Situated in the transport precinct at Bohle, in the western part of Townsville, Morgan Transport Group is a growing business focused primarily on two non-competing markets in North Queensland.
When the business first began trading as Morgan Transport in 1996 it was dispatching a 1990 Ford LTS 9000 on produce deliveries to a supermarket.
That’s still the main remit of the business though it was quick to diversify operations not long after inception with mining related transport activities which are ongoing today.
While the year 1996 doesn’t seem that long ago, it must for Morgan Transport. In that short time, it has managed to successfully manoeuvre over the shifting tectonic plates wrought on essential industries post-GFC downturn, post-COVID inflation and the latest sequel to expansionist US hegemonic disruption.
Morgan Transport now handles movements of 76 trucks every day in humid, hot, dry conditions that make great demands of the commercial assets run by David Morgan.
David’s innate modesty, a quality prone to that part of the world, shouldn’t trivialise the momentum and gains the company continues to make.
Mechanically minded, David, as a diesel technician by trade, is not only intuitive to problem solving processes, but expert in capitalising on that which is effective and then honing its inherent worth for greater efficiencies.
Boiled down that often means getting the most out of an individual asset.
A workshop staffed by nine keeps the Kenworth trucks, of which there are nearly 30 prime movers, in top running order.
The move to Kenworth from Ford, where there were family ties with David’s father Don Morgan, who previously ran the local Ford dealership, happened in 2003.
The Kenworth fleet currently comprises three Legend SARs, a Legend 900, three T659s, three T410s, three T409s, three K200s, one T409SAR, four T610s, three T909s, one T408, one K104 and a T401.
“The Kenworths we keep forever because they’re just a great product,” says David. “We very rarely get rid of Kenworth. Maintenance costs once they hit 600,000kms on some other brands are out of control. Those things that fail just makes Kenworth look so much better. Over the life of the truck the cents per kilometre just blow out.”
The Morgan Transport fleet presents at a uniformly high standard. Especially on the big trucks.
“My motto is ‘if it’s chromeless it’s homeless’” jokes David. “I like my trucks to look good. Even the European vehicles get stripes, and I have a friend who does all the signwriting.”
Although self-described as “north Queensland specialists,” that niche takes in an immense territory given the size of the state.
Daily shuttle services carrying mining reagents, prop equipment and dangerous goods go into Mt Isa and Cloncurry and the surrounding mines.
As for roadtrains, the geographic threshold is the Tanami Desert.
The other segment involves major contracts with Woolworths, bread maker Tip Top and Bega Milk triangulating depots that again involve huge runs that can include Brisbane to the south, Mossman to the north and Mt Isa out west.
This is where the DAF prime movers come into their own. Morgan Transport operates 19 of these, none of which are more than four years old.
No wonder. It doesn’t take long to run up clicks on the odometer given the vast distances being covered.
“The DAFs are mainly CF530s and XF530s and there’s an 11-litre CF450 dedicated to a bread run,” says David. “They are all Euro 6. One is only two and half years old and has already hit 500,000 kilometres.”
On the refrigerated application the trucks are, without exception, carrying palletised freight.
The DAFs are on a lease plan and get replaced every three years when they reach 550,000kms. David foresees adding more DAF XFs in the near future as they are roomier and better suited to hot shifts for his bigger drivers.
A new DAF XG validation truck debuted with the business in February last year. So impressed was David that he has since purchased the vehicle.
“The only way I can describe it is just awesome,” he says.
“It’s got heaps of power and it’s extremely comfortable. Driver acceptance is up there. It’s great on fuel. There was a couple of little issues that they have gone out of their way to repair, nothing you wouldn’t expect on a validation program anyway.”
The DAF XG is now running as a B-double on HML carrying 65.5 tonnes daily up through dense rainforest to Palmerston, prominent for its banana plantations.
From Townsville it can depart in temperatures of 36’c with 90 per cent humidity but by the time it gets halfway up Harvey Range it often will be foggy and teeming with rain.
“The XG goes through a whole range of tough conditions in each trip,” says David. “It rains and then it’s hot and then it rains again and it’s hot. It’s on a demanding run braving a Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.”
Two drivers have sampled the XG so far. The operator that is currently in it recently surprised David with a comment.
“The other day he told me, ’I don’t think you’ll ever get me out of this’” he says. “It’s just a very nice truck to drive.”
Running north to the dairy region of Malanda seven times a week, the DAF XG is loaded both ways and the fuel economy delivered by the new drivetrain with its PACCAR PX-15 engine so far surpasses everything else in the fleet.
“For a validation truck it has been well behaved,” says David. “The horsepower and gear changes and the ride are all so good. And also, the appearance is important to me.”
