The road train – king of the road

Link Energy’s road trains operate in rough, inhospitable terrain where temperatures can exceed 50 degrees Celsius. Only the best quality equipment can survive in such conditions, and Link Energy prides itself on a proven track record of service, on time, says Ian Grosse.

Some facts about these large vehicles:

Number of litres carried per trip: over 110,000.

Number of tyres on the road at any one time: 70.

Distance travelled from Port Hedland base: up to 700 kilometres

Gross mass: up to 150 tonnes.

1

Link Energy purchase

Link Energy purchase

A Link Energy juggernaut hits the road

When Caltex took over 100 percent ownership of West Australian reseller Link Energy in May this year, it acquired a business with very unusual attributes.

When Caltex took over 100 per cent ownership of West Australian reseller Link Energy in May this year, it acquired a business with very unusual attributes.

Link Energy services over 2,000 customers in some of the remotest areas of the Australian continent, in one of the biggest distribution areas of its kind on the planet – roughly the same size as Europe.

“Most resellers’ delivery times are calculated in hours,” says Caltex Business Development Manager Bill Pollock. “However, some of Link’s deliveries take days, and require lots of road train work.”

Link Energy had been Caltex’s largest independent reseller and franchised distributor of fuel and lubes in the west since 2001, when the company (in which Caltex had a 50 per cent interest) was formed. The purchase of the other half through Caltex Petroleum Services (CPS) now allows Caltex to extend its volumes and reach significantly into the West Australian market.

The acquisition adds a complement of 115 employees to Caltex Energy WA under Brad Brown, Regional Manager WA, with day-to-day operations being run by Ian Grosse, Link Energy’s Manager.

Cartage business adds volume

And it adds some impressive volumes to the business. Link Energy sells around 114 million litres of fuel a year, and its cartage business carries another 160 million litres on top of that. “We’re a carrier of product as well as a reseller,” explains Bill Pollock.

Its marketplace stretches from the South East and Great Southern regions of WA up to the Goldfields, the Pilbara and Kimberley in the far north. Distribution is achieved via a network of five service stations, three wet depots, seven unmanned truck stops, several lubes stores and an office in South Perth. The Link Energy fleet comprises over 50 trucks and trailers, including triple road trains.

Key customers are typically mining-services companies (which contract to big miners like BHP and Rio Tinto) along with large transport companies and a diverse primary producer market. Some deliveries require unusual effort. One client is an aboriginal community on the Canning Stock Route, near Well 33, called Kunawaritji. It requires a 1,600-kilometre return trip into the Great Sandy Desert.

Seeking synergy

What will change? Not much in the first year while Caltex assesses the business closely, says Bill Pollock. The most important task is to ensure employees are happy and understand Caltex’s procedures and policies. The next challenge will be to integrate Link Energy’s functions with Caltex systems so it can operate effectively.

“We need to ensure there’s a cultural and operational fit with everyone having a clear understanding of the end game,” says Bill. “We now have an opportunity to look at this large market on an integrated basis which should ensure the best outcome. It’ll be made easier by the fact that Link Energy is already a very good, well-run outfit. But we want it to contribute even more to the bottom line.”

“We won’t be kicking doors down and changing things that don’t need to be changed,” adds Link Energy Manager Ian Grosse.

One thing certainly won’t change, says Ian. That is Link Energy’s operational philosophy, focused on the provision of excellentlocal service at an economic price on a single customer account.