to pull over for a sleep in the rig's two air conditioned bunks.

"I've known some of the people who've worked in these roadhouses for years,' Shane explains. 'Before the bridge was built at Camooweal, hard rains would make the road flood and sometimes we'd be stuck for days. There was a phone by the side of the river, so if you were on the wrong side you could give the roadhouse a ring and they'd row across to fetch us, so we could get a feed or a beer at the pub. Then they'd take you back once the waters had lowered so we could get on."

A few hours and several hundred kilometres later, Mount Isa appears, an industrial mining hub and where Shane fills the truck's four 500 litre fuel tanks. After a diesel top-up and a quick breakfast, we're back on the road.

Heading north, we pass a truck parked up on the verge. Shane gets on the radio to see what's wrong. Breakdowns out here wreck schedules and add serious expense, so most rigs carry kits for essential repairs and truckers help one another out when they can. 'I carry a few spares, tools, an alternator, a fuel pump, quite a few different hoses and clamps,' Shane says. 'Where I can, I'll fix it up myself, but if it's electronic, I have to call people out."

After covering the endless kilometres across the plains of the Barkly Tablelands, we pull right towards Darwin, just over 600 miles away. Light rain begins to fall, and as the scrub turns from sun drenched orange dust to green vegetation, we finally reach Katherine and make the first drop just before sunrise, ready for the town's morning market.

Several hours later, and three days after leaving Toowoomba, we roll into Darwin within ten minutes of Shane's expected arrival time. His load delivered, trailers unhooked and the mighty Mack taking a rest, Shane tells me what it is that brings him back to the road again and again.

"You can drive the same route but it always looks different. It can be dry as a bone, then next time it might have rained and the grass will be all shimmering, and the colours will have changed completely. Sunsets and sunrises out here are pretty good too, and then you get the thunderstorms coming in to Darwin which can be amazing, forks of lightning all over the place and the rains just come down in sheets. The trips are just never the same."

Further comments to this article have been disabled.

---

All Comments (16)

Showing 1 - 16 comments

TATENDA MATOMBO,

pete denham /zipper,

bohemian,

Evan Flood,

Flowergirl,

Tyler Cordwell,

Drivers staff,

Dan In USA,

mayorly gree,

Trevor cordwell,

Alekz,

mr.jakebreak,

David,

Aakif,

ravinder,

paramjeet singh,

---