Neil Wood (and his wife Joanne) are the founders of Pokeno-based bulk cartage and earthworks business N&J Wood Ltd. It’s a family run operation that, at its core, hauls feed and aggregate the length and breadth of New Zealand. 

However, not only does this hard-working entrepreneur run an incredibly sharp looking fleet of trucks, but he has also influenced the next generation with his daughter instigating the highly popular Bombay Truck Show. Neil’s latest retirement project involves hundreds of acres of farmland that will house thousands of native trees - and for those reasons he’s this month’s Southpac Legend.

According to Neil, for a lot of people, trucking is in their blood and says that the same is true with him. 

“My father had them, my great great grandfather had them and I suppose it was always just there for me. I used to like cruising around when dad had the trucks and I used to go with drivers at the weekends and school holidays.”

Neil recalls when he was really small that his dad had a 3-tonne tipper and went into car transporting, setting up his own business, which he called Trailer Transport. 

“He used to shift the cars off the rail yard and out to all the dealers. He had four small car transporters.”

However, rather than simply joining his father’s firm upon leaving school, Neil opted to go into farming.

“I did six years of farming, milking cows and driving farm trucks. I then ended up working for myself and needing a truck, so I bought a little D-Series Ford. I was about 26.”

Neil began his solo career doing fencing contracting ‘because he knew how to do that’, and initially, because he had no money, tore the back seat out of an old Mark II Cortina. 

“I threw all my tools in it and away I went. I did that for a few years and got to a stage where we needed a digger to tidy up fence lines and I got sick of waiting for other people, so I bought my own. Then I needed a truck to cart the stuff, so I bought one (the D-series Ford) and it flowed on from there.”

Neil says that following on from the Ford he moved to some old Fusos and then bought an old Mack truck that although was sold to upgrade, was later found by his kids, restored and the old R Model is pride of the fleet once again. Though it now enjoys retired life and is only out of the shed for truck shows and weekend cruises with Joanne.

“I ran that work for about six years, and slowly moved out of the fencing and farm side of things, the elbows and wrists weren’t surviving well with the continual hammering so moved more into the machinery, so diggers and more trucks and it just grew.”

He says that when he got to about the 5-6 truck stage, he felt that his white trucks with a green stripe were going around unnoticed “cruising around among all the other white trucks with a stripe on them”. Then in 2012/3 he bought a Lonestar and that’s when his sharp new blue fleet colour was decided upon. 

“The [blue] Lonestar stood out like nothing else and that became the fleet colour and still is now, 10 years later. It changed the business a lot.”

Not only did the transport side of the business change but Neil says that they also decided to broaden their operation. It was about this time Neil’s son Ryan came back from working in Australia and stepped into the family business with fresh ideas and new perspectives.

“We dabbled in clean fill/landfills, we’ve got diggers and earth movers and we’ve got a workshop where we do all our own, and outside, mechanical work - they all complement each other.”

If it sounds like a busy workload, you’d be right, but work is something Neil has never been afraid of.

“Nothing’s ever easy but there’s no substitute for a lot of hard work and going without, which a lot of people won’t do. I mean my wife and I didn’t go on holiday for years and gave up drinking because we didn’t have the money and we wanted to pay everybody. If there was nothing left over, we didn’t get it.” He continues, “my wife is of Dutch descent and she worked just as hard as I did. She did 42-years working in a chemist shop. When the kids were young, when one of us came home the other would go to work.”

Neil’s daughter Marieka recalls his dedication, “Dad has always been a hard worker. Growing up, he was gone before we got up in the morning and home late. But that was quite normal for that generation. They really did know the meaning of hard work.”

And this hard-working, ‘customer-first’ business ethos is something that they still do now. Neil, and his children pride themselves on the working relationships they have built. While business has grown, they like to think the business hasn’t lost that family feeling. When you call N&J Wood, you still get one of the family answering the phone.

As it is with many transport businesses, Neil has had to deal with his fair share of financial issues but has proudly conquered them all.

“Unexpected bills and costs can do a lot of damage, but my wife and I decided many years ago that we would tighten our belts. We went through the GFC and share market crash. At the time we were working for millionaires and two months later they were broke.”

