While Fred’s Interstate Transport has always been traditionally run out of Shepparton, more and more of the business has continued to run through Brisbane.
Line haul trucking has always been the main focus of their work, but gradually more of their drivers and their clients have become Queensland based.
Fred’s does have a Brisbane facility, which it has owned since the ‘90s, but it has been recently sold off.
“We’re currently in the hunt for property for a new one,” CEO Danny Borg says.
“We used to be in Chipping Norton in Sydney but we closed that down. It was only an office, we had one in Penrith too which we also closed.
“Everything we do is direct to customer. We don’t cross, stock, store or distribute, so we don’t really require depots other than to park vehicles, like we do here.
“A lot of the fleet is based in Brisbane now, hence why we’ve been looking for something up there.”
As the transport game changes, and Fred’s fleet and business grows, being able to operate just out of Shepparton is no longer as viable as it was in the early days.
Having a proper depot in Queensland would allow more flexibility, giving the Fred’s drivers the ability to run out of a separate facility and not have to drive all the way from Shepparton first.
“It’s always been Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, but now we have more drivers and equipment up there than we have in the past,” Danny says.
“Early days everything was based in Shepparton, it’s a big transport area. There’s more short haul than line haul now. There were operators like Sali’s and Mathieson’s.
“But the need to have something in Brisbane is there. We’ve got a lot of customers up there. We used to do Adelaide but cut it out and fine-tuned the operation.
“Ideally we would be replicating something similar in terms of our workshop in Brisbane going forward. It would be designed with similar operational practices, being able to maintain the fleet.
“That would be the next major project should we choose to go down that path. Right now it’s about setting up the new facility.”
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