Widening its scope

For operators running deliveries in and out of remote country towns where return trips can often be days apart, it helps to have multi-compartment trailers. That’s why Queensland’s OzWide Freight is now putting a new B-double drop deck curtain-sider from Vawdrey Australia into service.

Luke Ashton, Director of OzWide Freight, has spent almost two decades in Australia’s commercial transport industry as both a driver and manager. If there’s one thing he’s learnt about the industry during that time, it’s that regional country towns are always in need of a reliable transport service. Since starting OzWide Freight in Brisbane, one of Luke’s major objectives has therefore been to help service businesses up in northern Queensland, where transportation can at times be few and far between.

“Northern Queensland is a market I’ve been looking to build a strong presence in for many years, especially now that less than container load (LCL) volumes have gone up in north Queensland,” Luke says. “We have established a strong list of customers along the Brisbane to Gold Coast run, but going up north is another challenge altogether.

“Given those customers are three to four hours, or even a day or two away, those trips can be challenging – not to mention long. That’s why we need equipment that can help the driver get the most out of each trip; something Vawdrey Australia helps us facilitate.”

To help Luke and his team in accommodating its northern Queensland clients, OzWide purchased a brand-new B-double drop deck curtain-sider in June 2016 through Vawdrey’s Queensland branch. “The B-double is used to cart general goods, including dry foods, dairy farming products, medical equipment and agricultural supplies. In some instance, all those items at once,” Luke says.

To avoid damage to freight and keep each pallet “compartmentalised”, as Luke puts it, Vawdrey has fitted mezzanine decks in both trailers. “The decks make it easier for the drivers to section off each customer’s load and helps us to maximise our load capacity.”

If the decks are fitted accordingly, then the forklift buy cheap diflucan online driver can lift the pallets onto the specific area. The decks will help keep dry food pallets and agricultural pallets separate until they are delivered, enabling the driver to position them for quicker access depending on the route.

“By our calculations, if the mezzanine decks are used, then this B-double is able to carry up to 56 pallets at once, which is the most out of any vehicle we have at the moment,” Luke explains, revealing that OzWide’s fleet includes five prime movers, seven rigids and utes, and five curtain-sided semi-trailers.

With the new B-double going into service, Luke says his customers up north now have a new transport vessel to rely on. “It’s a given that the country folk from the central and to the far north of the state don’t get the same coverage as the businesses in and around the city,” he says. “The more the country folks see our vehicles come in and out of their facilities, the more it grows our partnership. This could potentially lead to more word of mouth referrals, which is still a powerful marketing tool in the transport industry and also how I initially came across Vawdrey Australia in the first place.”

According to Luke, the increase of LCL-related jobs has led to OzWide opening a new 8,000m² storage facility in Loganlea in September 2016, while also building up a new online system to improve its accuracy with deliveries. The expansion is all part of a bigger picture that Luke hopes will one day see OzWide as one of the leading transport services that businesses in regional towns can depend on.

“Our first 10 years were spent establishing the business and building our brand,” he says, revealing that OzWide is also aiming to expand to the Northern Territory and Western Australia. “Since our customer list has increased to more than 100, we are now in a position to explore other new opportunities over the next decade thanks to the Loganlea site and our new Vawdrey trailer.”