Relationships that bind

“I’m an older style business person, so relationships mean a lot to me,” Jeff says.

“I’ve had a good relationship with the people at Hino and in particular Brad Elliot, (Sci Fleet Hino, Eagle Farm) who has always ensured that we get, firstly, good service, and secondly, that we get the product that we require.”

“Brad will seek and find me what I should need for my business. Yeah, so I just listen to what he says. So that’s the power of relationships, that’s the relationship that I have with Hino.

“That’s the relationship I have with all of our suppliers, because once I start with someone, I stay with them.”

In its short 10-or-so-year history, Trafquip has grown its fleet of Hino trucks where it showcases a mix of
300 Series hybrids through to 500 Series wide cabs, featuring Truck Mounted Attenuators (TMAs) or IPVs (Impact Protection Vehicles) and cone truck bodies, all for rent to customers.

Long-term choices

For Jeff Trim, the allegiance to Hino vehicles hasn’t just been a decade-long affair but stemmed from his previous career in civil works.

“I come from a civil works background, and I’ve been in the traffic control sector for 20 years, but I’ve been in the hire sector for 10 years,” Jeff explains.

“I was a civil contractor doing Greenfield subdivisions and we had a truck hire and cartage business within that business, and I just had an affiliation with other brand truck brands, non-Japanese trucks.

“We ended up going with Japanese trucks, and then I just developed an affection for the Hino because of its reliability and its ability to idle in for a long time without causing any glazing and stuff to the motor.”

Jeff happily admits that the seeds of using Hino trucks in business were planted some 30 years ago when he heeded the advice of a former employee who became a good friend.

“When I was a young guy, one of my mates, who was a truck driver, did nothing but talk about Hinos,” says Jeff.

“I wasn’t really into trucks; I was a procurement person doing tenders and sales. I spoke to him before I started buying all these trucks, and he said: ‘you can’t go passed a Hino or a Fuso truck’. I ended up going with Hino.

“Ultimately, I listened to him and built this part of my business based on that conversation I had 30 years ago.”

Combined with the advice from a good friend, Jeff’s ‘one-truck-man’ approach to business gave him a practical reasoning for sticking with Hino trucks, rather than going for a mixed bag.

“We buy them because we know that if we stick with the one brand, we come to understand its strengths and its inherent weaknesses, and Hino has proven to not have a lot of inherent weaknesses. It’s been very reliable vehicle,” Jeff says.

“But if there are any issues, we know that we’ll get the support from Hino because of the mass. We also know that if we find an inherent problem, we can maintain and repair the entire fleet and be prepared for whatever the problem might be.”

That approach has stood Jeff in good stead for his whole truck fleet – small or medium.

“It’s good we just stick with the same brands throughout our entire business, so that we have both the buying power and the ability to be informed by Hino as to what’s coming, what’s happening with the Euro emissions, all that type of stuff,” he says.

“You feel very informed and comfortable with Hino there. They are the best truck for us and for our applications.”

Jeff also sees Hino as enhancing Trafquip’s reputation in a competitive service industry.

“When a customer drives out of the gate in one of our trucks, I feel confident it’s going to continue to drive well and perform as required,” Jeff says.

On a purely practical level, Jeff’s business is heavily focused on supplying 15.5 tonne trucks – the legal requirement for IPVs – with Hino being adept at manufacturing these mid-weight vehicles that are easy to manoeuvre, maintain and operate.

The business

Jeff has applied his 20-year experience in the traffic management to build Trafquip to where it is steadily growing its national footprint.

His application of experience means that Jeff’s business is purely focused on the traffic sector.

“We’re a national business, and we focus purely on the supply to the traffic management industry nationally, right across Australia, wherever needed,” Jeff explains.

“We have about 1,100 units of plant and we basically just rent them – long-term or short-term rentals to the traffic management industry, local government, tier ones, anybody who needs it.”

Daily, weekly, monthly, and longer rentals mean having available stock of any possible traffic management equipment, from trailer mounted traffic lights, VMS boards, Traffic Control Utes, traffic control VMs, Utes, super pod trucks, cone trucks, IPVs, or TMAs (Truck Mounted Attenuators).

Although the traffic management sector can be seasonal, with business ebbs and flows, Jeff is fully aware of the need for Trafquip to have a national footprint and presence.

The business now employs 26 staff and already operates six depots nationally, including in its home state, with another near completion and one in the planning stages.

“It’s a tough business, but I think we’ve been there long enough now to kind of understand how it works,” he says.

“We started small and we just quietly purchased a depot in Brisbane and started working from there. Then we quietly purchased a depot in South Australia and started working there. We just quietly purchased one in Victoria, so everything, is looking good.

“It’s one of those businesses where you’ve got to have a national presence to provide the equipment that people want. If you don’t have it, they will get it from somewhere else.”

With equipment hire, Trafquip is dedicated to maintaining a high utilisation rate of stock.

“We’re very aware that we need to have excess stock to be able to support and grow the industry,” he said.

“It’s the reason why I’ve got over 100 of these trucks. You’re just hiring the products out, so it’s going to be immediate availability.”

As a result of needing to continually purchase and replace stock, Trafquip boasts its own workshops for repairs, maintenance and new builds to maintain quick product turnarounds and customer satisfaction.

“We have boilermakers, auto electricians, mechanics and diesel mechanics, and also general ‘yardies’. We really try and run an internal shop here to keep things cheaper for everyone,” Jeff says.

That quick turnaround means Jeff’s team will even deliver the rental equipment, anywhere.

With Brisbane as the epicentre of Trafquip’s operations it means that if equipment is needed to be built from the ground up, it will come out of Brisbane and transported to the other branches around Australia.

It also means that Jeff buys all the business trucks from Brad Elliott of Sci Fleet Hino at Eagle Farm in Brisbane.

Being founded in Queensland doesn’t mean the business concentrates solely north of the border – continuing to enjoy success and strong support around the country.

“I am a proud Australian and from a cultural point of view, people around Australia are ultimately the same – everybody just wants the same thing.

“They want a product that they’re not going to be embarrassed to drive, that is reasonably priced and does the job.

“Ultimately, it’s about finding a service as a national company, and I believe we provide that service.”

Truck specifications

Being in the equipment rental business, Trafquip is in a state of constant build.

“We constantly rotate the fleet, and we have trucks that are six years old, but we look at them as coming to end of life. So, if we’re going to have 10 of those rolling out the door at the end of life, I’m going to be buying 10 or 15 to replace them, to keep the business growing,” Jeff says.

Dating back to his civil contracting days, Jeff has always maintained on the 15.5 tonne mid-range truck to be able to cater for the TMAs, or IPVs. This has led to a focus on the smaller 300 Series up to the 500 Series Hino trucks.

“They’re a great vehicle for carrying load and relatively efficient. We’ve actually even moved into the hybrid range of those things, because that’s where we want to go when they’re available and they suit the industry we’re in,” he says.

Trafquip also uses a light TMA truck, or LTMA, which is a smaller version used in the slower speed zones for traffic management.

“We have the large TMAs on the 500 series and the smaller ones on the 300 series, which are hybrid,” Jeff explains.

“We have just general 616 wide cab bodies, which we use as our pod trucks, which are cone deployment trucks, and we have the 616 narrow cab, which is another working kind of traffic control vehicle.”

Constantly planning and upgrading, Jeff is now contemplating buying “a couple” of tilt tray trucks from Hino.

As he has done for the past 30 years, Jeff will keep relying on his sturdy business relationships to
make that happen, whether that’s in Brisbane, Melbourne, or right
across Australia.