2000th Domett trailer chassis on its way to Hilton Haulage!
Hilton Haulage is a South Island based transport operator running out of its Timaru based head office with a number of regional offices and depots across New Zealand.
With over 200 truck and trailer combinations on the road servicing a wide ranging customer base from Auckland to Invercargill, Fleet General Manager, Steve Scott says “We pride ourselves on maintaining a modern, safe and well maintained vehicle fleet being on average 5 years old.”
“With a focus on quality gear, consistency and safety across our fleet of crane trucks, tankers, flat decks, curtain siders, tippers and container units we set high expectations of both ourselves and our selected truck body and trailer manufacturers. After working with a variety of different manufacturers over the past 25 years, Domett approached us at a time when we were undertaking a review of our current fleet requirements and supplier networks.”
“After a series of discussions and visits we decided to give Domett an opportunity to pitch for some curtain side truck and trailer builds to transport a variety of general freight. The decision to go with them was based on the fact they met the brief in terms of timeline, build spec and price.”
“During the course of our first set of builds, it became evident to us that they too have very high standards and really understand the benefit of providing regular communication and updates including photos during the build progress. Upon visiting their factory, I was highly impressed at the level of care taken with the cab, chassis and wheels to protect it against any chance of damage during the build or overspray during finishing.”
“We are now on to our second batch of curtain side builds which will bring us up to six Domett truck and trailer combinations. As far as on road performance, the gear has been spot on and we haven’t had any issues at all. Our latest build with Domett, which just by chance happens to be their 2000th trailer chassis, is a dry 9 axle curtain side combo that required a bit of creative thinking with regards to the fact that it’s being towed by a large 630HP Mercedes Arocs featuring straight walk-through floors, bunks and a stack of other modern features. Given the weight of this cab and chassis and our requirement to still operate at the high limits of HPMV, the truck body and trailer needed to meet some very specific tare weight targets. I’m not sure Domett would want me to share their trade secrets on how they achieved this, however the end result is their layout plan and quote ticked all the boxes for us in terms of tare weight range, performance, delivery timeframes and price.”
“In many ways our relationship with Domett is still in its infancy, however we have been really impressed with how the partnership has gone to date and we’re keen to continue to evolve this as we look at future builds together”.
Steve Scott
General Manager – Fleet
Hilton Haulage
