Russell Ricardo

Russell Ricardo grew up in Greensborough. His father Roy Ricardo had an AA150 International and a Dodge utility and they delivered home appliances in the local area. Russell started driving for his father at 16 without a licence.

At age 21 Russell started driving for Redimix in an 1814 Mercedes Benz cement bulker. He stayed with Redimix for a couple of years and then decided to take up interstate driving.

He started with Cold Storage Transport in the early 1970s and his regular run was Melbourne to Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin. Russell transported frozen food to the roadhouses and townships between Melbourne and Darwin.

After a couple of years working for Cold Storage Russell went out on his own. He bought the Cabover Kenworth from Cold Storage that had been in an accident and he fixed it up and kept it working until 1980. In 1980 he sold the Kenworth and bought 290 Cummins S Line International and he towed roadtrain freezer vans to Darwin for Freezer Freight.

In 1988 Russell happily sold the S Line and bought a Ford Louisville LTS with a 365 Cummins engine. His main route was Melbourne to Perth carting general freight for M & S Transport as a contractor. While he was contracting for M & S Russell bought a second trailer and an old slim line Kenworth which he slowly restored in order to have a second truck to keep the trailers constantly on the road.

In the late 1990s, Russell bought a second hand Ford Louisville HN 80 with a 525 Cummins engine and carted general freight as a contractor between Melbourne and Perth and Melbourne and Sydney.

From 2003 to the present day, Russell is driving a Ford Stirling LT7500 Detroit 12.7 litre and tows a tri-axle tanker under contract for McColl's between Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.