TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................3
AN IDEA TOO SOON 1951 TO 1961....................................................................................4
BILL HOWARD’S FINAL YEARS 1962 TO 1966............................................................12
LES ARNOLD TAKES THE WHEEL 1966 TO 1975.......................................................20
FRED GARDINER 1975 - 1980............................................................................................49
NEW TIMES, NEW TECHNOLOGY 1985 - 1989 ............................................................72
THE MAYNE NICKLESS YEARS .....................................................................................79
IPEC IS ACQUIRED BY TOLL HOLDINGS ...................................................................80
RE BUILDING TOLL IPEC. ...............................................................................................81
A NEW PRIORITY SERVICE ............................................................................................83
NEW SOUTH WALES..........................................................................................................83
VICTORIA .............................................................................................................................84
QUEENSLAND......................................................................................................................85
SOUTH AUSTRALIA ...........................................................................................................85
WESTERN AUSTRALIA .....................................................................................................85
KEY DATES ..........................................................................................................................86
The majority of information contained in this history has been taken from a book
produced in 1989 “IPEC An Overnight Success” 1955 to 1989” – A History of
Transport. The booklet was given to employees shortly after IPEC had become 100%
owned by Mayne Nickless Ltd.
Please note that the period after 1989 is currently only briefly summarised while
a more complete history is collated.
INTRODUCTION
Toll IPEC has a long and proud history stretching back over 50 years. Having started as the
idea of an innovative transport operator in Adelaide, the Interstate Parcel Express Company
has survived a variety of owners and has continued to evolve as a key player in the Australian
express freight market. IPEC - the Interstate Parcel Express Company started from a simple
idea that changed the face of the Australian and overseas express transport.
On 5th October 1998 IPEC was acquired by the Toll Group and became Toll IPEC. This
brand combined two of the best-known transport names in Australia and marked the
beginning of a new era of success for IPEC. The Toll business was founded by Albert Toll in
Newcastle in 1888 hauling coal with horse and cart, but this history is about IPEC and
focuses on the evolution of a business that has lead the way in modernising Australia’s
express freight transport.
Today, getting your goods to a small town across the continent is as easy as getting them
across the street. Chances are that a car spare part in Cairns, a pair of jeans in a Melbourne
department store, a microwave oven in Condobolin, an automatic teller in Darwin, the hat on
the head of a Longreach drover or, even your favourite teddy bear was at some stage carried
by Toll IPEC.
Toll IPEC is a service organisation that relies on people. While technology plays an important
part in our modern operation, people remain the key to successful service. This history is
dedicated to Toll IPEC's people, past and present, who have contributed so much to the
company’s development and continued success. Not just the early visionaries like Greg
Farrell and Gordon Barton, who were for many years the joint owners of the company. But all
sorts of people - drivers, loaders, customer service, administration, sales, supervisors,
security, IT staff, fork-lift drivers, and radio operators.
In 50 years a lot of things change. People come and go. There are good times and bad.
There are innovations that work and some that don't. There are purchases and sales and
there is always competition.
But Toll IPEC has always come through, fortified and held together by the common drive,
inspiration, dedication and know how of its people.
This is a history of the spirit and major achievements of Toll IPEC. It is largely taken from a
publication produced in August 1989 and distributed to all IPEC’s staff at that time. It contains
recollections and anecdotes from a variety of managers and employees from earlier days.
Points of view contained in this history do not necessarily reflect the current views of Toll or
Toll IPEC’s current management. Such views have been recorded in line with opinions as
they were expressed in the 1989 publication.
AN IDEA TOO SOON 1951 TO 1961
Door-to-door parcel express! The exciting idea, a revolutionary innovation for the road freight
industry at the time, was conceived four years before it became a reality. Australia - or, at
least South Australia - simply wasn't ready for it and there were hard times and set-backs to
be overcome by the men who fought for and founded IPEC.
