At Lot 6, Angle Vale Crescent in Burton, SA, you drive through the cyclone gates onto an unsealed forecourt with a scattering of trucks in front of an unassuming building/shed with an equally unassuming sign proclaiming it to be the home of The Truck Factory.
I’d thought that it would be much, much bigger – and flashier – given I’ve seen a very big and flash Peterbilt tow truck bearing the company name at a couple of truck shows over the years.
Mark Menzie, owner of The Truck Factory, isn’t about pretence though. He’s much more about getting the job done for his clients. And that first sight of the building, as I was soon to find out, was akin to viewing the tip of an iceberg.
Beyond it exists many more, housing various aspects of the company’s operations – not to mention acres of trucks that have come to grief, many of which will be recycled in part to rebuild another truck or in full to return to the road. Nothing at The Truck Factory goes to waste.
From Hobart, Tasmania, Mark Menzie moved to the mainland in 1999 to set up another repair/towing company. In 2004 he struck out on his own and The Truck Factory was born.
Now with three sites, business has obviously been good for Mark and I suggest that others’ misery has been his bread and butter.
“People probably want to keep their distance from us,” said the man himself.
“We’re not someone that people are looking forward to seeing as they’ve either had a breakdown or an accident. We are a company that you don’t want to know but you need to know for when something goes wrong.”
Business relationships are as important as the quality of repair and Mark has worked hard over the years to build a client base that knows he will do the job for them.
“We have companies on our books that have an emergency procedure in place should something occur. They follow that, give us a call and things run smoothly. Without those procedures – maybe the driver can’t get hold of the boss – there is sometimes panic, so to all those reading this, please plan for accident scenarios.”
Accidents or breakdowns can happen at any time and Mark’s phone stays on all night.
“We get calls at all hours which can be anything from a local tow, out to the WA/SA border. We get into New South Wales a little bit as well and have been as far as North Queensland for jobs.”
North Queensland?
“There are particular companies that we’ve dealt with in the past who know that they get good service and are happy to ring us if something goes wrong. The one in North Queensland, for example, was Kalari Transport (now Qube), for whom we’ve done a lot of jobs in the past.
“Generally speaking, if a customer wants us to look after something we will investigate all avenues as to how we can get the vehicle back at a reasonable price, even if it’s a backload on a drop deck from North Queensland or WA. We will do all we can to get it back at a reasonable cost to carry out those repairs.”
The Truck Factory has six tow trucks of various descriptions, one of which is itself currently a ‘victim’.
These are not cheap vehicles, as illustrated by the new Legend SAR sitting outside the office door, minus its bonnet and bunk, that cost $1.3 million.
“A few paint issues,” said Mark. “Luckily we know someone.”
The SAR had been on order since the beginning of Covid, so has been a while in the making and cost an extra $40,000 due to a price increase before delivery.
“I was a bit surprised but we agreed to take delivery. In our case the vehicle had been made to a specific wheelbase for tow trucks so it came out of the factory prepped for a tow truck body to go on.
“It then went to Sydney to Kent Collision & Kustom. Jamie Kent is the agent for Jerr-Dan who are known globally for their quality towing gear. We’re looking forward to getting it working and are hoping it will be on the road at the end of March.
“For us it is a long-term investment. A new truck like this SAR generally takes 10 years to pay off so you have to be patient to get the return. You have to keep up with technology and bigger combinations and we can’t afford to be breaking down when going to breakdowns ourselves.”
Towing is just part of the job. There is also the clean-up at the site.
“This is why I got involved with Brenton White at Australian Commercial & Transport Insurance Brokers who I’ve known since the ‘90s.
“When we first got into the repair business in 2004, I knocked on his door, told him what we wanted to do and that we would like him to be our broker.
“I’m a big believer that if you have a good broker, if he answers the phone at 2 o’clock in the morning and helps sort things out – and Brenton does that constantly – it really helps in getting the job sorted.
“These days it’s not so much doing the recovery of the vehicle, it’s ‘do they have the right marine insurance?’ Because quite often the clean-up can be dearer than the recovery of the truck.
“So from a tow truck company’s point of view, yes we know the truck insurers but we don’t know who the marine insurer is.
“We’re about to put our hand up for anywhere from $50,000-$100,000 worth of marine clean-up and we want to know that they have the right cover. You like to be dealing with a broker who can tell you everything is kosher, and Brenton is the one who does that for us.
“No-one’s immune including ourselves. One of our (tow) trucks got hit in WA, which goes to show that even the best can have their misfortunes. Our relationship with Brenton and ACT stood us in good stead.”
The Truck Factory has around 30 trucks in for repair at any one time plus many coming back in, having undergone temporary repairs whilst waiting for parts to arrive.
“A lot of customers want to keep their trucks moving so they prefer it if we do a temporary repair, pre-order the parts in and pre-paint them to limit the time they are off the road, which is what we try and do. No-one wants to be off the road longer than necessary so we do our best to get them back out there ASAP.”
To that end the business keeps a supply of bull bars and other recyclable parts to keep their customers moving. There are, for example, a couple of fully restored Kenworth cab shells ready for when needed.
Mark believes that his success is down to his staff.
“We’ve got guys that have been here from the very beginning. The average staff tenure is 14 or 15 years of service which speaks well of us, I hope. Our biggest assets are our staff and that’s what makes us different to the rest, I believe. We love them.”
Walking around The Truck Factory, there is activity everywhere. Chassis being straightened, cabs being replaced, engines out, paint being applied.
There are also a couple of in-house projects like the white K200 to be fitted with a semi-tilt tray and all chrome replaced with black. This is going to look cool! As well as trucks, there are plenty of trailers waiting for Mark’s team to perform their surgery on.
Outside is a fully restored 1977 S2 Kenworth Mark did up in 2019 for his wedding looking dejected. The S2 is waiting for space to be stored. Further on is a bunch of Mack trucks that he hopes to restore “one day”.
Over his working career, Mark has seen it all, from local breakdowns to retrieval from the other end of the country. He has seen much worse as well, but doesn’t draw upon those, “for sanity’s sake.”
The success of The Truck Factory is due to hard work, tenacity and the building of a team of loyal professionals whose skills have greatly contributed to the company’s success.
Mark is an absolute angel in hi-viz. He went so over and above when one of my drivers tipped one over, and the day after that I broke my back. What he did to help me get back on my feet was more than I could ever expect.