Sadleirs takes its name from founder Ralph Crofton Sadleir who, following a stint in the goldfields, eventually prospered in Fremantle, Western Australia running a customs, shipping and forwarding agency circa 1895.
That first office occupied a corner on Cliff Street, Fremantle, a bustling corridor for merchants that eventually included a tramline and the initial headquarters of The Western Australian newspaper.
A glimpse of that heritage still stands today.
Meanwhile, Lionel Samson and his younger brother William, who had arrived on one of the first settlement vessels disembarking on the Swan River in 1829, had, by the turn of the century astride the resurgent gold rush, risen to prominence as the single largest importer of beer, wine and spirits into the country.
When Western Australia joined the rest of mainland Australia with the completion of the standard-gauge Trans-Australian Railway to Kalgoorlie in 1917, Sadleir, with the help of his brothers George and Harry, capitalised on the historic development by expanding its endeavours into Melbourne.
The first motorised lorries began to replace legacy horsepower in the business around 1925, the same year a Prohibition Referendum was put to the vote in Western Australia. Had it not been subsequently defeated, perhaps the ascendent Lionel Samson & Son would have been grounded before take-off.
With its growth trajectory unobstructed, Samson eventually acquired RC Sadleir in 1936, with both operations by this point having successfully burrowed into the network of supply chains.
Today the Sadleirs group delivers services across Australia and abroad through four specialist divisions, each dedicated to providing tailored logistics supported by the longstanding customer focus that has defined the company for more than 195 years.
Sadleirs Resources, with its fleet of triple roadtrains powering north through Western Australia’s Pilbara and Gascoyne, is recognised for its work with mining, energy, oil and gas clients.
Beyond road transport, the Sadleirs brand also spans rail, air and sea through its domestic linehaul and global forwarding and customs brokerage divisions — demonstrating the scale and intermodal capability needed to support Australian businesses in their local and international logistics needs.
Managing these interconnected global supply chains is challenging at the best of times especially when disruptions have been something of a constant over the past 18 months.
Sadleirs, however, with its ability to draw upon the advantages of its vertical integration, is well placed to respond.
“Our in-house international freight forwarding and customs brokerage division gives us early visibility into shifting global conditions that often flow through to the Australian market,” says James Robinson, General Manager of West Coast Sadleirs Logistics and Sadleirs Resources.
“That insight has helped us stay ahead of challenges and adapt our approach quickly.”
The Sadleirs Resources division is responsible for its own fleet of more than 20 trucks.
Operational agility is embedded across the organisation and especially the Resources division.
Supporting the energy sector, of course, means working in environments where conditions can change rapidly. Being flexible and responsive is critical to how Sadleirs Resources delivers. Earlier this year the division welcomed five MAN TGS 26.510 prime movers.
It marked the first trucks the fleet had ever purchased from MAN Truck & Bus, a company whose commercial vehicle history goes back nearly as long as Sadleirs.
There are, in addition to these initial five units, two others on the east coast split between Sydney and Melbourne. Those two MAN TGS prime movers are performing similar work to what the Sadleirs Resources division does in Western Australia.
“The task involves predominantly collecting boxes that are delivered to and from the railheads out of our depots,” explains James.
“There are some metro pickups as well in terms of collecting break bulk freight and being able to consolidate back in the depot but it’s mostly local and around town work for that pair of vehicles.”
Because the resource sector requirements combine remote access with time critical logistics, the Sadleirs Resources division must balance these urgencies with daily complexities.
“Our fleet and our people are set up to handle that with flexibility and care,” adds James.
The Resources team has a group of experienced drivers already accustomed to operating large prime movers that come with all the comforts ideal for a linehaul spec. These 120-tonne-rated trucks had reached their mileage threshold in linehaul work and were subsequently redeployed into the metro fleet for the remainder of their service life.
As the new 510hp MAN TGS prime movers come with slightly smaller engines and cabins than the outgoing fleet, factors of comfort, naturally, would come under scrutiny by the drivers. Feedback was soon forthcoming.
The drivers were unanimous no less in their enthusiasm. For James, whose team had been “rigorous” in its process to evaluate the new trucks, it wasn’t a surprise.
“To be completely honest and transparent we went out and tested several trucks,” he says.
“We got quite a few trial vehicles in and got our drivers that are doing the metro work for us and some who perform the ad hoc trips to Carnarvon to do a couple of weeks running in various trucks to give us some feedback. Driver comfort was certainly part of our consideration.”
Here the MAN TGS has a distinct advantage. The new generation MAN has been lauded for its clearly arranged driver workplace.
The digital display instruments have been wisely integrated with intuitive driving functions that benefit from a new, adjustable multifunction steering wheel, as well as the innovative rotary pushbutton control function of the MAN SmartSelect system.
In short, the trucks have been designed from the outset with a driver’s office in mind.
“As an industry we’re finding it harder and harder to get drivers,” says James.
“Getting the vehicles and the trucks that gives them comfort and helps us attract and retain drivers is really important as well.”
The new MAN TGS trucks go on dog runs every second weekend to the aforementioned Carnarvon where the driver stays in the vehicle on a single overnight trip that covers close to 1800 kilometres per leg.
