T610/T610SAR
up around half of the 20-plus trucks now in the Herberts fleet, with PAACAR’s Euro brand DAF also strongly represented.
Scott explains his preference bluntly: “I’d rather go broke driving a Kenworth than a Mack! They’re a good, simple and reliable truck – developed to handle anything the Australian Outback can throw at them.
“They’re also rigid, so you get a much better feel of the road surface through the chassis, which is really important when you’re carting stock.”
You get the impression that if Kenworth made an all-wheeldrive model, it would be a shoo-in for Herberts’ fertiliser sowing work as well. As it is, that division runs MANs and Scanias.
All but one of the highway truck and trailer units run on 54-tonne HPMV permits and are all cabovers, bar one Kenworth T408, fitted with an automated manual transmission and with the throttle pedal on the left (!) where in a manual truck you’d find the clutch pedal. There’s a dummy throttle pedal on the right.
The reason for this unique setup is that the driver, Clark (Clarkie) Davidson, lost his right leg in a car crash some years ago and needs the go pedal on the left. The conventional cab plus the addition of an extra intermediate step also make entry and exit easier for the ebullient Clarkie, who explains that he had a background more in diggers and loaders rather than trucks – but before the crash had done some truck driving as well: “I have known Peter Dynes for years – we were actually at school together. A while ago he suggested he could organise something for me and this is the result.
“Mark Chalmers, one of the mechanics at Dynes Transport in Tapanui, did the job – and set it up so that it’s simple to swap the pedals over should anybody else need to drive the truck.”
This is his second season in the unit. He primarily handles whey, but also does a run to Clandeboye to bring back “mother liquor,” which is processed at Edendale and used as a liquid feed supplement for stock.
The 10-year-old T408, Outlaw, is now fully owned by Herberts, but remains in its original Dynes Transport colours.
Clarkie is rapt with the unit: “I’ve wanted for years to be able to drive again, and this truck has given me a fantastic opportunity. As I say, if you keep looking back all you get is a sore neck. Now it’s even easier to keep looking forward.”
Scott says the company doesn’t have a hard and fast policy on vehicle replacement: “I’ve found the thing that works best is to depend on the fleet analysis software, which gives you a good indicator of how much each truck is costing.
“And it isn’t automatically the old ones – sometimes newer trucks might be getting expensive and need to be moved on. I don’t agree with having a fixed policy, because that’s not the way the real world works.”
Where possible, he aims for consistency of suppliers for bodies and trailers. Delta is the primary supplier of stock crates, with Jackson Enterprises building the monocoque bodies to go with them. The crates are two deck/four deck, and are certified for a
full range of stock.
Transport Engineering Southland builds the dropsider bodies and tubs, while the stainless steel bulk bins come primarily from McMaster Engineering in Winton. Herberts is also starting to use self-loading bulk trailers built by Whanganui’s GED (Glasgow Engineering and Design).
The company has a big, but basic, workshop. Fleet manager Jason Fowler from Transport Repairs looks after CoFs and all other maintenance – contracted fulltime to Herberts.
A wash bay, effluent settlement area and Ravensdown bulk store are also on site, while an adjoining lot has been cleared in preparation for a new complex for staff to stay in over the peak season.
Monitoring the costing of the trucks has been rendered easier by the recent adoption of Teletrac Navman’s latest telematics platform, which provides ready answers to a range of fleet management challenges. Scott points to two areas where the system has proved impressive: “The automated electronic logbooks mean we don’t have to bother drivers to check their hours when planning jobs, while the in-cab cameras have already proved their worth when one of our trucks was involved with a collision with a car on a roundabout. The cameras clearly showed the car driver was at fault.”
The system is also used for RUC offroad rebates and tracking exactly where trucks are at any time.
It has, he says, improved the way the business operates: “It’s just easier.”
Whey dispatcher Justin Robertson is also a fan: “It’s quite new to me, so I have a lot to learn, but I’m finding it has real benefits. Because you have an accurate realtime overview of where each truck is, it’s a great help in customer relations. You can easily keep people updated if a driver is running a bit late, and that’s something customers appreciate. Without that ongoing communication you’ve got nothing.”