That was back in I951 when a couple of real Aussie battlers, brothers in-law Charlie Nesbitt
and Alf Charleson, were running a successful Adelaide-based business known as Nesbitt
Road Freighters, operating mainly between Adelaide and Melbourne. Like other in transport in
those days, they ran a conventional road freight operation with goods being transported
between central depots where clients delivered and collected their own consignments.
Charles Nesbitt left and Alf Charleson right in the early 1950’s
Road freight at that time was hamstrung by government rules and regulations. Freight could
be carried only when the carrier was in possession of permits between two customers. And,
for interstate deliveries, a new permit was required for each load! The only way a road
transport company could operate interstate without permits was by carrying freight between
two railheads not connected by rail. Hay to Adelaide, for example.
Business was not exactly booming in the road freight industry. Nesbitt and Charleson, with six
vehicles, were South Australia's biggest and most successful interstate operators.
In June 1951, an economic recession slashed railway revenues, and the South Australian
Government, in a forlorn attempt to boost its rail business, imposed even more crippling taxes
and restrictions on road transport.
As a result, a number of smaller operators were forced out of business, but Nesbitt Road
Freighters survived by turning to any work it could find. There was some seasonal hauling for
the South Australian Barley Board, and a contract to collect breakfast cereals from the
railhead at Hay, won by Charleson's mate, Nick Norris, which Charleson and Nesbitt both did
some work on.
The company's once proud fleet of vehicles was, for a while, reduced to a single truck with
the rest laid up in the hope of better times ahead.
It was around this time that Alf Charleston heard about the gallon of paint. The gallon of paint
that really started IPEC.
Charlie Clough, the Melbourne warehouse manager for Spartan Paints, wanted to get the
paint to Adelaide urgently, but transport restrictions meant it had to go by air. With airlines
completely passenger orientated and cargo held up at airports until there was a plane with
room enough to shift it, that urgent delivery took three weeks!
That was when the concept of IPEC sowed itself in Alf Charleston's brain. The partners had
already heard of another operator road freighting surplus market produce from one State to
another - overnight, no less! – but it was that gallon of paint that made them realise the
potential of such a service.
After all, what worked for parsnips could also work for paint, even parcels! There was no
reason they decided, why parcels collected in Adelaide at the close of business one day
should not be delivered to the doors of the consignees in Melbourne at the beginning of
business the following morning and vice versa. The service would be convenient, fast, and
completely reliable.
Fired with enthusiasm, Charlie Nesbitt rang some friends in the motor spare parts supply
houses to get their reaction. They liked the idea. So too did a number of the larger local
manufacturers who were dissatisfied with the slow and expensive interstate air freight
services.
Like all the best ideas, it was simple but revolutionary. Unfortunately it was an idea ahead of
its time. The economic doldrums continued and in 1953 and 1954 no freight permits were
issued at all! It was not the time to start a new venture, no matter how promising. To add to
their troubles, Charlie Nesbitt fell into poor health with a rare skin disease.
Nesbitt was in hospital, in October 1954, when he heard a late night radio report of an historic
decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London that was to have great
significance for Australia's road transport industry. In its judgment on an appeal in the Hughes
and Vale case, the Privy Council ruled: "No Government has the right to protect its railways
by restricting the interstate operations of road carriers".
The momentous news worked wonders for Nesbitt's health Defying the doctors, who had
sombrely pronounced he had but a short time left to wrestle with the worries of this world, he
leapt out of bed, found a telephone and rang Charleson.
One of the original Peugeots rediscovered and restored in the mid 1970’s
It was that excited midnight phone call that turned a nebulous idea called IPEC - Interstate
Parcel Express Company - into a reality.
Charleson immediately set to work to get all their trucks back on the road. They wanted to
make sure that Nesbitt Road Freighters was fully operational and capable of serving all their
old customers when they sold it to finance their new venture.
Nesbitt Road Freighters was sold lock, stock and barrel to Nick Norris, and Norris's deposit of
£750 constituted IPEC's original working capital. With it, the partners purchased three
Peugeot 17 cwt trucks.
