Austrak goes large at Wagga Wagga factory

Australian rail infrastructure manufacturer Austrak has turned to the reliability, safety and service of Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA) to help maximise the efficiency of its operations at its Wagga Wagga factory.

Austrak is a leader in the manufacture of heavy-duty pre-stressed concrete sleepers used in railway infrastructure and have the capacity to produce up to one million sleepers per year across three factories in Wagga Wagga, Geelong and Rockhampton.

Austrak recently took delivery of two new heavy-duty 4FD120 forklifts, featuring a load capacity of up to 12,000kg, making them perfect for hauling large concrete sleepers around the Wagga Wagga warehouse.

Furthermore, Austrak has consolidated its entire Wagga Wagga forklift fleet – totalling five units – to Toyota products, with two leased 2.5-tonne forklifts and one 8-tonne unit.

The company decided to add the two new 4FD120 units to its fleet as it is currently manufacturing rail sleepers for the Inland Rail project – a 1,600km freight line stretching from Melbourne to Brisbane which requires huge amounts of sleeper movement and storage.

Austrak Wagga Wagga factory manager Jim Stevenson said the company wanted to consolidate its fleet into a single brand, and his experience with the reliability and performance of Toyota products gave TMHA the edge over its competitors.

“We’ve had a few Toyotas and through that relationship the decision was taken to purchase a couple of brand-new units, but also to transfer all our forklift fleet to Toyota,” Mr Stevenson said.

“Previously, we’ve had a mix of suppliers in terms of brands and service, and the specification of those machines has been quite mixed, and in some cases, unsatisfactory.

“We’ve bought two bigger brand-new units, but we also have three other forklifts on site, and we’ve basically changed everything over to Toyota.”

Mr Stevenson said there were multiple reasons why Austrak chose TMHA as its sole supplier for the Wagga Wagga factory.

“That decision was around the quality of the machine, the features that you get on the machine, and the after-purchase service and customer support is really good from Toyota,” he said.

Mr Stevenson has extensive experience with TMHA products, using them in previous jobs before his factory manager role with Austrak.

Part of the reason for standardising Austrak’s fleet to Toyota forklifts was based on his history with the brand, experiencing first-hand the exceptional reliability and top-class service provided by TMHA’s technicians and sales managers.

“The last site I was on, we had something like 15 or 20 units and they were all Toyota, and we had a strong relationship – I previously had really good service in that role,” he said.

“I tried different forklifts at different times, but in the end, Toyota really are the best units in my view, the most reliable. The service support is really good.

“I think from an all-round perspective Toyota seems to be at the pointy end, in my experience.”

TMHA’s team of technicians have also done an admirable job of offering top-class service for Mr Stevenson and Austrak.

“I’m really happy with the service and also the quality of the technician,” he said. The guys Toyota have got are experienced, know what they’re doing, do a good job, clean up when they’re finished… I like what they bring to the table.”

When the decision was made by Austrak to standardise its forklift fleet to single brand, it reached out to its three existing suppliers to determine which company would win its business.

A combination of factors helped sway the company to TMHA – not just the performance of the machines, but also the service provided which helped Austrak optimise its fleet.

“Essentially the features, the type of unit and the pricing from Toyota were very competitive,” Mr Stevenson said.

“The other factor was they had an engineer come to the site, look at the lifting activities that we did, and we were looking to optimise – we didn’t want anything too big or small, and no one else was able to do that.

“The engineer looked at our operations, did some calculations and came back and said, ‘right, this is the best size forklift that will suit’, because we do have some physical constraints in terms of movement around the site, so that part of it was also positive.”

The addition of the new forklifts have provided Austrak operators and supervisors with valuable benefits not found on older machines, including PIN-code start-up and Toyota’s exclusive telematics  “I_Site” fleet management system, which provides supervisors with an array of valuable information including fleet utilisation, downtime, OH&S incidents and breakdown information to ensure the fleet runs as smoothly as possible.

Furthermore, the ergonomics of the new forklifts make jobs easier and safer for operators.

“One of the significant comments we’ve had from a safety perspective is that forward visibility is hugely improved over what we’ve had before,” Mr Stevenson said.

“From my perspective, we load trucks, we move stuff around with people doing other bits and pieces – any time you improve visibility for the driver, that’s a good thing.”

Queanbeyan-based TMHA area service manager Nathan Charnock and his team have cultivated a strong relationship with Austrak and Mr Stevenson, dropping in regularly to see how the business is travelling, and sometimes to just say hi.

Mr Charnock ensured the delivery process of the new forklifts went as smoothly as possible, helping to brief Austrak’s operators and managers on the machinery’s features and systems and working to Austrak’s delivery process.

“The pre-delivery and delivery they kept me in the loop with what was going on,” Mr Stevenson said. “We have a process too where we do a pre-mobilisation check sheet for the supplier to fill out, then when the equipment arrives we go through it to double-check and sign off, and that pre-mobilisation process went off without a hitch.

“So from that perspective it couldn’t have gone any better than what it did. They were here on the day that they said, at the time that they said, all of that was good.”

Overall Mr Stevenson said he was very satisfied as a partner of Toyota, evidenced by switching Austrak’s entire Wagga Wagga fleet to TMHA.

“We really haven’t had any issues, and if we have we contact them, if we want any information about the machine or from a service perspective the response has been good, so I’m very happy,” he said.

“We’re finding reliability is great, service is good, so we’re more than happy.”

Mr Stevenson has even put Austrak’s other factory managers in Victoria and Queensland in contact with Toyota, as the other factories are also looking to standardise their fleets.

“Geelong and Rockhampton are also looking at their fleets, and I’ve recommended Toyota to both those factory managers and have spoken to my contact, so the relevant Toyota salespeople in those states have been contacted already and the conversations are underway,” he said.