Originally part of the fleet of Fulton Hogan Central, Alexandra, ‘Mooov’ (MOODS5) is another 1999 MH Ultra-Liner and has covered 1,650,000km.

It retains its original 460 Etech engine while the rest of its spec is like that underpinning BLUMDS – Mack 18-speed gearbox, Mack diffs and Hendrickson airbag rear suspension. Its passengers ride in a set of two-deck/four-deck stock crates. The deck is original, built for it brand new, but Mark added the crates it has now.

While he drives both trucks, Mark spends most of his time behind the wheel of MOODS and has a part-time driver on BLUMDS.

Rural transport has long been a feature in Mark’s life. He grew up on a farm at Koputaroa and got his love of trucks driving with his late father. At 19, Mark got a job transporting potatoes for a local market gardener who leased a truck from Koputaroa Transport. Mark ended up doing more and more work for the transport company, and when owner Don Carl decided to retire and split the company into two halves, Mark bought the half that contained a house and the depot and has been there ever since.

Why the love for Macks? It’s simple, explains Mark: “I just like them – it’s a bit of a hard question to answer why – I can’t really put it into words. I like driving them; they are nice to drive, reasonably reliable and not too expensive to repair. That’s my biased opinion; other guys will tell you something different.”

What other reason would you need?