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The R & L Beale 2018 Kenworth K200 ready to collect another load of logs near Waimarama, south of Hastings.

ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A LOG TRUCK driver and ultimately own my own truck,” says Ray Beale as we watch the newest addition to his fleet, a stunning new Kenworth T659 arrive at a skid site north of Napier.

Owning a fleet of trucks was never part of the plan. But following several years of growth, R & L Beale Log Transport owners Ray and Louise Beale now have 10 trucks working throughout Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa.

So where does this all begin? Trevor (Ray’s dad) recounts times when he was a driver and would take young Ray out in the truck with him. Trevor says that from an early age, Ray showed a natural talent for working with machinery.

“At three years of age he comes out on a job with me - of course it was quite okay in those days - and I was driving an old Foden and I got the truck stuck out at Akitio. So I said `come on boy, hop into this machine here, when I toot the horn you push this lever up and when I toot the horn again you let it go’.

“`Yes dad’ Ray replies, and he winched me out!

“Another example was we were working up the back of Dannevirke and the Panpac guys were coming in with their real flash rigs taking some of the wood away.

“One of them gets stuck and he says, `I’ll have to get you to come and pull me out with a `dozer.’

“I replied `yeah, yeah good as gold, I’ll get the boy to come down and pull you out.’

“Ray was probably nine or 10 maybe and this driver said `I’m not having any kid pull my truck out.’ So I said `that’s fine, I’m loading the rest of them so you’ll have to wait.’

“The driver responds, `oh, okay send him down and we’ll see how we get on.’ After that they were all more than happy to use him.”

Obviously Ray understood from an early age how to operate machinery. He was able to go to work with his dad on a regular basis and Trevor says “he used to go out with my guys in the trucks back in the ‘80s.”

Trevor chuckles with another memory. “Ray used to give a little bit of lip to a couple of the drivers in the safety of being the boss’s son. One guy, Merv Thomas who has now passed away sadly, got the other driver to stop on the bridge just out of town here, drags Ray out of the cab grabs him by his legs, hangs him over the edge of the bridge and says `you don’t talk to me like that.’

“Ray squeals `oh I’ll never do that again Mr Thomas!”

There is much laughter in the recounting of this tale and Ray adds; “and then I ended up working with Merv and later he talked me into driving for McCarthy’s.”

Ray’s first job driving trucks was in 1998 aged 18 driving a four-wheeler for Flyways and then in 1999 he got his first job as a logging truck driver. By the age of 21 he was with McCarthy’s driving a brand new ERF all over the North Island and was then based at Karioi

for three years.

Having an opportunity to drive a truck for Billy Whyte, who was operating one truck at Panpac, meant he moved to Napier where he learned a lot. When Billy sold his operation Ray went to work for DG Glenn Logging Ltd in 2006 and stayed there for more than 10 years.

During that time an opportunity arose for Ray to buy his first truck.

“In November 2015 dad had gone to Southpac to look at a truck, which he bought. I asked him to have a look at the one that was parked next to it in their yard. I ended up buying it, so the first truck I owned was a Kenworth 104 [2002 model] which I’ve still got.”

Ray says Dennis Glenn and Rob Scurr were huge influences on him.

“As I was getting into business for myself I was still working for them. They were so good to get proper advice from and still are today. I’ll ring Rob or Dennis a lot of the time and if something is not quite right they’ll always give me their best advice,” says Ray.

“They are just good, positive people. They knew what I was up to and I was able to talk to them about heading into my own company.”

Ray bought his second truck (an ex-Bob Cliff Kenworth 104) in June 2016. He was still working for Dennis at Panpac but his trucks were working outside Panpac for Jason Evans (who he still carts for) with his logging crews. Ray won his first contract with Jason carting export logs from Te Aute to the port in Napier.

The first truck in the fleet is this 2002 Kenworth K104 which is still working for R & L Beale Log Transport.

As the operation got bigger Ray needed to get another truck to keep up with the workload. And that’s the way the business has expanded the whole way through.

In 2016 he bought a 2011 Freightliner which was painted in a blue and red livery which now has been adopted as the colour scheme to identify the R & L Beale Log Transport Fleet. Another ex-Panpac Kenworth 104 was added in the beginning of 2017 along with a second hand KW 904 in May `17.

Ray then bought his first brand new truck in 2017, a flat roof sleeper Kenworth K200 which went on the road in May `18. He left DG Logging in 2017.

