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AUTOMOTIVE & ROAD TRANSPORT
Bentley Group invests in versatile all-rounder from MaxiTRANS Hauling more than 60 state-of-the-art residential suites to a new cabin park in South Australia is one of the many freight tasks Bentley Group will be assigning its new purpose-built Freighter Drop Deck Semi. Manufactured by MaxiTRANS, the multi-purpose trailer is later planned to make its way around the company’s other business divisions, providing great versatility for its varying operations. Following the success of its Port Pirie venture, Bentley’s Cabin Parks will soon be opening its new fully self-contained accommodation park at Port Augusta. Part of the Bentley Group, the cabin park division was first set up in 1995 when Hayden Bentley, founder and Managing Director, set up four cabins inspired by his travels around Australia with his family. Bentley Group is a diversified business that is involved in farming, hospitality and construction. The new cabins for the Port Augusta site are being built at the company-owned construction yards based in South Australia. To transport those cabins, Hayden recently invested in a new Freighter Drop Deck Semi with ramps, from MaxiTRANS. “We have bought aluminium tippers from MaxiTRANS previously and in February we picked up a new multi-purpose Freighter Drop Deck Semi trailer,” said Hayden. “We had the trailer purpose-built to suit our specific needs. “The cabins we transport with the trailer are one or two-bedroom, with the longest of them around 10.3m long, so we wanted the base of the deck to be 10.5m so the cabin could fit on it. Its bi-folding ramps were made removable to make it easier to put the cabins on and off. We even had it colour-coded to match our new prime mover so it looks nice on the road as well.” Although this trailer was made to suit the specific purposes of Bentley’s Cabin Parks, it is a general-purpose trailer as well. As a result, it will also be used to transport various types of loads including heavy machinery for the company’s other farming and construction equipment such as bulldozers, loaders and graders. The Freighter Drop Deck Semi-Trailer is capable of delivering low tare weight and carrying high loads, machinery and silage. Featuring a short, extra-strong gooseneck, it can be engineered to optimise pallet capacity and spacing on both upper and lower decks, based on specific freight requirements. The wide-spaced main beams combined with low profile frames, deliver complete stability and centre of gravity. Meanwhile, the use of durable cross members
provides a more robust and reliable trailer. Hayden chose to include the optional pull out ramps to allow the load to be driven between the lower and upper decks. “The quality of the workmanship is fantastic,” he explained. “Unlike some of the other trailers with ramps that we have used in the past, the ramps of the new Freighter trailer have shown no signs of rusting or physical damage. We have had good experience with MaxiTRANS before – we bought aluminium tippers from them and we’ve been very happy with them. It was an obvious choice for us to go to them again. We knew we had to stick to what we trusted and what we knew, so going with the Freighter Drop Deck Semi was an easy decision. “We have been using products from MaxiTRANS for nearly 10 years and it was good to work with them again. They made the trailer exactly like how we wanted. The finished product is excellent. They’ve thought of everything and finished it on time. We trust Australian manufacturing and we like quality. We understand that cheap is not always the best so we are willing to pay for quality.”
Boosting manufacturing to meet demand MaxiTRANS is the largest supplier of locally manufactured, highquality heavy road transport trailer solutions, including trailer repair and service, in Australia and New Zealand. In August, despite the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had had on many industries, the company moved ahead with plans to increase production to support an uplift in demand for its leading semi-trailer brands. In addition, the company sought to fill approximately 60 roles across its Victorian and Queensland manufacturing facilities to meet market demand and support this growth. “The support of our customers during these challenging times has been fantastic, while there will still be difficult times ahead, it is great to see confidence in and support of local manufacturing show positive signs of growth in the short term,” said Dean Jenkins, MaxiTRANS CEO and Managing Director.
Bentley Group’s new Freighter Drop Deck Semi trailer from MaxiTRANS.
AMT DEC/JAN 2021
