Blue Thunder

While hardly an unknown quantity in the world of road transport, VISY Logistics is, as a standalone operation, on a mission to establish itself as a genuine 3PL.

Less well known perhaps are some of its five business units. In addition to the established metro and linehaul segments, the business has been readily investing in intermodal, global forwarding and bulk haulage, all of which are in varying stages of growth and now sit under the wider VISY Logistics portfolio. Key to this is an aggressive approach to the brand.

It’s not so much a rebrand rather than a relaunch of the existing brand for noticeable, identifiable effect.

A quarter of the ~400 prime mover fleet should be repainted by the end of Q1 next year, not including new trucks entering into the fleet.

The idea was conceived by new Country Manager Wayne Boxshall who arrived at the business in 2022.

His resume is impressive having worked across different verticals in many executive roles at Lion, the beverage distributor for 35 years including co-founding BevChain in partnership with Linfox.

His national fleet manager Rick Smith is also ex-Linfox. He is a more recent hire who came across in April via Kmart. Together, the pair are overseeing the comprehensive brand renewal project for some 1200 assets.

Established in 2006 within the parent VISY Industries, the logistics arm was largely an internalised business that has in recent years sought to branch out its services. In lieu of the transformative market conditions following the COVID years of 2020-21, that would entail close to a seismic shift in mindset.

“That meant having to bring in the right people with that sort of background,” says Wayne.

“We also placed emphasis on bringing the fundamentals back to standard and once those were in place we refined our growth plans, our strategy and who we are in the market.”

That led to further changes. One of which was the move to blue. The white prime movers are, consequentially, being slowly phased out.

“A lot of people thought we were outsourcing our deliveries, and it felt that way,” Wayne explains.

“It looked like we were subcontracting our trailer movements. Simply by changing our fleet to navy blue people have said to me ‘you’re actually running your own fleet now.’”

There’s a repaint program for eligible trucks taking place on the ground. This includes vehicles that VISY Logistics has taken delivery of over the last two years that are well inside their life cycle.

“That’s a real commitment to elevate the brand,” says Rick. “It will help people understand we’re not a tow haulier company. We’re not just carting our own freight.”

The procurement strategy represents a sizeable investment in both money and time at the moment. Even for their linehaul forward orders that are already built or in build, the painting is happening post-factory.

It is helping with recruitment, too. The endorsement from drivers so far has been unanimous.

“It will help our customer base to understand that we are a genuine 3PL, partnering with a wide portfolio of customers, not just an extension of VISY Industries supporting our own internal freight requirements,” says Rick.

“That has been the historical perception in many areas.”

There were some 120 heavy vehicles in use in the fleet in 2021. That figure by early next year will have grown to around 400. The national metro fleet has added 13 new MAN prime movers in recent months.

These have been spread across depots nationally, with 11 MAN TGS 26.440 6x4s moving paper and two MAN TGS 26.510 high clearance units deployed on a double shifted recycling task in Brisbane.

“They joined us through a strategic partnership with Penske, where together, we tackled some key challenges,” says Rick.

“When I came on board, it was clear that our previous supplier approach in the metro area hadn’t fully supported our aftersales service capabilities. Collaborating with Penske allowed us to strengthen that service and enhance our operational support.”

The equipment is being selected around operational flexibilities as much as sustainability, a value ingrained in the DNA of the organisation.

The new MAN platform has, since it entered the fleet, received uniformly positive driver feedback.

“They’re very comfy and we’ve put them into some high usage metro operations,” says Rick.

“The oldest ones that have come in have hit the six-month mark. They’ve been double shifted. There is not one single issue with those and they’re really getting worked.”

Rick is discovering that more of the branches are requesting the new MANs such has been the strong impression they have made.

“The improvements around comfort are not just in terms of seat but ride quality and the ingress/egress perspective right down to the placement of grab handles,” says Rick.

“They are well appointed from a driver use point of view.”

Wherever MAN might have previously trailed behind the other European truck manufacturers, that gap has been obliterated according to Rick. But it’s arguably in aftersales that the product is achieving its full potential. Penske have been able to turn that into an advantage for the fleet.

