MaxiTRANS carries the load for Schifferle

Schifferle Freight Services, formerly Berrigan Hay Logistics, was founded by Stuart Schifferle around 25 years ago, and was born from a demand for carting hay and straw out of the family farm in New South Wales’ grain growing region. 

From humble beginnings with one truck and trailer, today the family operation – that sees Stuart assisted by son Jackson and his brother-in-law, Kyle Hawker – has grown to ecompass a range of trucks and over 50 pieces of trailing equipment. And while Stuart has utilised all sorts of trailers over the years, since 2018 he says he’s been sold on trailers from MaxiTRANS, and in particular Freighter and Lusty EMS products.

Hay, straw and grain 

“We cart 10 B-doubles full of hay, straw and grain every day,” says Stuart. 

“We also do straw delivery to a mushroom grower in Sydney every week – carting at least three to four B-Doubles. Ten of our trailers are from MaxiTRANS, including Lusty EMS Stag B-doubles that we bought in 2020, another Lusty EMS B-double set we can also use as a road train, also bought in 2020, two sets of tri-axle dollies, and a set of used drop-deck Freighter T-liners that are 10-years old but working as new. 

“I bought my first set of Freighter trailers for a straw job in 2018. It is a good combination that I had custom-built for hay cartage. The beauty of the trailer is that when we have finished unloading the delivery, we can load the A trailer onto the B trailer with the help of hydraulic hooks and drive it back home as a single setup. We can also lift the B axles off the back so we only have two axles on the road instead of six. The B trailer being like that means it can also carry more bales of hay for us, which is another plus. 

“Lusty EMS trailers are great in terms of quality. They use good-quality axles and suspension. MaxiTRANS offers a wide range of features – you can get anything you want on these trailers,” Stuart says. 

“Lusty EMS trailers are strong but light on weight. They are built to have a light tare weight so you can add more payload. The rollover tarp system is good and the trailers are easy to operate in general. They are good value for money too.” 

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Local advantage 

Stuart also says he appreciates that these trailers are built here in Australia and can be constructed to suit a wide variety of customer needs. 

“MaxiTRANS is a big enough manufacturer so in terms of volume, they are able to get a lot done pretty quickly,” he says. 

“I believe this is also one of the reasons we have so far been able to get the trailers in a more timely manner. The other reason is that the MaxiTRANS team is very approachable and accommodating. I have known Ian Kelly for a long time and he has always been able to help me out with trailers to suit my specific business needs. 

“Ian and the team are also quick with problem-solving. If we have an issue we can get it to them and they can have it sorted fast. They are very good at resolving issues and looking after you. We’ve not had any problems with any trailers to date but the customer service we have been getting from MaxiTRANS since our first purchase assures us that we will be taken care of in case of any issue.”