Truck & Bus: The Marshall Family - A Journey

In-depth

17 July

When Peter Marshall was born, his parents, Ken and Helen were farmers. It is a fair jump from dairy at Finley, to forging a successful business at Moruya on the NSW South Coast. It’s an even bigger jump when you discover how the family got to where they are today.

IN THE BEGINNING

When Peter was 13 Ken and Helen bundled him and older brother Wayne up and moved to Gubbata, a speck on the map in the middle of NSW. If you’d like to find it, leave Sydney and head west for 574 Km to Griffith, then hang a right and go north for another 120 KM. That Ken and Helen found the town, much less a viable business there would be a story within itself.

In 1976, the Marshall’s became the proud owners of a bulk fuel depot, the local post office/telephone exchange and Gubbata Bus Lines which consisted of a Hi-Ace school bus to deliver the 13 schoolchildren to and fro each day, and a commuter bus running daily to Lake Cargelligo. In fact, add in the Marshall’s home, the town hall and the public school and there you have Gubbata in its entirety.

Peter’s job at 13 was to operate the telephone exchange. In 1976 the town must have been one of the last in Australia to have the old boards and leads to plug in and connect the various parties (and party lines).

“We had to do Morse code to the different farms to get their attention,” recalls Peter who otherwise spent his time riding horses, motorbikes, shooting and playing footy. And of course chasing women as he got older. “It was a wonderful life.”

BEHIND THE WHEEL

Leaving school at 17, Peter worked part time for the family as well as on a nearby farm. Gaining his bus and HC truck licences, the family work became full time, with Peter spending most of his driving behind the wheel of the fuel tanker which was the big earner.

“I drove large trucks for years carting fuel around. Back in those days we had an old International, then dad bought a brand-new Hino eight tonner. Killed my shoulders and buggered my neck - no power steering. But it was a fantastic truck.”

“Of course we used to run a little bit overloaded. I remember dad got booked 56% overloaded in West Wyalong one day. He had 12 ½ ton on an 8 ton truck. Shows what a good truck they were and how over-engineered. Three months later he was pulled up again and was 12% over. Appearing in court he said to the judge, “I was trying to do the right thing. The RTA inspector told me that I’d be alright if I stayed less than 10% over and I only misjudged by 2%. I mean, what’s 2% between friends?”

“Then he bought a UD 12 ton bogey-axle-drive tray truck and we had a pick trailer made to go behind that. That was our main fuel truck for years. Then, every year come harvest time I would pull the fuel tanks off that UD and put wheat bins on.

“We had an old Dodge as well. I shouldn’t say this but we never registered it in 20 odd years. It used to cart grain every year out there in the paddocks; it was all dirt roads, and no police to worry about. That UD may have been a 12 tonner but it carried 20 ton of wheat for years, until rule changes brought a stop to it.”

“Dad and I worked together and built up the fuel business. I used to cart fuel out of West Wyalong three days a week and we’d distribute it around the local Lake Cargelligo area, selling it to the farmers. It was good money back in the early days but then it got very competitive on the fuel with people buying it by the tanker load from Sydney and bypassing all the little depots. They would still use us to get their drum of oil or grease, but they didn’t want to buy their fuel from us, so the profitability started to disappear after a while.”

“We ended up having three fuel runs. In the early days the fuel was probably earning more than the school bus runs, but then school bus runs were always so reliable and it was ‘clean’ work, as I like to describe it.”

RETIRING – NOT RETIRING

Ken and Helen had a holiday home at Ulladulla on the NSW South Coast and after a six week break in 1994, came home to Gubbata and announced to Peter and his now wife, Laurel that they wanted to retire to the coast. “You guys can continue with this business,” they told them.

“That came out of the blue and I responded that we wouldn’t mind living on the coast as well. I was pretty keen on scuba diving at the time. We also had two young daughters, Melissa and Renae and we didn’t want to have to send them to boarding school, which was the norm for the area.

“So dad and mum decided they’d still go live at the beach but put their retirement plans on hold. Instead they’d look for a bus run on the coast. As luck would have it, a three-bus school run became available at some place we’d never heard of – Tuross head, south of Batemans bay.

“They moved there to run that business while Laurel and I continued to run Gubbata until it sold. That turned out to be five long years. As it eventuated my older brother Wayne, who’d been living in the NT for some 17 years returned and bought it, and in ’99 we moved to Tuross where we live to this day.”

