Born in the deep south in Invercargill, Campbell Gilmour spent most of his formative years in Alexandra in central Otago and started working for Alexandra Transport when he left school at 17.
He’s been in transport for the entirety of his working life and the logging sector going on 32 years.
“I started in the industry as a driver when I left school and worked my way up to fleet management and then ownership of Gilmour Transport with Warwick [Wilshier],” he recalls.
Gilmour Transport was established in 2021 when Campbell and Warwick – another man immersed in New Zealand’s timber industry – acquired log transporter Alan Forbes Transport in Tokoroa in the North Island’s Waikato region.
Forbes had been a highly respected contractor at NZ Forest Products’ Kinleith mill since 1979.
The Forbes business was rebranded Gilmour Transport, and the operation today is moving around 450,000 tonnes of logs annually.
Twenty-five Kenworths with Cummins X15 power are the foundation of the business. Most of the red engines are in K200s while some T610s and T659s have also come into the fleet with the 15-litre Cummins.
Service support is the key to doing business with Gilmour Transport. Loyalty received is deserving of loyalty in return, an adage it soon becomes clear carries weight within Campbell’s business.
“We have a very good relationship with Cummins and Kenworth dealer Southpac,” Campbell says.
“As much as you want a foolproof product, it’s just not realistic. It’s the back-up that counts and we can only sing the praises of Cummins and Southpac and the people we deal with in those organisations.”
On that score there’s never a cross word between the partners.
“We work with each other. It’s a partnership which is important because we’ll be working alongside each other for a long while yet,” adds Campbell.
Damian Nicholls, Operations Manager for Cummins Bay of Plenty, keeps a firm finger on the pulse of the Gilmour operation.
“We had an engine component failure a few days out from Christmas last year and Damian pulled out all stops and had the truck back in our yard for our Christmas line-up,” recalls Campbell.
“That’s typical of the support we get from Cummins.”
The standard X15 rating is 550hp – peak output is actually 578hp at 1800rpm – while the preferred Gilmour configuration is an 8×4 prime mover coupled to a five-axle trailer which operates at 54 tonnes over a 23-metre length.
Fuel consumption for each truck is calculated monthly, and Campbell cites a fleet average of 1.59 km/litre which he says is in line with expectations.
“Fuel consumption is a huge consideration,” he says. “Long gone are the days when we didn’t worry about fuel.”
Gilmour Transport has two mechanics on site who carry out all repair and maintenance work, apart from warranty jobs.
Running an efficient company isn’t Campbell Gilmour’s only business focus. He has been on the Log Transport Safety Council since 2005 and on the executive since 2016 and is immensely proud of the work the council has done in lifting the standard and maintaining the professionalism of the industry.
Safety has become a core value, not just a priority, he says.
Log trucks are the public face of one of New Zealand’s biggest export industries and since the council was formed in 1996 – a time of chronic log truck rollover accidents – the safety record of the sector has gone from being one of the worst in the transport industry to the best.
“It’s a credit to all logging operators who work together to make our industry safer,” says Campbell.
“A lot has been done with the introduction of longer-lower trucks for greater stability and other initiatives such as improved driver training and safety awareness campaigns.”
Campbell Gilmour looks back on his career in road transport with a great deal of pride.
There’s been quite a few different chapters including the years he spent with the Dynes family, for example, as a shareholder in Dunedin Carrying Company, and when he started working in the logging industry as a driver for Warwick Wilshier. He even had a stint driving roadtrain triples in Western Australia.
As far as the future goes, Campbell has a positive outlook. One thing is certain, his pride in the industry will never diminish.
