Marcay Transport runs a mix of truck and five-axle dog combinations pulled by Freightliner Coronados and the rest run as B-doubles, pulled by Cascadias. The operation is based in Bolwarrah, about half an hour out of Ballarat in Victoria, Mark and Kaye Rix run a small rural bulk freight business from their small property on the edge of the settlement. The trailers used in the fleet are a mixed bunch with some arriving second hand and others built specifically for Marcay.
Having grown to this many trucks, Mark can no longer be on the road all of the time. He and his son perform all of the heavy vehicle maintenance across the fleet. To compound the situation, there is a need for some relief with the driving – there is more than enough work to get on with for the business owner.
“The only thing we don’t do is rebuild motors, they go back to the manufacturer,” says Mark. “My son does a lot of it and we do all our tyres as well.
“The thing is, if we didn’t do all of our own maintenance and tyres, out of eight trucks, you’d have one off the road every week for a couple of days at least. You don’t want them off the road, and then you’re paying drivers to sit at workshops to get jobs done. The downside for us is that we do most of it on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but it is what it is.”
The business started back in 1998 with the first truck being a Kenworth, but when, some years later, Mark was looking for his first new truck, Freightliner offered him the best deal and he has pretty much stuck with them ever since.
The fleet runs three Cascadias, but the trucks over the years have included Century Class, Coronados and Columbias. The Coronados are part of a mix of truck and five-axle dog combinations and the others, the prime movers, are now all Cascadias, bar one.
The engines used have been a mixture including Caterpillar and Cummins, but since 2007 most new trucks have consistently been fitted with Detroit engines. The last non-Detroit engine was a C12 powered Columbia, which was sold last year with two million kilometres on the clock.
One of the Cascadias is the 126-inch cabin with a 48-inch bunk. Meanwhile, another couples the 126 with the 34-inch bunk and there’s also a 126 with the 60-inch bunk. The engines are all specified the same at 600hp with the Detroit DT12 AMT. For both
“You’ll never get your diehard Kenworth bloke into a Cascadia,” says Mark. “I’ve got a mate who’s very Kenworth orientated and he had a Cascadia on demo for two weeks. He loved it, but said he can never buy one, because nobody would drive it.
“These trucks with the safety features on them, speak for itself. It really does matter and people need to grasp it and run with it. We bought our first AMT, which was a Gen2 back in 2005 and I haven’t bought a truck with a gearstick since. The Cascadia is so far ahead of the competition, in terms of quietness and comfort, as well.
“You buy what you think’s the best bang for your buck, and that’s why I’m happy with the Freightliner. I don’t monitor fuel as much as I should, but I check through them every fortnight and fuel use in the Cascadias is pretty consistent. It doesn’t fluctuate much, and they’re nudging around two km/L all of the time.”
“As far as the Detroits we have no trouble whatsoever, since the first one I bought. The Coronados have the DD15 and the Cascadias the DD16s. The 16 was a step up, probably quieter, and fuel consumption is better on the DD16 engines.
“Maintenance wise, on the first 500,000 I don’t even touch it. It’s part of the package. There’s no doubt it’s all incorporated into the cost of the vehicle when you buy it, but they’re still good value anyway. I get on really well with the team at Detroit, they have been fantastic. Always been good, couldn’t fault them.”
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