Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus

In 2005 when New Zealand Truck & Driver featured the distinctive white, blue and silver trucks of G.J. Sheldrake Ltd in the November issue Fleet Focus, company founder Graham Sheldrake was unsure if his son Mathew (Mat) would move into the Tokoroa-based family business.

Mat was 21 at the time and working as a fabricator-welder at Total Transport Engineering while Graham was keeping a fleet of eight loggers and five general freight trucks busy during one of the cyclical tougher times for the logging industry.

G.J. Sheldrake Ltd had just turned 25-years-old when that Fleet Focus feature was published. Almost two decades later, Graham is now retired f... ... 

In 2005 New Zealand Truck & Driver profiled a fleet that had the distinction of having been incorporated as a charitable trust.

Tinwald-based Wilson Bulk Transport had been set up in the 1960s by local farmer Trevor Wilson and his brother, primarily to handle bulk grain harvested by their agricultural contracting business from farms in the mid-Canterbury area.

After the partnership was dissolved in the late 1960s, Trevor carried on as sole owner, adding fertiliser spreading and stock cartage to the services he offered his rural clients. He was also deeply involved in community activities, and after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1990, he made the ... ... 

Nelson is New Zealand’s only major centre that has never had a rail connection to the rest of the country. So, the region’s road transport industry developed in its own unique way during the years when road freight was heavily regulated for the benefit of rail.

Motueka’s Barry Westrupp has seen a lot of the region’s trucking evolution during his 60-years in the industry.

Barry recently celebrated his 80th birthday and although he jokes about first thinking about retirement back when he was 55, he has finally stepped back from an active daily role in the Westhaul Motueka operation he founded.

Since July his youngest son Karl owns and runs the busines... ...