ATN #418

otherwise, is debateable. But when you think
of it, for these firms, that is a century and a
half, give or take several decades, of casting
a critical eye over horsepower, flesh and
mechanical, and the loadbearing technology,
be it in wood or metal.
Speaking of ‘rhyming’, all companies
named above went through the only other
period that 2020 and the present can be
compared with: the years of the Spanish Flu
a century ago.
And all three have been impacted by the
Covid-19 pandemic but PFD was perhaps
the more exposed to the solutions that state
governments devised to get on top of the
dreaded virus.
For lockdowns hit the hospitality industry
hardest; a double whammy given hospitality
supports tourism as well as local demand.
With around 3,000 staff across 74 sites,
PFD fleet manager Steve Wright puts the
current fleet at a bit over 730, and it’s all
medium- and light-duty rigids.
“We don’t have anything that bends in the
middle, so to speak,” Wright avered.
While federal and state governments did
what they could to cushion the blow, many
firms Wright knows found it too heavy to
handle, while many survivors are struggling
to manage the renewed demand.
SAFETY FIRST
For Wright, who has worked in various
roles within PFD over the past 25 years,
safety is a high priority and an area
he is proud to have played a part in
throughout various modernisations.
For instance, driver fatigue is an
interesting proposition for a company
that runs a localised hub and spoke
model across the country.
“There were rules in place for fatigue
management for drivers who travelled
under 100km from base, but no one ever
enforced it,” Wright said.
With PFD keeping an extensive paper
trail to track the performance of its fleet,
Wright designed a “daily driver run sheet”,
which was picked up by VicRoads and
implemented across the industry.
“Many of the procedures I implemented
when I was transport manager, PFD still
uses,” he added.
“It amazes me; I’ll go to a hub and the
FULLYLOADED.COM.AU July 2021 ATN 45