South Australian soil business Jeffries has expanded its fleet, which it uses to service those in the landscape and building industries through to councils, schools and many in between.
The Jeffries family has been in the industry for generations, first moving to Australia in the 1800s. Like many families in South Australia at the time, they got into farming with the 1920s seeing industrious members of the large family branch into transporting goods and materials for nearby farms.
This led to the very beginnings of their Isuzu truck fleet, which like the Jeffries family business, has evolved over time.
Their newest trucks are two medium-wheelbase Isuzu FVY 240-300 Autos with green waste compactor bodies, collected recently from Northeast Isuzu in Adelaide.
They join a fleet of other medium-and heavy-duty Isuzu trucks including FVY 240-300 compactors, tippers, trailer and water trucks, an FVY 240-300 with agitator, a Gigamax EXY 260-520 fitted with a quad dog trailer and tipper body, and an additional Gigamax for the heavier grunt work.
“The first generation of Jeffries in Adelaide had 13 children, and our branch of the family are descended from the youngest child,” said Lachlan Jeffries, executive chairman of the Jeffries company.
“As you can imagine, there wasn’t a lot of the family farm left to work on – by the time of the Depression in the 1920s, the family had diversified, purchasing trucks to cart manure and firewood to businesses in the area.
“The foundation of Jeffries today comes off the back of that transportation and trucking for those industries.”
The Isuzu FVY 240-300 Auto platform was recommended by their local Northeast Isuzu dealership for its combination of power, payload and size that can be tailored to the host of applications that the business conducts: from tipping to towing, compacting and agitating.
The FVY is specified with a GVM of 24,000kg and a GCM of 36,000kg, which leaves plenty of payload for collecting organic material or delivering horticulture supplies to busy growers.
It’s powered by Isuzu’s 6HK1-TCS 6-cylinder 24 valve engine, which outputs 221 kW (300 PS) at 2400 rpm and 981 Nm at 1450 rpm.
“We need our Isuzu compactor trucks to be able to manoeuvre in the CBD, but we also want to have maximum payload, so that we don’t make unnecessary trips back to the site to load up,” Lachlan said.
Their tippers can also be seen on the road daily transporting soil, compost, mulch and fertilisers to Jeffries’ many and varied customers across South Australia, and their water truck is on site for dust management during construction activities.
Lachlan added, “Comfort is an important factor for the drivers because they are getting in and out of the truck roughly a hundred times a day.
“Compared to competing brands on the truck market, they find the Isuzu trucks easy to operate and comfortable to drive.
“We think there is a good balance between innovation and reliability of the product, which is why we continue to partner with them.”
Over the years, Jeffries has developed a unique combination of products and services that are in demand from a wide range of clients.
These include a thriving brand of organic composts, soils and mulches, many of which are the product of collection partnerships with the council, local supermarkets, hotels, restaurants and food processors keen to find an alternative for their organic material disposal.
The demand is so high that Jeffries have designed their own state-of-the-art recycled organics sorting system.
“We have large customers who generate organic resources, including government and city councils, and we partner with major waste companies such as Cleanaway and Veolia,” said Lachlan.
“We also have bulk products that we sell to a range of landscape supply yards. These products go back to home gardeners and landscapers and are used in small domestic projects through to large-scale jobs like parks and recreation areas.
“We think we play a key role in moving Adelaide towards a more circular process where items are either reused or recycled,” he continued.
“Our purpose is to create value out of that material and also provide value for our customers who find a home for their organic materials.”