Dean McBride

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2002.
There's a saying that real truckies are people who love engines and can tell by the throb of each one what size and make it is.  Dean McBride, by that criteria alone, is a real truckie.  He knew by the sound of it alone, every truck in his immaculately kept fleet.
As a youngster Dean practised driving his dad's old Chev before starting work in a Ford for a road gang.Dean had his first taste of the Northern Territory in an International with a 160 Cummins in 1972 carting cars for Gulf Transport.  He then ran the old South Road between Adelaide and Darwin for ten years before breaking with tradition and moving, with his wife Carleen, to Alice Springs where he built a road train business with Ford trucks.  The McBride fleet eventually grew to include 21 prime-movers, 100 flat tops, 32 dollies, 4 fridge vans, 4 tri-axle pans and 8 tautliners.  It was well and truly a full-time job for Dean and Carleen and their two sons, Darren and Tim. Their core business was unloading general freight from the railhead in Alice Springs then carrying it in their roadtrains 1500 kilometres north to Darwin.  Dean's trucks had the enviable reputation of being the best looking and the best maintained on the road.  Dean played a very active role for his industry, first in South Australia, and then in the Territory.  Dean is an honorary life-member of the Northern Territory Road Transport Association (now the Australian Trucking Association NT), and has always been an avid supporter and sponsor of the National Road Transport Hall of Fame.