Old School trucks: Hilton Haulage—Part 1
You would be hard-pressed these days to drive on a main road in the Canterbury region and not pass a Hilton Haulage unit; such is the size of the current 150-plus truck fleet
This is in stark contrast to the humble beginnings in Timaru back in 1972 when Sid McAuley and Angus Murray started the business with one flat deck truck.
When I began photographing Hilton Haulage trucks back in the mid-’80s, there were plenty of owner-operators, who, along with company-owned trucks, made for an interesting array of makes and models. One of the standouts was a classic R-Model Mack put on the road by then owner-driver Bruce Anderson. It was also interesting to see the replacement vehicles for long-term owner-operators such as Alan ‘Spratt’ Dempsey and Bruce Butler as they upgraded to later makes and models.
Back then, refrigerated transport made up a large portion of Hilton Haulage work, along with general freight and seasonal work at harvest times with peas, corn, and later potatoes being the mainstay of this work.
The refrigerated division focused on servicing the fishing industry South Island-wide, and at its peak, Hilton Haulage ran a fleet of more than 40 trucks (consisting of company-owned trucks and owner drivers) and 80-plus staff. This was until the early ’90 s when the refrigerated division was sold to Halls Transport.
In 1994, Hilton Haulage Limited was sold into a new company named Hilton Haulage Transport Limited, which was formed by a group of employees of the former company. Sid McAuley retained a shareholding and remained at the company for a further five years as the chairman of the directors.
At the time of the sale, the company operated a depot in Washdyke, Timaru and a yard in Hillsborough, Christchurch, with a total of approximately 20 staff. Rapid growth then followed with the Hino brand taking a foothold and there was a move away from the owner-driver model to mainly company trucks.
Many Mitsubishis also entered the fleet and these were followed by the Sterling brand in the early 2000s, seven of which were purchased in one order.
Freightliner Columbias then became popular in the mid-2000s. Several transport companies have been acquired over the years, with some of the purchases being Lakeland Distribution, Tapper Transport’s Christchurch-based division, and Inwood’s Transport to name a few. Next month, we look at some more of the units that Hilton have run in the 2000s to the present.
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