Higgins bitumen truck featuring child’s drawings of worker parents reaches Hawke’s Bay

Adam Danvers (left) Higgins natural gas operative, with daughter Amelia Danvers, aged 6, and commercial manager Dylan Stange and Allison, 13, in front of the freshly wrapped truck. Photo / Warren Buckland

Next time you see a resealing project on one of our national roads, you might see Dylan Stange’s face on the side of a bitumen tank, expertly drawn by daughter Allison.

Allison is one of three talented young Hawke’s Bay artists who contributed their impressionistic excellence to the new tank wrap, which rolled into town for the first time on Thursday.

The wrap was created after a nationwide competition organised by Higgins in which children of workers were asked to draw their parents. Vinyl wraps are used to keep people safe from bitumen splashes.

“It’s awesome. It’s much better than having a boring old-looking truck,” Stange, a Higgins commercial manager, said.

“The first time we saw it was on Thursday when the truck arrived all ready to go. It was quite exciting for the kids.”

He said Allison, 13, had always enjoyed art as a hobby, and it was a “great little project” for her to take part in.

Lucy Taylor, Higgins contracts administrator (left) and her daughter Noor Jweili, 9. who painted the picture of mum for the bitumen tanker. Photo / Warren Buckland

Contracts administrator Lucy Taylor said her daughter Noor Jweili, 9, was “pretty stoked” to see her work featured on the tanker.

Taylor said the design also helped promote the importance of family and a positive culture of health and safety.

“It kind of comes back to that whole thing about parents getting back home to their kids safe and healthy at the end of the day”

The newly wrapped Higgins bitumen tanker will travel all over the North Island. Photo / Warren Buckland

Higgins general manager Andrew McRae said the tanker was one of seven “new safer and more fuel-efficient” ones in the fleet being protected by high-quality PVC.

“Wrapping the tankers also gives us the opportunity to share a company message on a big scale. We really wanted to feature some of the people in our team on the wrap since they’re the most important part of our business.”

The tank will travel to Higgins jobs all across the North Island.

Mitchell Hageman joined Hawke’s Bay Today in January 2023. From his Napier base, he writes regularly on social issues, arts and culture, and the community. He has a particular love for stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.