There are certain things most trucking operators need to be able to do, but there are challenges to tasks like remote running in Queensland, which require a specialist with the ability to handle a complex operation in difficult conditions.
After starting out in the trucking industry working for a number well known characters in the trucking industry, Kent Baillie has become one of those characters himself, running an operation from Pittsworth in Queensland and hauling general freight West from Brisbane into all of the remote areas of that vast state.
His job title is now managing director of Mt Isa Carriers, but it has been a long hard road for Kent, both figuratively and in reality, a long dusty road across the Sunshine State and into the Northern Territory.
Originally from Millmerran, on the road from the Queensland/NSW border at Goondiwindi to Toowoomba, Kent, did mess around with trucks in the paddock as a child, his father worked as a truck driver.
“By the age of 10, we were loading trucks,” says Kent. “It was expected every day after school, every week and every holidays. He worked for Lill and Alexander. Later, he became the boss of Lill and Alexander but prior to that he had his own truck. Dad was a Darwin runner with an old B-model Mack. He also ran across the paddock to Perth and then in those later years, he became a manager, but he had been Lill and Alexander’s first employee.
“When he retired, he retired from there as the boss, so for all us boys our first job was with Lill and Alexander, they were a very reputable long-standing company and when the owner died, they just decided to close it up. He was a man I looked up to. He was a hard man, but he was a bloke that I still admire to this day. My father was sort of a legend in the industry, and I’ve still got good friends that mentor me today.
“When we stopped working for Lill and Alexander, in 1993, I bought my first truck and everyone reckoned I was a fool for doing it. I bought an old day cab, a W-model Kenworth, and my brother had one as well. A lot of people thought we were nuts. We would run Brisbane to Darwin in a day cab and sleep on the load or across the seat or whatever. Often a pillow against the window, we couldn’t afford a bunk. We were really struggling, and I can remember because my mother used to do the books for us boys.”
They were carting for TNT Express and Brambles. He recalls banking his two checks for those first loads. Time and experience taught him some hard lessons, and through hard work gained a reputation for reliability.
The business had three trucks running to Darwin when Kent’s wife left him and he had to look after his children, the youngest of which was youngest 10 months old. At the same time a family friend, Graham Porter, who had his own transport business, suffered a heart attack. They asked Kent if he would come and run their operation for two weeks.
“I went and helped Graham for two weeks and the rest is history,” says Kent. “I invested in the place when times were tough and we became partners, and just five years ago, I bought out his share and we just kept managing Mt Isa Carriers.”
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