<<Rewind 2013: Remembering Alan Lever

In-depth

22 May

Prologue:

I first met Alan Lever at Trucks in Action way back in 2006. Jim Gibson, Editor of Truckin’ Life magazine has talked his old mate into bringing his Peterbilt, resplendent with a trailer adorned with the Truckin’ Life and its stablemate, Truck & Trailer magazine logos down from NSW to use as a stage for the band Ruckus, whom we’d hired to entertain the masses.

The spot Alan had to back into was a bit tricky, being on a sideways slope without much room to manoeuvre fore and aft. Alan hops down from the truck, has a quick gander, grabs a few railway sleepers and places them in what he figures are the right spots for the truck and trailer’s nearside wheels. Back in the Pete and he backs it into position in one smooth motion – and it’s perfect! To say I was impressed is an understatement.

**Mick Abrey sweatin’ it for the crowd.**

Alan was also a great raconteur with a wonderful sense of humour. He could spend an hour relating something that may have taken up ten minutes of his life and would have me in stitches for that whole hour.

Sadly, Alan passed on a few years ago, followed more recently by his beloved brother, Doug.

This story is, I hope, a fitting memorial to his memory….

. . . . . . .

All that Alan Lever ever wanted to do was drive a truck. As a youngster his weekends were spent washing them at MHP, then the biggest carrier in his hometown of Wollongong. MHP boss, Digger Brimmer told Alan that he would give him a job when he had a licence.

Impatience overriding legality, Alan hitchhiked to Brisbane where he didn't need to produce a birth certificate, put his age up by three years and gained said licence.

When asked if he was 14 and put his age up to 17, or in fact he was 17 and put his age up to 20, Alan's response was, "We won't go there."

**Parked up at TIA ready for Ruckus to make a ruckus**

"I came back and showed Digger my licence. There was an old, beat up Q Model Dodge tray truck that he owned. He told me to get in to it, go to Berrima and pick up a load of cement. You loaded by hand back then. It was a lot of cement!

"I found out when I (really) turned 21 – Digger was at my birthday – that my dad had told him to make me sick of trucks because he didn't want me driving them. Dad had told Digger to give me the oldest, scummiest truck in the yard and to give me the dirtiest job. Contrary to his expectations I thrived on it. He'd issued the same instructions for my twin brother, Doug, who was working with me. He failed there as well.”

**Anyone remember Truck & Trailer Australia magazine?**

"Doug had, at least got his licence legally. I remember we got pulled up in Victoria one time by a greatly respected policeman, Charlie Sinclair. Charlie used to come up to Lake Illawarra all the time and knew mum and dad. He said, "Jesus! You boys are twins, yeah? Your mother must have been awfully sick when she had you two."

"I said, but you knew that, Charlie. He said, "I did, but looking at your licenses here, there's three years difference in your ages. That's one hell of a pregnancy!" It was a different world back then."

Alan bought his first truck, a 180 Inter in 1959. Whilst most people carry a picture of the kids in their wallet, Alan's holds a photo of that first truck.

"ARC got a five-year contract to supply steel for the Bendeela power station, near Nowra. We carted steel to Melbourne for ARC where they twisted it and then you would bring the load back, direct to the dam. My brother and I paid off two new trucks in five years doing that – an S2 Kenworth and Kenworth cab over. We were subbing for MHP and they paid good dollars. Also, they weren't taking any commission. They were gentlemen, they were. We were earning big money. We also did their interstate, which they weren't interested in – they were happy just doing all the steel out of Port Kembla. MHP had about 60 people working for them at the time but it was like one big family. They'd seen us grow up and our parents were friends. Wollongong in those days was pretty small and people had a different mindset. Doug and I will be forever grateful for the start that Digger gave us.”

"I started running to Adelaide – I got my own contract with a B Model Mack. Then we (together with wife, Joy) got another truck and we still had the first two working doing the steel. We worked on the theory that if you pay extra dollars you get good men, and we did. You treat them like a family. From 1959 until I sold out four years ago, none of our trucks ever had an insurance claim. I only sacked two drivers in the whole time. None of the drivers ever left except those two. Joy, who was a better judge of character than I, said they were both loose cannons. She was right because they really let me down. One of them cost me a trailer load of Baker's dough. The client said, "We know it wasn't your fault Alan but just remember one thing. Every time you have an argument with Joy, she'll remind you of that driver she told you to get rid of."

"If there's one thing I regret, it's not going into business with my brother. We worked side-by-side but never joined forces. Doug went into the bus business. He started Lever Coachlines in Canberra.

