Trailer Magazine

Young Harry Hart is in the box seat of the information stakes at the Grainhart depot in Oakey on Queensland’s Darling Downs. The three-year-old is son of Peter Hart, Director of Grainhart and Grainhart Transport, a company involved in wheat and cottonseed export and there is every chance Harry will follow in his father’s footsteps. Harry knows all trucks and trailers in the company fleet, who drives them and indicates he has more than a little pride in each and every one of them. It is an opportunity he is probably yet to appreciate, but in the future he will undoubtedly reap the benefits.

Peter Hart had a very similar upbringing to that afforded to his son – close exposure to trucks leading to an affinity with diesel power as experienced by most in the trucking industry and if you thought Harry was a little young to have an understanding then think again because Peter is passing on the same valuable information he took on board as a youngster.

“My father Ron had tippers and was working in civil construction on the Gold Coast during my early years, which gave me ample exposure to their operation,” Peter tells. “The family then moved west and went into farming where again trucks played a major role in the rural business.

“Things evolved on the land and a move to Oakey followed and Grainhart was established where the core activities were packing grain for export. The collapse of the Australian Wheat Board opened doors for us and we grew the business with a growing number of truck movements during the height of each grain season, with storage also expanding as the customer base expanded.

“Today, we employ some 30 people, the transport division being an offshoot of the grain business. We first relied on subcontractors only, but the advent of high performance vehicles in Queensland encouraged us to create a dedicated transport division because we kept having issues with the lightweight B-double sets we used before.”

According to Peter, the transition from a storage focus to transport was simple. “It was our intention to continue driving success in the best manner possible and structure our activities. It was obvious we needed to streamline all sectors of the business to deliver the best in productivity and soon other trucks followed to complete our transport needs,” he says.

With new trailer technology evolving he looked at combinations suiting the business and converted one prime mover to 90 tonne capability to realise payload advantages. He is continually looking at ways to implement technology into the business in the pursuit of productivity and excellence and with the advent of A-double trailer combinations in Queensland, Peter could see the ability to deliver measurable productivity gains. He approached Queensland’s O-Phee Trailers and work began on meeting stringent requirements to place them in operation in the Grainhart Transport fleet.

“Carrying our own containers to the Port of Brisbane on A-doubles meant we could increase our tonnages dramatically,” he says. “The fact we can carry two 20 footers and a 40, or two 40s or four 20 footers gives an enormous amount of flexibility in our operation, particularly when the grain season is in full swing.”

Hence, it is no surprise why Grainhart’s fleet has recently grown to five prime movers and 17 trailers. “All come in road train and A-double-rated, apart from one tipper set up to run in road train or B-double mode.”

In fact, Peter is convinced that the A-double will be the ‘next big thing’ in Australia’s transport industry. “It is safe to say that the PBS scheme created a great space for innovation but, so far, nothing has matched the leap in productivity achieved previously by the introduction of the B-Double. But I think the A-double has all the potential to really outperform anything that has been there before.”

According to Peter, the grain transport business is all about productivity gain, efficiency and reducing the number of vehicles on the road. “The new A-Doubles, together with market leading subcontractors and existing resources, helped us save a lot of time and money,” he explains – pointing out the ground-breaking potential of high performance engineering.

“We’ve been looking at different high performance solutions for quite some time – as there are other options out there, but they didn’t convince us. O’Phee conducted trials with QTMR between Toowoomba and the Port of Brisbane, and it was on the basis of these trials that the route was first validated. We then sat back and watched what happened before we made our decision. We did not have to wait too long as the A-double solution was simple, low-maintenance, and safe to operate – including full EBS with roll-over stability function. And, even the longevity aspect was already showing in the early days.”