CATEGORY: Transport
LOCATION: Victoria
PRODUCT: XLERPLATE® steel
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released earlier this year, an estimated 214,789 million tonne-kilometres of freight was moved across our country’s road network in 2017-18.
Tieman Tankers was established by Neil Tieman in his suburban backyard in 1953 and now employs over 120 people at its Campbellfield (Melbourne) production facility.
Tieman Tankers manufactures a range of tankers for bulk milk pick up, food grade products (water, wine, food grade oils and chocolate), chemical, bitumen, fuel and dry bulk haulage such as cement, grains, sugar, sand, lime
and animal feed.
The road transport industry is heavily regulated with differences in requirements from state to state, so Tieman Tankers have become extremely adept at customising their trailers to suit both the application as well as
legislative needs.
No more evident is the company’s ability to meet market requirements than when seeing the variety of models it can offer to suit various single trailer, B-Double, Road Train and Rigid and Dog combinations.
“One of the factors that sets us apart is our ability to develop tankers that are specifically customised to meet the
exact requirements of our customers, ensuring that they’re fit-for-purpose and as productive as possible within the
accepted legal requirements,” Kaiden Tieman said.
Kaiden is one of the grandsons of founder, Neil, who has worked in the family business for over eight years now.
While his current role sees him responsible for the company’s spare parts and marketing functions, he has previously spent several years on the factory floor since gaining his qualifications as a boilermaker.
“All the younger members of the family have spent quite a bit of time working through various departments within Tieman Tankers. It’s given us a good understanding of the manufacturing process and helps us to better communicate with employees, because at some point we’ve been in their shoes,” Kaiden said.
Tieman Tankers have a large engineering team that work closely with customers to maximise each trailer’s efficiency. As an example, a recent initiative by the company has seen it develop the ‘Tri TrainTM’, a triple road train that is capable of carrying up to 30 per cent more payload than a traditional AB Triple combination, ultimately meaning that there are fewer trucks on the road, less fuel being used and fewer fleet maintenance costs – a win-win situation for operators and other road users and for the environment.
Tieman Tankers has been using BlueScope manufactured XLERPLATE® steel products for over 18 years, as well as sourcing a range of aluminium and long products such as RHS, all supplied by BlueScope Distribution. Kaiden said there were several synergies between the two companies.
“I’ve never heard a bad word said here about the BlueScope Distribution range of products or its people,” Kaiden said.
“The quality of the materials we use have always been excellent and that in turn helps us produce a better product that is reliable, long-lasting and looks fantastic.”
Given the close association between the two companies for almost two decades, Tieman Tankers benefit from the strong relationship with BlueScope Distribution in a number of ways.
“BlueScope Distribution provide us with a dedicated account team to look after our product requirements – we get to always deal with a core group of people who have built-up a lot of knowledge about our operations and can closely service our requirements,” Kaiden said.
“As a valued customer, they also look after stock holding for us of our most widely used products, freeing up warehousing space at our end.”
“Tieman Tankers is a proud and passionate Australian manufacturer and we’re extremely pleased to be able to build using Australian- sourced materials such as those provided to us by BlueScope Distribution.
BlueScope Distribution has also gone as far as assisting us with some marketing activities and developing some
dual branding partnerships with us.”
Maddie Dharmapala, account team leader at BlueScope Distribution said that the relationship with Tieman Tankers was typical of the close partnerships that the company endeavoured to foster with
its clients.
“At BlueScope Distribution we strive to be a complete business partner and be much more than just a product supplier,” she said.
“By getting to closely know our clients’ business, we try to identify potential efficiencies for them. This might entail recommending a different product or could be a strategy to help streamline their supply chain. Wherever we can help, we will.”
For more information visit www.tieman.com.au
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