Brad Embrey
Brad Embrey, or Grumpy as some call him, was born 1st September 1951 in Kingaroy QLD and has been married to his wife Pauline for 21 years.
Brad officially obtained his driver’s licence at 17 years old, however had been driving for a while before that. His Dad, Charlie, taught him how to drive an Austin truck at 14 years old.
He started working in 1968 on drill rigs, driving and working throughout QLD. Brad and a few mates decided to travel to Western Australia in 1970 in a Mark 2 Zephyr.
When Brad started working on a seismic crew drilling in the Great Sandy Desert, the opportunity came up to drive a supply truck from Derby and Broome to the camp in the desert. He drove a rigid International 6 x 6 then moved on to a new 2624 Mercedes.
In 1973, Brad started working with GRANICH Transport carting wheat and sheep in a G89 Volvo and in 1976, moved to driving a cab over Kenworth 350 Cummins.
Brad decided to buy his own truck in 1977, a 6-wheeler Dodge Perkins in which he carted dirt. Richard Lee offered him a job interstate driving, so he then sold the Dodge and drove for Richard.
In the late 70s, Brad bought a Louisville with a 903, which he drove interstate as a subby for Perth Freight Lines, Gardeners and Jayde Transport. In 1986 he started obtaining his own freight, carting pineapples from Yeppoon and Wamuran to Perth. He then sold the Louisville and bought a Mack. In 1998 he went on to buy an LTL.
Brad then drove Perth-Mt Isa-Townsville-Brisbane-Perth for 8 years as a subby for Townsville Transport Services.
In 1990 Brad opened his own yard in Maddington concentrating on Perth to Brisbane return until he opened a depot in Brisbane commencing runs from Brisbane to North QLD. His fleet consisted of 8 trucks, and he had 12 subbies until 2004. Brad also had his sons Lindon, Darren and Gavin working with him.
Brad continued as a owner driver from 2004 working locally in Perth, mainly from the wharfs doing containers and steel as a subby for a few companies. He has 2 trucks, a 1988 Western Star which still has the original 400 big cam Cummins and a 15 Road range gear box as well as a 1996 Western Star Heritage which he s still driving doing local work.
Brad and Harvey Mack organised The Gear Jammers Reunion in Perth in 2009. Brad and Pauline have continued to organise these reunions, which bring together owner drivers and drivers that do or did east-west runs.
Brad says it was a good life on the road in the day. All owner drivers were mates and looked out for each other, helped out on the road and catching up along the way for a cook up at night and a yarn. That mateship continues.
