BETTS Transport is a business with a solid history and a focus on diversity that has kept it on the road delivering timber, general freight and livestock for more than 100 years.

Chris Betts currently runs the livestock part of the New South Wales-based business, while his father Peter runs the general freight side of the business from Newcastle.

Chris’s great grandfather Robert Betts started hauling logs with bullocks in 1923 starting a business that grew until in 1996 when it “hit the highway” under the leadership of Chris’ father doing general freight.

In 2010, the business got its first livestock truck and this year will pick up its one hundredth truck, bought through the Brown & Hurley dealership.

Chris came home from working away in 2015 and then took over the livestock transport division – Betts Rogers – a year later.

“It has grown from there,” he said.

Chris said maintaining the business’ diversity of general freight with sheep and cattle work has been a big part of the Betts’ success.

The business runs about 35 trucks for general freight out of Newcastle and has 16 prime movers able to carry 63 decks of cattle, with three B-double sheep crates that can convert to cattle, plus a single deck truck for local work.

Most of the cattle and sheep work out of the company’s Walcha livestock base is property-to-property via AuctionsPlus transactions, with some work to and out of saleyards, abattoirs and feedlots .

A big client is Nolan Meats at near Gympie in southern Queensland, as well as work out of the Tallawanta cattle feedlot at Garah in north-west NSW.

“And we’ve got a fair few bigger players here in the Walcha district, it’s a fairly hefty area for cattle.”

From the New England area, the Betts Rogers trucks run into south-east Queensland, north-west and western NSW.

“But we do go everywhere as well, we’re quite often down around Wagga and into Victoria and we do a bit over to the coast to an abattoir at Wingham, abattoirs at Casino and into Brisbane.

“In the beginning of the year we get a fair bit of work out of the Victorian weaner sales and our sales are about to start up here.”

Chris said the business is of a good manageable size, able to offer the personal touch, but it is slowly increasing in size.

The business mainly runs Kenworth trucks with a couple of Macks.

“It’s just the reliability (of the Kenworths), they’ve proved themselves over the years and a lot of the times if you do break down and have trouble in the outback towns someone there knows something about them and can get you going.”

One recent innovation is an aluminium six pen configured cattle crate that can cart sheep.

“It’s just lighter so we can still get our 36 tonnes on it, that’s good diversity for us.”

The business has another Kenworth 909 and a Mack on order.

“David and I have just been down to the Kenworth factory in Melbourne to see our one hundredth truck off (dealer) Brown and Hurley.

“It came out of the factory there about two weeks ago – it takes quite a while now to do the fit out, probably 6-7 months.”

Trailer improvements

Chris said since starting in livestock the business has lightened its trucks and crates to be able to put more weight in livestock, without going over load limits. Trucks have been lightened by lowering the fuel carrying capacity and dropping double chassis rails.

“We’re buying full stainless steel Byrne cattle crates. Their technology has got better so they can use lighter gauge and thinner wall stainless steel that seems to be lasting well,” he said.

“That’s given us the ability to lighten-off there and we’re running a Hendrickson suspension now instead of a BPW that gives us a bit of a weight saving and just a few options on the trailers themselves to make them a bit lighter.”

Effluent disposal remains one of the bigger challenges for livestock transporters in rural areas with feedlots requiring cattle to be full on arrival and not enough roadside dumps, Chris said.

Labour challenge

Labour is a problem elsewhere in agriculture, but Chris said the business has a good crew of drivers who understand livestock, some of whom have worked there for up to 12 years.

“They mean a lot, they’re our biggest marketing tool, the way they look after their gear. They’re the ones going out and seeing the customers every day,” he said.

“We can always provide good gear but they’ve got to maintain it, look after it and present themselves well.

“You’ve got to have a good relationship with your drivers so that they’re happy within their job and that comes across to the customer, because obviously the farmers’ cattle are their livelihood so it means the world to them to make sure they’re delivered safely and in the best condition possible,” Chris said.

“We work on the theory that if we show up with well-presented gear and well-presented drivers that helps us out a lot in our business because our customers are happy because of that.”

Booking inquiries: Anthony 0438780471.

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