Welcome to one of my very rare tyre shine free stories. I have an especially cool custom-built truck; I have a true-blue ‘battler-esque’ protagonist, and I have a classically moulded Australian trucking story. What I don’t have is a single bottle of tyre shine throughout this entire tale or photoshoot and yet there are absolutely no diminishing effects because of it. Welcome to Aquaholic Water Cartage and Transport Services and its new Viking Volvo, Odin.
We’ll address each of my aforementioned ingredients from first to last in no particular order of preference. Starting with the epically cool custom-built truck. It is fairly obvious from the photos this is not your standard Volvo FH16 – this striking Swedish workhorse is the latest creation from the mind of Tamworth’s JT Fossey dealer principal John Saint. Regular readers may recall a feature story awhile back that shone a spotlight on the Outlaw series of Macks that the Tamworth truck salesman was producing. With individual paint patterns, exclusive customisation inside and out and elite upgrades that made these Macks collectors’ items in their own right, the success of the Outlaw Series led John Saint to the idea of rolling out a similar custom range in JT Fossey’s other leading brand, Volvo.
While the Macks were leaning on the Aussie Outlaw mythology for inspiration, when it came to the Volvos, John decided to favour a theme more in-line and culturally relevant to the Nordic manufacturer he would be customising by dedicating each Volvo to a legend of Norse mythology. It started with Viking No.1, which is a homage to Odin, the god of both war and death, father of Thor and a dude who happily martyred an eye in order to be able to see everything going on in the world – it’s funny the sacrifices that had to be made before the invention of TikTok and YouTube. History lesson aside, Volvo Viking number one was named Odin and, just like the limited-edition Outlaw Macks, this Volvo got all the special treatment and accessories that justifies its one-of-a-kind title.
It all starts with individual custom paint jobs from the Brisbane based Belair Paint team. Each Viking Volvo will get a custom colour that aligns with the mythology of its namesake, as well as custom artwork on each truck done by the amazing Showman Signs – in this case, it was an awe-inspiring Odin art piece on the side of the big XXL Volvo cab. Accessories like the custom roof bar, a range of spotlights and safety beacons are standard on the Viking trucks, with BlingHQ in Hatton Vale adding in plenty of shiny custom pieces to ensure the Viking Volvos stand out from the crowd. Each Viking also gets the Briskair treatment, with a top-of-the-line bunk heating and cooling system. You will also notice that Odin is sporting twin stacks on the back, the custom King Bars Bullbar and a Mr Wong’s Hydraulics package. There are lights galore on these limited-edition Volvos as well as super singles and a greaseless turntable.
Now if you look closely over the drives on this particular Viking Volvo, you will notice the custom build stainless guards and BlingHQ stainless bracket covers are not so visible – instead there is a PJs custom heavy haulage rear guard package. The original guards looked great, however the purchasing of this Volvo was neither inspired by a love of Nordic history nor a testament to an elite limited edition purchase. This truck was purchased because it was a heavy spec Volvo needed by a Volvo fan, and hence the shiny guards went pretty quick. In order to explain that, we need to pivot a little to the second and third parts of our tyre shine free fable in the ‘battler-esque’ portion and the classically moulded Australian trucking tale. It all starts with the introduction of the steerer of this Viking adventure, Keith Reid.
The term ‘battler-esque’ isn’t an official word – I have taken a little creative licence and tried to come up with a word that would best describe Keith Reid and this is the best I could do. Keith’s attitude and approach from day one on this Earth has been the epitome of a good old Aussie battler – he’s a stoic and resilient true-blue Aussie that works a lot and complains very little. By definition, the folklore behind the imagery also depicts a person that works tirelessly for very little, with a mere modicum of success. That’s where the description of Keith and his wife Melissa falls short. This powerhouse couple started with a fraction less than nothing and built a thriving business that now operates more than 20 trucks and 30 plus trailers. They are number one on speed dial for a lengthy list of customers around the Queensland area, whether they need a tanker load of water or some piece of machinery relocated. Keith and Mel are the epitome of humble, and two of the most unassuming people you will meet. Yet on the flip side, Keith’s ability to spin a yarn with absolute authentic ocker attributes reaches near university degree skill levels.