The next step was to find premises in both States - a couple of rooms in an old house at 9
North Terrace, Adelaide - next door to the Newmarket Hotel - and a small one-room shop in
Exhibition Street, Melbourne.
With Nesbitt unable to drive again, as a result of his illness, Charleson persuaded his own
brother Norm, to join the fledgling company in a multipurpose role as interstate driversalesman-delivery man and Melbourne manager. With a staff of three, two vehicles and
premises in two States, IPEC was at last, a reality. The original partners owned 80% of the
company with Norm Charleson holding the remaining 20%.
Business was due to begin on 12 January 1955, but when the big day arrived there was a
slight problem. No freight to carry!
So the first IPEC trucks actually rolled the next day, 13 January. Scotty Ireland set out from
Adelaide at 6 p.m. with two cartons for ISAS in Melbourne, and Norm Charleson left
Melbourne with three cartons on board for Newton McLaren in Adelaide. The two trucks met
in the night at Nhill, in Victoria, exchanged parcels and returned to their respective cities.
The second day's exchange provided Charleson with one solitary parcel to take back with him
to Melbourne. He arrived at 5 a.m. and sat waiting patiently outside the customer's door until
9.30 a.m. when a helpful passer-by pointed out that the place didn't open on Saturdays!
Receipts from the first few weeks of operation barely covered the fuel costs of the vehicles hardly an auspicious start for a new enterprise.
The partners had decided at the outset not to advertise the service. Most companies would
not have believed such a service possible, so new business had to be generated solely by
demonstration and word of mouth.
Within a month, the Ford Motor Company in Geelong heard of the unique new service and
decided to use IPEC to get spare parts to its Adelaide dealers. The move was so effective
that the dealers were soon clamouring for their other suppliers to use IPEC as well.
From then on the business boomed with more and more companies turning to IPEC to deliver
urgent interstate freight. A few months later, the two Peugeots were going out over the hills
and across the desert with loads of a ton or more.
Originally the company operated under its full name- Interstate Parcel Express Company - but
when customers insisted on shortening it to IPEC for telegrams, the partners thought the
shorter form sounded neater, and stuck with it.
Charleson and Nesbitt spent those early days organising depots, vehicles and mechanics,
dealing with customers and doing the bookwork. When things got extremely busy, Charleson
would step in and drive the third Peugeot.
The Manton Street, Hindmarsh SA – premises of IPEC taken some years after IPEC had left
To cope with the increased business, they bought small two-axle trailers to hook behind the
trucks, but even these soon filled up. Often overloaded and travelling many miles each week,
the Peugeots began to show the strain of constant work. The situation was becoming critical
and something had to be done to maintain the service.
In April 1955, IPEC bought its first International trucks - AS 130s. They were supposed to
relieve the burden on the smaller Peugeots, but the partners had underestimated the
popularity of their overnight freight undertaking. The new Internationals, built to carry 30 cwt,
were often called on to carry anything up to three tons. The trend developed towards larger
linehaul vehicles to operate between depots with separate, smaller vans to handle local pickups and deliveries.
The Peugeots were eventually pensioned off and lost in the haze of history until many years
later when one of them was found, broken in two, in a shed 320 kilometres from Adelaide. A
grateful farmer accepted $1,000 for the historic wagon, which was eventually proudly
displayed in a commemorative garden in front of IPEC's modern Sydney Service Centre.
Within six months, the Exhibition Street depot in Melbourne proved to be too small so the
partners found themselves larger premises at 9 McKenzie Street where they were to remain
until 1962.
Meanwhile, back in the little two-room depot/office on North Terrace Adelaide, the accounts
department was in danger of disappearing under an avalanche of unsorted paper work.
Because of the backlog, accounts weren't being sent out and money wasn't coming in.
