When a photo of this new K200 came across our desks, it had us all feeling a sense of déjà vu, stepping back nearly 40 years to 1986. After a leave of absence, this distinctive livery has come home and is now proudly pounding the highways of our fair nation again.

For those kicking around trucking during the mid 1980s, you may remember an article in the July 1986 issue of New Zealand Trucking magazine, covering a new International T-Line for Rudd Transport, at the time owned and operated by Paul Rudd’s dad, John.

“They were fun times,” says Paul. “Dad was a builder by trade, and had a business manufacturing wooden pallets, so he went through a huge amount of timber and had a lot of product to deliver. I had come into the business looking for a change and found myself behind the wheel of the TK Bedford delivery truck. As my passion for trucks and the transport industry grew, Dad said to me, ‘Well if you’re into them, then so am I,’ and that really was start of it.

“He purchased a new CK11 Nissan Diesel with a massive 110hp and I went to work in it picking up timber for the factory and delivering the pallets for him. It is this start in business that Dad gave me back then, that 40 years later, I now look back on and am extremely grateful to him for.”

As time went by, the workload grew, and a larger truck was needed – enter the International T-Line.

“It’s funny, we learnt everything on the go. We just thought, ‘Get a truck, put a deck on it and go.’ We didn’t realise at the time that we needed horsepower to get the job done, so the little 250hp 10L Cummins in that T-Line was working hard, especially when we hooked up an old four-axle trailer that we purchased off Dad’s good mate Bob Laing. Yeah, fully loaded with pallets, it was not too bad at about 14 tonne, but it was sweating hard coming home at 40 tonne from Rotorua loaded with timber for the pallet factory,” says Paul with a laugh.

“About a year later, we solved that issue though; we ended up ordering a second T-Line, this time a 400hp eight-wheeler, and hooked up the trailer to that, and that sorted it.”

It was with the arrival of the 250hp T-Line that the family decided the time was right to give Rudd Transport its own identity.

“A good schoolmate of mine, Gavin Curreen, was in the car-painting business, and suggested the red and yellow combination. It went on that first Inter, and then we ran with those colours all the way up to 1996, when the bulk of the work and the trucks were sold off. I went back to just me and one truck, changed the name to Reliable Distributors, and the colour of the cab to plain silver.”

At the time, that would have been an extremely tough decision to make, removing an identity that you have worked so hard to establish. But with the arrival of the new addition to the fleet there is now reason for celebration. Paul’s wife, Maree, explains: “We had been wanting to bring back the colours and the name for some time, our three sons included – they love the retro look – but it is a huge task to change a company name, so I kept putting it off.

“Now, as we celebrate 40 years in operation for the company, and the arrival of the new K200, the time really was right to make it all happen, and it is a great feeling seeing the colours again. For me, it is sort of like the family identity is finally coming back home.”

Paul agrees. “Dad knew the new K200 was on order, and also knew the fleet colours were coming back on it. Unfortunately, he passed away on his 84th birthday and didn’t get to see the finished project, but we sure do know that he would be extremely proud of it and smiling.”

Under the big Aerodyne cab of the Kenworth is the mighty Cummins X-15 set at 459kW (615hp) with a manual RTLO20918B Roadranger taking care of proceedings. Completing the driveline is a set of Meritor RT46- 160GP axles with full cross locks riding on Kenworth’s own Airglide 460 air suspension. The engineering of the custom deck for the truck was taken care of by the team at Chalky’s Contractors of Pukekohe. Their attention to detail and level of finish is superb. You are not left wanting for tie-down points or storage, that’s for sure. The trailer is a refurbished five-axle unit that was already within the Rudd fleet, and finishes off the combination well.

When looking at this month’s Top Truck you would have to agree; the vibrant colours suit the Kenworth; they inspire a trip down memory lane, remembering fleets and liveries of days gone by. As with last month’s Top Truck, the IVECO S-Way of Maher Transport, it is pleasing to see some of these older liveries again plying our highways. With this in mind, we proudly say – from us all here at New Zealand Trucking – welcome home, Rudd Transport.

Sincere thanks from the Rudds and New Zealand Trucking magazine to Hynds Pōkeno and Vernon Developments for allowing us to use their premises for photos.

Looking Back

July 1986
John Rudd’s International T-Line T2670, wearing the original Rudd Transport livery. We joined Paul to see how the 250hp unit fared on its typical upper North Island pallet run for Pallet Supplies.

With the payload being only about 14 tonnes, we said, “It is already proving admirably suited to its application and is turning in extremely satisfactory service.”