PowerTorque spoke to Chris Perry, TR Group General Manager about the operation’s truck buying and selling strategy.
TR Group, (New Zealand’s largest heavy commercial vehicle rental and leasing company) has developed its rental and leasing operation based on eight to ten years worth of prior research before entering our market . Now, with some real world experience under its belt, and feedback from customers, it is developing its vehicle buying strategy for the Australian market.
The fleet consists of 150 or so prime movers, with another 150 already on order. There are also 50 or so curtain sider rigid trucks in place, most of which are 6×2 configuration with a 14 pallet capacity. The demand for these rigid models is currently outstripping supply.
According to Chris, the sweet spot to turn over a truck can vary from around the 400,000km mark to around 800,000km. It depends upon the kind of task the trucks have been handling. The main point to consider is reliability and minimising the risk of issues with the truck.
The decision to bring in the Fuso 510 prime movers is based around that reliability requirement. TR Group wanted a Japanese brand in the fleet, targeted at metro operations. The other prime movers are set up for line haul, but the business sees the Fuso as a specific metro prime mover.
“We’ve set the 510s up in the fleet as single trailer registrations,” says Chris. “Everything else in the fleet is B-double, but these are just single only, which we can change, if we need to. We had a look through the current offerings, and what we liked about the Fuso was the 510hp and 2500Nm of torque, the full safety pack with a Japanese cab. It’s really a Benz platform, which we already have, we have quite a few 510 Benzes in the fleet and, so far, they have been running well.
“We wanted a metro truck with as high horsepower as we could get and it met the brief. They are also a new model and we wanted to see how they go. The feedback on the ones we now have on the road has been positive. They haven’t hung around, they have hired out well, so far. We have customers waiting for them.
“Ultimately whenever we are looking at adding a new category or model to our rental fleet we have a lot of discussions with our customers around what they are looking for. It’s really important we are adding gear that is fit for purpose, cost effective and desirable from a safety and environmental perspective. That’s a really important part of our decision making process”
Covering the industry
TR Group’s experience saw the operation dealing with a lot more of the bigger operators in New Zealand, and developing the business in Australia has been a different experience.
“We are working with fleets across the board,” says Chris. “That was something we were really interested in getting to understand. We’ve got a lot of the big players in the industry who we supply a lot of gear to. We’ve got the top end of town, the 200-300 vehicle fleets, down through 100, 50 and tens, plus we have got the owner/driver contractors.
“It’s a real broad mix of customers, and it’s not something we target, it’s just how it is. It does change slightly in different states, and we are starting to work that out. It’s really is right across the board.”
This experience is informing TR Group’s plans for the growth of a national network, and moving outside of the Eastern seaboard will also be part of this process. Effective leasing needs to be supported throughout the country, so the leasing side of the business is expected to grow as the number of outlets around the country grows.
In the long term, the operation intends to have an outlet in capital cities around Australia. TR Group has made a commitment to its large corporate clients that it will have a national presence. Adelaide and Perth are already on the radar and Darwin may well follow. They are also looking at Far North Queensland.
