“It’s 20% more fuel-efficient than the previous truck.”

Sometimes you need a particular truck for a particular job. When Scott Wilson wanted to set up a truck & dog with a 39.5 tonne trailer, he came to Mack for the truck.

Western Landscape Supplies is a thriving supplier of landscaping products based in Acacia Ridge in Brisbane. The company supplies all manner of bulk landscaping products to south-east Queensland, including soils and sands, gravels and fillings, bark and mulches, as well as paving products. One other thing they do is recycle road surfaces.

“When they dig up a road,” says Scott, “we ping the old asphalt back to our crushing plant and separate out the bitumen from the gravel. We can re-sell the asphalt, but this leaves us with a lot of gravel and dust, so we decided to sell it as landscaping material.”

Heavier than usual

Scott decided to try to arrange a heavier-than-usual combination under a Performance Based Standard (PBS).

“We got a separate permit to be over-length,” says Scott, “then we got the PBS through without too much drama. It’s all to do with weight and axle groupings, and because the loads we’re carrying are light bulk products, it’s quite hard to get a full payload onto the trailer.”

But which truck can handle it?

Scott went to several manufacturers looking for a truck that could pull the PBS-approved trailer, but Mack turned out to be the only supplier that was both PBS-approved, and could supply a truck straight off the factory floor that met the specifications. The truck in question was a 535hp Trident Axle Forward.

“With this PBS trailer we’re getting 39.5 tonne of payload instead of the 31.5 tonne you can carry under a standard configuration. The truck can only travel on B-Double routes because of the weight, so its main duty is to deliver to the landscaping depot and the other trucks deliver to customers from there.”

The driver loves it

“This is our first pand-new Mack,” says Scott, “and the driver loves the MP8 engine and the m DRIVE. He’s also commented on the good vision from the cab and the truck’s stability—with the packaging of the axle configuration it’s a very stable truck, it’s sturdy and doesn’t sway.”

And so does the bottom line

From the perspective of fleet management, Scott’s also happy with the Trident’s fuel consumption.

“It’s 20% more fuel-efficient than the previous truck. When you combine that with an increase in payload of 8 tonne you can see why I’m planning on upgrading the whole fleet to the same configuration with Tridents over the next few years. The PBS costs next to nothing and the increased payload is a major benefit.”

A great experience

Scott enjoys more than just the truck though. Brendan Palmer, the Mack salesman at Brisbane who sold him the truck is a good friend and they enjoy racing speedway on weekends when they get the chance. Mack also pulled out all the stops and managed to deliver the truck a week ahead of schedule.

“The whole experience of buying this truck was good,” says Scott, “and we’ll be using Mack to service it. We specifically wanted a supplier that offered 24-hour servicing with a service centre close by and Mack met both of those requirements.”