At the age of 21, Milan Stanic founded MS Haulage and purchased his first truck to begin the company’s transport operations in 2015.
While building the company from the ground up during the next few years, he drove tippers and dogs before live bottom trailers were later introduced to the market.
In 2018, Milan started to expand the company as business picked up and, as a result, began investing in other trucks and trailers. Following his two previous purchases with Muscat Trailers, he returned to arrange for a third Live Bottom Etnyre trailer. This time, though, it was fitted with SAF-Holland intra axles and suspension.
“I kept looking at SAF-Holland and I had a couple of people as well that dealt with the SAF-Holland axle and all of their equipment,” Milan says. “I started looking into it more, I did some research and then I decided to bite the bullet and come across. I think I’ve made the right decision in doing that because the trailer just works fantastic, and I think I’ll be sticking with them from now on.”
MS Haulage’s live bottom is being used to cart asphalt for roadworks across Victoria, as well as raw material such as aggregates and sands. Milan says he has used a different brand of live bottom trailers before, but it didn’t stack up to Muscat Trailers.
“I came over to Muscat Trailers because I believe their trailer is a better-quality build and an overall better product than some of the other ones out there,” he says. “Since then, Muscat have stayed on top of everything. We’ve also built a solid relationship, because they don’t look at it as a sale and leave you on your own to figure things out. They do stay loyal.”
According to Muscat Trailers, the Etnyre Live Bottom is the fastest unloading trailer of its kind in the industry. Distributed Nationally, it has the versatility to haul hot mix asphalt, sand, gravel, recycled materials, low slump concrete and aggregates of all kinds.
The Live Bottom Etnyre Falcon features a 42-inch-wide conveyor belt to reduce material bridging, twin product doors which eliminate segregation and allows loads to discharge in a mass, a lighter empty weight to give larger payloads every load, and steeper side walls to prevent sticky material from bridging. And by giving SAF-Holland a chance by applying its components to this unit, Milan says it has paid off in his operations.
“I think SAF-Holland have mastered everything, and in terms of getting that trailer with their brakes and mechanisms to work with my euro prime movers, I think it works a hundred times better,” he says. “It’s much more responsive with my trucks compared to the other setups I was using, and it just feels how one unit should feel. Whereas before it felt like the truck was doing one thing and the trailer was doing another thing, and as much as we tried, we could never fine tune that set up.
“With SAF-Holland, the braking has been better and I’m sure they will last longer too. Everything has worked how a unit should work all together.”
Due to the success the unit has delivered so far, Milan thanks everyone involved, including his broker, Maclean Financial, who has been with the business since day one.
“Thank you to Troy, the team at Muscat and everyone at SAF-Holland,” he says. “I’d like to thank Dayle as well, who runs the aftersales care at Muscat Trailers here in Victoria. He’s always had that anytime, anyplace attitude. He was always there for me throughout the whole process.”
Although MS Haulage’s Etnyre Live Bottom has only done 2,000 kilometres so far, Milan rests assured that it will deliver with SAF-Holland by its side.
“I’m sure it’s going to be a great experience, just going off what I’ve heard from everyone else,” he says. “I’m looking forward to it and I don’t think there’s going to be any dramas at all with how the units are behaving and responding on their own.”
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