In 1996 at Tuross, Ken and Helen purchased their first new bus, a Mercedes-Benz 1418 to go with the two old Bedford’s and an equally old MAN.

“That 1418 was bullet-proof but was underpowered so we ended up buying two Hino’s (in 1998 and 2000). In 2004, remembering how tough and reliable the 1418 was, we bought our first 0 500RF Mercedes which we still have and is still a fantastic bus. We followed it up with an 0 400 for coachwork. When you have a couple of nice buses everyone starts saying, ‘That’s a great bus, can you take us to Sydney or Canberra or wherever?’

“Suddenly we found ourselves as coach drivers rather than just school bus drivers because we had nice coaches. It got to a point where I was going through a log book every 12 months. One in every three days I was more than 100 km from home. It was a part of the business that grew very quickly.”

THE MOUSE THAT ROARED

Then, in a real-life version of ‘The Mouse That Roared’, the Marshall’s four-bus business bought Moruya Bus Service with their (then) 21 buses, a depot on one side of the road and an old sawmill site on 10 acres opposite, where the buses were parked.

“I won’t tell you what we paid, but it was an absolute bargain, facilitated by the couple that owned it going through a messy divorce. That said, we still had to find a lot of money and weren’t sure if we could. I spoke to dad who knew a good thing when he saw it and was always a savvy businessman

“We’d never pictured at that stage that we could afford to buy Moruya - them being the big bus company and us being the small guys - but mum and dad, when we spoke to them said, ‘We think we’ve got a few more good years left in us so we’ll keep on working’. So we bit the bullet and borrowed the money.

“If we thought we’d ‘Won Lotto’ it got even better. Moruya had a very old fleet of Bedford’s and other brands but, parked in a back shed were four brand new Mercedes-Benz, just sitting there doing nothing. They were 1418’s and 1621’s.

“I said to the previous owner, Doug Mackay, why aren’t these on runs? He replied that, ‘At $180,000 each they’re too good to put schoolkids in! I can buy a $3000 Bedford and it’ll do the same job’.

“So as well as buying the whole shebang for a great price, we had the added bonus of some $720,000 in new buses sitting there The only reason he’d bought them was to keep the age of his fleet to the 12 year average as required by regulation. Those regulations never stated that you actually had to drive them. That very afternoon I put them onto school runs.

THE FAMILY BACK TOGETHER

“It was 2003 when we bought Moruya Bus Company and by 2007, now as Marshall’s Bus & Coach Service we were operating 20 school bus runs every day, as well as the coaches. Then dad had the thought that he would like his two sons working together in the business, so my brother Wayne and his wife Julie, who still had those original school buses out at Gubbata, sold up and joined us in 2007. I’m sure they were glad of the sea change by then too.

“Wayne and Julie came down just as we’d started building a new depot on the old sawmill site. His role was mainly to oversee the construction of the new depot while Julie came into the office, working with dad. So the whole family was now back together working for the one common goal.

‘Sadly dad died in 2009 just as we were finishing the new depot. He drove the first bus through the gate the week before he passed away. It was a very special moment for us all.

“That ‘shed’ to house the buses (the depot) cost us 50% more than we’d paid for the entire business but we needed to evolve. There’s about 4 acres of concrete and everything is state of the art. There’s a drive-through bus wash and enough space for 40 buses undercover.”

THE FLEET

“It was a mixed fleet of Bedford, Hino, Daewoo and some Mercedes. We have a couple of Volvo coaches in the fleet but the ride is not up to Mercedes standard. Then in 2016 the seatbelt rollout program came along and the Government basically told us that we’d have to buy a dozen new buses in one hit.

“Wayne and I were at the bus show in Sydney and we spoke to Mick Neskes on the Mercedes stand. We mentioned that we had bought Mercedes in the past but we hadn’t seen a Mercedes salesman in about 10 years. We also mentioned that we were in the market for twelve new buses. Suddenly Mick was like a family member – you couldn’t get rid of him. He was down here taking us out for dinner every couple of months.

“Although the relationship with Mick started as a sales deal, the ‘sale’ is only half the job. Without service you're nowhere, and Mick and his successor, Iain Dorward – Mick’s moved on to Custom-Denning – have been exemplary in that regard. They, along with the Mercedes brand itself, are the reason we bought 12 of their buses in 2016/17 and have since bought another four.

