Family brings the daily bread

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 467, 21 December 1992, Page 16

Family brings the daily bread

Why does the Taylor family of Ohakune take on the job of driving more than 300km, including the Parapara Highway, seven nights a week to deliver bread? "I can't answer that one," Bill Taylor told the Bulletin last week. His wife Jan disagreed with him when he said he doesn't like driving. The Taylor's family business is the bread delivery contract for Cutelli's Bakery in Wanganui for the central North Island area. Until recently the contract saw the Taylor's bread truck leave Ohakune at 6pm four nights a week, travel down the Parapara , pick up a load of bread, travel via Marton to Hunterville. They deliver bread to stores on SH1 at Hunterville, Mangaweka, Flat Hills, Taihape and Waiouru. After a halfhour break at Waiouru, they carry on to Ohakune, then Raetihi. Then its home to bed about 3. 30-4. 00am. The truck repeats the run the other three nights, but starts later, between 7.30pm and 8.00pm depending on the size of the night's orders. Bill may be the man

behind the wheel most nights, but he insists it is a family business. Partly because all the family are involved in working the run, but also because the family 's lives revolve around the business. The two T aylor daughters, Annette and Marie, have both helped out over the years, Marie now only on visits as she has moved away. Jan works with Bill regularly, loading and unloading bread at the various stops. Bill is teaching her to drive the truck so she will soon be behind the wheel on a regular basis too. At present Bill's nights off - he is legally only allowed to drive six days a week, 11 hours a day - are covered by mar-s ket garden driver Clinton | Wyatt. At 306 km per night, Bill has clocked up about 1,500,000 km in his 15 years' driving for Waimarino bread eaters. Their third truck, an Isuzu, is up to 530,000km and apart from tyres and other regular replacements, has only had a new set of rings and bearings installed - a testament to Bill's attention to the

truck's maintenance. They've seen lots of changes in the 15 years of bread-driving -the main one is the reversal of their run. When they started they delivered bread from Gould's Bakery in Ohakune around the Central North Island, switching to picking the bread up from Palmerston when Homestyle . bought and shut down the bakery. A few years after that the company reorganised the

areas and Waimarino was serviced from Wanganui. A few corners shaved off the Parapara has made a bit of a difference, thought Bill still isn't fond of it. He is reluctant to give away any past stories. He says he has seen a few accidents, had one himself (when he hit a horse on the road into Raetihi in the early hours of the morning). He says he's seen everything after he tells of

one story about arriving at a shop during a 'young couple's activities' in the early hours of one morning. "But you can't print that!" Bill says his job makes the days fly by,' with so many hours behind the wheel and daytime hours spent sleeping. "But I still manage to play fine-weather golf and to look after the garden."