On occasion they are dispatched to the likes of Sandy Ridge and Kalgoorlie in the Goldfields region but primarily they are being used in the local division.
The dog runs, in which a third trailer is added for another truck, as only two are allowed south of Carnarvon, were added for company drivers who wanted additional work while also increasing the utilisation of the vehicle for the fleet.
“We probably wouldn’t run them full time on a linehaul spec just because of the space inside,” says James.
“We’ve got a lot of drivers who are on 12 and two rosters so effectively they live in their truck for 12 days straight. From that perspective we look to have a bigger vehicle but from a metro task and impromptu long haul trips the comfort is still there, and the drivers are more than happy to utilise them for that run.”
Here the MANs have fast demonstrated an optimised versatility much sought after by fleets.
“Absolutely. We deliberately purchase vehicles with a 90-tonne rating so we can have some versatility with them,” explains James.
“We didn’t want them to be a one-trick pony and not provide some flexibility for us because that’s what we try and sell to our customers is that we’re a flexible operator that can meet their needs and some of our customers are not great at planning, so our job is to assist them when things go wrong and we can make a quick decision and go, ‘we’ve got a driver, we’ve got a truck.’ As we’re not looking to swap drivers between trucks, we can send someone out and they’re more than comfortable to do that.”
Nationally Sadleirs has over 500 trucks and trailers supporting over 350 employees.
Across the organisation, once rigid-only drivers and subcontractors are counted, the driver pool is considerably larger.
Because the volumes ebb and flow in the resources sector it’s incumbent on the fleet to have the ability to bring in additional units for those peak periods.
When it came to comparing the new trucks against competitor offerings there were two considerations given priority above all else. Fuel economy, from a cost perspective, was the first.
The second was emissions. Downtime and the fleet’s ability to get the MAN TGS serviced and back on the road to keep utilisation high were other key criteria.
“For us, they were the important things to measure, and these trucks have definitely achieved that,” says James.
“We’re very happy with those two categories in particular when it comes to the performance of the vehicles.”
This includes uptime which has also been notably improved.
A commitment by Sadleirs to lower its emissions profile certainly brought the Euro 6 compliant powertrain technology of the new generation MAN to the fore.
The transport industry, by its nature, plays a part in emissions according to James, particularly in Western Australia given its ‘tyranny of distance’ as he puts it.
“Internally it was something the business had identified and was looking at,” he says.
“Obviously, there’s cost saving associated with that for us, but it’s also important for us to have a social responsibility and we’ve got a fairly big process and program that we go through around our emissions as a business overall and how we can make improvements in regard to that as well.”
The MANs are, ultimately, a smart, modern asset aligned with the type of fleet Sadleirs wants to invest in long-term.
That kind of cohesion has taken the business where it currently is and invariably where it is going.
Growth within the organisation is being driven twofold with much of it organic.
Just as the business is actively looking to pick up new customers it is mindful of playing to its current strengths in the market and leveraging those strengths to provide outstanding services for customers according to James.
“As a business we don’t necessarily operate as a cut-price option: the cheapest generally doesn’t come with a good service level and that’s why the MANs suit us as well,” he says.
“Because we’re dealing with bigger companies who share our concern when it comes to sustainability and the environment but also the benefits of reliability. They’re happy to pay a more competitive rate I suppose to get that reliability and if we’ve got vehicles breaking down then that obviously impacts our ability to provide service and for them to keep their operations running as well.”
Fleet replenishment is customarily based on usage profiles rather than a fixed timeline. For prime movers, it’s typically every three to five years or in accord with kilometres amassed and truck condition.
Vehicle technology coming into the industry is changing fast.
Making allowances for what is on the horizon is one of the biggest changes to how businesses like Sadleirs approaches asset management especially over the past 18 months.
What’s become noticeable just this decade is the capability of the vehicles coming into the market; not only the change but the way it is accelerating says James.
“If we jump a little bit ahead in terms of our planning and what we go through for purchasing equipment we’re looking a lot at operating leases and that’s so that we can ensure we can continue to take advantage of a technology improvement coming out in the industry,” he says.
“Because I think every year we’re seeing more technology advances and if we’re looking to buy something and hold it for too long, you sort of miss out on some of those advantages and the benefits that are coming to the industry whether it’s around fuel efficiency, safety is a big one as well, driver comfort and the ability to give that information that our customers want in terms of truck location, fuel burn and other data.”
The intent, even if not immediately explicit, is to remain cautious when managing the fleet to avoid getting locked into an asset that might be outdated in two years’ time.
“Exactly, that’s the difficulty,” says James. “But while the technology will evolve, our focus won’t change. It’ll still be about having reliable, fit-for-purpose equipment that supports our people and delivers for our customers.”
Sadleirs has made targeted investments in PBS vehicles where it adds value especially for high-volume lanes.
The goal is simple: move more with less.
Likewise, the streamlining of routing, the pursuit of depot-level sustainability measures and the focus on the latest in Euro 6 emissions engine standards is at the forefront of the decision-making process.
That helps Sadleirs to place orders earlier, firm up supplier relationships and tighten specifications.
“Partnering with reliable manufacturers like Penske helps us stay ahead,” says James. “The network’s evolving, but it’s also getting leaner, and our MAN trucks are part of that shift toward more efficient linehaul operations.”