“The service behind them by the Penske Australia group is great,” says Rick.

“Every one of these dealer networks have a different model. But the way that Penske is handling us and their relationship with Westar and that network ensures we receive exceptional service and attention.”

At least part of what sets apart the Penske service offering, according to Rick, is the ongoing preventative maintenance solutions they have devised trucks in applications that otherwise require close attention.

“Similar to our partnership with CMV, they work closely with us to ensure alignment with our fleet purchasing strategy,” he says.

“Rather than simply selling us products, they collaborate with us to select the right equipment and understand the specific requirements for maintaining it in peak condition. This strategic partnership helps us navigate our growth without missteps.”

While Rick isn’t across all the new dashboard features of the new MAN TGS, he says the positive feedback from drivers isn’t lost on him when it comes to vision, access and egress.

“That’s from drivers coming out of another European truck. The feedback in that regard has been significant,” he notes.

“But likewise, they’re giving feedback which is service related. What they are saying is, their direct access to the workshop that had delivered the trucks in Brisbane, the little teething issues even after their two-hour inductions into those cabs, for any issue they’re not aware of like a light going out, they have been able to solve it. But I’ve been looking for constructive feedback. What is it that we can do better? And I haven’t been given one iota of an improvement opportunity with those trucks at all. I’m liking them. They do have a value up front that’s been better.”

Earlier in the year VISY Logistics opened a new 13,000m² site in Yennora as it consolidates new intermodal operations on rail. Intermodal, which has readily been gathering momentum in recent years, is its fastest growing division. VISY moves over 200,000 TEUs a year.

A rail terminal recently established in Wagga Wagga with the co-operation of local council and the State Government receives 40-foot containers on A-double skels loaded with paper from Tumut six days a week.

The rail service dispatches nearly 80 boxes each day to Sydney using QUBE’s Moorebank facility.

“A good portion of it is moving paper,” says Wayne.

“But we’ve now got a solid base of Riverina customers who all go onto that rail service daily.”

VISY Logistics offers port cartage services in Perth and Sydney and more recently Melbourne, with Brisbane and Adelaide also on the cards.

The linehaul division relies on 56 A-doubles. There’s also A-doubles in the Brisbane metro operation and dedicated from here going into North Queensland.

The linehaul model runs like clockwork according to Rick, who is supervising an appraisal to ensure the fleet is ahead of the game when it comes to having the right combination for each freight corridor given how fast the PBS domain is evolving.

“It’s predictable, plannable. We meet all our needs,” he says. “Our gear keeps well updated and refreshed and that business unit, the way it runs is reflective of a good program of fleet life cycle.”

While VISY Logistics is competing against others and picking up contracts the old-fashioned way, when it comes to transport, it is, after all, an industrial transport fleet moving heavy, bulky product.

Wayne views it as a good growth opportunity. A new bulk division with transport and storage plays to this strength. VISY Industries currently spends $40 million on third party companies for waste, tipper and warehousing work.

By internalising those tasks, Wayne wants to build a base, arisen through adjacent manufacturing channels, before offering the same services to others.

“We’re just over six months in and it’s already turning over $10 million, and we’ll exit this year at about $20 million,” he says. “That has led to our A-double tippers.”

There are five prime movers attached to the bulk division and all of the equipment is either A-double or B-double rated augmented by 16 trailing assets.

The work consists of transporting the likes of sand, soda ash, limestone and cullet. VISY’s global business also trades in commodities and is active in trading Urea.

There’s an opportunity for the logistics arm to undertake that transport domestically.

At the moment Rick is spec’ing AdBlue tankers. The immediate task is for Rick to determine which suppliers they will settle on in the bulk space.

“It’s our smallest business unit but it’s the heaviest activity we’ve got,” he says.

“The next stage is to work out what is going to be our standard spec for a prime mover in bulk. My approach is if we’re going to grow to 20 or 30 pneumatic tanker units, which is really the path, we need to be talking to the key suppliers who can handle VISY’s needs as well.”