SGGS relies on Vawdrey trailers for transporting cargo across Australia

Founded in 2013 with one truck, the Queensland-based transport company, SGGS Transport,  has enjoyed a journey of growth alongside their fleet of more than 80 Vawdrey trailers – and counting. 

SGGS Transport acquired its first Vawdrey trailer in 2018 and has continued to invest in the vehicles ever since. According to General Manager Adam Fraser, SGGS was recently tasked with transporting a variety of cargo from medical supplies to Dangerous Goods (DG) and relied completely on their Vawdrey trailers to get the job done.

“Since started dealing with Vawdrey,” says Adam. “We have grown our relationship to the point where they now have 100 per cent of our market.”

This trust in the Vawdrey product, Adam explains, comes down to excellent quality.

“We purchase them because of the quality of build, the design and their flexibility,” he says. “Vawdrey will work with us and with our customers. We’re very versatile across the fleet, so we deal with a lot of different carriers and different customers. If we’re working with Toll or Mainfreight, for example, we’ll need to change our colour curtains and Vawdrey’s very flexible with that.”

Adam adds that Vawdrey is very dependable when it comes to Performance-Based Standards (PBS) for all of its trailers out of Melbourne and they basically go hand-in-hand with what they are trying to achieve.

SGGS’ most recent trailer order includes drop deck Titeliner B-double sets, fitted with Weweler air suspension, Fuwa K-Hitch axles, 22.5-inch drum brakes and Electronic Braking System (EBS).

In terms of size, the trailers are 45’ in length and can carry up to 22 pallets each. They stretch to a width of 2,500 millimetres and stand tall at an overall height of 4,300 millimetres.

“They’ve got rear doors which are bulk DG compatible, and some have got flexible polystyrene for different customers,” Adam says. “Their mezz floors are better than other builders as well. The way the curtains are set up are really accessible – everything’s just been really easy and it’s much easier to get stock control as well.”

SGGS has ordered the same Vawdrey specification since its first purchase in 2018 which makes the ordering process seamless.

“The whole way through they know what we want, they know how we work,” Adam says. “Since 2018, we’ve ordered the exact same build and from there it’s just designing it for each customer need. They ask you what you need, we tell them what we want, they send you the plans and drawings and they’ll configure your truck with the drawing to make sure it meets legal standards. They’re basically there the whole way through the build.”

A lot of heavy vehicle manufacturers are currently seeing delays in getting their trailers off the production line. With SGGS’ size and large customer base, arrival times of new trailers are critical for the company. Adam explains that Vawdrey has been able to accommodate them in a time of global shortages, as there have been no issues with stock availability.

“That’s a big issue – servicing all of Australia with our trailers,” he says. “Stock is very hard to get with some suppliers that build trailers, but Vawdrey has been very good at supplying what we need, when we need it.”

Vawdrey’s aftersales service is known to many customers in the transport industry to be nothing short of astonishing – which is one of the reasons why SGGS chose them to transport its cargo across Australia.

“Aftersales has been no issue,” he says. “There has been one or two minor things where there’s obviously been shipping delays due to Covid and things like that, but there’s no real major setbacks when we’ve needed something. At the end of the day, we get a good agreement in the back end. The reliability to customer service might be due to the size of our fleet, but also just being their communication and trust point is what gets us.”

Originally published on Trailer Magazine.