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“It’s the after-sales service that separates the men from the boys.”
Anthony Divola manages a fleet of four trucks that do some of the toughest work around: hauling logs out of Australian pine plantations. He explains why he chose Mack.
Radiant Alliance is a company that's specialised in export for years, but recently they spotted an opportunity in lumber and asked Anthony Divola to come in and mastermind the logistics of getting it from the plantations to the Sydney container terminal.
Waste not, want not
Anthony didn't waste any time. Although he was used to using other pands of trucks in his family business, he gave Mack a chance to bid and was impressed at the response he received.
"Mack were very competitive in a number of areas, not just price," says Anthony, "their after-sales service is first-rate, and they're very keen to deliver the truck you want – whatever you want they'll do, it's not a problem. I told them what I wanted, in terms of finish, extra stainless steel, lights you name it, they delivered."
Four on the road, two to come
Anthony's fleet consists of two Super-Liners and two Tridents, with another of each model on order. The Super-Liners do the forest work, picking up the raw lumber on B-Double trailers running under the Intelligent Access Programme. This enables them to carry 68 tonnes instead of 65. They haul the lumber to a packing plant where it's packed into 32.5-tonne containers.
The Tridents then take the containers on quad-axle skels specified under a Performance-Based Standard. The Macks run around 1,000 km per day, keeping Anthony's team of five drivers, (plus himself every couple of weeks) busy five days a week.
Big fans of m DRIVE
All of the Macks Anthony has ordered are fitted with the m DRIVE automated manual transmission, which has been something of a revelation to him and to his drivers.
"My lead driver used to be a solid manual man, but now he wouldn't have anything else," says Anthony, "and nor would I. Mack were great though, we noticed that the gearbox was doing a couple of unexpected things in some of the more rugged terrain, so they sent their driver trainer out to have a look. He drove it himself and showed us a few things, then got the technical blokes to adjust the programming of the gearbox to what he called the Quarry setting. Now you cannot beat it, we're never going back to manuals."
It’s been an absolute pleasure
With the business expanding and looking to move into transport of other raw materials including grains, Anthony is going to be busy keeping Radiant's logistics operations running.
"These Macks have to be one of the most comfortable American-style trucks I've ever driven," says Anthony, "we're also very pleased with the fuel economy, but above all it's been an absolute pleasure dealing with Mack, especially the service centre at Eastern Creek, they can't do enough for us. I've always said that buying a truck is the easy part, it's the after-sales service that separates the men from the boys, and that's something Mack excel at."
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