Time’s arrow flies in one direction and fast. More than four years on from its inception, Xpress Freight Management (XFM), is enjoying an exponential rise to prominence.
In doing so it has garnered an honour’s role of key clients on a national level.
For a COVID baby, the business is showing no developmental issues, as it puts into practice, with corporate virtuosity, its motto ‘anytime, anywhere.’ In its quest for perfecting the right model, XFM is thrusting ahead on the back of double-digit growth every year and a seismic managerial reorganisation made necessary during this period of promising incubation.
Serious talent has been recruited, in some cases outside the industry, across key areas of the executive.
There’s strong representation, not surprisingly, from Border Express where Managing Director Les Sharp worked previously.
“The senior management team have been handpicked,” he says. “We’ve had a real emphasis on finding the right person for the right role. People, after all, are intrinsic to our culture and values.”
One of those people is Michael Beech, who is the General Manager overseeing day-to-day Operations at a national level. Michael formerly worked at Border Express for seven years where he held the role as Operations Manager for Victoria.
He also worked at StarTrack when it was formerly known as Discount Freight Express, with Greg Maytom, XFM Board Member.
“I’ve had three dealings working with Greg Maytom along the way and now two with Les,” says Michael.
“We’ve got guys who have lots of experience in organising these sorts of things. If you look at the experience of someone like Greg who has probably bought and sold more trucks in his life than most of us have driven past on the road, when it comes to looking at how those things work, he’s got a different mind for it.”
With 35 years of experience in the express freight business, it’s important to note where Greg fits in the scheme of things at XFM. He is a consultant, having retired a few years back, who was brought in a year ago to help facilitate the recent internal restructure.
“It reminds me of when I started at Multigroup in the late ‘80s and its got so many of the same traits that StarTrack had when it was developing into a powerhouse,” he says.
“There’s lots of good people in this business. It makes a big difference.”
It’s been incumbent upon Greg to support Les in getting the right people in the right places.
“The growing pains can be quite difficult to manage when you’ve got a pretty lean structure behind you,” says Greg, who was behind XFM bifurcating the sole General Manager role, occupied by Greg Harding, who can now concentrate on Linehaul and Infrastructure, while dealing directly with many of the key suppliers for their equipment specifications.
“Service levels at the business were always good,” he says.
Challenges are par for the course, particularly for an emerging business that is growing as fast as XFM is.
One has been the process of becoming more sophisticated around standards according to Greg. He helped, as an outcome, roll out a new style guide for the company’s national branding.
Every site within the business – there are five of them – as well as vehicle and staff member has got a standard to uphold.
“It’s pretty important the style guide is rigid and is only changed by Les or the marketing director which I might say have been very good at adhering to that,” says Greg.
The current fleet makeup has made it a necessary priority with the percentile ratio of subcontractors to company-owned trucks approximately 90-10.
That will change in the next two years as XFM looks to bring in another 50 trucks from Isuzu, the supplier of choice for new trucks going forward.
There are a handful of other trucks that were purchased second hand when the company first started in 2020.
“They will eventually be phased out and replaced by Isuzus,” says Greg. “Our plan is to be a dedicated Isuzu fleet for the rigid vehicles.”
Originally conceived as a full load freight broker by Les, the business was asked if it could provide LTL freight in the early days and soon found itself pivoting to fulfil what was a growing need from initial customers.
Outside of Sydney and Perth where it had its first depots it worked with agents in South Australia and Queensland. Head office is in Arndell Park, a commercial hub of Sydney.
There are 116 employees nationwide. The fleet consists of nearly 140 full time rigid and linehaul vehicles.
They are currently trading at $84 million per annum and that’s before a string of big commercial accounts commence in the second half of 2024.
“The short-term goal is to grow the footprint and put a stamp on the market which I think we are achieving,” says Les.
“There’s been a vision to become a Tier 1 carrier of palletised freight. We have continued to service significant global brands from a range of industries and that’s testament to our service and people.”
As it stands, XFM retains a customer portfolio across a diverse range of industry sectors which is helping it to become a market force. “We’re starting to move high-end products around Australia,” says Les.
“Having that agility to do things that are outside the square is making us an attractive proposition.”
Fleet expansion is ongoing. Thanks to a recent arrangement with Isuzu, XFM has become a national fleet purchaser.
Those same pricing and specifications can then be extended to subcontractors.
“A subbie truck will come off the assembly line at Austruck Bodies and it will be stickered with the livery and mandatory design criteria the same as the company trucks,” says Greg. “That’s very important for us.”
The aim of the business is to have a 50-50 split of company owned vehicles and subcontractors by 2027.
In short, it compels having to acquire another 40 or 50 trucks over the next two years.
“Being more of a hybrid split gives us certain strengths,” says Les, who is wary of the pitfalls that come with the fleet being too weighted to one side by subcontractors. “It was my decision to go down this road.”
