Deals on Wheels #464

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