(^48) August 2019 Truck & Driver
A LIFE ON THE ROAD
as a scrap metal dealer. In
September of 2007 Willie
acquired a new Scania R500 6x2
tag-axle Topline as Mercedes
could not offer such an axle
configuration in-house.
Willie says that as he
approached 65 he I thought it
was time to slow down a bit.
“Around the same time as Hunter
exited the road haulage industry,
he put me in charge – along with
guard dog Diesel – of the
scrapyard for a while. I was
barely retired when Steven
Barclay called, saying he
could do with a man for a
couple of weeks; could I
help him out? After two
weeks he asked if I could do
another two weeks... and I
have been there ever since.
“Steven knows that whatever
job he gives me it will be done. I
cannot believe all those stories
of drivers telling their bosses I
can’t or won’t do this, that and
the other, or you will have to get
someone else. Some of their
bosses must think they are
running kindergartens instead of
haulage companies.
“In all my years on the road I
never had a bad boss. I work on
the principle that if you do what
you are asked to or told, then
people will leave you to get on
with it. In the old days, once you
went out of the yard you were on
your own, no phone calls, texts,
emails or trackers monitoring
your every move.
“The crack was much better;
you had to phone ahead to book
your bed and I soon found the
better places, where often I
would meet up with old mates or
make new friends. Next morning
everything would be as you had
left it. Nowadays, nothing is safe,
even in so-called secure (and
expensive) service areas. In the
old days you never left home
without your toolbox, as usually
most breakdowns could be
repaired at the side of the road.
“Sometimes you would barely
have stopped when others would
come along and offer a helping
hand. Nowadays, I swear even
our fellow drivers would run over
the top of you rather than stop.
days the tachograph had
yet to be invented. In
fact, even the logbook
didn’t exist; we simply completed
a daily sheet in terms of hours
worked but they were never
checked by anyone in officialdom.
“I then moved to Tulloch
Transport of Nairn, where I spent
the next 20 years doing artic
work, first with an ERF, then a
Foden, before getting an
Atkinson Venturer double-drive
tractor unit. This was mostly
coupled to a three-axle
low-loader trailer on which I
would move machines weighing
up to 60 tons.
Gardner 240
“That Atkinson, with a Gardner
240 engine, was probably the
best truck I ever had. Not once
did it let me down, despite all the
heavy work undertaken all over
the country, down as far as
London and Cardiff. I then
had a couple of Volvo F12s
which were also very
capable machines. Kenny
Tulloch, owner of the
business, was a real
gentleman, not a bad word
was said in all that time.
“In the mid-1990s,
Tulloch Transport and
Scotline of Inverness were
merged to become the new
Highland Haulage Ltd, a
company to which I transferred.
“I first had a Volvo FL10, then
a couple of Daf XF95s before
getting a Scania 164 580.”
In 2003 Willie joined a new
scrap metal business, Highland
Car Crushers Ltd, that Hunter
Fraser had established. Initially
he was given an ex A R R Craib
Daf 85CF but soon after got the
keys to a new Mercedes Actros.
Within a couple of years Hunter
had diversified the business into
that of general haulage, as well
Maiden journey with
the first Actros Willie
had in Highland Car
Crushers Ltd livery
Heading south on the A9 with previous Actros
romina
(Romina)
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