Barry (Jim) Pfeiffer
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in 2021.
Barry James Pfeiffer, known as Jim, was born in July 1949 in Berri, South Australia. When Jim was seven, he had a ride in a sheep truck from his parents’ farm on the Coorong to Kingston in the South East. Returning home, he told his father, “Dad, I am going to drive trucks for my living.”
In 1965 Jim obtained his truck driving licence when aged 16 and began driving a Commer ‘sleepy’ petrol motor truck for Lyle Bartlett of Narrung, carrying wheat, hay and stock. After this Jim was employed by Dick Davey, a general carrier of Narrung, for whom he carted general freight and stock in a Commer with a Perkins diesel engine. Jim moved on to work for Glenn’s Murray Bridge Refrigerated Transport in 1970. He drove an International Transtar 4200 series on an interstate run freighting wine to Sydney, pork and margarine to Perth and returning to Sydney with fish. Between 1974 and 1982 Jim worked for Barry Robinson, driving milk tankers. He drove a Bubble Volvo 6 Cylinder Diesel and later an 89 Volvo with a 350hp Volvo Motor, rigid pull/towing dog trailer. News of this ‘jumbo’ milk tanker was featured on the first page of ‘The Farm’, a stock and station journal, in December 1978. In 1982 Jim began carting grain with a Volvo pulling a semi-tipper before going on to driving a Mack Cruiser carting stock.
The highlight of Jim’s career was the eight years he spent working for Ray Singleton. Jim started driving a long bonnet Mack Superliner pulling road trains from Adelaide to Perth, mainly. Ray Singleton was then granted approval in August 1997 to run B triples to Perth. Jim was the first South Australian driver to do this run in an Aerodyne Kenworth 525 hp Cummins. In 1999 R Singleton purchased the first South Australian registered Aerodyne Kenworth 600hp Cummins which Jim drove towing a B triple to Perth. Jim did 48 trips a year on this regular run.
Between 2001 and 2018 Jim drove for various firms carting a variety of freight including high tech equipment used for outdoor events such as ‘Tour Down Under’, sporting events and outside broadcasts; it is a specialised field of work.
Having driven trucks for over 40 years,Jim is well known and respected in the transport industry He believes the industry is in a better position now with regulated speed limits and enforced rest breaks. Jim relinquished his Heavy Vehicle Driving licence in 2017 due to age-related issues.