Shining Legacy

Today, Emerald Carrying Company is recognised as a major force in Australian fuel transport, but its story begins in much humbler circumstances – with one family in Emerald, Queensland, determined to build a lasting legacy through hard work and freight.

The Haylock family business traces its roots back to 1965 when Matt Haylock’s grandparents, Bill and Joan, established the operation after Bill decided to give trucking and transport a good go after a life of farming in Queensland’s central highlands.

“We started off in general fleet by my grandfather,” Matt says. “That was where it all began — doing milk runs, doing local deliveries, taking freight off the rail and carting it around Emerald.”

In those early years, the company’s work centred on collecting freight from the local railhead and delivering it across the district, gradually earning a reputation for reliability in the process. General freight remained the foundation of the business for decades and, while it still exists today, it now accounts for only a fraction of the wider operation.

“These days it’s probably only about five per cent of what we do,” Matt says. “But it’s where we started, so we’ve always kept that general freight side there servicing central Queensland.”

The defining shift for Emerald Carrying Company comes in 1994, when Matt’s father, Greg Haylock, secured a contract with the local Ampol distributor and decisively moved into fuel transport.

“My father started the fuel side of things in 1994 and that’s where it all sort of kicked up from there,” Matt says.

That one opportunity changes the trajectory of the family business. What begins as a regional freight operator steadily evolves into one of the country’s largest family-owned fuel logistics providers.

Today, Emerald Carrying Company carts fuel throughout Australia, excluding Western Australia, servicing a vast range of commercial and industrial customers, with mining enterprises in the coal-rich Bowen Basin among its largest sectors.

“We do the fuel carting for the mines – they’re our biggest clients,” Matt says. “Some of those mines get 14 B-double loads of fuel a day, so it’s a big business for us.”

The numbers are substantial. Across its national network, Emerald Carrying Company now delivers approximately 6.5 billion litres of fuel every year, a logistical task requiring hundreds of staff, constant scheduling precision and a highly dependable fleet.

“We’re going out to everywhere,” Matt says. “And when you’re doing that sort of volume, you’ve got to look after your customers.”

Despite its size, the company remains unmistakably family-run. Greg Haylock continues as Managing Director, while the third generation of Haylocks now fill key operational roles. Matt oversees fleet and general freight, younger brother, Ben runs fuel operations as the Group Operations Manager, and sister, Taylor heads up the role of Commercial Manager.

“It’s a real family enterprise,” Matt says. “Dad’s still the MD, I look after fleet and general freight, Ben handles fuel operations and Taylor’s on contracts. We all have our areas, but we all work together.”

Matt’s own progression into the business is one that mirrors many family transport stories – beginning at the very bottom.

“I’ve always been in the family business since I was a kid,” he says. “I started off washing trucks after school and hanging around the yard. Then I started driving them and doing general fleet, and eventually I moved into managing the business.”

That practical grounding remains important to the way he approaches fleet management today. Understanding what drivers deal with, how the equipment performs and what operational pressures exist on the ground gives him a perspective that cannot be learned from behind a desk.

While Emerald remains the birthplace of the company, Brisbane has served as its operational headquarters for the past few years, with the business run from its major depot at Lytton, near the Port of Brisbane.

“We’ve been based in Brisbane since 2018,” Matt says. “Lytton is where we have our headquarters — everything is run out of here.”

With depots across the country and interstate fuel being the company’s bread and butter, Matt explains the logic behind establishing Brisbane as the enterprise’s base.

“I get to these depots a lot that’s why I moved to Brisbane, making it easier to get around. My brother, Ben, is always away at one of the yards, he’s always on the go,” Matt says.

Despite being based in the Brisbane head office, Matt still feels the pull of the open road and the beauty of Emerald and the central highlands.

“I still like to get up to Emerald now and again and I like to do some driving, when required,” Matt says.

The Lytton site acts as the control centre for a rapidly expanded depot network that now stretches across Emerald, Brisbane, Gracemere, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Darwin. Every depot is supported by its own workshop and in-house mechanical team, a necessity when dealing with a fleet operating at such intensity.

“We use our own in-house mechanics, and every depot has a workshop,” Matt says. “That’s important because these trucks are working hard all the time. A lot of trucks have got two to three drivers, ones that run around the clock doing shift work.”

South of Brisbane, the Haylock footprint extends even further through Monaro Fuels, which services Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Port Augusta.

The Haylocks acquired Monaro in 2016 when it was running a handful of trucks. Since then, it has grown exponentially to a fleet of 70 prime movers.

