Kenworth Legends Lunch offers wisdom and heartfelt song

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Big Rigs  /  June 29, 2016

The 2016 Kenworth Legends Lunch was one to be remembered, with two true heroes of the industry and a bit of unexpected entertainment in the form of a song.

The seventh Legends Lunch kicked off with a brief history of the Kenworth brand in Australia, a brand that is undoubtedly one of the favourites here down under.

The 2016 winners were Peter Wickham of Wickham Freight Lines and Phill Russell of Russell Transport.

The two transport legends were equal parts humble and inspiring, and both still maintained that trucking was a truly great industry.

Phillip Russell highlighted the problem today in getting young people into the industry, because you can no longer get them in the truck with you and teach them in the yard.

"Somehow you've got to get the message across without letting them come into the yard and into your trucks, driving the forklift, and all those things that young blokes liked to do when they were in their teens," Phill said.

"We unfortunately can't allow that to hapen, but the alternative is to find some way that you can introduce them into wanting to work in the transport industry."

Peter Wickham offered words of widsom to those operating today and those that want to get into it, and it all centred around a love for trucks.

"I think you must have a passion for the industry... if you're going to go into the trucking industry, you want a passion for trucks, you want to be able to do the job, do it right and cop the knocks," Peter said.

"But, you must have a passion for trucks."

When talking about the early days, Peter told us about the beginnings carting timber and logs with his brother Angus, when trucking was a bit trickier.

"It really started in 1962...we had a truck there that Brown and Hurley had made up, it was a Leyland hippo front end, cut in half, with a Mack back end under it, alright," he said.

"We put this big load of logs on it, and down we come with this big truck...Angus is taking it nice and steady across the rocks and one wheel got up on the slippery rock and that was it, no diff lock or nothing.

"So she sat there the night and we walked two miles back to get the tractor to come back and give her a push.

"So that's where we were in 1962."

The two legends summed up their time at the Kenworth Legends Lunch in unique ways, with Peter giving us a ripper of a song he'd written that you can hear below, and Phillip jokingly giving us a bit of advice on heart health.

"I've been told by at least one person that I don't have a heart, I have a pump, that i've got diesel instead of blood," Phillip said.

"I'm not unhappy with that, because it's pretty easy to buy an overhaul kit for a pump.

"The journey has been a great journey, i've enjoyed it, I really haven't got too much regrets, and I think the support of the industry and suppliers to the industry has been tremendous."

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Legendary Kenworth man – Phil Russell

Australasian Transport News (ATN)  /  July 12, 2016

Brisbane-based Russell Transport's Phil Russell is one of this year’s ATA Kenworth Legends

The Kenworth Legends Lunch is usually rated the highlight of the Australian Trucking Association’s annual conference, and this year’s characters didn’t disappoint.

Yesterday we profiled Peter Wickham from Wickham Freight Lines in Warwick; today it’s the turn of Phil Russell, from Russell Transport in Brisbane.

Phil Russell began working for father Roy – who started out with a single truck carting motor spirit in 1925 – as an apprentice in the workshop.

Phil Russell took over the business in 1970 at the ripe of old age of 24, and stepped back last year, with son Ken and daughter Julie running the diversified operation, its constant over the years being heavy haulage.

Russell now enjoys travelling around Australia in a motor home.

He had a false start in road touring over a decade ago when told he didn’t have a balanced life.

"So I went out and bought a motor home," Russell recalls.

"It cost a lot of money – I thought ‘throw a lot of money at a problem and it will go away’. It didn’t go away.

"I asked the doctor who reckoned I was going to hit the wall if I kept going: ‘Can you tell me what it’s like just before you hit the wall’, so I could take it on a bit longer."

Trade Secrets

Russell nominated having family involved in the business as his best personal achievement.

Ken Russell also started as an apprentice in the workshop and later went to university while working part-time; and Julie has degrees in psychology and business management.

"I was happy to leave school at Year 10 … but the new generation, they’ve really got to go to university," Russell reckons.

He bought his first Kenworth in 1972, a K125 which cost $31,000. Today the company has nearly 50 Kenworths.

Early on, he figured you’ve got to spend money to save money.

"And to do that, yeah sure we probably had to pay 31 grand for a Kenworth when we could have bought a truck for $18,000, a different model, but whole of life is what I’ve always aimed at, and consequently it’s probably cost us more.

