Natures Cargo expands Carrier Transicold fleet with latest delivery

Natures Cargo has come a long way from a local one-man show. Founded in 1986 in Ballarat, Victoria, the company was once the humble operation of Graham Wilkie which utilised a single truck to deliver food products to select parts of Victoria.

Over the last 40 years, the business has continued to evolve far beyond its humble beginnings by increasing its distribution network across Victoria. It now operates three sites in Ballarat, Thomastown and Traralgon with a fleet of 40 medium and heavy rigids which are supported by around 190 staff members.

Natures Cargo has also broadened its capabilities. Flexible delivery hours have enabled it to transport a larger scope of goods – an opportunity which Operations Manager, Geoff Beechey, says the company has taken advantage of.

“We are proud to service all types of food outlets across Victoria,” he says. “We look forward to continuing to fulfil the requirements and exceeding the expectations of our customers with every delivery that we do.”

This amplified delivery outreach is partially attributed to Natures Cargo’s longstanding and fruitful relationship with cold chain solutions provider, Carrier Transicold, which was established over 20 years ago. Graham, who had dealt with a variety of other cold chain solutions providers during the early stages of his business, personally gravitated to Carrier due to the reputation of its reliable and high-quality products, strong customer service and overall efficiency.

Natures Cargo has since continued this collaboration with seven new Carrier Supra multi-temp refrigeration units which have been fitted onto its 10 and 12-pallet trucks as well as three of its 14-pallet linehaulers. These vehicles were built with two foam walls to separate goods and their various temperatures. The frozen sections are kept at a controlled -20°C while the chilled sections sit at a strict 4°C and the dry sections at an ambient temperature. Carrier’s Supra 1150 MT and Supra 1250 MT units maintain these temperatures throughout entire delivery runs which, as Geoff explains, can be as long as 12 hours.

“Every morning, our trucks leave the yard between 3:30am and 6:30am to start their runs,” he says. “They come back between 3pm and 4pm. They clock a lot of kilometres in those times but the Carrier units keep them at the specific temperatures all day.

“The Supra units are very impressive. It’s extremely rare that we have any delivery issues related to the temperature of our products.”

While the Supra multi-temp units are perfectly applied to Natures Cargo’s long country delivery routes, the food distributor also utilises Carrier’s Xarios 6 multi-temp off-engine drive refrigeration units on its six-pallet trucks. These are typically deployed for metropolitan food deliveries around Melbourne due to their smaller size.

“The fridge units’ smaller size makes it much easier for our trucks to fit through tight alleys and laneways,” Geoff says. “It’s so important that we have this flexibility.

“Some customers are fitted with different-sized infrastructure for receiving deliveries, and we need to be able to service as many customers as possible. Carrier provides us with these options.”

Carrier’s flexible options align with the business values and approaches that it shares with Natures Cargo.

“Both Natures Cargo and Carrier are extremely customer-oriented,” Geoff says. “We feel Carrier’s commitment to us every day.

“We can’t afford to be down a single vehicle or fridge unit because we only have one spare truck that is constantly sent between our three distribution sites. But, when this inevitably does happen, Carrier is there at the drop of a hat to help us.

“The company’s service team will go anywhere at any time to help us with our units. Nothing seems to be hard for Carrier.”

Carrier’s commitment to Natures Cargo is also clear in the ongoing business discussions between the two companies. Geoff says Carrier often informs him about future product rollouts and plans that may align with Natures Cargo’s ambitions.

“Carrier’s sales team is always keeping us up to date with new product developments,” he says. “They have some very exciting sustainable technology coming out that we’re eager to implement at some point, so it’s great that we’ve been kept in the loop.

“Carrier makes you feel like the biggest customer in the market with the amount of care and respect it shows. I highly recommend other transporters use Carrier. Our relationship with them is fantastic, and I can’t wait to see what else is in store.”