| 51 T T Hugh de Lacy Trucking on through tough times Along with its fleet of 10 trucks, Rolleston Transport boasts a wide range of plant and equipment, including flat-decks and container handlers, transporters, tip-trailers and Hiabs. TRANSPORT Rolleston Transport The last year has been a tough one in the road transport industry, but it hasn’t stopped Roger Millar, managing director of Rolleston Transport, from adding a new Kenworth K200 truck specially set up for scrap metal transport. Fitted out with a new trailer and bin in Rotorua by Mills Tui, the new Kennie entered service in September, collecting scrap metal from all round the South Island for processing at the Sims Metal plant in Bromley, Christchurch. “We do a bit of most things in the transport industry, from transporting baleage for the agriculture industry to transporting machinery, shifting containers and transporting machines,” says Roger. “We’re a bit of a one-stop-shop, I guess, but our main client is Sims Metal, who have branches all over New Zealand. Our main focus is assisting with the needs of the South Island branches and any other satellite sites. “We load up everything from wrecked cars to old washing machines and refrigerators – anything that is metal and needs to be recycled or re-processed. We then transport them to Sims’ Bromley plant, where most things are put through the shredding machine and have all the ferrous components separated from the likes of rubber, glass and rubbish.” Along with its fleet of 10 trucks, Rolleston Transport boasts a wide range of plant and equipment, including flat-decks and container handlers, transporters, tip-trailers and Hiabs. The company was founded by Roger’s father, Neil Millar, under whom it went through a number of name changes before settling on Rolleston Transport. Roger started his working life as a diesel mechanic, completing his apprenticeship in 2016 with the former Gough Group Caterpillar company in Christchurch. He then went over to Western Australia for a bit of OE, seeding wheat and canola on a 12,500ha cropping farm. He came home briefly in 2017, but went back onto the same farm to take part in the harvest, and was three-quarters of the way through when he got an urgent call from Neil wanting him to come home to help because things had got so busy. Roger’s first task was to bring a second-hand Kenworth K104 down to Rolleston from Matamata, and thereafter utilising his Class Five licence driving for the company. Neil still does some driving, but Roger has taken over the company. “This year has been challenging because we’ve seen a lot of our regular work dry up and not a lot of new work coming in to replace it,” Roger says. “There are some promising signs out there: we’re noticing that fuel prices are coming down – they’re a big cost to us – and interest rates are being lowered by the Reserve Bank. “That may encourage the building and infrastructure industries to recover a bit of lost ground, which in turn should help the big wheels get moving again. “But I can’t really see any great improvement in demand for transport solutions by the end of this year, and probably into next year.” “We do a bit of most things in the transport industry, from transporting baleage for the agriculture industry to transporting machinery, shifting containers and transporting machines.” willie@littlemobileengineering.co.nz
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