Vincent Borg
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2014.
Vincent Nicholas Borg was born in 1939 at Horsley Park N.S.W. just at the onset of World War Two. Times were tough and young Vincent started working at just 15 years of age. He began his career in the trucking industry in 1954 transporting and road testing new Leyland buses and trucks. Vince discovered he had a natural aptitude for truck driving and in 1958 purchased his first truck, a Leyland Comet 75. Vince was thrilled to become an owner driver and soon found work sub-contracting for KW Thomas and Edmond T Lennon carting all sorts of goods to most major mainland cities throughout Australia.
Business was brisk and as a result Vince had upgraded to a brand new International AA180 and 34ft Aiken trailer by 1959. Vince carried food, tractors and GMH parts for assembly. In those days the roads were mostly dirt between Adelaide and Sydney. By 1963 Vince had three trucks, one of which he worked on the Adelaide Darwin run. Vince's favourite truck at this time was his Commer Knocker. He enjoyed its reliability and economy however for grunt and pulling power it was his Leyland Super Beaver that won. It was among the first vehicles to pull a full road train from Adelaide fully laden to Darwin.
The road to Alice Springs in those days was a dusty corrugated dirt track that turned into a muddy quagmire in the wet. Roadhouses and people were few and far between. Breakdowns could see drivers stranded for weeks on end with the only service delivered by plane. Vince carried many interesting loads of freight including the first drive in movie screen to Alice Springs from Adelaide. Vince also routinely carried oversized goods that the railways could not handle such as turbine condensers for electricity generation in Darwin.
When Vince retired from the road he moved into the supply sector. After introducing Bandag retread tyres to many parts of the transport industry Vince moved into truck sales with International Harvester. He pioneered fleet sales and received many national awards for his commitment to customer service. In 1982 Vince Borg retired from the transport industry. During his long and productive career Vince founded a trucking company, managed logistics for the food manu- facturing industry, designed trailers, worked with the development of new products and changed the way that truck sales were handled.