A neighbour of Charlie Nesbitt, Bill Howard, who was working at the time for the Waymouth
Motor Company - one of IPEC's original supporters - asked Nesbitt for a job and was
appointed IPEC's first Adelaide office manager. Howard's arrival helped straighten out the
mess. The accounts went out, the money came in, IPEC was on its way again.
Howard like IPEC, was always readily available, always ready to help. As parcels were
received in the front room, Howard was out in the back, valiantly doing battle with the
mountainous paperwork.
The original IPEC Premises in the Perth suburb of Dianella.
Staff would wander into heat their lunch cans of baked beans over his open fireplace and
people were always arriving unannounced to chat with him - drivers, customers, and people
with problems. They were always welcome, which meant he usually had to stay on late into
the night or over the weekend to get the work done.
IPEC's continued growth however, soon created space pressures that necessitated a move
from its cosy little home to much larger premises at 7 Manton Street, Hindmarsh. The original
office on North Terrace was subsequently demolished.
On 12 January 1956, exactly a year after IPEC's official start, a service was started between
Melbourne and Sydney. The Sydney depot, run by Pat Rowley, was situated in the back of a
small service station on Parramatta Road, Five Dock.
In 1959, Perth was added to the fast-growing IPEC linehaul network. Arrangements were
made with the State Railways in South and Western Australia for IPEC freight to be carried
from Adelaide to Perth on passenger trains. Previously linehaul - the movement of goods on
regular scheduled journeys between two separate service areas, intrastate or interstate - had
been conducted entirely by road.
No other company could match the new service, which cost a shilling per pound. Freight from
Perth to the Eastern States was flown by an Ansett DC-6 to Adelaide for ninepence a pound
and off-loaded onto IPEC trucks for the remainder of the journey.
Over the next few years, IPEC started services between Brisbane and Sydney, and from
Sydney to Newcastle, Canberra and Wollongong, as well as inter-suburban services in
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The International 130s became 148s, then
160s. The freight turnover - originally one ton a night - became two, then five, then 50 tons.
As early as 1959, other transport groups were making overtures to buy the promising young
IPEC. Brambles were interested and so were two of the most dynamic personalities in the
Australian transport industry - Gordon Barton and Greg Farrell.
Greg Farrell
Gordon Barton
Barton and Farrell already owned the Rex Trucking Company, a successful business started
by schoolteacher, brothers Jim and Frank McNamara when Barton got a tip-off from an
Adelaide manager, Jack Woods, that Nesbitt and Charleson were considering selling IPEC.
Barton was pretty sure he could pick up the company comparatively cheaply.
An early Commer Van first used in 1961 featuring the original IPEC colours (orange) and
logo. Several vans at this time were sign written with advertisements for IPEC Customers
In the late 1950s, Australia was rapidly developing into a national market. Instead of factories
producing goods for sale in their own State, the idea of marketing elsewhere came into vogue
with consequent opportunities for the transport industry. Barton and Farrell saw their chance.
The time was right for expansion.
The first their company heard of the possible deal was in 1959 when Barton drove into the
Annandale freight terminal, opposite the Sydney Children's Hospital, and told Fred Gardiner
he was going buy IPEC.
The redheaded Gardiner, who had joined Rex as a mechanic the previous year was sceptical.
IPEC had its own Sydney depot Chullora, whereas Rex shared Annandale with some 30
other carriers. Most of REX's business was run from the front bar of the Governor Bourke
Hotel at Camperdown a couple of hundred metres down the road. Gardiner knew only too
well how Greg Farrell used to take the week's invoices to Rex's main clients every Friday
afternoon and collect their cheques on the spot in order to be able pay his own staff that night.
"What with?" Gardiner asked Barton, reasonably enough. "We’ve no cash or credit."
"With paper," Barton told him. And so it proved to be. Three years later, in March 1962, Rex
bought out IPEC.
