Trucksales Staff•18 Sept 2017

NEWS

Family friendly

Pickering Transport Group is facing a bright future with growing numbers of cost-effective and comfy Scania trucks...

Running a successful, sophisticated transport and logistics business is not the sole preserve of large corporate types; a regionally based family business can be just as effective if the people in charge are future-focused.

Meet the Pickering Transport Group. A family-owned and run operation that is as keen to detect and eradicate waste as it is to improve the conditions of its drivers. So the shift to selecting Scanias for the heavy end of the business has ticked both those boxes and provided a good deal of peace-of-mind and efficiency for brothers Daryl and Roger Pickering.

"We're growing," Daryl says, as he surveys the company's Sunshine depot, in the heart of Melbourne's sprawling western suburbs.

"We came here 20 years ago, and we were one of the few logistics businesses in the area; it was just paddocks. When we started we brought in a few other transport companies to help us fill the space; now it is very busy and we're being squeezed on all sides.

"We started in Swan Hill and we have depots in Shepparton, Bendigo, Kerang, Robinvale, Mildura and Renmark. We run produce from the country into Melbourne overnight and then in the day the trucks are running around delivering locally.

We're typically delivering to markets, while we pick up consolidated loads to head back out north.

"We try to handle whatever those country towns need."

Diverse business

"A general freight carrier is the best way to describe us, delivering refrigerated produce in season, with groceries heading back into the regional areas," Daryl says.

"We also do a lot of building products, farm supplies and chemicals, and we run a fuel tanker, though only to refuel our fleet.

"We have stayed away from livestock or bulk product like grain, although we do shipping containers of bulk wine, using a bladder in the container. This is shipped out of the South Australian Riverland as well as the Mildura region. There's also some wine coming out of Griffith and Wagga Wagga, and we do some milk out of Kyabram headed for export markets.

"It is interesting to look back and see how we have grown our customer base. It is diverse, which provides benefits and disadvantages; the loss of one customer won't bring us down, but being so diverse means we need a wide range of equipment and a flexible back office for the paperwork. An advantage may be that if one industry is down, another may be up.

"We're in a consolidation phase now, after a period of organic growth. Last year [2016] we commenced doing a lot of beverage distribution to milk bars and take-aways in country New South Wales for a major beverage supplier, so our plan in 2017 is to expand on that area of the business.

"We have built strong relationships with our clients and we have shown a willingness to grow with them as they expand their businesses.

"Our customers value the fact that we get the job done. When they have their greatest need, we will do what we can to help them. We are not the flashiest around, probably there are others that are better at self-promotion, but we are operationally involved, the management is involved and close to customers. I feel they can rely on us to get the job done."

Scania switch

The conversion to Scania for heavy prime mover duties came about slowly and with deliberation. Daryl was interested in reducing his running costs and Scania's fuel efficiency was intriguing. But in order to minimise exposure, Daryl proceeded cautiously.

"We had no history with Scania until about five years ago," he says.

"We had supermarket contracts out of Adelaide that were running to the 'Iron Triangle'; Port Augusta and Port Pirie, and we were using our regular fleet. They were based in Adelaide and we had no workshop facility. We were forever trying to use suppliers or get them back through the country to service them.

"Scania came to us and put up a very good proposal on a maintenance [plan] for some vehicles. We were a little hesitant about European product, having had a poor previous experience [with another brand], where we had driver resistance and reliability issues with that brand.

"The Scania proposal on maintenance was very attractive and with set costs we knew what we were up for.

"The Scania presentation was good; they sold us into believing they could handle it [all]. We bought our first four trucks on a four-year programme operated and maintained out of Adelaide. We found we got good fuel, and the drivers were happy, so it was all working well," Daryl says.

"We had some security because Scania would buy the trucks back after four years. Once we found the product was good and the maintenance was good, and that Scania was good to work with, we expanded and bought more trucks. Now we have 25 Scania trucks, R 560s, with a few R 620s and a G 440 pulling a single between Renmark and Adelaide.

"We suffer from a driver shortage like everyone, so we really need to keep drivers happy. Five or six years ago the way to keep drivers happy was with American trucks, but now the quietness and the comfort of the Scanias is doing that job.

"The number one comment I get from drivers in Scanias is, 'I can't believe how good I feel' after they have completed a shift.

"Depending on where they are based and what runs they are doing, the drivers can be averaging as much as 180,000km per year. So comfort is important.

Healthy numbers

"One of the great features introduced with the Scania product is a weekly report from the on-board Communicator [Scania's factory telematics system] that shows each vehicle's information for the week on distance travelled, fuel economy, idling and harsh braking. This places information at managers' fingertips without any effort, and builds an information base that we didn't have previously so promptly.

