The green trucks of Fred’s Interstate Transport have been a familiar sight across Australia’s east coast for the past 40 years.

Fred’s is now into its third generation as a family-run trucking operator, and is rolling on stronger than ever.

The Shepparton-based business is almost instantly recognisable by its fleet of green Kenworths, which run between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane direct to customer delivering goods like paper, soft drinks, building materials and everything inbetween.

Running around 60 B-doubles, they have been a staple of what is one of Victoria’s richest transport hubs, still on the same land since the business was started in 1978.

Founded by its namesake, Fred Borg, it hasn’t always been the powerhouse it is now today. Like many transport businesses, Fred’s came from humble beginnings, as PowerTorque learned from now CEO Danny Borg.

Fred’s son, Danny has been working in the family business since the early days, jumping into the operations side of Fred’s more than 35 years ago.

But the story begins with Danny’s parents, who founded the business more than 45 years ago after they worked on one of the local orchards for most of his childhood.

“We grew up out there as kids, my brother and I,” Danny says.

“Mum would pack fruit, and the old boy was running the cooler stores there.

“Like most orchards they ran their own trucks to move produce. In those days, it was 14, 18 Benzs, UDs, in a time pre-Kenworth and North American products really.”

It was in these very early days where Fred picked up his first ever customers, and gained experience managing a fleet of trucks. Working as the manager, he would take those lessons forward into his own venture.

Fred’s was almost born from chance, as the orchardist went out of business and needed their last bits of stock moved out. Luckily, Fred Borg was up for the task for the next nine months with the help from another local operator.

“After that, dad went out and bought his first Kenworth,” Danny says.

“That was really the start of Fred’s as you know it today. Some of those accounts we still do today, and some of them have been through about five ownership changes.

“There’s a lot of people we’ve worked with through the journey, which was how the business ran for a long time.”

Those early days came with their significant challenges, with new legislation allowing for the introduction of B-doubles to Australian trucking fleets.

This meant significant purchasing of new trailers, as well as the expansion of the land Fred’s stands on in order to fit them all.

“Before this depot the old boy had a yard around the corner, with three or four trucks,” Danny says.

“We built the house out the front and it’s only expanded as the fleet has gotten bigger. We’ve continued to buy land off the farm behind us.”

This was where Danny first came into the business, helping brother Grant and dad Fred with the massive logistical task of converting the fleet from bogie drive to B-double.

It came at a good time, as Fred’s moved to what is now its iconic fleet of Kenworths.