Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2011.
Bob Wright has been running to Darwin and then later to the Ranger Uranium Mine at Jabiru for the last 41 years.
He bought his first truck in 1966 from Western Transport in Toowoomba. It was a B-model Mack with a quad box. Bob started running Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane carting grain. It was in 1970 that he started the Darwin run and there have been many miles and a few trucks since then. His current truck is a 2007 Mack Superliner. The family business, Wright's Transport, consists of Bob and his wife Dawn, as co-owners, his sons David, Bruce, Jason and sister, Melissa. Dawn runs the office with support from Melissa. An uncle, Denis and his two sons, Brad and Dan, are driving for the company. Currently Bob's fleet of 13 prime-movers consists of 6 Western Stars, 5 Mack Superliners, 1 Freightliner and 1 Sterling. He also has 30 trailers and dollies. Five of these trucks run triples to Mt Isa and Darwin while the rest tow Incitec Pivot tankers. The depot is located in Pittsworth. The bulk of the freight, ammonia and general, is loaded out of Brisbane.Bob is widely considered amongst his peers as one of the true gentlemen of the road. He remembers fondly the good old days and the comradeship. There are many stories of flat tyres and everyone that came along would pull up to help even down to delegating someone to boil the billy. Bob is a very dedicated truck operator. If one of the drivers or the yard boy isn't there to do an oil change, grease or even change a light bulb, he will be down the back shed no matter what the time even if he has only just driven in the yard after getting back from Jabiru. The job just gets done so he knows it has been done.Mates of Bob say he is easily recognised, "That's Bob by the roar of his Maxidine and the beam of his big bull lights" taken from the song, Hear'em Go, sung by Slim Dusty. In more recent times Keith Jamieson got together with local singer Jeff Brown (who has won a Golden Guitar at Tamworth) and wrote and recorded "Truckin' The Wright Way," which is a brief summary of Bob's life in the transport industry. This song can be found on the cd, The Open Road, by Jeff Brown.Some of Bob's great loves are his 8 grandchildren and his dog, (you guessed it), Mack, and his spouse Dawn..After Cyclone Tracy he was the second truck into Darwin with loads of corrugated iron. His son David remembers how, when he was about 9, Bob was loading general freight, fell, broke his ankle and wrist, but still finished loading and got the roadtrain to Darwin on time. The family believes that Bob has earned his place on the Wall of Fame.