Memory Lane at its finest.

🎉 Huge shoutout to our talented apprentice Dave for being named Apprentice of the Year! 🏆 Your hard work and dedication have truly made a difference, and we couldn't be prouder! 🙌 A massive THANK YOU to all our apprentices—you inspire us every day! 💪 #ApprenticeOfTheYear #FutureLeaders #TeamworkMakesTheDreamWork

Today we would like to take a moment to shine a very bright spotlight on the incredible individuals who make everything that we do here at STE possible - OUR AMAZING STAFF. Every success and every milestone would not have been achievable without the dedications, talent and hard work from everyone. We are so grateful for each and every staff member and couldn't be more proud to work with such a team. Thank you for all that you do and here's to celebrating YOU, not just today but everyday.

Josh Rigby, Shephard's workshop manager had the pleasure of attending an awards night along with Lachlan one of our apprentices, which was hosted by Tafe Queensland. Lachlan was awarded the top award - SkillsTech CSQ Apprentice award. Lachlan amazes us with his dedication to his trade and his continued hard work. Its great to see committed young people received some recognition. So a huge Congratulations Lachie !!!

At the forefront of LED lighting requirements for trucks and trailers, HELLA Australia provides low maintenance quality parts and innovative lighting system solutions. It also offers broad solutions for its growing clientele to help navigate the ever-evolving transport and logistics landscape and its various challenges. For truck and trailer operators, one such challenge that can often present itself is lamp outage which ultimately leads to unexpected downtime and maintenance costs. Recognising this, HELLA Australia has developed a low maintenance high-performing LED Lamp Distribution Box. For Shephard Transport Equipment (STE) Purchasing Officer, Ben Weatherhog, reliability is a priority which is why the Australian trailer manufacturer approached HELLA Australia for a straightforward and dependable solution. The problem, Ben notes, is that when a vehicle experiences a lamp outage it requires an electrician to fix it which in turn can lead to long and unexpected periods of downtime. HELLA Australia’s solution is its state-of-the-art LED Lamp Distribution Box, a high quality, quick connect and simple fix for fitting LED lamps to heavy trailers. For STE, the quality of the product immediately stood out. “We use HELLA Australia for the quality in lights that they provide,” he says. “The quality is there, and we have no issues with it. Many of our customers are long-term, and they are because of the standard the HELLA product provides.” Standard junction boxes can be complicated, prone to faults when opened and serviced. When a fault does occur, multiple lamps and circuits are often affected resulting in a vehicle not being safe to operate and therefore experiencing unforeseen downtime. A fault like this can also cause labour costs which quickly accumulate, the largest cost of all being a non-functioning vehicle. The knock-on effect of this can be significant, delaying drivers and delivery deadlines. Understanding the inconveniences this can lead to, HELLA Australia has equipped its LED Lamp Distribution Box with integrated Deutsch DT connector sockets that provide easy and reliable lamp connection. It isolates individual circuits to reduce lamp outage which, overall, ensures a more reliable lamp operation. This means that if a fault occurs it can be identified almost immediately, and the repair is quick. For the operator this means no electrician is required and the vehicle is back up and running in a much faster time frame. Seeing this in action, Ben explains how effective this feature is especially when it comes to increased productivity and reducing service cost. “Truck and trailer lighting is a really big thing because it needs to be working day and night,” he says. “Previously, if something broke it would warrant getting an electrician in to fix it. Now, if an operator has a broken light or plug, they can just disconnect them and then we can send the parts out. Or, they can just plug it in at home themselves that night and they don’t need an electrician. Therefore, the plug and play feature helps to minimise downtime effectively. “It has definitely made life easier and has helped the customers who come to us. There is less maintenance involved and they don’t have to pay someone to do it because they can just do it all themselves. Eliminating this is important because staffing is really a key industry issue.”

This article covers services your tipper truck and trailers needs to maintain productivity and performance. Continue reading to find out more.