From his early days off-siding with his father to managing a successful transport business and earning a reputation for professionalism among clients and drivers alike, Phil Hannant’s career in transport is a proof of the industry’s spirit.
More than four decades on the road has shown Phil it all, from evolving regulations and business takeovers to those with boots on the ground making the industry more accessible.
“The transport bug will never leave ya at the end of the day!” says Phil and, in his case, it must be genetic.
His father, Adrian, starting carting produce with his brother in the late 1950s in Forest Hill in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley.
Back then, Adrian would cart produce from local farms to the railyards for it to be delivered to Brisbane’s Roma Street Markets.
Despite Australia’s road infrastructure significantly improving and trucks becoming more powerful in the decade following World War II, outdated legislation meant transport operations were restricted in areas already served by rail.
This was done to prevent the road transport industry from competing directly and, in turn, undermining the profitability of the government-owned and operated rail networks.
It wasn’t until regulations changed that the Hannants and others like them could haul directly into Brisbane, a shift that opened up more opportunities for the business.
Phil remembers that some nights his father would do three trips into the Roma Street Market from Forest PHill, hand-loading bunches of beetroot, cabbages and cauliflower in between.
Phil’s introduction to the industry was a hands-on one: “It was a typical story – drive before you had a licence.”
With the farmers often too busy to help load, his father operated the forklift while Phil moved the truck as needed.
“That’s basically how you learn, and it evolves from there.”
Phil with his daughters who spent plenty of time in the truck.By 15, he was working full-time as an offsider for his father, driving early in the morning or late in the night as they ran produce along the east coast of Australia.
During one of those trips in 1979, Phil unexpectedly found himself part of the blockade at Bendemeer.
For Phil, those nine days became one of the defining experiences of his early years in trucking, a testament to operators’ instinct to stand by their own.
With a truck licence secured, a 17-year-old Phil got a role over the border in Moree, hauling fruit and vegetables in a convertible tipper.
“We’d cart fruit and vegetables into Brisbane, then bring meal back out of Narrabri for the chook farms,” Phil recalls.
When the business wound up, Phil found himself back with his father. The pair upgraded to a Mercedes Benz 2238 and drove two-up for the next six months.
When Adrian switched to full-time mechanical work in 1981, Phil, barely 19, jumped into life as an owner-driver, spending the next decade hauling general freight all over Australia.
In 1991, Phil was approached to directly cart Fowler and, later, Caroma bathroom fixtures from Wetherill Park in Sydney to Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. Phil held this contract for 16 years, during which time there was only one load that was damaged.
“I had a driver in my truck one Christmas Eve and he tipped it over,” remembers Phil. “Any time for a crash is inconvenient, but that time was really inconvenient.”
This impressive track record speaks to Phil’s professionalism and commitment to getting the job done right, a quality he ranks as the one he is most proud of.
“The passion was there, and it still is,” Phil says. “People depend on you, and you never let anyone down.”
Phil’s reliability never wavered, even when faced with strange load requests. He was asked to cart a load of fireworks from Yandina to Canberra. With risk management not what it is today, Phil was to be accompanied by a pyrotechnician.
“All the way down, he kept saying ‘you know what happens if we catch on fire? We’ll go BOOM!’” laughs Phil. “This bloke was a loose cannon, but it was funny.”
Phil would eventually settle into a role at Nolan’s Interstate Transport, first as a contractor, then driver and, finally, as a Line Haul Manager.
Having worked in all facets of the industry, Phil advises the next generation of operators to “take it step by step and learn your way through it”.
He emphasises the importance of developing expertise over time instead of expecting immediate success.
Phil was diagnosed with cancer in 2022, a fight that has changed his perspective but hasn’t kept him off the road.
Like many in the industry, Phil describes himself as “a bit old school”, neglecting their health so as to not be seen to “whinge and moan.” Following his diagnosis, Phil wants to remind others that “it’s very important that everyone goes and gets a checkup every 12 months…get your medicals done, get your bloods done.”
Despite undergoing chemo and labelling himself ‘retired’, Phil is still driving for Nolan’s.
“The best way to deal with it is to keep moving. If you sit around, you feel terrible all the time. If you keep moving, you don’t feel as bad.”
Of transport, Phil says “it’s a tough old industry”.
“From where we started, you could go and get a truck and trailer and you could pay for it but today, you’d have no chance.”
It’s a tough reality and one that saw Phil sell his last truck in 2023.
However, 2023 also brought a different milestone as Phil was inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at the National Road Transport Museum in recognition of his lifelong dedication to the industry.
“It was a great surprise”, made even better by the company of his wife, two daughters and mates who had seen Phil’s longstanding commitment to his work firsthand.
In fact, Phil met his wife, Michaela, at a disused weighbridge.
A fellow driver had told Phil, “I’ve got just the person for ya!” and passed along her phone number.
Hannants Transport’s Mercedes Benz 2238.Intrigued, Phil called Michaela and suggested they meet at rather unconventional meeting spot, knowing she started work early in Brisbane.
“You just wake me up!” instructed Phil. Just as planned, he was woken by a tap on the door. That first meeting led to a date, and from there, as he puts it, “away it went!”
Coming from a non-trucking background, Michaela was suddenly thrown into a world where Phil was doing three trips a week to Sydney. Trucking, from then on, was always a family affair.
There were trips where Phil’s wife and two daughters would come along. Originally bound for Sydney, “all of a sudden, things would change on the way down”. More than once, they ended up in a different city with no extra clothes, leading to last-minute shopping trips just to get by.
Phil’s daughters have each forged their own paths, but the family’s ties to transport continues.
One daughter pursued a career as a midwife, while the other found her way into the transport industry, working for Western Truck Group in Toowoomba.
“She’s got all of Dad’s old truck photos in her office, so that’s pretty cool.”
Even in retirement, Phil isn’t content to simply sit back. He remains active in the industry, proving, just as he predicted, that the transport bug never truly leaves you.
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