Dave West was grabbing a bite to eat in Levin when Faye Lougher caught up with him. The managing director of Riordan and West had left Pukekohe that morning and was headed for Wellington with a load of steel products. The fleet at Riordan and West comprises 17 trucks, and Dave was driving a 2018 Mercedes- Benz Actros with a 12-speed auto. He said it was a demo but he‘d had it for about two and a half weeks now!

If you‘d read the August 2018 issue of New Zealand Trucking you will know all about how Dave got into the transport industry, but to give a quick recap, his family owned a piggery and always had trucks in the business. Dave had been driving since his 18th birthday and in 2000 set up his own transport company. Nowadays, Dave doesn‘t drive full time, but grabs every chance he can get to jump behind the wheel of one of his trucks. “I just love being out there and doing it, I get to see everything, and every day is different. I‘d much rather be in a truck than an office.” When asked what he saw as the main problem in the industry he said that was easy.

“The driver shortage –
consequently I‘m driving one of my trucks. Part of that is health and safety; kids can‘t come along for a ride and get a taste of what it‘s like. I do as much as I can to let my drivers take their kids with them when it‘s safe to do so.” Dave says as a company, Riordan and West does what it can to attract good drivers. “We‘re pretty good with drivers and most of our gear is fairly new. I like to think we attract some reasonable drivers. We had one guy walk in off the street who was about to go for his class 4 licence and we gave him a go and he‘s turned out really well.” The first vexing question left Dave a bit stumped, so we let him pick another one: Would you rather fend off a crocodile or a shark? “Shark!” he laughed.

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