Schreurs & Sons is a third-generation farming business that is 100 per cent Australian family-owned and operated, specialising in celery, leek and baby leaf lines (including spinach, rocket and snow pea tendrils). With seven properties, spanning in total over 1,000 acres, it is one of the largest suppliers of celery in Australia and also serves international markets.
Chris Schreurs – Director of Business & Commercial Operations – takes pride in delivering high quality products to customers all year-round. His fleet transports fresh produce in Victoria, primarily between the business’ farm growing regions and the Melbourne wholesale market. Two of the biggest challenges for Schreurs & Sons are operational efficiency and load security.
As they don’t have loading docks on any of the farms, they needed an efficient and safe solution that not only maintains the integrity of the produce (particularly on warm days), but also achieves minimal turnaround time between locations.
Chris compared a Slide-a-Side to other equivalent options available and believed Maxi-CUBE provided the best solution for his needs. MaxiTRANS’ willingness to work with him to ensure he obtained the most efficient set-up and best use of the Slide-a-Side design was a great contributing factor.
As for productivity, the Maxi-CUBE Slide-a-Side certainly pays off Chris comments.
“Moving from curtains where we would have to strap down the load, this process is now taking less than half the time with a Slide-a-Side,” he says. “In addition, we elected to purchase a B-double set which now takes our round trips from our main growing region in Tarwin to our production facility in Clyde from an average of three trips a day into two. So, the fuel and labour savings have been quite significant. Prior to investing in our new rig set-up, we were frequently using two drivers doing three-to-four round trips between these locations during our peak season.”
“With the fridges up and running over last summer, we were very surprised with how well the thermal insulation worked on the Slide-a-Side,” he says. “It has exceeded our expectations in maintaining temperature control. So, they have done an excellent job there.”
The Maxi-CUBE Slide-a-Side’s sliding doors, according to Chris, are an important feature. “They are designed well and work with minimal effort, which is naturally saving time, stress and strain on the operator. This in turn is also a great OH&S outcome.”
