Colin Johns

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in 2021.

Colin Fredrick Johns was born in Melbourne, Victoria in December 1960, the only son of Bruce and Amy Johns. His dad was in charge of the Social Welfare vehicles, which included the vehicles for the Victoria Prisons, the Country Prison Farms and Boys Homes. Bruce managed the buying, selling and repairing of trucks, cars, tractors and bulldozers. Colin spent his school holidays travelling with his dad on trips to various Prison Farms.

Colin’s first job was working in truck repairs in Ringwood, Victoria but then he started driving a UD single drive truck  for Benton and Daly Transport, in 1980, carting Tupperware to Sydney. Other vehicles that Colin has driven over the years include the 3070 ACCO, an ACCO LTL Ford Louisville and an Atkinson 4870 which was his first truck with a real sleeper, much better than the parcel shelf of the UD! 

Some of Colin’s loads were general freight but his most common run was for Cummins, hauling reconditioned engines from Brisbane, Queensland to Melbourne with many stops at Cummins branches along the way to drop off freight. Colin developed great working relationships with the Cummins staff and many continue to stay in touch to this day.

The regularity of the “Cummins Run” allowed Colin to sometimes take his family with him and, occasionally, stop off at the Queensland Theme Parks much to the delight of his children. At other times, Colin would take his wife, Karen, and some of his seven children on a trip from Melbourne to Townsville, Queensland, stopping in Brisbane or Sydney for a night or two. One time, Colin had to cart wine across the Nullarbor Plain to a Food and Wine Festival in Perth, Western Australia,  after which  Colin and Karen spent four days  bob-tailing  around Perth and surrounds, sightseeing in the prime mover!

Colin’s worst memories of being on the road involve the road accidents that he came across and some of these are etched in his memory forever. 

Colin has spent over 40 years driving trucks and for 32 of those years, he worked for one company, M&S Transport in Melbourne. During that time, he worked as both a driver and an operations manager.

Nowadays, Colin works for Paul & Belinda Johnston Transport, unloading and loading  trailers and doing change overs with the interstate drivers.