Buying Four Cat Trucks sequentially is proving to be a winning quinella for a Brisbane-based container haulage operator.
Over the past two years, Wynnum Haulage has invested in the Cat Trucks, one at a time as each predecessor proved itself.
The Wynnum Haulage Cat fleet includes two Cat CT610 day cab models powered by CT13 litre engines rated at 475hp, with 18 speed Eaton Road Ranger transmissions and RT46 160 drive axles on HAS460 suspension.
There are also two Cat CT630 variants with different cab setups powered by 15-litre C15 Cat engines rated at 550hp.
Wynnum Haulage is owned and managed by Paul ‘Buddh’ and Tina Bailey, based in the dock area of Brisbane with a business office in the suburb of Wynnum.
With eleven trucks in the fleet plus container-lift machinery, the company moves boxes from the dock to storage sheds to clients and with occasional longer runs to deliver containers to destinations.
Early morning starts see the Cat Trucks on Brisbane’s roads and motorways distributing containers just unloaded from ships in the container terminal to a multitude of destinations.
Buddh Bailey says the best thing about the Cat Trucks is their dependability.
“I can count on the Cat Trucks, I have not had to touch them, and we’ve had a good run with them,” he says of the two CT610s and two CT630s.
Bailey reckons he is particularly pleased with the 13-litre CT610s with their balance of fuel economy and dependability, but he says he has been blown away by the power and torque of the 15-litre C15 engines in the CT630s.
“The C15s are brilliant; the torque is just amazing. When I brought one up from Melbourne as a b-double, I put a good load on it, and it wanted more,” says Bailey.
“No matter what you throw at it, it just gets up and performs. It will pull up the Gateway Bridge in top gear with a heavy load on board. Unbelievable,” he says.
Bailey says he took a CT610 Cat Truck on trial thinking he’d get a couple of weeks free work.
But he and the drivers liked the truck so much, “We asked the finance bloke what he could do, and it went from there,” he says.
The Wynnum Haulage operation is a family affair with Bailey’s wife Tina heading up the three-person admin and office side of the business while he keeps the trucks rolling.
Organising an 11 truck fleet in a mostly short-haul operation can be complex. The drivers have a rolling start time, with trucks heading out between three and five o’clock in the morning.
“I try to turn them around with an empty box for de-hiring,” says Bailey.
“The more we deliver, the more money we make for the day so we have to keep them going. The name of the game is prioritising freight in the yard,” he says.
The first new Cat Truck came into the fleet two years ago, followed six months later by the first CT630. Two more Cat acquisitions followed.
With the trucks running predominantly in urban industrial areas, this is not a high-mileage vocation. The CT630 running in a b-double application is six months old and has knocked up 40,000 kilometres.
“That truck has had a few trips away, I like to get it on a longer run at least once a month to give it a bit of a clean out,” says Bailey.
“I expect it will do about 100,000 clicks per year,” he says.