On the flipside, when it comes to help and advice, Neil has taken both when necessary. 

“When I was in my 30s, I had these clever guys who were in their eighties telling me about things that could go wrong and what causes it, mainly borrowing too much money. So, if we wanted something we’d save the money and then buy it. That reduces your exposure to things going wrong.”

Then there are people like Peter Pascoe from P&I Pascoe that have been a rock for Neil from the start.

“I’ve known Peter since I got my first truck and we’ve had a great working relationship since then, that’s 30 odd years. He’s someone you can talk to about a number of things, and he’s not bad to share a beer with”

When it comes to their fleet Neil says that the business has around fifteen trucks now and not really looking to get any bigger. It’s a bit of a mixture too, ranging from several Euro’s to the classics. 

“We’ve got Scanias (coming soon) and Volvos, a Peterbilt, DAFs, Macks a 909 Kenworth, a K200 and an SAR Legend that we’re waiting on.”

Neil is convinced that the iconic truck brands like the Kenworths are a big draw card for drivers. 

“You could take the seat out of one of these Kenworths and put a beer crate in there instead and the driver will tell you that he’s having a ‘kin wonderful day’. Even if his arse is rare by the end of the day he’ll be back tomorrow because it’s a Kenworth.” Neil laughs and adds, 

“You could literally have him sitting on a brick and he’d be loving it. That’s the cult status thing that Kenworth has gained over the last forty years. You can’t beat the acre and a half of chrome out the front, the great big bonnet and all the shiny shit. They’re good trucks and if you want to get some of the driver’s in, that’s what you have to do.”

But Neil is also quick to add that although climbing in and out of a K200 all day is something that young guys would kill for, he’s at the stage now where he’d quite happily sit behind a bonneted truck or a nice big comfortable Euro. 

“I still enjoy driving but it’s getting different now, as I’m getting older, I’m getting more picky. I drive an old V8 Mack right now, otherwise it’s nice to hop into a nice big Volvo, click go and it does everything for you.”

Neil is 65, his wife Joanne has just retired and according to Neil he’s semi-retired. His son (Ryan) and daughter (Marieka) pretty much run the business and he goes in and does whatever is needed. 

“I have very little to do with the business now, but we do discuss the bigger decisions over dinner or at the bach, mainly around the reasons for buying certain things - or not. I’m very proud of what they’re doing. The biggest problem for me was not being in control. I’m now quite comfortable with what they’re doing, nothing’s changed, the numbers are still good.”

Neil says that he’s still getting used to the idea of retiring though, something highlighted on a recent trip with his wife to the home show.

“I went to pay, and they asked if I was a pensioner, I said I suppose I am and I saved a couple of bucks. We had a bit of a giggle about it.”

But retirement is relative as they’ve just bought a farm as a bit of a retirement project for Neil, which will double up as a place to enjoy for the whole family.

“So, in my retirement I’ll still be able to work a 10-hour day. I have plenty of maintenance to do, like planting native trees, we’ll plant thousands of them all around the creeks and drains. And if not that my wife and I will go to the beach and go fishing and catch a bit of dinner. But I still enjoy watching the trucks go past.”

Neil says that it’s been an interesting ride. 

“It’s been a lot of hard work, my wife and I have worked seven days a week because that was what had to be done, to get ahead. At times that really did feel like hard work, but most of the time I’ve just been happy to be trucking.”

As for the future of N&J Wood Ltd.

“My son is 35 and daughter is a couple of years older, and they’ve got their retirement plan sorted out. They’ve got five kids between them but whether the business gets handed over to the grandkids remains to be seen. Either way it’ll be around for a while though I imagine. It will be great to see where it goes with the current generation, the business has grown substantially in the last 8 or so years. While trucks are where it began, diversifying protects businesses and that’s what is happening now with Ryan and Marieka”

Marieka smiles as she says, “I don’t believe for a minute that he will ever actually retire, but it’s kind of nice to see him go nearly full circle and back to his farming roots. Generations from now will enjoy those patches of mature trees…. thanks to Dad.”