“It was becoming too much with driving and also managing four of my own trucks by the time I left Dennis,” says Ray.

“I had always wanted a contract at Panpac but there wasn’t one available for me so I decided to get my own trucks sourcing other work. Now the full circle has happened and we have started a contract with Panpac in March with the new Kenworth T659 that we took delivery of in February this year.”

Panpac have allocated Ray the number RB79. That’s because of the Kenworth W924 that Trevor owns - and still works - had the same number when it was working at Panpac back in the `70s.

Ray explains he has four main customers. Rather than have all his eggs in one basket he has been able to remain very independent and not reliant on one contract. He says it keeps the company less exposed

Loading another of the Kenworth K200s in the R & L Beale fleet.

The inherited metallic blue colour that the Beales have developed further gives the fleet a strong visual presence.

to some of the volatility that can happen in the logging industry.

“Ted and Paul at Harvest Logistics in the Napier region have been strong customers who have supported us right from the word go. They have been awesome to work for and we have worked with them for the last five years,” says Ray

The R & L Beale Log Transport fleet now numbers 10 trucks. Two more are arriving later this year - another Flat Roof K200 and a Scania 730. Ray says the reasons for the Scania are driver preference and a good deal supported by the Scania Assistance programme.

“The driver has been with me from the start and we really value him. That’s what he wanted, so it made economic sense to buy it and keep him happy,” says Ray.

And he says it’s a similar story with the new K200. “It’s the same thing, he’s such a good young fella who’s been with us for a couple of years and that’s what he wants, so that’s what he gets. You’ve got to look after your drivers!”

While R & L Beale Log Transport has grown steadily, it was never part of the plan for the fleet to reach double figures. Ray says the goal for the future is to maintain what they already have, mainly because of the driver situation.

“We were encouraged into expansion by customers I guess, who were saying `you are either in or you are out.’

“It has been really good but it’s become harder to manage with drivers, volatile diesel prices, RUC changes, maintenance and all the other challenges that are part of running a business of this size and making sure that it’s financially viable. I’m not the only one with these problems to deal with but it sure is busy.”

Ray recalls doing all of the office work on the kitchen table when they first started out. He then had a small office at home and now a new office has been built.

Two years ago Louise (Ray’s wife of 18 years) gave up a 20-year career in nursing – which she absolutely loved – to run the office full-time as the workload with accounts and compliance issues continued to grow. Ray runs the day-to-day operation dispatching and managing the drivers and trucks. “We never wanted to do that [work together] as it can put extra pressure on your relationship at a time when you want to spend time together getting away from work,” says Ray.

“However it works out real well as I am always out and about and Louise works in the office, so we really only see each other at either end of the day.”

Although he grew up in Dannevirke, Ray is no relation to the similarly named Beale Trucking Ltd just a 30 minute drive south at Pahiatua.

“Nah we’re not, no relation at all but we get on really well,” says Ray.

“It’s quite funny cause Regan will come to Napier or I’ll go to Masterton and because we are both R Beale we will both get people ringing us questioning a job or something, and we’ll realise that has nothing to do with ourselves and it’s the other R Beale they need to speak to.

R & L Beale Log Transport predominantly run a Kenworth fleet with a mixture of three-, four- and

five-axle trailers to cope with the variety of work and terrain.

“We have Kraft, Patchell and Mills Tui trailers as part of the fleet so it’s horses for courses really. We need to have the flexibility to load out where ever,” says Ray.

There are six trucks currently operating from the company base at Clive with two working out of both Waipukurau and Dannevirke.

There are many challenges with running a busy log transport operation.

“One of the huge challenges we have had to deal with lately has been the spiralling cost of diesel which has increased by 100% in a year,” says Ray.

“So you need to have a really good relationship with your clients because you can’t absorb that on a fixed contract. All you really can do is just talk.

“We have really good relationships with our customers. These are guys that I have worked with for the last four or five years so they are all good to deal with.

“They are reasonable and I am reasonable. For example, sometimes log prices go down and these customers need us to adjust our rates to keep the job going, which we have been able to renegotiate in the past. So it’s a two-way street and they are understanding. We need to focus on the win-win so that we can both survive and be sustainable.”

The biggest influences on Ray clearly have come from his family background.

“One of the biggest influences has definitely been Dad. His ingenuity, work ethic and positivity have been huge to me as an example to follow. He’s 70 and still going.

