PPG Transport Imaging Awards

There’s yellow....and yellow. And then there’s yellow

Yellow ain’t just yellow. It comes in many shades….as Auckland transport operator Mark Darrah can confirm.

He should know: He and brother Grant have had to grapple with just this issue many times in the 15 years since they took over the running of Reliance Transport…and its yellow and black trucks.

Yellow had been the chosen base colour for the Reliance fleet, right from the time that the Darrahs’ late father Ken and business partner Bob Martin started the company back in 1959.

When Reliance started it was, says Mark, “just yellow”….and then, “that Karitane yellow as some of my friends call it – that’s probably been there from about 1973.”

“We’ve had a few different shades of yellow over the years. And then we standardised on what they called ‘New Caterpillar Yellow.’ ”

And then, in 1996, the west Auckland company ordered a new Volvo and duly sent off the colour spec to the Volvo factory in Brisbane – “and they came up with another version of ‘New Caterpillar Yellow.’ ”

The good thing was, the Darrahs liked it: “Now we’ve actually got that locked in as ‘Reliance Yellow.’ ”

Get the full story... subscribe here