Looking Back at Some Trucking Legends

Every year at the Australian Trucking Association conference, the Kenworth Legends lunch entertains us by looking back at some trucking legends who have been the backbone of the trucking industry for many years. Last week, at Trucking Australia 24, it was the turn of the Murada brothers to get their share of the limelight.

Three years ago, the brothers were featured as the lead story in PowerTorque magazine and anyone interested in finding out more about two interesting old school characters, can get more of their story on our website.

In 1979 brothers Kevin, David and Peter Murada started a trucking business, Metal Transport Industries, hauling scrap metal for BHP at Wollongong. Having started with four trucks, the company has grown and diversified over the years to include heavy haulage and oversize work, reported Paul Matthei.

With the four semi-tipper combinations and a scrap steel cartage contract with BHP in hand, Metal Transport Industries was off to a flying start and everything went smoothly for the first four years or so. However, in 1984 a large haulage company based at Wollongong decided it wanted a piece of the Murada brothers’ pie.

“We were undercut on price and lost the BHP contract which forced us to sell three of the trucks,” says Dave. “But a year later we won it back again because BPH realised they weren’t getting the same top-shelf service from the other company that we had been giving them.”

Although it was a temporary setback for the business, the brothers fought back and continued to build it to the point where, by the late ‘80s, they had nine trucks doing the scrap metal haulage.

In the mid-‘90s, when the B-double first started on its meteoric rise to domination of the line-haul trailer market, the company embraced the combination in both tipper and flat-top formats for its tinplate scrap carting operation, hauling scrap metal for BHP.