IN THE NAME

majority of the trucks in Auckland. A big part of the market can access that and get these trucks on the road. It’s not a hard process – the opportunity is there. The cup is half full,” Mark says.

“I expect we’d get more than the four years out of these trucks, maybe eight. That changes the economics again, too,” Grant adds.

“Competing against another metro container business with electric trucks would keep me awake at night,” says Mark. “I think there are others in the industry going, ‘Ooh, shit. What are those f@&kers up to?’”

Mark and Grant have put absolute faith in Scania. “By now, all these firstgeneration electric trucks have had a long and intensive development since they first appeared half a decade ago. It’s the same as the cars. We bought Nissans because we know they made a ‘million’ of them. We know Scania will have mitigated any issues.” So far, the 25P is living up to that expectation, and we’re excited to see more of these find a place in the market and begin to do ‘real work’, as Mark put it.

With OEMs suggesting cost parity with diesel in the second half of this decade – just a couple of years away – investigating how these alternatives could fit into one’s business is undoubtedly good due diligence. What Mark and Grant have decided to do with Project Switch goes beyond; it is a commitment, pure dedication.

Good on you, men. We can’t wait to see what returns come from Project Switch and can only look on with admiration.

With 110 staff members, roughly 120 plant items, including 30 trucks, about twice as many trailers, a dozen fork hoists and three reach stackers split across two Auckland depots, Reliance Transport today is a very different operation to the company formed by dad Ken Darrah and his friend Ivan Sokolich in 1955. “They did their time together as mechanics and fitters in the post office workshop in Newmarket. They originally wanted to buy a service station but couldn’t afford it, so they bought trucks,” Mark says.

The company was originally D&S Transport, primarily operating from West Auckland and taking fresh produce into town. The motto on which D&S was built was, ‘Any load, anywhere, anytime,’ Mark explains. “They’d do midnight runs to get produce to the Chinese greengrocers. Our mother had a few date nights in the trucks…”

The company was tracking along nicely, and in 1959, Bob Martin joined as a third partner. With that, the name was changed to ‘Reliance’ and the company’s signature ‘Reliance Yellow’ livery first appeared.

“The colour is actually New Caterpillar Yellow, but there are about half a dozen variations of it. So, it’s in the PPG system as Reliance Yellow,” Grant points out.

Ivan left not long after Bob joined, and the two men fell into their respective roles, with Ken taking care of operations and Bob focusing on the business side of things – very much as Grant and Mark do today.

“Reliance has never not been around – we were both born into it,” Mark says, adding that third brother Paul also has an ownership stake.

Fifty-seven-year-old Mark is an engineer by trade and started working in the company in 1996. “I’ve only had two jobs. I worked at a steel manufacturer in Otahuhu for a bit, went overseas for a year, and then the old man said, ‘get home’.”

Sixty-year-old Grant’s background is a diesel mechanic. “I did a couple of years overseas, then I came back in Christmas 1987 for a ‘temporary’ job!” he says with a laugh.

That temporary job was to tend to fleet maintenance. “It was only 10 or 12 trucks plus trailers and bits and pieces, but it was all rundown. After that, I had nothing to do in the workshop, so I went driving. That was when cell phones came in and the old man kept ringing me up, and I was basically dispatching from the truck, so I moved to dispatching from the office to where I am now,” Grant continues.

Shortly thereafter, the whole fleet was replaced with N-series Fords. “Dad said that’s what got him through those tough years – the fleet was paid for, and they didn’t have to fix it,” Grant says. That relates to one of the lessons the brother learnt in those early years. As Mark explains: “Dad would tell us things, but when you’re in your 30s, you don’t appreciate that wisdom… but everything he said was pretty much right –like don’t f@&k around with second-hand gear.”

While the fleet has comprised most brands available over the years, when Mark joined in 1996, a move to Euro trucks was made in the name of efficiency. “In 1999, we leased our first truck and haven’t stopped since. We spend our depreciation every year – that’s our capital budget. If you stop that, you end up with the fleet Grant had in 1987,” he explains. With the introduction of Euro-5, company introduced DAFs to the fleet. “They were good and showed us the positives of standardising a fleet. It’s taken us to now to get a one-brand fleet with the Mercs… and now we’re changing again.”

The commitment to wharf cartage was made in the early 2000s, and night shifts added in 2004. “Our current transport manager, Davin ‘Barney’ Miller, started that. He’s done 30-plus years with us – many of our ops guys have done 20 or 30 years with us,” Mark says, adding Barney was taking delivery of his own electric Polestar 2 that very day, and garaging his V8 Commodore.

“I’m happy that with the management team we have, I can sit and plot the future,” he adds. “We’re not scared to just grab shit and do it. The market sets our prices, and if we want to make money, we must operate better than the market – it’s a case of working out what you can change and focusing on that. For us, energy is the only frontier.”