ISUZU TRUCK BOOSTS PERTH SOLE TRADER’S LIFESTYLE BUSINESS

As well as making Rob Toohey’s 12-year-old pressure cleaning business more flexible and profitable, upgrading to a light truck gave his business the ‘wow’ factor.   

After more than a decade hauling his hot water high pressure cleaning equipment around the wider Perth area with a ute and a trailer, in 2021 Rob invested in a NLR 45-150 Traypack from Major Motors.  

“I had a ute and a trailer before and it was a pain in the neck because someone would call me up and offer me a small job and I'd be thinking to myself, `well, that's half an hour of work just to hook up and detach the trailer when I'm finished,’ and a lot of times I’d turn it down. 

“Now that I have everything in the truck, when anybody calls me up with a small job, I say, ‘yeah, I can be there in 15 minutes.’ Boom, go do the job and come back and it's brilliant.” 

Rob set his truck up to carry all the gear he needs to complete his cleaning services - garbage bins of every size, oil stains and graffiti - quickly and efficiently.  

“It is partially having the right chemicals, but the equipment makes a huge difference because the hot water increases the effectiveness of the chemical by about 25 per cent.  

“The hot water makes a huge difference and most of my competitors don't have hot water.” 

Featuring a GVM of 4,500 kilograms and a GCM of 8,000 kilograms, the NLR 45-150 Traypack with its factory tray body transports all Rob’s cleaning supplies and equipment without issue.  

“The truck carries the water, the hot water, the high-pressure equipment, every chemical I need…it carries everything!” he said.  

SELF-CONTAINED SERVICE 

“So now I'm totally self-sufficient.  

“When I rock up to somebody's house to clean an oil stain, for example, I don't even need to tap into their water supplies.” 

Powered by Isuzu’s four-cylinder 4JJ1-TCS engine, the NLR has plenty of power with 110 kW @ 2,800 rpm and torque of 375 Nm @ 1,600 - 2,800 rpm. 

Originally from Greenwich, Connecticut (an hour from New York City), Rob moved to Australia after marrying an Australian. He set up his flexible “lifestyle” business in 2010 so he could spend time with his then school-aged son.  

“The flexibility of the hours is what was important to me,” he said.  

“I wanted to make my own hours.” 

After a bumpy start with the business, Rob landed his foundation client more than a decade ago, the City of Cockburn, a local council about 20 kilometres from the centre of Perth.  

BIN BONANZA 

“I clean about 3,000 bins a year for them,” he said.  

“One of the reasons it works for me is because I go to Cockburn one or two days a month. It's a lot of work in one day or two days, but it's worth it.” 

Rob also has a regular roster of commercial customers who need oil stains removed, including real estate agents, car dealers and cooking oil suppliers. 

He also has regular and one-off residential customers who want their rubbish bins cleaned.  

“Normally I never meet residential customers. But one day this guy was out cleaning his mailbox. I’d never seen him before. I pulled up to clean the bin and as I hop out of the truck he goes, `wow, that looks fantastic’,” Rob said.  

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE 

“I said, ‘thank you very much’, because it does look fantastic.  

“The truck, the whole setup, it just oozes professionalism. It impresses people because it looks so good.”  Rob’s son has finished school and is now a chef, but Rob still wants his pressure cleaning business to be a part-time venture.  

WINNER WINNER! 

Rob usually advertises his business with email campaigns. But late last year he won the West Australian category of the Isuzu 50th Anniversary Billboard Competition, and Rob and his trusty truck were featured on a giant billboard in Perth.   Looking ahead, Rob plans to continue to keep Perth’s bins and driveways clean with his high-pressure cleaning set-up, and now with the backing of an Isuzu NLR Traypack, his working life just got a whole lot more efficient and profitable.