Canberra-based McKittrick Bulk Haulage is known as a transporter of bulk diesel to many. But its former identity meant the fleet had associated with a completely different sector of the industry and customer base for much of its existence.
McKittrick Bulk Haulage originally set out in 2010, with a truck and dog tipper combination to cart mining materials from quarries to concrete plants and landscape businesses throughout the east coast. But a very competitive market saw McKittrick Bulk Haulage Director, Todd McKittrick, shift gears and transition to fuel tankers. That was five years ago now.
“It was very hard trying to make money out of truck and dogs,” Todd explains. “A lot of people were coming in and cutting rates to get work which was making the job harder for everyone. I just wanted to change.”
Todd, having been a tanker operator for another business before starting his own, decided to return to something familiar.
“We got into the fuel industry,” he says. “We started off with transporting bulk diesel to two BP sites and grew until we were doing it for everybody.
“Transporting bulk fuel is so much better than what we were doing before, especially on the maintenance side. Tippers are very hard on brakes and tyres, but tankers don’t use them as much because they’re mostly just going up and down the highway.”
McKittrick Bulk Haulage went on to expand rapidly following the alteration of its operations.
“We’ve had big growth phase in the last three years,” Todd says. “We’ve received some pretty big contracts that have made our operations larger.
“In terms of our fleet, I wasn’t going to go past five combinations at the start. We’ve ended up with 11 B-doubles.”
The 11th unit is a recently deployed Holmwood Highgate Performance-Based Standards (PBS) 30m B-double tanker which is made up of a new quad-axle A trailer and pre-existing quad-axle B trailer. McKittrick Bulk Haulage invested in this combination to increase the amount of fuel it can carry, and with a payload of 61,500 litres of diesel at a Gross Combination Mass (GCM) of 77.5 tonnes, the B-double is on the right path to achieve that.
“We get paid by the litre”, Todd says, “so the more fuel we can get on, the more we get paid. We already had a quad B trailer which we bought four years ago, and instead of running that as a single, I decided to make it into a PBS B-double so that we could cart bigger loads.”
The new PBS combination has been in operation for around two months, transporting diesel to bulk tanks all around New South Wales for harvest. Its main routes are Sydney to West Wyalong, Sydney to Lake Cargelligo, Sydney to Gundagai and Sydney to Cowra.
Todd says the Holmwood Highgate unit has already increased McKittrick Bulk Haulage’s workload by allowing it to transport more bulk fuel – exactly what the company originally set out to do.
“The trailer set does everything that we need it to do,” he says. “We’ve been carrying more diesel with it and we’re therefore turning much more over.”
Todd has been very impressed with the PBS combination’s on-road performance so far.
“It handles really well,” he says. “The tankers are being pulled by a new Kenworth, and they sit dead straight behind it. It’s a very good combination.”
Equally impressive has been the overall quality of the Holmwood Highgate product.
“The finish is what really stands out to me,” Todd says. “Holmwood finishes off really nice trailers. They might be a fraction dearer, but you get the quality that you pay for. You always get a really good product at the end of the day.”
Quality is one of the main reasons why McKittrick Bulk Haulage chose Holmwood Highgate for this latest application.
“I always knew that Holmwood’s trailers were Australian-built,” Todd says. “The barrels are made in Queensland and everything else is built in Victoria.
“It’s a very durable product. I’ve got Holmwood trailers from 2005 that are still going strong with no issues at all.”
Todd says there have also been several other elements in his past dealings with Holmwood Highgate which have made him feel like a very valued customer. This has allowed him to place his trust in the OEM for more trailers beyond the latest delivery as well.
“We’ve got another 25m B-double and an A trailer coming,” he says. “I’ll stick with Holmwood because of their service and the way they look after us. It’s just a matter of calling them. If there’s ever an issue or something that we need help with, they’ll sort it out over the phone. If they can’t, they’ll come over and see me straight away. They’re pretty good with things like that.”
Holmwood Highgate has provided McKittrick Bulk Haulage with an unconditional level of service over the years. This has gone far beyond just aftersales support.
“Holmwood recently conducted a Safe Load Program (SLP) training course for me,” Todd explains. “They taught me how to do inspections on my trailers so that I could ensure they would pass to get into terminals to load bulk fuel.
“This was a pretty big deal for me because you don’t get through if you don’t have that pass. And instead of having to pay someone to do a SLP inspection beforehand, I can now do it myself.
“Holmwood also services my fleet every six months. They’ll go through and check them to make sure everything is alright. So, the service that you get from Holmwood is exceptional. It’s why I go to them and it’s why I’ll stay there.”
