Hino carries Dynamic’s cars

Over the past two decades, David Woodward has been immersed in the car carrying trade, which led to the formation of his own business in September 2009. Since that time, it has grown to service all of Queensland, focusing on motor dealers, with a growing network of wholesalers, franchises and used car yards, with a steady stream of work extending from the auction houses.

Dynamic Car Carrying currently features a long-distance division of 11 trucks servicing up to Cairns, and a local division of eight trucks focussing on the South-East corner of the state, each with a mixed fleet of company-owned trucks and subcontractors.

Despite suffering a setback at the start of the pandemic, trade has now largely bounced back, to the point where the local branch is running at capacity.

To service new clients who have signed on with the company over the past year, David has already taken delivery of a pair of new Hino 500 Series Standard Cab FD1124s, while a 300 Series 921, optioned with an automatic transmission, will be delivered shortly.

From this base, he plans to order two further 500 Series trucks next month and an additional pair before year’s end, which, when combined with extra subcontractors, would see the local fleet grow to 15.

“There’s no 900-pound gorilla in the local marketplace in Brisbane, and we’d like to be that, but we need a whole heap of trucks on the road to do it, and to go with that, we need good drivers,” says David.

“That being said, we have a reputation to uphold and great customer relationships that require nurturing.

“We value our staff; they’re not working for a big corporate where they are just a number.”
One of the tools that the company has successfully used to its advantage is investing in top quality trucks, no matter the division.

“We buy new Scanias for the long-distance division, they’re the top of the tree as far as we’re concerned for that role, and we are looking for the same quality of product in the local division too, with Hino fitting the bill,” he says.

“The trucks come with a whole host of safety features that the competition simply doesn’t have.”

That standard safety suite on the Hino 500 Series Standard Cab includes active safety technology such as a pre-collision system with pedestrian detection, Safety Eye and autonomous emergency braking.

Additionally, they are also equipped with vehicle stability control, a lane departure warning system, adaptive cruise control, reversing camera, ABS, traction control, UN ECE R29-rated cab strength, easy start and an ADR84/00 front underrun protection system.

“We’re very happy with the quality of the product, the service situation at Sci-Fleet Hino has been second to none, they look the part, and they do everything that we require of them to do the job.”

The connection to Sci-Fleet is a no brainer from a business sense; outside of trucks, the franchise is Australia’s largest selling Toyota dealer, with Dynamic assisting with its car couriering needs.

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Another area in which the business has excelled is in technology, with bespoke software developed that has seen drivers swap a paper connote trail in favour of an iPad, with jobs distributed electronically.

The program also allows for the productivity of the trucks to be monitored.

From a driver’s perspective, the iPads connect seamlessly into the truck’s multimedia unit, an example of the functionality and connectivity of the standard Hino multimedia system.

Driving directions automatically displayed on the large 6.5-inch touch screen via the truck-specific GPS navigation.

“Anyone who has come from outside of our company, who has been in car carrying that jumps into the Hino loves it, it’s easier to drive, you’ve got the auto transmission, they’re reliable, they have the multimedia and all that sort of stuff, they love all that, it makes their job easier,” says David.

The local division typically services from Tweed Heads through to Noosa, with some short country runs thrown into the mix, although stop-start Brisbane metropolitan shuffles are the bread and butter of the fleet.

David prefers Queensland company Anybody Commercial Coach and Motor Body Builders for his frames and trailers, with the Hino 500 Series trucks specified to carry four cars, while the new 300 Series addition is set to transport two.

“Obviously, the trucks have to handle the weight, they have the wind resistance of the cars being on the back of the trailers and one sitting on top of the cab, so they’ve got to have enough horsepower while still delivering good fuel economy,” David concluded.

To get the job done, the Hino 500 Series FD1124 outputs 240hp (177kW) of power and a maximum torque of 794Nm, while the 300 Series 921 produces 205hp (151kW) and 600Nm.