“We’ll make you stand out!” is the motto of Twin City Truck Detailing, and it is the primary aim of the owners, husband and wife team Mick and Kim O’Brien, to ensure every truck that leaves their Albury workshop is doing exactly that.
From humble beginnings, the business has gone from strength to strength, today providing heavy vehicle polishing and detailing services across a wide area, along with a retailing division selling a growing range of truck care products and accessories.
Setting up their current enterprise heralded somewhat of a shift for the couple, who had been associated with road transport since the 1980s, as Mick explained.
“I started driving trucks when I was 19 and then started with Ansett Freight Express when I was 20, and we ran overnight express for 34 years.
“It was the ‘old’ Ansett, and then TNT took over, then Toll. We had a crack at running our own trucks, Kim spent a long time driving and she used to run our B-double between Melbourne and Sydney – we had a large shed and everything set up at Mt Disappointment, just near Broadford.”
Unfortunately, the couple were one of the many victims of the Victorian Black Saturday bushfires in 2009, with their two trucks the only things to come through unscathed.
“We lost the lot – the only things we had left were the trucks which a couple of blokes came and got out of the way.
“We got going again and I had a couple of really good drivers who took the trucks and they took control of everything, got their own loads, arranged the servicing.
“Glenn Elliott was servicing one of my trucks weekly, Frank Gattuso was doing the servicing of the other one – you really can’t thank people enough for those sorts of things and it kept our minds on what we had to do which was hard.”
The couple eventually sold up from Broadford with Mick doing road train work and also working out of Broome running the supply truck across northern Australia for touring company Outback Spirit.
“I would supply the fuel and food for all their camps along the Canning Stock Route, into the Kimberleys and in Arnhem Land – the co-ordination they had was incredible,” said Mick.
A desire to work for themselves was the catalyst for getting their venture off the ground seven years ago.
“We were deciding what to do next and I came up with a stupid idea – I thought we would go detailing trucks!
“My trucks have always been immaculate, and I always put a lot of time and effort into keeping them clean. We started out with just a 6×4 trailer with a little cage on it as a mobile business and started building up our customer base.”
Fast forward to the current day and Twin City Truck Detailing runs two trailers kitted out with all the tools of the trade, along with a physical workshop in North Albury.
“It got to the point where Kim came on because I had so much work on. We got Kim trained up on paint and a lot of the pre-delivery work we do; we took the next step and moved here into the workshop in 2025 and have just about outgrown it already.
“We go from bumper to bumper and do anything on the way, paint, alloy, stainless, and interiors. We do a lot of ground up refurbishments and also a lot of the pre-delivery work for CMV (Volvo/Mack) and Twin City Truck Centre (Kenworth/DAF) getting new trucks ready to go,” explained Mick.
Along with team member Bailey Baseden, the team service out to a range of around 250 kilometres, and with Albury–Wodonga a hub for a lot of trucking activity, a lot of trucks come into the workshop for a refresh.
Given that polishing and applying the shine can be somewhat of a time-consuming process, Mick reckons that there is literally a lot of ‘devil in the detail’ in getting a good result for the customer.
“Bailey is a much better polisher than me – he can smash out a bull-bar in half a day. But it can take up to 8 to 10 days to fully detail a truck, for example a truck might be four or five years old and come in from doing harvest work for an overhaul, so we will go right through it.
“You might get a truck that has never been done and you need the steps and tanks taken off it so it all takes time. It can take around five hours for a ‘quick wash’ as we get into every corner, even if we have to get in and pull the shrouds off the exhausts it makes a big difference.
“To do a simple wash and degrease, do the tyres and windows, it can still take the best part of a day.”
The retail side of the business has expanded considerably since the establishment of a show/sales room at the workshop selling a range of Omikron detailing products along with their own ‘Addicted to Shine’ range of products, including polishing cloths and washing mitts.
General accessories such as chrome hubcaps, tank straps and mirrors are also available with Mick and Kim planning to expand the range in the near future. Along with taking their business direct to the customer, Mick and Kim are present at a number of truck shows and events promoting their services and retailing their products.
“We do a few local shows and set up our marquee; our polishing kits are always a good seller. We also generate a lot of work out of going to shows, even if it might be six months later.
“We are always very busy here in the lead-up to shows like Alexandra and Casino – over the last few weeks (prior to Alexandra in June) we have had three or four trucks here at a time needing things done with them,” Mick said.
With a solid workload and a dedicated team, along with potential for further growth, it would seem that Mick (and Kim) made a good decision when swapping a steering wheel for a buffing wheel and a polishing kit for their start-up business in 2019, with Mick putting a tick in the ‘job satisfaction’ box.
“You do get a truck in a bad condition and, if you put the time into it, it really makes a difference – the pressure that is on you the morning the customer is coming to pick up their truck, and they are blown away with the result. When they drive out it’s the best feeling in the world.”