Emerald Carrying Company partner with Cummins for reliability

Emerald Carrying Company was established back in 1965 by Bill and Joan Haylock, based in Emerald, Qld. Today, the business is still within the Haylock family, owned by Peter and Karen, along with Greg, the Managing Director, and Debbie.

Since those early beginnings, the family business has continued to grow from their Queensland home in Emerald, expanding across Qld with depots in Townsville, Mackay, Gracemere, Geebung and Lytton to service their Mining, Commercial retail, and Agricultural customers.

The first Bulk Liquid tanker joined the fleet of general freight trucks back in 1994, since then the fleet of tankers has continued to grow servicing some of the country’s largest fuel suppliers. 

Matt Haylock, a third generation of the Haylock family and the group’s Fleet Manager explains, “We started out with general freight and moved into carrying bulk fuel for the aviation industry, fuel stations along with oils.”

The addition of Monaro Fuel Haulage by Greg and Debbie expanded the company further, adding depots in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Positioning Emerald Carrying Company as the largest bulk fuel carrier in Queensland with around 80% of the market. 

Now with over 330 employees and 130 trucks, the business has remained focused on maintaining their premium position in the industry by working in close partnership with their customers and suppliers.

“We have had a long relationship with Cummins over the years and we’ve only bought Cummins engines since the 80’s. We run our trucks into some very remote areas across Queensland, Northern Territory and NSW, so reliability is crucial,” Haylock adds.

With a fleet of Kenworth and Western Star trucks, ranging in size from small rigids to Roadtrains up to 138 tonnes GCM, Cummins has a range of on-highway engines to suit all of Emerald Carrying Company’s needs.

“We have bought a few Kenworth T610s and T909s recently. They all run the new Cummins X15e5 engines at various ratings, with our Roadtrains running at 600 hp and 2050 lb-ft of torque,” said Haylock.

“Some of our trucks can cover 450,000kms a year so they quickly get to 1.2 million kilometers without any problems. We then just rebuild the engines for a second life. Some even get to 1.35 million kilometers before we need to touch them which is fantastic.”

Catching up with the driver, Bevan near Newcastle highlighted the distance a fleet truck can cover in a week. “I’m based in Brisbane and started the week with a trip to Rockhampton, before heading down to Sydney, then to Nowra to load with Ethanol. I’m now on my way back to Brisbane for the weekend.” 

In terms of the trucks, Bevan could not be happier with the Kenworths. “I get to drive a few of the different models depending on where I am heading or who is on leave, but they are all in great condition so run great. This is one of the newer Kenworth T610s with the Cummins and its fantastic. I also got to take out on of the new T909s the other week which was another level again.” 

The 15-litre Cummins X-Series platform has been raising the bar on big bore diesel engines for nearly two decades now, setting new levels of performance, reliability, and operating efficiencies.

“We have been very happy with the new X15e5 engines and get great fuel returns from them.” Haylock says, “Drivers love them too.”

Part of the reason for this is that the XPI (Extreme Pressure Injection) common rail fuel system operates independently of engine speed, providing precise injection and combustion control at injection pressures greater than 30,000 psi. Multiple injection events per cycle improve fuel efficiency and enable smoother operation.

With the most comprehensive service support network in Australia and New Zealand with 38 branches, 170 authorized dealers, and more than 240 field service vehicles, Cummins is the engine of choice in the Trucking Industry.

“We also get great support from the Cummins network around Australia. We perform all of our own maintenance in each of our depots and use Cummins for our major second life engine rebuilds,” said Haylock. 

The long partnership between Emerald Carrying Company and Cummins is evident with the recent addition of a b-double fuel tanker with the distinctive Cummins livery, “X15 - Powering a World that is always ON“. 

“We have dealt with Nathan Usher from Cummins in Carole Park, Brisbane for many years now, so when we came up with the idea of branding our MAX Industry b-double tankers to show our support of the product, Nathan was very happy with the idea and so were Cummins”.

“The branded tankers definitely stand out on the highway, and we have had a great response so we may look at another set in the future.”

With a fleet continuing to expand, we are sure they will look just as impressive.