Despite admitting that business has been busier than ever, this family owned car carrying operation will close its doors, following the owner’s difficult decision to step away and move into retirement.
Operating out of Kempsey on the Mid North Coast, M. T. Andrews Auto Freighters will officially cease its operations next month.
Business owner Max ‘Shag’ Andrews has built a hugely successful business and was even inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in 2021.
For Max, it all began in 1973 with a red J2 Bedford truck that he and his brothers used to transport cars between Sydney and Kempsey.
But Max quickly found that truck to be inadequate for the task at hand due to its lack of power. To overcome the issue, he installed a V8 Ford Motor from his brother’s speed boat into the truck, along with a Ford 500 radiator to ensure proper engine cooling.
As business grew, Max purchased a second truck in 1974, a green Chevrolet and began to hire his first drivers.
By 1997, Max acquired land and a shed to establish a depot in Kempsey, which was complete with storage facilities for customer vehicles, an office, and a workshop to service the continually expanding fleet.
Fast forward to today, and his fleet is made up of dozens of car carriers that offer transport across Australia, with more than 50 employees helping to keep the wheels turning.
M.T. Andrews has been moving an average of over 500 cars each week.
Business has been so busy in fact that Max only recently added a few more trucks to the fleet to keep up with growing demand.
But despite things still going very strong, this transport legend knew the time was right to walk away from the business he built from the ground up.
A family business in every sense of the word, Max has had his daughters working in the office, his grandchildren running around the yard and dozens of long term employees.
With the official business closure to take place in June, M. T. Andrews Auto Freighters will continue transporting cars until the end of May.
From there, the company’s fleet of trucks and car carriers will be going straight under the hammer, in an auction hosted by Pickles from Tuesday June 4 until Thursday June 6.
Taking a great amount of pride in his fleet, Max has upgraded his fleet every five years for the last 50 years.
With the vast majority of the assets up for grabs being 2020 or newer models, the auction house is confident M. T. Andrews Auto Freighters’ assets will be snapped up quickly.
“This much interest is to be expected, with some of the hot ticket items including Australia’s only custom-built 12 pack car carrier, an 11 pack B-double and many 8 car carriers,” said Pickles.
“These rare assets have caused a lot of commotion, though Max expects that his range of three car carriers may get bids from ‘every man and his dog’ as the small carriers are highly sought after by city-based transporters.”
As he looks forward to his chapter, Max says he’s planning on spending his retirement on a cruiser in Coffs Harbour, fishing and living life.
To view the auction, click here.