“In our experience, a truck has to be very reliable to do 380,000km in a year”

Giants of food logistics, GTS Freight, recently trialled their first Mack in 15 years.

The new Super-Liner made a great impression.

GTS Freight started life as Gol Gol Transport Services in Gol Gol near Mildura back in 1980. Damien Matthews’s father, Don, started the business with one truck, and when Damien joined the business in 1990 they moved across the river to Mildura and started expanding on the back of the wine and beer industries.

Nowadays they run 125 trucks across two fleets and are one of the largest logistic providers specialising in food and beverages.

B-Doubles and more B-Doubles, but where are the Macks?

An offer you can’t refuse

“We had some issues with Macks about fifteen years ago, so we steered clear of them for a while,” says Damien, “but Mack came to us last year and offered us a Super-Liner on a 12-month trial basis. If we liked the truck, we’d buy it, if not, they’d take it back. So we gave it a go.”

Mack were confident that the new Super-Liner with its MP10 engine and m DRIVE automated manual transmission was the ideal truck for the job GTS needed it to do: hauling wine and beer from Mildura to Melbourne and Adelaide.

A very reliable truck

“The Super-Liner’s fuel economy is above average for our fleet,” says Fleet Manager Angelo Rodi, “and the driver acceptance is very good, they like the m DRIVE automated manual transmission and they tell me that the ride in the cab is very smooth compared with other trucks.”

So, will Mack be on the table next time?

“This truck’s been swapping trailers and going continuously since we got it, so we’ve decided to buy it,” says Damien, “and the next time we’re looking for a truck we’ll definitely be considering Mack.”