Fleet Focus

Fern Energy has a crisp new look having engineered probably the largest and most intense fuel tanker fleet replacement programme in New Zealand transport history.

The project was a three-way collaboration for bulk fuel and lubricants company Fern Energy, Scania New Zealand, and tanker body builder Lowes.

It involved the delivery of no less than 79 new tanker bodies in two years, both truck bodies and trailers, to replace the leased vehicles in its fleet and new trucks rolled out of Lowes’ Ferrymead, Christchurch, factory on schedule, every two weeks – bar one, delayed for a couple of days due to a supply issue.

Fern Energy CEO Chris Gourley says Fern was formed from the mer... ... 

Nearly four years ago when discussions about the future ownership structure of D.T. Kings Transport were in full swing – and the idea of splitting the company among the shareholders was first floated – it was clear the log transport division was already operating somewhat as its own entity.

The sole focus on carting logs was a contrast to the wide variety of livestock, sowing, spreading and rural cartage work being done by the rest of a transport operation that was approaching a fleet size of 200 trucks.

So, creating a new log truck operation from the DTK fleet was a relatively straightforward process, while splitting the fleet for the two other new entities – Kings Rural Transpo... ... 

Acquisitions and mergers are commonplace across the transport industry. And those strategies played a part in the growth of Southland’s D.T. King & Co and [from 2013] D.T. Kings Transport.

But a move in the opposite direction saw the transport operations of the company separate into four entities over the summer of 2022-23. Not through crisis or conflict, but because the shareholders decided the tidiest succession plan for the business was for each to play to their respective strengths and serve their local clients.

The separation of a company that had nearly 200 trucks, and 160 staff, has created two rural carriers each focused on a home region, a log tra... ...