Taking on the world: Cummins supplier TR Group expanding in Australia

Rendering of engine

Cummins is a proven supplier to New Zealand’s TR Group, a world-rated heavy truck lease and rental company which is expanding in Australia.

New Zealand company TR Group is acknowledged as a world-class heavy transport lease and rental company with a strong vision and culture throughout the organisation.

Andrew Carpenter formed the company in 1992 as a 21-year-old, when he and his father, New Zealand transport industry icon Ron Carpenter, bought a small trailer hire business from CHEP.

The fleet comprised 65 used trailers, none being under eight years old.

Thirty-two years later, TR Group has some 9000 commercial trucks and trailers across New Zealand and Australia, a fleet that will no doubt grow as the Australian arm of the business builds on the company’s reputation as a quality provider of customer-focused lease and rental solutions.

“We don’t get distracted by cars, utes, vans or machinery. We’re a specialist heavy vehicle rental and lease company,” says TR’s national sales manager Shane O’Grady.

Targeting Australia

TR made its move into Australia in 2019, acquiring Semi Skel Hire in Melbourne, a business with 1200 trailers, mainly skeletal units. Perth Axle Truck & Trailer Rental was acquired in 2022, while Southern Cross Rentals in Adelaide was brought into the group in 2023.

Today, TR has a fleet of around 600 trucks and 1800 trailers in Australia, managed by branches in Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth which offer fully maintained operating lease options. High profile customers include Qube, Australia Post, Toll, K&S Freighters, Coles and Woolworths.

In New Zealand, TR has created enduring relationships with key customers and suppliers since its modest beginnings in 1992, and today boasts the country’s largest commercial vehicle fleet with 4500 trucks and 2000 trailers supported by 10 branches.

TR’s comprehensive service offering has one clear focus – ensuring that’s its vehicles are always ready for work and backed by 24/7 support.

Leasing sees a specialist TR team involved. “We develop the spec, buy the truck on behalf of the customer, have it painted in the customer’s fleet livery, and take care of the maintenance all the way through,” says O’Grady.

Specialist driver training is provided with each new leased vehicle, as is downtime cover as a contingency. TR’s rental fleet can also provide backup support as well as extra capacity to cope with seasonal spikes.

“The cornerstone of our business is ensuring that our customers have best experience, that we are helping them be at their best,” says O’Grady. “Maximizing uptime and minimising disruption is the most important thing we’re selling.”

TR’s relationship with suppliers is critical to achieving this goal. “One of our key differentiators is the strength of our relationships with suppliers like Cummins,” says O’Grady. “Without this we’d just be another finance provider, we wouldn’t bring anything additional to the table.”

TR employees next to truck
TR’s national maintenance manager Lyndon Maffey (left) with national sales manager Shane O’Grady.

Cummins support

The premium end of TR’s fleet is where Cummins Inc.'s industry-leading branch and dealer network across New Zealand and Australia is critical to supporting the TR business and its customers, keeping a fleet of several hundred Kenworths at high utilisation levels.

All routine servicing and maintenance is carried out to Cummins’ recommended schedules.

“It’s all about driving customer value,” says Lyndon Maffey, TR’s national maintenance manager. “We have an excellent relationship with the people at Cummins. It’s not just transactional, we catch up regularly on a face-to-face basis to maximise how we do things at TR.

“If we are working well together and understanding each other, our customers’ trucks flow in to a Cummins branch or dealer, the work gets done without any drama or red tape, and they’re back to work quickly.

“All our team are from the transport industry. We have more than 20 maintenance managers across New Zealand and Australia with an average of over 20 years’ experience, creating relationships, guiding repairs, handling any problems that arise.

“Success for us is at the end of a customer’s lease and the customer acknowledges the value of what has been achieved and takes another lease with TR.”

Semi truck
A Kenworth specially prepared by TR to commemorate the ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) who fought in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign during World War I.

Fuel agnostic

Decarbonisation is high on the TR agenda.

“We are very active is this space,” says Maffey. “In fact, it would be fair to say we’re leading the industry in trying to decarbonise and we’re taking a few risks that others probably can’t.

“There’s going to be a blend of technologies and to decarbonise 100 years of what we know is no small task. Technology is moving so quickly and the cost involved is huge.

“We’re excited about Cummins’ fuel agnostic natural gas and hydrogen internal combustion engines and have customers who are keen to get their hands on them. The technology is awesome and we need to be getting as much experience with it as possible.

“We know we need a loud voice to get traction, and work through right pathways with global companies. We want to be learning and trialing the different technologies and be at the forefront of decarbonisation.”

He points out that TR has a hydrogen fuel cell truck operating successfully with New Zealand Post, has an NZ-built fuel cell truck in the final stages of commissioning and also is working closely with global fuel cell truck manufacturers to bring 20 fuel cell 6x4 prime movers to NZ, all of which have strong interest from customers

“Importantly, we have Hiringa Energy building green hydrogen production and refuelling infrastructure across New Zealand,” he says.

Cummins Office Building

Cummins Inc.

