Colpak celebrate with their first Mack

A brilliant example of a successful family business, Colin and his sons Jacob and Mason have spent years building Colpak up into one of Australia’s leading heavy haulage and logistics providers. With a second grandson due to arrive soon, Colin recently started thinking about retirement, but realised he wasn’t quite ready for that.

“I wanted to be able to go trucking now and again,” says Colin, “and give the boys some time off the road. I realised that in all this time I’ve never bought myself a truck, so I started thinking about what I’d like that would still be a solid working truck the boys could use.”

The family have a big fleet of cab-overs, but Colin knew that if he bought one of those his sons wouldn’t drive it.

“They’re big fans of the whole American bonneted look,” says Colin, “so I thought, well, what combines all of these things we like? The answer was the Mack Titan. I put this idea to Jacob and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so excited.”

Given the varied nature of the work the company does, any truck Colin bought had to be versatile enough to handle a wide range of jobs and weights.

“This Titan will do everything,” says Jacob, “from drop-deck trailers to 10-wheel platforms, and it’s rated up to 220 tonnes. When Dad bought it, he told me to go to town on it, so it’s got all the drivetrain gear we love: ultra-low speed crawlers, crawl reverse, hub reduction diffs and of course the mDRIVE automated manual transmission.

“The Titan has the same driveline as the Volvos we use, and we’ve found them be very versatile: you can put a single trailer on them for highway work or a float out in the bush and it doesn’t phase them. That driveline is absolutely miles in front of the competition and we’re expecting the Titan to be the same.”

The Titan will be a working truck, but only Colin and his sons will be driving it.

“It’s not a toy,” says Colin, “it’ll work, but I put in a few little features for myself, like a coffee machine. I don’t need a TV, but if I pull up in the middle of nowhere, I don’t want to have to drive 200 kilometres in the morning to get a cup of coffee.”

The Titan clearly combines the best of all worlds for Colin and his sons.

“It’s got all the gear and power for the heavy stuff,” says Jacob, “and it’s got that big flat bonnet look that Mason and I love. It looks great coming down the highway, and let’s face it, it’s all about looking good.”

With the prospect of semi-retirement ahead, and with Jacob about to become a father for the second time, Colin is keen to take some of the driving work off his sons’ shoulders, get out of the office and go trucking a bit more.

“I’ll be taking my grandson along when we pick up the Titan,” says Colin, “I reckon he’ll be as thrilled with it as I am. It’s going to be great fun getting out on the road in my own truck set up just the way I like it, and it’ll give the boys a bit more time with their families, so everyone wins.”

When asked about this particular Titan, Tony O’Connell, Vice President Mack Trucks Australia, said “This is a unique example of the appeal and versatility of the Mack truck: this Titan has all the power and utility that a heavy transport business like Colpak needs, while also providing the visual appeal and driver comfort to suit everyone who will drive it. It’s a real pleasure to be able to hand over this truck to Colin, we know he’s going to love driving it.”

Jacob is also looking to a future that includes more Macks.

“The regs have changed a bit lately so we’ve got a few more opportunities to use bonneted trucks where we previously had to use cab-overs,” he says.

“This is our first Mack, but I’m pretty confident it won’t be our last.”