“Three steps to heaven,” the trucker grinned as he urged me to climb the three steps up to his cabin to ‘see for yourself’ how he lives when on the road.

“You live in your truck. It’s your home,” he told me. “Your own private space. Your ego trip. And I can have in it what the wife won’t let me put up at home.”

I lifted myself up into the driver’s seat courtesy of the two big support handles. The inevitable Page 3 model looked down on me from above the windscreen. The driver’s seat was well moulded to his own contours and a single mattress lay tucked in behind the seats. After all he was a long distance trucker.

This glimpse into a trucker’s kingdom was at the Irish Commercial Truck Show 03 which took place at Punchestown race course in June. It incorporated the Four Nations Tractor & Truck Pulling Championship, and Peak Truck Show Eire. According to organisers AJS promotions the like of it had never been planned on such a scale ‘in Dublin’ attracting visitors, competitors and exhibitors from across Europe. Only it wasn’t ‘in Dublin’ ... it was in Co Kildare!

The 5000 sq metres or so of indoor exhibition space seemed almost fully booked on the day. It was indeed a show case for the industry with exhibitors ranging from truck centres, plant sales, engines, truck accessories and spare parts, specialised refrigeration trucks, trailers, cleaning equipment, high powered tools, fuel companies, metal products, and even collectors toys and hot tubs.

Peak Truck Eire had over 300 lorries confirmed to attend. Their area at the front of the event centre had on show some of the best lorries on the road from across Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.

One owner was John O’Neill from Brittas in south Co Dublin who was busy polishing up his spanking 1993 435 engined-Kenworth W900L. John operates nine trucks, and the Kenworth is ‘just for show’ he told me. “It’s a toy!”

He declined to say how much money it would cost to make him part with it. He got it from Canada where it was used to pull logs. The graphics were done by a man from Holland whose name John can’t recall.

Good For U natural health products who offer magnetic therapy were dealing with a number of lorry drivers mainly suffering from back, neck or shoulder problems. “I suppose it goes with the job when you are driving in one position over a long distance,” Mark Smith explained.

The main outdoor activity, however, involved lots of elbow grease. Chamois cloths and cleaning stuff were in evidence everywhere as vehicles were being given the final touch up so as to look their best for the occasion.

Huge effort had also gone into personalising many of the trucks with bars, lights, wheel trims, dashboard kits and lots more such stuff.

On another level, painted graphics adorned many of the vehicles. These included pictures of many Coronation Street stars; John O’Neill’s picture of an old sailing ship on his Kenworth, and the ‘Queen of Hearts’ truck dedicated to the late Princess Diana with pictures of her along both sides.

These were pictures ‘the wife’ would approve of! Maybe had even commissioned!