Customer service is driving success for Chugh Transport, a small family-owned operation that is growing its offerings to customers, powered by Scania.
In 2011, Peter and Kirsty Chugh founded the fledgling business in Dandenong South, armed with one second-hand Scania prime mover.
Today, the business operates 15 Scanias and has evolved from its original removals work into container cartage and recently added warehousing and container unpacking services at its new, larger premises.
The new facility on busy Remington Drive has benefited from exposure to passing traffic boosting its awareness, in turn luring new clients.
“It’s a big opportunity for us to expose ourselves more in the market,” Kirsty Chugh said.
“Moving to Remington Drive in March 2025, we expanded our footprint from 5,000m³ to 12,000 m³, boosting our onsite capacity from 100 to 500 containers, but already we’re getting full,” she said.
“We will be looking at securing additional holding space for the trailers in the short-term.
“For us to move into this building was very exciting. It was a massive achievement for us to get a place on a main road and know that we’ve got the capacity to bring 15 trucks in here. At our previous location in Fowler Road there was no through traffic..”
Much of the business hinges on carting containers on A-doubles and B-doubles off the wharf in Melbourne and delivering to the yard, as well as using the company’s six sideloaders to deliver to customers’ premises.
With 20 employees on the books, mostly truck drivers and the all-important reach stacker drivers, the business has grown organically from the early days of the two directors doing everything themselves.
Peter and Kirsty have around 40 years of transport industry experience between them, initially starting in Queensland.
As the Operations Manager for a transport company there, Kirsty was transferred down to Melbourne and Peter came with. He had worked with Wridgways Removals prior to their demise and managed to secure one of their Scania trucks, a 4×2 P 360, and used this in Melbourne to start Chugh Transport.
That truck now has more than a million kilometres on the clock and was recently overhauled, so it is still able to earn its keep when required.
While Peter started off driving for Chugh Transport, Kirsty managed the business, but now Peter is now out of the literal driving seat and focused on building sales, and daughter Georgia helps out on the front desk in between her nursing studies.
Initially, the work was removals and then carting to and from the wharf for freight forwarders but now delivering directly for customers is becoming a growing component of the daily schedule, as well as warehousing.
After a couple of years, the business purchased its second truck, a second-hand R 480 prime mover from the Scania Used Truck team in Campbellfield.
“That truck cost $125,000, which was a great deal of money for us,” Chugh said.
“Recently we put down $1.2 million on three new Scania trucks, so the times have changed. Early on we bought three or four second-hand Scanias, and then we started buying them new.”
Peter said the tempo of purchasing has increased.
“I am looking forward to the day when I can order ten in one go,” he said.
Peter’s love of Scanias started long ago according to Kirsty.
“He had driven Scanias in previous jobs and just liked the way they drove. So, he wanted to keep buying them. We formed a good working relationship with Tevfik Onguc, and then latterly with Mat Staddon, Scania Account Managers at the Dandenong Branch [and] it just went from there,” she recalled.
“Last year we bought three brand newies, and this year we have bought three as well; G 560 six-cylinder prime movers and R 590 V8s.The V8s pull the A-doubles and the G 560s pull the side loaders.”
The fleet also includes a G 440, 130-tonne rated R 590 V8, an R 620 V8, 460 P Supers and an R 540.
Chugh Transport has bought into the Scania total transport solution offer of a range of services that take the pressure off running a business in a very competitive industry.
“All our new trucks are on Scania repair and maintenance contracts, and we have used Scania Finance Australia since the very first used truck we bought in 2013. We have had the Scania Driver Trainers in, and we also use Scania Fleet Monitoring,” Kirsty said.
“We can’t speak highly enough about Jade Saddler at Scania Finance and Amanda Buckley before her. We have financed all the trucks through them and Scania Finance has always come up with a solution that works for us. We know they work hard for us and to keep us. We’ve never had a call to go elsewhere. We do have a finance company that will look after us for trailers and forklifts, but Scania looks after all our financing for our new vehicles.
“We were very excited when we took delivery of our first brand-new Scania, and in five years it has never missed a beat. We’ll be looking at trading it in maybe next year, it has only around 350,000 km on the clock. We work our trucks hard, and they deliver.”
The fleet is starting to log bigger annual kilometres now that it is expanding its customer base and services but no more than 85,000 kilometres per year on average across the fleet.
“We are really pleased that the new Scania Supers that we have had on the fleet have been delivering what we were promised in terms of fuel efficiency improvements. We do monitor the fuel use, and we have a 60,000-litre tank on site, which is another way of keeping our fuel bills down,” Kirsty said.
“The combination of buying bulk fuel and the fuel economy of the new Scanias is making a big impact on our fuel costs, given we use around 25,000 litres each month.”
Reliability has been improved, another advantage of the Scanias according to Peter.
“We have had two side of the road breakdowns in 11 years, and that’s down to the reliability of the trucks, and the servicing that’s carried out by Scania Dandenong,” he said.
“If we do have a truck off the road for an extended period Anna Marie Taylor from Scania Truck Rental gets us moving again with a rental unit. But we have a back-up truck in the fleet especially because we wouldn’t want to use a smaller truck for the bigger loads if one of those goes down. Our rule is we have designated trucks for designated work.”
The biggest cost after fuel is drivers, but Peter and Kirsty are proud that they have a stable driving crew, many of whom have been with the business many years.
“The drivers love the Scanias. We try to keep the same driver in the same truck, and they really look after them, they’re spotless inside,” Peter said.
“We try to make this part of our culture, and they see that the bosses are neat and tidy, and they follow that example. We’ve kitted the drivers out with company clothing, and they have their name on their shirts, and they feel proud to represent us. The trucks are kept as clean as possible outside as well, and we have devised a new bold livery that really stands out on the road.
“We have employed many drivers. They have to have good English and be able to pass a driving assessment before they get the job, and that includes reversing. You have to be able to back onto docks at some places, and everyone is always watching. It not’s just about safety but professionalism.
“Operationally, we only have company drivers, no subbies, and they are proud and loyal workers.”
There are AI cameras in the trucks, watching the driver and the road, which will trigger an alarm in the office if they detect the driver is fatigued or distracted, or braking or accelerating harshly.
“We get very few alarms,” Kirsty added.
The heavyweight wharf work has necessitated running the trucks under mass management to benefit from the extra weight concession.
We’re coming off the wharf between 54-58-tonnes all up,” Peter said.
Moving boxes around in Melbourne is highly competitive, and within spitting distance of Chugh’s premises in Dandenong South there are six heavy-hitting competitors plus a gaggle of smaller operators, so there must be a secret to the Chugh Transport success.
“Our customers know that they can talk to the boss at any time, especially if there’s an issue,” said Kirsty.
“With the bigger players you wouldn’t get to speak to the guy who owns the business. We don’t operate a call centre. Customers can get through straight to the directors. That’s a feature many of clients appreciate. We’re hustlers. We go hard. Whether it’s a big player or small players, we take on the challenge, she said.
“Customers are very demanding. It’s a very competitive market and I think the difference with us is we’re a family business. We give that one-to-one customer service. We know every single customer. We know their directors, too.
“We know who’s moving containers with us today, who’s moving containers with us tomorrow, who’s got containers booked with us next week. Part of our success is we’re not reliant on freight forwarders. We have a lot of direct customers, and they can see the benefit in using us. Our business is probably about 60 per cent direct to customer. The rest is with freight forwarders.
“Now we’re expanding into warehousing, because previously we didn’t have a warehouse, so we’re doing some container unpacks as well. We’d never done it before, but it is looking good because you’re offering a much more rounded service.”
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