As the old traditions go, diamonds and red roses are considered customary endowments when one reaches the landmark heights of their 60th birthday. It is a major milestone and therefore worthy of such indulgences. For Andrew ‘Jamesy’ James, however, there were no scattered rose petals brightening his birthday and no crystalised carbon to commemorate the occasion.
Instead, Jamesy chose to celebrate his 60th revolution of this planet with something a lot cooler – his first ever brand-new truck in this stunning 2024 Mack Superliner, ‘Backroads Motel’.
For a man that has been in and around the transport arena since he was old enough to be hitching rides in his uncles’ trucks to avoid school holiday chores, it may seem like a very long wait to purchase your first brand new prime mover. And it is, but as you get the privilege of hearing Jamesy’s story, you learn to understand that he is the kind of man that works with the tools in front of him and gets the best out of aforementioned tools.
He built his small company off the back of a hard-working Kenworth T950 with a 35’ bunk, no sleeper air and more whistle and rattles than a country sheepdog trial. It took nearly 20 years of working the 950, putting over three million kilometres on the clock, before Jamesy decided to splurge and buy himself a retirement truck to coincide with his 60th birthday.
Don’t get me wrong – there is no way this man knows how to ‘retire’. But he is claiming the majestic Mack, kitted out with all the modern luxuries and the biggest sleeper he could get, will see him through ‘to retirement’. Albeit, after only a few months behind the wheel, he is already finding himself healthier and happier on the road than he’s ever been and retirement may be the furthest thing from his mind these days.
Jamesy is a country Victorian through and through. Growing up in and around Benalla on the dairy farms, Jamesy was raised with the kind of work ethic that would pay dividends as he matured. While the farming life would envelop his brothers, Jamesy went a different way.
“When I was younger, through school I’d spent my holidays in Melbourne with my uncle Rex Holdsworth, who had H&Q Transport, and in Shepparton with one of my other uncles Ken Mathieson, who had Mathieson Transport,” he told OwnerDriver.
“One of their trucks would pick me up in Benalla on its way to Melbourne back from Sydney, then I’d spend a week or two with them and get a ride home on one of the trucks again at the end of the holidays.
“I never went interstate with them, I was just helping around the yard, loading and unloading. It was all ropes back then and tarps, no such thing as straps.”
As fun as child labour was for Jamesy back then, he admits that once he hit 18 or 19 and started getting into cars, there were better things to do than, and I quote, ‘buggerising around with trucks’.
The joy he found playing around with cars led to Jamesy getting an apprenticeship with the local Ford dealership. That role would eventually see him undertake the role of service manager for the dealership. I am glossing over a lot of middle ground stuff, like the fact that during his car apprenticeship days, Jamesy was also keeping his truck torch lit by doing a fair bit of greasing and minor service jobs for a local company, or the fact that between his apprenticeship and the service manager role, he took off east to a place I can neither pronounce or spell and enjoyed a relaxed lifestyle of working, footy and fishing. Seeing as we are all eager to see how he ended up with the Mack in front of you, however, I won’t go through his entire story. Though I am sure, with Jamesy’s story-telling skills, that there are a few good yarns in there.
Back in Benalla when Jamesy took on the service manager role, he recalls how his path changed.
“I was busting my gut doing the service manager role, looking after the workshop for about three years and then I went and started my own workshop. It was something I always wanted to do,” he says.
The timing for his branching out on his own lined up perfectly with Bridgestone looking to open a dealership in his hometown.
“If you met the right requirements, you didn’t have to pay, so Bridgestone was happy I met the requirements and next thing we had a workshop and tyre shed,” he says.
All of this was centred around the car tyre market, but as the Bridgestone tyre side of the business grew, they soon incorporated the Bridgestone truck tyre market as well, meaning a much bigger shed.
“The workshop stuff was purely cars; we never did truck repairs. But having the truck tyre side fired up my truck bug again,” he admits.
“Driving trucks out in the yard, backing them in, that’s where I learnt to back a B-double, putting it in the shed. People would just leave the trucks there, we’d bring them in, fit them and put them back for them to come pick up that night.”
Like a true Aussie entrepreneur, Jamesy was grabbing every opportunity he could, from the tyres and workshop to contracting out his mechanics for full-time on-site work at the local sawmill, looking after all the mills forklifts. You may ask, why specifically mention one guy doing forklifts? Well, that is because it was this particular job allocation where we can trace the origins of Jamesy’s Transport to.
“We had a service unit that was based out there maintaining all the mills forklifts and occasionally there was some jobs you couldn’t do onsite. So, we’d have to bring them into the workshop,” Jamesy explains.