"The fleet is virtually all B-double although some return trips are lightly loaded. Journeys can be as short as 300km but up to 3000km round trip. Fuel economy ranges from 1.6km per litre to 2.6km per litre for the singles. Overall, our Scania fleet averages 1.9km per litre on a monthly basis.

"One of the things that I have been happy about has been a number of presentations we have had from Scania on the Optimise programme, and the benefits we would reap if we invested in it. Again, being cautious of sales-speak, we only enrolled five Scania vehicles and their regular drivers into the programme. This saw a Scania driver trainer do a full driver induction into all features of the prime mover, and how to use those features to achieve the safest and most economical performance from the vehicle.

"In what we feel is a credit to the Optimise programme, the trainer travelled in our vehicle on a regular trip that our driver would do, with our regular freight. So it was not a test environment but one our drivers do routinely. The training then used the Scania Communicator's data to prove to the driver the recommended driving techniques produced benefit. The trainer then followed up the drivers with phone contact to discuss how they felt about the improved driving habits. We certainly feel we have recouped our investment.

"Scania is trying to sell us more than a truck, it's a solution that will ultimately benefit our bottom line, and put dollars in our pocket. That's one of the things I have been impressed with," he says.

"This non-hardware component of the relationship we have with Scania will be increasingly important. The supplier becomes a de facto employee and they are in there working with you as a business asset."

A day in the life

Through the course of a typical day in the Pickering Transport Group Sunshine depot, smaller distribution vehicles pour in and out to collect final-mile loads or drop off smaller consignments to be consolidated into B-double or single-trailer loads destined for the country.

"We run six rigids for local pick-up and distribution from this yard and there are four prime movers based here that do some local work in the day and longer runs overnight," Daryl says.

The Pickering Transport Group fleet totals 110 prime movers, all of which are fully engaged in delivery duties in the back end of each year ahead of the Christmas rush, and the weaker performers get weeded out come the end of summer in the lead up to Easter.

The prime movers are hauling dry tautliner trailers, as well as refrigerated tautliners and van bodies while skels are in use for containerised transport. The business is also dipping into Super B-doubles to boost efficiency further.

"In 2016 we had a Super B-double up and running, with a set of trailers being loaded in Melbourne and one set in Swan Hill so when the truck comes in, it just offloads the trailers and picks up the next set and heads out," Daryl says.

An indication of the thinking that goes on at Pickering is the development of 40-foot container bodies with 'soft' tautliner sides that can ensure the skels are efficiently utilised in times when the work moving around import/export shipping containers is running slow.

Family focus

Ted and George Pickering purchased an ex-Army Dodge as teenagers to carry their father's produce to market. The business is now run by the second generation, with the third generation earning their spurs as well.

"One of our strengths is that the guy whose name is on the business is accessible to customers, and our regional customers in particular really like that," Daryl says.

"In the country, customers are running their own family businesses and they like dealing with other family businesses, and they like stable relationships and businesses that promote the local economy.

"As a strategy we work for the long-term. We're not out to make a quick buck.

"My brother Roger and I run the business. Roger is the General Manager and he oversees all the business operations, while I'm the Corporate Manager, responsible for looking after the administration and finance, all the back office functions.

We have a cousin, Jamie, who runs maintenance in South Australia. Roger has a daughter working in administration, a son in operations, and Jamie's son is a mechanic who also drives. I have a daughter in administration and my son is at university but works in the yard over the holidays. So we are spread through the business looking after different functions."

A driver's perspective

Hopping out of his recently delivered Scania R 560, driver Darren Fitzmaurice has headed for the wash bay, prior to having his truck photographed. He was happy to pass on some thoughts about being behind the wheel of a PTG Scania.

"I have been driving for 28 years, a lot of them in [American] cab-overs. I was offered a Scania and it is easier to get in and out of it. I would do that 10-12 times per shift. It is comfortable to drive and the Opticruise is set-and-forget, which makes things easier than a manual transmission, so there's less fatigue, and it gives you more time to concentrate on the road.

"The radio and Bluetooth hands-free are good, too, and I am getting good number on the driver [support] score, too.

"I'm driving five days a week to Swan Hill on round trips, four hours each way, and home every night for tea.

"Comfort-wise the Scania sits well on the road. We're pulling just over 60 tonnes on average every day in a B-double, though often returning empty. It's cruising at 100km/h on the freeway and the hills slow it only to about 40km/h.

"This truck is relatively new, and it is the best one I have driven. It's clocked up about 220,000km in 14 months.

"Most of the drivers here are keen to get into Scanias. We had Scania driver training and they highlighted a few things like how to use the downhill speed control. The Retarder is brilliant. The Scania V8 has lots of low-down torque. The old [American] truck used to run at 1700rpm, but the Scania is running far lower so it's much quieter in the cab. And better on fuel too."

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