In light of this discussion I thought I would share my own recent experiences with a trucking freight company that I will not name here.

I was to take ownership of a vintage mower that I wanted for spare parts from NSW. Believe it or not, the trucking company refused to carry it. The poor bloke who was sending it had phoned the company for a quote and they told him they could send it strapped to a shipping pallet. So he drives the 30 minutes to the depot only to get some smart young bugger telling him they can't carry it because it is "a liability". Believe it or not he got told that the mower could "explode"! Yes, explode! Has anyone ever heard anything so stupid?

They told him that the mower could still have oil or petrol in it and that makes it a "hazard" because it could self-combust at any moment. I don't know about anyone else, but I've never heard of any old mower suddenly self-combusting when it is not even running! There are a few yards around town here that have piles of old mowers and car bodies and I tend to think the greatest risk would be from a grass fire, due to the amount of rubbish that tends to grow around these wrecks. Perhaps the engine blocks could explode if subject to sufficient heat and sealed up, but really the entire freight truck would be a complete write off by that time anyway and I very much doubt that the mower would be the cause of any such fire.

Anyway, the bloke told them that this mower hadn't run in over 10 years due to a seized valve and the fuel and oil had been drained around the same time and all the fuel had evaporated, and what if he removes the fuel cap, spark plug and sump plug? They just shook their head.

So he asks them if they would take a brand new mower or one that has been reconditioned. "No problem" they replied. Then he argued with them that reconditioned mowers have all had oil and fuel through them. Still they wouldn't budge. There is also the irony that their own trucks have engines and need fuel and oil to run. Perhaps so many of them are catching fire and exploding that they are afraid of the mere sight of an engine?

My guess is they didn't like the look of the rust and bits of caked oil and dirt that you always get on old relic mowers. They were probably scared they might get it on their hands and clean uniforms. Also the mower has a couple of cracked wheels and they were probably worried I might come back on them for "damages". But if that was the case, why didn't they say that instead of beating around the bush with tales of old engines spontaneously exploding?

Anyway, the next day he takes the whole thing back in a sealed up box and tells them it is just a box full of old Mack truck parts. No problem. They didn't even want to look inside!

He also got a quote from another company and they said "no worries" to carrying it strapped to a wooden pallet, but they were twice the price.

I wonder, what is the world coming to when a "nationwide" express trucking company will not even carry a lawnmower? And as for an old pile of rusty metal exploding, well that is just plain stupid.

I worry for the world our kids and grandkids will have to live in. Will everybody in the future be too afraid to do anything? "Oh I'd better not mow the lawn today, I might hit a wasp nest and die from anaphylactic shock! Or the mower might explode suddenly and kill me. Better leave that one to a professional wearing full body armour!" It really has got that stupid.