The tall-geared truck can produce up to 3,200Nm and the tapered cabin along with a judiciously curved windscreen makes it a slippery prospect — hence the astounding fuel results. Morgan Transport, as part of its next round of purchases, will more than likely invest in additional XGs according to David.
“I honestly think it will be our replacement when we’re going to buy big cabover trucks to do a task,” he says. “We’ve got X15s and XF530s running on the milk as well and the XG outshines them all.”
Morgan Transport partners closely with Brown and Hurley Townsville and its Dealer Principal Tony Burton.
They are primarily the reason behind why the fleet buys the DAF product.
“They rate a mention as there’s lots of other European options out there and Kenworth sell themselves. Brown and Hurley’s service, parts and staff are incredible,” says David.
“Brown and Hurley have also allowed us to grow by taking a chance on us as well. There’s been hard times. We’ve had, for instance, say, two engine failures in a month and they’ve covered it for a month. They’re just great people. They really are.”
Having ridden its fair share of ups and downs, David can point to 2021 as being a watershed moment when the company acquired rival local carrier Mystgold.
Not only did it help to reinforce its growth path, but the acquisition brought with it a major contract and additional pieces of equipment.
“It certainly increased our footprint up here,” recalls David. “With that decision we were able to better service our customers as a result of having more equipment.”
While the company suddenly found the new business it was accommoding had expanded upon its immediate reach, it also crucially gave them a foot in the door at Woolworths. The exposure to, and demand for, Euro 6 equivalent cabovers expanded from here as did the appetite for new technologies.
Morgan Transport recently installed a new system, Taro, for accounting, scheduling and fatigue monitoring.
It’s locally developed by Michael Markwell; and a program is being devised between the two partners to integrate fatigue cameras, four-way cameras and electronic work diaries.
“We’re hoping that he will be able to provide a one-stop shop for everything from our invoicing to the bloke out there on the roads,” says David.
“All of the servicing in the workshop is on glass. There’s no paperwork anymore. We’ve only been running that for five weeks and it has streamlined and eased up the workshop personnel in the office to diversify and do some other stuff.”
Well resourced, the workshop is a holdover from the company’s heritage days and still offers retail, as a sideline, which includes sub-contractors for Team Global Express and dates back to the days of IPEC, a once commonly recognised name in freight.
Single operator, Kerry Brown, who harkens back to those days, David cites as one of three formative influences to have helped mentor him over the journey.
“He’s the type of guy who sits there and reads ADR books and proves the scale he’s on at the side of the road is wrong,” says David.
“He’s a wealth of knowledge. Even nowadays if I have a problem, I’ll ring up Kerry and say ‘hey, dude what do you think about this?’ ‘Oh, I wouldn’t do that son I reckon.’”
The two other mentors are Les Collins, who previously owned Talco, a large transport company in North Queensland and his father Don Morgan.
“He’s a champion. Dad is the reason behind my work ethic,” notes David. “He was a hard worker, and I followed in his footsteps observing the way he used to do it. I admire the man.”
The word DNA is floated around with high frequency these days when it comes to the industry and suppliers. But at Morgan Transport Group bloodlines are embedded in the business.
The brains behind the operation, as David likes to call her, is his wife Kellie, who is the Admin Manager. Their son Jacob serves as the DC Co-ordinator while daughter Rylee works part time in the office.
David’s father-in-law Tom Collins is a subbie, his brother-in-law Shane Mitchell is the Service Manager and nephew Jessie Mitchell is a third-year apprentice. Cameron Wright, General Manager, meanwhile has been at the company over ten years.
Longevity like endurance comes with its own valued utility. Wisdom, after all, is itself a scarce commodity in any era. David is apt to receive visitors that are retired former transport professionals that he grew up around. He cherishes the stories they share even if he’s mostly heard them before.
“They sit at my desk and tell me the same stories and I love the same stories every time because I just love the guys,” he says. “There’s one in particular, when he comes in, I’m like a kid in a candystore. Even though I know he’s going to tell me the same story, but it’s all in the delivery.”
Far from hyperbole, it’s a reality that the deeply entrenched knowledge of the older generation nearing or at retirement age will be lost once they’re gone.
Wider industry appears ill-prepared, at any rate, to harness these assets before the inevitable happens.
The youngest at Morgan Transport is 27.
While the oldest, Alan “Pops” Johnstone, is 82.
“The 82-year-old is obviously limited to what he can do, so he only works weekends for us, and you say to him ‘want a weekend off Pops?’” says David.
“He says, ‘nah, I’ll probably die’. So, it’s, ‘alright Pops just make sure you rest up all week for the weekend’. And that’s what he does. There’s some of that camaraderie missing at the moment in the industry because it’s extremely cutthroat. But I just love the old guys.”
