Leon is now on TWITTER - Come say Hello!

Leon is now on TWITTER - Come say Hello!

http://twitter.com/leoncmacklin

Leon Clarence Macklin

• Document C56757, South Australia IN THE SUPREME COURT - Testamentary Causes Jurisdiction. Register of Probates

Comments by JJK - Thankyou

Sorry JJK:

I just removed your comments due to the reason that I was pulled over by police for a routine check. They had me up on their system for STALKING Gemma Gordon & Richard Macklin.

Click here for some great maps

• Click here for some great maps
  

• Click here for ABN details: 19 323 395 995

We are creating a DRIVING FORCE to find out the truth

A driving force coming your way through the law of South Australia. Could all family members ( Grant, Brenton, Sharon and Brownyn including all grand children please contact Robert Debono on 0422 655 768

A driving force

TRUCKS have fascinated Gemma Gordon since she was a little girl, riding in big rigs owned by clients of her tax consultant father.

During school holidays, her dad would take the family to the country to visit clients, some of them small operators running one or two trucks.

As a treat, she would be allowed to sit in the cabin and watch as the truckie pulled and pushed the gear stick as he carted a load of sheep to the rail head at Burra.

Today, Ms Gordon, now 54 and the mother of two children and two grandchildren, is appropriately described as "South Australia's most senior truckie".

As chief executive of Macklin Transport and president of the South Australian Road Transport Association, (SARTA), she daily gets the chance to hang around big rigs and smell the diesel, rekindling those childhood memories.

More importantly, she is now senior advocate for South Australia's trucking industry, which she is watching grow beyond recognition during the state's expanding mining boom.

Ironically, she has yet to get behind the wheel of a big rig despite being surrounded by them each day.

But it is something she intends to rectify as soon as time allows.

"I respect the industry so much that I believe I have a duty to acquire the skill, to understand the nature of the task that we are asking people to do for us each day," Ms Gordon says.

"So I am going to do my heavy combination licence training - as soon as I get a break in my usual job!"

Ms Gordon joined Macklin Transport as a young administrative assistant in the early 1980s.

"Again, it was through my father, who I was helping in his tax consultancy business when Leon Macklin asked if he could help incorporate his business back in 1989," she says.

"I was asked to facilitate the deal and I joined the company."

That was 25 years ago. Today, in her current roles she understands the problems the transport industry faces but is confident the road ahead is looking good for large and small operators alike.

She is passionate about women working in the industry, aware they have been there for a long time, usually in support roles, doing the books for their husbands.

"Today, there are women working in practically all the big transport companies," Ms Gordon says.

"Many companies, including Macklin, are making an active effort to employ more female drivers.

"It's a generational evolution. As the sons and then grandsons take over the companies from their fathers the attitude towards women is changing for the better.

"What we need to do as an industry right now is to entice young women and men into the business. You won't get them if you just say, 'come in and drive a truck for us'.

"But if you show them the latest high-tech rigs, and say 'we'll give you training to drive and look after this state-of-the-art $500,000 truck and trailer combination', then you're giving them something significant to aspire to."

Ms Gordon believes the economic effects of the pending mining boom will flood the transport sector with opportunity.

"Right now we are in an exploration phase in the resources sector, and the potential is huge," she says.

"We are facilitating the importation of crushing plants, transmission equipment, miners' accommodation - there's so much stuff happening across the State that is going to help our industry become more profitable."

Ms Gordon says rapid technological advances, regulatory changes, and greater demands from efficiency-focused clients have all contributed to the creation of a "new breed" of transport careers - careers for which one's gender has become irrelevant.

"New scheduling systems, vehicle and communications technologies, accreditation rules, safety procedures, human resources practices - you name it, practically every area of the business has changed, and with it the duties and skills required of its staff," she says.

"With the state on the verge of major mineral exports, huge growth in the containerised grain market, and growing imports of electronics and all sorts of other goods, there's a major need for all transport professionals - not just drivers."

Trucking is a tough world but Ms Gordon has proved many times, she fits right in and has the right stuff.

"Self-confidence, a touch of bravery, perhaps the ability to stay calm and not rise to anger too easily is what you need," she says.

"I think I learned a lot growing up in a family of 12, but I was lucky. My parents were focused on giving all their children a good education, which usually breeds self-confidence.

Wisteria Lodge File Information

Wisteria Lodge File Information.