Six-year-old James Marshall may just be New Zealand Truck & Driver publisher Allied Publications’ most fervent reader.
After having a copy of NZ Truck & Driver handed on to him by his schoolteacher, the Ranfurly primary school pupil was so keen to get his hands on some more, he took action.
First he made a sign – ‘Truck magazine.’ That went onto the Marshall family’s letterbox – even though Mum (Arlene) gently suggested that wasn’t going to work.
When the rain ruined that, he got creative: He filled in the NZ Truck & Driver subscription form and sent it in – confidently ticking the Visa box….and improvising when it came to a cardholder name, an email address, security code and that technical stuff.
Allied admin manager Sue Woolston loved his passion…and responded by sending James a “care package” of magazines, including some back issues….and a free subscription.
His Mum reckons James “was a bit embarrassed and shy when he saw the parcel in the letterbox.” 
That was soon replaced by sheer delight: “Then he said: ‘Oh wow! They gave me three…and I only asked for two.’ ”  
According to his Mum, James has been into trucks, tractors and diggers for years: “Even before he was two, he could spot a tractor miles away across the paddocks.”
It helped, she says, that his Uncle Steve has a trucking company – Cambridge’s Curin Contractors: “He’s another person who took James on his big loader. And he was just fascinated by it.”
James takes up the story: “I like diggers and I like farm machinery – every single machine. One of my friends lives on a farm and I always go on a tractor with him. And I can drive a tractor as well.
“And once, we lived in Tokoroa, and we had this man come with a digger to do some gravel…and he had this little digger – and he let me drive the digger by myself!” Mum confirms: “True story.” 
At home, James has “his door” – now covered with NZ Truck & Driver PPG Transport Imaging Awards posters, cut-out photos of trucks, dumptrucks, tractors, a low-loader, a chainsaw and a couple of handwritten lists….of machinery and equipment – “all the things I want to save up for when I’m older.”
“I want to get a 10-tonne digger and a littler digger…and a wood chipper. And a winch and a tip-tray.” His lists are specific – the extras for the digger include a rock bucket, a wide bucket, rollover protection, a tandem trailer, a light on cab.
Which truck? “Oh, probably a dumptruck.” The Macraes goldmine is not too far away, and that’s one of his choices of job when he grows up: “There’s probably too many to tell you all of them – but logging, working in forestry, umm working at Macraes and gem hunter. And maybe a jet fighter and like a little business….putting pipes in and stuff.”
Here’s to your trucking, logging, digger-operating future James.