He says the word `can’ has played an important role in his attitude.

“If you want to do it, then do it and don’t give up. I think that also comes from my mum. She may be a quiet lady but if she wants to do something, it gets done.”

Drawing from the inspiration of others Ray has had some sayings put on a couple of his new trucks.

R & L Beale Log Transport mainly works in the Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa forestry areas.

Above: Trevor Beale in his Dannevirke workshop. Below: The Kenworth W924 before Trevor bought it in 1999.

A CRUCIAL PART OF THE R & L BEALE LOG TRANSPORT STORY is Ray’s father, Trevor.

Growing up in Dannevirke during the 1950’s, Trevor is self-taught when it comes to the engineering and mechanical skills he’s still using every day.

“I was definitely more interested in machinery but my dad wasn’t, he was a plumber by trade,” says Trevor.

“But I guess learning as you went and figuring things out yourself, that’s the way life was in those days. You had no option, if something broke you had to fix it. So you got used to it.”

Trevor’s truck driving career began in a TK Bedford carting fertiliser to farms out the back of Hastings. He then moved into logging for a while and also worked for a local company in Dannevirke doing town deliveries.

He’s always been based in Dannevirke apart from six months working in the Wairarapa removing fallen trees from the power lines following the 1968 storm that sank the Wahine.

He worked for the local council driving metal trucks for a short time and then in 1976 Trevor bought his first loader and AllisChalmers HD5 bulldozer with a winch on the back. While he’s always been involved in forestry, Trevor’s focus hasn’t been on the big forestry blocks but rather the smaller stuff such as road edge trees and woodlots.

Trevor says a lot has changed during his time in the forestry game.

I’ve got quotes on a few of my trucks. I try to be positive with everything. On the new T659 I have `Courage is being half scared to death but saddling up anyway’. `Surround yourself with those who are on the same mission as you’ is another quote Ray likes.

“You can be crapping yourself when you see how much money is invested in the gear. New gear turns up and then you realise that you have to pay for it.”

In April last year Ray added a three-man mechanised logging crew, working out of Weber near Dannevirke, to the operation.

“It gives us the ability to put our own crew in a good spot and it ties everything in when we have our own wood to cart,” he says.

“The irony is that we don’t have enough trucks to cart that wood at the moment so we do rely on getting other owner drivers in to help with the work load. And we have the flexibility to cart the logs to Wellington or Napier depending on what suits.”

Ray’s current role is in dispatch and filling in as a relief driver when needed.

“I receive over 100 logistics calls a day and it feels like the phone is constantly ringing,” he says.

“I’m trying my best to turn it over to someone else now. The trouble is we’ve got 10 drivers, so holidays

Trevor’s prized Kenworth W924 still gets to do some logging work.

“Kiwi Lumber can now ring up and order 5000-tonnes of a certain grade of log whereas in the old days they took everything that came out. We used to have machines that were basically 12-tonne in forestry and think that was a big machine. Nowadays they are over 50 tonne!

“We used to tow trailers to the job where now we carry them,” says Trevor.

“I used to build my own trailers. I could ring up the certifying engineer and talk to him about what I wanted to build. He would listen to me and we would agree on what would need to be done and I could then take it over to him to check it and he would certify it based on our agreement.

“He knew the standard that I was going to build to and it was then just making sure that that’s exactly what I had built. We are still using a lot of that gear today we built in the `80s and `90s.”

Logging isn’t an easy game but Trevor has enjoyed the challenges and at 70 years of age he still works full time in the Dannevirke workshop he’s had since 1974.

“The workshop is here to keep the supply chain working. I used to only work on our own trucks (he has eight trucks) but more recently we are also looking after parts of Ray’s fleet and a few others.

“At the moment, whenever a truck needs a new gearbox we go out and buy another second hand one. We’ve actually got five second hand gearboxes that need very little doing to them. I finished one yesterday and I’m half way through one now so my theory is if you have them sitting there and a truck has a problem, in it goes.”

Trevor likes to solve problems that are a challenge.

“I’ll get someone come and say ‘you look at things differently to what we do….what do you think?’ They are working on a digger or truck and they need some creative advice on how to understand why the problem has surfaced.”

The prized possession in Trevor’s fleet is the 1976 Kenworth W924 ex-Panpac truck number 79 which he bought from Young Motors in May 1999 after Joe Gear Contracting owned it for 13 years.

