Roads to Recovery

News

22 July

It has been a rough few years on Australian roads, between the pandemic, fires, floods and other natural disasters. On the east coast, Queensland and New South Wales were hit particularly hard in 2022 with severe flooding and it impacted many families and many family-run businesses.

One such business was Rogers Transport, currently based in the Brisbane suburb of Rocklea.

In 2022 the family-run operation bore the brunt of damaging flooding throughout Brisbane, losing no less than 26 trucks in their fleet during the event that inundated much of Southeast Queensland and New South Wales.

“We had about three and a half meters of water through the truck depot, and we lost 26 trucks in total, about half of those were rigids and the other half were prime movers. It's taken us a while to get back on our feet,” said Rogers Transport’s Rocklea based General Manager of Operations Brad Rogers.

Under normal circumstances the business offers a range of freight and logistics services including container movement, warehousing, local distribution and interstate freight transport. The business runs a large fleet of trucks including eight Isuzu FV Series 6x2 models.

Family Affair

Founded by Gary and Val Rogers over three decades ago, the successful freight and transport business moves hardware and paint supplies up and down the southeast coast.

Brad is the second generation of Rogers to take up a key role within the popular transport operation.

Brad grew up under the tutelage of his hard-working parents and is familiar with trucking and what it takes to keep the fleet on the road and drivers happy and satisfied.

“We've been purchasing trucks from Brisbane Isuzu for decades. They helped us after the floods. We lost probably 15 rigid trucks, so Brisbane Isuzu moved quickly to assist us, we've recently taken delivery of six F Series Isuzu trucks, and we've got another six on order.

Swiftly securing new trucks to continue servicing their long-term clients has made a world of difference for a business that prides itself on reliability and attention to detail.

“The wait times for trucks is ordinarily 12 to 18 months but Brisbane Isuzu were able to secure some within about four months; it’s a huge help and its turning things around for our customers too!”

New and Improved

With four FVL 240-300 Freightpacks and four FVM 230-300 Freightpacks on the road around the clock, the company introduced a ‘one driver one truck’ policy which meant that each driver is solely responsible for the truck they operate.

It has been a huge success so far, seeing truck drivers take pride in the Isuzu F Series they pilot, with reduced mechanical and maintenance issues and next to no problems when it comes to upkeep, cleanliness and presentation.

“Rogers Transport drivers love their Isuzu trucks. They're comfortable, they're straight forward to use, they're easy to work with, there's plenty of parts available for them, and the reliability's great,” Brad said.

“We've got a couple with over a million kilometres still running with original engines. Isuzu engines have excellent performance and longevity.

“The trucks with a million kilometres are the first ones we bought over 15 years ago and they are in fantastic working condition. We’re big on our preventative maintenance and servicing - to look after all our trucks - no matter their age.

“All our servicing is done in-house by the team here and we use genuine parts from Brisbane Isuzu. Parts are always readily available and if there’s a delay it's because the parts are on a truck up from Sydney or Melbourne and we’ll have them within a day or two.”

Adding further efficiencies, the latest F Series models to join the fleet came with some changes and upgrades that the team has had to adapt to.

“The new trucks all have automatic transmissions,” Brad noted.

“It was a change at first, but the guys are loving them. They're loving the new AV unit and the creature comforts that Isuzu offers.”

“Swapping to the Allison Automatic was due to availability initially, but the feedback from the guys has been great. They love them, so we've continued to spec the new trucks with automatics.

“It's simpler to have an Auto when driving through traffic these days, the roads in Brisbane are only getting busier and busier.

“These trucks service anywhere from Tweed Heads to Noosa and up to Toowoomba. While this part of the fleet is mainly local, the guys do get out on a longer run, on occasion.”

There are big things in the works for Rogers Transport outside of the F Series fleet expansion.

The company is also moving into a huge, purpose-built facility in the Port of Brisbane, which consolidates their three locations into one depot with a wealth of storage and room for expansion.

“We've just signed a lease on a new facility out at the Port, so we're going to amalgamate all our three sites. It's an exciting time for us, with 55,000 square meters of yard!

“There will be roughly 18,000 square meters of storage and a huge container storage area.”

Last year might have had some rough patches for the Rogers Transport family, but things have turned around for the better with a well-specified Isuzu F Series fleet on hand and processes in place to move into a new location this year.

“Isuzu tick so many boxes for us that we aren’t looking at competitors, because we already operate with the best in the business. We want to continue our fleet expansions with Isuzu Trucks and Brisbane Isuzu because they have proven time and again to be relied upon.”