Featured, Operators

A Successful Refrigerated Transport Business

a successful refrigerated transport business

Joe Joseph, Managing Director of JD Refrigerated Transport, has been growing a successful refrigerated transport business, including a line-haul B-double operation.

There are also six 22-pallet semi-trailers in the fleet, and they are a mixture of MaxiCUBE and FTE and Joe reckons that he is equally satisfied with both brands and the service provided by their respective Brisbane dealerships. 

Common features on both brands of trailer include BPW axles and suspension, another product of which Joe is keen to sing the praises as a non-negotiable for him.

a successful refrigerated transport business

“I don’t have a transport background and I’m not mechanically minded, but I do have a simple philosophy for our equipment purchases that we partner with the best suppliers to ensure our equipment is second to none in terms of reliability and uptime,” says Joe. “When I was first looking to buy trailers, I spoke with a few experienced operators who each focussed in on certain components that they deemed the best ones to have, and unanimously BPW axles and suspension was one of them. That was good enough for me.

“All of our trucks and trailers are under full service and maintenance contracts and with the trailers we also do preventative maintenance on a monthly or bi-monthly basis which includes cosmetic maintenance to ensure they are always looking their best. As I previously mentioned, we take a lot of pride in the appearance of our fleet.”

While the prime movers are serviced by the dealers, Iceman at Murarrie is responsible for the trailer and fridge maintenance and according to Joe is doing an excellent job.

He says that while his past preference has been for Thermo King fridge plants, he has recently acquired 10 new heavy rigid Isuzu trucks fitted with Carrier fridges.

Equally high on Joe’s priority list is the safety of his drivers and the general public, and it’s for this reason that, as a member of the Queensland Trucking Association, JD Refrigerated Transport signed up to the Eyes on Fatigue project last year.

Initially the company had two trucks fitted with the Guardian fatigue management technology from Seeing Machines for evaluation purposes.

a successful refrigerated transport business

“These trucks have forward-facing, sideview and rear cameras,” says Joe. “Following the successful trial we have fitted them across the entire line-haul fleet and to some of the local trucks also.”

Joe explains that apart from the obvious safety and insurance benefits, the company can monitor the trucks at the point of delivery.

“For instance, if a truck is at a supermarket DC and we don’t know exactly where it is, then we pull up one of the cameras and watch the vehicle backing onto the dock,” says Joe.

a successful refrigerated transport business

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