19 January 2024 · CMI Hino Adelaide
Workzone creating safe work environments with CMI Hino
After purchasing Workzone from his neighbour back in 2004, Andrew White already had an understanding of how assembling a fleet consisting of reliable transportation, would mark the first steps to expand the business and help keep South Australian roads safe.
“The business didn’t come with much at all, just a couple of utes and an old Ford Econoline truck with an aluminium tray on the back,” said Andrew.
After experiencing numerous diesel particulate filter (DPF) failures and subsequent warranty problems with other various makes and models, Andrew and Workzone made the move to include Hino Trucks into their fleet - thus began their long-standing partnership with CMI Hino Adelaide.
“In the end we took a couple of Hino’s on, about eight years ago now, because Dave Cushion from CMI Hino Adelaide convinced us.
Since then we’ve had a great relationship with CMI Hino Adelaide and Dave has really looked after us with all of these trucks,” explained Andrew.
The positive feedback Andrew received from employees demonstrated the impact these Hino Trucks had on the business over the years and this prompted Workzone to obtain an all-exclusive Hino fleet, provided solely by CMI Hino Adelaide.
“Our people really like the Hino’s, they’re more comfortable and have plenty of power, but reliability is the biggest thing – they know they’re going to start when they get into them.”
The majority of Workzone’s fleet consists of Hino 300 Series trucks, with a car licence suitable 4500kg GVM, and all are fitted with the same rack system to shift cones, signage and safety equipment.
“We have 200 traffic controllers, and we do 100 jobs a day, so we needed to standardise them,” explained Andrew.
While some other traffic control companies opt for utes, Workzone has found trucks to be safer when loaded up with equipment.
“Part of the reason for trucks is that when you’ve got all of the cones and signs on a ute, they’re either overweight or right at the limit. These Hino trucks, though, are still underweight by about 400kg even when we have them loaded!” Said Andrew.
After experiencing steady growth in 2020 during the peak of the COVID pandemic due to traffic control requirements, Workzone has continued to expand their fleet which now consists of 44 Hino Trucks. This includes three Hino 500 Series trucks, which were fitted with impact attenuators – designed to absorb kinetic energy and safely protect the working site from potential hazards.
Workzone have shown no signs of slowing down and have now established themselves in the Northern Territory, operating from Darwin through to Alice Springs.
“We’ve been going about three years up there and it’s been hard to break in, but we’re getting there,” Andrew said.
Their expansion into the north required Workzone to purchase additional traffic control trucks, with Andrew and the team promptly deciding on three new Hino 300 Series models and had them fitted out with the same rack design as the ones in Adelaide.
“We’ve got two of the longer 616 300 Series and we’ve just had a crane truck built on a 616 body too, with a drop deck on it and a harness frame so our guys can put a harness on and deliver cones – it’s safer than walking down the road,” Andrew said.
Andrew believes that Workzone will soon reach the milestone of 50 Hino Trucks in their fleet as operations in the Northern Territory continue to expand.
“I’m pretty sure we’ll hit 50, yeah, because we’ll have to grow up in the Territory, but also, whenever we have all three of our 500 Series attenuator trucks out, we always need another one,” Andrew concluded.
The CMI Hino Adelaide team are extremely proud of the relationship and partnership we have built with Workzone over nearly 10 years.
“Dave has provided excellent sales expertise and has built a great relationship with Workzone throughout the years. We’ve been grateful to have been a part of the growth Workzone have achieved, and we’re excited to work with them to provide their 50th Hino truck,” explained Nathan Chatfield, CMI Hino Adelaide General Manager.
We would like to express our gratitude to Andrew and the rest of the team at Workzone for their ongoing support of CMI Hino Adelaide. We’re excited to continue to partner with them well into the future.
Workzone is an Adelaide-owned traffic control provider expanding in both South Australia and Northern Territory, providing clients with top traffic management solution services.
Read the full article on trucksales.com.au here.
Explore the Hino range here.
