Almost a decade ago Team Transport & Logistics began applying vinyl wrapping to its company-owned fleet.
That’s over 100 prime movers, the majority of which are from DAF — the brand of preference.
It was one of the first Queensland carriers to do so. The iconic red, charcoal, and white scheme that has made the company so prominent on the road in the south-eastern part of the state is effective as a marketing tool but offers another advantage.
Underneath the wrapping, when it comes off, the duco is like new according to Team Transport & Logistics Managing Director Steve Skinner.
“Sure, it costs you five or six grand to wrap a truck, but you get at least four years of good branding out of that,” he says.
“Then at the end of eight years, once you rip the wrap off, you’ve got what looks like a brand-new truck. The extra costs you get back when you sell the truck and, in the meantime, you’ve had great advertising.”
Aside from being a loyal DAF Australia customer, Team Transport & Logistics is also one of its best. It operates dozens of DAF prime movers across the business including the XF, CF and smaller LF rigid.
The brand’s versatility proven out in a variety of applications that are, what’s more, not particularly compatible: container cartage, long haul freight, crane trucks, driver training and tray trucks accommodating Manitou forklifts.
Two of the latest units to join the fleet, a DAF XF530 and a DAF FTT CF530, are running from Brisbane to Cairns delivering roller doors for multiple manufacturers.
They load the B-double Tautliners every Monday.
“Outside of this task and project deliveries, the majority of the work is localised,” says Steve. “Vehicles don’t tend to rack up astronomical kilometres, an advantage for us when it comes to selling the gear later on.”
Around the same time vinyl wrapping was being introduced, the company entered the realm of Performance-Based Standards, an initiative it sees great value in having a division consisting of 25 trucks dedicated to hauling containers off the wharf.
The company opened a second site only last year at Port West at the Port of Brisbane, where they provide deliveries, unpacks and exports. Head office remains in Acacia Ridge.
A couple of Kenworth K200s were appointed the first PBS units in 2020. These are still pulling A-doubles. Ever since then every new addition for the fleet’s high productivity freight units has had a DAF badge.
“When we embarked on PBS DAF didn’t have the ability to produce a suitable prime mover in the application but now, they have 90-tonne rated trucks,” says Steve.
“They’re a dream to drive. Because they’re basically a European designed truck they are extremely comfortable. Less fatigue on the operator as a consequence. For me they’re a lot easier to get into than the K200s. I’m 71 but I can do both.”
It’s an important detail. The cabin on the new Euro 6 DAF is constructed for the convenience of easier entry and exit. Steps are designed to support this while the doors open to a wide 90° angle.
On the wharf the drivers are in and out of the cab all day.
“They do six cycles in a shift and they’re in and out once or twice at the wharf and once or twice at the yard,” explains Steve. “That amounts to 24 times a day at a minimum. That’s without breaks.”
Units in the container cartage division operate under the Mass Imports Management scheme.
The immediate benefit is approval for 45 tonnes on a single trailer rather than 42.5 tonne within 150 kilometres of the port. To qualify for MIMs, maintenance must be NHVR-approved. Team Transport & Logistics, as a result, operates its own workshop.
Five Euro 6 DAF FTT CF530s pull A-double units. An XF530 moves a Super B with another soon to be launched.
Because the DAF XF530 features a Variable Geometry Turbocharger, the engine provides higher boost pressures at lower revs allowing it to achieve the maximum torque of 2,600Nm in the 900-1,125rpm range.
The increased torque at lower revs permits the use of faster rear axles which enable the XF to stay in higher gears for longer.
The Super Bs, despite being a waning presence of late in port cartage, accomplish two things at once. Having one less articulated point, they are easier to handle when backing into a grid than an A-double.
“It’s like trying to back in a sausage,” says Steve. “It’s very difficult to get nightshift drivers as they are probably the hardest group of people to attract. To have them also be able to back in an A-double drains the pool we can draw on even further.”
Therefore, the plan is to use both Super Bs at night.
In recent years, Team Transport & Logistics have attempted to establish a pipeline for trainee truck drivers from high school.
The company employs two full time driver trainers who offer critiques to ensure drivers are safe and knowledgeable. Trainees often get the bulk of their time which can differ depending on an individual’s aptitude behind the wheel. Not all new drivers are created equal.
“We’ve had people go from the training truck right through to semi-crane truck or a semi-trailer with a forklift on the back,” says Steve. “We’ve had good success. It’s a self-help thing really. We need truck drivers and truck drivers are few and far between.”
A specially appointed risk team helps manage all the new trainees. So far, a handful have been recruited from school but encouragingly there have been several men and women in their early 20s that have come through the ranks who are doing well according to Steve.
“We want to train people so that they have a good grounding,” he says. “That way, as they grow in the job, they not only get something out of it, but they are invested in being a truck driver.”
Two DAF FA LF290s are used for driver training.
“We haven’t had any problems with the DAFs,” says Steve. “They have been, by and large, bulletproof. I’m very happy with the product.”
The partnership with PACCAR Australia first began in 2009. It followed the Global Financial Crisis.
