Owner Driver – August 2019

ownerdriver.com.au AUGUST 2019 49

Above: Barup Bullbars added a nice

finish

Left: It’s Kenworth all the way for

McKittrick Bulk Haulage

Opposite top: Mick Hale (left) drives

the T909, Todd McKittrick (centre)

and K200 driver Darren Bradley

“There’s

only two

types of

trucks,

Kenworth

and the

rest.”

cry from the rigs that he has now, but it got him started.
Todd grew up like any trucking tragic, watching all the big
rigs and aspiring to get behind the wheel himself. He bought
the rigid UD when he left school, delivering grass around the
Queanbeyan area.
As he grew so did his goals. He left the local owner-driver
work to start running interstate as a company driver.
Working for Barry Cole Transport, Todd got his interstate
experience doing market runs between Griffith and Sydney.
A couple of years as a company driver and the owner-driver
bug bit him again. Todd purchased an LTS Louisville from
Barry and went out on his own.
Todd’s early trucking ventures strangely enough never
featured any of his now beloved Kenworths. When it
came time to replace the Louisville, it was actually an
International S-line that Todd turned to.
It wasn’t until a change of circumstance in 2010 that Todd
bought his first Kenworth. The interstate work was sold
up and Todd ventured into a new challenge: tipper work.
McKittrick Bulk Haulage was created and began with the
purchase of a T600 Kenworth with a three-axle dog.
Subcontracting to Canberra Sand and Gravel, there was
plenty of local work delivering from quarries to concrete
plants and landscape suppliers. All this ensured Todd was
kept very busy.

Colour scheme
The T600 served Todd well as he established relationships
within the bulk transport game. It didn’t take long for the
600 to get replaced, this time with a T404 SAR.
As the work grew so did the necessity for a bigger payload
and the T404 was sold.
A side note here: three and a half years after he sold
the 404, Todd bought it back when he needed to expand
his f leet. It now has 1.1 million kilometres on the clock
and counting.
The T404 was then demoted with the arrival of Todd’s
first T909, finished in a stunning red paint job. The new 909
again did the job for Todd and eventually it got to a point
where another truck needed to be added to the f leet to
cope with the workload. So it was back to Twin City Trucks
in Albury for another Kenworth because, as Todd puts it,
“There’s only two types of trucks, Kenworth and the rest.”
The purchase of Todd’s second T909 also saw the
introduction of the stunning new McKittrick’s colours.
“I saw a truck with the silver top and red bottom but
without the pin striping,” Todd recalls when questioned
about the idea behind the change.
Wayne Hoffman at Allstate Truck Repairs in Melbourne
took Todd’s favourite colour blue and came up with the
new eye-catching scheme. The ‘Maserati’ Blue mixed with the
silver and the outstanding mirror stainless supplied

by the team at RC Metalcraft resulted in an impressive

working truck.

Eight months after the new 909 hit the road McKittrick’s

workload saw the need for the purchase of another truck.

This time chasing a little extra payload, Todd looked at the

cab-over option and phoned Justin Brooks at Twin City

trucks once again. Like any good salesman Justin knew his

customer well and basically offered to tick all the boxes

for him when it came to blinging the new K200 up. That

probably saved Todd getting RSI in his wrist as there were a

lot of boxes to tick.

Again, the truck was sent to Allstate Truck repairs where

they custom designed the paint, working hard on a concept

for the front of the truck rather than just a straight split of

the colours.

RC Metalcraft once again were tasked with checking

off the ticked boxes including mirror stainless wrapped

tanks, special custom-built stainless steps and chrome

rims all around.

Quarry men

Todd’s passion for a sharp looking unit is the main driving

force behind all the bling but he sees the advantage in the

wraps and rims for his workers.

“The boys have enough to do during the week, they don’t

want to be polishing all the time as well,” Todd explains.

The last piece to finish off the new K200 was to put the