The majority of the drivers that are driving the new Hino Hybrids being run by Motus Transport have been with the business for a long time.

They regard being handed the keys of a hybrid as a reward. Andy reckons they treat them like their babies. The team have been keen take hybrids on board and give Andy and Emily feedback themselves, showing them little tricks, saying things like, ‘it saves fuel and when I do this’.

The operation began in 2016 with Andy hiring a van and Emily processing orders from home. The growth in the intervening years has seen the fleet grow to over 70 vehicles transporting craft beer and other beverages across a large area of NSW and SE Queensland.

“We spend a lot of money on fuel, but, for us, it’s really making sure that we’re very much conscious of the environment,” says Andy.

“We actually had an opportunity to get a fully electric truck, but I don’t think that they’re there yet. We want to make sure that we’re doing the right thing. Our customers haven’t started asking us to reduce emissions a lot yet, because I think that all businesses are working on themselves at the moment.”

“My wife and I, we’re both 39/40, we’ve still got our first driver and he’s probably the oldest in our business at 54,” says Andy.

“We do a bit of heavy lifting, the majority of the business, is younger. A lot of people talk about employing younger people.

“It’s just the way we treat them compared to other businesses. We work in the beverage industry. So when it comes down to it, it’s a fun industry to work in. We’re not delivering carpet, we’re not delivering cement, they actually like doing the job, they get to interact with venues, pubs, clubs, restaurants.

“Sometimes some of the older drivers are stuck in their ways, but with young people, it’s really easy to train them our way, which we find quite refreshing.”

Image: Toby Zerna/The Photo Pitch

An issue in Sydney and Brisbane and in the bigger cities, is having enough room to park a fleet of this size, when industrial space is at a premium. So, if Motus drivers treat a vehicle like it is their own, the company will allow them to take it home. Semi trailers and the bigger trucks are parked at home base.

“We trust our drivers, and to be honest, I can probably name on the fingers of my hand when people have abused that,” says Andy.

“We try as much as we can to work with them. If they live in the inner west of Sydney we try to have them finish relatively close to their home, which works for them. We implore drivers to talk to us, if they have to look after their kids, or they need to be at sports training or something, we try and work with them.”

There’s also a lot of DC work for Motus, going into Coles, Woolworths, Australian Liquor Marketers (part of Metcash), Independent Liquor Group and Paramount liquor. The operation brings in liquor from it’s customers, and consolidates the loads for the required DCs. ALM sell to all the bottle shops and their consolidated loads are bigger than most.

The trucks all have compact small bodies, built to the Motus spec. The city trucks are lower roofed, with the height inside at 1.6 or 2.2 metres, so they can get into loading docks.

The fleet have three body specs and they call them Mini Me, Medium Me and then Tautliner. Mini Me and Medium Me are the city trucks, pantechs. The truck bodies have signage on them for Motus’s customers on the van rear doors and Motus signage on the side.

“We try to keep our trucks for about four or five years, but we’ve had some massive growth,” says Andy.

“We try to switch them out as soon as we can. There’s some trucks that haven’t done the kms because they’re only going from here into the city and those we will keep longer. We just liaise with Hino and make sure they’re good.

“We’ve just had a few bodies redone, when they looked a bit tired after that length of time. We try to move them on and then get newer trucks. I don’t like having tired old trucks.

“For the next few years, we’ll work on our areas and build them out with other beverages, whether it be soft drink, or wine and spirits. We’ve got a bonded warehouse as well, there are opportunities. I see going further North in Queensland would probably be the first step. Wherever there’s an opportunity, we’ll just have a look at it.”