The Fletchers' Story

Syd Fletcher and his wife, Yvonne founded the business in 1948 and began their interstate carrying career carting fresh produce to Melbourne Market at that time. Protection for the Rail system had seen this avenue of freight banned prior to this time. Once the freight service had shown producers the benefit of timely arrival into the main markets the business began to grow. As the company continued to grow, a depot was established in the nearby town of Cobdogla, but continued growth saw the company outgrow that terminal in the mid 1980s, moving to the current location at Berri.

At this time a relationship with Berri Limited was commenced, requiring the freight of their local juices to Capital Cities in South Australia and Eastern States. The relationship has continued to grow to the extent we are now responsible for the national freight movement for this company. During this period, Barry Fletcher joined the family company in 1978 and took over as Managing Director in 1991. He has been the prime motivator of the growth and presentation of the Company and Fleet as well as taking on leading roles within the industry and local community.

During this period the linehaul freight service was extended to provide deliveries to all Eastern State Cities as well as Adelaide. The local delivery fleet was also increased to provide services to all of the Riverland towns on a daily basis. Maintaining these routes and services has also seen the number and size of the vehicles in use grow, with the company often at the forefront of new developments in the Road Transport Industry.

From the humble beginnings in 1948 moving fresh produce to Melbourne the company now freights a balance of fresh produce, wine, processed fruit and juice, refrigerated and chilled goods as well as general freight from the area. On the return trip our trucks will carry various types of freight to the region, including fruit juice concentrate, overnight express freight and general cargo. Where loading in not achieved to the region the trucks are loaded to Adelaide to major Distribution Centres and Chain Stores.

Our fleet comprises 80 linehaul prime movers and 135 trailers as well as a host of ancillary delivery vehicles. The Fleet comprises Kenworth, Western Star and Volvo Prime Movers, used in configurations from single trailer semis to 2 trailer road trains. All of the trailers are on freight and road friendly airbag suspensions and comprise chilled and dry Tautliners and refrigerated vans. We have Depots in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and have freight into each of these terminals on a daily basis.

Our linehaul fleet is consistently being upgraded and improved with the latest in design and manufacture being incorporated to ensure our clients enjoy good outturns of their product at terminal destinations.We hold the industry sponsored Trucksafe accreditation and have been keen supporters of this initiative since inception.

Our Company has always been at the forefront of industry developments to ensure better management of Staff, Vehicles and Freight, ultimately, providing a superior service to our customers. Together with ongoing improvement in our equipment we are also continuing training to drivers and staff in areas of product handling, presentation and service to our pickup and destination terminals.

During 2002 Fletchers commenced a program to further improve customer service by establishing State of the Art Warehousing facilities in the Riverland, holding some 14,000 pallets of finished product for distribution. The warehousing facility incorporates the latest in RF technologies and Management software from JAIX to enable accurate electronic picking and stock reconciliations. This innovation has been well received by our major clients and is being duplicated in other main distribution points.

Our company philosophy has always been to achieve growth through superior service to our clients and customers, using well maintained and presented modern equipment together with trained efficient staff dedicated to meeting customer expectations.