Trevor ‘Sarge‘ Sergent

In Just Truckn Around, September 2016•2 Minutes•By NZ Trucking magazine•September 21, 2016

Trevor ‘Sarge‘ Sergent was on his way to Palmerston North when Faye Lougher caught up with him in Shannon.

Sarge owns SAS Transport (Sergent and Sons) in Wellington and his trucks are on the road twice a day, seven days a week, transporting milk between Palmerston North and Grenada for Foodstuffs. The purpose-built trailer was made by Jackson Enterprises in Pahiatua and allows him to carry 1100 crates of milk a trip.

Sarge says trucks were his passion when he was a kid, but he spent many years in sales before deciding he‘d had enough. He began selling orange juice on commission and saved until he had a deposit on his own truck.

He now has a Mitsubishi Fighter for the around town work in Wellington, and a Hino 700 towing a refrigerated trailer, but that day was driving an International WorkStar 7600 with a Maxxforce 475hp engine and 18-speed Eaton automatic transmission.
Sarge has been driving trucks for 20-odd years now and says he just loves driving and being on the road. Son Jason works with him and he‘s hoping his truck-mad two-year-old grandson Noah will one day join the dynasty and help alleviate the shortage of drivers in the industry.

In common with many truckies, Sarge says car drivers can be a problem.
“ They have no appreciation of the weight of the truck and what it takes to slow down when they cut in front of me, especially going down the [Ngauranga] Gorge.” As for the vexing question of Holden versus Ford, Sarge is definitely a Holden man!