Mack Trucks bearing the Karreman Quarries name have become a familiar sight along Brisbane roads, and that’s not surprising, given the business has just taken delivery of its 500th Mack.
The gold 100 year Mack Trident was at the centre of this major milestone for the Mount Cotton based company, which provides road base for projects across South East Queensland.
“This truck is a serious milestone for me personally,” says Karreman Quarries Managing Director, Dick Karreman. “We never set out to go buy 500 Macks, I’m surprised I’ve lived long enough to see it.”
Dick started the business in 1970 with his late brother Maarten Karreman. Now the new Mack truck and dog are a tribute to Maarten, with the trailers bearing his name and picture.
The brothers purchased their first Mack in 1974 and Dick says he’s never looked back.
Dick recalls a conversation he had with a pioneering Mack operator as a young operator in Western Queensland, “There was a guy called Des Stevenson who owned Cubbie Station, and he used to run doubles with fresh produce to Darwin.
“Des said to me, ‘What’s your dream? What’s your goal?’ And I replied that I want one of those B61 Macks one day,” says Dick.
“30 odd years later I get invited to lunch with Des and we hadn’t seen each other for well over 25 odd years. By the time we got to desert he asked, did you ever get to own that Mack son? I said yeah we got a few, we’ve got about 40 of them. By this time the company was running R models. The Karreman fleet now numbers 100 trucks on the road as the family business continues to forge ahead with a new generation stepping in to take the helm. I never dreamt I’d see it.”
The Trident truck and dog combination has been a mainstay of the Karreman fleet for many years, however PBS has only added to the efficiencies of the business both in terms of fuel and productivity. “Everything we run is PBS, we’re getting 57.5 tonnes gross, and we are getting 40 tonne payloads,” Dick says.
“That’s unheard of when you compare it to a B-double and other combinations, that’s the best payload you are going to get out of a vehicle. PBS is the best way to go economically, for value and productivity.”
Local manufacturing, coupled with a quality product and service, has been a key reason that Dick continues to purchase Macks.
“Fundamentally, the fact that they are built here Australia is part and parcel of our decision to buy Mack,” says Dick.
“We build new crushing plants, and we build them ourselves, we source the steel here, we source the engineering here, those basic principles, that support our own, the fact that it can be built in Queensland. That’s fundamentally the Mack story and our relationship with the brand. We’d like to think that it’s been a partnership that goes both ways.”