Professional Vandals

In-depth

24 Aug

Shayne and Tammy Coffield make a living from tearing things down and taking them away. 'Professional Vandals' is an apt name for a trucking company involved in demolition work.

Based in Ballarat, the business has demolition contracts all over Victoria. As Tammy says, "We demolish anything and everything from outdoor toilets to factories. You name it we will do it."

Pride of their fleet of nine trucks is ‘The Punisher’ - a 1989 Kenworth T600. "It was originally a bright orange Toll truck - an express freight train - and it was really ugly. And I mean totally gross! So we had to repaint. It had no interior either so we really had to start from scratch. We like to think we got a bit creative along the way. For example, she has a reserve 'fuel' tank that would be the envy of many a driver."

**A reserve tank every good truck should have**

When asked if the 'reserve tank' was her idea, Tammy laughed. "Gotta look after the man in your life!"

Here is a girl who is proud of their vehicles

“I come up with the great, and sometimes expensive ideas and Shane pays the bills. For example, I think we should put flames and skulls on the trucks – and spend heaps of money. The skulls are speaker covers as well. They glow in the dark. Macabre - but looks great!"

**‘Punisher’ interior. Yep, I’m envious.**

The Coffield's are Kenworth fans - Shayne said he wouldn't drive a Mack, because if he wanted to look up a dogs arse all day he'd have been a vet.

That said, he did purchase a Mack at one stage. “I came across it on Grays On-line and it was going cheap. It also happened to be a water truck and we figured we needed something like that to keep the dust down on demolition sites, which would keep the neighbours happy. I must admit that it wasn’t a bad little truck. We cleaned it up but then someone came along and offered us more than we paid for it and… well, business is business.”

**The Mack eventually found a more loving home**

There also used to be a Volvo under the Professional Vandals banner as well, called ‘The Viking’ for obvious reasons. The Viking came to a sad end,” said Shayne. “On a work site at a quarry and there were two roads (tracks) in front of the driver – one going uphill and the other straight ahead. He put a tyre on each track and she went arse over head. Was only doing 4.4kph according to the GPS. Such is life. Must say she was a good looking beast with her Viking helmets and all.”

There’s also another T600 – ‘Dr. Doom’ which we've had for a few years now. Originally the trucks were green, then we painted them in red and white. They looked flash at first but demolition work knocks them around over the years. They needed new paint jobs, so we went back to the green.

Why choose green?

"I could say we were trying to save the planet. We could say it was environmentally friendly. But no – it's the colour of envy. Hence the name Professional Vandals."

Shayne is a third generation demolition contractor. His grandfather was the first of the breed in Ballarat. He bought a tractor at 14 and started the business as a sideline. Shayne was driving an excavator as a three-year-old, sitting on his dad's knee. Son, Wurth seems to be following in his forebears footsteps. Wurth is indeed named after Kenworth – with the intentional typo error.

**A young Wurth dreaming of the future**

"Before Wurth could talk, he was having a go at the guys in the excavators – pointing at them as if to say "Get out of my machine." He always wanted to be in the truck with me. I remember when he was in Grade 1 and I’d say, ‘You're going to school today.’

‘Nope, I'm going with you, dad.’

**At 15, Wurth is a dab hand with the excavator**

At 15 now, Wurth still seems intent on joining in the family business. “It was Wurth who named Dr. Doom (who is green). I wanted it to be ‘Poison Ivy’, but hey, gotta keep the family happy.”

The fleet also includes a K104 flat roof and a Scania hook-lift truck. There’s plenty of work on smaller sites and a FUSO twin-steer takes care of hard to get in places. “Wherever the work is – that’s where we go. The colour scheme and presentation has been important for us. I’ve had a number of calls where the client has asked if we’re the mob with the green trucks. They’re rolling advertisement for the business. It sticks in people’s minds.”

Given where the trucks work, keeping them looking good is a tall order but the Coffield's manage to do it admirably. "It takes a lot of hours but we love them to look good - it's a reflection of the business and the pride we take in what we do."