Roger Day

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2010.

Roger Day grew up on a farm in Clare, SA. His future was set for him when he started driving farm trucks and tractors as a young boy, although, as a young man, he did do a brief stint as a shearer but yearned to return to trucking.

When he was offered a job during an Austin BMC at Golden North he jumped at the chance and took on, what was regarded in those days as a long haul, a regular run from Laura to Adelaide.
Then for a change of pace he drove for local carrier SC Heinrich carting grapes, grain and stock.

In the mid 1960s he took an interest in heavy machinery and went driving bulldozers and loaders before starting his own bulk fertilizer spreading service to the mid north district of South Australia. From that grew Days Transport. His first trip was to haul a huge bulldozer up to Alice Springs which was to be used to construct the dam at the Hermannsburg Mission. As the years went on he hauled groceries and supplies to Coober Pedy, steel for the Peko Smelter at Tennant Creek and even a trip where his truck was loaded into the barge in Darwin with a load of steel bound for the mission on Bathurst Island. In the 1980s he transported ATCO huts for construction camps at Jabiru and Roxby Downs as well as test-hole casings to Roxby and core samples back to Adelaide.

Roger also carted grain from country South Australia silos to grain holding facilities at ports or to local mills to be milled into flour. In the mid 1990s Roger's son Linden, joined the company and has since taken over the business. Roger is retired and spends his days restoring  old engines as well as doing a bit of farming. Roger Day is well remembered on the road as a likeable and helpful character who could turn he head at anything the trucking industry threw at him.