Being in lockdown doesn‘t provide many opportunities to talk to drivers for Just Truckin‘ Around profiles, but when they arrived at her home, Faye Lougher grabbed the chance – albeit at a safe distance – to chat to a couple of truckies. Septic tanks don‘t care if you‘re in week four of a lockdown – they still need emptying – and that was why Lincoln Wood and Bruce Mabey were at Faye‘s rural property. Working for JB‘s Environmental Ltd in Levin, the pair undertake a variety of jobs, including delivering fresh water and cleaning septic tanks (different trucks!). Lincoln was a dairy farmer for about 12 years and says he had been driving trucks on the farm for years. He joined JB‘s in 2017 and has had his class 4 licence for about six months. Bruce is a butcher by trade and says he got into driving because his father was a truck driver. He says in his 40 years of truck driving he‘s done “just about everything”.

The 2012 Isuzu FVZ1400M attracts attention with its ‘NO1NO2‘ number plate – it‘s part of a stable of trucks that include the ‘Stool Bus‘ and the ‘Turd Taxi‘! From Faye‘s place at Koputaroa the pair was off to Hokio Beach and then Paekakariki. Both men say they enjoy the camaraderie of other truck drivers. “We get a lot of respect on the road because of what we do,” says Lincoln. Neither could think of any issues that affect them, with Bruce saying the job was what you made of it. “We‘re not full-time truckies so we don‘t run into trouble,” says Lincoln. The vexing questions saw Lincoln choose snapper over John Dory, and – not surprising given the times we‘re living in – Bruce quickly went for an airliner rather than a cruise ship!

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