Mark Moody first appeared in New Zealand Trucking magazine in June 2007 when Faye Lougher (in her first story for the magazine) wrote about his original Mack MH. That truck has since been sold, but it was inevitable Mark, who has been in the industry for 40 years, wouldn’t be long without another. He admits to being a bit of a Mack fanatic and “has always had at least one in his fleet”.

Two now, in fact… both of which have crossed the magic 1,600,000km figure and feature this month as inductees into the Bridgestone New Zealand Trucking Million Mile Club.

First in line is ‘Blue Mood’s’ (BLUMDS), the 1999 MH Ultra-Liner that recently clocked over 2,300,000km. Mark bought BLUMDS from Clinton Waipahi Holdings with about 1,200,000km on it.

The main line of business for Mark Moody Transport, based in Koputaroa, north of Levin, is stock transport in the lower half of the North Island. Mark also carts a bit of wool and fertiliser. BLUMDS is fitted with two-deck/three-deck stock crates – the crate being the original fitted to the truck from its days based in Southland, although Mark fitted a new dropsider deck in 2018.

About eight years ago, the truck was repowered with a later 470hp engine. “The original motor’s sitting in a shed knackered. We repowered it about eight years ago, and it’s probably done about 500,000km on the crate motor,” says Mark. BLUMDS sends power through a Mack 18-speed gearbox to Mack diffs on Hendrickson airbag suspension. “There are no automatics in this yard!” Mark quips.