Reliability and safety: why BHT choose Mack

Since Peter Karger started Bordertown Haulage and Trading (BHT) in 1980, Macks have been an integral part of the company’s operations. With operations extending as far afield as Esperance in Western Australia and Townsville in north Queensland, BHT’s tippers and drop-deck flat tops deliver grain, hay, gypsum, gravel and general freight country-wide.

Angus Karger, who took over the business in 2006, says Macks have been around his whole life.

“I joined the business in 1982, the day I was born,” says Angus, “there’s a picture of me when I was a baby, standing in Dad’s old R600 with my hands on the steering wheel,” he says, “so I was probably always going to get a Mack myself.”

Not that it was a snap decision. The company had tried trucks from a range of other manufacturers, but consistently found them to be unreliable, expensive to maintain, or simply out of date when it came to technology.

When Mack introduced models that had disc brakes and the m DRIVE automated manual gearbox as standard, the decision made itself.

“We’re only a small family business,” says Angus, “but we’ve always been all-in on safety. We started out early on putting disc brakes on our trailers, and we were always looking for automatics, so when Mack brought out the Super-Liner it fitted our requirements perfectly.”

He hasn’t looked back, acquiring two more Super-Liners, including one of the Centenary models, all of them maintained through Mack service agreements.

“I’m a diesel mechanic, but I know my limitations,” says Angus, “so I look after a couple of the old trucks, but Mack do all our servicing, and that’s one reason they’re so reliable. I like that Mack take responsibility for the whole truck, there’s none of this ‘that’s someone else’s problem’ stuff.”

After growing up in the house that still sits in the front of the depot, Angus went to boarding school, then joined the army in the year 2000 where he trained as a diesel mechanic. After six years of service that included a stint in Afghanistan, he came back and joined the family business in 2006.

This might explain why, besides the Super-Liners, there’s one more Mack in the fleet: a 6x6 ex-army tipper he bought at auction, still in its camouflage paint.

“Yeah, I had my eye on it for a while, and one day it was up for auction so I took the opportunity, fixed it up and got it registered.”

While the tipper is used mostly locally, the other Macks roam far and wide.

“We’ve got them set up as PBS A-Doubles and a PBS rigid five-axle dog,” says Angus, “ so we can handle a pretty wide range of loads.”

A typical journey could be from the depot in Bordertown, just inside South Australia on the Victorian border, to somewhere reasonably local like Geelong, or as far away as north Queensland.

“We’ve always had a lot of work coming in and out of Brisbane,” says Angus, “a truck could be away for a day or two weeks, it all depends on the job.”

Speaking of Brisbane, that’s another aspect that Angus likes about the Macks: they’re Australian-made.

“I like that these trucks come out of Brisbane,” he says, “it’s Australian-made and that’s pretty rare these days. Mack have made it easy for us too, they know what we need and they make sure when we order a new one that it’s got the same specs as the last. There’s no surprises, and we know we can rely on them.”

Tony O’Connell, Vice President of Sales Mack Australia, said “BHT are a perfect example of the kind of Australian family business that have made Mack trucks the icon they are in this country. A BHT Super-Liner B-Double going down the highway is a fantastic sight, and all part of the rich heritage of road transport in this huge country. We’re honoured to be a part of it.”