“We lost half our fleet because most of our work was in the building industry,” he recalls. “From then onwards we tried to diversify to limit our exposure to cyclical work so we moved out to as many other areas as we possibly could. It was hard to move away from the building industry because it’s the life blood of a taxi truck organisation.”
A fleet of 200 trucks, consisting mostly of owner-drivers, was reduced by half. Many of the banks including Steve’s suddenly became gun-shy over existing agreements. That soon meant new terms which were unreasonable.
Enter PACCAR Financial As it offered OEM finance, Team Transport & Logistics eventually purchased three Kenworth T408s to pair up with floats for the heavy haulage division.
That same division at present includes three quad-axle floats with dollies capable of handling 50-tonnes. They have been deployed on various renewables projects throughout the state.
Truck dealership Brown and Hurley Yatala is where Steve and his team source their new vehicles. There are 160 trailers in the fleet.
The light fleet consists of nearly 100 subcontractors with another 60 working in the heavy division.
Some trucks carry forklifts. Others are equipped with cranes. The business is very active on the new Queen’s Wharf project where it has delivered steel, gyprock and windows.
“When it comes to end-to-end solutions you need people that can quote the job knowing what the potential challenges are,” says Steve.
“The sales team is trained to know what the pitfalls are. You lose some jobs because competitors don’t know the pitfalls and they quote too low for whatever reason. We’re not losing money on the jobs but hopefully charging the customer the right rate to do the right job.”
Training and management of the warehouse staff is imperative when it comes to effectuating challenging jobs that come off the wharf all the time while maintaining visibility with the customer along the chain.
Providing an end-to-end solution can be, as Steve observes, tricky at the best of times.
“Right now, we’re bringing in container loads of glass in feeble wooden crates. They’ve got this plate glass that is tied to the sides of these open top containers, and they’ve got bits of timber bracing them against the sides,” he says.
“We have to successfully crane them out of the open topper and put them on an A-frame without damaging them and eventually we will have to deliver them to a high-rise site.”
The general business continues to tick along encouragingly. Revenue has nearly tripled since 2020 to around $70 million. The container business has grown from $250,000 a week just 12 months ago to $400,000 a week based on the average of the last three months.
Steve, nonetheless, insists he doesn’t want to grow too big. It’s more about value adding and making improvements to efficiencies where possible.
“When times get tough it’s only the companies that have planned to go lean that survive,” he says. “If you’ve got too many trucks and too many lease payments or too many warehouses you can become unstuck very quick.”
He speaks from experience.
“It’s a bit like musical chairs,” he adds. “When the music stops you want to be sitting on a chair. And the music will stop.”
Team Transport & Logistics driver Gavin Schreiweis knows a bit about stopping.
He made the news recently after bringing his three-year old Euro 6 530hp DAF Tautliner half loaded with Beaumont tiles and a truck mounted Moffett to a sudden stop to avoid a spectacular accident on the Bruce Highway near Palmview after two drivers in the outside lane were involved in a reckless high-speed game.
Gavin was in the centre lane overtaking a slower tipper truck on the left-hand side when a pair of cars brake checking for 20 kilometres, according to police, sped up on the outside lane.
The Mazda, veering into the centre lane, lost control leaving Gavin nowhere to go. He clipped the car as it ricocheted into the tipper truck before it careened the Mazda across the three lanes into the barrier. An in-cab front facing camera captured the events.
Once he had removed the truck off the road, secured the site and confirmed no one was hurt Gavin fell into a heap on the other side of the guard rail.
“Too much excitement for this boy,” he says. “I didn’t realise I could pull up a semi in under three seconds. I didn’t know it could be done.”
The front and rear Disc Brakes on the DAF come with leading edge safety systems like EBS, ABS and AEBS. They demonstrated, beyond doubt, their immediate worth.
A small fibreglass section had been damaged by the impact, causing friction on the wheel. A panel beater by trade, Gavin used a bar to chisel it away from the wheel so it could be steered back to Brisbane.
“It was an experience and one I’m not going to forget,” he says. “I actually slept in that morning. Maybe I should have stayed in bed.”
There was $30,000 damage to the Team Transport & Logistics truck and an estimated $100,000 in damages to other vehicles.
As there were multiple parties involved in the accident, Steve suggests it’s another endorsement for in-cab camera technology.
“When we wanted to put cameras in trucks we had push back from the drivers,” he says. “It was like when we got resistance to installing GPS 15 years ago.”
There was pushback initially from Steve, too. The technology is still relatively new and costly to maintain. But the benefits are fast outweighing the overheads.
“If you hit a car from behind as we did in that accident who’s to say it wasn’t our truck’s fault?” he says. “Camera footage diffuses so many of these potential situations.”
The risk team have been instrumental in ensuring the business meets its compliance obligations, which given the nature of its diversified revenue streams, is extensive.
Being of the old school, Steve at first challenged their proposals but ultimately had no choice but to fall in line.
“They pushed for a range of overarching requirements when it came to our compliance,” he says.
“It’s really proved to be the best thing for the company. To be fully compliant has given us access to a lot of work we wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
Original article found at Prime Mover Mag website.
