| 49 T T Virginia Wright Transport firm enjoys steady growth Bulk-tippers are now Relief Transport’s biggest division Relief Transport REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT South Auckland based Relief Transport Ltd. was incorporated in 1997 and has grown from its original two trucks to the 20 trucks and trailers they run today. Andrew Smith has been General Manager since 2021. He first joined the South Auckland based freight and logistics company as Sales Manager early in 2020, just three weeks before New Zealand went into lockdown. It was a challenging year. At the time they were carting groceries which was deemed an essential service. Keeping them stocked through Auckland and Northland doubled the number of trucks normally used for their goods, then post Covid their trucks were in high demand along with all the other trucking and freight companies. At the height of the post-Covid boom towards the end of ’21 in the lead up to Christmas they had 14 curtain-sider trucks on the road each day trying to keep up with the demand. “We struggled to get drivers. It was a good problem to have but the labour market was really tight,” says Andrew. These days Relief Transport Ltd. operates with three divisions: general freight which is run with the smaller, four-wheel and six wheel curtain-sider trucks that mainly carry goods on pallets; the bulk-tippers, or semi-trailers, which transport scrap metal and rubbish through the top of the North Island; and the third division, which is a separate company but part of the Relief Transport group, moves import and export containers Bulk-tippers are now their biggest division, helped along by the purchase of four truck-trailer units from a competitor when he decided it was time to retire. While they didn’t buy the business as such, given that they shared a customer base there was a natural increase in the workload. The 10 bulk-tippers Relief Transport run are mainly based in Auckland with trucks running daily to Whangarei and to Hamilton. As the work increased it was a natural progression to spread out over State Highway One with drivers based in Whangarei, Silverdale, Huntly and Hamilton. Trucks take rubbish out of Auckland north to landfill and continue to Whangarei to return with scrap metal. “That side of the business has been going from strength to strength. We transport a lot of scrap-metal into Auckland where for the most part it’s loaded into containers and exported. This ties in nicely with the work our container division does,” explains Andrew. Having stepped into the role of General Manager in a company that has grown steadily over 25 years Andrew appreciates the team he works with. Some of our staff have been with us for over 10 years. There’s a really good community within our business, we get on really well and we’re a good team.” says Andrew. As he runs the day-to-day operations of the business Andrew’s goal is to keep it thriving and growing into the future as strongly as it has in the past. “We transport a lot of scrap-metal into Auckland where for the most part it’s loaded into containers and exported. This ties in nicely with the work our container division does.” WE’RE YOUR LOCAL TYRE EXPERTS 157-159 GREAT SOUTH ROAD, OTAHUHU, AUCKLAND 09 276 2200
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