From Bordertown to Cairns with Mack: That’s the BHT Way.

In-depth

13 Feb

Since Peter Karger started Bordertown Haulage and Trading (BHT) in 1980, Macks have been an integral part of the company’s operations, which extend as far afield as Esperance in Western Australia and Townsville in north Queensland. BHT’s tippers and drop deck flat tops deliver grain, hay, gypsum, gravel and general freight country-wide.

Peter’s son, Angus Karger took over the business in 2006 and declares Macks have been around his whole life.

“I joined the business in 1982 - the day I was born,” said Angus. “There’s a picture of me when I was a baby, standing in Dad’s old R600 with my hands on the steering wheel, so I was probably always going to get a Mack myself. They’re in the DNA.”

Even though, it was not a snap decision. Angus said the company had tried trucks from a range of other manufacturers, but consistently found them to be unreliable, expensive to maintain, or simply out of date when it came to technology.

When Mack introduced models that had disc brakes and the mDRIVE automated manual gearbox as standard, the decision made itself.

“We’re only a small family business,” continued Angus. “But we’ve always been all-in on safety. We started out early with putting disc brakes on our trailers, and we were always looking for automatics, so when Mack brought out the Super-Liner it fitted our requirements perfectly.”

He hasn’t looked back, acquiring two more Super-Liners, including one of the Centenary models, all of them maintained through Mack service agreements.

“I’m a diesel mechanic, but I know my limitations,” said Angus with a grin. “I do look after a couple of the old trucks, but Mack do all our servicing, and that’s one reason I reckon they’re so reliable. I like that Mack take responsibility for the whole truck, there’s none of ‘that’s someone else’s problem’ stuff.”

After growing up in the house that still sits in the front of the depot, Angus went to boarding school, then joined the army in 2000, where he trained as a diesel mechanic. After six years of service that included a stint in Afghanistan, he came back and joined the family business in 2006.

We guess this explains why, besides the Super-Liners, there’s one more Mack in the fleet - a 6x6 ex-army tipper he bought at auction, still in its camouflage paint.

“Yeah, I’d had my eye on it for a while, and one day it was up for auction so I took the opportunity, fixed it up and got it registered.”

While the tipper is used mostly locally, the other Macks roam far and wide.

“We’ve got them set up as PBS A-Doubles and a PBS rigid five-axle dog, so we can handle a pretty wide range of loads.”

A typical BHT journey – in a Mack of course - could be from the depot in Bordertown, just inside South Australia near the Victorian border, to somewhere reasonably local like Geelong, or as far away as north Queensland.

“We’ve always had a lot of work coming in and out of Brisbane,” said Angus. “A truck could be away for a day or two weeks, it all depends on the job.

“I like that these trucks come out of Brisbane. They’re Australian-made and that’s pretty rare these days. Mack have made it easy for us too, they know what we need and they make sure when we order a new one that it’s got the same specs as the last. There’s no surprises, and we know we can rely on them.”

Keep an eye out for one of BHT’s distinctive Macks anywhere from Bordertown to Cairns. Like so many others, Angus and his team are keeping Australia moving.