Good fishin’ in Tassie

De Bruyn’s Transport drivers Rodney Vos and John Astell scored a couple of new Volvos to haul their fishy freight in Tasmania.

 

The distinctive red and green colour scheme of De Bruyn’s Transport is a regular sight along Tasmania’s highways.

With more than 100 trucks in its fleet, De Bruyn’s handle a variety of facets of road transport in the apple isle.

The company prides itself on promoting a safe and healthy work environment. At last year’s Castrol Vecton Awards dinner in Melbourne, its transport maintenance manager Damien Allison was announced as the 2015 winner of the Craig Roseneder Award for Technical and Maintenance Excellence in the workshop.

So it’s no surprise that De Bruyn’s drivers are in it for the long haul.

Rodney Vos has been with De Bruyn’s for 25 years. When he started with the company, he was driving a 380hp DAF pulling a tri-axle trailer. That was 1991.

Nowadays, he’s behind the wheel of a 600hp Volvo FH16, while John’s steed is a 540hp Euro 5 Volvo. Both prime movers have 12-speed auto ’boxes and are 18 months old, the first of a new batch of Volvos to join the now mainly Mack and Volvo fleet.

John Astell has tallied eight years with De Bruyn’s, which he says places him in the ‘apprentice’ class when compared to Rodney.

“I’m the new kid on the block,” he laughs. “De Bruyn’s have been
around for a long time and they look after their employees. Look what we are driving! You can’t complain.”

Rodney gladly echoes his fellow driver’s comments.

“It’s a good company to work for, a family owned company. The pay is there every week and they buy me a new truck all the time, so it’s all good,” Rodney smiles.

 

 

 

Photography: Peter Schlenk

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