Cummins, a global power technology leader, is a corporation of complementary business segments that design, manufacture, distribute and service a broad portfolio of power solutions. The company’s products range from internal combustion, electric and hybrid integrated power solutions and components including filtration, aftertreatment, turbochargers, fuel systems, controls systems, air handling systems, automated transmissions, electric power generation systems, microgrid controls, batteries, electrolyzers and fuel cell products.

Cummins Custompaks are being used for water management as Thailand struggles with its water crisis

CustomPak on site

Water crisis

Sixty Cummins Inc. CustomPaks are in service in Thailand as part of a critical water management plan aimed at easing the country’s water crisis – a crisis that has caused enormous economic and social damage and stirred conflict among communities.

Over the past several decades, Thailand has continually faced water problems caused by severe drought. Water reserves in dams and reservoirs are insufficient while water resources are often contaminated with toxins caused by urban communities and the industrial and agricultural sectors.

Severe flooding is a threat, too, at a time when the realities of climate change are hanging over the country.

As a result, the allocation of precious water resources, which must be shared among various stakeholders including new and existing industry, large and small agriculture, and cities and villages has become a flashpoint.

Kittithanapat Engineering Co. (KTP), has been involved in the water management system since 1996, working closely with authorities such as the Royal Irrigation Department, Department of Water Resources, Bangkok Metropolitan Authority and others.

CustomPaks on site

600 hp CustomPaks

To help KTP meet its often urgent requirements, Cummins DKSH (Thailand) has recently supplied 60 Australian-built CustomPaks – 45 powered by Cummins’ X15 engine rated at 600 hp, and 15 powered by the QSL9 rated at 325 hp. These fully self-contained powerpacks are emissions certified to Tier 3.

The CustomPaks are coupled to hydraulically-driven, large-volume submersible water pumps sourced by KTP from US company Moving Water Industries (MWI); KTP is the exclusive distributor in Thailand for these MWI Hydroflo pumps.

Prior to Cummins’ involvement, KTP was using another diesel engine brand but service support wasn’t up to the standard required.

Long-serving KTP engineer Kittisak Thanasoot says Cummins DKSH’s reputation for technical and aftersales support along with the reliability of the Cummins product were a key reason behind KTP’s decision to specify the CustomPaks for the Royal Irrigation Department.

The ability of Cummins DKSH to respond to short delivery times was also important.

“Supplying large quantities of high horsepower diesel engines for emergency situations such as flash flooding can be a challenge for KTP,” says Kittisak Thanasoot.

“Responding to the needs of the government agencies to manage such problems in a timely manner and with least impact on communities, KTP has found the answer in our partnership with Cummins DKSH.”

Power, pride and passion

Parked semi truck

The switch back to Cummins power has been beneficial for iconic New Zealand company Uhlenberg Haulage. It's all about whole-of-life costs.

Uhlenberg Haulage is closing in on 60 years in business, having been founded in 1966 by Mike and Carol Uhlenberg.

Based in Eltham, Taranaki, in New Zealand’s North Island, the operation is today owned and operated by their sons Chris, Daryl and Tony Uhlenberg.

Describing the Uhlenbergs as “old school family truckies”, Daryl talks about the company’s time-honored journey with a definite tone of pride, especially the work of his parents in laying the foundations for what is today an iconic fleet in its own right.

Cummins Inc. made its debut in the Uhlenberg fleet in 1971 with an NH250 powering a second-hand Kenworth K923 used in logging. A second Kenworth, a new W924 with a Cummins NTC335, followed soon after hauling an LPG tanker.

The Uhlenberg operation today comprises 40 prime movers and a variety of trailing gear to cater for the myriad of a jobs the fleet is involved in.

A number of Peterbilts feature in the fleet although Kenworth is now the brand of choice with six new units to be delivered over the next 12 months to cater for business growth.

Cummins’ X15 Euro 5 engine rated at 550 or 600 hp is the preferred power specification, with 18 red engines currently in the fleet.

Uhlenberg family in front of truck

Whole-of-life support

“The switch to Cummins has been a very good experience for us. We have nothing but praise for the Cummins organization,” says Daryl.

“The whole-of-life picture is the key thing for us and we’ve got that nailed with the support we get from Cummins – parts availability, scheduled maintenance, life expectancy and in-frame rebuilds.

“So the red engines turn up, we run them to life, which is 900,000 to 1.2 million kilometers, and then Cummins does an in-frame overhaul in a timely manner. If there’s an issue, parts and support are close by.

“The support we get from Cummins Palmerston North is fantastic, second to none.”

Daryl recently looked under a Kenworth that was in the workshop for a service and was surprised to see no oil leaking from the one-million-kilometer X15. “I remember when I was a fitter we had to wear a raincoat when working under a truck,” he jokes.

Fuel agnostic

Acknowledging that the push to decarbonize is now “very real”, Daryl likes the idea of Cummins’ fuel agnostic concept where one base internal combustion engine, optimized to run on diesel, can also be customized to run on ultra-low and zero-carbon fuels like renewable natural gas and hydrogen.

“My father was a pioneer of linehaul trucking in New Zealand and he always embraced new technology. He was never scared of it,” he says.

“I tend to be a little more cautious but I can see where a 500 hp natural gas or hydrogen engine would work for us in short haul applications,” he admits. “We’re certainly willing to look closely at these alternative fuel technologies when suitable infrastructure is in place.”

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