“This old bloke in town had this ‘86 model, twin steer bogie drive UD and I’d get him to transport the forklifts in. We did that for about 18 months, then he decided he was going to retire. I thought, ‘well that’s going to bugger me’, so I bought the truck off him.”
That was it, the roots were seeded for Jamesy’s Transport courtesy of a 1986 UD he bought back in 1998. It was a truck that, despite his jokes, was the backbone of Jamesy’s Transport.
“‘I reckon you could still jump in that truck and drive to Darwin, no problems. You would have to drive at night, so it wouldn’t see the hills coming, but it was a good solid truck,” he says.
“If I was buying a Japanese truck, I’d buy another UD without thinking about it.”
Obviously, the little UD needed to be more productive than just shuffling broken forklifts to his own workshop. Being a well known local, when word spread that Jamesy had the tilt-tray, he soon started picking up other jobs, predominantly with a company that would eventually become Coates Plant Hire, A&H Plant Hire.
“They got us moving a bit of gear around and it made it worthwhile owning the UD,” Jamesy says.
“You’d go and do a shift to site at 5 or 6 in the morning, still be at the workshop by 8am, then shut your doors at 5 and go and do another move after hours.”
It was a workload that Jamesy enjoyed and, for almost two years, he happily played mechanic, tyre fitter and machinery mover.
In 2000, Jamesy’s reliability with what was now Coates led to the offer/request for him to expand Jamesy’s Transport and put on a float. He admits that it was jumping in the deep end a little, but it was an opportunity and Jamesy is never one to pass an opportunity.
“Back then there weren’t a lot of second-hand widening drop decks, I even looked to get one built,” he says.
“Then I found a set up in Melbourne that came as a package with an old W-model. I mainly wanted the trailer, but I figured if the truck did me for 12 months that would do.”
The old W-model was a paddock runner. Originally sporting a CAT motor, it had been refitted with an M11 Cummins motor for better fuel economy and was the perfect beginner for Jamesy’s Transport.
Jamesy ran that truck for nearly two years – the machinery moving was still a side project to the workshop and tyres. Alongside one of his other mechanics, Jamesy would share the pre and post workloads, as well as more than a few weekend shifts. Jamesy and his driver were even branching out and doing a bit of hay as well – it was a recipe that fed the trucking bug within him and, by the time the old M11 motor started to wear out and Jamesy was looking to replace the W-model, the trucking bug had all but taken over.
“I didn’t want to spend money doing the W-model up, so I ended up trading it in and purchased a second hand T950,” he says.
“It had 1.2 million kms on it and now, 17 years later, it has over four million.”
He laughs as he remembers the effects of putting the stunning looking T950 on the road.
“Once I got the 950, people saw the smart looking truck and the work just increased. It got to the point where I just had more of the truck bug than the desire to deal with public,” he says.
He looked at all the facts and figures and decided trucking was where his heart lay and he was going all in. He sold the tyres and workshop and put all his energy into Jamesy’s Transport.
Alongside the T950 that was Jamesy’s baby, and the UD which was the origin story, there was also a little rigid with a Hiab crane that Jamesy had hired. With a young fella in the UD and Jamesy floating between the little truck and the T950, the local work kept the company flat out for a good couple of years, validating the choice of trucks over tyres.
Now we start getting into the area where Jamesy’s dogged determination to succeed shines through. While it was all rainbows and unicorns back in the early 2010s, it didn’t stay that way for Jamesy’s Transport. In order to get to this amazing 60th birthday present, he went through several changes of pace.
“Once the local Coates Hire closed down, we lost a lot of work, so I returned the Hiab and sold the tilt tray and just had the 950,” he recalls, jokingly adding it may have been better to stick with the workshop and tyres over trucks.
Not to be dissuaded, Jamesy spent a fair bit of time living off load shift. He had major stints contracting to the late McAleese Transport that saw him running Melbourne to Moranbah in Queensland for quite a while. It also saw him spend several months doing loops of a mine up in Moranbah as an onsite truck. The big T950 was getting experience in every genre the transport industry had to offer.
Along with stints at McAleese and Robbie Walker Transport, Jamesy took whatever work he could. That work ethic I alluded to in his youth ensured that Jamesy would go hard and keep the bills paid and wheels turning, no matter what. Eventually an opportunity came to buy out a retiring business back home in Benalla.
“I’d done work for a mate hauling pine posts and when he wanted to retire, I bought it. I got a couple of his trailers and his Argosy, which I still have now,” Jamesy says.
There was enough work to keep the 950 and the Argosy going. When another mate came looking for work, Jamesy picked up a second hand K200 which he repainted and aimed to put into the pine post work.
