With its head office in Western Sydney and operating along the east coast of New South Wales and Queensland, Borger Cranes provides lifting and rigging services across a variety of clients from local home builders to major projects involving Australia’s largest construction companies.
Borger Cranes commenced operations in 1980 when Jon Borger and wife Barbara acquired their first crane which had a 23-tonne capacity.
Today the mobile crane fleet exceeds 270 units, ranging from 3-tonnes to an incredible 750-tonnes capacity and the company now employs 900 people.
Regardless of their capacities, the mobile cranes require ancillary equipment such as counter weights and rigging, which are transported by a fleet of trucks including Volvo prime movers with semi-trailers, and Hino rigids which also frequently serve as escort vehicles when the larger cranes are driven on public roads.
The primary role for most of the drivers of the trucks is to act as riggers and dogmen for the cranes, which requires them to have a very specialised skills set to maintain a high level of safety.
The fully automatic transmissions available in the Hino trucks are a key requirement to Borger’s needs.
“It’s hard to get drivers today to drive manuals,” says General Manager Shawn Borger.
“We’ve got to adapt for the next generation and the Hinos are a lot easier to drive being automatics. We don’t have to worry about clutch problems, gearbox issues, or diff issues and it’s been a real achievement for industry to change into these kinds of trucks. The younger generation don’t have manual cars, let alone manual trucks. Honestly, you can’t beat a Hino. It’s got an Allison automatic in it so they can simply just press ‘D’.”
The Hino 500 Series Wide Cab models are powered by eight-litre engines developing 280 horsepower and the Allison transmissions make full advantage of the 883Nm of maximum torque which is available as low as 1,500 rpm.
The five-litre engines in the 300 Series 921 crew cabs are rated at 205 horsepower and have a maximum torque of 600Nm.
The 300 and 500 Series Hinos are fitted with custom tray bodies which can include special guides for the crane counterweights and equipment lockers.
Working at major projects such as Sydney’s Westconnex freeways or the Sydney Metro demand a higher level of compliance, including a minimum standard for lights and fall protection systems.
“We call it the ‘Borger kit’,” says Shawn.
“It doesn’t matter what brand of truck we buy we require items such as wheel nut indicators, flashing lights, and even bullbars on some trucks. Other suppliers may just say ‘their truck, their tray and see ya later’, but not Hino.”
Borger Cranes collaborates with the Hino dealership in the design, manufacture and fitment of the custom tray bodies.
Historically, the Borger family has always invested in new cranes, yet for a long time sourced its trucks from the secondhand market.
“We’d always buy secondhand three- or four-year old trucks such as Scanias and until 2014 we’d never bought a new truck,” says Shawn.
That position changed in 2014 when Borger Cranes purchased two new Volvo prime movers and the company have since bought many more. Shortly after then new Hino trucks started to become the rigid trucks of choice. Shawn regards it as false economy to not invest in new vehicles.
“A lot of people in our industry think because they’re not really getting paid for the truck it’s not important,” says Shawn.
“But buy a $30,000 secondhand truck and it’s fine until it breaks down and then you can’t earn money with the very expensive crane. I learned the hard way: buy a truck for $250,000, then ten years later sell it for $125,000 and you’ve had a great truck which has cost you $125,000. Or you can buy a secondhand one for $125,000, have all the problems which come with it and eventually sell it for only $5,000.”
For Shawn, that meant paying closer attention to what other transport operators were doing with their fleets.
“If you look at typical transport people like Linfox, you don’t you see them buying second-hand trucks,” he says.
“Not a chance in the world, because they’re on tight times and budgets and they manage their businesses very well.”
Reliability, efficiency and safety may be the main criteria and Shawn acknowledges another factor which is important in today’s tight labour market.
“Another benefit is when you’ve got good gear people want to work for you,” he says.
“Now we only buy new trucks, and we only buy two brands: Volvos for big horsepower stuff and we buy Hinos for all our rigid applications and we are about to acquire some Hino prime movers as well.”
The company took delivery of its 50th Volvo in 2024 and in 2025 it will be placing an order for another 25 new Hino trucks.
“We choose Hino for a range of reasons,” says Borger Cranes Operations Manager Rob Beukers.
“Numbers one and two are the engines and the gearboxes. Full autos are important to our needs because we have a whole range of people drive them. While we have a number of professional truck drivers, we also have dogmen and riggers who drive as well.”
That approach is endorsed by Shawn Borger.
“You’ve got to remember, we’re the crane industry and we buy trucks to support us. We’re not truck drivers as such, so with our fleet of Volvos and Hinos they’re trucks that anyone can drive,” he says.
Interactions with the Hino dealership at nearby Huntingwood is important as well.
“They’re great people to deal with,” says Shawn. “I’ve never had any major issues with them. We did look at other brands, but we just felt that Hino was a good solid truck.”
Trucks and cranes move between Borger’s depots as required. The trucks are serviced in Borger’s well-equipped workshops and the Hino trucks deliver some advantages in this area as well.
“From a mechanical perspective they are very similar across the board, which makes it easier for the mechanics,” says Rob.
The Hino trucks are typically working at their maximum gross weight limit because they go out to a job loaded and return to the depot with the same load.
They usually travel with the crane, following with the accessories and at the conclusion of the crane job the crane and truck return to the depot after repacking the rigging gear and counterweights.
Most of the trucks operate under the Concessional Mass Limit (CML) scheme in order to legally achieve a slightly higher payload.
“That makes it easier because we’re mostly right on the money with our weights so CML gives us the tolerance we need to remain legal,” says Rob.
The Hino 300 Series 921 dual cab models and Hino 500 Series wide cab FM models don’t cover a lot of distance, typically less than 20,000 kilometres per year.
Although they may not travel very far compared to some other applications, the fuel efficiency delivered by the Hinos impresses Borger management which also has an eye on the future.
“I’m sure everyone will go hybrid eventually,” says Shawn.
“I don’t know about full electric yet for Australia, but hybrids will definitely play a part.”
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