Dean Campbell’s late grandmother used to treasure a framed picture of a truck that her grandson drew when he was just five years old.
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On the side of the rig, he had written ‘DA Campbell Transport’ — the name of the company he would go on to set up years later.
“Even at five years old, I knew I was going to start my own business,” he laughs. “I was always pretty determined.”
Dean started out as a one-man-show with a single International Transtar, but is now the proud owner of 27 trucks and 50 trailers.
Based in Bathurst, New South Wales, the fleet moves goods throughout most of Australia, concentrating on general freight.
A logging division of the business has also recently been launched.
“We have six B-doubles and a loader doing logging runs from Bathurst every day,” he says. “That’s brand new, we just started in this financial year.”
With a family background in transport, Dean’s destiny might have already been sealed — but he was determined to make it on his own.
“My father and my grandfather were both owner-drivers — my father still has one truck,” he says.
“But I never took over anything. People might think I started with a lot, but I started with nothing.
“I was living in my nan’s garage when I bought my first new truck!”
Dean admits getting his business off the ground wasn’t easy, but failure was never an option.
“A lot of the time I was being told, even by my parents, to calm down — that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
“The decisions I made, people thought I was getting myself in the deep end and trying to do too much.
“It’s a seriously challenging industry, and there have been massive lows as well as massive highs.
“But I guess I knew that this was what I wanted to do, and that I wasn’t going to let it beat me.”
Having three young children at home now has added more complications to the mix, but Dean says you have to make sacrifices to get ahead. “There have been a lot of late nights and a lot of working day after day in a row.
“Sure, I want to be home, but if I’ve got to go out in the truck on Saturday night, Sunday, whenever, that doesn’t bother me.
“I grew up around my dad, he did interstate and he went whichever day he had to go.
“There’s a job that has to be done and people relying on you.”
DA Campbell Transport has built up a reputation for its reliable services — but that’s not the only reason the company name might be familiar to you.
Dean’s unique trucks have attracted a cult following, with rigs like ‘Boogie Nights’ and ‘Believe and Succeed’ well known amongst trucking afficionados.
The famous fleet can often be spotted at truck shows — and Campbell’s have merch to boot!
Fans can get themselves a t-shirt, stubby holder, or even footy shorts featuring their favourite truck. Dean explains that the idea snowballed after they initially made t-shirts just for staff.
“Everyone wanted one, so we decided to start selling them,” he says.
“My mum took it on and she travels around to different shows with the merch, as a bit of a hobby.”
We asked Dean to tell us about some of his most popular trucks and the story behind them.
Boogie Nights
‘Boogie Nights’ is probably Dean’s most famous truck — with red, orange and yellow striping on black paintwork giving 70s disco vibes.
But the 2018 Kenworth T900 also brings back some sad memories, as at one stage it was a toss-up whether it was going to go to Dean or his late friend Dane Ballinger.
Dane, who ran a successful transport company out of Bathurst, sadly died in a road collision in 2019.
“Klos Custom Trucks were building Boogie Nights, and I used to debate who would get it,” says Dean.
“Unfortunately, Dane passed away. So the Klos brothers said ‘Well the truck is yours now, but we’ll have to do something special for your friend.’
“It’s now got his name on the back wall of the truck, with a picture of him painted on the inside of the sun visor.
“It’s bittersweet. Dane was one of those guys who made a massive impression on everyone he met, and we all really miss him.”
Believe and Succeed
‘Believe and Succeed’ was the second truck Dean ever bought, and his first brand-new truck.
He got it when he was just 21 years old, and still has it to this day — with about three million kilometres on the clock.
“When I was 21, my late grandmother and I were sitting at the table one night and she named that truck,” he says.
“It just stuck, and I put it on the back wall of the truck.
“It’s one of only three trucks I’ve owned that I drive myself, and I’ve had one or two drivers in it.
“It’s still running around doing the same thing it was when I got it!’
To this day, ‘Believe and Succeed’ is a motto that Dean lives by.
“One of the things that my dad always said to me was, you’ve got to be consistent.
“It’s all about consistency and routine and repetition.
“It might seem like you’re going nowhere for a while, but as the years go by, the rewards start coming in.”
Anzac trailers
It’s not just the trucks in Dean’s fleet that are special — he also has some trailers that bear a special tribute to Anzac Day, in honour of his grandfather.
“I didn’t actually know my grandfather personally, because he died when my mum was only nine, but that’s how the Anzac trailers came about,” he says.
“I used to march with his medals on Anzac Day and the idea developed from that.”
Initially, Dean was going to put a picture of his grandfather on a horse on one of his trailers, but in the end he went in a slightly different direction.
“We got a heap of photos and ideas together and designed something,” he says.
“We still have a soldier on a horse but it’s just a picture that we found, not specifically my grandfather.”
Dean says the trailers are often parked on display in Bathurst on Anzac Day, and get a huge response.
“I honestly get phone calls and emails every week from people who can’t believe what they’ve seen.
“A lot of ex-servicemen, or women who send emails about their father and how he would have loved the trailers.”
Rig resto
Dean is in the process of carrying out a full restoration on a 1998 Kenworth T950.
“I chose that truck because you can’t buy the T950 anymore and I wanted something from that era.
“It’s obviously older and it’s a big job so it will probably take a couple of years.
“We’ve got a mechanic in the workshop and we’ve just started to build for it.
“We’ve got the cabin pulled apart and we’re ready to do repairs — it’ll start coming together at some point soon!”
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