Scania trucks form backbone of family transport business

Customer service is driving success for Chugh Transport, a small family-owned operation that is growing its offerings to customers.

In 2011, Peter and Kirsty Chugh founded the business in Dandenong South, on Melbourne’s southern outskirts, armed with one second-hand Scania prime mover and a large helping of grit and determination.

Today, the business operates 15 Scanias and has evolved from its original removals work into container cartage and recently added warehousing and container unpacking services at its new, larger premises.

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Much of the business is focussed on carting containers on A- and B-doubles from the wharf into the yard, as well as using the company’s six side-loaders to deliver to customers’ premises.

With 20 employees on the books, mostly truck drivers and reach stacker drivers, the business has grown organically from the early days of the two directors doing everything themselves.

Peter and Kirsty have around 40 years of transport industry experience between them, initially starting in Queensland. As the Operations Manager for a transport company there, Kirsty was transferred to Melbourne and joined by Peter.

When he left the company he was working for, Peter managed to secure one of its Scania trucks, a 4x2 P 360, which was used to start Chugh Transport. That truck now has more than a million kilometres on the clock and was recently overhauled, so it is still able to earns its keep when required.

After a couple of years, the business purchased its second truck, a second-hand R 480 prime mover.

“That truck cost $125,000, which was a great deal of money for us,” Kirsty says. “Recently we put down $1.2 million on three new Scania trucks, so the times have changed. Early on we bought three or four second-hand Scanias, and then we started buying them new.

“Last year we bought three brand newies, and this year we have bought three as well; G 560 six-cylinder prime movers and R 590 V8s.The V8s pull the A-doubles and the G 560s pull the side loaders.”

The fleet also includes a G 440, 130-tonne rated R 590 V8, an R 620 V8, 460 P Supers and an R 540.

Chugh Transport has bought into the Scania total transport solution with a range of services which take the pressure off running a business in a very competitive industry.

“All our new trucks are on Scania repair and maintenance contracts, and we have used Scania Finance Australia since the very first used truck we bought in 2013. We have had the Scania Driver Trainers in, and we also use Scania Fleet Monitoring,” Kirsty says.

“We are really pleased the new Scania Supers have been delivering what we were promised in terms of fuel efficiency improvements. We do monitor the fuel use, and we have a 60,000-litre tank on site, which is another way of keeping our fuel bills down.

“The combination of buying bulk fuel and the fuel economy of the new Scanias is making a big impact on our fuel costs, given we use around 25,000 litres each month.

“We also have AI cameras in the trucks, watching the driver and the road, and they’ll trigger an alarm in the office if they detect the driver is fatigued or distracted, or braking or accelerating harshly. We get very few alarms!”