Deals on Wheels #464
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Another <strong>on</strong>e of the<br />
company’s K200s, <strong>on</strong>e<br />
of five Kenworths in<br />
the fleet<br />
“When the railway was upgraded from<br />
Taree to Brisbane we would load timber from<br />
Bathurst for Brisbane then drive down to<br />
Graft<strong>on</strong> where the old timbers sleepers from<br />
the coast line were stockpiled. We would<br />
then backload them to Sydney for use by<br />
landscape yards and the like.<br />
“Over a four-year period <strong>on</strong> that job we<br />
carted half a milli<strong>on</strong> sleepers out of Graft<strong>on</strong> to<br />
Sydney, loading up to 10 to 12 trucks a day. It<br />
was full-<strong>on</strong>.”<br />
Luke says Southern Star Transport is<br />
a highly service-based company, with<br />
the Sheridans priding themselves <strong>on</strong><br />
solving their clients’ transport movement<br />
requirements with a single ph<strong>on</strong>e call.<br />
“We have a really good working relati<strong>on</strong>ship<br />
with our clients; we work towards meeting<br />
their transport needs,” he says.<br />
Weekends off<br />
To add to the company’s versatility, Southern<br />
Star Transport has its own telehandlers<br />
and loading equipment which it provides<br />
to access sites for loading and unloading<br />
sleepers. This removes the need to secure<br />
a third party operator and work around<br />
timing issues or restricti<strong>on</strong>s that a third party<br />
may bring.<br />
Luke says this equipment also comes<br />
in handy as some of the rail side sleeper<br />
movements are not time critical, giving him<br />
a pool of work to draw from should there be a<br />
few quiet days.<br />
“All of our drivers are certified for rail<br />
side work and are a reliable crew of<br />
l<strong>on</strong>g serving employees. A lot of their<br />
workload is interstate, which they carry out<br />
predominantly from M<strong>on</strong>day to Friday, giving<br />
them weekends off.<br />
“We always try to avoid committing our<br />
drivers to interstate locati<strong>on</strong>s for M<strong>on</strong>day<br />
mornings so they d<strong>on</strong>’t have to leave <strong>on</strong><br />
Sundays,” he adds.<br />
Luke says Southern Star Transport has<br />
a great team of drivers, with many of them<br />
being l<strong>on</strong>g-serving employees.<br />
“The drivers have played an invaluable role<br />
in the success of our company. Southern Star<br />
could not operate without good drivers. We<br />
appreciate all they do to help keep the show<br />
<strong>on</strong> the road.”<br />
As with most owner-drivers and small<br />
transport fleet operators, there is often that<br />
irreplaceable employee who works l<strong>on</strong>g, hard<br />
hours tirelessly in the background. Wives<br />
and partners are more often than not the<br />
backb<strong>on</strong>e of these types of businesses.<br />
Luke says Southern Star Transport is no<br />
different.<br />
“I have a 50/50 working relati<strong>on</strong>ship with<br />
my wife Jacinta. She is in the office 40 to 50<br />
hours a week handling all aspects of our<br />
operati<strong>on</strong> from admin, invoicing, making sure<br />
every<strong>on</strong>e gets paid to compliance.<br />
“Jacinta has her own clients, which she<br />
looks after exclusively, and we bounce all of<br />
our business decisi<strong>on</strong>s off each other.<br />
“Jacinta is more than capable of running<br />
the entire business if I can manage to sneak<br />
a couple of weeks off during the year.<br />
Without her, there would be no Southern Star<br />
Transport in its current form,” he says.<br />
Happy with their current work structure,<br />
Luke and Jacinta, while open to new<br />
opportunities, are quietly c<strong>on</strong>tent with the<br />
business at its current size.<br />
As Luke explains: “We have a really good<br />
customer base who are understanding<br />
and loyal. We are well placed and have the<br />
ability to service these customers, and service<br />
them well.”<br />
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