Taken in 1953 this is a photo of David Service ("Jock") with Gordon Barton. The truck, a converted
Federal, broke down between BARRINGUN (literally at the back of BOURKE) and CUNNAMULLA. Jock
was there for 6 days, until Gordon Barton drove up from Sydney in an old Ford Mercury with spare parts
to save money, Jock continued his association with Rex and then IPEC for many years.
The deal was described officially as a merger because Barton and Farrell feared Rex's highlyregarded interstate managers - Allan Blackwood, in Sydney, and lan Shortell, Melbourne (who
in the 1970s was to become group general manager of TNT) - might quit and set up in
opposition if they gathered that IPEC had sold out. Whatever it was - merger or buy-out - the
deal marked the end of an era for IPEC.
Its three founders, Charlie Nesbitt and the Charleson brothers, ended all association with the
company and its amalgamation with its largest competitor, Rex, consolidated it as the only
express parcel organisation to offer daily services between all capital cities.
The original premises at Marooka in Brisbane established 1958
BILL HOWARD’S FINAL YEARS 1962 TO 1966
Gordon Barton and Greg Farrell breathed new life into the company. They were both new
generation truckies - university educated, practical men, just as much at home in academic
surroundings as behind a wheel. And they were men of vision, opportunists who came into
the business at an opportune time.
In 1955-56, 70.08% of all freight carried in Australia was carried by road. By 1962-63, the
figure had risen to 73.62% and this despite the lack of any form of government support.
Neither rail, sea nor air transport showed comparable growth during the same period.
Barton's entry into the trucking industry was as typical of his style as his audacious seizure of
IPEC. As a hard-up law student, he was hitchhiking to Melbourne one university vacation
when a truck stopped and picked him up. The owner turned out to be in financial difficulties
and Barton decided to help him. Out of that chance meeting came Ivory and Barton, a onetruck outfit that was his stepping-stone to Rex Trucking.
It is one of the legends of Barton's acuity that, when he was at Sydney University, he studied
its by-laws and found that by taking the right subjects in the right groupings he could get three
degrees -arts, law, economics - in the time ordinarily needed for one.
So Gordon Barton started his working life with one truck and three University degrees. Not all
that many years later, he controlled a diverse $60 million empire operating activities ranging
from transport to publishing, retailing, hotels and mineral exploration.
Bill Howard, General manager, 1962 - 1966
It was at Sydney University that Barton met Greg Farrell. Farrell seemed to be almost as busy
as Barton himself, although he wasn't concentrating on a string of degrees.
He was collecting an economics degree as an evening student while operating a service
station in Cabramatta with two of his brothers and helping out in the family trucking business D.S. Farrell. In 1950, when ill-health caused his father's retirement, Farrell took over as
managing director. But, compared to the prospects in interstate transport, he could see only a
limited future for the family's local carrying business.
Like Barton, Greg Farrell was destined to diversify his business interests as the years
accumulated success. Hotels, casinos, Arabian horses and video production all came within
his scope as IPEC and his transport activities expanded.
A photo session during an early management meeting in March 1964 at lpec's Glebe offices in Sydney.
Back row: George P Barton, Greg Farrell, Cliff Cairns, Les Arnold, Larry Nossbaum, Dave Geary, David
Jacobs, Bill Howard and Brian Lake.
Front row: John Konstas, Gordon Barton, Jack Woods and Alan Blackwood.
One of the Ivory & Barton trucks, the stepping stone Gordon used to Rex Trucking and later lpec.
The new logo selected for IPEC in 1962. The arrow has remained ever since
Initially, Farrell was IPEC's chairman, with Gordon Barton as managing director. Before long,
however, they decided it would improve the day-to-day running of the company if they
swapped roles. So Barton became chairman and Farrell managing director. Bill Howard, who
had been closely involved in the merger negotiations, became IPEC's first general manager.
At the time of the buy-out, the Adelaide depot for Rex was on Port Road, opposite the
Alberton Hotel. Soon after, Rex moved in with IPEC at Manton Street, Hindmarsh.
