World's Oldest Truckie

There is hope for us all yet! He has now gone to the big parking lot in the sky but how good is this.

One of the world's oldest motorists has been driving 88 years and has revealed he has no plans to give up driving soon.

Aged 105, Bob Edwards, from Ngataki, is the oldest licensed driver in New Zealand.

He was born before the first Model T rolled out of Henry Ford's factory in Detroit.


Determined: New Zealand's oldest driver Bob Edwards, 105, stands in front of his red Mitsubishi in Ngataki, New Zealand

He learned to drive in a French car that had a lever instead of a steering wheel.

And he's still on the road, only now in a red four-wheel-drive Mitsubishi.

He has no plans to give it up, just as he intends to keep working out every morning in his home gym, and to keep regularly cooking meals for himself and his wife, who is 91.


Long driving career: The first license Mr Edwards obtained. He grew up in England and he learned to drive in his uncle's car, a De Dion Bouton aged 17

Still on the road: Mr Edwards' current licence - in New Zealand, drivers older than 80 must have their health and vision tested every two years to stay on the road

He's been involved in just one crash in his life and has received just one speeding ticket, a citation that still gets him riled up years later.

When he broke his left hip three years ago, his doctors said to stop driving for six weeks but he didn't pay them much mind.

After all, he says, he drives an automatic and only needs his right leg for that.

In New Zealand, drivers older than 80 must have their health and vision tested every two years to stay on the road. Many countries in Europe and U.S. states have similar requirements.


While stories about elderly drivers making mistakes or causing crashes often make headlines, it's young drivers who tend to cause the most damage.

'Older drivers, on a per-kilometer-driven basis, are involved in far fewer crashes than younger drivers,' said Andy Knackstedt, a spokesman for the New Zealand Transport Agency, which oversees driver testing.

Keep on going: He has no plans to give it up, just as he intends to keep working out every morning in his home gym, and to keep regularly cooking meals for himself and his wife, who's 91

He said that for many elderly people, retaining a license helps them maintain their independence, mobility and dignity. 'Our job is really to balance that with the need to make sure our roads are safe,' he says.

According to Guinness World Records, the world's oldest driver was American Fred Hale Sr. who was on the road until his 108th birthday in 1998.

Edwards drives three times a week to the store 15 kilometers (9 miles) down the road.

He picks up groceries on Sundays and the newspapers on other days.

Occasionally, he says, he'll drive farther afield, to a medical appointment or to visit friends.

He grew up in England and he learned to drive in his uncle's car, a De Dion Bouton.

This undated photo provided by Bob Edwards shows the oldest licensed driver of New Zealand as a younger manNew Zealand's oldest driver Bob Edwards sits in his home
Youth: Bob Edwards as a younger man, left and now in his home in Ngataki, New Zealand

'It was something new. Cars were just coming in,' Edwards says. 'I mean, it was just marvelous.'

He got his first license in 1925 at age 17. Two years later, he saw a Salvation Army ad seeking young men to work on the farms of England's colonies.

'They told me Canada was very cold, Australia was very hot, but New Zealand, they said, was just right,' Edwards says. 'So I picked New Zealand.'

He eventually bought a Dodge car, converted it into a truck and started transporting the fossilized gum of native kauri trees from Snells Beach in the north to the city of Auckland.

Soon he was working 16-hour days and transporting butter, groceries and gas; he bought new trucks and employed a couple of drivers.

Gas rationing during World War Teo effectively ended his business.

For much of the rest of his working life, he captained tourist and car ferries, fibbing about his age so he could work beyond what was then the mandatory retirement age of 60.

His wife, Lesley, stopped driving about 30 years ago. Her husband always took the wheel, anyway, and he will stay with it as long as he can.

'As far as I'm concerned, driving is a part of me,' he says. 'I mean, that was me. I was a driver. And I could drive anything. Anything at all.'

Meanwhile in the UK we have the world's oldest HGV driver still full time working. I have absolutely no idea what he is saying in the video, I don't believe it is English?

I am sorry about the ads, just stick with it and he will eventually come up on the screen.
www.smalljoys.tv/guinness-oldest-hgv-driver-vid/


Looks like the poms are way behind in their claims.
www.modbee.com/news/local/article3099877.html

hope he drives better than he talks. Thats a broad Scottish accent for sure.

defo scottish, he lives up in the borders England and Scotland .only a pup compared to Bob but stil a good age to be fit enough to man handle that scania around the back country lanes of Scotland,
got his drivers licence when 17 and those days there was no test for goods vehicles and now he has to have a medical every year to keep his licence which when first issued he got through grandfather rights

we have an Echuca local, Jim Stapleton, turn 107 in a couple of weeks, He still plays pennant bowls and drives there. He would drive to his lodge meetings by a member nearby picks him up as the lodge is worried about him travelling alone at nighty.

They give him a licence test every year and he keeps passing it and is still alert to everything (no sign of dementia or anything) but he only drives locally these days and only to get to something he needs to do.

Strange isn’t it some people have all there wits and able to drive over 100 years old , yet I’m sixty , don’t work because of arthritis and I too have a medical for my license every year.... I’ve still got a truck license for my toys .

All things in your favour Rattail you've only got another forty tests until you're a hundred . . . :blink:

In WA an annual medical is required once over 80 years old, not sure about that, certainly had a few. At 85 an annual practical test is required for anything over a car licence at a Government facility, we are 140 K's from one and my old Guy has to be spot on as well, after that distance sure to be some oil leaks.
With my car licence I can tow a caravan which is just as demanding as anything I drove with the HC licence.
David.

Here in NSW because I have diabetes and hold a HR liecense I have had to do a medical each year as well. Fortunately I mostly behave myself with the food intake so passing the medicals and the quartlery blood test are not so bad. The crazy thing is that Dee was once told she was diabetic and that was put on her medical file. She does take no medication for it and is never out of the recomended range of blood sugar but because of the Dr saying she is it was reprted to the now RMS. The last 2 years she now has to take the annual medical and the new GP asked why is she doing this as she should not have to. Dee said you take it up with the RMS, I'm sure they would love to take her off the list and if they did it would be the first time in history that it would happen. Once diagnosed with diabetes no matter what happens they will not reverse the decision.

Cobba, I feel your pain also being diabetic. I have been managing my diabetes for 20 years without a single problem and I am now, at 61, fitter and healthier than I have ever been in my life, but still have to go through this annual medical BS. It wouldn't be so bad if the doctor had only to confirm that nothing had changed since the last medical, but no, 2 pages of questions for the GP and another 3 pages for the endocrinologist all costing extra $$$ in medical fees