“I love the thing. I could get into it and drive to Auckland and really enjoy myself. The modern trucks just don’t interest me,” says Trevor.

The classic Kenworth gets plenty of attention.

“Everyone wants me to stop so they can get photos. I even got stopped by the LTSA guy near Napier and he says ‘we don’t want to give you a ticket or anything we just want to get a photo of your truck.’

“I just bought it to tow my gear around and yeah it does turn heads and I enjoy driving it. T&D

alone is 40 weeks a year and that’s not counting Covid-19, sick days, bereavement leave and every other thing that causes drama in someone’s life.

“The hardest part of this business is trying to get away from it. Any down time is spent fishing and spending family time at the beach. Being able to get completely away from it all is not as easy as it sounds because both Louise and I work in the business, but being away does make it easier to switch off.”

It’s easy to see how Louise and Ray have been able to work together successfully as a team.

“This was my husband’s childhood dream to own a logging truck,” says Louise.

“We started the business in 2015 when Ray bought the first truck so I was always in the business parttime but moved to a full-time role two years ago as the business has grown. We used to have a full-time office girl and she was amazing. She ran the place like it was her own so when she left she trained another person and myself how to do her job which was really too big for one person.

“So this wasn’t my career path originally. I had my own career nursing for 20 years. It wasn’t meant to happen this way but somehow everything got quite big, quite quick. “I tried to stay out of it initially because I didn’t

Ray and Louise with their children Kaiden and Sophie.

want it to affect our marriage. I didn’t want it to be all we ever talked about.

“Ray is actually really good at being able to walk in the door and switch off but because he is doing the dispatch in the evening the phone will go just as he’s starting to eat his dinner.”

Louise says that Ray’s strength is his customer focus.

“While we started off with just a couple of customers Ray builds such good relationships with them that they are screaming out for more trucks.

“There is so much wood to shift but we only have so many trucks. As a result we have had to build relationships with owner drivers as well to help us with the workload. We’ve got 11 of our own drivers and one serviceman and four or five owner drivers that we work in with.”

She says Ray also understands the importance of people to a successful business.

“He’s always taking KFC out for the loader drivers or having sausage sizzles and he builds these really good relationships. And that’s where it gets hard because we get all this work and we haven’t got enough trucks. So you go buy more trucks and get more debt, bring on more staff, bring on more owner drivers and that brings on more headaches! Oh, it’s not easy.”

Based on their own experiences Ray and Louise have supported drivers taking the opportunity to become owner drivers.

“We’ve had staff who say `I really want to buy a truck’ and we’ll say `buy a truck, have it on with us and we’ll help you out’, says Louise.

“We’ll help them with getting the right finance company, insurance company, fuel cards, yard parking, accountants etc. We’ve got really supportive people around us like the finance, accountants and insurance brokers that we used from the start and we can ring them and they’ll fix any problem.

“When we started we bought a `dunga’ of a truck and decided to give it a crack, so we know what it’s like starting from scratch. When we first started there were those who told us ‘you are never going to make it’ which was very disheartening.

“You can give up very early but it’s actually provided a stimulus for us to get out there are say ‘well we’re still here and now we are buying brand new trucks which is pretty cool when you see them out on the road!’

“Just because we didn’t have business degrees and we had never run a business didn’t mean that we couldn’t surround ourselves with the right people and learn as we went,” says Louise.

“At the start we had no idea how to run a business and felt like we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. But by surrounding ourselves with people that were there to help, we did learn. You can do anything if you want to.”

Working and living together can stress any

Left: For the past two years Louise has worked full-time in the office after a 20-year career in nursing.

Bottom: Ray Beale’s ambition of owning and driving a logging truck has become a growing fleet of 10 trucks.

relationship but after 18 years of marriage the Beale’s are still best friends. Louise believes that working together in the business has made them stronger.

“One hundred percent. We both have a lot more respect for each other particularly when I came in to work full-time in the business and was there to support Ray.

“Now we make decisions together and it’s brought us closer. So when Ray comes home and says he wants a new truck I just roll my eyes and accept it,” says Louise with much laughter.

“I trust his judgement, so if he thinks that we can justify another truck and we can afford another truck he can go and buy another truck! He’s never put us crook yet!”

Ray and Louise have created a business that is based on hard work with a clear focus on relationship building and working as a team. Continuing to deliver on their “can do” attitude, it’s not hard to see more growth opportunities on the horizon for R&L Beale Log Transport. T&D