FIRST TIME CALLER, LONG TIME LISTENER!
As a company Ray Coles Transport has been trading for just over 40 years. “Started originally by my parents, Ray and Kay Coles, the business has thankfully been able to remain in the family over the generations with quite a few family members still actively involved today, says Barry Coles.”
“As a specialist rural transport operator running out of Taihape, we have a loyal customer base of farmers and other rural suppliers carting livestock, fertiliser, metal and wool among other general rural goods.” The company currently has a fleet of twelve truck and trailer units across a combination of livestock, bulk bin and flat deck setups.
“As a contractor to the family business I have always operated second hand gear, but recently made the leap of faith to purchase a new Domett 5 axle dedicated livestock unit. To be honest, I’ve always been keen on the Domett gear and have kept a close eye on what they offer. However in late December 2020 I was still sitting on the fence as to if the time was right to stick with the existing gear or look for a new configuration.”
“As luck would have it Domett had an unexpected new unit available and a friend of mine sent me a link to an email about it, so I took it as a sign to make the call. Right from the first interaction, the team at Domett made everything feel easy. The new unit had been built at 34 foot, with a 50 tonne rating on 19.5” SAF axles and with all the features and mod cons I wanted, I quickly realised it was all going to come down to if I could get a crate made in a hurry or not. Thankfully, I managed to get a 2 deck/4 deck Total Stockcrate ordered and what would normally have taken months to get everything scoped out, ordered, manufactured, finished and delivered all happened in a number of weeks.”
“I picked the new unit up recently and although it’s still only early days it’s been awesome to tow. Having moved from a 27-foot to a 34-foot trailer I’ve had to learn to drive again to adjust to the larger unit. It’s worth doing though and with the modern units offering greater internal deck height back rub for cattle is significantly better too.”
“I found the entire team at Domett fantastic to deal with. Nothing was a problem and communication was excellent. Their finishing team even gave my truck a bit of a birthday by painting the truck combing rails and replacing the guards to match the new trailer.”
“As a first-time buyer of a new dedicated livestock unit I couldn’t be happier with the new setup and glad the stars aligned for me to be able to jump on this opportunity when it popped up.”
Barry Coles
Ray Coles Transport
