Twenty-six-year-old Corina Oldenmenger drives B-double tippers for Chester’s Transport of Corowa, NSW.
Corina Oldenmenger was only 17 when she started driving a delivery truck around Sydney.
And now the 26-year-old is proud to be driving B-doubles for Chester’s Transport of Corowa, New South Wales.
It is mostly tipper work and Corina says she loves the simplicity: “No curtains. No gates. No straps. No ropes.”
She drove a six-pallet Ford Trader around Sydney for four years but prefers country driving.
“There’s stuff down these back roads you don’t see on the highway. And you deal with different people and different loads every day.
“Most weeks I get in the truck on a Sunday [night] or a Monday morning and I spend most of the week on the road doing grain and fertiliser and I come back Friday night or early Saturday morning.
“I always sleep in the bunk but it could be anywhere from a truck stop to a grain silo or even just the side of the road where there’s a parking bay.”
Truck driving is an unconventional career for a young woman. Corina is grateful to her parents John and Sophia Oldenmenger who supported her decision. “I think [Dad] knew at an early age that I was going to be a truck driver.”
Soon after completing Year 12 Corina began local deliveries for ITS in her father’s LandCruiser.
Two months later her parents borrowed money to buy Corina a six pallet Ford Trader. She took over the repayments and – still on red P plates – used the Ford for the ITS deliveries. After four years driving the Ford Trader around Sydney she moved to Albury and drove for Ron Finemore Transport.
Corina has been with Chester’s Transport since April 2013. Read more in the February 2015 issue of Owner//Driver Magazine.
Photography: Tamara Whitsed