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From one truck to a fleet
In many ways, the story of Ron Crouch Transport is that of a typical Australian transport company. Starting with one truck and a trailer and the vision of a husband and wife to build their professional reputation by providing customer service to their local community.
But in other ways, how the Wagga-based business has reached a 40 year milestone reflects the company’s focus on doing things differently.
Working closely with customers as partners, for example, to deliver optimal results for both businesses.
Continually investing in infrastructure and resources so it can adopt to changing industry trends or technology, and pursuing opportunities to specialise and expand its service offering.
All the while, keeping a focus on supporting the community that supports it. Ronald and Beverley Crouch started Ron Crouch Transport in 1978, carting hay for a single local client.
Today, the third-generation family business provides transport and storage services across the eastern seaboard to 1700 customers, ranging from the local hardware store to international conglomerates.
While maintaining its head office and depot in Wagga, the company has expanded to also provide transport services from depots in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane, as well as third party logistics (3PL) and distribution services from its Melbourne, Sydney and Wagga warehouses.
The company’s growth and longevity has been built on continuing its initial focus on customer service while having the flexibility to adapt to changing industry and client needs to provide efficient and professional solutions for customers.
That approach has built Ron Crouch Transport’s reputation as a professional and reliable company, giving customers the confidence that it delivers what it promises.
“The company started as your typical one-truck, one-trailer operation, just doing rural work servicing the local farming community and it’s developed into a national multi-site 3PL provider specialising in dangerous goods,” managing director Geoff Crouch said.
“I think the key to our longevity has been an absolute ironclad commitment to customer service and the ability to very quickly adapt to changing trends and technology.”
Delivering on a promise
“Being independent and not part of a corporate conglomerate, when there is a new technology becoming available or a new innovation in the industry, we can adapt to it extremely nimbly and take advantage of it quickly for the benefit of our customers,” Mr Crouch said.
“We have a strong commitment to delivering on our promise, regardless of size,” general manager Peter Braneley added.
“We treat regional companies the same way as we treat our larger international clients. There are companies that over promise and under deliver.
“We work on a completely opposite philosophy – if we’re going to commit to something, we make sure we can actually deliver on that promise. We have previously walked away from a tender process, for example, if we don’t believe we’re going to deliver to the customer what is required.
“Customers can then have confidence in your ability to be able to complete the task.
“If they come and ask if you can give them assistance, when you say ‘yes we can and this is how we’re going to go about it’, they know they’re going to get that 100 per cent.
“We’re also open to our customers coming to us with difficult situations, things outside the square, and saying ‘come up with a solution.’
“We’re flexible and adapt our systems and our way of doing business to working with our customers. If we can find a solution for them, we do.”
Ron Crouch Transport specialises in general and dangerous goods freight and third-party logistics.
From its single first customer, it has helped store and move products for more than 1700 companies ranging from animal nutrition and rural supplies, manufactured timber and canned foods to industrial and agricultural chemicals and automotive parts.
With its head office in Wagga, and depots in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, the company’s transport services are accessible across all major cities and regional centres along the eastern seaboard.
Plus, with 23,000 square metres of warehousing space in Wagga, Melbourne and Sydney, they also provide comprehensive third-party warehousing and distribution services to store and deliver general and dangerous goods.
Ensuring safe arrival
Critically, the company’s comprehensive service offering is supported by a commitment to delivering the highest standards of safety, performance and reliability to customers, as demonstrated by its list of accreditation.
TruckSafe Accreditation, for example, means Ron Crouch Transport meets trucking industry standards for safe, responsible business operation across management, maintenance, training, on-road compliance, and fitness for duty and driver health.
Other best practice business management accreditation includes:
Agsafe: Agsafe accredits businesses that distribute agricultural and veterinary chemical products.
The accreditation process ensures facilities comply with all Commonwealth and state transport, storage and handling regulations.
NHVAS Maintenance Management and Basic Fatigue Management: NHVAS accreditation is a formal process for recognising operators with robust safety and other management systems in place. It is also increasingly being used to demonstrate compliance with general duty requirements under road transport law.
S4 Licencing: The company is licensed to distribute Schedule 4 substances as listed on the state authority poisons list.
In addition, HACCP Accreditation (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) is a risk management tool used to manage food safety risks by identifying food safety hazards and implementing controls to manage those risks.
The company’s professional management approach gives customers confidence that it can help limit their exposure, as much as possible, under Chain of Responsibility (CoR) legislation, which holds all parties in the supply chain to account.
Installing telematics and forward-facing camera systems across its fleet also mitigates CoR as well as increasing driver safety.
“We leave nothing to chance,” Mr Crouch said.
While Ron Crouch Transport has always remained true to its initial commitment to customer and community service, it has also proactively pursued opportunities to expand and improve its service.
Specialist service allowed business to boom
Its successful venture into dangerous goods, for example, significantly expanded capability at its now 25,000 square metre Melbourne site.
“Around 10 years ago, we made a strategic decision to specialise in the transport, warehousing and distribution of dangerous goods,” Mr Crouch said.
“Anyone can transport or warehouse 22 pallets of cardboard or 22 pallets of bottles, but not anyone can do dangerous goods. We invested in personnel, infrastructure and safety systems to ensure we can give an ironclad commitment to our customers that we transport and warehouse dangerous goods according to best practice.”
More recently, the company has created a process and innovation manager position to personally partner with customers to explore how new technology can drive efficiencies. The position is designed to find ways to increase flexibility and customer “visibility” in how clients interact with the company.
“We’ve now got a dedicated position for process and innovation,” Mr Crouch said.
“That person meets with customers and looks at how they transact in daily business with our company and what technology are in the marketplace that can assist.”
Such continued focus on improving services with an unwavering commitment to customer service and community support, suggests there are many more chapters still to be written in the Ron Crouch Transport story.