When it comes to meeting the long-term durability requirements of Australian transport operators, equipment manufacturers have to contend with operating conditions that aretypically among the harshest on the globe.
As a long-established enterprise, Alltruck Bodies has the runs on the board in terms of building robust, high quality equipment that goes the distance.
Tony Romano, who has four decades of experience in the truck body building game, founded Alltruck Bodies in Dandenong, south east Melbourne, in 1991 with business partner, George Mitrousis.
Since then the business has grown exponentially and a second facility has opened at Archerfield in Brisbane. His vision from the outset has always been to deliver quality equipment.
“Our motto ‘Where quality is never compromised’ is the foundation on which we have built our business,” Tony says.
“In this competitive industry we continually strive to evolve our products in line with the constantly changing needs and expectations of our customers.
“To maintain success, amidst all the competition, requires looking for new processes and products to keep ahead of the curve.
“Along with our valued customers, our loyal staff collectively is the most important part of the operation – without them we wouldn’t have a business.”
Tony says that a large percentage of the work he undertakes is repeat business from companies big and small that value and appreciate Alltruck Bodies’ expertise and specialised service.
“In our early days we gained the trust and respect of various companies in the truck rental market like Hertz, Budget, Thrifty and Avis,” he says. “We have also built numerous truck bodies for large parcel delivery fleets like TNT and Toll.”
In addition to delivering quality truck bodies, Tony explains that another area of importance for Alltruck Bodies is social responsibility.
“As an organisation we encourage the idea of giving back to the community.” He says. “We’ve been involved with a number of charities including Bali Children Foundation, Variety Australia’s Children’s Charity and Life Education featuring ‘Healthy Harold’ who visits schools helping instil the concepts of safe and healthy life choices in our children. I am also involved with various fundraising activities including gala dinners, Boundary Lunches and Ocsober as well as being on the Life Education Victoria Advisory Board.
Tony elaborates on why he believes, as a company, this is an ideal way to give back to the wider community.
“Life Education Victoria is a not-for-profit organisation that empowers our children with education about good health,” he says. “We have issues like drug and alcohol abuse and cyber bullying and I think it’s best to educate our kids about the dangers of these things early in life.”
Getting back to business, he mentions that his staffing numbers are more than 100 at Dandenong and one dozen at the Archerfield branch, which he says is due to be relocated to larger premises in the not-too-distant future.
“Our Queensland business is growing rapidly and we must soon up-size our operations and staffing levels there in order to keep up with the considerable demand,” Tony says, adding that as part of a plan to streamline the production process at the Dandenong facility, an Operations Manager was recently appointed. “We have committed as an organisation to spend more time and resources on research and development (R&D) in order to progress new products and processes to take us into the future. One of these initiatives is that we recently started building pig trailers due to the growing demand for these units. That way we can tailor-build matching trailer and rigid truck bodies which makes the whole combination more integrated.”
On the matter of R&D, Tony says the company has a talented team of engineers who are encouraged to introduce new design concepts to the mix. “I firmly believe that fostering flair in the workforce keeps people motivated and at the same time happy and content.”
As featured in Trailer Magazine