“Mack’s after-sales support is second to none.”

Richers Transport have 75 Macks and their latest are all-Mack Gold Bulldogs. Why? Because it gives them reliability, dependability and re-sale value.

Richers Transport started out in 1935 with a single Model-T Ford doing ice deliveries in Maryborough, Queensland. Today, Richers is a transport juggernaut that bestrides the eastern seaboard of Australia in the form of 100 prime movers, over 200 trailers and around 70 other working vehicles.

“We haul a lot of timber finished products, plasterboard, groceries, soft drink, that sort of thing,” says Managing Director Graham Richers, “we range from Cairns to Melbourne. For us it’s all about the customer.”

75 Macks and counting

The fleet is a mixture of single tri-axle trailers and B-doubles, with Macks making up the bulk of the fleet.

“We’ve just bought a number of Mack’s which takes us to 75 now,” says Graham, “the new ones are all Granites with 500hp MP8 engines. We run a mixture of Tridents and Granites with the Visions that we bought some time ago, are all going strong. The Granite’s an ideal truck for what we want to do, it’s got light tare weight and exactly the horsepower we -need. For the loads we’re hauling 500hp is enough, and in the operation we don’t need the next level.”

All-Mack and for a good reason

The new Granites are Gold Bulldogs with the all-Mack powertrain, and they’ll see constant service for four years.

“We turn our highway trucks over every four years,” says Graham, “and during those four years we only want to do the standard servicing and not have to look inside the engine once. Then we can pass them on to someone else and they can continue to get value out of them. That’s what buying all-Mack does for us, it gives us reliability, dependability and re-sale value.”

In-close manoeuvrability and long-haul comfort

The Granites give Graham’s drivers the manoeuvrability they need for the in-close work, plus the comfort for the long hauls.

“We’re a multi-pickup, multi-delivery operation,” says Graham, “so being able to get in and out of urban spaces easily is important, and we’ve had a very favourable response from our drivers, especially to the m DRIVE transmission.”

For Graham though, the thing that sets Mack apart is the after-sales service.

“Back in 1999 we bought eight or nine Value-Liners, they were our first Macks in fact,” says Graham, “and we had a camshaft issue with one of them. Mack responded very well and when the problem was identified they supplied a loan truck and upgraded the fleet straight away. We weren’t left poken down on the side of the highway, and that’s what counts.”

Second-to-none

Graham’s been buying his Macks from the Brisbane dealership for 15 years and has experienced a consistent attitude from the team there.

“Mack’s after-sales service is second to none,” says Graham, “their product support is what’s made us hang in there with Mack all this time, and I expect that to continue.”