MACK is the 500th for Karreman

News

8 Oct

Taking delivery of your 500th truck is a pretty big deal, even when you’ve been in business for as long as Dick Karreman. Mack Trucks bearing Karreman Quarries name are a familiar sight on Brisbane’s roads. The Mount Cotton based company provides road base for projects across South East Queensland.

Dick and his brother, Maarten Karreman, ventured into business back in 1970, leasing equipment, transporting produce and sand mining. The brothers started operating out of the Mount Cotton site in 1976.

The company’s 500th truck was clearly going to be something special. The gold 100 year Mack Trident certainly fits the bill for such an important milestone.

“We bought our first Mack in 1974 and we never looked back,” said Dick. “Fundamentally, the fact that they are built here Australia is part and parcel of our decision to buy Mack.

“We build new crushing plants, and we build them ourselves, we source the steel here, we source the engineering here. Those basic principles, that support our own – namely the fact that it can be built in Queensland - that’s fundamentally the Mack story and our relationship with the brand. They’ve been great servants to us, and we’d like to think that it’s been a partnership that goes both ways.”

The Trident truck and dog combination has been a mainstay of the Karreman fleet for many years, however, PBS has only added to the efficiencies of the business both in terms of fuel and productivity. “Everything we run is PBS, we’re getting 57.5 tonnes gross, and we are getting 40 tonne payloads. That’s unheard of, when you compare it to a B-double and other combinations, that’s the best payload you are going to get out of a vehicle. PBS is the best way to go economically, for value and productivity.”

“This truck is a serious milestone for me personally,” muses Dick. “We never set out to go buy 500 Macks, I’m surprised I’ve lived long enough to see it!”

Dick Karreman recalls a conversation he had with a pioneering Mack operator as a young bloke in Western Queensland, “There was a guy called Des Stevenson who owned Cubbie Station, and he used to run doubles with fresh produce to Darwin.

“Des said to me, what’s your dream? What’s your goal? I replied that I want one of those B61 Macks one day. Thirty odd years later I get invited to lunch with Des and we hadn’t seen each other for well over 25 years. He asks, ‘Did you ever get to own that Mack, son?’

“I said yeah, we got a few - about 40 of them.”

The Karreman fleet now numbers 100 trucks on the road, as the family business continues to forge ahead with a new generation stepping in to take the helm. “I never dreamt I’d see it.”

To highlight both the strong relationship with the Volvo Group - as well as the pursuit of efficiency and productivity - the business has also just added 3 Volvo L260H wheel loaders to the fleet. “They brought this one out and I said, you’ve now got it right,” Dick says of the new loaders. “Fuel consumption from the previous competitor brand loaders went from 60 litres an hour to 16 litres an hour!”