Page 50 - Australasian Paint & Panel Mar-Apr 2019

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Industry insights
PAINT&PANEL MARCH / APRIL 2019
TRAILER BLAZERS
C
DRAKE TRAILERS HAVE CARVED OUT A UNIQUE NICHE IN THE MARKET BY ENGINEERING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS.
OLIN DRAKE, THE FOUNDER
of Drake Trailers, saw a gap in the heavy haulage market in providing some non-standard, oversize trailers that can move things that the standard, 'off the shelf' trailer manufacturers couldn’t provide. Truck owners were coming to his repair shop in Rocklea, Queensland with various re- quests on how to move all sorts of heavy machinery and parts and other over di- mensional freight, when they couldn’t find another solution in the market. The word spread that Drake could pretty much build anything and thus Drake
Trailers was born in 1958.
Fast forward to today, Drake Trailers
is still privately owned and its philoso- phy, from inception, has remained un- changed - “embrace customisation”. Drake trailers earned its reputation in the heavy haulage market thanks to the exceptional quality of its products and
engineering ingenuity. To this day, all solutions are developed in-house, by a team of 15 dedicated engineers. It’s the largest heavy hauler trailer manufac- turer in Australia servicing construc- tion, infrastructure, mining, specialty freight, wind farms, solar, oil, gas and agricultural segments.
Customers needing bespoke trailers come to Drake, knowing that they’re abreast of industry and haulage trends, and as such, which trailer configura- tions and capacities will be required to- day and in the future.
“Innovation and quality are the cor- nerstones of Drake’s reputation. People know that we can take pretty much any concept and design and build it. We source only premium components and raw materials from around the world. For example, the steel we use comes from the top manufacturers in Europe and Japan. And that’s what makes the
Drake trailers last a long time - deliver- ing not only robust performance, but an unbeatable resell value. Some of the Drake trailers from the '60’s are still in operation, and are either now being ser- viced or refurbished by our dedicated team” says Khali Lake, the Group’s Gen- eral manager.
All the major components which go into the trailers are built to last, and the paint finish is no exception. Last year, Drake entered into a partnership with AkzoNobel, who now supplies its premi- um commercial vehicles paint product, Sikkens BT, to Drake’s Queensland fac- tory. Since Drake trailers have always used only premium product from other paint suppliers, the entry requirements were already quite high.
HARSH ON OUR SUPPLY CHAIN
“We are harsh on our supply chain, as our standards are tough. Our custom-