Lineage Logistics entered the Australian market in 2019 through the acquisition of Emergent Cold. Through various warehouse acquisitions since, it has completely transformed its operations.
Perhaps the biggest change requested and subsequently applauded by customers was the evolution of its national, integrated solution. Lineage Logistics now boasts operational sites in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia — with a fleet powered by 110 prime movers, 130 trailers, 180 refrigerated trailers and 15 tail lift units.
While the Emergent Cold purchase helped address customer needs, it also led to the company solidifying its presence in the Asia-Pacific region. With over 53 million square feet across more than 300 facilities in 12 countries, Lineage Logistics now considers itself the largest temperature-controlled facility network in the world.
In its Australian operations specifically, Lineage Logistics offers a wide range of services for storage solutions, integrated solutions and strategic solutions.
The storage option provides clients with cold storage warehousing, port-centric warehousing, automated warehousing, built-to-suit warehousing and sustainable warehousing. Its integrated solutions area includes managed and on-demand transportation services, temperature-controlled rail, customs brokerage, freight forwarding, drayage and multivendor LTL consolidation.
The company’s strategic solutions offerings, meanwhile, provides resolutions for food services, direct-to-consumer fulfilment, supply chain engineering and food processing and manufacturing.
So, in order to continue to back these expanding operations, Lineage Logistics has devised a master plan to get its drivers out of older vehicles and into some new, purpose-built linehaul trucks.
“We’re going to be progressing with a multi-year fleet replacement program,” says Director Transport, Australia, Justin Ryan.
“We also want to standardise what brands and OEMs we engage with to have as much standardisation as possible across our fleet. Growth will be budgeted and planned as we acquire new customers and continue to grow the business.”
In the last two years alone, Lineage Logistics has invested over $20 million into its fleet with new prime movers and trailers. More recently though, the fleet paid its first visit to Brown and Hurley for ten new Kenworth K200s.
“The reason why we went down the Kenworth track is because it’s a very mature product in linehaul, long haul and in the roadtrain space,” says Justin.
“Their proven ability in those sorts of corridors is the most attractive thing about the Kenworth product, and looking back, it’s that reliability that has really benefitted us the most. That’s essentially why we wanted them in the fleet, just to set that standard and get some reliability in our long haul operations.”
Lineage Logistics’ new K200 Aero 2.3 Cabs are powered by Cummins’ 550-horsepower X15 engine and Eaton’s FO22E318B-MXP Ultrashift Plus transmission, which has been programmed for better fuel efficiency thanks to Cummins’ Advanced Dynamic Efficient Powertrain Technology (ADEPT).
Rear suspension is covered with Kenworth’s Airglide 450 and a Meritor MT21-165GP Rear Axle with a 4.1 ratio, which has proven its capabilities in Australia for many years.
On the safety side, Lineage Logistics’ Kenworths are fitted with a fusion integrated safety system, stationary vehicle braking, Active Cruise Braking (ACB) with collision mitigation, a full guardian system to help with driver safety, and a JOST fifth wheel hook-up sensor system with a monitor dash mounted in the cab to make trailer coupling and uncoupling a thoughtless process.
Although Justin had little previous experience in dealing with Brown and Hurley or Kenworth to go by, he says their ability to meet Lineage Logistics’ lead expectation times, while offering the fleet everything it could ask for, is what sealed the deal.
“They just gave us everything we needed in our fleet to settle it into a linehaul rhythm without too much fuss, as we didn’t want to recreate the wheel,” he says.
“We wanted to make sure that the X15 Cummins matched with the Eaton Ultrashift, and it did making it reasonably seamless. We get a lot of good feedback from drivers around how the transmission and engine communicate, so essentially, we’ve gone to the premium end of what we want for the drivers.”
The new Kenworth K200s have been assigned freight transportation for a range of food producers. It makes for relentless work right around Australia.
The B-double combinations (with roadtrain capabilities as well) travel along the east coast to Melbourne and Brisbane, Adelaide to Brisbane and Adelaide to Perth — where in Lineage’s peak periods they will also be running B-triple combinations. The next step, Justin says, will be Performance-Based Standards.
While it’s still too early for Justin to compare the new models to his older vehicles, he has noticed an increased interest in the fleet’s operations by the general public.
“It’s like apples and oranges at the moment because we’ve got such an older fleet, so we really can’t compare them,” he says. “But we’re actually getting some calls because drivers are seeing them and they want to drive brand new Kenworths. There’s a great cohort of drivers out there who just love driving Kenworths, so you attract that sort of linehaul driver in your business.”
As a sidenote, Justin is most pleased with the outcome of his first transaction through Brown and Hurley. Because of this, Kenworth, he says, will be given top consideration as regards to the remainder of the fleet’s inevitable transformation.
“They’ve been very supportive for whatever we need,” he says.
“They’re there to help and they have made sure that we are happy right through the process. With most purchases we go back a hundred times with things we want to change and update at the last minute, and they’ve been very accommodating to that.”
