Chooks riding in style in flashy T909 after operator’s first new truck burnt to the ground

Complete with a rooster as a hood ornament, every detail of this new Kenworth T909 – named ‘Twelve at a time’ – has been carefully thought out.

Finished off in pewter grey and with a 50-inch flat roof modular sleeper, the truck features hand painted scroll work, gold stripe details and plenty of chrome.

The new T909 has been done up with all the bells and whistles. Image: Hallam Truck Centre

It was purchased by Mitch and Jae Campbell, who run Victorian based chicken transport business Cart’em Poultry – hitting the road last month.

“My main business is live poultry transport. We transfer started pullets (which are the baby chickens) before they’re about to lay eggs, from rearing farms to big egg farms,” explained 32-year-old Mitch.

“Chooks start laying eggs at 18-19 weeks old, so you move them at about 16 weeks old. As the chooks get older, they start producing eggs. We move them before that so that the eggs don’t break inside them.”

Based in the Victorian suburb of Pakenham, his trucks travel all over Victoria, as well as into South Australia and New South Wales. “I have a couple of trucks that do poultry farm work as well, picking up eggs from farms too,” Mitch added.

“Our yard in Pakenham is like a truck wash. Poultry is pretty disease prone, so we wash the crates and trucks every single day, which also makes it easier to keep them looking presentable.”

The new truck brings the fleet up to six vehicles. Cart’em Poultry has four Kenworth prime movers – two T909s, a K200 and a K108 Big Build, a Hino rigid twin steer and a little crew truck that’s used for the “chook catchers”.

It features scroll work and gold striping detail right around. Image: Hallam Truck Centre

“The crew truck fits six people, so they come along with the trucks to catch the chickens. It’s a bit different to how it’s done for meat birds. We only catch and unload by hand, we don’t use a machine, so we’re hand catching every day. On average, it takes about 2.5 hours to load a B-double. We do anything from little jobs of 5000 chooks to 60,000 chooks,” said Mitch, revealing he actually got his start as a catcher.

The new truck’s interior. Image: Hallam Truck Centre

As Mitch told Big Rigs, “I did an apprenticeship as a farrier, shoeing horses. Then I went out and did that on my own, but I didn’t have enough work – so I found work catching chooks and washing crates to fill in the time.”

A couple of years later, Mitch got his heavy rigid licence, soon upgrading to his HC and then his MC.

About six years ago, when his boss decided to sell his chicken transport business, Mitch saw an opportunity. “We wanted to buy the business but couldn’t afford to at the time, so I just bought one of his trucks and went out on my own, and it’s grown from there.”

That truck was the first one Mitch ever drove, the gold 2012 model Hino twin steer that’s still in his fleet today. “It had only done about 150,000 kilometres when I first started driving it and I still have it now,” said Mitch.

This gold 2012 model Hino was Mitch’s first truck and it’s still in his fleet. Image: Cart’em Poultry

“I still catch every day and drive every day. I go here, there and everywhere.”

Though trucking wasn’t always on the cards, Mitch says his interest in the big rigs started early on. “One of dad’s friends had trucks when I was a kid. He bought a new 904 when I was 12 and that was pretty exciting at the time. He carted lime from Traralgon to Dandenong, and I’d get to go out with him sometimes, so that’s what got me interested in trucks.”

Over the past six years, Mitch has been able to slowly grow his fleet. A major milestone for Mitch was taking delivery of his first brand new truck, a Kenworth T909 in June 2023. “We were four years into the business when we were able to buy a new one,” said Mitch.

Mitch’s first new truck burnt to the ground. Image: Cart’em Poultry

Unfortunately, that excitement was only short lived.

Purchased at Hallam Truck Centre, Mitch bought the truck through Kenworth Sales Consultant, Josh Dilworth. It was the first truck Josh had ever sold when he first started his truck sales career.

However Mitch only had the truck for about 18 months, when it burnt to the ground in December 2024. As he recalled, “We were doing a big job from Casino to Bendigo, moving 160,000 birds in a week. You can fit about 12,000 chooks on a B-double, so we were running two B-doubles a day.

“On the third trip, the truck didn’t make it. It was either a bearing or the brakes that caught fire on the A-trailer. We tried to put the fire out. It was still full of chooks and once it got to them, the whole thing caught fire.”

Miraculously, about 500 chickens escaped and survived.

Being one truck down, Mitch said the farmers he works with were more than happy to help him out. “One of the egg farmers had a K108 he used for grain, so he loaned that to me and then I ended up buying it because I needed the extra truck.”

A rooster on the bonnet is just one of many custom finishes. Image: Hallam Truck Centre

With an extra truck sorted, the next issue was sourcing chicken crates. “I needed to order another 1000 chook crates. It was a hard few months trying to juggle everything around but we got through it,” said Mitch.

By complete chance, right after the incident, truck salesman Josh happened to give Mitch a call to say his truck had made it into their 2025 calendar. “That’s when I told him what had happened,” said Mitch.

“Someone had cancelled their truck order so we were lucky enough to take their spot. We ordered the new T909 in December and it was out of the factory in February. All of the stainless and hydraulic work took some time so we picked it up in early August.”

As Josh added, “The first T909 Mitch purchased was one of my favourite trucks. This new replacement truck has come up even better.”

Image: Cart’em Poultry

The inspiration for both T909s – the original one and its replacement – came from the gold Hino that started it all. “The first truck I bought was gold so I wanted to have some sort of gold on the new truck – but didn’t want to make the whole thing gold. Both trucks are very similar, this new one is just finished off a bit nicer. It has different style tanks and we’ve made it look a bit neater,” said Mitch.

There’s plenty of room for a good night’s sleep. Image: Hallam Truck Centre

“We went a bit nuts with this new truck. I had plans to do a bit more with the previous truck as it was still a little bit plain for me but it burnt down before I got the work done.

“Grant Fowler Signs in Trafalgar did the hand painted scroll work. He did the same on the first truck and I loved it. And a fella in Hallam named Paul Lockley did the gold stripe detail.”

The name of the truck ‘Twelve at a time’ refers to the number of chickens that are loaded into each crate. “We do crates of 12 and that’s something my old boss used to say. Sometimes if they were hard to catch, he’d say ‘just catch 12 at a time’ so that’s how I came up with the name,” explained Mitch.

Eden and Nate give Dad’s new truck the thumbs up. Image: Hallam Truck Centre

Along with the name of the truck written on the side of the bonnet, his children’s names feature on the side of the sleeper cab.

Mitch and Jae’s five-year-old daughter Eden and two-year-old son Nate absolutely love the new truck. “We all picked the truck up together and I often take the kids out with me. They are truck and forklift obsessed – especially Nate. I think he’ll end up driving trucks too, so this might be his truck one day!”

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