John Johnson
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2009.
John Johnson, JJ to his friends, started his career in the transport industry driving a 1963 Thames Trader carting general freight abound Melbourne. He moved on to carrying explosives, then fuel, followed by a stint in tip-trucks before hauling bitumen.
During this time in the transport industry he has owned a variety of trucks including a Diamond Reo and a White Road Commander. He currently owns and drives a 2008 Kenworth T408 and is carting bitumen all over Australia.
One of his favourites was a 1990 FLC112 Freightliner which he owned for 16 years travelling over 2.5 million trouble-free kilometres. He has witnessed many changes in the transport industry during this time. He has seen the changes in the technology of the trucks making driving better, more cost-effective and more comfortable. But to the industries detriment, he has experienced a decline of camaraderie and mateship. He has also played a pivotal part in the operating and safety procedures now in place in the bitumen transport industry. He is often used as a tester for these.
Over his long career in the industry, there have been some good times and some not so good, but overall it has been okay to John and his family, wife Kay and four sons, Darren, Brett, Grant and Heath. They say the apple never falls far from the tree and this rings true in John's case with all four sons having B-double licences and three of them following in his footsteps working in the transport industry as drivers. John and Kay were also founding members of the now disbanded Melton Truckies Association which was formed in the mid 1980s as both a social club for local truckie families and to fight the plans by local government to keep trucks out of the town. The association was a success for many years and was only disbanded because of the busy work schedules of committee members. John has devoted his working life to the transport industry and plans to continue this for many years to come.