“We started the business in 2007, I had been working at the council for about three and a half years and couldn’t do another day,” Keith says.
“I had been sitting in the office one day looking for a water cart and could not find one for love or money. I looked at the rates and thought that it wasn’t too bad. There was plenty of demand because of the water restrictions, so I thought I’d get one myself.”
In true Aussie story telling tradition, there were a lot more expletives in Keith’s retelling and I am sure you can understand why I have had to leave the colourful language out. As you do read the quotes though, feel free to slip in your own extra adjectives to spice the story back up.
“We went looking for something we could afford, cause the arse was out of our trousers,” he says.
“We found the last HRT transporter. It wasn’t a bad truck, it was an old Iveco Eurostar, so it was cheap as chips for what it was.”
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At the time the couple were venturing out on their own, it was near on impossible to find tankers in Queensland either. In Melbourne though, where they were picking the truck up from, it was a lot easier to get your hands on an old fuel tanker and convert that into a water truck, hence the wallet stretched out to a second hand Iveco and a well-used fuel tanker.
That first truck was a huge gamble by the recently married couple, and as Melissa admits, it was a big bet they were taking on themselves.
“We actually had to borrow money off Keith’s parents for the first payment and hope the truck had enough fuel in it to get it up from Melbourne,” Melissa says.
While putting yourself out there is a leap too far for many of us to take, for the likes of Keith and Mel, that’s exactly where they shine.
“When things are tough, you just get up swinging harder,” Keith says.
“To be honest, that’s probably always been my favourite time – when it all turns to s#@t I love it, you just get up and swing harder.”
As much as Keith sounds like one of those inspirational posters you mock at the doctors’ waiting room, for him it is the mantra that’s led to the success of the family business. He’s not just talking the talk – he’s walking it.
“By the time I got that old Iveco up to Brisbane, I’d already booked in three loads of water. I did those first few loads of water while on a permit where I had to get the truck up from Melbourne. It created money to keep going from there,” he says.
Having contacts in the game was a big advantage for Keith – he had grown up among trucks and machines. His parents owned earthmoving equipment around Sydney before chasing the humidity north and setting up in Brisbane. Keith’s childhood was spent pretending he had an interest in school while focusing on helping his family and getting his hands on any machinery he was allowed to drive. By the time he was old enough to sign himself out of school for good, his family was flat-out laying fibre optic cable all over Queensland for Telstra.
“It wasn’t unusual for us to leave Christmas Eve, live in camps for a year and return the following Christmas,” Keith says.
All this time out west gave Keith people skills, mechanical aptitude and the ability to manoeuvre any time of machinery into any location. These skills would be the lifeblood of his own family business when the literal floodgates opened in 2009 and almost ruined the new company Keith and Mel had formed in Aquaholic Water Cartage.
“We got the name Aquaholic Water Cartage when I was looking for the first tanker, I saw it on the bug deflector of a truck I looked at,” Keith says.
“It wasn’t registered as a company name; it was just the name of the truck. Because that’s what we were going to be doing, we decided to name the company Aquaholic Water Cartage.”
As 2009 rolled through, Aquaholics and its trusty Iveco were doing well. The water restrictions in and around Brisbane meant Keith was flat-out. As good as the old HRT transporter was, Keith reckoned it was time to look at getting a new truck to replace the old girl.
“I grew up around the old Macks,” he says.
“My dad had Value-Liners, an R-model and even an Ultra-Liner, as well as an old Road Boss. When I was looking for a new truck, Volvo came along and gave me a demo, it was an FM480, or 500 I think.”
Keith admits that buying a Volvo was not really in his mindset.
“I was convinced it would be no good for what I wanted. When I got the demo, I did everything I could to break it. By the end of the week, I had to admit it was pretty cool,” he says.
