Southpac Legends

Without leaving his own backyard Greg Cochrane has gone from the rock bottom of his family’s business to becoming Executive General Manager of NZ’s arm of ASX’s biggest publicly listed freight company. He now has both the support of the large corporate enterprise yet also retains the personal-touch ethos of the family business he grew up in. It’s the ‘best of both worlds’ 

Greg’s grandfather Eddie Cochrane started the family business Cochrane Transport in 1949, they milled their own logs and Eddie started the transport business to cart them. It then grew to include Cambridge and Tirau depots and have four shareholders, Eddie’s three sons (Barry, John and Bruce - Bruce being... ... 

With a history that dates all the way back to the 1930s, Matamata-based contractors J Swap’s family business is almost synonymous with the area as the Kaimai’s that shadow it - or maybe the Waiomou Stream where the business all began. However, as brothers David and Lewis Swap point out, the ‘family’ has grown to include 500+ staff, a large loyal customer base and even the people of Matamata township and beyond. It’s for this reason, David and Lewis are Southpac Legends.

Even with well-over a century of combined time within J Swap, and with their children and grandchildren working there, Directors David and Lewis Swap are still the ‘dynamic duo’ of the business. They seem as pass... ... 

With a bespoke lunch room that features a 6ft truck hauling refrigerators, office walls adorned with photos of staff doing outdoor pursuits and a personnel development programme that enables both vocational and personal growth, you could say that TR’s head office in Penrose is more of a club than a well-oiled truck and trailer rental group - but it’s their ever evolving, empowering culture that founder Andrew Carpenter began twenty-eight years ago and what they give back to the industry that makes him a Southpac Truck Legend.

TR Group began back in 1992 when Andrew (supported by family resources and father Ron of Motor Truck Distributors / Truck Leasing fame) took on what wa... ... 

Philip Wareing sees himself as almost an accidental transport operator. He says it was just a stepping stone towards his primary goal of becoming a farmer, something he achieved around 30 years into his working life – but in the meantime that intermediate step has morphed into a significant player in the industry in Canterbury.

The Philip Wareing Ltd group now comprises five wholly-owned subsidiaries – the original PWL, based in the mid-Canterbury town of Methven, Wilson Bulk Transport in Tinwald, Rural Transport, which has headquarters in nearby Ashburton and branches in Fairlie, Kurow and Waimate, Greymouth’s Trans West Freighters, and container handling specialist NZ Expre... ... 

Over thirty years ago, ardent road transport industry advocate and NRC stalwart Paula Rogers was looking through the kitchen window of her family’s farmhouse when the image of a bright blue Kenworth changed her life’s direction forever.

“When I was about 17 I got into the farming sector and in my 20’s I ended up sharemilking at a farm in Whenuapai . We had a lot of truck coming onto the farm to tip off and I just happened to look out of the kitchen window at Mike Ross’s beautiful blue Kenworth W model (924), I’ll never forget that moment, I thought gosh that truck is stunning I’d really like to drive a truck. So, I decided then and there to go and get my HT.”

Of course, Pa... ...