16 | Hawke’s Bay: Everfresh Transport REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Everfresh invests to keep Hawke’s Bay moving Everfresh Transport’s fleet of 40 trucks cover everything from bulk cartage, general freight to civil works and container transportation. T T Kim Newth 100%LOCALLY OWNED & OPERATED 1181 Omahu Road, Hastings | 06 879 7029 E: hastings@baytyres.co.nz For Hawke’s Bays largest range of Tyres Keeping Hawke’s Bay Rolling Proud to support and supply tyres & servicing to Everfresh Transport www.johnbates.nz • Specialists in car/heavy vehicle & motorhome wheel alignments • Wheel balancing • Specialists in all suspension & chassis repairs • Fully operational brake roller machine John Bates Wheel Alignment HB Ltd 1028 Omahu Road, Frimley, Hastings 4153 Phone: 06 879 9500 | Jason: 0274 469 450 John Agnew bought his first truck to cart fruit in Hawke’s Bay in 1990 and out of this evolved a successful trucking business, Everfresh Transport Ltd. Everfresh remains at the heart of produce cartage in Hawke’s Bay today, as well as providing many other services to meet local needs including container transportation, general freight, bulk and metal cartage and civil works. This is still a family business at heart. John’s son Nick, an engineer by trade, joined Everfresh after having worked for some years in the Australian mining sector and other industries. “When I came back to New Zealand six years ago, I worked in the business for 12 months before I started buying into it,” says Nick. “We’ve had a lot of growth in the past five years, building on the company’s ongoing growth over the past 20 years or more.” Everfresh had a fleet of 15 trucks in 2014. That has since grown to 40 trucks, with an emphasis on ongoing investment to keep the fleet up to date and meeting the needs of clients in Hawke’s Bay as well as the Bay of Plenty area. In the harvest season, another dozen trucks are hired to keep up with demand. “Carting fruit is still our bread and butter and that’s a very seasonal workload,” says Nick. “We have branched out into other areas and today do a lot of civil work. We’ve got four diggers and various other civil equipment for projects like roading or foundation work for cool stores, or house sites. We do a bit of everything. “Carting fruit is still our bread and butter and that’s a very seasonal workload.” “We have a lot of new equipment and, this year, we have another four new trucks coming, a mix of replacements and additions. We are very focussed on providing reliable and efficient service: we do all our vehicle maintenance in-house and employ two full-time mechanics and an engineer.” All trucks are equipped with the latest GPS technology making it easy to track loads and keep clients informed on delivery schedules. As Nick observes, health and safety practices are advancing all the time too with big improvements made over the years. The Everfresh team has been heavily involved with cyclone recovery this year, following Cyclone Gabrielle, with earthmoving equipment and trucks committed to that effort over the past six months. “We’re mainly working for the Council now and doing a portion direct to growers. In the immediate aftermath, we did some work for nothing to help out those who were really badly affected. Some of our clients in the produce sector are suffering losses of between 30% and 70%. There’s a bit of an eerie feeling in Hawke’s Bay around what’s happening and costs are impacting on everyone.” As is the case with many other businesses, another key challenge for Everfresh is finding enough seasonal staff to drive their trucks, with immigrant labour options now having to be considered. “It’s getting very competitive – it’s a very tough labour market.” Nick says the company is committed to training keen young drivers and supporting the industry’s future. “We just recently bought a Class 2 truck to help with that process of training new people and getting them through. Everyone has to do their bit. With the current demand for drivers, transport is turning into quite a high earning career. Transportation is a good industry to get into as product always needs to be moved.”
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