Double Coin Imaging Awards

The metallic green and gold fleet colour scheme of Hawke's Bay operator Tomoana Warehousing, is the result of a totally fresh start – one forced by outside circumstance.

In 1998, Trevor Taylor was forced to wind up THT Roadfreight, the transport company with which he'd been servicing the region's horticulture industries.

The 24-unit strong THT had lost 90% of its turnover overnight when primary client Carter Holt Harvey adopted a new transport strategy.

Taylor's efforts were then directed to the Tomoana Warehousing operation he'd set up a few years previously. This grew so successfully that by the early 2000s it was obvious it could handle an inhouse transport division.

THT Roadfreight's colours had been red and white, so they were off the menu, explains Trevor: "I not only wanted a total change, but something that fitted with the philosophy of what we wanted to achieve with the new company, which was very much involved with the horticulture and produce industries here in the Hawke's Bay.

"Green suited ideally. I've always seen it as a fresh colour, and it fitted in with the work we'd be doing.

"At the same time, I was going for something simple, because I firmly believe that's important for a fleet. When the number of trucks builds up, it's inevitable that there'll be a few scratches along the way, so the simpler a paint scheme is, the easier it will be to put them back into a paint shop and keep them looking good.

"However, I knew a totally green cab would be a bit too much, and gold seemed an ideal match – breaking up the green, but keeping the overall effect of freshness."

The particular shades of the primary colours are very much custom specs, he explains: "We couldn't get the colours I wanted off the shelf, so I worked with local company Topaz Paints until we got the ones that looked right."

Trevor says the combination of a green cab with gold mudguards and aerofoils nicely suited the layout of the bonneted models – primarily Sterlings – that comprised the bulk of the Tomoana Warehousing fleet at the beginning.

The response from the wider community has proven how effective the design was, he adds: "We consistently get positive comments about the look of the trucks."

A notable characteristic of the Tomoana livery, which earns it status as this month's PPG Transport Imaging Awards finalist, is how it works equally well with conventional or cabover models...not always a given.

The simplicity that was Trevor's guiding principle with the original design comes to the fore, with the gold of the front guards of conventionals translating neatly to the panels under the doors and grilles on cabovers.

While the fundamentals of the colour scheme haven't changed a bit over the fleet's history, there has been quite a bit of evolution in terms of the signage and logos on the trucks and trailers.

In the beginning, says managing director Stewart Taylor (who took over day-to-day management of the company from his father in 2006), the cabs simply carried the words "Tomoana Warehousing," or occasionally "TWL."

"Then, around 2003, we engaged a local company, CSM Signs, who came up with several ideas. The one we chose was like a signpost, pointing to the left, and with a circle after the name representing the warehousing aspect. The approach worked OK, but the fact it was asymmetric was not ideal.

"So in 2011, with the arrival of several new Western Stars, the signwriter of the time replaced the signpost shape on the aerofoils with a circle, signifying the movement of produce through our system. Several of our units still carry that."

Two years later, as part of an overall image revamp, the company logo was changed to its current boxed rectangular shape, with "Tomoana" prominent. The previous circle was changed to smaller rotating green arrows alongside this in the rectangle, and the words "Warehousing" and "Transport" were set into smaller panels underneath.

The prominence of the Tomoana name in the new logo adds flexibility of branding as the company expands its areas of activity. For example, with the recently-formed heavy haul division, the subsidiary scripting in the lower panels is "Heavy haulage."

As the company started putting on more vehicles it found it increasingly awkward to continue sourcing paint through the single, original supplier, which was the only company that had the unique brew, says Stewart: "We were not only getting new trucks, but trailers were being built by various suppliers. So I went to PPG and organised shades from their lineup that were as close as they could get.

"These have now been registered as 'Trevor Taylor Green' and 'Trevor Taylor Gold' and are more readily available from the PPG range."

Signwriting for the fleet is carried out by Wilsigns in Napier, while the gold paint (which is applied locally to the ex-factory green cabs of new trucks) is done by a variety of painters – usually organised by the distributor.