Sindy Nutting reckons she may well be the most fashionable truck driver in the region.
“Out of work I’m girly, I love fashion, I’m literally the fashion queen,” confesses the Austin Transport driver.
But get her behind the wheel of her 2015 T409 Kenworth, and she can keep up with the best of the best.
Sindy knew she wanted to be a truck driver from the age of 17, after a trip to Australia to visit her brother who was an interstate driver.
“I love driving anything, I ride motorbikes too, I just love being on the road.”
Now 38, she says breaking into the industry as a young female with no experience was really hard. “I almost gave up,” she recalls. “I was really shy when I got into truck driving, it’s completely changed me, and my confidence has grown. When I was learning I wouldn’t sleep some nights, I’d be riddled with anxiety thinking about the next day, but it’s been brilliant for my confidence, I’ve really changed as a person.”
She thinks about how different her life would be if she gave up way back then.
“Thank God I didn’t.”
Sindy has been with her employer Austin Transport for the past 14 years, almost her entire career. She is the longest standing tipper driver in the team, but she points out there’re a few not far behind her.
She says, although there are more women than there were back then, many don’t see it as a viable career opportunity.
“Noone wants to be a truck driver, but we need trucks, without them and without the next generation, we’re stuffed.”
No two days are ever the same, despite people asking her if she gets bored – she assures she doesn’t.
“I cart all different stuff from big rocks, spreading highways, and asphalt. I do diggers and loaders and can load my own truck.”
She works an average of 10 hours a day, five days a week, which she acknowledges wouldn’t be a good fit for all women. But her day starts with an hour gym session every morning after the 4.30am alarm.
“I love my job, I love the people you meet and the challenges, it feels so good when you overcome a challenge, especially as a female.”
At the end of the day, she climbs out of her Kenworth and into her 1300cc Toyota Starlet – the daily run around.
“It leaks oil hard out, everyone hassles me at work,” she laughs. “Once I didn’t have any oil on the dipstick and the boys were like ‘f**k sake’. One of the boys carries oil in the truck so they put truck oil in it, it just won’t die, it just keeps going.
“Everyone tells me I should buy a new one, but why? I’m just going to run it till it blows up.”
Sindy has been saving hard to buy a piece of land for her tiny home, so she enjoys the low fuel bill and cheap tyres.
Besides, it leaves more spare change for her shopping habit.
“I’m a mad op-shopper, I’m obsessed. I like to buy vintage,” she confesses. The only downside to living in a tiny home in Spring Grove with Chai the English bull terrier, she says, is the lack of wardrobe space for her huge collection of jackets.
But she’s got her eye on an old sleepout on one of her current job sites that would fix that problem.
Outside of work, her love of trucks and driving continues. Sindy also belongs to the Top of the South Classic Truck Club and does convoy runs in old, retired trucks.
“I’m a real motorhead. Trucks and v8 – my dad was v8 mad.”
When asked what her favourite part of her job is, the answer comes easily. “I love the rig.”
