Truck Moves Australia has carved an essential niche for itself in the country’s road transport industry.
For the last 37 years, the business has built a reputation as a leading heavy-vehicle moving specialist, relocating trucks for fleet managers, dealers and a myriad of other stakeholders, with great success.
Among this extensive list of customers is international manufacturer, Varley Group. Established in Tomago, New South Wales, with a notable presence in the United States, the company is both a veteran and a behemoth in the world of transport.
Since 1886, it has boasted a broad product portfolio ranging from specialised vehicles to rail maintenance services and defence, and in more recent years, has further extended this value proposition to include in-service support for maritime defence and cybersecurity.
Today, these manufacturing capabilities continue to grow across all 12 of Varley Group’s facilities throughout both Australia and the US, being upheld by over 1200 employees. Among this network is a manufacturing hub in Tomago, NSW, which builds transport solutions for a variety of customers.
“I’ve been with Varley in Tomago for eight years, and have worked in the vehicles section of the business for the last five,” said Varley Specialised Vehicles Global Supply Officer, Craig Mitchell.
“I’ve seen a significant change to this division, in terms of the volume of trucks that we’re building and sending off.
“We’ve always supplied our builds to the same group of customers, but their orders have become significantly larger.”
These orders are spread amongst various contracts — two of which are for the NSW Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS) and Fire & Rescue NSW (FRNSW).
“We build a number of emergency service vehicles for them,” Mitchell continued. “Our output is one vehicle per week for both RFS CAT variants, so we’re always working.”
Both groups have specifically commissioned Varley Group to build multiple vehicles types — RFS with the CAT 1 and CAT 7 — which are Isuzu FTS 139-260s and NPS 75-155s, respectively.
As these RFS trucks are deployed around the Greater NSW area for fire-related emergencies — Glendenning for the NSWRFS and Greenacre for the FRNSW — they have been transported to their customers by Truck Moves Australia for the last 13 years.
“As soon as we finish building our emergency vehicles, members from Truck Moves Australia will pick them up from our Tomago site and drive them to the customers,” Mitchell said.
“These aren’t the longest drives, but they’re still obviously critical for our contracts.”
Despite taking one hour and 48 minutes to drive from Tomago to Glenndenning, and one hour and 53 minutes to drive from Tomago to Greenacre, it is essential that the emergency vehicles are driven with the utmost care and precision.
But this is par for the course for the team at Truck Moves Australia.
“The guys at Truck Moves do their jobs with such exemplary diligence and attention to detail,” said Mitchell.
“This is present in every part of the process. From the paperwork they do, to the cross-referencing of the vehicles’ identification numbers, any documentation they’re presenting, and of course, the actual driving and delivery of the vehicles to customers.
“They always ensure that the trucks are kept in the same condition that they were picked up in.”
The thoroughness of Truck Moves Australia’s operations is one of various business values that the heavy-vehicle mover shares with Varley Group. These similarities have been a large contributing factor to their partnership’s decade of success.
“We know that for both us and Truck Moves, safety always comes first,” Mitchell said. “This is why we trust them to deliver our emergency vehicles. We know that they ensure the safety of their own drivers, our trucks and other road users during deliveries.
“Along with this focus, they fully commit to their customers, which we do as well. So this means that they provide us with the highest quality of care, so that we can provide that same quality of care to our contracts.”
In addition to this quality of care, Mitchell praised Truck Moves Australia for its operational flexibility throughout every step of the partnership, as work may not always go to plan.
“The flexibility that the Truck Moves guys have for our manufacturing is another huge advantage,” he said.
“There are the rare times when plans need to be shifted, or schedules must be changed, at a moment’s notice. But in spite of this, the crew still rocks up and gets the job done without any problems.”
Given the tried-and-true nature of Varley Group’s collaboration with Truck Moves Australia, Mitchell expects the partnership will continue for at least the foreseeable future.
“We have been delighted with the quality of service that Truck Moves has brought to our operations,” he said.
“As it stands, we are certainly looking to continue this relationship with them.”
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