Based in the Queensland suburb of Virginia, Brisbane Semi Trailer Rentals is a new business started by Jeff Baker, who has been in the transport industry for over 20 years.
Starting out with one tipper, then another, before moving into linehaul, Baker grew his fleet to around a dozen trucks, running all across Australia – before recently taking a change of direction.
“I was struggling to find good drivers, the price of fuel was going up and wages were increasing, so I decided to downsize my business. Our fuel bill had gone up by $90,000 a month when we had all our trucks, so from 12-14 prime movers, I’m now only running five,” explained Baker. “We’ll continue to service our primary contracts with our core fleet of prime movers, and continue to build our subcontractor and tow-haul fleet for ad-hoc work, but I needed to do something with our excess trailer assets.”
With a diverse fleet of late model trailers, he saw an opportunity to start a new business of a different kind – a semi trailer hire business. “I had a fair few trailers sitting around and people kept saying, ‘Why don’t you hire them out?’ I was paying registration and insurance on them, but they weren’t getting used. You don’t want to leave a set of trailers just sitting in the yard. And I’m getting a bit long in the tooth now and am trying to work smarter, not harder. So I saw a business opportunity and Brisbane Semi Trailer Rentals was born.
“With trailers, there is less that can go wrong than with trucks, so I’m selling some prime movers and renting out my surplus trailers.
“There is a fairly long wait now for new-build trailers, with waits of approximately 12-18 months to two years from many of the major trailer manufacturers. But transport operators are needing the equipment now – and these trailers are available for hire straight away.”
For hire are a mixture of high quality, late model trailers that range from 2015 to just a few weeks old. There are approximately 35 pieces of equipment available, manufactured by the likes of Vawdrey Australia, Barker Trailers and Freighter.
“The majority are newer sets. I’ve picked up three new B-double sets of tautliners in the past 12 months – the most recent only just arrived. In the fleet, we have a mixture of drop decks with ramps, fridge vans, open flat tops, drop deck mezzanine and flat tautliners, and more, across both A and B trailers,” explained Baker.
Brisbane Semi Trailer Rentals offers short and long term hire, with great rates. “Come and lock in a two-year deal. It’s a capped weekly fee and is not charged per kilometre. We have even better rates available for long-term hire.”