Staying Loyal: Tuff Trailers and Colpak Logistics' Long-term Partnership

Having turned to tuff trailers for all of its trailer needs time and time again, Colpak Logistics has just ordered another two trailers to add to its fleet.

Colpak has been catering new and used trucks and machinery throughout Australia from its Brisbane base for around 5 years. It also provides truck relocating service where drivers can be flown to anywhere in Australia to collect a vehicle for transportation.

Colin Pakai began the company with a second-hand unbranded trailer before purchasing his first Tuff Trailer. The fleet now consists of four semi-trailers and six tilt trays with dog trailers, with another two trailers currently on order.

"All but the original trailer were built for us by Tuff Trailers. While the older trailer is still in use, it doesn't even compare to Tuff's trailers. Since buying the first one from Tuff, Colin has ordered one after another after another," says Colpak's Operations Manager, Graeme Morgan.

Tuff Trailers was founded in 1995 by Denis Di Pasquale and designs and manufactures trailers from its Brisbane facility. The family-owned company specialises in custom-built trailers that suit the specific needs of its clients both in Australia and overseas. The last order for Colpak was a dolly delivered in April of this year. It was purchased to go in front of a quad float and is currently being used for heavy machinery such as excavators, scrapers, crushing units and heavy forklifts.

Colpak has since placed an order for a Tuff A-Trailer, which will be hooked up to an existing Tuff B-Trailer already in use, and a specially designed 48 foot Tilt 'N' Slide super tilt trailer. All of Colpak's trailers built by Tuff are equipped with an adjustable floor, winches and long ramps, however the Tilt 'N' Slide super tilt trailer will be built even heavier and stronger than the rest.

"The Tilt 'N' Slide super tilt will be an extendable trailer with two winches capable of much more than typical trailer of this sort. The angle of the trailer is not very steep to the floor when the trailer is down and has a low, gradual climb. A lot of the stuff we buy or we move nowadays is very low on the back, so damage can be caused when you hit the bumper bars and things like that. That's why we needed a nice gradual angle," says Graeme.

"It's still in the design phase. We have changed a few things, which are being worked on at the moment. That's one of the best things about Tuff Trailers – you can go over there and say, "I have another idea" and they'll drop everything to find out what we want and work out how they can make it happen. Plus they always explain why it will work or won't work.

"We just keep on going back to Tuff because they accept what we want, listen to change and make a good trailer that doesn't break. If we had any problems with their trailers, then we obviously wouldn't keep on going back to them."

Colpak is continuing to grow and has its sights set on ordering another two drop deck trailers before the year's end. The company has expanded into many different parts of the industry in addition to its services transporting new and used trucks Australia-wide, including pilot vehicle escorts for over dimensional loads and offering customers use of its GPS tracking systems for information on a piece of equipment's time of arrival or exact location.

"We just want to keep on going the way we are and be good what we do," Graeme says.

(This article was first published by Trailer Magazine in May 2009)