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At just 1.5m high Pauline Kearney does not take up a lot of room in her 26-metre-long Kenworth B Double that is loaded with wheat and destined for the Melbourne Port.
The matriarch of Glen Kearney Transport is a pocket rocket with a husband and three sons towering over her.
“I had my licence when I was 20, well before I met Glen,” explained Pauline at home in Barooga.
Glen and Pauline run six late model Kenworth trucks carting grain and fertiliser in tippers, hay and machinery on drop decks and general freight.
In 1997, when the pair married, they had one truck and no time for a honeymoon, just a few trips in the old Ford Louisville carting coal from the Tocumwal railhead to the ammunition factory in Mulwala.
“What more could a girl want?” laughed Pauline.
They have raised three truck driver sons between them with Brendon running an earthmoving business, Matt, a diesel mechanic, operating his own transport business and Jack working with Glen Kearney Transport.
“The boys all grew up in trucks, we’re close because we’re physically close! We’ve spent hours talking and driving together,” Pauline said.
Pauline would sit in the passenger seat of the truck while each son completed their ‘driver under instruction’ hours and became fully licensed. An investment in time that has no doubt paid off.
A grandma of three small children, Pauline already has a little pink work shirt for the youngest who “will be a little truck driver without a doubt,” smiled Pauline.
This family operation also includes Pauline’s siblings; Casey carting grain, hay and fertiliser, Ken managing their Wodonga depot and carting general freight and Annette shouldering the weight of administration and compliance demands. Annette is often referred to as “Pauline’s wife” as she manages the house, office jobs and runs errands, meaning Pauline can spend more time in her happy place, a truck.
“The work involved in compliance, regulation, permits, timeslots, it’s now a full-time job for Annette who was looking for a change after a long career in finance.”
Pauline believes that working as a family has a lot to do with their success and while there are challenges, everyone has a role to play and at the end of the (busy) day, it makes them a stronger business and family unit.
The 2021 harvest is set to be a bumper and the Kearney family members are ready for the stress and the busyness of what’s to come.
“The relationships you have with farmers is so important, we’ve been through tough times together, like in the 2018/19 drought, with zero water allocation and now this year, we can enjoy the boom times together,” said Pauline.
The success of the grain harvest dictates the next 12 months of work for Glen Kearney Transport as they deliver grain from farms to the grain receival site at harvest and then outload those sites to port throughout the year.
“Communication is everything, we have conference calls together, to locate each other, who’s stuck in a line, who’s held up, who’s farmer has had a breakdown. The camaraderie between the truck drivers and farmers, the drive to get the job done, that atmosphere is what keeps everyone going,” said Pauline.
Glen Kearney Transport, along with most agricultural based businesses in the Southern Riverina, endured the harsh 2018/19 drought by mobilising and diversifying into much-needed hay transport across the entire eastern seaboard.
“For three years we carted hay and grain to drought, flood- and fire-affected areas. Jack was given a bucket list opportunity at the age of 21, setting up an AB Triple Road train (a prime mover towing three trailers) and taking it to north QLD. Glen and I also made the most out of the dire situation, spending time together driving road trains in a two-up operation to QLD to places we hadn’t been before,” recalled Pauline.
Pauline plans on staying behind the wheel of the truck for some time but when it comes time to retire, she and Glen will get out the caravan and drive across the Nullarbor.
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