Page 60 - Demo

Above: Transport manager Bill Terry oversees a eet that’s quite remarkable in its versatility
Right, both pictures: A Stark Bros facility in Christchurch o ers 2000 square metres under cover and more than a hectare in the open to store equipment for the shing vessels that the company services
“The fishing industry uses a huge range of diverse equipment, needed for different seasons and areas, and we help to store it when it’s not needed.
“However, a growing proportion of the transport is for outside clients. We used to do a lot of drum cartage for the oil companies that at the time were virtually next door, but they’ve pretty much gone – so now we cart fish from the Independent Fisheries trawlers through to the coolstores in Christchurch, under contract to Hilton Haulage.”
The fish comes off the factory ships frozen, packed in cartons shrink-wrapped onto pallets, and is carted on the company’s curtainsider trailers. Because the trip takes barely 15 minutes, there’s no need for reefer units. Temperatures are monitored both ends, and the trailers are MPI- certified.
A regular component of the marine repair work lies in maintaining the so-called “Russian” fishing fleet that has Lyttelton as its base. As Andrew points out, the vessels are actually a mixture of Ukrainian and NZ-owned: “Independent Fisheries owns two and operates another leased one, while several others are leased by other NZ fishing companies. The vessels have all been here for around 25 years, with the Ukrainian-domiciled skippers, crews and processing staff working on a
six months on/six months off cycle.”
The versatility of the crane units in particular,
combined with the can-do attitude honed by years of looking after its marine customers, makes for a fascinating range of outside contracts for the Stark Bros transport fleet, says Bill Terry: “That’s the beauty of my work – every day is different. Every job begins with a phone call. When our drivers turn up in the morning they generally have no idea what they’ll be handling or where they’ll be going. By comparison, the drivers from any one of the pure transport companies servicing the port container operations could probably have the same route
and loads for weeks at a time.
“Today, for example, I’ve got one truck delivering
a spa pool to a city site, another lifting a spa pool and a caravan onto a hillside site in Lyttelton (the owner proposes to live in the caravan while a new house is being built on the site, and likes the idea of having the pool as well)....
“And another truck is shifting a whole lot of showjumping fences from one location to another at the A&P Showgrounds.
“Yesterday the two big cranes shifted a modular plastic pipe-making facility from Hororata to Ashburton for temporary storage, while in a couple of days the PK78 will be in Cheviot.
“We’ve carted a load of mature trees from
52 | Truck & Driver