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LONG STANDING MEMBER
Dylan Jenkin
TRACKING THE RISE OF TATIARA TRUCK & TRAILERS
BY LUCY BREWER
Tatiara Truck & Trailers was founded in 1983 in a small workshop on Seventh Street, Bordertown. John and Ann Jenkin, along with a business partner, started the company to provide heavy truck services to the area. The company became renowned in the transport industry for quick, high-quality service, and the partners realised the business needed to expand to meet demand. The Jenkins’ took full ownership, and by 1997 had moved Tatiara Truck & Trailers to a newly constructed industrial estate, where it remains today. The business, like many in rural South Australia, has always been synonymous with family. John and Ann’s son and daughter, Dylan and Jaime, grew up knowing a succession plan was in place. In 2011, the siblings joined their parents as official shareholders. “Jaime started in 1999 and myself in 2001,” said Dylan. Jaime entered the business in service admin, and now works in finance and human resources. Dylan started as an apprentice mechanic. “I started unofficially by buying a ride on mower and mowing the new lawns in 1995,” he said. Dylan was working full-time by the end of year eleven and joined the “breakdown roster” straight away. He finished his apprenticeship and moved into a workshop foreman role.
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He has worked as a service manager and represented the company at the Kenworth Technician of the Year in 2008. “I was lucky to be trained by some very good tradesmen in the early years: guys that were very driven and very good at getting the most out of someone,” said Dylan. “We now have a modern facility with 55 staff with access to the best factory training and most OEMs on the highway. We still service the agriculture industry, which is full of technology. “We became a sub dealer for the Barry Maney group in the late 80s. This started a partnership with Ford and Kenworth trucks. Around this time arrangements with Cummins and most major brands were formed,” said Dylan. In 2004, an in-house training centre was built, overlooking the main workshop and giving apprentices and school students a taste of working life. “This room is still the training centre for MTA on the Limestone Coast,” said Dylan. During last year’s COVID-19 pandemic, Tatiara Truck & Trailers underwent another redevelopment, with the construction of a new spare parts warehouse and office space. “We moved in there three weeks ago,” said Dylan.
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