Not long after the K200 hit the road, Jamesy picked up more work, this time hauling molasses – a job perfect for him and the big T950.
“I left the other boys looking after the pine posts and I stayed with the molasses,” he says.
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“I’m doing my four to four and a half thousand kms a week, sometimes five. It got to the point where, at four million kilometres, the old girl was getting on and I was thinking about getting a new truck.
“The way I looked at it, I’d never had a new truck. I spoke to the guys I was contracted too and they assured me they were happy and there was plenty of work there for me.
“It would take about 12 months to get ordered, built and delivered, so I’d get it around my 60th birthday, I’d run it for five to seven years, sell it and retire. That was my thinking behind it all.”
For a man who has clocked up over three million kms and counting on a T950, you would think the Kenworth store would be the only stop for Jamesy, but you’d be wrong. Jamesy spent a lot of time investigating all his options.
“I remember a few years ago Mack released the 100 year models with that tough looking bonnet and I was after something like that,” he says.
“I investigated and spoke to a few locals running Macks and Volvos and, in the end, it was actually the service agreement that’s factored into your kms that won it over for me.
“I know exactly what the truck is costing me. You question at the start why I am spending all this money, but then at mid life you are getting new turbo, new water pump, all new hoses, all that kind of stuff. It’s a lot easier to manage.”
So, with the choice made, he sat down with Wodonga based VCV Salesman John Templeton and set about setting up his first ever brand-new truck.
“I’ve spent 17 years in a 35’ bunk, with no aircon and doing aerobics to get into the sleeper every night. With the 60’ Mack bunk I can walk in easily,” he says.
“I’m 6’2 and love the standing room and no longer need to lay on the bed trying to change – I can stand up and move around, it’s great.
“I was also able to get a fridge and freezer in here, as well as a microwave, so now I am eating healthier and saving money out on the road.”
After agreeing to the biggest bunk, Jamesy requested a few more working specific set ups for his new truck – replacing the standard arse-end with the eight-bag set-up for a more comfortable ride was one option he required. Paying the extra for the 13-speed box over the 12 was another. After John Templeton informed him that Champion Bonnets was now an option, it pleased Jamesy as he could get the tough look he wanted and also fit the front-end Outback spec radiator set up.
The big Mack has been designed to work in the toughest environments – hauling molasses isn’t a highway job. The majority of the time, the truck is running backroads and farm tracks, hence the name ‘Backroads Motel’.
The aforementioned conditions are also a driving factor behind the aesthetics of this beast. While the 950 survived several roos with just a Texas bar, the Mack gets the full custom bullbar treatment courtesy of Melbourne based company ACM Bullbars and, with that, Jamesy gets the added bonus of spotlights. Painted tanks and limited stainless are at his request for a ‘hose down mode’ truck.
“I’m on farm roads all the time, I wanted something I didn’t have to polish, I could just wipe it down and it would be clean,” he says.
“Painting the truck black may seem a contradiction to the ‘easy to keep clean’ concept, but the colour scheme that Bel Air in Brisbane laid on this truck came from a reversal of Jamesy’s T950 colours. The lines and scrolls were the result of multiple drawings, and many different ideas from Jamesy’s lounge room.
In the beginning, the truck was meant to have the road train rubber guards, however once the truck landed at Bling Man HQ in Queensland and young Ryan Northcott started adding his touches, both Ryan and salesman John convinced Jamesy that something so stunning deserved the finishing touches of custom stainless guards.
With a years’ worth of planning and preparation under its belt, the big Mack got delivered to Jamesy for his 60th birthday. While its looks speak for itself, it has been a whole new learning curve for Jamesy, starting with the Mack M-drive.
“I was a bit apprehensive about the idea of an auto box,” he admits.
“Now, however, I am converted. I love it, especially when you’re loaded and get up among the hills, I rarely go into manual mode and hardly even need to push the power button.
“It’s got heaps of power and you can just let it do it’s thing. And the braking, you can just set it coming down the hill and it’ll just hold it there without having to use the foot brake. It’s incredible.”
The other part that Jamesy is loving is the quiet and comfort.
“I don’t get out at the end of the week feeling sore in the back or the hips or the shoulders like I was with the old girl. There were that many rattles and squeaks with the 950 that it didn’t matter if the windows were up or down. With the Mack, you drive with the windows up and it’s so quiet,” he says.
After a lifetime of working hard, Andrew ‘Jamesy’ James has finally found himself being able to sit back comfortably and keep stoking the trucking bug thanks to this monster Mack. It’s been a well deserved 60th present and, let’s be honest, no diamonds or roses can look anywhere near as cool as this ‘Backroad Motel’.
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