Operating out of Parkes, New South Wales, is Midland Industries, a distinctive trailer builder that has quickly emerged as a key player in the transport manufacturing industry.
Midland is a proudly Australian-owned and operated business specialising in the construction of open top trailers using Australian sourced steel and components. What makes it unique is a core focus of crafting custom solutions to meet the specific needs of end users.
“We’re not a massive sausage factory trying to manufacture a huge number of trailers,” says Midland National Sales Director, Roy Trimmer. “We want to be a nimble, family-orientated manufacturing business that can build solutions for our customers.”
Midland is extremely committed to identifying customer requirements and then creating efficiency around them. Thinking outside of the box and coming up with out-of-the-ordinary innovations is what allows it to stand out, Roy says.
“We’ve got a team of experienced in-house engineers that work with our customers to achieve the best possible end result,” he explains. “Everything is 3D modelled in-house, and we do a lot of finite analysis testing to ensure our customers will be happy when they come to collect their trailers.”
Midland is also very heavily involved with Performance-Based Standards (PBS). The business prides itself for developing its own customised PBS calculator for route-based or load-specific scenarios which has majorly benefitted customers.
Midland’s PBS calculator allows fleets and operators to compare their trailers with potential PBS combinations to identify the payload and efficiency gains they can make. The system considers current payloads, the number of units and dimensions such as height, width and length to come up with the most effective upgrade.
“We can run through each customer’s scenario with real data and then show them the options of how much more effective they could be,” Roy says. “The calculator compares different combinations and then creates a visual which displays potential time savings as well as reductions in emissions, fuel and drivers.”
Within the field of PBS manufacturing, Midland has a portfolio of unique trailers that have been customised and tailored to suit individual fleet needs. A recent example is a B-triple for a major operator which, once fully commissioned, is expected to provide some serious benefits in operations along Mount Ousley in NSW.
“The B-triple will help one of the larger steel manufacturers in Australia move with more certainty,” Roy says. “They’ll get a massive payload increase compared to what they’re currently getting, and it will be a very safe and optimised unit once it’s on the road.”
Midland’s origins date back to 1996 when founders, Ben and Martin Larsen, made their own dolly to cart hay on their family farm in Billimari, NSW. It was after they moved to Parkes in 2003 and built a shed that the trailer manufacturing operation (now known as Midland) started to come together.
“Ben and Martin were farmers with their father, Harold,” Roy explains. “They were always interested in manufacturing and building equipment on their own property, so they got into trailers.”
Midland first manufactured a few Land Cruiser trailers and hay trailers before building its first ever semi-trailer for Blayney Shire Council. From that day on, the company would commit to manufacturing open top trailers such as low loaders, flat tops, skels, drop decks, tag trailers with ramps, ramp trailers and wideners with full customisability.
“The business has grown quite significantly since then,” Roy says. “We now have a head office in Parkes and a manufacturing facility in Kyneton, Victoria, with around 95 employees across both locations.”
Another key milestone for Midland has been its involvement with the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project. The business was chosen by Transport for NSW and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) to manufacture a fleet of trailers for the project – a monumental achievement which put the Midland name on the map.
“We built 14 B-triples to cart all of the tunnel segments onsite,” Roy says. “We worked closely with the PBS certifier and engineer to come up with the design, and it was a whole trailer and load restraint-certified package that we delivered for the project.”
Roy says the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project has significantly contributed to Midland’s success by leading to several other projects within the tunnel industry.
“Being an engineer-led company, we can truly imagine and deliver as we like to put it,” he says.
As Midland continues to grow within the tunnel project space and its own manufacturing, a customer-centric focus is what will power the business into the future.
“We’re continuing to grow,” Roy says. “There are a few other tunnel projects which we’re following pretty closely, but we’ll always remain committed to serving our customers and the industries they serve. For us, it’s about optimising their fleets so that they can make more money and move with more certainty.”
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