Advantage Tyres Fleet Focus

In its first year in business, log transport company Aztec shifted around 88,000 tonnes of logs.

That sounds impressive enough….until you hear that this year, the operation is aiming to cart two million tonnes! And that’s not some unrealistic flight of fantasy – not seeing as Aztec trucks shifted over 1.5m tonnes last year (and that’s even with the entire fleet parked up during the COVID-19 Level 4 lockdown period).

That’s a helluva growth, given that it’s just 23 years since then Carter Holt Harvey owner-drivers Steve Segetin, Peter Phillips and Ken Angus got together and formed Aztec.

It’s another measure of their success that the Aztec fleet, just four trucks stro... ... 

That said, Tim and his wife Sue were the primary financial backers when the then 22-year-old James started up on his own in 2004. And it was a pretty modest start – a five-tonne Isuzu tipper, a little roller and associated wheelbarrows and other gear that gave James and handful of his mates their first steps into the asphalt business.

He admits the time since has been an exciting – and at times roller-coaster – ride. JCL is now a respected player... ... 

The way Gen 2 truckie Ethan Smith sees it, his family’s trucking and contracting business is “the last of the old-school contractors.”

What he means is that, in the 25 years since Allen and Sheree Smith (yep, his Mum and Dad) started NorthEnd Contractors, some things haven’t changed: The business is still run in much the same way as it was in the beginning.

Although he and “little bro” Axel largely run the show these days, it’s still a strictly-no-bullshit, down to earth kind of an outfit – run by hard-case, hardworking people….

With zero regard for political correctness (like Ethan says, “a spade’s a spade – you know what I mean”). No corporate glos... ...