Old School Trucks: Transport Services Ltd
This month, Deals on Wheels writer Dean Middleton takes a look at The Transport Services Ltd fleet
When Australian Company Southern Cross Enterprises purchased numerous New Zealand-owned transport companies in 1986, it seemed the transport scene (as we knew back then) would be changed forever. Running under the guise of Transpac Holdings, one of the New Zealand companies that the Australian company acquired was Freight Haulage.
The Transpac venture was short-lived and the then juggernaut went into receivership in 1988. Thankfully, all was not lost, as many rallied former employees to re-start the companies that existed prior to the Transpac takeovers and some started new ventures.
In 1989, in the sleepy southland town of Nightcaps, 10 brave men stepped up to the plate (nine were previous employees and the 10th a local coal merchant) and purchased the Ohai/Nightcaps Branches of Transpac to form Transport Services Limited (TSL).
The late Bill Richardson (now HWR) purchased TSL outright in 1996 and in 1999 sold 50% of the shares to Dean Carleton and Wayne Williams in a joint venture that remains to this day.
It was the late ’80s before I managed to train a camera lens on a TSL unit and it was not long after the Transpac collapse. TSL was one company that adopted the previous Transpac livery for many years afterwards with the only change being the signwriting.
Then the subtle change from white cab tops and white aero kits to red made a clear demarcation from the previous brand. TSL is involved in all of the typical work you would expect from a rural-based company, however, as the Nightcaps/Ohai area is a rich coal mining area, a huge amount of the black sub-bituminous product has been and still is carted in the bins of the bright red fleet.
Back in the late ’80s, the brands of trucks in the fleet were inherited and fleet replacement saw many brands parked in the depot with MAN, Fodens, Volvos, and UDs sharing the ranks through the ’90s. Into the 2000s, Freightliners have made appearances, with Kenworths also getting several ticks in the order book along with DAFs from the same stable.
The Swedish Volvos still maintain a level of dominance and look stunning in the TSL livery, particularly the smooth lines of the newer FHs, which are in stark contrast to the rugged good looks of the smart K200 Kenworths, thus making it difficult to pick a flagship in this impressive fleet from the deep south.
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