Andy Souter

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2002.

Andy Soutar got his truck drivers licence as a 16 year old when the local police officer pulled him up in Rochester (Vic) and asked to see it.  Andy didn't have one, and after confessing he didn't, the police officer told him to unload the truck and then get straight down to the police station to pick one up - or else!
Andy was in the thick of it when interstate haulage really took off in the 1960s.  He drove one of the first Thames prime-movers carting Ford Zephyr bodies out of Melbourne.  He then had a go at running a small fleet of trucks with his brother.  Unfortunately that didn't work out as planned and Andy pulled out.Andy and his wife Nadia then purchased a 1986 W Model Kenworth fitted with a 360hp CAT and went back on the road as an owner-driver.  The mainstay of this business was between Adelaide, Mildura and Brisbane, a run he was to continue for over 20 years.  Andy generally steered clear of industry politics.  He'd started driving trucks at a time when everything was meant to be freighted on rail so there weren't too many rules for the road.  But the more efficient the trucking industry became over the years, the more Governments over-regulated it.  Andy finally made a stand in 1987 at Aratula (near Ipswich QLD) when he heard that the truckies had blockaded the road at Yass, NSW.  Andy's blockade at Aratula and the professionalism in which he put the truckies' case foward  won him much admiration within his industry.Andy is renown right throughout the truck industry for being fair and well-balanced in his approach and to this day continues to be a great advocate for the road transport industry.  Andy and his wife, Nadia, are now retired and travelling around Australia in their motorhome.