A family-owned trailer manufacturing company has enhanced the efficiency of its business operations with the help of Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA) equipment, thanks to a range of tailored forklift and material handling solutions chosen to suit its specific needs.
The Drake Group is an Australian-owned trailer manufacturer based in Wacol, Queensland, who builds and sells a range of bespoke trailers to customers both locally and abroad.
The company recently looked to upgrade its fleet of material handling equipment by reaching out to several manufacturers, however the reliability, aftersales service, broad model range and competitive pricing of TMHA proved to be the most compelling forklift manufacturer for The Drake Group.
“Price-wise Toyota was really competitive – also the reliability, [and] the aftersales service” Drake Group maintenance supervisor Buchanan Pinder said.
The Drake Group purchased a range of machinery to suit the needs of their manufacturing facility in Wacol, including six TMHA LHE150 electric pallet jacks, two TMHA Leonardo elevated work platforms, three Toyota 8FG25 counterbalance forklifts and a Huski 5SDK5 skid-steer loader.
TMHA Major Account Manager Chevy Date and Mr Pinder worked together to determine which machines would best suit The Drake Group’s needs, such as the Huski skid steer loader which has made it much easier to clean up their blast booth.
Previously the company would fit an attachment onto a forklift to scrape up the sand and debris from the floor of the blast booth, however the harsh usage would eventually break the forklifts, leading to additional downtime and maintenance costs.
Using a Huski skid steer instead, which is perfectly suited to tough environments, provides a more tailored solution for the business while also doing a better job of cleaning up the blast booth.
Likewise, using the two Leonardo elevated work platforms has made the fabrication process both easier and safer for the welders who work on trailer manufacturing.
“When we build our trailers, we turn them 360 degrees when we weld them out,” Mr Pinder said.
“When they’re on their side we used to use scaffolding, and the welders would climb the scaffolding and do their work on that. Now we use these scissor lifts to take the welder and the wire feeder up the unit and they can use that instead of having to climb up and down scaffolding, so it’s a lot safer and a lot more user-friendly.”
TMHA Major Account Manager Chevy Date has helped to make the purchase and aftersales process as simple and pain-free as possible for The Drake Group and has further helped tailor the fleet to suit the company’s needs, such as fitting a louder reversing alarm on the new forklift to suit the noisy warehouse environment.
After using different brands of forklifts in previous years, Mr Pinder said the performance of the Toyota forklifts has quickly turned the operator of the new machine into a fan.
“The forklift we received is actually only operated by one person – he is our oldest and longest-employed forklift driver and has been there 30-plus years,” Mr Pinder said.
“He was a bit reluctant to get on the new Toyota but about a week later he came up to me and I’ve never seen him take so much pride in his forklift since he got this new machine. He washes it every week, he takes really good care of it; he’s very happy with it.”
The Drake Group’s forklift operator isn’t the only one who has been happy with the switch to TMHA, with Mr Pinder saying that having Mr Date handle his order has been a breeze, keeping an open dialogue and assisting in helping find the right specification of equipment for the company.
“It’s been second-to-none – it’s been awesome to deal with TMHA,” he said.
“For example, we put fork positioners on all the forklifts, but I wanted a specific type. It was so easy – I told Chevy what I wanted, he sent me a list of options, I picked the option I wanted, and it was done. There were no questions, I knew exactly what was going on.
“There were a few changes where I had to call Chevy and say, ‘I want to change this to that’, he was awesome, he was more than happy to help in any way. One of the biggest things that stuck out to me, when I called him and said I’ve got a question, he said “ask a hundred – that’s what I’m here for”.”
The Drake Group is a family-owned and operated business which first started out from a small workshop in Brisbane in 1958 and continues to build all of its products locally.
The company has grown to around 430 employees in 2024, and along with Drake Trailers it also includes O’Phee Trailers and Dalzell & Bagley Engineering under its brand umbrella.
TMHA would like to thank The Drake Group for its patronage and looks forward to continuing a strong and fruitful partnership together.