Every Isuzu truck is on a repair and maintenance contract. The Isuzu F-Series FVL 240-300 Auto LWB are being used with 14-pallet Austruck bodies.
These are also fitted with 2-tonne tailgates and bungy restraint systems making them a very durable and flexible vehicle to use according to Michael.
“A typical day for one of these vehicles would see them in and out of our depots two or more times with both deliveries and pickups on for each journey,” he says. “They are used for multi-stop pick and delivery activity in the larger industrial areas.”
There is also a number of the FRR110-260 LWB with 10-pallet Austruck bodies.
These are also fitted with 2-tonne tailgates and bungy restraint systems.
“A typical day for one of these vehicles sees them cover the areas that the bigger vehicles can’t service,” explains Michael.
“They complete deliveries in and around shopping areas as well as deliveries to private residences.”
XFM have also placed orders for a number of N Series light trucks with the intention to use these for areas in the inner suburbs where parking is at a premium and height clearance becomes a bigger issue.
With a good pricing model in place the other major gateway the fleet needed to get through, according to Greg, was cab chassis availability and the build criteria from Austruck.
So far, they have been able to meet all of those requirements.
“In my view it’s common knowledge Isuzu is probably the best Japanese truck out there,” says Greg.
“They’ve always been a great truck. It was about having a terrific brand within our fleet. We’re starting to move some pretty high-end products around Australia and some very well-known brands. We wanted to make sure we had a great brand and a great truck, a great relationship that was backed by sales support and service across Australia.”
Michael had his first experience in the new trucks when he was tasked with moving the units around the yard in preparation for a photoshoot. It’s been a long time since he has had to drive a 14-pallet truck with any regularity.
“I was absolutely blown away by the features. They’re effectively a luxury car from the inside,” he says.
“Gone are the days of the pop-up roof vent. That was as close as you had to an air conditioner. These things have got heated mirrors and multiple seat movements, absolutely everything in them is electronic. They are pushbutton auto. They’re freakishly easy to drive.”
All fleet allocators at XFM are localised. After the short pick up runs in the morning, drivers will return to base for bulk deliveries.
Most of the rigid fleet is cycled through those multiple times, sometimes as many as three and four depending on how close the run is within proximity to the depot.
That equates to around 50-plus pallets a day in each one of those vehicles. Fleet optimisation is naturally a huge factor. In Melbourne the daily fleet composition averages to approximately 27 trucks.
They will complete 77 cycles in and out of the depot. Each driver is making three trips in and out. In Sydney there is similar fleet sizing in the high 20s. Brisbane has around 15 trucks working on the same three cycles.
In Perth there are 12 rigids. In Adelaide there are eight depending on the day of the week.
“It has more of a boom or bust cycle depending on linehaul transits,” explains Michael. “Perth is similar. But you can comfortably say that in a week we would have in excess of 800 rigid movements in and out of our yards nationally.”
The linehaul segment is also a combination of company-owned equipment and subbies.
In this application they have introduced their first high productivity vehicles having recently added a B-triple to the Perth-bound leg.
On an average night XFM will complete 35 linehaul loads with these typically broken down into 12 direct loads and 23 depot loads. Each state manager is responsible for their region with operational managers reporting to them. On top of that there’s a national compliance manager, admin, payroll, HR, commercial teams.
“The management team is evenly spread so if anything goes wrong in any of our major ports you’ve got someone close by,” notes Michael.
One of the founders of the company Steve Stork, is an Indigenous Australian, making it perhaps the biggest existing national road express fleet with indigenous ownership at the top level.
Close friends since early childhood, Les and Steve embarked on this venture with a dream of starting a business together.
Commercial Director Matt Price was the first major staff appointment back in September 2020.
According to Les, who worked with him for five years prior, Matt brings valuable insights and stability to the organisation.
“Matt upholds the same values and vision,” says Les.
“He was a significant gain when he joined XFM especially in setting the tone for its leadership and direction in the commercial space.”
Matt, along with Steve, is one of the owners of XFM. Last year XFM completed its first major acquisition when it purchased Jags Transport in South Australia.
“Every day here is revolution rather than evolution,” says Michael. “We’re running a business that’s grown so fast in the last 12 months. It is very fast paced.”
Indeed, a business that is operating and looking to grow at this scale is forever adding new layers and support levels to the structures in place. In the meantime, XFM is also looking to expand its refrigerated network.
Maturation, of this sort, can be only diminished by the fleeting containment that comes when harnessing such forward momentum across a business that is demanding continual improvement.
“Managing growth, is a lovely problem to have,” says Les. “Fundamentally, we want to be an easy carrier to deal with. In that sense we’re a boutique organisation that helps our customers reduce their costs.”
