Wickham Freight Lines has taken delivery of the 18,000th truck ever sold by Brown and Hurley.
It’s part of a long-term arrangement in which the Warwick-based carrier purchases every 1000 unit brought on line by the truck and trailer dealer.
The Kenworth T659 will be working in the interstate fleet handling refrigerated goods between Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.
It marks the 35th new unit handed over to the business just this year with near identical numbers on the waitlist for next year Thomasin Roberts, Wickham’s Managing Partner told Prime Mover.
“We have just over 200 prime movers in the fleet now, it’s quite funny to look back on, we often joke that we thought we were busy with 70,” she said.
“There’s a lot of moving parts in our business, and our people and partners enable us to move forward, we’re very thankful and appreciate everyone’s time and effort.”
It also epitomises the longevity of the ongoing partnership.
Jim Hurley, Brown and Hurley Director, attended in person for the milestone handover, the 18th time Wickham Freight Lines have accepted a new 1000th truck sold by Brown and Hurley.
“Jim has handed over and taken orders to four generations of our family and my son Rhett is lined up to place the next order, into Jim’s infamous ‘order book’,” said Roberts.
“Having five generations of orders is pretty special, we appreciate the relationship with Jim and the team at Brown and Hurley. As you can see, it extends generations.”
Powered by a 600hp rated Cummins X15 engine, the new Kenworth T659 features the numerals 18000th on the exhaust stacks and at the rear of the cabin.
It also comes with a large 50” bunk.
The driver is also very happy with it according to Roberts.
“We’re all pretty impressed with the new 650s, the comfortability and reliability is hard to match,” she said.
“The 650s are one of our fleet favourites,” added Roberts.
Wickham Freight Lines is celebrating their 30th year in business in 2024, a milestone that is exciting for the business and family.
“It’s a great time to reflect on the hard work and dedication of our people and the commitment of our partners, we’re very proud of all our achievements so far,” said Roberts.
Roberts said they were well on their way to purchasing 400 Kenworth trucks. Wickham Freight Lines received their 350th truck in September last year.
“We are moving in to more automatic transmissions and we’re in love with the K220 product so more of those are coming soon,” she said.
“We are also celebrating the arrival of our 300th FTE van, this is another milestone the business and family are proud of, which we’ll have celebrations for in October.”
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