Grape specialist gets eleventh Actros

Mildura-based wine grape transport specialist Kevin Englefield now has a fleet of eleven Mercedes-Benz trucks after adding two new Actros models for this year’s harvest.

His company KEWGS used to run older trucks, but particularly nasty repair bills forced him to change tack and opt for new trucks.

“I had been adamant about not buying new trucks, but I came back from a six-week holiday to an enormous parts bill and that was that,” Kevin says.

“Our business had grown at such a rate that we could not justify repairs and maintenance costs for older trucks.”

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Over the past 18 months, Kevin has introduced eleven Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks with 16-litre engines producing 580 horsepower and he says that they are saving him a lot of money.

“Every litre of fuel gets us 300m further in the Benz that it did in the old trucks,” he says.

“We did some rough stats that we should save $18,000 per unit each year. Couple that with the long 80,000km service intervals and it goes a long way to pay for the truck in savings.”

KEWGS stands for K.Englefield Wine and Grape Services and the “K” belongs to Kevin. Along with wife Lyn, sons Daniel and Adam and son-in-law Simon, Kevin has grown the business into a vast operation that specialises in the cartage of grapes, other fresh fruit such as oranges, mandarins, lemons and avocado, as well as dried fruit, grain and fertiliser.

It also takes care of the harvesting requirements of Kevin’s customers, operating four massive Gregoire grape harvesters.

Daniel, Adam and Simon head up the operations and admin part of the business and are particularly busy at the moment as the grape harvest has just started. It will run through to April. With the mercury hitting 40-plus degrees often in the peak of summer, the KEWGS team harvests at night, which is beneficial for the grapes, but also the workers.

The well-being of employees was another factor in the decision to go with the Mercedes-Benz trucks, which have advanced cabs and features such as Active Brake Assist, Lane Keeping Assist, Attention Assist and Proximity Control Assist adaptive cruise control, in addition to an automated transmission (AMT) and a comfortable ride.

Kevin says drivers ‘hanging on’ in the old trucks created fatigue and notes that they all recover a lot quicker in the new trucks.

He added that there were a couple of KEWGS drivers who weren’t keen on driving a European truck with no bonnet.

“When they are told there are no shifts available in a bonneted truck, that this is it, they get in,” Kevin explains.

“Then we need the ‘jaws of life’ to get them out of the truck, they like them that much.”