SOUTH Australian-based Trans Australian Livestock Transport has expanded over the past 26 years, in line with the company’s two largest customers – red meat processors Thomas Foods International and Midfield Group.

Combined, the two account for a large portion of Trans Australian’s operations, covering beef, sheep and lambs, and goats. Cattle operations for TFI extend from direct paddock or saleyards to abattoir on grassfed animals; feeders to TFI’s 35,000-head Southern Cross feedlot near Tintinara; and finished grainfed cattle from the feedlot to abattoir.

Given the location, about 60pc of Trans Australian’s overall annual operations are sheep movements, with many of the trailers in the fleet convertible from cattle to sheep work.

Trans Australian also ranked number seven in our previous Top 25 list published back in 2013, with a livestock fleet size similar to this year’s 50 prime movers, and 150 decks capacity.

Today the company has built a substantial presence in Australia’s transporting sector, with a further 50 trucks operating in produce, freezer vans and general freight operations. In total, the broader business now runs more than 100 prime movers.

During the 1990s, founders Gary and Suzette Thornhill owned a small transport business in Lucindale, SA. In 1999, together with sons Damian, Jason and Wade, the Thornhills bought the Trans Australian Livestock trucking business from Chris Thomas and Bob Rowe, who had just purchased the Murray Bridge abattoir to form T&R Pastoral.

In the past 26 years T&R, later to become today’s Thomas Foods International (TFI) under the sole ownership of the Thomas family, has grown to become one of Australia’s largest red meat processors with beef, sheepmeat and goat abattoirs at Murray Bridge and Lobethal (SA), Tamworth and Bourke (NSW) and Stawell (VIC).

Operations shifting lambs, sheep and cattle for Midfield Group’s large Warrnambool processing plant in Victoria have also grown substantially.

Trans Australian Livestock operations manager Jason Thornhill told Beef Central the family business had grown in parallel with TFI and Midfield’s own expansions.

While a lot of operations are focussed on Victoria and South Australia, the distinctive sky-blue and grey trucks are also seen on highways and by-ways right across New South Wales and into Central Australia.

Diversity in prime movers

The livestock fleet of 50 prime movers comprises both Kenworths and Western Stars, with the first of 16 Western Stars ordered late last year now being delivered. As readers may have already observed, its highly unusual for any operators on the Top 25 these days to operate anything but Kenworths.

As well as providing some diversity, Mr Thornhill said the Penske Detroit motors in the Western Stars were very fuel-efficient.

“We just have to see what’s better off,” he said. “We’re finding, right now, that the Detroits are getting a lot better fuel economy than the Cummins motors in the Kenworths.”

Most of the livestock fleet trailers are B-doubles and B-triples, with one six-deck roadtrain based in Broome, WA. All the sheep trailers in use are TruckArt trailers out of Wagga, while the cattle trailers are all Haulmark-built.

Technology plays a role

All the prime movers are satellite-tracked, and employ the ‘seeing eye’ technology (separate story to come in this series on technology being adopted in the transport industry).

“There’s quite a range of benefits in satellite tracking,” Mr Thornhill said. “We can give a customer or an agent an accurate arrival time for a pick-up, and with all drivers paid on a cents-per-kilometre rate, it provides an accurate account of trip distance, as well as speed monitoring.”

Beyond the company’s ‘big two’ processor customers, Trans Australian also hauls stock for other clients, off-farm or from saleyards into meatworks, feedlots or saleyards.

The headquarters for the company’s livestock division is at Murray Bridge, not far from the Victorian border.

Trans Australian Livestock Transport

Murray Bridge SA

Booking inquiries: Jason Thornhill, Operations Manager: 0438 849 132

Email: [email protected]

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