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‘Truckin’ Life’ magazine founder remembered
September 16, 2009
| by: Todd Dills
Truckin’ Life is Australia’s premiere trucking magazine for owner-operators: in certain ways, it shares with its American counterpart in Overdrive a defining mission, clear from the tagline that adorns its cover, “The voice of the Australian trucker.” Truckin’ Life‘s founder, Malcolm B. Johnson (pictured, courtesy Truckin’ Life), suffered a heart attack July 31 and passed away in early August.
According to former Truckin’ Life managing editor Jim Gibson, writing Johnson’s obituary in Truckin’ Life recently, the first edition of that magazine appeared in May 1976, spearheaded by Johnson’s efforts.
His inspiration? “Malcolm got the idea for the magazine while enjoying several large drams of amber fluid at a Brisbane Truck Show,” Gibson wrote. “He was leaning on the bar at the show listening to drivers’ beefs. A few days later he got his hands on some copies of an American truck magazine called Overdive, courtesy of one of those drivers. He studied its editorial policy and found the conditions Australian drivers worked under were similar to those of their U.S. counterparts. Its tagline was, and still is today — the voice of the American trucker.”
I had the experience of working with Malcolm in the early 70′s and our paths criss-crossed over the years. He was ‘larger than life’ – an incredible character. Sadly,I only learned of his death today, Jan 10, 2010. A daub of bright colour has gone from the Australian canvas.
I featured in the first edition of Trucking Life.
I had just purchased 3 new Fusos trucks [worse luck]1 bogie drive and 2 single drive with v8 diesel motors, and he asked me to submit a story.
I have the first five editions, does anyone know what they would be worth today….
I wrote the gossip column for almost 17 years for T.L. and the People column for almost as long and wrote lots of pictorials about truck shows and the like, Malcolm was a very good friend of mine for a very long time and I will always be grateful to him for giving me the chance to become what i have miss ya old mate.