82 | RURAL SERVICES » Olivers Transport Experience key when it comes to moving livestock Livestock cartage keeps Olivers Transport busy all year round. Kelly Deeks Proudly serving the King Country, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty for more than 50 years, Olivers Transport is a specialised rural cartage operator with many years of experience behind the wheel. “We call ourselves a geriatric transporter,” says Olivers Transport manager Marty Greaves. “We’re all older. We’ve got a part time driver at the moment in his early 30s, a female driver in her 50s, and the other two drivers are both on pensions, as am I.” Marty boasts almost 60 years of industry experience, having started driving aged 16. Olivers Transport carts a small amount of hay and silage, decreasing in recent years as agricultural contractors tend to provide the whole package now, and mostly livestock, the experience of the team stands the company in good stead for correct stock handling. “Looking after other people’s stock is virtually like looking after your own children,” Marty says. “It takes a special type of person to be able to handle animals and if you’re scared or nervous, they can hear it in your voice. “Our drivers have been involved in farming and they know how to handle stock. It’s just like being in a cow shed. If you show a bit of authority and speak to them gently, the cows are more settled and they just move along, same with the bulls.” Livestock cartage keeps Olivers Transport busy all year round. Cows and bulls going to the works eventually gives way to bobby calf season, then service bulls need transporting, then calves going out for grazing, then heifers out for grazing coming back to the farms, then herd shifts, then back to bobby calves again. Olivers Transport runs five truck and trailers as well as a small four wheeler which can cart 12 cows and get in and out of subdivided parcels of land where the races tend to be in behind the house. As a Class 2 machine, and with Marty’s background as a driver trainer and assessor, it gives Olivers Transport the opportunity to train new drivers, and the company is proud to have brought young drivers into the industry over the years and trained them up to their Class 5 licences. “Our drivers have been involved in farming and they know how to handle stock. It’s just like being in a cow shed. If you show a bit of authority and speak to them gently, the cows are more settled and they just move along, same with the bulls.” Today, the time and money it takes to get a Class 5 licence is hurting the transport sector, as is the increasing level of compliance faced by the industry which Marty says is ‘out of this world’. “To get someone to come and certify something for us costs $1000 just to get them in the gate,” he says. “Then you’ve got to wait for them to turn up, and once I had to wait for three months for a certifying engineer. It’s all well and good to have regulations to comply with, but at least have the people there to do the job. They’ve created all these positions and there is no one to carry them out.” For all your tyre needs, Phone 027 764 7377 240 Maniapoto Street, Otorohanga 0277 406 055 sicelydieselservices@hotmail.com 240 Maniapoto Street, Otorohanga · Road transport machinery servicing & maintenance · 24-hour call out Proudly supporting Olivers Transport
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