Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus

SO’s fleet of fluorescent green trucks stand out like a beacon and the firm’s profile at New Zealand log export ports is equally prominent.

Trucking is one of many cogs in the machine of ISO’s operations in New Zealand, which handles around 60 per cent of New Zealand’s export log trade. It loads over 500 log vessels a year, around 11 vessels a week. While logs — more than 25 million of them a year — feature prominently, ISO also handles a large portion of New Zealand’s kiwifruit exports, around 25% of the country’s pulp exports as well as container, breakbulk and all manner of other import and export operations.

ISO was founded in 1995 as a stevedoring company, which funda... ... 

It’s almost a truism of any business – not just trucking fleets – that continued growth is not only important...but vital for survival.

So it’s refreshing to come across a medium-sized fleet whose owner figures the 10 trucks currently on the register feels pretty right….thankyou.

Wayne Burnell, of Christchurch’s Burnell & Son Transport, obviously marches to the beat of a different drum. 

Take the company name, as a minor but telling example: Did Wayne inherit the business from his father, or maybe even a grandfather? He laughs: “When we (he and wife Kathy) started up in 2000 our first child, Jacob, had just been born – so the name is a bit tongue in cheek.”

You only have to talk to Steve Martin for a little while to understand that this is a man with a real passion for trucks and trucking.

Someone who not only loves the machines and the industry….but also has a good knowledge of the history of trucking in Otago – born of growing up in and around the trucks his Dad John drove when Steve was a kid.

And from the time spent as a workmate of his Dad’s, driving for RA Little and Samson Freight – as John went on to clock up almost half a century behind the wheel.

And then….from his own 42-year career (so far) – most of it based out of hometown Dunedin. 

Of course, he’s not unique in having inherited a passion for tr... ...