One of Gordon Barton's first moves was to change the company colours, previously orange
and black. He did some extensive research to determine the best and most eye-catching
colour scheme for a fleet of vehicles - both for safety and advertising purposes. The result
was IPEC's famous yellow and black tiger livery, incorporating for the first time the
streamlined IPEC arrow representing a theme not just of speed but also of advancing into the
future. Rex Overnight Parcel Express, whose original company colours were yellow and red,
also introduced the same stylised arrow but in red to contrast with IPEC's black.
In 1962, IPEC introduced a variation to its established linehaul services - a combined road-rail
system between the Eastern States and Perth, using the Transcontinental Passenger
Express.
The new system made IPEC the first interstate express freight company to introduce
piggyback transportation in which trucks or pantechnicons and later, containers filled with
freight, having travelled by road to Adelaide from Sydney or Melbourne were loaded onto flattop rail cars to cross the Nullarbor Plain. The system- suggested by the railways - combined
the advantages of both road and rail. Unloaded at Kalgoorlie, with fresh prime mover drivers
and no wear and tear, the pantechnicons completed their journey to Perth by road.
The same year a national telex link was established to provide both management and clients
with fast information on the movement of freight and vehicles.
Barton put Fred Gardiner in charge of IPEC's national linehaul operations, based at Chullora.
Gardiner arranged the purchase of vehicles, organised their maintenance, hired the drivers
and acted as traffic manager in deciding truck routes and schedules. Originally this was a
fairly casual arrangement with control in Sydney - through IPEC-owned G & F Motors - and
separate maintenance divisions in the other capital city depots.
One of the Brain and Brown fleet chartered by IPEC
Part of the Brain and Brown fleet chartered by IPEC the DC3 was used to carry freight
between Melbourne and Tasmania
The following year 1963 saw the introduction of the first airfreight express service between
the Australian mainland and Tasmania - the IPEC-AIR service.
Tasmania had long suffered from inadequate communications with the mainland and IPEC
set out to rectify this by introducing an airfreight link using DC-3s chartered from Brain and
Brown a Melbourne air-charter firm. Starting with a single flight a night, the service soon
became so popular with customers on both sides of Bass Strait, that IPEC decided to
overcome the limitations imposed by chartering - by operating its own aircraft.
That decision however, was easier made than implemented. The Federal Government
refused IPEC permission to operate aircraft on its own account, claiming such a move would
infringe the government's two-airline policy. This was despite the fact IPEC wanted to operate
a freight-only service.
The battle lines were drawn and IPEC fought long and hard through 1965 for the right to
operate an independent airfreight service for the delivery of express consignments between
capital cities. A crippling blow was a Privy Council decision in London upholding the
Australian Government's refusal to allow IPEC to import suitable aircraft, but IPEC refused to
surrender.
Tangible evidence of the company's determination was the delivery - in London - of a DC-4
Air freighter which was named Spirit of Enterprise by the South Australian Agent-General in
London, Mr. A.F. Pearce, in a brief ceremony at Gatwick Airport. It was the first of five similar
aircraft IPEC planned to purchase.
The company which had already been granted an operator's licence for the service - by order
of the High Court - took delivery of the freighter in 1966 in the firm belief the Federal
Government would honour its promise to re-examine IPEC's submissions and that this would
result in the company getting permission to import the aircraft. IPEC certainly could not
commence operations without them.
Purchased in 1966 this DC4 was named "Spirit of Enterprise" at a ceremony by the South
Australian Agent General in London, Mr. A.F. Pearce at Gatewick Airport. An operators
licence had been granted but IPEC was never to receive permission to import this aircraft into
Australia.
The general feeling at the time was that IPEC's difficulties would be overcome and that the
new service would be regarded by the Federal Government and the transport industry
worldwide as a genuine pioneering step. What IPEC proposed was unique - a freight-only
organisation proposing to handle every operation from pickup, through linehaul movement by
air, to delivery to consignee at destination. No specialist airfreight operator anywhere in the
world provided more than bulk air cargo facilities for independent forwarding and delivery
operators at either end.
