As it is for many in the industry, getting drivers is an issue for Mt Isa Carriers, based in Pittsworth, Queensland, and servicing the whole of North West Queensland, with the fleet’s drivers having an average age in the early fifties.
“I’ve got a young driver here, Jayden is just about to turn 23,” says Kent. “He wanted to drive road trains, so we’ve brought him through. He was in a body truck, we gave him some local work, then a couple of dog runs. He’s now in one of the new Macks and he’s not 23 yet, and a lot of big businesses won’t do that. I’ve had take special insurance coverage on him.
“You’ve got to be able to do this, you’ve got to give them a go. To Jaydon’s credit he is unbelievable, a good kid, a good operator, he listens, but they are few and far between.
“He will go a long way. I hope he stays forever, but being young, who knows. Someone has to have this trust and put them in a truck. I’m running trucks and trailers worth a million dollars and then the freight on top of it. You don’t want idiots behind the wheel and that’s why a lot of big companies won’t employ people under 25. I’m unprepared to take that special coverage out on them.”
Mt Isa Carriers has 27 trucks on the road and there are 52 staff altogether. The largest depot is at Mount Isa, because it’s a receiving depot where there are van drivers, body truck drivers, semi drivers.
The operation has single trailers coming up the Toowoomba Range on the 160km drive up out of Brisbane, arriving at the Pittsworth depot. At this point, they are hooked up as double road trains and head West. One of the trucks will be doing. a ‘dog’ run, heading out of the yard as a double road train and traveling to Roma.
At Roma the dog trailers are separated and then added to the other doubles, turning them into triple road trains for the run to Mount Isa, another 1330km further. The dog runner picks up a couple of trailers returning from Mount Isa and runs them back to Pittsworth. The whole system works like a sort of constant conveyor belt.
The system for running to and from Townsville with triple road trains is much less complicated. Triples can run all of the way from Mount Isa into the pads at the Port at Townsville and these are then broken up to run as doubles, under permit, across from the Port to the Mt Isa Carriers yard in Western Townsville.
Mt Isa Carriers has got a workshop, but a lot of the maintenance is outsourced on the newer trucks, under maintenance contracts. They also have good relationships along the routes with people who can help out if a truck or trailer has problems.
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