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It amounts to, Aramex New Zealand CEO Scott Jenyns believes, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) rebranding exercises applied to a Kiwi commercial vehicle fleet.

By the time it’s completed, probably by the end of this year, about 30 linehaul tractor and trailer units and more than 300 courier vans will have been re-liveried….

Changed from the royal blue-based colour scheme worn by the former Fastway Courier’s trucks (with red and white signwriting) – to vivid red tractor units and curtainsider trailers, with white signage.

While the signwriting on the mostly-white courier vans has been switching from blue and red, to red and white (including company logos and red cab doors).

Plus, of course, there’s been the name change – from the well-established, 38-year-old Fastway Couriers brand….

To Aramex – the name of the Dubai-based global logistics giant that bought Fastway in 2016 for $125million.

The decision to change the name and the company’s branding wasn’t taken lightly – nor quickly. And it wasn’t simply a matter of course in the wake of the Fastway buyout. 

In fact, the rebranding decision wasn’t made until three years after the Aramex purchase….and it wasn’t decided by the Dubai-based owners, but by the regional franchise owners at the 2019 Fastway NZ annual conference.

They wanted to embrace the Aramex brand on the basis that it would “send the market the right message…that we are part of a global business,” as Jenyns explains.

With Aramex operating in over 70 countries – delivering nearly 70 million parcels annually and rating as one of the world’s top five logistics companies – the benefits for franchisees included “a seamless international delivery model, with Aramex being the delivery partner from pickup to delivery,” says Jenyns. 

It also delivered the opportunity for Fastway’s franchise owners “to secure new global e-commerce…” The Aramex ownership also delivers “a global mindset, with access to new innovations, new technologies and new shipping destinations.”

Fastway, which was launched in Hawke’s Bay in 1983 – expanding nationwide here and into Australia, South Africa, Northern Ireland and Ireland – continued to trade under its old name until July 2019.

The rebranding exercise since then has involved both the Australia and NZ operations – with almost 5000 metres of vinyl decals needed to image 1180 vans and trucks in the Australasian fleet. The imaging for the NZ fleet – plus the company’s 24 offices and depots – is being provided by Napier-based Mammoth Media.

Interestingly, the livery doesn’t exactly replicate Aramex’s vehicle branding in the rest of the world – it was modified to take into account Fastway’s franchisee-based business model for the courier vans (the trucks are owned by contractors)….

As opposed to the global Aramex approach, in which its fleet is company owned.

In NZ, the rebranding (which, coincidentally, has returned the company to the red and white colours it started with in ’83) sees the courier vans remain (as they were for Fastway) with plain white bodies – now highlighted by red cab doors. 

Red Aramex logos are carried on the front, rear and sides of the van bodies, with its global “delivery unlimited” tagline and another, below it, adding: “Operated by Fastway Couriers.” On the red doors, white signwriting announces: “I’m your local courier.” 

The colour scheme is, Scott Jenyns explains, “opposite to the case in the Aramex world…..where the vans are red with white doors.

“But the low entry cost for our courier franchisees – we wanted to maintain that ethos. And obviously, if you have to wrap a van it’s a lot more expensive than just buying a white van and getting the door done.”

There will be some revisions to the livery this year and next year – with a larger Aramex logo for the sides of bigger vans and the gradual dropping of the “operated by Fastways” tagline.

That was an interim measure, put in place because “in this part of the world….where Fastway is very well known, not many people knew who Aramex was.” 

So how come the NZ linehaul truck fleet is getting its standout red-based colour scheme, with white signwriting? That, says Jenyns, is simply because – in red – “they just look fantastic. When we started to look at similarities between the red door on the courier vans and a red and white cab on the trucks…it just didn’t look as good…so we went for the all red.”

Currently, he says, the company has some Fastway trailers with leases expiring in the next 12 months so for now they remain in the old livery: “It’s a little expensive to repaint or renegotiate and we are going through a bit of a purchase programme for some of our trailers – as opposed to lease.”

Mammoth supplies all of the decals for Aramex – and “the application of those decals has to be done by an approved applicator. And all the linehaul vehicles go through a similar approval process.

“That way we can maintain consistency. It’s very important – ‘specially when you’re a global brand.”

The company has a compliance team that travels the country to carry out compliance audits – including marketing and branding.

To back up the rebranding Aramex has turned to sponsorship campaigns: “Things like the Black Caps, the Magpies, Eden Park…we’re really starting to push that now…..”

Jenyns, who has been with the company for 20 years, confesses to being “a little sad,” about the end of the Fastway brand – a NZ success story: “But, at the same time also very excited to be part of a large, successful global business.”

Unsurprisingly, the COVID-19-affected 2020 – and its huge surge in online shopping – saw the NZ company’s business grow “in the 30% realms.” But under Aramex it had already experienced “year on year of good growth – probably three years of double-digit growth…”

Jenyns says that for Aramex NZ – “like any business, ‘specially one in the service sector, branding is very important. Most of our customers now see us as their face for their customers: They don’t actually get to meet their customers in person, because of e-commerce.

“So it’s vitally important that, as that delivery agent, our branding stands out. And looks professional and is trusted.”