Ivor William Stewart
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in 2022.
Ivor William Stewart, nicknamed “The Drive”, was born in October 1950 in Swan Hill, Victoria and raised in the central Victorian town of Majorca.Ivor started his working life as an apprentice motor mechanic and once qualified, he started doing maintenance on the trucks at Central Victorian Transport (known as CVT) in Maryborough, Victoria, on the weekends. He was offered a job with the firm and in 1972 he proudly became a company driver.
Ivor began driving from Melbourne, Victoria with general freight and returning with 40-kilogram bags of cement from Adelaide Brighton Cement at Birkenhead, South Australia. Back then, the bags were all hand-loaded off a conveyor belt and manually unloaded at their destinations. All the loads were roped and tarped with great care so everything looked neat and tidy. ’Tarping’ was a skill and the manner in which the tarp was put on a load and pulled down demonstrated the pride a driver took in their job.
Ivor drove a Commer Knocker 132 horse powered 6 speed overdrive gearbox prime mover before moving into a conventional cab MAN 9215 single drive prime mover with a 12 speed ZF ‘pogo stick’ shift, in 1975. In those days, most prime movers did not have sleeper cabins and a driver usually took a nap by laying down across the seats or over the steering wheel.
In 1976 Ivor became an owner-driver purchasing a MAN 9230 cab-over single drive and subcontracting for CVT. This truck was replaced in 1978 with a bogey drive White Road Commander and Ivor continued running Melbourne to Adelaide, two round trips one week and three the next.
Following the recession in 1981, with work drying up and diesel fuel at a $1.00 per gallon Ivor decided to sell his truck and go back on the payroll at CVT as a driver. Driving a new K100E Kenworth, Ivor did the Melbourne, Western Port and Geelong to Adelaide run. He was always conscious of the appearance of the truck and its load, spending many an hour cleaning the unit, checking the security of the load and always driving in a professional manner on the road. Ivor maintained ‘old school’ standards of respect for the equipment and operations.
In 1990, Ivor hooked a new Kenworth T400 to a pneumatic tanker on supersingle tyres and delivered cement loads all over Victoria and into New South Wales. He liked to attend the annual Castlemaine Truck Show and his truck won several awards, testimony to the attention Ivor gave to the presentation of his vehicle. One time, Ivor broke his arm but after three days off, he was back in the truck, as no one else was going to drive his pride and joy!
In 1993 Ivor took over a CHR 400 horse power Mack towing a 40' O'Phee convertible tri-axle trailer, carting steel to Adelaide and backloading bulk soda ash and cement. Convertible trailers with tip over axles made for many interesting challenges for a driver! 2004 saw Ivor driving a new Kenworth T604 hooked up to a Convair B-double tanker set to cart carbon powder, a waste product from aluminium processing in Geelong, to the cement works in Adelaide where it was used as an energy source.
Ivor carefully managed his time on the road to balance with his family life. There was no wasting of time at roadhouses other than to fuel up and attend to basics as his intention was to get home, have a good rest and go again. For over 38 years, Ivor was a dedicated driver and subcontractor to CVT and he only fully retired in 2022.