Kreskas Bros Cascadia Experience

In-depth

16 Aug

Anyone travelling the Goulburn Valley Highway from Shepparton will at some stage pass a Kreskas Bros Transport truck hauling a container or two from there to (or from) Melbourne.

Living in Mooroopna, just across the river from Shepp, and traversing that stretch of road on a semi-daily basis, I could lay good money on seeing one of their distinctive liveried trucks nearly every time I head into town.

The Goulburn Valley produces more than 25 per cent of Victoria’s food output, including vast amounts of fruit, vegetables, meat and milk, and much of it is exported. This huge demand is one of the reasons that Kreskas Bros Transport is the largest road carrier of shipping containers between the Port of Melbourne and regional Victoria, and hence why I see them so often.

In the five plus years I’ve lived here 90% of those containers would have a Kenworth cab over in front of them – the other 10% with maybe a Western Star or Mercedes Actros. Then, in late 2019 one of their Doubles passed me with a Freightliner Cascadia 126 doing the hauling work. This was just months after the truck’s Australian launch.

Kreskas first experience with the Cascadia came about when the late John McCarroll, an industry icon and longtime friend of the Kreskas Bros team, took on a central role in the Australian test program for the new Freightliner.

**The late John McCarroll with the testbed Cascadia at Kreskas yard**

Johnno drove a Cascadia test unit B-Double five days a week for 18 months and stored it overnight at the Kreskas Bros yard.

“This gave us the opportunity to have a close look at the Cascadia before it even went on the market,” said Kevin Mutton, Fleet Transport Manager for the company. “One of the first things that stood out was the comfort of the bonneted truck with its spacious 48-inch sleeper cap and the latest ergonomic interior design.

“Anyone who gets behind the wheel will tell you how comfortable they are to drive, and keeping our drivers comfortable is very important to us, they spend a lot of time in the truck, so that is a really big positive.”

Another thing to stand out early was the excellent fuel consumption.

“It was clear that this is a very efficient truck,” said Kev.” With Johnno’s involvement and feedback, and the fact the truck was sitting in our yard, it didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that we should get one on board.”

In 2021 I was at the Castlemaine Truck Show when this very same rig pulled in – possibly the first to appear at a truck show. The man with the truck was Jason Buis, the workshop manager for Kreskas. Jason had been with Kreskas for 11 years - driving for six years and in the workshop for the past five, so knows trucks.

“It is a beautiful truck to drive, very comfortable and no rattles. Freightliner has come of age,” he enthused at the time, echoing the comments made by Kevin Mutton.

Unable to help themselves though, the business added a couple of modifications to the truck, primarily in regard to the tanks. “We modified the tanks so it looks like a quad system, said Jason. “Our engineering shop got hold of a couple of old Benz tanks – keeping it in the (Daimler) family -chopped them up and modified them. It looks like quads and is something totally different, filling the space between the cab and rear axles.”

Kreskas experience with that first Cascadia was obviously a good one because now the company has added a further two of Freightliner’s finest to the fleet.

“After 290,000km we can say the Cascadia is clearly the most fuel efficient truck in our fleet,” said Kev. “Then there’s the safety features that are standard on the Cascadia. There’s a radar and camera-based Advanced Emergency Braking System (AEBS) that can automatically detect, and fully brake for, moving pedestrians in addition to vehicles. There’s a radar-based adaptive cruise control system and a lane departure warning system in addition to Electronic Stability Program and a driver airbag.”

Kreskas Brothers Transport General Manager, Adam Katsoutas joined in to explain why these integrated active safety systems are important.

“Safety is paramount for our team at Kreskas Bros Transport, so the kind of safety features in the Cascadias are very welcome. It’s all about protecting our drivers and the wider community.”

The Cascadia has also proved reliable, which is especially important in the container haulage business where deadlines are rock solid.

“It hasn’t missed a beat,” said Kevin. “So adding two more to the fleet was a pretty easy decision.”

The Kreskas Bros Cascadias are under Daimler Truck service contracts, which ensure they are maintained at a Daimler Truck dealership by factory-trained technicians using genuine parts.

Like that first Cascadia, the two new units are 126 48-inch sleeper models running the advanced 16-litre Detroit DD16 pumping out 600hp and 2050lb/ft. The DD16 meets the GHG17 emission standard, which is stricter than Euro 6, and far cleaner than the currently-mandated Euro 5 engines in many other new trucks.

The Kreskas Bros Cascadias also use the Detroit 12-speed fully automated manual (AMT) transmissions that are able to predict the terrain it is travelling over to save fuel. Using GPS and topographical data to determine when it can best change gear - or even select neutral and coast - to make the most of the terrain and save as much fuel as possible, is a feature of this system.

So now Kreskas have three Cascadia’s tripping the light fandango between the Goulburn Valley and the Port. Johnno’s words of enthusiasm about his ‘project’ back in 2018/19 have paid off for a company equally enthused by Freightliner’s latest offering.