Habits of Being

Lynette Gray’s plan when she left school was to study wedding dress design and work in a bridal and fabric shop. However, that didn’t last very long.

She took a very different career path and instead worked in the office at Simon National Carriers for three years.

“I came off the land and my family always had trucks, so I’ve been around them all my life,” Lynette says.

“The grain farm morphed into grain and cattle cartage using roadtrains and I can still recall going in the truck with Dad to the grain dump as a young girl.”

Those three years at Simon National Carriers were the beginning of Lynette’s passion for the transport industry.

In 1997 she and her then-husband started their own transport business Kwik ‘n’ Kool Refrigerated Couriers.

“I was six months pregnant with our third baby,” Lynette recalls.

“It sounds insane now, but you did what you had to do. It was just the two of us at first and the baby was born on a Friday, by the following Tuesday I was back in the vehicle.”

Over the next 18 years the business grew, expanding to five refrigerated vehicles operating from Toowoomba and servicing southeast Queensland, Brisbane and as far as Byron Bay, Bundaberg, Charleville and Quilpie.

Eventually, the business was sold and Lynette felt ready for a change which led her to coach driving where she experienced something of an epiphany.

“When you drive around the streets, how many times do you actually notice the bus driver? You see the bus, but you never really look at the driver,” Lynette says.

“When I was driving a coach, I would always wave at every truck driver who went past. My theory was, if I wave, I might help alter their concentration and keep them awake.”

After the relentless demands of the refrigerated transport business, coach driving gave Lynette the opportunity to step back, regroup, and determine her next direction.

This involved further study and training to be a heavy vehicle driver trainer.

“I wanted to stay in transport in some way because when you’re on the road, you see many things that shouldn’t happen,” she says.

“You ask yourself ‘what can I do to improve this?’”

Coach driving shares many similarities with truck driving including pre-start checks, schedules, timetables and the added responsibility of passengers.

Like truck drivers, coach drivers handle loading and unloading except, instead of freight, it’s luggage by hand.

They also clean the vehicles regularly and undergo inspections by NHVR safety compliance officers, ensuring both driver and passenger safety at all times.

By 2014 Lynette felt compelled to raise awareness of the presence of women in Australia’s blue-collar industries. The result was her first book, a collection of stories about inspirational Australian women who had broken through barriers in male-dominated fields.

“I was at a Queensland Trucking Association breakfast and decided we needed to do something about raising the percentage of women driving in the transport industry. That’s what led me to write Women in Workboots, which highlights women in male-dominated industries, whether they’re plumbers, carpenters or other tradespeople,” recalls Lynette.

“I wanted to encourage school-leaving girls to know they could pursue hands-on careers rather than being pushed into roles like hairdressing or reception work because they weren’t going to university.”

She adds, “I wanted to let them know they had options and support.”

Lynette recognises the financial challenges faced by many small, family-owned, single operator transport businesses.

The support needed for truck drivers led to her next book Your Roadmap to Profit, aimed primarily at the various people who support truck drivers.

“Initially, I thought I’d do something for owner-drivers from a business perspective,” she says.

“I looked to my brother who has been a truck driver all his life and thought: ‘If Paul finds this valuable, then it’s worth doing’. Wives, partners, business owners, suppliers and supporters all need to know what the drivers are going through and need to understand what drivers go through. That’s who this book is for.”

In early 2025, Lynette stepped away from coach driving, and along with another experienced coach driver, Shane Adamson, founded a consultancy business.

Shane, who has extensive experience in caravan park management, sales and marketing, and various media brings a diverse skill set to their venture.

Together, they now provide support to those operating within the transport industry, drawing from their combined knowledge and hands-on experience.

“I didn’t go through all the pain and tribulations of 19 years in business just to keep that knowledge to myself. If someone else can benefit from my experiences, then I want to share it,” she says.

“Being in business can be the loneliest place in the world. There are certain things you just can’t talk about with your family. They may try to understand, but sometimes they simply don’t. There can even be a sense of shame: you worry about what they’ll think. And you can’t share everything with your employees, except maybe your accountant and solicitor. Sometimes you just need someone to confide in, someone to talk to, or even a round table discussion. Most people have the answers within them, they just need confirmation they are making the right decisions.”

Lynette is an active member of a number of industry associations including Transport Women Australia Limited (TWAL) and values the support such groups can provide.

“They know who to refer you to for a chat,” she says.

Lynette is greatly encouraged by what she sees happening in the transport industry at the minute, with what she views as being emerging opportunities for inclusivity.

She offers some pragmatic advice: “Don’t let what you find hard control your mind,” she says.

“Confront what you fear head-on and turn those struggles into the building blocks of the future.”