Family business CRL Express has come a long way since its beginnings in 2018, growing from a modest linehaul transport operator to a leader in Australia’s freight forwarding sector.
It has moved its headquarters to a world-class facility in Melbourne, almost four times the size of its original base in Sydney, and just signed the lease on a new 5800m2 warehouse in Brisbane.
CRL’s founder and managing director, Roy Kazamias, said he’s proud of how much the company has expanded in such a short time.
“When we started it was just me, myself and I in the office.
“I did one job in December 2018 and now we’re averaging about 2500 jobs a week.
“Day-to-day, I’m so focused on the company’s operations that I barely have time to think about how much we have grown.
“But it really hit me last Christmas, when we bought over 70 Christmas presents for our personnel – that’s a lot of people!”
He said one of the secrets to CRL’s success is its understanding of what the client needs.
“A lot of the success of the business has come from business development, sales and providing a solution to the clients,” he continued.
“Clients want a personal service. They want to be able to speak to a person on the phone, not a robot.
“From speaking to our clients, we really understand what they like and what they don’t like.
“Then using that digital growth strategy, ensuring you stick to what clients want, will enable you to have fast growth.”
Having the right trailer partner has also played a key role in helping to grow the business, and Kazamias decided to go with Krueger for a number of reasons.
“Krueger is one of the leaders in the trucking world, especially for tautliner trailers,” he said.
“It’s a quality product, manufactured in Australia.
“They are also a family business, which is important to us because we are a family business.
“That means we share similar values. When you’re talking about a family business, you’re talking about a business that really cares.”
Kazamias is extremely happy with their partnership so far and says Krueger have been “outstanding” to work with.
“They have provided a solution to us, but they have also improved our service,” he said.
“It’s not like a truck dealership where you buy the trailers and walk away.
“Every day, they are advising us on PBS configurations and how to do things more efficiently.”
CRL currently has six Krueger trailer combinations, with another six on order.
“The trailers have awesome specs, and their durability is amazing,” Kazamias added.
“Our forklift drivers also say they are very easily handled.”
Krueger’s national sales manager George Athanasi with CRL director Roy Kazamias and Krueger’s national sales director Grant Kreuger. Image: KruegerOver the past few years, Krueger has been supplying 34 pallet Double and Single Drop B-double Kurtainers to CRL, which has enabled the business to take on larger scale works.
In addition to their warehousing facility, this has put them in a place to be a major player with customers looking for large volume freight.
“It’s the type of trailer that you can get over 110m3 on, easily,” Kazamias said.
“That enables us to cart more freight and more volume.
“Obviously, more freight equals more volume and more revenue on a vehicle.
“That enables us to move forward with better credibility, and more money can go back into the business.”
George Athanasi, national sales manager at Krueger, said that understanding the loads carried by CRL has helped them to provide the right trailers for their needs.
“Capacity has been the biggest thing so far,” he said.
“The next is to understand the load so we can recommend things such as our patent Slide-A-Gate system, or load restraint curtains that make both the trailer and the load safer.
“Understanding what they are carrying, and how much, has been the most important part of the process.
He said that Kazamias has very specific requests for CRL’s assets, which is not uncommon.
“Obviously, we promote and push Krueger OEM as much as we can but at the end of the day, we have great relationships with all suppliers in the market and can provide whatever combination of axle, fifth wheel or landing legs to the needs or wants of the customer.”
He added that the future is bright for CRL and Krueger’s partnership, with some bigger combinations on the horizon.
“As CRL has really pushed in the 3PL space with a world class facility based in Melbourne, we can offer larger capacity combinations with our B-triple and AB-triple PBS road trains in the future, and maybe even our dry van B or RollBack A B combinations that we look to push further this year,” he said.
“As Roy and CRL Express continue to build their business, Krueger will be there all the way.”
For more information on Krueger’s products visit krueger.com.au or phone (03) 8331 6100.
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