John Minty

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2011.

John Minty began his first job in the transport business covering paper routes before school at the age of 12.  After school and weekends, he worked for McCoombs Boat Building and Hire Boats at Frankston, and after leaving school eventually worked full-time at boat building.
By the age of 16 he had started towing some of the boats around with a Landrover. As these boats were up to 18 ft in length, he used an old International truck chassis which was converted to a dog trailer and pulled by the Landrover, not very legal by today's standards!  It was during this time that he decided he would learn to drive a truck. Turning 18, he obtained his articulated license in a 1956 AR International and then drove a tray truck for three months after which he moved onto a 1960 Diamond Tpowered by Black Diamond 6-cylinder petrol with a 5x4 gearbox. Later on he drove a Federal 160 Cummins, a 7-series Dodge 36 V8, a Diamond Reo V6 GM and a 1418 Benz. He worked for Alf Marsden and found him to be the best boss he had ever worked for as a driver.In his 20s he purchased a V6 GM powered International Loadstar with a tipping body, then a dog trailer and began the road to self-employment.John started with R-model Macks and in 1980 purchased his first new Kenworth 1980 W-model. Since then he's had Kenworth W-models as well as SAR trucks for heavier work and T300s for concrete agitators. He has carted sand, gravel, stock feed, bulk tankers, tippers and logs interstate.He enjoys being in the transport business and has no plans to retire although he has scaled down his business mainly due to the difficulty in finding good drivers who still have old-school ethics and pride in their work.