Covering all bases

Following a pattern of intense growth over the past five years, Melbourne-based trailer builder Bulk Transport Equipment has expanded its manufacturing, service and repair capabilities with the opening of a new facility to support the Queensland and northern New South Wales markets.

Bulk Transport Equipment (BTE) is a family-owned Australian company with a strong focus on excellence in design and manufacturing using the best quality materials and offering high levels of attention to detail through its finishing processes.

Having established a substantial customer base in the southern states and with a workforce of 70 employees at its Melbourne facility, the company recently shifted its focus to the north with a view to providing increased production and support of its renowned equipment to stakeholders in the sunshine state.

To this end BTE has opened a new branch at Toowoomba in south-east Queensland where the first combination recently rolled off the production line. The current staff of nine is expected to grow significantly as production ramps up.

Indeed, viewing the booming city of Toowoomba as a prime location for its new northern branch, BTE is determined to increase its manufacturing capacity in order to reduce production lead times with the extensive range of BTE products.



According to BTE Toowoomba Operations Manager, Scott Arnold, there are a number of strategic reasons why the regional city located little more than one hours’ drive west of Brisbane is the ideal location for BTE’s second facility.

“With Brisbane continuing to expand and the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast regions virtually joined with it now, development is starting to move westwards and this will only gain momentum in the future,” he states.

“This is really bringing Toowoomba into the equation because it is already a significant transport hub due to its proximity to vast agricultural regions and it’s now becoming a manufacturing centre to support the aluminium truck and dog tipper market in south-east Queensland.

“As the only Aluminium tipper manufacturer in Toowoomba, we believe we are ideally placed to support operators in the Darling Downs and surrounding regions,” Scott adds.

Another pertinent point Scott raises in regard to BTE’s new Toowoomba facility is its close proximity to the Mack and Volvo truck manufacturing plant at Wacol west of Brisbane.

“There aren’t many tipper manufacturers that have full manufacturing plants in Victoria and Queensland,” he says.

“We feel that with this new facility we are now covering both ends of the spectrum so we can support Mack and Volvo trucks up here while our Dandenong facility can concentrate on building the bodies on the likes of Kenworth and Iveco trucks that are built in Victoria.”

And with Sydney situated smack in the middle, the logistics of getting new trucks to either of BTE’s factories to fit bodies then delivered to customers in New South Wales are vastly simplified.

Fast Fact

Having recently opened a new branch in Toowoomba, Bulk Transport Equipment is looking to capitalise on increased production capacity and a close proximity to the manufacturing facility of two leading truck brands.