Fleet Focus

Start the old North of England business-related quote and Murray Robson will finish it off seamlessly: “Where there’s muck, there’s money, that’s very true. But what’s even more important, you have to work really hard to find it.”

With just a handful of months to go to rack up a half-century in the business of muck, Murray has seen highs and lows beyond number. And far from it being an automatic source of wealth, a steady golden-brown stream if you will, the muck has at times being a capricious will ‘o’ the wisp – fluctuating with changes in agricultural fashions, coming and going in response to regulatory changes, shrinking temporarily in the face of competitive ... ... 

It hasn’t been part of a formal business plan, but one truck per year is a rough average for the step-by-step growth of Laurent Contractors.

The rural transport company at Waharoa, just north of Matamata, turns 10-years-old in early December. So, the maths of reaching a decade in business suggests the Laurent fleet should now number 10 red trucks.

Which is pretty much spot on… there are 10 red trucks (but one is for sale) plus a new MAN spreader in pristine white that’s set to be painted red as soon as it can be taken out of the work rotation for a few days. So yes, let’s call it 10 years to build the fleet to 10 trucks.

You get the first impression... ... 

Standing at the highest point on this rural Waimauku property, Iydden Wood is clearly proud of the place.

Below the 40-year-old is his company’s work of the past eight years – work that makes this part of his Dirtworks operation look to me kind of like a landscaper…..but on an enormous scale.

There’s a least a kilometre of wide, sweeping, heavy-duty concrete roads (almost 200-millimetre-thick). And, directly in front, a whole valley now being given a massive makeover. 

And, whereas your typical landscape company might run a ute or light truck, a little digger and maybe a Bobcat mini excavator, the property below us is crawling with 20 to 30-tonn... ...