Brisbane transport company owner Geoff Bannerman says he moved to Cat Trucks because the downtime from a competitor brand was taking far too for his liking. A Gold painted Cat Truck CT630SC is now the flagship of Mid-Western Cargo, and Northern Transport Hire, contract tow operators, and truck-trailer hire service providers.
The purchase of the CT630SC with a 550hp Cat C15 15-litre engine came after an extended flirtation with the idea of going Cat.
It runs through an 18 speed Road Ranger transmission, has the luxury cab but still meets b-double specifications.
“I read in an American magazine about a trucking Company that ran a fleet of 650 vehicles that were predominantly Navistar. This was a deciding factor in coming over to Cat Trucks,” says Bannerman.
He first considered the purchase of a Cat Truck a couple of years ago but at that time he decided to go with a competitor, a decision that he has not been happy with in hindsight.
“So we went back to Cat Trucks and said we’d like to have another go at it. Our local Cat dealership Hastings Deering bent over backward to try to help us out, and we purchased the gold truck,” he says.
Bannerman got his first truck in 2000 and pushed out on his own. Based in southeast Queensland, that first truck used a Cat engine.
Bannerman says he was more than pleased with the engine’s performance and the service received from Hastings Deering.
“That engine ran more than 1,000,000 km in less than four years and did 1.6 million km before its first rebuild,” he says.
Today the Bannerman fleets have built up to 14 prime movers, with Mid-Western Cargo supplying units in tow contract operations with east coast fleets, and the Northern Transport Hire runs vehicles with refrigerated freight.
“We were satisfied with the CT630SC from the outset. Loaded heavy with fridge cargo, we ran it into Melbourne-Sydney and returned when we first got the truck and used 800 litres for the round trip, which was more than competitive with our other vehicles,” says Bannerman.
A significant factor in the decision to invest in the Cat Truck was the service he had been receiving from Hastings Deering – and the lack of service and repair turnaround times from the competition were taking too long.
“These fellas seem to want to look after you. It’s nice to receive a phone call when they say they are going to ring,” says Bannerman.
“The backup service from Hastings Deering here in Brisbane has been remarkable,” he says.
Bannerman says the new CT630SC is more than meeting his expectations.
“In the future, we will be swinging towards Cat Trucks. I’m more than satisfied with their products, and I can’t crow enough about the truck,” he says.
