Keith Reid

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2007.

Keith was born in 1929. He drove timber trucks for years before joining Arch Matthews on the Ballarat to Melbourne run driving all sorts of Leyland over the years.

When Mayne Nickless took over Arch Matthew Transport, Keith was sent interstate driving Gardiner-powered Atkinsons followed by Mercedes and later Mack. When he left there in 1974 he ran a hotel in a potato growing area.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Keith soon talked himself into buying trucks to cart potatoes to Brisbane and Sydney. In search of decent backloading, Keith soon had contracts with hauling fire-bricks from Port Kembla to Geelong Cement Works. This part of the business grew so much that Keith had to purchase more trucks. When the Alcoa contract came along he had to buy even more trucks but it was not until he gained a contract for carting bricks to Alcoa Portland that he finally decided to sell the hotel and move to Mt Rowan where he still lives today.

Keith finished up with 20 trucks operating on his various runs throughout Victoria and interstate. Most of his fleet were Fords towing Barker trailers. With the coming of modern technologies, particularly the expectation that he would upgrade to B-doubles, Keith had to make a decision to either finance a major upgrade or get out of the business altogether. In 2004, at the age of 75, he decided to retire. All the trucks and trailers were sold off but Keith is still an avid advocate of the industry. He can often be seen today at truck shows having a beer with old friends.