Cream of the Crop

Fonterra is a New Zealand dairy co-operative owned by thousands of farming families.

It has grown to become New Zealand’s largest company and is responsible for approximately 30 per cent of the world’s dairy exports.

In Australia Fonterra collects milk from local dairy farmers which goes to its eight manufacturing sites across Victoria and Tasmania where it is processed into various dairy foods.

Fonterra operates a fleet of 50 milk collection trucks in Australia based on the Volvo FM model.

It was the first milk tanker fleet in Australia to adopt the truck and dog trailer combination. Currently, about half of the fleet consists of truck and dog trailer units, with the remainder comprising of single and B-double trailer combinations.

Recently, Fonterra invested $10 million in new flow metering systems and the replacement of all of the pump modules. The milk pumps are all driven off the trucks’ PTO.

The next stage of development will likely involve electrification of the pumps to save fuel, reduce emissions and minimise noise during nighttime bulk milk collections as the trucks’ engines won’t need to operate at high idle speeds to run the pumps.

The pumps are from Byford Equipment and the milk metering electronics provided by Smarta Industrial utilise telemetry to enable connectivity between the trucks and the bases and are capable of scheduling routes and informing drivers the order of the farms to pick up from.

The system facilitates the schedule routes to be downloaded to each truck automatically when a driver logs on.

Every time a farm collection takes place the information is relayed to the base and the milk factories are advised as to what is being delivered back to them and payments to the farmers are also calculated by the system based on the bulk milk collections.

Bulk liquid transport has some unique challenges whether the load be milk, wine or fuel and in the past the milk industry was over-represented in the number of vehicle rollovers, due mainly to the load shifting effect of liquid sloshing around within the tanker’s compartments.

Fonterra’s sustained focus on safety along with the fitment of Electronic Stability Control and Electronic Braking Systems, has significantly enhanced the safe operation of its tankers.

Additionally, the comprehensive training provided to all drivers further ensures the highest standards of safety are maintained.

The strength and integrity of the Volvo cabins is also a factor in the decision process as the Volvo FM cab met or exceeded the ECE29 standard for rollover integrity, but there is an additional test colloquially referred to as the “Swedish rollover test” used by a number of European manufacturers including Volvo.

To achieve the ECE29 rating manufacturers can use a new cab for each phase of the test. The more comprehensive “Swedish” method uses just the one cab which is heavily impacted from various directions and at the conclusion the driver’s door is still required to be capable of being opened.

Cameron Nicholls is the National Fleet and Equipment Manager for Fonterra in Australia and brings a strong background in engineering to the role.

Cameron gained further experience in logistics at one of the big two supermarket chains and a leading cold storage specialist. He also worked with another Victorian milk supplier during the rise of PBS tankers.

Since joining Fonterra in 2018, Cameron has overseen not only the tanker fleet but also ancillary equipment such as forklifts and passenger vehicles.

Another important aspect of the Volvo FM cab is its three-step entry to the cab, compared to the typical four steps used by other trucks, reducing the risk of trips and falls.

Given the frequency which drivers are getting in and out of cabs, particularly on farms, Cameron calculated that eliminating one step results in around 250,000 fewer steps annually, significantly enhancing driver safety.

“We prefer a cabover design because our drivers often pull out of farm driveways onto main roads, often in darkness and foggy weather, and having the driver as far forward as possible without sticking truck out onto road provides better vision and hence safety,” says Cameron.

Commenting on the 25-year relationship between Fonterra and the CMV Truck & Bus Dealership Group Cameron is impressed by the combination of Volvo hardware and CMV Truck & Bus expertise.

“CMV’s Ian Vagg has been around for a long time and his knowledge is a lynchpin to the relationship,” Cameron says.

“CMV Truck & Bus has spent a lot of time developing trucks suitable for farm milk collection, both prime mover or rigid. We’ve tried other brands and they just don’t stand up to it. The Volvo does because of all the little modifications. Anyone out there doing third party dairy collection are probably using Volvo.”

As part of the servicing and maintenance arrangements three or four CMV Truck & Bus technicians are based at each of the Fonterra workshops located at milk factory sites and work in harmony with Fonterra staff.

“Essentially we’re all the same people trying to do the same thing, we’ve just got different company names on our payslips,” says Cameron.

“It works really well. I deal with a lot of suppliers and none of them are like CMV Truck & Bus in my experience. They’re quite big but everybody feels like they’re part of a family. CMV, far more than anyone else, just feels everyone’s invested and it’s the best culture of any company I’ve ever worked for or with.”

This arrangement extends beyond routine servicing and repairs and the relationship at management level delivers benefits for both parties.

“It’s really enjoyable working with people that you can just have straight conversations with,” says Cam.

“With CMV Truck & Bus, I deal mostly with Rohan Cook and Matt Smith on the contracts side. They’ll come to me and say I’m spending too much money on something, and because we are constantly evolving, they come up with different ways of doing things.”

Each Fonterra tanker travels between 300 and 600 kilometres each shift, totalling around 220,000 kilometres each year.

The work is seasonal with significantly larger volumes during spring, with Tasmania showing the largest difference between seasons.

A quarter of the truck fleet is renewed each year, with trailers serving 12 to 15 years between replacements.

The Volvo trucks are likely to have covered close to one million kilometres at their time of replacement, and the economics show that it is a prudent point in time to pass them over to their next owners and introduce brand new Volvo’s into the fleet.

Cameron expects the Australian operation will soon move to a sustainable fuel source.

“The interesting thing I have found during my time at Fonterra is how sustainability has become a major focus,” Cameron says.

“Often, I get more questions about environmental impact and sustainability than I do about financials. Another massive change is that safety isn’t a headline now, it’s just the way we live.”