"Maybe we haven’t put as much money in the bank, but the fleet has done well.

"There are still plenty of trailers that we bought back in the 70s and 80s that are still out there working every day.

"Okay they might have new axles but it’s a great investment when you can write it off over 30 years."

Russell says the Kenworth product "has always been able to perform for us, and if there has been an issue it’s been amicably resolved".

Russell was generous with other pearls of wisdom on business strategy, including this: "If you’re not growing you’re going to be going the other way.

"Marking time is only a very short-term strategy; you’ve got to keep looking for opportunities to grow your business."

He reckons there is more access to decision-makers in the bureaucracy these days.

"To actually see the heavy vehicle regulator here fielding questions is like a breath of fresh air, considering where it was 40 years ago."

Photo gallery - http://www.fullyloaded.com.au/industry-news/1607/legendary-kenworth-man-phil-russell/

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Ditch the accountants, says 'Kenworth legend' Peter Wickham

Owner/Driver  /  July 11, 2016

The Kenworth Legends Lunch was the highlight of this year’s ATA conference, with Peter Wickham and Phil Russell taking centre stage

Peter Wickham has a simple recommendation for budding trucking entrepreneurs.

"Don’t listen to accountants, solicitors or financial advisers," reckons the co-founder with his late brother Angus of big east coast operator Wickham Freight Lines.

"If you’ve got a gut feeling; if you can buy a truck and make a quid with it, just go and buy it. Don’t listen to anybody, because everyone will talk you out of it.

"You don’t need an accountant; you can get him at the end of the year just to count out what you’ve made," concluded the trucking veteran, to a huge round of laughter from the audience.

Mind you, Wickham also said that if you do your dough, at least you’ve only got yourself to blame.

It was just one of many witty pieces of advice and funny yarns enjoyed by delegates at the Kenworth Legends Lunch, part of the ATA’s Trucking Australia 2016 conference at the Gold Coast last month.

The entertainment was provided by this year’s Legends, Peter Wickham from Warwick in Queensland and Phil Russell from Russell Transport in Brisbane.

Both Wickham, 74, and Russell, nearly 70, have spent a lifetime in trucks, and their passion for the industry shines through.

The pair shared some earthy experience about both trucking and life in general, on stage with ATA CEO Chris Melham asking the questions.

Wickham’s has about 120 Kenworths, and Peter Wickham says "probably the main thing that lifted the company" was getting a contract with the Queensland Big W distribution centre in Warwick, requiring the purchase of 30-odd trucks.

Wickham recalls the operating environment was easier in the early days, when you simply got in the truck, filled it up with fuel "and went and done the job and got paid for it. If you didn’t want to do it for the price you didn’t do it.

"Now you go to get a job, you’ve got to have a folder that thick … [holds thumb and forefinger 10cm apart].

"You might have pretty trucks running up and down the road and it all looks good but behind-the-scenes it’s pretty hard.

"I’m not saying the compliance is wrong; your safety stuff and all that is really good, but it all comes at a cost, somebody must pay."

Family affair

As for the key to maintaining company reputation: "I think the secret is to have family in the business," reckons Wickham, who has extensive family involvement and these days focuses on his horses.

"You can pay a bloke all the money you like, but he won’t do the job like you’ll do it, and he won’t put in the extra hours … you have to set a high standard yourself … because that filters down the line.

"It’s the example you set from the top, and only the owner of the business can set that example. I don’t know how these big companies run with managers everywhere … It’s family that knows what’s going on and it’s their money that is being spent."

Wickham says a genuine passion for the trucking industry and ability to "cop the knocks" is essential to success in transport: "For a businessman to say ‘I’m going to buy trucks and run trucks’ -- he won’t last long."

Wickham believes there are more opportunities for young people "than I have ever seen", saying they can rise from a novice to manager in five years.

That gets onto a song that wrote and sang himself at the end of the lunch. Its chorus highlights his positive attitude towards young people, and his humble origins carting logs and spuds grown on the family dairy farm.

"The young ones of this world today, they’re as good as they’ve ever been," the song goes. "But I don’t think they’ll ever see the changes that we’ve seen."

Photo gallery - http://www.ownerdriver.com.au/industry-news/1607/ditch-the-accountants-says-kenworth-legend-peter-wickham/