Scott Dickie leads a varied and exciting almost double life. Scott lives on and manages a dry stock grazing block at Cannington in South Canterbury.

He has a rural background, growing up on his family‘s farm at Ferndale in Southland and then working on stations also in the Eastern Southland region.

The other side of his busy life stems also from the wider Dickie family who have always been known for running some pretty impressive farm trucks. It is this background of “bouncing around hay paddocks in old 3070s” as Scott put it, as well as driving the farm-owned Volvo F12, that led him away from station life to working for Hokonui Rural Transport in Gore driving a Freightliner Argosy on stock and milk in the peak dairy season. His passion for trucks was evident, with success at truck shows even in the busy times.

Since moving to South Canterbury Scott has worked casually for Jackson Cranes and Heavy Haulage, mostly driving a Kenworth T904 with a Cummins Signature 620hp engine, hauling all types of heavy and over-dimension loads South Island-wide.

Ken Bell caught up with Scott and the Jackson‘s team at the end of a difficult trip over several days from Christchurch to Edendale, shifting a 23-metre long 28 tonne milk silo of 500,000-litre capacity. This trip, which was not out of the usual, began at Mercer Stainless in Christchurch and trekked to Southland via the Lindis Pass and traversed the Clyde Dam.

Impressive as it was, it required four pilot vehicles. When asked that given he‘s a Southlander living in Crusader territory, which team does he back, Scott replied that his loyalties remain with the Highlanders.