SRT Logistics has taken delivery of 36 new Toyota Material Handling forklifts and pallet jacks
From its HQ in Brighton, SRT Logistics has evolved from a small refrigerated food transport to a full supply chain management provider.
With five distribution centres, all with dedicated refrigerated warehouses with sealed loading docks as well as customers of the likes of Woolworths, Lion, and Schweppes, SRT is now a big player in the sector.
A lot has changed a lot since SRT’s founding 30 years ago.
“When I started in the family business, in 1997, we didn’t even have a forklift because we didn’t have a warehouse,” SRT CEO Rob Miller says. “We just worked out of the truck yard, but things grew.
“In the nineties we won some large contracts and started distributing chilled and frozen goods for customers such as Woolworths,” he says. “That was when our volume of work started to really generate and provided the foundation for us to grow the rest of the business.”
Accompanying this spike in volume was a need for material handling equipment. So, SRT started by renting forklifts and turned to Toyota Material Handling Equipment Australia (TMHA).
“Our old gear was sort of dying and running out,” Miller says. “Then we met (TMHA’s) Rodney Jones and the business ended up buying four Toyota forklifts from TMHA.”
Fast-forward, SRT is now receiving a new fleet of Toyota machines. After the first four Toyota forklifts arrived and performed strongly, SRT were quick to purchase another 36 Toyota machines, which included Toyota 8FBN 2.5-tonne four-wheel and Toyota 8FBE 1.8-tonne three-wheel battery electric forklifts, 32-8FG 1.8-tonne four-wheel gas forklifts, Toyota BT LPE220 ride-on electric pallet jacks and BT LWE130 electric pallet jacks.
“We looked at the offerings from the main fork suppliers and in the end, it was a combination of our history and experience of the Toyota forks – the longevity and consistency of their performance – the pricing of the gear and the ability for our supplier to also meet our short-term rental requirements while the new equipment was on order,” Miller says.
“The old machines performed really well. We never had any problems with those early Toyota forks – it’s been the most reliable material handling gear we’ve used, so I reckon that our history certainly helped in us making our decision to purchase the latest additions to the fleet.
“We had good longevity out of that equipment – we still have a couple of those kicking around 15 years later – and expect to get the same or better out of the new machines,” Miller says. “If you can get 10-15 years out of that type of equipment you’re doing well.”