Obrienco Transport has recently announced the expansion of its operations into less-than-truckload (LTL) freight and warehousing.
This is the latest in a series of growth-oriented moves from the Toowoomba-based fleet — moves which have followed the arrival of son Jack O’Brien to the Obrienco family business.
O’Brien previously expanded the family business into interstate transport with the purchase of two Mack Anthems in February.
Now, warehousing and LTL have been added to the business offering.
“Every transport business looks to grow,” O’Brien told Prime Mover.
“I’m pretty new in the family business, and that’s kind of what sparked the growth. But the truth is, we always had plans to go into LTL transport at some point in the future. The shift just happened sooner than we were expecting and that solely came from the support we received from our national customer base, and the needs they had.”
Obrienco has strategically set up its LTL services to connect Queensland’s regional communities with the coast, a move which was important to O’Brien, as it assured customers that they were going to receive a duty of care.
“We try and emphasise that this isn’t transactional,” he said.
“We want to foster real growth within our customers. If they grow and continue to succeed, that equally means that we will. If we can help them and add value to their operations in some form, we hope that they support us in return.
“In this expansion’s short time-frame, we have already received dividends.”
As a result, the business is rolling out these services in Brisbane, Toowoomba, Warwick, Stanthorpe, the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Gympie, Kingaroy, Dalby, Chinchilla and Miles with an ability to connect these areas to Melbourne and Adelaide through its transport network.
These LTL sites have been supported through Obrienco’s newest truck purchase – a demo model 2024 heavy rigid Hino 500 Series.
“The truck was previously doing show days in regional New South Wales and in Queensland, but ended up in a dealership in Toowoomba with only 3,000Kms on it,” O’Brien said.
Obrienco has existing contracts with Australia Post that it services with both Hino and Isuzu vehicles.
“It fits in really well with the work we currently do and with our current maintenance plan,” added O’brien.
“The Hino is a good truck — reliable with plenty of accessible spare parts.”
Obrienco’s new LTL operations have been complemented by the move into warehousing and third-party logistics (3PL), which are headquartered at its Toowoomba site.
This facility has the capability to accommodate space for general pallets, outdoor hardstand space, bulk hardstand space and includes a limited amount of cool room space.
These operations have also proven successful for O’Brien and his team so far.
“The warehousing itself is pretty new to us, but at the moment we offer a very high level pallet-in-pallet-out turnover,” he said.
“So it’s a very active warehouse. We’re offering a range of storage options for customers, and we allow them to audit our location to make sure it suits their needs before we dive in to assist them. We want this process done right, and we think that’s being reflected in our clients’ responses to the setup.”
According to O’Brien, the new operations are only the beginning of its bigger plans to grow.
“We’re not done yet,” he says.
“We want to have locations close to all of our customers. If we can be close to our customers’ customer, then we’ll have reached our goal.
“We just want to pass on that Obrienco feeling to as many people as we can.”
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