New Zealand Trucking contributor Milly McCauley came across Fonterra driver Jason King recently in Motueka and asked him if he would like to have a bit of a talk. As a schoolboy Jason grew up around trucks and spent a lot of time riding with his dad, who drove an Isuzu A-train milk tanker for the Golden Bay Dairy Co-op. Jason has been driving trucks for 16 years and has been with Fonterra since 2006.

His current truck is a 2014 Volvo FM 540. Jason tripleshifts the truck with two other drivers, collecting milk from farms in the upper South Island and delivering mainly to Fonterra plants at Brightwater and Takaka. The biggest problem Jason sees facing the industry is an unnecessary amount of over-regulation and rules. Milly asked Jason, if he were the transport minister, what piece of road would he change and why? He replied, “State Highway 60 [Takaka to Collingwood] because it is too rough and narrow in places”.

When asked what his dream truck would be to drive, Jason said he has always liked Volvos, so he is pretty happy with what he drives. During his downtime from the tankers Jason does some casual work for Sollys Freight, where his career behind the wheel began.
A memorable trip for him was delivering fertiliser from Golden Bay to South Westland, then picking up crushed cars out of Haast and delivering these to Christchurch. Milly asked what his favourite part about truck driving was and Jason said, “Just getting out there and doing it”. His preferred radio stations are The Rock and The Edge, – “Pretty much a little bit of everything”.

After presenting him with a nice cup of coffee, Milly asked Jason the vexing question, would he choose either a cooked or continental breakfast? “Cooked!” said Jason.

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