Online Catalogue last updated 17th of September 2023
This book is a collection of stories and photographs as told by the many people Bill and his wife Linda have met during their 120 episode Television series called Toll New Zealand Talking Trucks. A very special thanks to Greg Miller and the team at Toll New Zealand for makign this possible.
Bill is probably better known for his recreational fishing activities over the years. His newspaper columns, books, videos, and TV series on fishing. Some asked the questions "What does a fisherman know about trucks?"
Bill spent most of his youth in the driver's seat from the age of 15. Over the years that followed, he progressed up to driving artics and you can read all about Bill's trucking experiences in chapter 53.
People enjoyed Bill's relaxed way of interviewing people, and getting them to tell their stories. The series concluded in 2015. Bill continued filming trucks and other machinery in a series he called Low Gear, which followed on from Talking Trucks. Low Gear was sponsored by J.Swap Contractors of Matamata, Bill and Linda would like to thank David Swap and his team for their support with the series. Bill will write about the Low Gear TV series in due course.
The Low Gear series was taken up at its conclusion of the J.Swap contract by ProTranz of Christchurch with Gerard Daldry coming on board wih sponcership. Gerard will feature in the upcoming Low Gear book.
Bill's wife Linda is a professional photographer. In 1994 Linda took up a video camera and they started filming for Bill's fishing videos. Linda would film, Bill would edit and together they would market them. In 1997 Bill and Linda were approached by Auckland's Triangle TV to produce a fishing series. So began a long association with the New Zealand regional television network. They started Talking Trucks in 2012. Between Talking Trucks and Low Gear they produced 272 episodes for Television.
The last SKY network weekly viewership number was over 55,000, which included the four weekly show repeats. All up since Bill and Linda started producing television shows in 1997, they've racked up a massive 920 episodes over 20 years with an average of over 42 episodes a year. They've also done other topics for television, even a fishing series for Maori Television
Bill and Linda hope you enjoy what they've put together and would like to sincerely thank all the people who have made it possible.
Code No. 017693, 280 pages, $59.00