“When we bought Monaro Fuels in 2016 it had six trucks,” Matt says. “Now it’s got 70, so that shows how much it’s grown.”

Combined with Emerald Carrying Company’s own fleet of around 130 trucks, the Haylocks’ businesses now manage close to 200 prime movers nationally and employ around 550 people, including roughly 450 full-time drivers.

“From my granddad’s day, it was just him and my grandma in Emerald,” Matt says. “Now it’s 450 drivers plus all the staff. That’s a huge wages bill. It’s grown a lot.”

That growth accelerated in the early 2000s as the company branched out into Rockhampton and Gracemere, strategically positioning itself to service the rapidly expanding mining regions of central Queensland. Fuel demand from resources projects soon created a natural and highly lucrative pathway for further expansion.

While the business has consistently scaled up, one constant has remained at the centre of its operations – Kenworth trucks.

Emerald Carrying Company recently marked the delivery of its 250th Kenworth, a T909, handed over at Brown and Hurley’s Brisbane Port branch just minutes from the Lytton headquarters. For the Haylock family, the milestone carries symbolic weight.

“My father bought the first Kenworth and that’s where it all sort of started,” Matt says. “So, to take delivery of our 250th is a pretty proud moment.”

Today the company runs virtually every major Kenworth model, from T909s and C509s to T659s, T610s, T410s and cab-over variants, carefully matching equipment to task.

“They’re just the best trucks — the power, the reliability, the resale, the after-sales service,” Matt says. “No matter what model it is, the Kenworth brand is just so reliable for us doing lots of mileage.”

And there is certainly plenty of mileage. Some of Emerald’s long-haul fuel units travel as much as 500,000 kilometres a year as they criss-cross the country servicing fuel contracts.

“With the trucks that do a lot of driving we change them every four or five years,” Matt says. “The general freight ones we can keep for 10 or 15 years, but it depends on what they’re used for.”

Supporting that fleet are supplier relationships the Haylocks regard as vital. Brown and Hurley has serviced Emerald’s Queensland operations since 2000, while Twin City Motors supports the Monaro side.

“They’ve all been fantastic and really look after us,” Matt says.

“We also have a great relationship with PACCAR for engines and parts, particularly Damian Smethurst, who is PACCAR Australia’s MD.”

Brown and Hurley Rockhampton Dealer Principal, Simon Graham, said he had been working with Emerald Carrying company for about the last 10 years, taking over the account which ramped up in the early 2000s.

“The company started off in Emerald and due to their growth, Brisbane now also heavily features in their plans. But I reckon Emerald will always be home to them,” Simon says.

“They use Kenworths almost exclusively these days due to the trucks’ reliability, service and also the after-sales support they get from the PACCAR dealership. We’re like a one-stop shop here. We do it all for them.

“PACCAR, with the Cummins brand, are in Emerald, Brisbane, Hobart and have a good reputation for looking after their customers and a strong network across Australia.”

For all the expansion, however, the Haylocks are adamant that the business’s success has never simply been about truck numbers or fuel volumes.

Customer service remains the central philosophy, closely followed by staff welfare.

“We’ve always grown up on customer service — you’ve got to look after your customers,” Matt says. “And as well as that, you’ve got to look after your staff. Without your staff, you can’t do the job.”

That culture, he believes, comes directly from the family head, Greg Haylock, whose no-frills approach still shapes the company.

“Dad is a very humble person,” Matt says. “He’ll still come in and mow lawns and stuff at the yard here, just because he likes doing it. He’s really hands-on.”

There is no corporate distance in the Haylock operation, no sense that management sits above the workforce. The family remains visible, practical and deeply involved — a trait inherited from modest beginnings.

“He’s had humble beginnings and he doesn’t think he’s any better than anyone else,” Matt says. “That sort of rubs off on us kids. We all have that same belief.”

For Matt, that legacy is never far from his mind.

Being part of the third generation is not simply about managing trucks and contracts; it is about preserving what his grandparents started and what his father transformed.

“Being a real family business makes us more aware of the legacy and what we need to do,” he says.

Nearly 60 years after one Emerald couple first took freight off the rail, Emerald Carrying Company now stands as one of the nation’s most significant fuel transport operators.

Despite the annual freight of billions of litres, the 200-truck fleet and the hundreds of employees, the business still runs on the same straightforward formula that built it in 1965 – work hard, stay humble, look after customers and look after your people.