He eventually sold out and went away for a three month holiday. When he came back he reckoned he was only in God's waiting room so he went and bought Bega Valley coaches which he still owns. He's just bought a new Denning. I spoke to him and convinced him to fit American running gear. Not that bloody European stuff. They're too expensive – like Gillette razor blades. The equipment is cheap – it's the parts that are dear."

'Alan's Last Toy', an inscription placed on the back of the sleeper box by Joy, is his beloved 2003 Peterbilt which is, sadly for sale.

"The RTA had said that I can't drive a road train or B Double any more. This, because I had a pacemaker fitted. Logic would say that it is a lot safer for me to drive now than beforehand, but the RTA – as we all know in New South Wales - is not strong on logic. Logic would say that they have it arse about."

Converted by Frank Christie, the Peterbilt runs a Cummins 620 Signature motor through an 18 speed Road Ranger. Originally an extended hood, Frank raised the cabin up 9 inches and moved it forward 18 inches

"Joy had said to me that she didn't care how much I spent on the truck but it had to be a workhorse, not a show pony. We had to do the modifications to make it a legal B Double. That truck is part of my soul. Way back when I had the 180 and Laurie O'Neil introduced Peterbilt into the country, I said to my brother that I was going to own one of them one day. It took me 42 years. Since Frank converted it, it's only done 625,000 km. I've got it on the market for $140,000 which I reckon is a bloody good price and I won't be dropping it. Don't tell Joy, but I hope I have no takers."

**Alan (R) with Don McGlinchey who restored the Flintstone for him.**

The other truck love in Alan's life is his Flintstone Mack. The Flintstone was Alan's third truck.

"I had the first 250 turbocharged Flintstone in Australia and it was a pretty truck. It was also the biggest, most troublesome truck I ever had. I ended up writing to America and told them I was going to let them repossess it. (I also had a B model at the time). They sent me a telegram to get in touch with Curly Anderson of Western Transport in Brisbane, who were the agents – there was no Mack Australia back then.

"When I went up and showed Curly what had happened he said, "I'll take it back", and he gave me the one you see here, with all the payments subtracted from what I'd paid off the other one. He arranged with the Commonwealth Development Bank for three months without any payments and no penalties, to get me back on my feet – I told you it was a different world back then. The Anderson family were unreal. It was just a bad truck. I drove this Flintstone for 1.5 million miles. As bad as the other truck was, this was good. I got it in 1967 and kept it for five years. I sold it to a guy called Ray Hutchison and then we lost track of it.”

"Not too long ago a friend was taking some bulldozer parts out to a guy at Albion Park and he saw it in his shed. He rang Joy and said he'd found my old Flintstone. This was a kid who used to go to Adelaide in it with me. He was a truck fanatic and he knew beyond doubt that it was my truck – just as a parent can tell twins apart.

"Joy knew that my two kids (from my first marriage) had grown up in this truck. I raised my boys alone so I had to take them with me to work. I took the passenger seat out and put my son, Dean's cot in there and he travelled to Adelaide and Perth with me. Anyway, Joy knew what that truck meant to me so she went and bought it.

"She kept saying to a mate, Ross Kelly to take me out to see it, as she didn't know if she'd done the right thing or not. Ross, an A380 captain who also drives the Pete with me said, "Come on, we're going to see this bloke about this truck. As we drove up his driveway I could see the nose sticking out from the shed. When you've driven something for so long, you know. I said that's my old Mack! We went inside and saw this feller who was 88. I introduced myself and said I'd bought that truck new. I asked if he would sell it to me. He said, "You're a bit late son." I was so close, and mate it cut me up.”

“He said he'd sold it to a woman about three weeks ago. I said, a woman! He said, "Yeah, Joy Lever." I said that's my wife and he replied, "I think this is your Christmas present." It brought a tear to my eye.

"I won't be letting the Flintstone go. It was the kid’s crèche. No sleeper, no air-conditioning and the young bloke would constantly be saying, "I'm hungry dad." Thank God for Heinz! He would have starved to death otherwise. He came over from New Zealand last Christmas. I took him out in it and he cried.

In his retirement, Alan is a volunteer for the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS), using his Pete to collect old pre-war aeroplanes from all over Australia – Kitty Hawk's, Hawkers, Caribou's and a couple of P 40s are amongst the list to date. It would certainly be in HARS' interest to see no takers for the Peterbilt.

"I've had great relationships with the companies I've subbied for. I've seen a bit of the country, I have owned a number of different trucks and I’ve seen the ups and downs of the transport industry. Overall it's treated me pretty well. "