All in a day’s work
Once again, one of our own has proven that tanker drivers do so much more than moving milk from A to B.
Jason Biddulph, from our Te Rapa team, took quick action to extinguish a bush fire beside a road in Huntly near Hamilton, preventing what could have been a far worse outcome.
Jasmine Sanson, a witness from the scene, was in awe of Jason’s rapid response.
“A Fonterra tanker came over the hill and I have never seen someone act so quickly! He was out of the tanker in seconds, got his own extinguisher out of the back and ran to the fire!”
Jason emptied his extinguisher onto the fire and raced back to his tanker to grab floor mats to keep the flames under control before the fire service arrived.
I just did what any one of our team would do – help out where help is needed. We’re trained for this kind of thing, we hope we never need it but this time the training came in handy. When I saw the fire instinct just kicked in.
“Our tankers are on the road a lot and we do more than collect milk, if you ask our team, you’ll hear similar stories of helping change tyres for tourists, stopping at accidents, teaching kids about road safety – it’s all in the days work for us.”
Jasmine was thankful Jason could safely help and is glad there are tanker drivers like Jason driving past her community’s farms.
“He did enough to not put himself in danger and made sure to check the road and park the tanker safely out of traffic so very well done and quick thinking.
“Fonterra you should be proud of drivers like this one helping out a small community!”
Barry McColl, GM National Transport and Logistics, says Jason is a prime example of how integral our tanker drivers are to the community, milk deliveries aside.
“As well as picking up our farmers milk our tanker teams can play an important part in our communities, helping school kids learn about road safety, providing support at road accidents where they’re often the first on the scene and in this case fighting fires.
“Jason’s actions are a demonstration of how quick thinking and the right attitude can help avoid a potentially dangerous situation.”