Vincent Goulthorpe

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Re Union 2014.

Vincent Goulthorpe began his driving career in a 1418 Mercedes Benz for Matthews Transport in Bendigo when he was just 19 years old. He worked there for six years carting general freight and swinging meat. In a truck powered by a 180hp engine it took 13 hours to drive to Sydney. After that Vincent moved on with fond memories of an older driver, boss Trevor Matthew who said:

If you are going to be a truck driver you do it quietly and do it well.
Vincent made these words his mantra. For the next couple of years Vincent drove a cab over Kenworth running Cairns, Darwin and Perth and in the 1980s spent six years at Knights Transport in Kilmore carting bulk petroleum products to Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane in an Atkinson 892 TTA.

Vincent then spent 10 years at Esso and Mobil delivering fuel around Victoria - mostly driving Volvos. Vincent later drove for Bunkers before joining Linfox driving B-doubles interstate in a Kenworth with a series 60 engine and later a Freightliner 550 CAT. Seeking a change of scenery Vincent went to work for Woolworths where he absolutely loved the smell of the fresh produce when he opened the fridge van. Vincent enjoyed the work and stayed with Woolworths for over 12 years until Linfox were awarded the contract and the drivers were all made redundant.

As with most truckies there is always a story or two to tell. Once he'd stopped for dinner at a Total service station at the bottom of Sewerage Farm Hill in Jugiong, NSW. After eating he pulled out on the Hume Highway, changed from low range to high and the pin fell out of the linkage under the truck when he was half way across the highway. Trucks were going every which way and he had to crawl under the truck, find the pin and replace it. Another time Vincent knocked out the power to the town of Hillston with a load of earth moving tyres. Woops! The load was a bit high

Vincent now owns Sunbury Airfield and that keeps him busy. He also works part time with his International T-line crane truck.