Milestone marked with a Kenworth K200 delivery ceremony held at Paccar Australia headquarters
Transport operator McColl’s Transport has received the keys to its 200th Kenworth from Paccar Australia, marking a long-serving relationship with a milestone celebration.
The new Kenworth K200, decorated in the company’s blue and white fleet colours, was handed to McColl’s Transport at the manufacturer’s plant in Bayswater, Melbourne by managing director Andrew Hadjikakou.
With the production line halted to commemorate the milestone, the Kenworth staff and McColl’s Transport executives attended the ceremony where McColl’s CEO Jamie Bolton took the keys.
“For 20 years McColl’s Transport has been buying new Kenworth trucks,” Bolton says.
“Over that period the quality of the trucks and the support experience we’ve had with Kenworth has been extremely good for us.
“Kenworth builds trucks to suit the conditions we work in, and they have always been reliable – that’s why we are standing here today taking ownership of our 200th vehicle.”
The vehicle, which will shortly start a chemical line haul run along the Australian eastern seaboard, was marked at the event with a 200th commemorative decal dedicated to both companies.
The decal highlights a relationship that began in 1996 when McColl’s Transport received a K100 cab-over, and includes a range of bonneted models, such as T359s, T409s, T409SARs, and T609s.
In the last six years alone, Kenworth has delivered 126 models to McColl’s.
General manager of McColl’s fleet division John Hovey, who signed off on the milestone truck, says “ever since I began at McColl’s 20 years ago we’ve had a great relationship with Kenworth Trucks and PACCAR Australia.”
“We use PACCAR Financial to finance our prime movers and trailing equipment, and we use PACCAR Parts to supply all our workshops across the country,” he says.
The milestone truck features a 2.8m sleeper cab with a king single bed, a Cummins ISXe5 engine with 550hp, and a manual RTLO20918 Eaton transmission.
Set up for a GCM 97-tonne limit, the K200 also includes the Kenworth Electronic Brake Safety System (EBSS), a 4500 wheel base with a Jost ballrace turntable, Meritor RT46-160 rear axle, and Alcoa Dura-Bright rims.
“This truck is certainly all about safety,” Hover says.
“We spend a lot of money on quality and reliability, now more than ever, and that goes for just about everything we purchase.
“We buy quality trucks and quality tankers to get the safest and best lifetime out of the vehicle.”
The K200 will travel up to 240,000km annually on its runs through Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland, Hovey says, pulling a mixture of Byford and Tieman B-Double tankers weighing between 64- and 68-tonne per trip.
“Our company runs on cents per kilometre,” he says.
“We measure most of our costs by cents per kilometre and compared to other manufacturers, Kenworth stacks up the best in terms of maintenance, overall life of the truck and resale value.
“I’d like to thank Kenworth Trucks for the effort they’ve put into this 200th truck.
“We’ve gone back to our traditional blue and white fleet colours to revisit our history.
“This 200th Kenworth not only looks great, but it symbolises McColl’s true identity.”
Thanking McColl’s Transport on its business, Hadjikakou says the Paccar team “are very proud of the long history between the two companies and particularly honoured to have been able to assist McColl’s in their endeavour to support their customers in the best way they can.”
“We are pleased to be handing over this 200th truck today, and we look forward to working together on the next two hundred,” he says.