Norman Carriers is a family-owned Australian company which was established in 1949 primarily as a port logistics transport company.
Seventy-five years down the track, the business has since expanded into a larger entity with further capabilities in the fields of warehousing and custom freight solutions, all while keeping its heritage of port operations intact.
Norman Carriers has come a long way since founder, Norman Hearnden, opened its doors all those years ago. The business has experienced significant growth over the years through a series of expansion phases and business developments which have turned it into a one-stop shop for freight handling solutions. This is testament to the hard work and dedication of not only Norman who set the business up for success, but his son, Graham, who followed in his footsteps and then passed the reins to his own son, Gareth, who now leads the business with the same values established by his grandfather.
“We’re honoured about where we are now, and it does come from collaboration over the years with partners, family and friends,” says Norman Carriers Safety and Compliance Officer, Richard Wyles. “As a business, this milestone is the beginning of our future growth throughout Australia. We’ve just opened up a new office in Sydney, and that’s the start of our expansion across the eastern seaboard and eventually into Western Australia.”
The aforementioned growth which Norman Carriers has experienced along the way, Richard says, has been a key highlight for the company. Across its five warehouses in New South Wales and Victoria, Norman Carriers has significantly increased its capacity for palletised storage and custom freight while truly becoming a force to be reckoned with – its recent developments including acquisitions of Transfleet Tranport last year have led to very strong year-on-year (YOY) growth increases of 60 per cent annually since 2021.
The amount of success seen in recent times has, as expected, resulted in higher demand. And to cater for this, the fleet specifically turned to Freighter Group for new fleet investments. The latest is an order of Performance-Based Standards (PBS) skels which, operating at Higher Mass Limits (HML), were designed specifically with improved productivity in mind.
The delivery consisted of a tri-axle A-double skel combination and two single quad-axle skels, with one being a retractable version.
“It was all about maximising the amount of weight we could carry on the road,” Richard says. “We got the retractable version for better flexibility because it would allow us to carry heavier 20’ shipping containers and still have the ability to back up to a loading dock by retracting the trailer.”
Having the skels in the fleet, Richard says, has unlocked the ability for Norman Carriers to handle up to 32-tonne containers to sites without needing subcontractors and third parties involved – giving it complete control over every delivery.
“We used to have to outsource a different trailer that could take the weight to meet our sideloader mid-transit, but now that we can take that heavier weight, it’s reduced our subcontractor costs significantly,” he says. “We’ve now got that in-house and can do it ourselves, and that was a key focus.”
Depending on the prime mover, the Freighter A-double skel has a Gross Combination Mass (GCM) of 91 tonnes and payload capacity of up to 60 tonnes. Meanwhile the Freighter retractable skel, in a single semi combination, can run with a GCM of up to 50.5 tonnes and a payload of up to 33 tonnes.
The trailers have been given the task of carting heavy cargo from the wharf precinct in Melbourne back to Norman Carriers’ depots. Based on their operations so far, they have been performing extremely well.
“We haven’t had any issues with them at all,” Richard says. “We’re very happy with the new assets and we’ve been putting them to good use. The A-double combination is on the road every day from four o’clock in the morning through till midnight, and it’s getting a good workout in its travels.
“The product is a quality build. The craftsmanship is really good, and that’s another one of the reasons why we went with Freighter. We’re after a quality product that is going to take the mass that we need and has the support in the background, and Freighter Group has the skill, knowledge base and partnerships to ensure that a seamless solution is provided.”
According to Richard, feedback from the drivers has been nothing but positive. The new skel trailers have already become renowned within the fleet for handling really well thanks to the steerable axles fitted.
The high productivity skel trailers have paid off for Norman Carriers by bolstering its transport operations and improving efficiency across the business. Richard hands it to Freighter Group for not only providing such a successful solution but being completely transparent and accommodating while doing so.
“Freighter Group is excellent to deal with,” he says. “They are very proactive, and the level of communication that supported us through the sales and delivery process was great.
“What’s important about the order was the communication that our salesman, Heath Menhennet, and their PBS Engineering team provided. They were always keeping us informed about what stage we were at and the expected delivery timelines, and they also accommodated quick swap-arounds – we had the single skels scheduled to come first but then we managed to swap them around and get the A-double first. So, we were able to make little tweaks like that through the process because they were very accommodating.”
This “second-to-none” service is ultimately what has constructed such a close collaboration between Norman Carriers and Freighter Group over many years.
“We’ve had a longstanding relationship with Freighter Group,” Richard says. “We actually invited the guys from Freighter to our 75th anniversary party, so it was really nice to see them there. They’ve always been quite responsive to our needs and have provided the support and understanding we’ve needed through the processes, so we’re looking forward to some more purchases in the future. We’re not going to slow down, so as we expand we’ll always reach out to Freighter Group.”
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