Divide & Conquer

In the highly competitive world of bulk construction supplies, service and innovation are two of the crucial factors required for a successful business not only to survive but thrive.

JOPA Queensland is celebrating its twentieth year of operation with the delivery of its twentieth Hino truck, which is itself a significant milestone in the company’s journey.

The company name JOPA Queensland is inspired by the owners’ names JOdy and PAul Curtis. JOPA doesn’t operate from a typical retail landscaping supplies yard, instead the company uses a bulk holding yard in a strategic location adjacent to the Logan Motorway, providing easy access to not only the Gold Coast, but also the northern suburbs of Brisbane as far as Caboolture, and west to areas around Mount Marrow and Fernvale.

A feature found on most of the JOPA trucks is the centre tailgate fitted to the tipping bodies which accommodates the transporting of two different bulk products at the same time, delivering an obvious efficiency bonus as well as a reduction in JOPA’s carbon footprint by significantly reducing the number of truck movements required to deliver their customers’ needs.

The loaders at the yard have special buckets to suit the two compartment tipper bins.

Most of the trucks initially leave the yard in the morning fully loaded from material stocks held there, and then after that first delivery is achieved, they often reload at various suppliers’ facilities throughout the rest of the day, reducing the need to return several times to home base and delivering a more efficient service to the now more than 350 regular customers.

“I explain to people that, just like Uber, the material is our passenger and we work our way around and can be in and out of different quarries throughout the day,” says Paul.

“We’re not married to one supplier, as much as the suppliers may want us to be. Theoretically, we’re a transport company and instead of transporting parcels or freight or bricks, we deliver the sand, gravel, road bases and similar bulk products for the construction industry.”

The inspiration for the divided tipping bodies came to Paul back before 2010 when he was driving behind a small landscape supplies truck which had a divider fitted and had bagged cement at the rear and some bulk product at the front.

Paul immediately realised the better option this offered, as distinct from the established method of using a tarp to separate different products being carried in the one tipper body.

Paul experimented with a number of different configurations to determine where to put the additional centre tailgate before arriving at what has since proved to be the optimum design.

“The majority of our clients, such as drainers, would buy six metres of one type of material and two to three metres of another material,” says Paul.

“Hence we had to put the biggest sector on the back so we can legally carry six metres of material in the back compartment and, depending upon the product, carry up to four cubic metres in the front. We had a few smaller trucks in the early days which could carry around seven cubic metres and we had a different configuration of split but it wasn’t safe, so we came up with the idea that a small truck can’t carry big loads, but a big truck can carry small loads.”

The smaller trucks were progressively changed over to Hino FM500 models which have since become the standard units in the JOPA fleet.

The bespoke tipping bodies, on the other hand, are manufactured by MiniBody Engineering at Acacia Ridge, and Auzprint in the Brisbane suburb of Hillcrest take care of the graphics, including a special twentieth anniversary livery for the latest Hino 500 Series FM2628 auto which also becomes JOPA’s twentieth Hino.

The JOPA livery has evolved over time and still retains the JOPA logo in yellow with the entire tipping bin now wrapped in black vinyl which can be easily removed when the trucks are on-sold, leaving the aluminium looking like new.

Prior to establishing JOPA, Paul’s background was in the parcel freight industry and the JOPA Queensland business commenced in 2005 with a modest $15,000 start-up investment.

This included a little Daihatsu Delta tipper which was traded less than a year later. Paul admits he didn’t know a lot about the market when he started out but armed with an honest approach to customer service and the promise of on-time deliveries provided customers with an option and a reason to change the way their businesses were serviced.

Initially he was intent on buying a truck that could carry five cubic metres tantamount to around 6.25 tonnes in payload.

“Hino at Coopers Plains had a factory tipper called a Hino FC Dump which could carry 6.4 tonnes,” recalls Paul.

“I thought we’d halve our workload because we had a truck twice as big, but in actual fact it doubled our workload because the business grew.”

On the advice of Brad Elliot at Sci-Fleet Hino, JOPA purchased its first tandem drive Hino FM500 in 2007.

“Sci-Fleet were just so helpful and the following year we bought another one, so within three years we had the two tandems and still had the little Hino FC Dump which we hung onto for ages,” Paul adds.

Prior to the pandemic Paul would order a new Hino from Sci-Fleet when the JOPA fleet’s oldest truck reached 300,000 kilometres and by the time 350,000 came around the latest truck was available and ready to replace it.

“When COVID came in it was hard to get trucks so we’re running trucks now up to the 400,000 kilometre mark, which in the lifespan of those trucks is actually nothing,” says Paul. “Now we’ve reached a stage with the twentieth truck — the oldest one we’ll keep as a spare.”

The Hinos are not on a service contract and visit the dealership every 20,000 kilometres, taking advantage of Sci-Fleet’s night servicing and the use of a courtesy ute for the driver.

“We’re not mechanics so we let Sci-Fleet’s mechanics do the mechanicing, the same as we let our accountants do the account stuff,” Paul says.

Demand for JOPA’s products has recently proved so strong that JOPA has co-opted a truck and dog owned by Aaron McKenzie’s Queensland Bulk Landscape and Civil Supplies (QBLCS) to deliver some of the larger bulk loads.

Supporting Jody and Paul in meeting JOPA’s “You ring, we bring” service commitment, is son Matthew and his wife Olivia, along with an enthusiastic and experienced team of drivers and office support staff.

“Matthew has been here for 15 years and basically runs the operation with assistance from Zane Ellison,” says Paul.

“These young blokes are amazing and are moving about 1,200 cubic metres a day around the greater Brisbane area. People have to have places to live, and the housing industry continues to grow, and our data base of customers continually grows.”

Twenty years ago, JOPA’s first customer was Ownit Homes, an award winning building firm which remains a valued client to this day.

An online presence has been developed and existing and potential clients can obtain a quote by using the JOPA Queensland website.

JOPA has built a strong foundation by providing exceptional service to existing customers utilising some innovative equipment and continues to show strong growth despite never having to advertise.

“It’s all just word-of-mouth,” says Paul. “I just couldn’t say ‘no’ to people. To be honest I had no idea that it was going to be like this. I’m humbled by it and I pinch myself every day.”