ETR Haulage turns heads with new T909 flagship

ETR Haulage has taken delivery of a new Kenworth T909 that raises the bar to the highest echelon for the company.

The new T909 features a 50” sleeper and Kentweld Bullbars – AJ’s Total Truck Gear Bronco Bar, mirror polished stainless steel work by RC Metalcraft, Custom Air bunk air conditioning, Groeneveld auto greasing system and scrollwork completed by Grant Fowler.

Power comes from a 600hp Cummins turning out 2,050ft/lb of torque driving through an 18-speed manual transmission to Meritor 46-160 diffs with a ratio of 4.3:1.

ETR Haulage is owned by Bob and Fiona Fuchs, based at Gladysdale in Victoria’s Yarra Valley.

The couple started Eastern Truck and Earthmoving Repairs (ETER) in 2014 with Bob having been a diesel mechanic since 2003.

Starting as a sole trader business, ETER now has more than ten employees including diesel mechanics, an apprentice mechanic and MC heavy vehicle drivers who have experience in the transportation of a wide variety of products.

In 2017 ETER put its first truck on the road hauling logs and ETR Haulage was born.

“My family had trucks so for me it was a natural step to become a diesel mechanic and then start my own heavy vehicle repair business,” said Fuchs.

“A friend whose trucks I worked on helped me get into log haulage – we bought a Kenworth SAR and did one 12-month season on the logs then branched out into other types of transport.”

The company went into hay carting, selling the SAR and buying an K200 Aerodyne and hauled hay to NSW as part of the drought relief effort.

“We did that for a year and it started to slow down so we then got into milk cartage,” said Fuchs. “That’s been our bread and butter since then.”

Today the company has three trucks pulling milk tankers and two semi-tippers, with the new T909 pulling a double roadtrain for this year’s grain harvest.

“All my trucks are Kenworths – I like the big bangers because the drivers treat them better and you can always find a good driver to operate them,” said Fuchs.

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