McColl’s Transport was established in 1952 in Victoria as a family-run operation, and from a business with just a single vehicle transporting milk around Geelong, it built itself up to become one of the nation’s largest independent carriers of dairy, food and consumer and industrial chemicals.
The company now operates a fleet of more than 770 tankers and trailers coupled to over 263 prime movers, and with 23 depots and six workshops scattered across every state, it has the size and reach to accommodate demand around the entire country.
In its latest trailer delivery, the fleet obtained four 20m Performance-Based Standards (PBS) B-double tankers from Byford Equipment. With Gross Combination Masses (GCM) of 63 tonnes and payloads of around 41 tonnes, the combinations have the ability to carry up to 39,000 litres of milk per load while also being versatile enough to access farms over rough terrain and tight corners on access roads.
Designed and built in Byford’s Moama, New South Wales, facility, the B-double tankers are made up of 17,700-litre A trailers and 23,700-litre B trailers with BPW Transpec tri-axle airbag suspension on the front and tandem airbag suspension on the rear.
Also spec’d on the units are WABCO Electronic Braking Systems, side entry manways, integrated breather systems, metering systems, insulated ice boxes and tanker mounted hose reels which, providing a flow rate of between 800 and 1,100 litres per minute, are complete with Byford Fluid Solutions citerdial hoses that can be operated on both sides of the trailers.
Since their debut, the new tankers have been transporting milk at maximum capacity all around Australia. The first two, based in central NSW, travel through the Blue Mountains and across Sydney picking milk up from farms at maximum capacity. The remaining two, one based in western Victoria and the other in eastern Victoria, do local farm pickups and complete up to five loads a day.
McColl’s Transport Regional Manager for Farm Milk Collection, Brent Cochrane, says the new B-doubles have been performing great in these operations so far.
“They’ve been very reliable,” he says. “They have suited our operations perfectly.”
According to Brent, feedback from the drivers has been very positive – and for good reason. The PBS tankers have provided McColl’s Transport with a great return on investment in NSW specifically by running at maximum weight within the Blue Mountains route.
“The main reason we went with these 20m units was for capacity purposes on Performance-Based Standards,” he says. “We don’t have to run as many trucks on the road, and that means less carbon emissions as well.
“We have been able to reduce loads during the labour shortage which is what we need. On top of that, being a new fleet, they are very reliable.”
In addition, the new B-doubles have increased both productivity and efficiency by significantly increasing the amount of litres transported per kilometre.
“We can put 39,000 litres on these units,” Brent says. “They have replaced conventional 19m B-doubles in the fleet which could only carry 34,500 litres, so we have gained 4,500 litres of payload just by adding an extra axle group and following the same swept path.”
The alternative would see McColl’s Transport running a conventional 25m B-double via Yass and adding an extra 300 kilometres to its routes each day.
Joining 16 Byford A-doubles, several 19m B-doubles and quite a few 30,000-litre single tankers in the fleet, these new tankers have been the company’s major source of moving milk in each region.
“The introduction of the new 20m PBS units has been instrumental in reducing costs,” says McColl’s Transport Farm Pick Up Transport Repair and Maintenance Manager, Steven McPherson. “With the cost of everything going up, the more efficient the fleet is the more economical it is for us.”
McColl’s Transport is also planning on purchasing more trailers from Byford which will pretty much be carbon copies of the latest PBS B-double tankers that have already made quite the impression.
“I think these units are fantastic,” Brent says. “Byford finished them off superbly, and their communication and service was unquestionable throughout the build process. We were able to select the specs that we wanted and they sent us a bulletin every week with updates on the tankers’ progress.
“They made themselves available at any time, and if we had any concerns we were able to visit onsite to observe the units during the build. So, Byford has been incredible to work with. Every step in the delivery process was great and we can’t fault them as a company.”
Steven also testifies to the quality of Byford’s customer service as well as the product itself which will be multiplying at McColl’s Transport.
“The presentation of their vehicles was sensational,” he says. “The B-doubles were spotless. We normally do a pre-inspection on every tanker we pick up, and these ones were spot-on the money. So, we’re looking forward to ordering more units and we’re hoping to keep improving them each year.”
