John Hodges
John Hodges' father was involved in running interstate jobs from Melbourne to Sydney in 1948 and had been involved in transport his entire life.
John Hodges himself was born September 23rd of 1947. At the age of 19 in 1966, John started his transport career when he purchased a Ford Trader and worked for the OD Co-op carrying from Darlington Harbour rail to local Sydney.
He continued with his transport work until he was called up for National Service in 1968 and served in Vietnam with the 86 Transport Platoon as a truck driver.
After fulfilling his service to the military in 1970, John went to work for G. Hannan & Sons Furniture Removalists doing interstate work, mostly from Melbourne to Sydney, working many long hours and travelling the Hume Highway.
In 1975 he started working for the Janner Bros. in Melbourne doing local wharf work and country bitumen tanker work. John then went back to doing interstate runs in 1982 working in the fuel industry. He purchased a new Volvo F12 in 1986 and traded as Tallong Transport to do interstate anywhere to anywhere, always making sure he had a load. No job was too big or too small.
With his work load getting bigger, in 1988 John employed another driver and purchased a Volvo Globetrotter. He spent from 1992 to 1995 doing weekly trips from Melbourne to Townsville sub-contracting to Simons Transport.
Back to Melbourne in 1995 John started doing local work again. He gained a contract with a company called Packtrainers carrying containers of wool to the Melbourne wharves. With business growing John employed more drivers and purchased more trucks, an Atkinson, a Scania, two more Volvos and a Mercedes Benz. He also needed extra B-double trailers. In 2000 John gained another contract with AWH (Australian Wool Handlers) carting wool containers for them. There was plenty of import work and he had to put on sub-contractors.
John continued this work until 2013. Now retired he feels very satisfied with what he has contributed to the industry and made some lifelong friends. John now lives in the country town of Barooga New South Wales.