Container transport operator Lawson Sideloader Services is thriving despite the Covid-19 lockdown
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L-R: MD David Eroglu, CFO Elle Eroglu and national sales manager Anthony Comino
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While there’s no denying that the current economic situation is dire, Melbourne transport company Lawson Sideloader Services is set to outperform amid the pandemic.
A specialist in shipping container transport across metropolitan Melbourne, the company has its eyes set on a national expansion, having recently opened operations in Sydney and Brisbane.
Founder and managing director David Eroglu is proud of his team, saying many have worked tirelessly to help move into the 8,000 square metre Sydney facility in April, which was originally planned for a February opening.
“We delayed it because of the virus. It was actually going to get worse before getting better so we figured let’s just do it as we had a lot of equipment ready to go,” Eroglu says.
“At Lawson Sideloader Services, we are fully operational and expanding with confidence.”
With four depots in Melbourne, the company operates at all hours of the day across the CBD and south-eastern suburbs, shuttling over 60,000 containers each year.
One to do things differently, Eroglu uses multi-container trucks for long distance and smaller, sideloader and skel trucks for short distances, saving time and money.
First to come up with this system, his method is simple yet effective, allowing drivers to collect freight containers from terminals, which are then loaded on to a smaller one-container sideloader or skel and delivered to the final destination.
STRONG START
Established in 1999, Lawson Sideloader Services originated with the vision of providing best and competitive cartage services.
Since then, the focus has been on supplying clients with the nation’s best service and cartage costs.
The company provides a whole range of services including sideloader, skel, and out of gauge services. In addition, Lawson operate a fleet of twin steer side loaders that can carry considerably higher weights than their competitors.
It also provides yard storage, handling 1,500 containers at any given time, as well as fumigation and underbond services.
The company’s growth continues as it’s about to receive another 25 new trailers from manufacturer MaxiTrans.
A relationship that began five years ago, Eroglu describes MaxiTrans’ equipment as reliable and affordable.
“We’re very proud of our partnership with MaxiTrans – we’ve actually been a user of MaxiTrans trailers for five years and we’re on a winner with them,” Eroglu says.
“For our Super Bs, A-doubles and B-doubles, we’ve gone with the MaxiTrans freighter – they assisted with the PBS [Performance Based Systems], and with the permits, and we haven’t had any dramas at all.
“Due to the mismatch of operating hours with wharf terminals and the final destination, in recent years it has become incumbent on the transport carrier to supply a staging depot to ensure clients’ on-time demands can be met.
“To handle the volumes and meet client demands, we run multi combination vehicles for all our wharf movements.
“These vehicles also help to keep our toll costs to a minimum, the savings created are passed on to our clients.
“We really needed to go with PBS with the double trucks; it’s an area that we knew we had to be involved in but we had no idea what to do. What we have found was that MaxiTrans was able to come to the rescue with a solution for us … not only them providing a very good trailer at a competitive rate but they were able to take care of all of that for us and get us on the road.”
FLEET
With 100 trgucks, Lawson’s fleet is made up of Volvo and Mercedes.
Eroglu says Volvo has been a “good, reliable partner with reliable trucks”, which has performed exceptionally well over the years.
With 100 drivers, of whom half are subbies, the company has six super B-doubles, 30 A-doubles, five B-doubles, 40 sideloaders including heavy lifters, mini lifters, and 60 skels.
It upgrades its fleet every six to seven years, and trailers every eight years.
With a very low staff turnover, the company retains its drivers by being very inclusive with them, and providing modern well-maintained equipment, Eroglu explains.
“Being a responsible progressive business, we’ve been one to help our drivers by being there for them, and grow them with their work; to train them, and to treat them with the utmost respect,” he says.
“We work hard to provide our entire team with an enjoyable working environment.”
The company has been on a growth journey over the past seven years.
“We had an expansion program and we’re sticking with that program,” Eroglu explains.
An expansion aimed at offering their national customers directly branded services in the other ports. Undoubtedly, this is a bold move in the current economic climate.
The Sydney facility has been in the pipeline for 18 months, mainly due to many clients looking for a national service, the company’s national sales manager Anthony Comino says.
“Our business has seen considerable growth on the back of some very important property plays we’ve had.
“We’re now operating out of four depots in Melbourne, all in strategically important industrial areas: Tottenham, Tullamarine, Dandenong and Somerton. The Somerton site will be an intermodal terminal upon the completion of the wharf rail link.
“It’s mainly in the last 12 months, due to continual pressure from a client base that couldn’t get serviced in Sydney or Brisbane that was looking for a national offering, so we decided to give that to them.”
The company has purchased 10 side loaders over the last year and some 30 skel trailers, along with eight prime movers and five A-doubles.
The company’s guiding belief has always been ‘Build it and they’ll come’, with a plan to be strategically present in industrial areas.
“This new equipment coming is to handle additional growth,” Comino says.
“Yes, it’s a risk, but it’s a risk that we have mitigated by continually offering our clients a more improved service with better IT capabilities.
“The multi-depot offering that we bring to the industry than no one else does – no one else has four depots, some companies have two but no one has four.
“We’ve always had the ethos that we will build it and they’ll come, as opposed to wait for it to arrive and then worry about it, that’s not our plan.
“Our plan is to provide a very competitive rate with equipment that can handle the task, and that has worked for us in spades over the last two years.
“More of our growth has been new business – freight forwarders signing on with us and supporting us with multiple delivery points,” he adds.
“What’s unique about our service is our high level of IT, and depots strategically placed in the right industrial locations.”
The company uses an advanced management system across its depots, accessible to drivers on their iPads.
“Our IT is very well appreciated by the client,” Comino says.
“The delivery points sign on screen, and the importer or freight forwarder gets an automatic POD [proof of delivery] confirmation.
“Our IT system integrates very easily with some of the main freight forwarder IT platforms, which makes dealing with Lawson very easy, there’s no second data input required.
“The IT platform that we utilise is consistently evolving, there is a team of data writers that constantly upgrade it and we’re very proud to be a front runner in that regard.”
VIRUS IMPACT
Like many other operators, Lawson has seen a slowdown in business over the past couple of months due to consumer sentiment.
“Undoubtedly, the virus has had an effect on the logistics industry, and we are not immune. However, through it all we have continued to operate safely, carefully, whilst continuing to support our community.” Comino says.
The company has retained all of its staff and managed to keep them safe by having some teams, such as accounting and sales, work from home, and operations in the office.
“They’re all very well separated, and, to protect our clients our drivers, all have sign-on screen iPads for deliveries, and the driver, when he delivers the container, signs the screen himself so it doesn’t need to go near the client,” he adds.
The company prides itself on its relationship with stevedores, saying it has fostered a relationship based on mutual respect.
“We’ve fostered those relationships by dealing with them at all times with the utmost respect and not asking for favours all the time; treating them with mutual respect and complying with any guidelines we get from them,” Comino says.
“Our work culture has a very strong family focus; everyone here is treated as a family member and we have a very low turnover of staff as a result.
“We’re very proud of our equipment that we provide. It’s state of the art, usually Euro 5 or 6 vehicles. In regards to our drivers, they’re well remunerated over and above the award.
“We are very inclusive with our drivers, we stay very close to them, even though they work remotely to our office.”
Here for the long-term, Lawson Sideloader Services provides a cost effective wharf cartage solution across the eastern seaboard.
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