Chugh Transport prospers with Scania.

In-depth

1 Oct

Customer service is driving success for Chugh Transport, a small family-owned operation that is growing its offerings to customers, powered by Scania.

In 2011, Peter and Kirsty Chugh founded the fledgling business in Dandenong South, on Melbourne’s southern outskirts, armed with one second-hand Scania prime mover and a large helping of grit and determination.

Today, the business operates 15 Scanias and has evolved from its original removals work into container cartage and recently added warehousing and container unpacking services at its new, larger premises.

The new facility on busy Remington Drive has benefited from exposure to passing traffic boosting its awareness, in turn luring new clients. “It's a big opportunity for us to expose ourselves more in the market,” said Kirsty.

“Moving to Remington Drive in March 2025, we expanded our footprint from 5,000 m3 to 12,000 m3, boosting our onsite capacity from 100 to 500 containers, but already we’re getting full. We will be looking at securing additional holding space for the trailers in the short term.

“For us to move into this building was very exciting. It was a massive achievement for us to get a place on a main road and know that we've got the capacity to bring 15 trucks in here. At our previous location in Fowler Road there was no through traffic.”

Much of the business is focussed on carting containers on A-doubles and B-doubles, off the wharf in Melbourne and delivering to the yard, as well as using the company’s six side-loaders to deliver to customers’ premises.

With 20 employees on the books, mostly truck drivers and the all-important reach stacker drivers, the business has grown organically from the early days of the two directors doing everything themselves.

Peter and Kirsty have around 40 years of transport industry experience between them, initially starting in Queensland. As the Operations Manager for a transport company there, Kirsty was transferred down to Melbourne and Peter came with her.

He had worked with Wridgways Removals prior to their demise and managed to secure one of their Scania trucks, a 4x2 P 360, which he used in Melbourne to start Chugh Transport. That truck now has more than a million km on the clock and has just recently been overhauled, so it is still able to earn its keep when required.

While Peter started off as the company driver, Kirsty managed the business, but now Peter is now out of the literal driving seat and focussed on building sales, with daughter, Georgia helping out on the front desk in between her nursing studies.

**Daughter, Georgia (L) mucks in when not studying for her Nursing degree.**

Initially, the work was removals and then carting to and from the wharf for freight forwarders, but now delivering directly for customers is becoming a growing component of the daily schedule, as well as warehousing.

After a couple of years, the business purchased its second truck, a second-hand R 480 prime mover from the Scania Used Truck team in Campbellfield.

“That truck cost $125,000, which was a great deal of money for us,” Kirsty says. “Recently we put down $1.2 million on three new Scania trucks, so times have certainly changed. Early on we bought three or four second-hand Scanias, and then we started buying them new.”

Peter says the tempo of purchasing has increased. “I am looking forward to the day when I can order 10 in one go,” he said.

Kirsty says Peter’s love of Scanias started long ago. “He had driven Scanias in previous jobs and just liked the way they drove. So, he wanted to keep buying them.

“We formed a good working relationship with Tevfik Onguc, and more recently with Mat Staddon, Scania Account Managers at the Dandenong Branch and it just went from there. Last year we bought three brand newies, and this year we have bought another three as well - G 560 six-cylinder prime movers and R 590 V8s. The V8s pull the A-doubles and the G 560s pull the side loaders,” she said.

The fleet also includes a G 440, 130-tonne rated R 590 V8, an R 620 V8, 460 P Supers and an R 540.

Chugh Transport has bought into the Scania total transport solution which offers a range of services that take the pressure off running a business in a very competitive industry.

“All our new trucks are on Scania repair and maintenance contracts, and we have used Scania Finance Australia since the very first used truck we bought in 2013. We have had the Scania Driver Trainers in, and we also use Scania Fleet Monitoring,” said Kirsty.

“We can’t speak highly enough about Jade Saddler at Scania Finance and Amanda Buckley before her. We have financed all the trucks through them and Scania Finance has always come up with a solution that works for us. We know they work hard for us and to keep us. We've never had a call to go elsewhere. We do have a finance company that will look after us for trailers and forklifts, but Scania looks after all our financing for our new vehicles.

“We were very excited when we took delivery of our first brand new Scania, and in five years it has never missed a beat. We’ll be looking at trading it in maybe next year, it has only around 350,000 km on the clock. We work our trucks hard, and they deliver.”

“We are starting to log bigger annual km now that we’re expanding our customer base and our services, but probably not more than 85,000 km per year on average across the fleet,” Peter added. “Reliability is a strong point and that’s come from the Scanias as well.”

“We are really pleased that the new Scania Supers that we have had on the fleet have been delivering what we were promised in terms of fuel efficiency improvements. We do monitor the fuel use, and we have a 60,000-litre tank on site, which is another way of keeping our fuel bills down.

“The combination of buying bulk fuel and the fuel economy of the new Scanias is making a big impact on our fuel costs, given we use around 25,000 litres each month.”

The biggest cost after fuel is drivers, but Peter and Kirsty are proud that they have a stable driving crew, many of whom have been with the business many years.

“The drivers love the Scanias. We try to keep the same driver in the same truck, and they really look after them, they’re spotless inside,” said Peter. “We try to make this part of our culture. We’ve kitted the drivers out with company clothing, and they have their name on their shirts, and we’re sure they feel proud to represent us. The trucks are kept as clean as possible outside as well, with their new bold livery that really stands out on the road.

“We have employed many drivers. They have to have good English and be able to pass a driving assessment before they get the job, and that includes reversing. You have to be able to back onto docks at some places, and everyone is always watching. It not’s just about safety but professionalism,” Peter said. “Operationally, we only have company drivers, no subbies, and they are proud and loyal workers.”

“We have AI cameras in the trucks, watching the driver and the road, and they’ll trigger an alarm in the office if they detect the driver is fatigued or distracted, or braking or accelerating harshly. It’s for our drivers’ safety as well as the general public. We get very few alarms,” Kirsty said.

The heavyweight wharf work has necessitated running the trucks under mass management to benefit from the extra weight concession. “We’re coming off the wharf between 54-58-tonnes all up,” said Peter.

Moving boxes around in Melbourne is highly competitive, and within spitting distance of Chugh’s premises in Dandenong South there are six heavy-hitting competitors plus a gaggle of smaller operators, so there must be a secret to the Chugh Transport success.

“It’s service,” said Kirsty. “Our customers know that they can talk to the boss at any time, especially if there’s an issue. With the bigger players you wouldn’t get to speak to the guy who owns the business. We don’t operate a call centre. Customers can get through straight to the directors. That’s a feature many of clients appreciate. We're hustlers. We go hard. Whether it's a big player or small players, we take on the challenge.”

“Customers are very demanding. It's a very competitive market and I like to think the difference with us is we're a family business. We give that one-to-one customer service. We know every single customer. We know their directors, too.

“Part of our success is we're not reliant on freight forwarders. We have a lot of direct customers, and they can see the benefit in using us. Our business is probably about 60% direct to customer. The rest is with freight forwarders.

“Now we're expanding into warehousing - previously we didn't have one - so we're doing some container unpacks as well. We'd never done it before, but it is looking good because you're offering a much more rounded service.”

“Chugh Transport is an excellent example of a business that has let Scania do all the hard work keeping the business rolling,” said Mat Staddon, Scania Account Manager. “By using our financial services expertise, our company trained technicians and our repair and maintenance contracts, their trucks deliver unparalleled uptime, at a predictable cost, which means Peter and Kirsty can focus on their customers while we look after their trucks. A win-win for all.”