Previously, Justin had worked with MHL, primarily driving a bulk truck. When the HWR/Dynes JV started making overtures to buy MHL and incorporate it, Scott suggested to Justin he might like to come along as a dispatcher. He accepted.
It wasn’t a complete change in career direction. Before Herberts, he had worked with Southern Transport for 17 years – originally as a driver but then, for six years, in a dispatch role. He acknowledges some drivers can find the switch too stressful and are happy to get back on the road: “It definitely has its moments. I’m a great believer in the old saying that driving gives you too much time to think. So something that, to the dispatcher in the office who is looking after a dozen or more drivers, is a relatively minor matter can assume immense importance to the individual in the truck.
“I enjoy the challenge. The whey contract is a big beast and in the peak of the milk season things can get intense, but at the end of the day you just have to make things happen.”
The day we visit Herberts, general dispatcher Geoff Routhan is off work after a hip replacement. He comes in for a short visit, however, and says he’s keen to get back in the traces.
Originally from the West Coast, Geoff met his wife (who was from Wanaka) when he was working for JJ Nolan in Haast. She didn’t relish the thought of living in Haast, so the couple shifted to Gore in 1980. Not long after, Geoff joined Tulloch Transport, staying there for 26 years before shifting to Herberts.
He says that when the dairy factory is at full production, its output of whey can fill the five million litre holding tanks at various spots in Southland in just a couple of days, so the pressure is on to keep getting it onto the fields.
Operations manager Ben Halstead was new to transport when he arrived at Herberts, having come from managing mussel farms on Banks Peninsula. His job, he says, involves an overview of the company’s activities, with a particular attention to client liaison with Fonterra on the whey contract: “They’re great people to deal with, which really helps, because when things are humming everyone has to be on their toes. “Time was when we had only a day’s worth of whey output capacity at Edendale, but we’ve put more tanks in there and extended it to three days. That has helped a lot.”
Whey output is at its peak in October and November, while in the winter when milk (and consequently whey) output drops, a proportion of it is replaced by effluent, which is extracted from dairy farm ponds.
As Scott explains, individual farms gain consents to apply the byproducts, which are then injected into the pasture by a clever piece of kit. The heart of the tractor-towed Veenhuis Rotomax
(developed in the Netherlands) is a reel that carries up to 550 metres of 125mm flexible, lay-flat feed hose, one end of which is fitted to a static supply nurse tank. The hose is paid out from the reel as the unit is towed across the paddock, and reeled back in on the parallel return run.
The fluid is pumped to injectors across a 12m wide bar, the injectors paired with discs that cut 70mm deep slots, ensuring the nutrients are delivered to the pasture roots rather than the ground surface, for optimal fertilising effect. This also eliminates fluid drift in windy conditions.
With the system, up to 40 hectares can be covered in a single pass without needing to couple or uncouple.
The Rotomax represents a huge capital outlay, but as Scott points out, its ability to deliver precisely measured quantities of material to the pastures means that the increasingly-restrictive conditions of consents can be met easily. Another major benefit, by comparison with more traditional fluid distribution systems, is that the hose never has to be dragged across the ground, thereby avoiding the surface scuffing and crop damage that this often causes.
The investment in technology like the Rotomax and the development of systems to accurately determine soil moisture and weather effects was recognised by Environment Southland in its 2019 community awards, with Herberts gaining a highly commended for environmental leadership and innovation in business.
In this regard, for several years Herberts has used the expertise of Invercargill-based WM Compliance Solutions, which handles all aspects of the environmental side of the business, including the development of compliance systems, routine reporting, liaison with the regional council, staff training, internal audits and preparation of consent applications.
Though the HWR/Dynes joint-venture looms like a colossus over the Southland/Otago transport landscape, companies in it do seem to be able to retain a high level of individuality...and that is particularly noticeable with Herberts Transport.
Its current iteration seems to reflect the personality of its manager – go-getting, tech-savvy, and willing to set off into uncharted commercial waters. Starting up MHL when he did was a bold move for Scott Hutton, and now – with the backing of the consortium – expect to see more of that boldness demonstrated by Herberts Transport in the coming years.
The man himself has a more prosaic, but no less cogent, take on the situation: “We have an amazing team working here, and they’re our most precious resource. It’s all about looking after people...because without them, you’ve got nothing.” T&D