Special feature: White Road Commander

Rod Simmonds takes us on a journey through the history of White Trucks, and follows up on a White Road Commander that he’s admired since his youth

The White Motor Company was an American automobile, truck, bus, and agricultural tractor manufacturer from 1900 until 1980. White Trucks had a long and enduring place in the worldwide history of trucking, until its ultimate demise, despite numerous attempts to get back into the market.

In North America, White was insolvent, and Volvo acquired the US assets of the company in 1981 and two energy-related companies based in Calgary, Alberta — Bow Valley Resource Services and NovaCorp.

An Alberta corporation purchased the Canadian assets, including the Kelowna, British Columbia plant, and the Western Star nameplate and product range.

The evolution of the brand

White Road Commander — STL had a custom-built sleeper, locally made in Carterton and trimmed like a factory one. It had an NTC 400 Cummins spec’d to match the Kenworth they also brought.

American Volvo produced trucks such as White and Autocar through the 1980s and sold Volvo-White high cab-over-engine (COE) models to Western Star for the Canadian market into the 1990s.

In 1988, Volvo and General Motors merged their heavy truck divisions in North America, creating Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corporation and a new brand of trucks, White-GMC. Western Star was sold to Australian entrepreneur Terry Peabody in 1990.

Subsequently, Western Star was sold by Peabody to Daimler-Chrysler 10 years later and that’s where we get the Western Star’s from today.

In 1997, Volvo purchased the General Motors truck business and rebadged White-GMC vehicles under the Volvo and Autocar nameplates. Volvo soon dropped any reference to ‘White’ and is now Volvo Trucks North America.

Autocar remained a part of Volvo until 2000 when the brand was withdrawn from the market and was subsequently sold to Grand Vehicle Works, which produced custom-built conventional Autocars and the Xpeditor low-cab-forward, US-type vocational truck.

White Trucks in NZ

The genuine White Trucks—Road Commanders, Road Boss, and Expeditors were a popular choice in New Zealand, as they were custom-made in Brisbane and not ex-US.

Only a small number made it to New Zealand, as the White empire ceased just as the new model was launched Down Under. During the post-war era, there were many long-nose (conventional) Whites imported for logging and off-highway work, standardised with thirsty petrol engines, which were soon ‘Kiwi-ised’ with diesel power plants.

The Aussies loved them. From the early White RC 1970s COE to the Australian-ised RC2 model, many trucks went on the road in Australia, and many are still showing off at the various truck shows and classic truck runs today. In fact, every few years, there’s a White Trucks Muster (the next one is in 2025), showing their strong following across the Tasman.

Domtrac NZ were the agents (morphed into what’s now Southpac) and sold the trucks considerably cheaper than the equivalent spec Kenworth at the time.

The equally rare New Zealand White Road Boss ended up all over the country and is a much sought-after classic today — another story to come on these in the future.

The White Road Commander

One particular truck, a 1983 White Road Commander Rego LE6997, stood out and was operated in my local area (with numerous rides as a kid) with owner-operator Robbie Robinson of Pirinoa, South Featherston.

The RC was brought in to replace his Leader 3306 on livestock work, initially as an owner-driver for Transport Wairarapa Ltd/Hargreaves Transport Group.

Fleet number 401 was covering livestock work all over the North Island, with Robbie and brother-in-law John ‘Monty’ Montgomerie sharing the hours behind the massive steering wheel.

It was a bullet-proof combination with a Cummins NTC 350, 15-speed Roadranger, and Rockwell diffs on heavy leaf springs. The day cab was basic but functional with no rest bunk — just the bare minimum creature comforts — although slightly more comfortable than Robbie’s previous Leader.

The TWL green livery made way for the striking red and white stripes that Robbie applied when he became an independent operator.

The RC had some of the deepest matching cattle crates made by Nationwide Crates at the time on a three and then four-axle trailer. It was an impressive unit in those times of D Series Fords, International 3070s, and the early T-Lines. Robbie kept the White on for rural-related work, including hay, wool, grain, timber, and regular run to Tauranga with bales of agar for special pharma use. It was a bit of a handful to keep upright sometimes, especially with the big American-style steering wheel.

The end of the road

After a few years of hard work, Robbie traded the White in at MTD Palmerston North for one of the very first Mack Ultraliners, resplendent in the eye-catching red again.

The RC then was brought by Mike Ralph, owner-driver to B Cronins and then Regal Haulage Tamahere. The truck worked all over the country carting bulk and freight. Then it went to Southern Water Cartage, Papakura on pipe, and Dricon deliveries New Zealand-wide too. It became well known in the white and blue paint scheme of Southern Water Cartage (SWC).

SWC then retired it to sawdust duties at the local Tuakau sawmill, and after the hard life, it wasted away for a few years. It’s apparently being restored, and we hope it can be high wide and handsome like when new.