When strolling around the 2023 Transfleet Trailers/Allied Petroleum Bombay Truck Show, field editor Carl Kirkbeck met Dave Billing of Te Atatu South, sitting back with a fellow operator and enjoying the atmosphere of the show over some light refreshments.

When he was young, Dave, a native of Waiheke Island, helped his uncle in his business, Waiheke Freight. “My uncle had a green CF Bedford van that he ran around the island, delivering all sorts of bits and pieces, so I suppose the bug bit me then, cruising around in the passenger seat, helping him with his deliveries,” he says.

Looking for work once he left school, Dave – in his words – moved “off the rock to the mainland”. A job with Hydes Transport on a TK Bedford when he was 25 was his big start as a driver. Time with PanTam and Tappers progressed Dave to the bigger gear and set him up to step into his own owner- driver business.

These days, you will find Dave all over the country in his 2013 Iveco Stralis 500, pulling all manner of company trailers for various transport companies.

“There is nothing better than getting about this country, enjoying the scenery as we go about our work. It’s definitely a perk of the job,” Dave says.

Dave’s vexing question was, ‘When it comes to trucks, Yankee iron or Euro style?’ Dave thinks for a moment and says, “That’s a hard one as I like them both, and seriously they all have a place in different applications. But American iron is cool.”