Gavin Myers was staring out his kitchen window one Saturday morning when a shiny Mack Super-Liner tractor unit rolled down his street and turned into the school across the road. It was there to collect one of the two Life Education Trust mobile classrooms that roam the Bay of Plenty’s primary schools.

“I saw you coming across the road and thought I’d done something wrong,” laughed driver Bevan Davey as they got chatting.

Bevan works for Priority Logistics, based at Mount Maunganui. Ordinarily, he carts oils out of Kinleith to the Mount each day. Moving the classroom around is a job the company does a couple of times a month.

Bevan’s Super-Liner joined the Priority fleet in September 2020, and he’s put more than 80,000km on it since. “It’s a beast,” he says. The 6×4 model is fitted with the MP10 in 448kW (600hp) trim and 12-speed mDRIVE transmission. “I prefer the auto, and it seems to be the way everyone’s going now anyway.

“I got into Macks thanks to my uncle Peter Mitchell. Before this, we had Western Stars down here. Mine was up for replacement, so my boss asked me what I’d prefer, and I said I want a Mack Super-Liner. A week later, he’d ordered one,” Bevan explains.

Originally from Thames, Bevan’s been driving for 32 years. He and his wife transferred to the Bay of Plenty when their kids moved out of home. “It’s not a bad place to be, but one day we’ll go back to Thames – it’s nice and quiet.”

Bevan seems to like it “nice and quiet”; his favourite thing about trucking is being out early in the morning, one of the few vehicles on the road. And, at the opposite end of the scale, he hates going into Auckland.

Bevan’s vexing question is a JTA classic: Holden or Ford? “I like Fords, but I’d have a Holden.”