Specialising in machinery and military equipment movements across Australia, MK Trucking was started around seven years ago by brothers Mark and Mick Kaandorp.
As Mark explained: “Mick was doing the same sort of work, transporting equipment for someone else but he was having to find his own freight. I’m a fitter and machinist by trade and I was doing work building gas plants in Queensland. That’s when Mick approached me and said, why don’t we go halves and buy our own equipment.”
And with that MK Trucking was born. Based in Wauchope, NSW, and starting out with just one truck – a Freightliner Argosy – and a drop deck trailer, the duo has since grown their fleet to include 10 trucks and a variety of trailers.
There are also two brand new Kenworths ready to join the fleet before the year’s end – a new T909 and a Legend SAR, bringing the fleet up to 12.
Plans are for the T909 to do most of the company’s road train work. “We normally pass along much of our freight for Perth and Darwin because we’ve just been too busy. But with the new 909, we’re hoping to take on more of that road train work ourselves,” said Mark.
“We do a fair bit of work around Sydney with the smaller tilt trays, but the rest of the fleet mainly travels to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. There are a lot of runs into Cairns and Townsville too. Mick and I typically don’t drive, but we keep one tilt tray in the yard so we can jump in it whenever we need to. I’m actually heading through the Sunshine Coast now.
“We’re not the cheapest at what we do but we are very good at what we do. We take extra care in not damaging the machinery during transport and have a lot of customers who’ll only use us because they know we’ll protect their equipment. We take a lot of pride in what we do.”
MK Trucking began using Finlease for its finance needs about five years ago, dealing with equipment finance broker Brady Talbot.
“I had a few loans prior to getting Brady onto our stuff. All I did was show him some loans we had, and he’s looked after me ever since,” said Mark.
“When I spoke to him, he said, ‘Do yourself a favour and get a quote from me for the next one.’ He’s looked after me from the start and so he can look after me to the finish.”
Mark says he’s a “numbers and cents kind of guy”, so making the switch to Finlease was a no brainer.
“If I’m saving money, it makes sense for me to change. He also put me onto an insurance broker too. When I changed insurance brokers, my fleet was half the size of what it is now and I saved about $60,000 straight off the bat.”
Along with the two new prime movers, there’s also another 48ft ramp trailer set to be added to the fleet.
While Mark and Mick are busy keeping their business running, Finlease looks after their finance needs. “They’ve always provided the finance, I haven’t had any knockbacks on any finance I’ve requested. All I have to do is text through a photo of something and tell Brady what I want, and he says leave it with me, and gets back to me within the day. Dealing with Finlease is always very easy,” added Mark.