Truckies & Deliveries

Reprinted with permission from ACP Media. Deals on Wheels

Next time you sit down for an icy cool brew at your local watering hole, spare a thought for the truely dedicated Southern men who delivered it.

“This is a specialised job, so it’s essential we have a good understanding of the product to ensure it’s delivered in optimum condition,” says Boyce.

They run a fleet of three refrigerated Scania tractor units including a 470 6x4, a 420 and a 450, which is one of the old V8s. They each tow a mixture of refrigerated B trains and tanker semis. For harder to reach places, they also run rigid tanker units, holding up to 20,000 litres.

Tankers New Zealand covers the entire South Island and go as far north as Wellington. They cart out of four Lion Breweries, which include Shed 22 in Wellington, Macs Brewery in Nelson, Canterbury Brewery in Christchurch and Speights Brewery in Dunedin. Boyce has one driver based in Dunedin and the other two based in Christchurch with him.

“I spend about six months of the year driving and six months of the year in the office. The other three guys are constantly on the road and usually do 50-60 hours a week.”

Boyce has been keen on trucking since he was a boy. So keen in fact, he had a truck before he had his licence. And he had his licence before anyone else his age.

“When I was 15, I had my own truck and needed to earn a living from it, so I applied for a licence earlier than the legal age of 18. As a result, I received a special dispensation from the Ministry of Transport.”

Once the eager teenager had his licence, he began hauling freight for the family firm. The firm was E.H. Boyce and Co, a Christchurch transport company founded by his grandfather in the 1930s. At its peak, the company had a fleet of around 60 vehicles.

When the family business sold, Boyce continued as an owner driver until he moved to Lion Breweries in 1988.

Boyce’s interests in the transport industry don’t end there. In 1988, Boyce became the founding president of the Canterbury Owner Driver Association (CODA), which later changed its name to Combined Owner Driver Association SI to reflect its growing number of members over the whole of the South Island.

“I was originally on the executive of the Christchurch Road Transport Association from which CODA was formed. The two associations shared the same secretarial services for a number of years before parting ways.
Boyce says the key driving force behind the establishment of CODA was to protect the interests of owner drivers.

“At the time, the government was trying to push owner drivers into compulsory unionism. But as individual businessmen, the last thing we wanted was to be part of a trade union as well as run a business – the two don’t really go together.”

Boyce says another key motivation for bringing the Association together, was to establish a means of collective bargaining and collective buying power. The Association was able to negotiate discounts on behalf of its members and get similar buying prices to those of the big fleet operators.

“In the past, if you were an owner driver for a big company, they would get a discount from the fuel company, on-sell it to the owner drivers while creaming the margin for themselves. But by doing what we did, we were able to cut out the middle man. We didn’t make too many friends at the time, but certainly helped our owner drivers.

Boyce says there are currently around 700 members of the Association and they have a very active executive.

“The Association does a lot of good for a lot of people. The two executive officers, Rod Auton and Dave Bennett work really hard on behalf of the members. They are always involved in a range of issues and will intervene in order to help its members.”

Boyce says the issue the Association is facing at present is seat belts and whether they should be compulsory. He says there is a lot of opposition to the seat belt law, mainly from the drivers who don’t have belts fitted.

“There are differing opinions on this issue, but I personally wouldn’t go anywhere without one. I’ve seen a number of crashes where the driver wouldn’t have survived without one.”

Boyce has been married now for 21 years and has three children – two boys aged, 18 and 15, and a daughter aged nine. He’s loves to spend quality time with his family and says they’re right into their outdoor activities including tramping, camping and off-road motorbikes.

“Between working and spending time with my family,” Boyce says, “that doesn’t leave a lot of time for anything else.”

By Rachel Pratt

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