Over the last four decades Hallett Group has built a reputation as the largest integrated supplier of building, construction and mining materials in South Australia.
The Hallett stable houses dedicated divisions in Resources, Concrete, Transport, Building Supplies and Timber & Truss in addition to recent horizontal and market extension acquisitions such as DK Quarries and Daecon Trusses, to name but a few.
Total staff hovers around 500 in South Australia with two operations, Major Timber and Daecon Trusses, based in Victoria. For the record, Hallett’s preceding entity MSP Group was established in 1980.
The name was changed to Hallett Group in 2022. Much of these non-competing revenue streams rely on road transport.
In early September a delivery fulfilled by CMV Truck Centre Adelaide of five new Kenworth T659 prime movers made it clear that the fleet was preparing for a major shakeup.
The trucks have been gradually brought online as the trailers for each unit become available contingent to the many necessary approvals from the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator. These five Kenworth trucks ultimately will be responsible for three different tasks.
Three of the five units will be devoted to an end-tipper application running primarily from quarries Hallett owns in Kulpara, Truro and a sandpit at Clinton to its Dry Creek concrete plant and the BHP Prominent Hill Mine.
Final approval for network access to the BHP mine at Prominent Hill is also underway where Hallett and one of its customers both maintain plants.
Hallett Group actively situates its operational footprint at the forefront of technology and innovation, often pursuing strategies that make it the fastest and most adaptive to identify, realise and seize new opportunities.
Sustainable transportation, increasingly as a strategic vision means being able to survive into the low emissions age through the recourse of PBS-approved higher productivity roadtrain combinations.
A mammoth new A-triple is the epitome of said vision. The project commenced two years ago in partnership with heavy vehicle engineering and design specialty firm Tiger Spider.
“We wanted to start working on what we could do to increase our capability and reduce trucks on the road,” says Rhylie Ayres, Hallett Group Operations Manager – Transport.
“It would obviously reduce our emissions but also allow us to deliver increased payloads to our internal and external customers.”
Over the gestation and build period, Hallett Group begun the task of phasing out some of its double roadtrains in anticipation of the bigger units.
The first of three A-triples is now operational. It carts concrete aggregates such as 10ml and 20ml stone, quarry dust and construction sand.
“PBS regulations have improved in South Australia enabling fleets to operate much bigger combinations closer to the city,” says Rhylie.
“Though a metro area, Dry Creek is on the northern side of Adelaide where roadtrains are common. You’re seeing AB-triples and some fleets are getting approval for 53.5-metre-long combinations.”
The Hallett A-triple is 44.9 metres in length. With a GVM of 141.5 tonnes, it’s approved to decamp at that weight directly from the Dry Creek facility. No trailers during operation need to be separated.
From the yard it runs empty to Kulpara, loads up to a 96-tonne payload and returns to Dry Creek where drive-over grids with ramps are used. This affords the operator to tip off directly into each grid so that the combination can remain intact. Tipping off takes about 20 minutes before the unit is out of the yard and heading north again.
Powered by a Euro 4 600hp Cummins X15, the engine runs through an 18-speed Eaton RoadRanger gearbox, which is specified according to Rhylie, so that drivers can have more control.
MTData is the preferred telematics provider across the entire transport fleet. Front dash and side wing cameras are fitted to manage operator fatigue on every prime mover in the road transport fleet.
“Having the tri-drive prime mover matched with tri-axle trailers and dollies enables substantial increases in payload compared to our normal bogie prime mover running an A-double roadtrain,” explains Rhylie.
“With the tri-drive and the triple trailers we will get 96 tonnes, an additional 36 tonnes payload compared to the double roadtrains.”
Turntables on the dollies had to be modified to ensure the correct weight distribution – 22.5 tonnes to be precise – was arranged for each of the axle spacings. Hallett Group, moreover, uses weighbridges at dispatch to ensure compliance with axle weights and mass management requirements
“Those checks and balances help to ensure we’re always compliant on the road and meeting our compliance requirements,” says Rhylie.
Tiger Spider and Bulk Transport Equipment (BTE) helped partner on all the engineering details including the design approval from the NHVR and the South Australia Department of Transport before the units went into production.
“Once everything was out of the factory and in here, we did the final PBS approval through the NHVR and it was all signed off very easily,” says Rhylie.
Being at a Level 4 weight Hallett will need to apply for route specific permits to make certain it meets bridge assessments.
“We’ve got a route permit from Dry Creek directly to Kulpara quarry and back loaded both ways and we stick to that route as it’s not on a network at Level 4,” says Rhylie.
This particular shift sees the A-triple travel nearly 700 kilometres. The leg to Prominent Hill, where it will run five days a week, increases the distance each time by a further 700 kilometres.
The Kenworths are fitted with Barry Stoodley bullbars, hydraulics for end and side tippers, conveyer guards, chassis walkways, Clare Valley Auto electrical and a Truck Art Icepack.
Custom Air supplied the sleeper interior components, including microwaves and dual fridges. The Kenworth fleet is entirely acquired via lease packages put together by PACCAR Australia.
It provides the flexibility to turn over the prime movers every 42 months according to Rhylie.
“We want to make sure we are getting a full use of the trucks,” he explains. “As it stands, we get a lot more kilometres out of our tippers being mostly double shifted compared to our cement powder tanker trucks which we own.”
There are 160 trucks in the Hallett Group fleet which comprises prime movers, concrete agitators, pneumatic tanker trucks, tipper trucks, flat bed rigids and crane trucks.
In South Australia the fleet has pioneered the six-axle truck and dog unit. It now has eleven of these. Plans are underway already for an A-triple tanker set and two triples with side-tippers that have already entered into production.
The side-tippers have been assigned to the company’s Green Cement Transformation Project launching next year in Port Augusta. It involves decarbonating the concrete being produced by using the byproducts used to make slag and fly ash.
According to Kane Salisbury, Hallett Group Chief Executive Officer, the Green Cement Transformation Project is the company’s proudest achievement to date.
“Hallett is creating new sources of low carbon cementitious materials from local industrial byproducts for the South Australian market and beyond,” he says.
“By adding these new sources to the global pool of low carbon cement alternatives we truly impact global CO₂ emissions.”
The trucks for this project will run to Port Pirie before returning to Hallett’s Port Augusta Hub. Rhylie anticipates these units will have even greater carrying capacity given the product is a lot lighter per cubic metre.
“We’ll probably get upwards of 100 tonnes of payload over these trailers because of how the profile of freight actually sits,” he says.
Rhylie has been with Hallett for just over 12 months having come across from Toll Group where he was employed for five years.
“With Toll being a worldwide company it was a great experience looking after oil and gas general freight linehaul,” he recalls.
“Having that knowledge base has been good and it’s been beneficial coming here and bringing that previous experience into the Hallett Group. There’s a bit of crossover with some customers I used to deal with previously.”
In the last 18 months, Hallett has intensified its focus on enhancing its operational network to enable the use of high-performance vehicles like these new A-triples.
“Hallett has in recent years increased the average unit carrying capacity of its heavy fleet by over 40 per cent to now boast the highest capacity and most efficient construction materials fleet in South Australia,” says Kane.
“This enhanced carrying capacity when combined with great prime movers and trailers drives greatly improved emissions performance.”
Hallett is now planning for the next evolution of alternative fuels transport and is particularly excited by its potential to trial a variety of future technologies from its new Port Augusta hub.