“We now have 16 Mercs in our 30-strong fleet and another 5 are the Fuso Rosa, also out of the Daimler stable, so 2/3rds of our product is Daimler sourced. It also offers economies of scale in terms of parts inventory and diagnostic equipment.

“The 0 500RF is just a fantastic bus. The turning circle, the ride, the safety features, the robustness, the power – they have everything we need to run a successful business.”

Peter intends continuing to consolidate his fleet with the Mercedes brand. Whilst he accepts the need to have the coach component built by local companies, he does hold a wish.

“I would be a lot happier if I could buy a Mercedes-Benz fully built bus. It’d be like buying a Mercedes car wouldn’t it. Of course they make the whole shebang overseas but they can’t bring them to Australia because of our antiquated road rules regarding the width of the vehicle.

“I’m sure you’re aware with trucks that the rest of the world is 2.55 m wide and Australia is 2.5. That’s what stops Mercedes-Benz or any other bus manufacturer bringing European fully built buses into this country. We are in the dark ages in this country. Yes it’s protecting the Australian industry but it’s not allowing us to have the best of the European buses. We couldn’t do that for Ford or Holden.”

THE NEXT GENERATION

Marshall’s will stay in the family with Peter’s daughter, Melissa and her Husband Josh Seidel joining the business.

“We are close,” says Peter. “Just as I was with mum and dad. We’ve never had a problem working as a family unit and it’s terrific that Melissa and Josh came on board – and also live here in Tuross.

“My brother Wayne, and Julie had no children involved in the business and they could see no sense in keeping working which is fair enough. They decided to retire and enjoy life, so we bought them out.

MELISSA

Melissa Marshall, now 30, would sit on one of the family’s buses going to school. That bus was driven by Ronnie Miles who, at 79 still drives for the company. “If I played up with Ronnie or if I wasn’t on the bus he’d be calling dad straightaway. Being the boss’s daughter didn’t help if I was up to mischief. On the other hand I don’t think it would have been a good look to leave the boss’s daughter behind either.

A director and shareholder, she doesn’t sit in the ivory tower but is willing to get involved in all aspects of the business, getting down and dirty when needs be. At the time of this interview she had her head stuck under the engine cowling. She also hops behind the wheel on occasion to keep her hand in.

“As much as I have a lot of things to do in the office I think it’s good to be out there and be seen driving every now and then. You’re only as good as your staff. I remember sitting with my granddad and probably annoying the crap out of him saying what you do this for or why do you do that? I also have a very vivid memory of digging trenches and putting pipes together for our first shed that we built when we had Tuross Bus.”

Melissa has also added to the business with the acquisition in 2016 of Franks Book Educational Tours.

“Frank was a local who organised trips for schoolchildren and would use our coaches. For example, schoolkids from Brisbane would come down for the week. Our coaches would pick them up at Sydney or Canberra airport and run then around the cities and to the snow. Frank was retiring and we didn’t want to lose the business so we purchased it from him.

“Over the last six years and especially the last two since becoming a director and Josh joining in 2020 as General Manager, we’ve had fires, floods and Covid. Josh’s second day on the job was saving the depot because we got surrounded by fires and dad was on holidays.”

Josh and Melissa had baby Liam in December of last year. It looks as though there may well be a fourth-generation owner of Marshall’s.

THE FINAL WORD

**Peter, Laurel, Liam, Melissa and Josh**

Peter: “Ken Marshall, my dad, was a very good businessman. He always had the ability of turning five dollars into 10 very quickly and my mum, Helen Marshall was a bloody hard worker. She would work for the benefit of the family and she drove school buses for 45 years no questions asked. She was a better driver than dad. It didn’t matter what you threw at her she would drive it. She’s 83 now and if you gave her a crash box she’d be in her element.

“None of this would have been possible without my parents’ hard work. That’s what got us to where we are. My mum and dad gave up their retirement and kept working. And when the opportunity arose to buy Moruya Bus Company they stayed any retirement plans yet again. They made the whole family very successful. What we have we owe to them. It’s been a privilege to have worked alongside them.

Melissa: It’s obviously a family business and that’s all great, but we are a community service at the end of the day. If we didn’t provide school runs to the area and the charter work that we do, taking (often older) people to Sydney or Canberra to experience shows and other events, our community would suffer.

We are always mindful of what we can do for our community because without them where would we be? So in our name, Marshall’s Bus & Coach Service, the word, ‘Service’ is of paramount importance.”