Started in 2005 as a one-truck operation, Eastwell Haulage has grown to a fleet of 37 trucks and over 140 trailers and dollies, servicing the eastern seaboard.
Based in Redbank, Queensland, just over half of the fleet is dedicated to transporting grain and cotton seed, predominantly as AB-triples that run across Queensland, NSW, north-western Victoria and South Australia. The remainder of its work is wide and varied, including transporting containers to and from NSW, and B-double work between Brisbane and Sydney.
The business was started by husband and wife Mark and Robyn Eastwell, and has seen phenomenal growth over the past decade.
Macks and Kenworths make up the vast majority of the prime mover fleet, while Moore Trailers is the trailer brand of choice, all running on Hendrickson suspension.
Mark says that Hendrickson’s INTRAAX suspension has proved to be a winner, helping the business keep its service and maintenance costs down.
“I’ve been using Hendrickson since I bought my first set of Moore trailers. They put us onto Hendrickson and said they were the way to go. I had tried some other brands on some of the trailers we had bought second hand, but I’ve always preferred to stick with Hendrickson after seeing the benefit of their long service life and low maintenance,” he said.
Since 2016, the HXL7 Extended Life Wheel End package has been fitted to all trailers that were purchased new.
“We have a couple of trailers with competitor axle and suspension systems under them and we have to service them every 500,000km. With the older Hendrickson HXL5, we were servicing every 800,000km. But now, with the HXL7, we’re getting up to 1.2 million kilometres. We do all of our scheduled maintenance and, touch wood, we haven’t had one fail on the HXL7. The first trailers we purchased with this model of suspension have passed the 1.2 million km mark and they still had the original brakes on them too, which were still well within specification,” Mark explained.
“So it’s a massive difference, the HXL7 keeps the maintenance costs down. We just don’t have any faults – and our triples aren’t running up and down a bitumen highway all the time, they are doing really hard work.
“The big thing we look at is long service life and low maintenance costs – the less downtime, the better. Some of the cheaper competitor suspension systems have been through the workshops three times for bearing repacks compared to once with these ones.”
Along with the reliability and durability, Mark adds that service and support from Hendrickson is second to none too. “We know if we need support or anything, it’s readily available. Hendrickson has a great service and parts network Australia-wide,” he said.
Now, looking ahead, there’s another 44 trailers and dollies by Moore Trailers set to join the fleet. The first of these were delivered at the end of September and will continue to roll out up to April 2022. And of course, they’ll all feature Hendrickson’s trusty INTRAAX suspension with HXL7 Extended Life Wheel-End System and the TIREMAAX Pro tyre inflation system which maintains air pressure in the tyres for increased tyre life.