Trailer builder Schmitz Cargobull offers the food and beverage industry a range of refrigerated trailers (reefers) designed to streamline, simplify and reduce the costs of transporting food products around the country.
Jolly & Sons, a family-owned business, has helped transport perishable goods for customers between Perth, Darwin and Karratha for more than 60 years and recently acquired two Schmitz Cargobull trailers to bolster its seafood freight task.
Steele Jolly, managing director, Jolly & Sons said he turned to Schmitz Cargobull to modernise the trailer fleet because they provide reliable and robust road transport equipment.
“We have run a number of trailer brands over the years, but when there was an incident that led to one of our vehicles being written off, we decided to rent out a replacement before deciding on what to replace the old vehicle with,” he said.
Jolly & Sons contacted a rental company and picked up a refrigerated van. It just so happened the van was a Schmitz Cargobull vehicle.
“At that point we thought it best to trial that for a while before deciding on what van to buy and the trials led us to believe the Schmitz Cargobull unit was the right pick,” said Jolly.
Following the successful application of the rental van, Jolly & Sons settled on the purchase of two new Schmitz Cargobull reefers.
Jolly said outside of the non-negotiables that the company requires before trailer purchase, there are two other aspects which are of importance to the company – thermal capabilities and equipment durability.
“How well the van or trailer can hold its temperature inside, especially during extreme weather conditions, is essential for optimising vehicle uptime and achieving fuel efficiencies,” he said.
“Schmitz Cargobull trailers are right up there in terms of their strong thermal properties due in part to the Ferroplast patented body panels. This also means the trailer refrigeration unit doesn’t have to work as hard to keep the perishable goods at the right temperature.”
In addition to their thermal capabilities, Jolly specified Schmitz Cargobull reefers for their robustness.
“These trailers are stronger than anything else we have used in the market.”
Another benefit for Jolly & Sons was the rear trough that can be carved into the trailer which helps the company maintain its food safety standards, which includes ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 14001, OHAS 18001, and AS 4801.
“At the rear of the trailer, we have a trough cut into the floor to catch all the runoff from the fish, which we transport a lot of,” said Jolly.
“As you can imagine – fresh fish in boxes with ice as they are being transported from the Northern Territory and the Pilbara region – juices do leak and then flow to the back of the trailer.
“The trough catches that and runs a hose into a catchment tank so we can catch all the fish juice which prevents it from dripping all over the road. And this is in accordance with our food safety accreditation. We catch run off and dispose of it responsibly.
“That one was a condition of sale for us.”
Schmitz Cargobull provides a host of services to its clients, beyond providing trailers, which includes a database for potential service partners, and a telematics data service that provides all the necessary information about the vehicles.
The company also provides a data management centre to share telematics data and compliance with data protection regulations.
Jolly said he was thrilled to have discovered the product offerings from Schmitz Cargobull and highly recommends the company to others seeking reliable and cost-effective refrigerated transport solutions.