Given his experience in driving trucks for a living, Anthony Beck should be a walking, talking cautionary tale about why people shouldn't enter the industry.
But he isn't.
He loves the trucking industry and instead, he just wants people to be trained well so they enter it for the right reasons, not just to get another endorsement to their car licence.
He had been a professional linehaul driver on shift work, 12 hours on and 12 hours off, seven days a week, carting fuel out of the Port Botany depot into Canberra, when something happened that every driver dreads.
"I had a microsleep, a bad one," he admitted.
It was before fatigue management alarm systems became commonplace among the major transport companies. The incident occurred on the Hume Highway at 3am, with a full load of 50,000 litres of fuel on board.
He was doing 90km/h. What occurred next was a recipe for a near-disaster.
"I missed the weighbridge at Marulan," he said.
"I don't know how. I just missed it it completely. Next thing I know I was hearing the thumping of the tyres on the rumble strips on the edge of the road and my deflectors smacking against the guardrail.
"Then I saw the flashing lights of the RMS [NSW Roads and Maritime Services] guys behind me and I realised what had happened."
The officers at the Marulan weighbridge had taken chase when Mr Beck's semi failed to enter the weighbridge after being indicated to do so.
He said the incident completely rattled him.
"When I think how close I was to a major accident with that much fuel on board, I have to be honest, it was absolutely terrifying," he said.
"I went home and told [his wife] Kate, 'That's it, I'm done'."
That very close call, together with chronic back pain from driving old heavy rigid truck and dog tippers across bumpy construction sites without the cushioning effect of a proper driver's suspension seat, convinced him to try something different.
So in late 2018, he became a NSW and ACT accredited truck driver instructor and trainer. And he hasn't looked back.
"It has been a really good decision; we started out small with Beck's Transport Training and gradually built up the business and now have have some great clients," he said.
"We can train anyone from medium rigid right up to heavy rigid combinations [B-doubles]."
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Mr Beck said the best people to train on heavy trucks were those, quite ironically, who rode motorcycles because a major part of the skillset needed was driver awareness.
"Motorcyclists have to be really aware of what's going on around them," he said.
"If you're a motorcyclist and you drop your concentration levels, it can kill you.
"It's similar to driving a big truck, but just in a different context.
"As a truck driver, particularly manoeuvring in traffic in an articulated [semi-trailer], you've always got to be thinking ahead, checking your mirrors, and anticipating what other drivers will do around you.
"In areas where there's things like roundabouts, T-intersections and heavy traffic, it needs high levels of concentration."
He said one of the safety skills he taught was to "protect your crash avoidance space" by deliberately opening up space between the truck and other traffic around it to take emergency action if required.
Even out on the relative safety of the open road there were many things to consider from the type of load carried, the way that load impacted the truck's centre of gravity, the camber of the road, and the way the dynamics of the load - from timber to fuel - affected the way the truck performed.
"Experience is a really fantastic asset as a truck driver but often I'm teaching people and all this stuff is new to them," he said.
Rolling down the steep incline on the Kings Highway into Queanbeyan, the limit for heavy vehicles is a strict 40km/h in the left-hand lane. For car drivers, it's a doddle. In a heavy truck, it's all about being in the right (low) gear, and using retardation systems to stay under the limit.
"You exceed this downhill 40km/h speed limit by just 1km/h and it's a $660 fine and six demerit points," he said.
One of the hardest things to teach younger truck drivers was patience and how to always put safety first, he said.
"If that means waiting a bit longer at an intersection and letting the traffic go so you have a clear and safe rollout, then you do it," he said.
"Car drivers are always doing such silly things around heavy trucks. So many have no idea of truck braking distances, the turning radius of an articulated and the dangers of tailgating. And don't get me started on people not using their indicators."
