After 115 years of service to customers across Victoria, New South Wales, and beyond, Corowa-based Francis Transport is preparing to close its doors this month.
The final deliveries are scheduled for August 15, with a handful of staff staying on to help third-generation owner Mark Francis tie up the loose ends and ready the distinctive red and white fleet for auction.
Mark, who is busy finalising his last delivery commitments when Big Rigs calls, is quick to stress the bittersweet decision to bring the curtain down may be a sad one in many ways, but it’s entirely by choice.
“It’s been some time coming,” Mark tells Big Rigs as he counts down the final days until retirement.
“I’m 68 and it was time to reinvest in a lot of plant and equipment, or not, and I’m pretty tired and worn out now – I can’t imagine what I’d be like in five or six years if I stayed on.”
Francis Transport was started by Mark’s grandfather Arthur (snr) in 1910 when he would haul beer kegs and other freight by horse and cart throughout the Rutherglen district of Victoria.
Later he carted wine from the district wineries to the railhead at Rutherglen using a TT Model Ford, one of the first trucks in the region.
Photos of those early pioneering days hold pride of place in Mark’s busy Corowa office, alongside those of his late father Arthur (Pod) and uncle Leonard (Hec) who took over the reins in 1953.
Both Pod and Hec were inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in Alice Springs in 2002 and were celebrated for their reputation for caring deeply for their employees and families, who returned the sentiment with steadfast loyalty.
Mark became hands-on at Francis Transport in 2008 after answering his father’s call for help when uncle Hec decided to retire.
“My father wanted to stay for the employees and customers, so he and I brought out Hec,” said Mark who was chief financial officer for pharmaceutical giant Sanofi in the Philippines at the time.
“I was wanting to wind down after working long hours and being on airplanes every two weeks flying all over the place.
Pod passed away in 2020, aged 93, after bowing out of the day-to-day operations in 2015.
After taking a break from his old role, Mark, however, soon found his stride running the show, ably assisted by brother Ray who managed the Melbourne depot in Derrimut.
At its peak, Francis Transport was a regional powerhouse, a testament to the family’s grit and never-say-die attitude through two world wars, the Great Depression, recessions, a global financial crisis and countless other industry upheavals that finish off less resilient operations.
Today, there are around 80 vehicles flying the Francis flag, including 23 prime movers and some 32 trailers and 12 rigids, spread across three depots – the other is Wangaratta – and a drop-off address in Sydney.
Multi-national clients include Nestle and the contract to cart its Uncle Tobys cereal products, in and out of the nearby factory in Wahgunyah.
Others in the diverse portfolio include James Hardie out of Sydney and Melbourne, Visy in Sydney, Elders Wool, Nutrien Wool and Fox and Lillie Rural.
“So, it’s varied,” Mark explained. “We go out to farms to pick up wool, we freight transformers for Wilson Transformers daily on flat tops as well as rigids.
“Flat-top work throughout Victoria as well as rigid work to Sydney along with other rural locations.
“And beer, of course, which we’ve been doing since the start.
“It’s only a small part of the business but that’s how it all started back in 1910 out of the Rutherglen station delivering straight to the customers.
“We [still] do wineries up here as well.”
Francis Transport boasts around 30 staff, with administration and mechanical all in Corowa, two others in Wangaratta and three in Melbourne, including Mark’s brother.
“A lot of the guys have got jobs pretty much lined up already,” Mark said.
Mark said consideration was given to selling the business as a going concern, but in the end, shutting the operation was the logical, less complicated call.
“If I was buying a company nowadays, I wouldn’t buy the company, I’d buy the assets,” Mark said.
“The contracts aren’t worth a pinch of salt anymore because there are usually clauses in there that make it easy for people to just walk away from so they’re not worth anything.”
Seventeen years at the helm has also given Mark a front-row seat to the changes sweeping through transport.
“It doesn’t get easier – it gets trickier each year,” he admits.
“Everyone’s just trying to do the right thing, but it gets more and more complicated.
“If you’re running operations, you’re not just organising trucks, you’re organising compliance, you’re checking everything’s running properly, all of these things now.”
Mark said most of his drivers are “pretty good” mechanically and can usually get the truck going if something is wrong.
“But I’m not sure that’s necessarily happening with a lot of people.
“So, compliance is just so huge, and it’s growing and growing, which is becoming more time consuming and obviously more expensive as well – there’s not a lot of fun in that part of it.
“Everyone’s been trying to get Australia-wide rules but it’s probably never going to happen because they’ve been trying and trying but people have been busting their heads trying to do it.”
Still, Mark has hope for the industry and is confident there is still money to be made.
“Freight is still moving in Australia, so it’s still working – it’s just getting harder.”
Meanwhile, as he does his best to find alternative solutions for his customers after the final runs on August 15, Mark pauses to reflect on what made Francis Transport so successful for so long.
“I don’t know if we’re that special, but we just try and work with the customers and do a good job – we get on pretty well with them,” Mark said.
“We’re here to help and support people and we thank everyone for their loyalty to us, and we tried to provide loyalty to them as far as possible and provide a quality service.”
While he won’t miss the 3.45am starts and going to bed at 7pm so he can “do it all again”, Mark confesses that he will miss the people when he does finally drive out the depot gates on the banks of the Murray River for the last time.
“We had a very low turnover. We had a mechanic leave about a year ago and I think that’s about the only person that we’ve put on in the last year.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that have been here 20-plus, 30-plus years.
“The employees are terrific people.”