Thriving within the bustling last-mile delivery market is Cold Xpress, an Australian family business which specialises in refrigerated transport, storage, and logistics solutions throughout Victoria and New South Wales.
Cold Xpress’ origins date back to 1998 when founder, John Di Losa, created a transport company and steered it towards the direction he foresaw it heading to. John best utilised each of the 28 years that followed and turned the cold chain player from a one-man operation into an interstate force which, priding itself on reliability and accountability, is now emerging on a national scale.
Cold Xpress now boasts a solidified presence in Victoria, powered by two sites in Rowville and a fleet of 140 trucks and 25 semi-trailer combinations. The operation, predominantly servicing Victoria, Canberra and New South Wales, has just launched interstate linehaul corridors as well with the capacity to deliver refrigerated goods like poultry, meat, salads and grocery items to customers and retail groups around Australia.
This ability to adapt and evolve is what differentiates Cold Xpress in a niche yet very competitive market, says Cold Xpress COO, Jack Di Losa.
“We’re very flexible,” he says. “Cold Xpress is basically a one-stop shop for anyone in Victoria. We can store products, we can complete carton and pallet deliveries in regional areas and we can do distribution centres.
“We can do almost everything. There’s not many last-mile carriers that can say that.”
Cold Xpress also runs a family podcast, The CX Show, which touches on a wide range of topics such as the family dynamics behind running the business, emerging industry trends, business strategies and more. Hosted by Jack, his brother, Alex, and John, the podcast symbolises the impactful values and ethos behind Cold Xpress.
A great example of this is found in Episode 10. The three were having a conversation about accountability and John was talking about how much minor accidents matter.
“Every night the night shift manager sends through a report, and he’ll say, ‘This is what happened’ or ‘This box got damaged because someone dropped it,’” he explained. “We could be talking about two or three boxes out of 30,000 that we’ve sent that night, but I still don’t like it.”
The discussion painted the perfect picture of Cold Xpress’ commitment to its customers – the same extent which formed its foundations.
“That’s how Dad built the company,” Jack says. “He likes to try and minimise accidents as much as possible. Something’s always going to happen here and there, but how you deal with it is what matters.”
Cold Xpress has grown from strength to strength while successfully maintaining these values. Last year the business doubled its trailer fleet – taking delivery of its first B-double combinations in addition to eight rigids and nine prime movers.
“We’ve experienced a significant increase in demand,” Jack says. “As our volume has grown, we’ve invested in B-doubles to carry more load. They make our whole operation much more productive and efficient by reducing the amount of trucks we put on the road.
“We’ve also started investing in smaller trailer combinations for our local pallet work, instead of heavy rigids. With the current cost of the truck market, including the second-hand market for rigids, we’ve found a sweet spot with smaller trailers that deliver a better fit for the task at a more cost-effective rate.”
There’s no slowing down for Cold Xpress as it now inches closer towards its 30-year milestone. The business is eyeing down multiple growth opportunities while ensuring customers continue to be the core focus.
“We will continue to do whatever we can to serve our customers,” he says. “We don’t have a minimum storage amount – we’ll store one pallet for a customer if we have to because all of our customers have started with us from nothing.
“We like being in the trenches with customers and then watching them excel, and that’s a pretty good story.”
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