“I thought, being an auto, it would be useless, but it could do stuff you couldn’t do with a stick no matter who you are.”
Once again, I implore you to add some colourful adjectives in when you are reading the quotes. The end result was Keith was impressed enough to order a brand new FH480.
So began a long history with the Swedish giants that has culminated in this stunning 700hp XXL Volvo that you see before you. The flexibility and functionality of that very first purchase, as well as the unbreakably tough performance of the demo model, has seen the Aquaholics fleet stacked with the Volvo badges. Without Keith’s ‘battler-esque’ resolve, that first Volvo could very well have been the last.
“We bought that Volvo when work was flat-out, the water restrictions were meant to be in place for a while. Then the 2009 floods hit and just like that the work dried up,” he says.
“I was actually taking the Volvo for its first service when we heard the water restrictions had been lifted.”
The easy option at that stage would have been to retreat but, as I mentioned earlier, when times get tough, Keith just gets up and swings harder. Instead of rolling over, the couple decided to take full advantage of the versatility of their new Volvo. They purchased a $8000 Fruehauf flat top and a second hand 48ft Moore drop deck and shifted their focus to the float work. With Keith’s experience growing, added to his reputation he had nurtured with both his own tanker work and machinery work he’d been involved in with his parents, it did not take long for the new work scape to take hold. The company changed from Aquaholics Water Cartage to Aquaholic Water Cartage and Transport Solutions and with that it began to grow again.
Over the next decade, the transport solutions side of the business overtook the tanker division – the company now has almost twice as many float trailers as tankers. The Volvo influence, however, has held its own when it comes to preference within the Aquaholic fleet.
“A lot of our work is just local stuff, picking up from sites around the city and dropping at others. There is a lot of tight areas to work in and the Volvos are great when it comes to that side of things,” Keith says.
“They are also great when it comes to getting the bigger jobs done. The majority of our work is around that 65-to-75-tonne mark and Volvos like this one are factory rated at 131 tonne.”
Even with a family history steeped in the Bulldog brand, it is the Volvo badge that has now earned the lead role in the Aquaholic story.
“I still have a couple of Macks in the fleet though,” Keith says with a laugh, “It’s a bit of a bad habit.”
The performance of the Volvos meant that late last year, when the need came for another float truck, it was Volvo that had earned the first phone call.
“I’d approached Volvo to see about getting a heavy spec’d Volvo to add to the fleet, but at the time they had no build slots available” Keith says.
“One of our subbies had actually bought an Outlaw Mack off John Saint in Tamworth. I was working with Dylan from TSK group and he helped get me in touch with John and the team at JT Fossey who had a couple of built slots and might be able to help me out.”
As luck would have it, John had almost finished building the first Viking Volvo and it was all but perfect for what Keith would need.
“I didn’t buy it because it was a Viking Volvo, I bought it because we needed the truck,” Keith says.
Once he got his hands on it, Keith very much appreciated the extra features that came with the limited-edition truck. Well, almost all the features.
“I had to send it in to PJs to get the heavy duty guards before we could use it,” he says.
“The Viking ones looked good but were not practical for our work environment.”
After a bit of time to get used to the extra attention the bold Odin Volvo tends to bring along, Keith has become pretty accustomed to the 700hp Viking.
“It’s a really good truck, all our Volvos are. They are perfect for what we do, the best thing Volvo ever did was give me that demo. Now I have this one and it is brilliant,” Keith says.
I firmly believe that Keith legitimises my newly constructed word ‘battler-esque’ with an approach that exemplifies the persona of a battler while earning the success not commonly affiliated with the term. His origin story is as classically moulded as an Australian transport story can be and I have definitely shared an epically cool custom truck that looks astounding in all its working truck splendour. And, as promised at the start, not a single bottle of tyre shine has been sacrificed in the shooting of this Viking God.
Also, Viking Volvo number two is out now, named Loki after the god of mischief.
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