All of the Biketranz cargos are precious, but Mat Bowman says some are a bit more precious than others.
For instance, he was once transporting three Britten motorcycles in the back of the truck taking them to a motorcycle show in Auckland.
That’s a lot of rare Kiwi ingenuity in one place. Very expensive ingenuity.
“I was like: ‘Everyone else stay away from me! There’s three bikes worth $4m in the back of the van!’
“I think it was the most stressful drive I’ve done yet.”
Mat, whose dad Brett founded Biketranz motorcycle transporters and runs it with wife Adele, says the company started after Brett was moving furniture and saw a gap in the market for just relocating bikes.
(In fact Brett was a bit cheeky. He used a demonstration van for the first run he ever did to the Hawke’s Bay and he took the business from there.)
They started with Fiat vans and have added a couple of Scania trucks. These travel most of the country, delivering brand new bikes to dealers, secondhand bikes that have been bought on Trade Me and taking bikes to shows and transport museums, such as Invercargill’s Bill Richardson Transport World.
They’re also involved in various racing events, providing recovery vehicles and staff on tracks when required.
Transporting New Zealand contacted Mat after he used the Teletrac Navman Diversity Toolbox to help find a replacement for Junior, their Auckland driver, who is going back out driving trucks again.
“He’d just turned 20 when he joined us. He’s just about to leave us to get his Class 5 and eventually drive road trains with his sister over in Australia . He’ll stay part of our team and come back and do events with us when in NZ.
“So we looked through the [Diversity Toolbox] pamphlet on employing drivers, what to do and what not to do.
He used the free downloadable Driver Recruitment Guide at the roadtosuccess website for some ideas about putting together a quality ad.
“We put our ad up for a week and we got numerous applications which we’re in the process of going through and setting up interviews with about eight or nine suitable applicants.”
Mat says the templates for the toolbox advert had handy tips for casting a good net for getting quality applicants.
Mat says they already have a bit of variety in the team.
“We’ve got a guy here, Ivan, whose approaching 70. He’s based in Palmy with one of our vans and looks after the lower North Island and Nelson fortnightly.”
Mat says the younger drivers are just as motivated .
“They’re keen and they want to get into it.
“If they have to start at 5 in the morning it’s all, ‘sweet as, where am I off to?’”
The Wellington team also includes Zach who joined straight out of school over 10 years ago.
He worked his way through his licenses and vehicles and is one of the linehaul drivers in one of Biketranz’s Scania’s.
“He’s awesome, he’ll go get 16 bikes from this place and there’s 15 to come back down, and he’s away and getting it done no worries at all.”
Biketranz needs good staff as looking after people’s bikes is a huge responsibility.
“It takes about six months to get someone trained up and learn how to handle the bikes and tie them down safely.”
It’s a vital customer service for people who are passionate about their wheels.
“I’ve seen a bloke break down and cry as we got his bike ready to ship out after he sold it,”says Mat.
Another one was dancing with excitement at his gate waiting for the truck to pull in he was so excited to have his bike delivered.
We weren’t allowed to take photos of the insides of the trucks as Biketranz has developed a special tie-down system to keep the bikes safe during their trips.
Mat says sometimes people they’ve carried bikes for have ended up starting their own motorbike transport business using tips they picked up from Biketranz. Who knew motorbike haulage could be so cut-throat!
The trucks cover a lot of Ks every year, and can be on the road a lot.
Mat says despite his dad being a Kenworth guy at heart, the Scanias have proved they do the business.
They picked up one in about 2000 that had been a mobile copper piping and fixtures showroom and had about 250,000 k’s on the clock.
“We bought that, stripped it all out and it’s now done over a million Ks just moving motorcycles around NZ.
“That’s Brett’s truck and it’s his baby and no-one else is allowed to drive it!”
Each truck can take about 15-16 bikes in a load for ordinary bikes, but if they’re highly polished show bikes, that comes down to about 12-13 to give them plenty of space.
Mat says they’ve even dealt with a few cases where somebody’s bought a bike and were going to ride it home and it’s broken down a few kilometres down the road.
So Biketranz pick them up if they’ve got a van or truck in the area.
It’s always nice to have a ride handy.
