.jpg)
Akaroa Distribution 2011 Limited
Background
Akaroa Distribution was formerly known as Akaroa Distribution Systems and was purchased from the King family after the Christchurch Earth Quakes.
The buisness came with a 1996 Isuzu forward truck and a 2001 Toyota Hiace van. The exisiting work was taken on, primarily based around Goodman Fielder (Meadow Fresh milk & Quality Bakers bread), 'The Press' newspaper and mail for New Zealand Post.
Our first Nelson van - 2011 Toyota Hiace
Over the following year
Andrew helped Courier Post set up the Newspaper network for the south Island. As part of this, the Nelson Newspaper run was added to our portfolio. Helping with this project was the start of a long standing relationship with Courier Post. Joe Martin had worked with Andrew for 5 years at Lyndsay Distributors and came on board as the first fulltime employee of Akaroa Distribution. Joe has grown to become a vital part of the company as Andrew's 2IC, guiding staff and helping the night team excel.
Timaru, our first 'real truck'.
Courier Post rang thursday one week asking if we could start a Timaru run on the sunday night and we agreed. As luck would have it, we found a contractor from Dunedin who was selling a perfect truck. This was already in Courierpost colours. Swift arangements were made to get it paid for and picked up over the weekend. It was ready for work on Sunday night.
This truck served us well for many years, running until 900,000km before the cab/chassis was traded in on a new UD.
2005 Nissan Diesel MK235
The end of Goodman Fielder
When we got notification that Goodman Fielder were buying out all the contractors, we were left thinking.....what next?
As luck would have it, within a week of the news we had the opportunity to take over the Courier post parcel run to akaroa (previously only doing the mail) this couldnt have came at a better time. It meant that we still had a full run heading to the peninsula. With the introduction of the courier product, it made the trip less seasonal thus easier to manage and keeping drivers happy and busy! We also had a truck doing cover jobs as other contractors were unable to service customers and a transit on lease to Goodman Fielder. These came to an end at this time.
Covid!
As covid took a grip on the world we were wondering what was going to come with the freight industry. Knowing it had to carry on....but in what capacity?
We had 2 of our biggest trucks parked up over night with no return of customers in sight, leaving us back to our newspaper runs to nelson, timaru and the Akaroa run.
Post Covid
Covid as we now know, progressed the transport industry in leaps and bounds. People learnt to shop online and it became more of a norm rather than a neccesity. This meant that our trucks that were parked up, were fast back on the road into different work. Over the recent years we have faced other challenges, like not being able to buy new gear when it's needed. This has meant purchases of second hand gear, while waiting 12 months at the earliest for a new truck to be built.