Rochelle spends the day with a stock truck driver

At 8am I arrive at the Martinborough Transport yard in Masterton, where I meet 26-year-old Lucy McLennan. Lucy drives the brand-new 2023 Scania R520 XT manual truck and trailer unit. This truck has only been on the road a month and done 9000km.

Lucy’s dad is a truck driver, so she grew up around the industry, but it wasn’t until just two years ago that Lucy decided to go for her Class 2 licence. The instructor referred her to Jared Hawkins and that was the start of her driving career at Martinborough Transport. Before driving trucks, Lucy was a photographer and still enjoys taking photos, but absolutely loves driving. She loves going to the farms, meeting people, building relationships and the challenges of going to remote places around the rural community.

The first place we head to is Bowlands Farm Block #1 out towards Bideford, and along the way Lucy tells me this load of 400 ewes and 200 lambs is the biggest load of sheep she has transported so far. Lucy also explains that she needs to put the heavier stock on the bottom levels of the trailers so it’s not top-heavy and topples over. The rear trailer also needs to be heavier for good traction, so it doesn’t skid or slide.

We arrive at Bowlands around 9am and Lucy backs the unit up to the yards and ramp. The farmer helps guide her in the right direction as it is very important that the trailers are lined up straight, so the lambs don’t fall between the truck and trailer whilst loading and so stock don’t get stuck and hurt themselves.

The trailers have four levels! And each level has little pens so the sheep can be separated so they are not overcrowded and crammed together too tightly. It was so interesting watching Lucy count the ewes and lambs, put gates up, fold floors down and see how so many animals fit onto the truck. It’s very much like a jigsaw puzzle! Each pen holds approximately 8-9 ewes or 18-20 little lambs.

These sheep are just heading up the road on the same farm; the farmer has chosen to transport them via truck and trailer rather than walk them as it’s too far for them to walk. We arrive at Griffin (Pink Crown) Block #2 at 10.45am and Lucy backs up to the yards. The farmer meets us there and we let the ewes and lambs off.

It’s now 11.15am and we head to Martinborough with two stops along the way. First, we went to Baird & Hendersons farm, Gladstone. Here we load 219 sheep. The farmer tells me he is selling them now while the price is good as they were last year’s lambs. If he waits much longer the teeth will come through and then they are classed as mutton and the price drops by half per kilo. When we leave this farm, we drive past Lucy’s cousins’ house. Lucy says a big shout out to Jack, Troy and Graeson McGregor.

Next stop is Hinakura, it’s raining when we arrive to pick up 40 ewes then we head to the Martinborough Transport’s main yard. We arrive at 1.30pm and here in the yards are about 190 sheep that have been collected from various farms around the area in small lots ready to be transported together in the big truck. Jared and his dog Charlie help load these sheep, which are going to AFCO Freezing Works in Whanganui to be processed and then exported overseas as meat to eat. Once loaded we head back to Masterton making one more stop along the way at the old sale yards to pick up 25 more sheep, which then completes Lucy’s load and fills the unit. We get back to the Masterton Martinborough Transport Ltd yard around 4pm and this is where I jump out and head home. Lucy’s day is not over though. She continues trucking up to Whanganui where she will unload and stay the night before reloading and return home tomorrow. It has been an awesome day, thank you for letting me tag along Lucy, I learnt lots!