Urban Legend

The M in the BMD acronym stands for Founder and Group Board Chairman Mick Power AM.

The B is for his sister Beverley and her husband Bevin who were both originally partners in the business, and the D for Mick’s wife Denise.

Now considered Australia’s leading integrated engineering, construction and urban development business, BMD, over its 45-year-history has grown to become a $2 billion operation that now shares its expertise internationally in the Philippines and the United Kingdom.

Nigel Scott is the National Fleet Manager based at BMD’s office in Brisbane and looks after the company’s vehicles in every state and territory including just under 1,000 light commercial utes.

The changes in the Australian commercial vehicle landscape are emphasised by the fact that when Nigel commenced at BMD, some three years ago, the total vehicle count was around 1,100 units, of which approximately 900 were Holden Colorado utes.

The withdrawal of the Holden brand means there are no longer any Colorados in the fleet which currently totals just over 1,500 vehicles, showing a growth of around ten per cent year-on-year.

This also translates to the arrival of approximately 30 new vehicles every month and a corresponding 30 being replaced.

A principle of BMD’s fleet management is that the organisation sources and disposes of its various vehicles internally, with long-term partnerships built with Brisbane dealerships such as Sci-Fleet for its Toyota and Hino requirements, and Barton’s for the Hyundai, Nissan and Mitsubishi brands. Sci-Fleet delivered BMD its 100th Hino in 2024, demonstrating the enduring relationship built over 35 years of being in business together.

BMD’s fleet currently includes around 75 Hino 300 Series factory tippers, most of which are car licence rated 616 models. There are a couple of 716 models which have slightly higher GVMs and require a Light Rigid licence, plus a Hino 500 Series water truck.

One Hino is equipped with a truck-mounted crane and used to deliver steel reinforcing mesh. Other than the water truck, there are no heavy vehicles in the fleet. If one of BMD’s 50-tonne excavators requires relocating, a low loader operator is contracted.

Similarly, if a portable site office needs to be moved, a tilt tray from a tow truck company is engaged. BMD did consider obtaining its own car carrier at one point, but with cars and light commercials being despatched to various locations right across Australia, several would have been needed which didn’t reflect BMD’s focus on its core activities of construction and development.

The Hino 300 Series has proved to be a good fit for the overall operation.

“Most of our people are construction workers, not truck drivers, and we can basically switch a driver out of a Toyota ute and put them straight into a Hino,” explains Nigel, who has a preference for fully automatic transmissions over automated manual transmissions (AMT) citing a higher level of driver familiarity with torque converter transmissions which also deliver an advantage on slippery building sites.

“A 4×4 version would be good sometimes depending upon what site they are on. Dependent on the weather and ultimately the conditions of the site, they do get stuck occasionally,” Nigel says.

“We utilise crew cabs which can be handy on site to move team members from A to B.”

All Hino servicing is carried out by Sci-Fleet on an as-needed basis rather than on a maintenance contract.

“Everything is electronic now with requirements for actions such as software updates so we don’t do our own servicing on the Hino trucks,” says Nigel.

BMD actually has its own licenced motor dealership, Better Motor Deals (another BMD), which specialises in the sale of the BMD Group’s ex-company vehicles.

BMD also has a half share in East Coast Commercials, located in Acacia Ridge, which also facilitates passing ex-company vehicles onto their next owners.

The majority of vehicles on sale, including Hino trucks, are three to five years old and have certified service history logbooks which makes them an attractive proposition for the buying public.

“We set the residual and we know what these units are going to be worth at the end of their initial working life,” adds Nigel.

The COVID pandemic created challenges in vehicle supply across the world and to address this BMD extended the leases on many of its then-current vehicles for an additional year.

Following the pandemic, the decision was made to turn them over but due to the continuing extended delivery times, models such as Nissan Navara, Toyota Hilux and Isuzu Utes were sourced from dealers who were able to supply from their stock.

By late 2024 the fleet is now back to its regular replacement cycles where the main replacement criteria is vehicle condition.

“We do look at the kilometres but condition can be a big factor with small tippers because they do get knocked around working on sites,” notes Nigel.

The current replacement cycle generally sees management vehicles changed at three years, utes at four years and the Hino trucks are typically changed over at five years.

A Hino tipper in good condition may even be held for an additional two years because they spend most of their time idling on construction sites rather than travelling.

“I’ve had some of the Hino trucks handed back in after seven years and they might have only done 50,000 kilometres,” says Nigel.

“A challenge can be just maintenance due to the way they can be based on site so servicing can be sometimes overlooked.”

This is a part of the reason all trucks are equipped with GPS trackers which also track the hours of operation to ensure servicing can be scheduled accordingly.

“But compared with our vehicles doing high kilometres we don’t see many issues,” Nigel adds.

BMD has a concentrated focus on growth and sustainability, recognising its responsibility to minimise environmental impact while maximising the positive contributions and enduring legacies it can make to communities.

BMD works closely with clients and supply chain partners to reduce carbon emissions and has introduced the use of electric vehicles and charging stations to many of its site operations.

BMD has trialled some Electric Vehicle (EV) trucks from SEA Electric which were based on Hino 300 Series cab chassis but at around three times the price of a diesel equivalent the sums just don’t add up at the moment.

The Hino Series 300 Electric Hybrid is being considered but as it is not yet available as a factory tipper, the extended time currently required to have a local body built and installed is a barrier.

The nature of the typical BMD application essentially precludes a full EV as the trucks spend most of their working life on construction sites where the electricity grid doesn’t become generally available until towards the very end of the project.

“It’s fantastic to see the number of hybrid vehicles coming to market, and BMD is focused on incorporating hybrid options across our fleet to align with the government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES),” says Nigel.

“I’m hoping a hybrid light commercial ute comes out soon in addition to the current EV options.”

The hybrids, according to Nigel, would be great as a tipper option.

“The ability to use fuel is vital for our vehicles which can operate on remote site locations,” he says. “We are always looking into what’s coming up so that we can continue to integrate sustainable options which is a core to our business strategy.”

The BMD Group is recognised for its innovative approach to construction and development and the same can be said about the management of its ever-expanding in-house vehicle fleet.