70 AUGUST 2019 ownerdriver.com.au
HOGAN’S HERO
driver profile
At nearly
80 years of
age Allan
Stuckings is
still going
strong
after more
than half
a century
in heavy
haulage,
Steve
Skinner
writes
H
AULING A FOUR METRE WIDE paving machine under
escort down one of Australia’s major highways would
be a big deal for most truckies.
But it’s just another day at the office for Allan
Stuckings, known fondly in the Hunter Valley heavy
haulage industry as ‘Stucko’.
When Owner//Driver recently caught up with Stucko,
he was supervising the unloading of the machine,
which he’d carted from Wardell on the north coast
of NSW nearly 600km down to Rutherford near Maitland, the
main base of his employer Hogan’s Heavy Haulage.
Most of the way he’d been able to keep the wide load in
the slow lane, using the highway’s generous shoulders, but
sometimes the small convoy had to take up the whole road to
cross a bridge.
But this machine was a tiddler: “The biggest load I’ve done
in my time was 39 feet and 9 inches (12 metres) to Brisbane,”
Allan recalls. “I’ve been in every state in Australia but Western
Australia,” he adds. “It’s too far to come back.”His longest trip took 23 days from Maitland to Darwin,
Melbourne, Port Kembla, Narrabri and then back home.
Allan has been doing this sort of thing for more than 50
years, and has to be one of Australia’s most knowledgeable
experts on heavy haulage.
The stories spill out endlessly from the good-natured
character, invariably beginning with: “You’ll have a laugh
at this ...” But he’s a modest bloke who is clearly loved by his
employers and workmates.
Not to mention his wife Bev, who still occasionally goes on
trips with her husband of 55 years. The couple have lived in
the same house in East Maitland since 1971.
Allan has worked for family-owned and family-oriented
company Hogan’s for nearly 17 years, after he and his truck
were “inherited” from his previous long-time employer MF
Hayter, via Structural Cranes, both of which closed down.
He retired at age 71, but only long enough to paint the house
before being coaxed back.Slow and steady
Stucko started driving a bricks truck at East Maitland as a
teenager and in all that time he’s only been involved in minor
accidents, none of them his fault.
“Always look at yourself,” he says. “You’re not a tearer to get
to the other end, you just do your own format and make sure
you have your eyes looking everywhere because you’ve got
to pull up what you’re driving, and when you try to stop a
hundred tonnes it doesn’t stop quickly.
“You’re self-motivated. The only thing you do for yourself
is cautiousness and safety. There’s no need to cut a corner
because it won’t fit around there.
“You’re not being whipped and told to ‘hurry up, you’ve got
to get to the other end’, there is no such thing. You get there
when you get there and you’re always on time.”
In the time Owner//Driver spent with Allan he certainly
drove very steadily, and walked steadily around the yard too.
Even if he was a rev-head, his workhorse is speed-limited to
90km/h.
Allan’s erring on the side of caution applies to load restraint
too of course.
“It only takes five minutes to put on a couple of extra chains,
but it takes five hours to fix your mistake.”Above: Golden oldies circa 1980:
Caterpillar, Volvo and Toyota
Corona
Below: Loading a boat in Coffs
Harbour in the MF Hayter days
Opposite top: Loves a laugh:
veteran heavy haulier Allan
Stuckings
Opposite under main picture
L to R: Lots of wheels: Allan in his
trusty 700hp Volvo FH16 hauling a
mobile batching plant mainframe,
one of 26 company truckloads
between the Hunter Valley and
South Australia; Good bloke: Allan
with 10-year workmate, Robbie
Cole
IN BRIEF
Name: Allan ‘Stucko’
Stuckings
Company: Hogan’s Heavy
HaulageTruck: 700hp Volvo FH16
Globetrotter
Freight carried: Heavy
haulageRegular run: Maitland, NSW
to intra and interstate