Penske Truck Rental expands

Penske Truck Rental Australia has announced it is about to undergo a significant expansion of its network, with its two existing outlets in Brisbane and Melbourne set to be joined by a Sydney facility next week and a further outlet in either Western Australia or South Australia in the not-too-distant future.

Penske Truck Rental Australia is a joint venture between Penske Truck Leasing in the US, which owns a 55 per cent stake, and Penske Commercial Vehicles here in Australia, which owns a 45 per cent stake. It opened its first rental and leasing outlet in Brisbane in August 2014, while the Melbourne office – located at sibling firm Penske Power Sytems, Inc – came online last February.

Speaking at a media conference at the recent Brisbane Truck Show, the General Manager of Penske Truck Rental Australia, Adrian Beach (pictured), said the fledgling concern had a rock-solid foundation, with Penske rentals in the US spanning over 750 locations, 21,000 associates, and over 200,000 vehicles on contracts.

"It's a household name," he said.

"We're not quite there yet here in Australia but the boss is happy with where we're going."

Mr Beach said the rental and leasing operation brought benefits on many levels.

"We're chiefly here to help increase market share of these [Penske Commercial Vehicles] house brands, so every MAN I purchase for the rental fleet, or every Western Star for a lease deal, is going to increase their [PCV] market share, but we're also going to help the dealership network sell more trucks," he said.

"Those dealers' conquest accounts, who may be running competitor gear, can use our rental equipment as demos or trial equipment, and that has worked out really well.

"We equip all our rental trucks and lease trucks with GPS and telematics, so after that rental or trial period we can provide the customer with some reporting on driver safety performance and also fuel economy.

"This has really helped us advance a couple of deals, while customers can also use the rental fleet as a kind of interim until they receive new trucks that are on order."

In Brisbane the Penske Truck Rental fleet comprises 10 Western Star 4800s, both sleepers and day cabs, plus 10 MAN TGS 540s rated for B-double work. The 20-strong Melbourne fleet, meanwhile, has the same MANs but a range of Western Star 5800s. All the Western Star rentals run Detroit Diesel engines and Eaton UltraShift transmissions.

Mr Beach said the take-up of the offering in Brisbane in particular has been excellent.

"Utilisation has been strong," he said.

"We've had very few vehicles parked against the fence, we've stumbled upon some lease deals along the way and we're continuing to develop that product line – the full-service lease in that market."

Now the company's expansion is set to continue, with Mr Beach confirming a Sydney outlet is very nearly ready for business.

"Sydney will be this month – we're shooting for a May 26 opening there," he said.

"We've got 13 prime movers running in Sydney right now, all MANs, and we're figuring out where the rest of that rental fleet should be."

After Sydney the company will set its sights on the western half of the country, Mr Beach said.

"In the future we'll probably be expanding into either Perth or Adelaide next – we haven't completely finalised that decision yet or created a timeline – but we'll be excited to open up more offices and more rental facilities, and to order more trucks from Penske Commercial Vehicles."

Mr Beach also said the Penske Truck Rental fleet would be expanding its offering with the arrival of the new Western Star 2800SS, a medium-duty bonneted model that is new for Australia but well entrenched in the US.

"We're going to bring that over as a 6x2, 14.5-pallet rigid tautliner; we think that's going to be really good for us," he said.

"We've talked to a lot of customers who are looking for that larger, heavier-duty rigid body, so we're happy to provide that as part of the offering."

Click here to read more about the new Western Star 2800SS, which was unveiled recently at the Brisbane Truck Show.