Alex Leith

Alex (Tiger) Leith was born in Sydney on the 4th February 1949 and after completing his apprenticeship as a carpenter worked as a builder. His first foray into trucks was driving a cement pump. His family had no history in the road transport industry so were puzzled by Alex's passion for long distance transport.

In 1975 Alex started his career in road transport, his first job driving for Sidebottom Transport where he ran to Perth in an ACCO 4070 with general freight. He moved to Shepparton and over the next ten years drove for Selman Brothers in an ACCO 4070 carting produce from Shepparton to Sydney then with Telford's in a Roadboss, Avrams in a Mack and an Atkinson, and Rocissano in a Cabover Kenworth carting general freight all on flattops anywhere he was asked to go.

In 1985 he decided to have a change and drove as a coach driver for Deluxe coaches based at Wangaratta. Here he went all over Australia until Deluxe downsized and again Alex went back to his first love, long distance driving.

For the next two years Alex drove for Traveloss doing express freight mainly to Perth in a W model Kenworth towing tautliners. In 1990 Alex purchased a Scania 113 and established a produce run servicing country fruit shops between Brisbane and Melbourne and returning with Ansett to Brisbane. As freight was picking up he bought a second Scania 113, however this turned out to be a bad move as it caught fire putting much financial hardship on the business so he sold up and moved to Ayr.

At Ayr he drove for BGA carting produce for two years before changing to Blenners TPT carting produce in refrigerated vans and express freight on the return.

In 2001 Alex moved to Brisbane to drive two up with his partner Coral. Here they worked for Lindsay Transport driving a K104 towing refrigerated trailers in both roadtrain and B-double combinations, delivering produce all over Australia. Lindsay's were good to work for so Alex stayed with them until his retirement this year.