Truckers feel the chill

By DANIEL RIORDAN

Refrigerated trucking firm Temperature Controlled Distribution is being severely scaled down under a new Australian owner.

Renamed TCD 2001, the firm is closing its general distribution centres throughout the North Island to concentrate on long-distance (linehaul) delivery.

It will maintain dedicated distribution centres and local distribution fleets targeted to major customers, including Progressive Enterprises and Mainland Dairies.

The future of its head office facilities at East Tamaki was not clear yesterday.

TCD 2001 chief executive Roxanne Bakke, who as general manager of TCD had been trying to clinch a rescue package with Sydney-based Rossfreight for several months, said the cutbacks were part of industry rationalisation.

The new company will operate 23 vehicles and expects a turnover of more than $14 million in its first year.

The old TCD is believed to have operated 120 trucks and at last count employed about 60 staff, excluding owner-drivers.

Ms Bakke said the final impact on staff numbers had yet to be decided, but the impact would be considerable.

Asked if the eventual shape of the deal with Rossfreight matched what TCD had been asking for under former managing director and major shareholder Bruce Clarke, Ms Bakke said the negotiations had contained many setbacks.

Ms Bakke will be chief executive and general manager of both TCD 2001 and Rossfreight (NZ).

The old TCD, set up in 1994, has been criticised in the industry for its cut-price business strategy, which had kept freight rates lower than they would otherwise have been.

Ms Bakke said TCD 2001 would not operate with the same pricing structure as the old company.

She said major customers of distribution firms were increasingly setting up their own distribution centres, which would make transport operators' distribution centres redundant.

She predicted the industry would move to dedicated fleets, managed by transport companies for specific customers.

Those trucks would operate exclusively from the customers' premises with some partial sharing of trucks to reduce costs.