Traffic control safety success with Hino

Founded in 2004 by director Andrew White, the Hendon-based company and its truck fleet have steadily grown across almost two decades keeping South Australian roads safe.

When Andrew first bought the business off his next-door neighbour, it had just ten staff members but he saw growth potential and an opportunity to embark on a new career.

“The business was owned by a neighbour of mine and I was sick of what I was doing at the time, with my background being electrical engineering, so I put some money into the business,” Andrew said.

“The money went straight into his Corvette, though! I had to say ‘look, give me my money back or I’ll buy you out’ – which is what I did.”

Starting out with just a few utes and a single truck – with not a Corvette in sight – Andrew grew the fleet as the work poured in, trying out light-duty options from all the major truck brands before landing on Hino.

“The business didn’t come with much at all, just a couple of utes and an old Ford Econoline truck with an aluminium tray on the back,” he said.

“Originally it was all about how we could build trucks for the lowest cost, but it’s changed a fair bit since then.”

After numerous diesel particulate filter (DPF) failures and subsequent warranty dramas with various makes and models, Workzone made the move to using exclusively Hino trucks.

“In the end we took a couple of Hinos on, about eight years ago now, because Dave Cushion from CMI Hino finally convinced us.

“We’ve since had a great relationship with CMI and Dave has really looked after us with all of these trucks.”

Positive feedback from his crew had Andrew sold on the Hino trucks, but it was the long-term reliability that prompted more orders.

“Our people really like the Hinos, they’re more comfortable and have plenty of power, but reliability is the biggest thing – they know they’re going to start when they get into them.”

The majority of Workzone’s fleet consists of Hino 300 Series trucks, with a car-licence suitable 4500kg GVM, all fitted with the same rack system to carry cones, signage and safety equipment.

“We’ve got a local guy that builds our racks, so we just put a toolbox on the back and then the arrow board goes on the top,” Andrew said.

“We have 200 traffic controllers and we do 100 jobs a day, so we needed to standardise them.

“The cones are where the cones go, the signs are where the signs go, and the legs are where the legs are!”

While some other traffic control companies opt for utes, Workzone has found trucks to be safer when loaded up with equipment.

“Part of the reason for trucks is that when you’ve got all of the cones and signs on a ute, they’re either overweight or right at the limit,” Andrew said.

“These trucks, though, are still underweight by about 400kg when we have them loaded!”

Workzone also recently purchased three Hino 500 Series trucks which were fitted with impact attenuators – designed to absorb kinetic energy and safely protect the working site from a potential hazard.

Workzone went through a major growth spurt in 2020, spurred on by around-the-clock Covid traffic-control requirements, and today its fleet of Hino 300 and 500 Series sits at 44 units – with only a couple of other truck models on standby.

“We doubled the business during Covid, because we were managing all of the traffic in and out of testing sites,” Andrew explained.

As the world returned to normal, Workzone continued to achieve steady growth and now has a fleet of 60 operational vehicles with around 200 traffic controllers, and the company is showing no signs of slowing down.

“We have a lot of pride in the business and even with the growth we had through Covid, we never lost that,” Andrew said.

“You’ll still find our guys turning cones around so all of the labels are facing in a straight line, and there’s even some banter between the crews about it,” he added.

Off the back of all of the success in South Australia, Workzone has established a Northern Territory operation out of Darwin, running all the way down to Alice Springs on traffic control duties.

“We’ve been going about three years up there and it’s been hard to break in, but we’re getting there,” Andrew said.

The push north required additional traffic control trucks, with Workzone promptly deciding on three new Hino 300 Series models fitted out with the same rack design as its Adelaide siblings.

“We’ve got two of the longer 616 300 Series and we’ve just had a crane truck built on a 616 body too, with a drop deck on it and a harness frame so our guys can put a harness on and deliver cones – it’s safer than walking down the road,” Andrew said.

Workzone is also active within Australian traffic control circles, pursuing better training, safety outcomes and regulation for the wider industry.

As president of the Traffic Management Association of Australia (TMAA), Andrew is passionate about advocating for safety and innovation across the traffic management industry.

The harness frame in Workzone’s new 300 Series, being used in the Northern Territory, is an example of Andrew’s commitment to industry-leading safety.

“As we progress through some changes in our industry, there will be less and less traffic controllers on the road,” he said.

“A guy got hit in Victoria just last week, and while he thankfully wasn’t killed he was badly injured. We are tired of seeing injuries and deaths to traffic controllers”

In fact, he even established Workzone Training out of the building next door, to better service the pre-employment needs of not only his own workers, but the wider industry as well.

As it stands, Andrew believes the current certifications are insufficient and need to be overhauled, calling for more in-depth training across key traffic control categories.

“Here in South Australia it’s two days in the class and you can then do anything related to traffic control in the state. So you could get it today and walk out there and try to close the road,” he said.

“So there needs to be multiple categories of roads, so three categories – motorways, everything else, then backroads. Then there needs to be training to suit all of those categories.

As electrified transport options enter the market, with hydrogen fuel cell and more electric options on the horizon, Workzone is eager to pursue emission-free mobility solutions.

“We’re on the road every day, so the sooner we can pursue that the better off we are,” Andrew said.

Workzone trucks don’t cover huge kilometres, spending much of their life idling or travelling at low speeds, but Andrew says the electrical draw from the various systems on-board will need to be factored in before buying battery-electric vehicles.

“For us, it’s about managing the power usage from the gear that we’ve got on the trucks,” he said.

“As long as we can manage that and get a charge done in a reasonable amount of time, that’ll be the crux.”

Andrew has also ensured the current facility offers the underlying infrastructure to support heavy vehicle charging requirements, his electrical engineering background proving handy.

“This is an industrial facility, so there is a lot of power available at our switchboard to put something pretty heavy-duty in,” he said.

“So there is plenty of electricity if we choose to use that, but again we will have to look at charging time.

Hitting the 50 Hino mark in his fleet is something Andrew thinks will happen pretty soon, as the Northern Territory operation continues to grow.

“I’m pretty sure we’ll hit 50, yeah, because we’ll have to grow up in the Territory,” Andrew said.

“But also, whenever we have all three of our 500 Series attenuator trucks out, we always need another one,” he concluded.