ISUZU AT THE HEART OF ADELAIDES GARDEN GROVE

[image_gallery][/image_gallery] Garden Grove Supplies is a family owned and operated business, occupying no less than 10 acres in the leafy suburb of Golden Grove in Adelaide. The site boasts a beautiful nursery and a retail range that covers everything from plants and pots to pizza ovens. “Mum and dad started the business back in 1982,” said Managing Director Brad Carraill. “It began with dad carting bulk landscape products for other people, and then starting to stockpile some himself.” “People would come onto the property and ask, ‘Is that for sale?’ and he’d say, ‘Well, yeah, I suppose,’ and it all just took off from there.” Brad came on board in 1989 and now shares management duties with his brother-in-law, Rick Dell’Oro. The business group is multi-faceted, offering garden supplies, bulk haulage and even a construction company. This versatility requires them to maintain an extensive transport fleet and Isuzu Trucks, with its seemingly endless flexibility across every weight segment, plays a starring role. “We’ve got a whole lot of them, from the big Giga, right down to the little fellas,” said Brad. “We started with the FVZ 1400s – I think we bought the first one of them in 1999 or ’98 – and they’ve been great little trucks.” Garden Grove’s success lies in their fantastic service and ability to cater to a diverse range of needs. “We’re a landscape yard and a retail outlet, delivering barks, mulches and loams to everyday people,” Brad said. “But we also wholesale a fair bit of the material, servicing all of Adelaide with the local trucks, while our haulage fleet goes as far as Kununurra, Darwin, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.” The Isuzus tend to do most of the retail garden supplies delivery work, operating predominantly in metro areas where their get-up-and-go is a real advantage. They still clock up the kilometres however, with Garden Grove’s locally-based trucks adding 80,000-100,000 to the odometer per year on average. And while most of them travel over well-maintained, urban roads, some get a real work out. “I have a couple of the Isuzus in quarries and they’re working extremely hard in there,” Brad said. “They’ll basically do eighty loads a day: loading under a hopper, taking it around to a stockpile, tip off, and then back under a hopper. It’s all on steep winding haul roads.” Other than customising the tippers to accommodate certain materials, the trucks are factory standard. “We extend sides and swing tail gates, and fit alloy wheels to lower the tare weights. Some of the trucks – the tandems, like the FVZ styles – have aluminium bodies fitted; but the smaller ones are just factory bodies customised slightly to suit mulches and barks,” Brad said. Brad runs a tight ship, ensuring the trucks are constantly working and operating as efficiently as possible. A typical day at the depot begins anytime between five and six thirty, depending on the shift, when the trucks load up and head out on their first delivery. This might mean going five minutes down the road, or right across the other side of town, two and a half hours away. On they’ll go, in and out through dispatch all day. “The trucks are all on a tracking system, so the despatch guys know exactly where they are, and give the drivers their next load details as they come back through gate,” Brad said. “Or they might backload from a quarry while they’re out on a delivery, taking five yards of mulch out and then picking up five tonne of material to be taken to a landscaper on the way back.” Keeping a precise operation like Garden Grove running requires every piece to fulfil its duty at all times – there’s no room for faulty machines or lacklustre performance. Isuzu’s reliability has been a big factor in Brad’s choice to return to the brand again and again. He’s particularly happy with the new Allison automatic transmissions, which have added an even greater level of user-friendliness and driveability. “The last four or five trucks we’ve had through here were all autos and they’re performing really well,” he said. “I’ll definitely stick with them.” He also praises the comfort and safety. “Our operators can be driving for two hours, hop out, unload, then drive back two hours – so sometimes they’re behind the wheel and getting in and out all day. “With the Isuzu’s we don’t really have fatigue issues and the easy access in and out of the cab means they don’t get the back problems they might otherwise.” Overall, Brad said he’s really happy with them. “We’ve tried the opposition’s product over the years, but the Isuzus perform better,” he said. “We’ve had a great run with them and the dealers are fantastic people to work with. “That’s what keeps us coming back.” ends  For further information, please contact:                Jeff Birdseye                                                             Isuzu Australia Limited                                              Phone: 03 9644 6666                                               For Isuzu Truck Releases and Photos: Arkajon Communications Phone: 03 9867 5611 Email: isuzu@arkajon.com.au