{"id":475952,"date":"2025-12-28T00:04:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T00:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/475952\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T00:04:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T00:04:28","slug":"a-career-for-all-ages-meet-the-truckies-keeping-australia-on-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/475952\/","title":{"rendered":"A career for all ages: Meet the truckies keeping Australia on the road"},"content":{"rendered":"

After more than six decades carting grain and sheep across Western Australia, Terry Bairstow has just climbed out of the cab of his enormous truck for the last time.<\/p>\n

“It was pretty emotional \u2026 It’s like losing a limb really, but never mind,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’ve still got my car licence and light rigid licence to pull a caravan.”<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/p>\n

Terry Bairstow’s career in the trucking industry spans more than six decades. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The Department of Transport and Major Infrastructure requires heavy vehicle drivers to pass a medical assessment annually from the age of 80, as well as an annual road test from the age of 85.<\/p>\n

At 83 years old, Mr Bairstow, who is from Wagin in WA’s Wheatbelt, has been told it is finally time to hang up the keys for good.<\/p>\n

“I went down to Perth where I had [a road test] 12 months ago and got through that one, but they did warn me that it was going to be a bit harder this year,” Mr Bairstow said.<\/p>\n

\"huge<\/p>\n

One of Terry Bairstow’s sons has taken the reins of the family business. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Despite the disappointment of giving up his truck licence, Mr Bairstow said the rules are fair.<\/p>\n

“What do you do?” he said.<\/p>\n

“You just can’t drive until you go to sleep on the road \u2026 it’s one of those things you’ve got to realise that it comes to the end.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"old<\/p>\n

Terry credits his wife Maree, who managed the business as well as raising their three kids while he was driving.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

A family affair<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his career of more than 60 years as a truckie, Mr Bairstow said that apart from the purchase of a few dud trucks, there was not much he would change if he had his time over again.<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

Maree and Terry Bairstow, standing in front of his last truck. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

He credits his contentment with the lifestyle to his wife Maree.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Married in 1970, they had three children: Todd, Darran and Jodie, all of whom went on to follow in Dad’s footsteps and drive trucks in their own businesses.<\/p>\n

“I wouldn’t have got anywhere here without my wife, Maree,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“She was the backbone of everything here, doing the book work, bringing up the kids.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"old<\/p>\n

Terry Bairstow spent more than half a century carting sheep and grain across Western Australia. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

An industry for all ages<\/p>\n

While Mr Bairstow bids goodbye to the industry that held him for well over half a century, Perth’s Marko Savic is at the other end of his trucking career.<\/p>\n

\"young<\/p>\n

Marko Savic works as a trainer-assessor with his family at their truck driver training business in Perth. (ABC Great Southern: Asha Couch)<\/p>\n

At just 26 years old, Mr Savic is a director at Western Roadtrain Driver Training, as well as a truck driving trainer and assessor.<\/p>\n

Growing up in the family business, Mr Savic said he was “born and bred to be come a trainer”.<\/p>\n

“I was able to get [my training accreditation] basically as soon as I was 22 \u2026 making me, I think, one of the youngest ones in the last 40 years,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Savic said his age often comes as a surprise to the people he teaches, but that is soon forgotten when they see “how much passion” he has for the job.<\/p>\n

“I never had any time [to learn] bad habits \u2026 a lot of [the training] is just about unlearning bad habits that we do out on the roads,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.\"young<\/p>\n

Marko Savic spends most of his time training truckies on how to drive safely.\u00a0 (ABC Great Southern: Asha Couch)<\/p>\n

What makes a good truckie?<\/p>\n

At their driving school in Wangara, north of Perth, Mr Savic and the team run truck driving courses for heavy rigid, heavy combination and multi combination tickets.<\/p>\n

\"young<\/p>\n

Marko Savic was passionate about trucks from a young age.\u00a0 (ABC Great Southern: Asha Couch)<\/p>\n

While there are plenty of technical skills to cover, Mr Savic said a large part of what makes a good truckie comes down to attitude, safety and the ability to keep your cool.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to be the bigger person \u2026 any time there’s a 50-50, if there’s a narrower street, you’ve got to be the bigger person in that situation,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“At the end of the day, it’s not rocket science, it’s not brain surgery, it’s driving \u2014 but it can feel like that if you’re under a lot of pressure.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Truckie licence ‘as good as a trade’<\/p>\n

For anyone looking for a new career who does not mind long hours, Mr Savic said being a truckie was “the dream job”.<\/p>\n

\"young<\/p>\n

Driver trainer Marko Savic says people perform better behind the wheel when they feel at ease. (ABC Great Southern: Asha Couch)<\/p>\n

“We get a lot of people in their retirement age wanting to do it because it’s a job that pays well, that is not as labour-intensive depending on what you’re doing,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It gives you potentially the opportunity to see the state, see the country, even.”<\/p>\n

And while a future rich in electric vehicles may change how the trucking industry works, Mr Savic emphasised the current need for skilled truckies.<\/p>\n

“We’re still a ways away from that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Without trucks, Australia stops \u2014 you’ve heard the slogan, it’s the most true thing in the world.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A career in truck driving means a great deal of time traversing Australia’s vast outback.\u00a0 (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After more than six decades carting grain and sheep across Western Australia, Terry Bairstow has just climbed out…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":475953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,174408,76077,3195,215667,50,700,215666,44169,6187,117211,215665,8632],"class_list":{"0":"post-475952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-driver-training","10":"tag-early-career","11":"tag-industry","12":"tag-life-on-the-road","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-retirement","15":"tag-road-train","16":"tag-skills","17":"tag-transport","18":"tag-truck-drivers","19":"tag-truckies","20":"tag-wa-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115794273131457124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}