Funny story behind the names of High Volume Haulage’s rigs

Awards stacked up for High Volume Haulage as their big blue wheels took home three trophies at the Brisbane Convoy for Kids — Best UD, Best Small Fleet 3-10 Trucks and second place in the Best Tipper category.

As an ex-Kiwi, owner of the business Shane Grimwood says he was originally inspired by a fleet of Macks he saw in his hometown of Wellington, New Zealand, belonging to Clive Taylor Haulage.

“He had deep blue trucks, with a yellowy fade on them,” he says.

“I worked in the heavy truck tyre industry for many years, and Clive Taylor’s fleet was one of the fleets I looked after.

“He became a good mate of mine, eventually teaching me how to drive Mack trucks on the Mack gear box.

“I used to go up there on a Sunday to do tyres and one day he just said to me, ‘Jump in that truck and drive it.’ I didn’t know how to drive one of those, but he said I’d be right.

“So, he ran through it with me, and that was the first time I drove a Mack on the old Mack gear box.”

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It was this encounter that catapulted Shane into the world of trucks, and he moved to Australia to create his blue fleet at High Volume Haulage.

A badge is worn at the nose of each truck, displaying names like ‘Hound Dog’, ‘Blue Bird’, ‘Highway Hound’, ‘Hot Dog’, ‘Lil Dog’ and ‘The Kid’.

The ‘Lil Dog’ Mack is hard to keep your eyes off! Image: Shane Grimwood

Shane says this is a common practice in New Zealand and shares a funny story of where one particular name came from.

“Jayden is my transport supervisor and driver, he’s been with me for eight years and he looks like a kid,” Shane laughs.

“The truck was named ‘The Kid’ after him because he’s a little guy, so when he’s driving along people ask if I have an automated truck because they can’t see a driver in there.

“He’s a little fella but he’s a great driver, very loyal employee, always got a smile on his face and I’d be stuffed without him.”

Shane has massive appreciation for his workers and recognises the hard work they put in to look after and polish them up to be the award winning rigs that they are today.

“My drivers treat every work day as show day,” he says.

“They’re working trucks, so they get knocked around a bit, but the guys take pride in what they do and it’s always great to be recognised for our work, because they’re not cheap machines.”

The trucks don’t just turn heads during the day, but at night too. With their newly-installed glow-in-the-dark bonnet deflectors, the fleet never fails to light up the open roads.

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