Soldiering On

With not one but three members inducted into the Road Transport Hall of Fame, Burkinshaws Transport is all the more remarkable for it being a relatively small regional business based in Wagga Wagga.

That was not always the case, however. At one stage the family business had over 30 trucks in the fleet, primarily servicing wool and livestock accounts and operated from Lockhart, a 40-minute drive southwest, of where the business is currently headquartered.

Well into its fourth generation, the company specialises in linehaul semis running general freight from the Riverina district into Melbourne and Sydney on Kenworth T909s that are near impossible to miss on the road. The trucks are usually presented in impeccable condition.

The company dates all the way back to the war years. Ian’s father Raymond George Burkinshaw or ‘RG’ for short, founded the business in 1942.

He was just 15 when he purchased his first truck — a second-hand 1937 Ford with a tray body that he eventually handmade into a wooden semi-trailer with capacity for 28 bales of wool. He grew up on a farm at Bidgeemia.

Nearest major town: Jerilderie 75 kilometres due east.

“It’s not really a village,” says Ian. “There’s a couple of silos and a hall out there.”

Most of the first decade was spent carting wool into Albury. By the 1950s ‘RG’ had ventured into long haul running regularly to Melbourne and Sydney.

The fleet featured Diamond Reos and sundry International units certainly the AR160, R180, R190 models. A move to a bigger property at Lockhart escalated the size of the fleet considerably on the back of moving livestock from saleyards to farms and city abattoirs.

Then tragedy struck.

Ian’s mother Rita May died at the young age of 42. ‘RG’ began downsizing.

“When my mother died it knocked him around a bit and he scaled back giving away the stock part of the business and went back to running three or four general freight trucks,” recalls Ian.

“He was big into livestock for a time.”

For his part, Ian has been with the company that bears his name since he was 14. His father had a gentleman called Jim Johnstone who helped run the show until Ian eventually stepped in.

“Because I was only a young fella they didn’t take much notice of me,” he recalls. He worked in the yard as an apprentice until age 18. Then he went driving for the next decade.

An International R180 was the “little truck” he got familiar with before he stepped into a rigid C1840 with a Cummins engine.

He carted wool down to Melbourne and groceries back in that truck. Later on, he took possession of a 1973 G88 Volvo which was pride of place in the yard. He drove that for four years before getting into an F12 Volvo which saw him out as a driver.

That was in 1985. Working on a long-distance network without UHF radios let alone mobile phones was a challenge in the early days, primarily, when it came to chasing down drivers to find out where they were and what they were doing or to catchup with them to get them to do something else.

During that time Burkinshaws Transport had major accounts with Bunge Australia, a business that operated out of the historic Narrandera Flour Mill, which was built in 1900; and also Carlton United Breweries who it transported for mainly into Queanbeyan.

Otherwise, they were a versatile general freight operation that did anything and everything when it came up. They also moved International Harvesters and Ford tractors into Lockhart and bagged fertiliser around the Riverina.

For a time, ‘RG’ who passed in 2002, was loyal to International trucks before eventually upgrading to Volvos.

“The Volvos had little sleeper cabs on them where in the old Internationals you had to sleep on the seat.,” says Ian.

“The Volvos represented a big change in the industry, and they are very comfortable. I like Volvos myself, but Kenworth is popular with the drivers here and my other son sells them which is a bit of a problem as he likes to push the issue.”

Ian’s eldest son Aaron works for Twin City Trucks in Wodonga.

These days Ian and wife Debbie Burkinshaw have taken a backseat in the business which is currently managed by his youngest son Brendan and wife Melanie.

Ian’s nephew Shane Burkinshaw and grandson Josh both work in the business and represent the fourth generation of the family. Shane drives a Kenworth T900 Legend.

There are four Kenworth T909s powered by a Cummins X15 in the fleet which includes a recent Kenworth T659 and two K200s and two T610SAR prime movers.

Other than the Aerodyne K200 all Kenworth tri-axle prime movers feature an 18-speed Eaton Road Ranger gearbox and Meritor 46-160 differentials.

There’s also a 2017 450hp Volvo running around the yard and on strictly local jobs in Wagga.

The linehaul trucks cover around 3,000 kilometres a week. Burkinshaws Transport employs ten full time drivers.

They have two main lanes they service daily: Wagga to Melbourne and Wagga to Sydney. Being conveniently situated at a central point between the two biggest cities in Australia has its benefits.

They don’t provide an overnight service. “We don’t push the issue,” says Ian.

“They’ll come home unload and reload here in Wagga and head off in the other direction the next day.”

In an era where multi-combination units proliferate, especially in interstate road freight, Burkinshaws Transport bucks the trend. The fleet specialises in single trailers. Ian is a firm believer that a better class of driver is attracted to a semi fleet.

“They seem to like driving singles better,” he says. “Money-wise you can make a case for us to be running B-doubles which we’ve had in the past, but I find you get better drivers with the singles, and they stay with you longer.

Most of the boys here have been with us for ten or 15 years.”

Because the fleet co-ordinates freight that is mixed and often variable, there is very little straight loading. Having drivers running around the city in order to split up trailers became an inconvenience. Not having had to rotate the staff in its driver pool frequently is now a point of pride.

“You’ve got to handpick your drivers if you can,” adds Ian. “All the boys look after their own trucks’, and it shows.”

The depot houses a company workshop with one contract diesel mechanic on payroll who does most of repairs inhouse. Nowadays Krueger is the main trailer supplier. The business for many years had been loyal to McGrath Trailers in Brunswick.

“Dad had a really good relationship with McGraths and had probably 30 of their trailers mostly with livestock crates on them,” Ian says.

“The last trailer we bought from McGrath before it closed down was $17,000 brand new. It was a three-axle trailer. They’re a bit different in price today. I was only a young fella when dad was going down to Melbourne to pick them up. But he used to swear by them.”

Ray Burkinshaw was inducted into the Road Transport Hall of Fame in 2011. Ian, alongside elder brother Rod, followed suit in 2024.

After many years in Lockhart, the business moved to Wagga 22 years ago. It turned out to be advantageous long-term as the town continues to thrive as a regional centre.

“There’s a lot more work here which has helped us grow the business over time,” says Ian.

After decades on the road the company continues to move forward with reliability and pride. But its roots are never far away and they remain strong.