What is the best gift your boss has given you? A Christmas bonus? An afternoon off? Some handy tips to improve your skills? For lucky truck driver Dave Attkins, his career was made when his boss bought a new truck and made some modifications to pay tribute to Dave’s late grandfather.
A couple of years ago, Dave’s boss Colin Pasquale at Compas Transport ordered a new truck, with the primary aim being to provide it to Dave to use on his daily runs. When tragedy struck Dave’s family, the plans for the truck soon changed.
“The truck was always coming, then, on December 29 in 2023, we lost my pop,” Dave told OwnerDriver.
“He had such a big influence on my life and my career – he was where it all began for me.”
Throughout 2023, Dave’s pop had been battling cancer, with his family giving their all to try and keep him as comfortable as possible in his final months. When word got through to Colin Pasquale that Dave and his family had lost pop, he did his best to grant them their wish.
“My uncle and myself both wanted to put pop on the back of a truck to carry him to his resting place,” Dave says.
“I spoke to Colin about it – at the time we were going to use his T900, pending its availability. While all of this was happening, Colin ended up buying me a T610 while we waited for the new SAR to be built.”
When the T610 arrived first, Colin moved to ensure the truck was ready for its special mission. It may not have been yet ready to go on the roads, but Colin soon had his workshop crew putting in long hours to get the truck on the road for Dave and his family, taking the turntable off and getting it ready for the day.
To commemorate Dave’s pop, Dave was able to drive a day cab from the Compas Transport fleet while his father drove the operator’s Mack Trident in a procession. On Dave’s day cab were stickers that paid tribute to his grandfather. It proved to be a poignant moment for a family with a rich history in trucking.
“My pop began his driving career at the age of 17, where he drove for various companies over the years,” Dave says.
“Over the years he drove for Aztec Transport and BMG Transport before becoming an owner-driver on and off over the years.
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“He had an extensive career with Lake Lines running from Lake Munmorah to western New South Wales and earned the nickname ‘Green Lizard’ when he first started driving. The Lake Lines owner one day bought pop a brand-new green Ford Louisville – from there he got the nickname from the guys at Lake Lines.”
At Late Lines, Barry Attkins (Dave’s pop) became a well-known member of the trucking industry, driving W models and Western Stars and completing mainly fridge van work for Lake Lines’ subcontractor TNT Refrigerated. For many years, Barry would run all over the country, with Dave remembering his pop completing pig runs where he would collect pigs on farms and take them to meatworks and other locations.
“He spent a lot of time in the Hunter Valley on the coast with tippers,” Dave says.
“He worked right up until he got crook, completing part-time driving until he went out at 86. He gave up driving full-time at 78 but regretted it – if he hadn’t of done that he thought he would still be going strong.”
Described by Dave as a “gentleman of the highway”, the Attkins family paid tribute to Barry through a funeral procession of trucks that left from his house in Muswellbrook, NSW. Dave says he was a lover of the land, including farming and his cattle. As a kid, Dave would find any reason to be around him – he just wanted to be like his pop.
“I was always going to drive trucks, regardless of what pop said to me,” Dave says.
“He tried to talk me out of it as a kid. He said if he discovered that I was driving trucks then he would kick my ass, but then I got too big for him and he couldn’t.
“In the end, he was proud that I drove trucks, and told me so a few times when we would buy a truck. They were special times.”
The funeral saw around 150 people and 15 trucks take part in the special ceremony to honour Barry’s life. With a truck-themed coffin joining the procession, Dave relished being able to drive the old Mack Trident for the day. Soon enough, Dave was able to hop behind the wheel of an updated truck that had some special touches part of it to pay tribute to Barry.
As time went on and Dave was invited to chat with Colin more about the new truck that was incoming, Dave got involved in picking the colours and the right specs. When the truck was finally ready to pick up, Colin told Dave to head to dealer Gilbert & Roach in Newcastle to see it in person.
“The team at Gilbert & Roach presented the SAR to my wife and I,” Dave says.
“Unbeknownst to me, Colin and his wife Marisa had gone and built the truck in honour of my pop without me knowing, putting his initials on the Kenworth badge and his name on the back of the truck.”
Dave will never forget the day he walked out of the Kenworth office at Gilbert & Roach and took in the new truck. Initially, Dave was simply impressed by the shiny new SAR that stood before him. When Colin turned up and told him to walk around the beast, he soon saw the special touches involved.
“I walked around the front of the truck and saw pop’s initials on the badge – that got me,” Dave says.
“We then moved onto the passenger side and headed around the back, where we saw the line ‘in loving memory of Barry Keith Attkins’ written on it – that blew us away.
“A Pegasus was also added to the Kenworth logo to commemorate pop’s love for animals.”
Although it was a surprise, this touching gesture wasn’t out of the ordinary for Colin and Marisa Pasquale. The couple first founded Compas Transport in 2002 and have quickly grown it to become one of the most respected and reliable privately-owned transport companies in NSW. By focusing on customer service and its people, Compas has allowed great staff like Dave to flourish and cherish working for the company.
“The new SAR has been unreal to drive – it looks wonderful and drives very well,” Dave says.
“It’s very comfortable and is getting better each day – it certainly turns some heads and I love it for that reason.”
The new SAR is Dave’s latest truck in a long history of hopping behind the wheel each day. At the age of 18, Dave followed in Barry’s footsteps and started driving rigid tip trucks around the Hunter Valley for an earthmoving company. He soon progressed onto working for a Queensland company, completing deliveries of beer and timber around time.
“I then got my trailer licence and started loading and unloading them interstate,” he says.
“I then got the opportunity to run linehaul from Brisbane to Maryborough and Bundaberg every day. I progressed to run more interstate routes for a few years before switching to some truck and dog work for various companies in the Hunter Valley again.”
Having been in and out of interstate and local work in recent years, Dave decided to work once again for Colin and the Compas Transport team around two and a half years ago. Since then, he’s been running between Sydney and Newcastle. Now, he’s doing so in the shiny new SAR that has a nice personal touch attached.
With Compas Transport celebrating more than two decades of operations, Dave is has nothing but praise for the Pasquales and how they’ve run the business since 2002.
“There’s a heap of new trucks coming to celebrate – mine just happens to be one of them that got turned into a special build,” Dave says.
“I can’t thank Colin and Marisa enough for everything they’ve done for my family and I, including the truck and the time off around the funeral.
“It was so special to be presented the new truck alongside my wife Nicole, who has been a big influence in my life. I’ll never forget that wonderful day.”
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