Deals On Wheels #454

Classic DEALS
office side of things and keeping everything
in check. With a staff of around 35 and a
dozen delivery trucks, that’s a pretty hectic
workload.
Frank and Christine’s sons have both
inherited the family passion for produce
and trucks. However, as if by design, the
boys seem to favour one slightly more than
the other.
Joel carries the produce as his main
passion. By the age of 10 he was already
working behind the counter at the family’s
store. Before he had even finished school he
was running one of the stores completely.
Sure, he has the trucking in his blood as well,
but it is the business, the customers and
the sales that drives Joel the most. A proud
Frank even joked: “When he was born he
came right out saying, okay, so how can we
make some money here?”
Joel has always seemed at ease with that
side of the business and with guidance from
both his mum and dad, he has really shone.
When Go Troppo eventually sold out of
the customer stores and went on to focus
on wholesale and distribution alone, Joel
moved into that side of the business.
SKILL LEVEL
His older brother Marcus found that trucking
was his dominant passion and has been
getting amongst it since he was a toddler.
Rumours from a reliable smiling Italian
source told me he was essentially driving a
forklift before he could even spell forklift.
It comes as no surprise to learn that Marcus
gained his licence as soon as he came of
age. The only person rocked by this was the
man who took Marcus for his licence as he
seemed extremely shocked at his skill level.
Obviously, like his father, he would not have
been driving trucks before licensed. Nope,
he was just a natural.
Marcus spent a couple of years on the road,
filling that diesel desire, before coming off the
highway and spending a few years helping
to manage and organise the distribution
side of the business. Looking after up to 400
deliveries a day, six days a week when you
have not even celebrated your 21st birthday,
is no mean feat. Eventually, however, the call
of the road became too much and Marcus
decided to get back behind the wheel.
Now, it is time to discuss the big T909.
The company’s K200 had been doing
a stellar job, both in performance and in
advertising the company. The whole family
are firm believers in the positive effects of
appearance and professionalism. Frank
exclaims the benefits when he says, “The
‘wow’ factor when you pull up to load on a
farm or at the markets is great.”
He knows that memory stays with people
and all of a sudden they want their produce
getting loaded onto an FCT truck. It was
perhaps, as a bit of a carrot to get Marcus
back behind the wheel, that the family
decided to build the T909. Only this time
Frank was stepping back. “This truck was all
Marcus, he thought it out, he designed it … it’s
all him,” Frank says admiringly.
So where do you start? Well, as Marcus
The Go Troppo yard is
always a hive of activity,
produce in and produce
out. Keeping all the
clients happy
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