Regional towns in New South Wales are inevitably road transport hubs and Wagga Wagga is one of the larger ones. PowerTorque spoke to a busy workshop which is growing with the local demand for maintenance services in the region.

In a good sized inland city like Wagga Wagga, the trucking industry is an important element in the local economy, not only for those supplying goods or transporting goods in and out of the city, but also the large number of trucks, passing through en route, either on the north/south route, or on the east/west freight route.

Evidence of the large volume of trucks coming through the town is the lineup of truck workshops and dealerships lining the road as you enter the city from the direction of Sydney. Clearly, there’s plenty of work to keep a truck workshop busy, passing along these routes.

One of the growing facilities servicing the trucking industry is O’Reilly Trucks, based in a facility off the main highway in a small industrial area on the eastern side of town just off that road into the city from Sydney.

Image: Prime Creative Media

What began as a small three man operation, handling the truck and trailer maintenance requirements for one of the transport companies based in the area alongside a few smaller local businesses and farming families, has now grown into a much larger truck and trailer maintenance operation, operating out of a newly expanded facility on the site it started in 2010.

Brad had done his truck maintenance apprenticeship in Cooma, and after finishing his time there, packed up and moved to Wagga. He went and worked for one of the big truck dealerships in the city, before moving on to a job with Detroit Diesel.

Then in 2010, he started his own business, mainly handling the maintenance task of a large local fleet of 120 trucks.

From there the business has picked up a wide variety of customers. In 2018 O’Reilly Trucks became a Scania Dealership for Parts and Service. Two years later, O’Reilly Trucks took over the sales support, parts, and service functions for Western Star Trucks, MAN Truck and Bus, and Dennis Eagle.

As all of these business opportunities came along the need to recruit new staff became an imperative to cope with the growth in work coming through the workshop.

“When a local truck dealership closed, it left a lot of people unsure of their employment, and having a good relationship with these people, we were able to pick up seven or eight of their staff that filled positions in our parts, service and admin departments,” recalls Brad.

The workshop was turning into a substantial business, putting on other staff to handle the warehouse and other tasks.

“To tell you the truth, beforehand, it was quite nice,” says Tracey. “There are a lot of stresses that comes with a growing business. We had a good business before Penske and Scania came along, and it just keeps is still growing. A lot of the growth is down to word of mouth.”

“I’ve had good relationships and been in industry since I was 15,” says Brad.

“My dad had trucks, so I had a rough idea of how to treat operators. Our customer base ranges from owner operator right up to large local fleets and everything in between. They’ve all grown over the years and we’ve had to grow to keep up with them.”