They’re big toys, and there are plenty of them across the Goulburn and Murray valleys already, but there’s set to be even more rumbling down a road near you.
Greater Shepparton has one of the highest truck registration rates in the nation — and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“It has the highest truck registrations per capita in the country,” Daimler Trucks Shepparton owner David Warren said.
“It’s a regional food bowl, which attracts transport and local jobs.
“All your orchards and farmers, locally, around the region. There are a lot of trucks based in that Greater Shepparton area.
“We see that as an opportunity for growth, an opportunity for jobs for local people, and that’s what I like doing, supporting local people in those areas and supporting one thing that I’m very passionate about, and that’s transport and all the things associated with that.”
Apart from Shepparton, Mr Warren’s business, TriStar Truck and Bus, owns three other Daimler dealerships, in Wagga Wagga, Canberra and Albury.
Shepparton is its most recent expansion, having opened earlier this year, selling Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner trucks and Fuso trucks and buses, which all fall under the Daimler banner, the largest truck manufacturer in the world.
The dealership also sells used trucks and services all brands.
“We are central to ensuring that transport is supported in inland NSW, inland Victoria and also the ACT, so our business is vital,” Mr Warren said.
“We provide a service that is 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
“We’re a major piece of the puzzle in ensuring that we keep the industry moving throughout that inland corridor.”
Mr Warren said it was an exciting time to be in the truck and bus sales and service business, with the industry on the cusp of an era of great change as electric and hydrogen models came on line.
“It’s a mixture of both. Electric is not the end all and be all, but there’s certain applications that it will be,” he said.
“I think the future is a combination of hydrogen over electric.
“Technology has really come to the forefront of transportation in both safety and zero emissions.”
Both Mercedes-Benz, with its eActros, and Fuso with its eCanter, have electric models close to official launches, and Mr Warren expects them to start appearing in his Shepparton yard before the end of the year.
He said his company’s expansion to Shepparton had been made easier by the support Greater Shepparton City Council had provided.
“The initiative that the local council has got for businesses when we come to town, they had a centre there that we could use,” Mr Warren said.
“We didn’t have premises late last year, and we could go to the business centre, which was supported by Greater Shepparton City Council, just things like that.
“It was so pleasing to come into an area where you’ve been welcomed by local people, local dignitaries and the local council in terms of providing support.”