But it was not to be. IPEC was refused an import licence for the Douglas DC-4 freighter.
Aerial view of IPEC Melbourne’s new Brunswick depot established in 1964
Meanwhile, through all the disappointments and setbacks to its aerial ambitions, the company
was still keeping its wheels firmly on the ground. In 1965, when it found that the bodies of
commercial truck models available did not meet its exacting requirements for the carriage of
express freight, IPEC began designing and fabricating its own vehicle bodies.
The first project under the new policy was the design and fabrication of all-aluminium
pantechnicon bodies for its interstate trucks. The first phase was completed in late 1967 when
IPEC's engineering subsidiary, G & F Motors, delivered its sixty-fourth body to the company.
Perth bound containers on their way to Port Augusta for rail transhipment to Kalgoorlie
Opened in 1964 the IPEC Head Office on Glen Osmond Road in the suburb of Frewville was
also home to the Adelaide depot until July 1973 when the depot split and moved to Richmond
Road.
In May 1966, the sad premature death of Bill Howard ended his career with the company. In
his 11 years with IPEC, he had seen it grow from a two-truck, two-room concern to a thriving
business with more than 500 employees.
Les Arnold, who for the next eight years was to lead IPEC through some of its most
challenging times, succeeded Howard as Group General Manager.
IPEC concentrated on improving its road freight operations and continuing growth forced yet
another move in Adelaide in 1964, this time to Frewville where the much-admired new head
office and depot were built in a key suburban position on the main Adelaide-Melbourne
highway. Designed by architect Peter Muller, the striking building, on Glen Osmond Road,
featured walls of local slate and California redwood, which made it one of the city's
landmarks.
LES ARNOLD TAKES THE WHEEL 1966 TO 1975
Les Arnold's appointment was no surprise. Like his predecessor, Arnold- known affectionately
as the “Big A” was a dedicated worker. Everything he did was done willingly and well.
Les Arnold, General Manager 1966 - 1975
He was introduced to IPEC in the late 1950s when he was the proprietor of a small and
struggling transport company called Kangaroo Freightlines, which was servicing IPEC's
Brisbane depot. He was responsible for many of the Queensland pick-ups and deliveries. In
1960, when IPEC's Queensland operations expanded to the point of requiring its own
organisation there, Arnold was persuaded to become the company's first Queensland
manager. From this beginning with half a dozen local trucks, he built the Queensland branch
to a 25-truck outfit in 1967.
As Group General Manager, Les Arnold took great pride in IPEC's performance and growth,
for which he was largely responsible. He had one criteria for a manager; See the last truck
depart at night. See the first truck arrive in the morning. And he stuck to it to the end of his
career.
In 1966, frustrated in its attempts to bring Spirit of Enterprise into Australia, IPEC leased a
Bristol freighter to air-express Queensland produce from Brisbane to Cowra, New South
Wales.
Bound ultimately for Melbourne, the freight was on-carried from Cowra by one of the
company's interstate trucks. The same evening, freight left the Melbourne depot in a truck
headed for Cowra, where early the following morning, it was loaded into the waiting Bristol
Freighter for the trip north to Brisbane. Freight was successfully delivered overnight in each
direction.
From the test run, it was apparent that the service was both practical and efficient. It
commenced on a regular basis on 11 July 1966 when it was officially opened at Archerfield
Airport, Brisbane, by Queensland's Minister for Industrial Development, Mr. A.T. Dewar, who
consigned a carton of Queensland tropical fruit to be delivered to his Victorian counterpart in
Melbourne the next morning.
The new service was an important step forward for IPEC. It marked the end of another round
in the fight to provide Australian industry with the express freight services it wanted - but
wasn't getting from the airlines.
Now operating aircraft on two important routes, company executives vowed they wouldn't be
satisfied until IPEC was able to use air freighters on EVERY route they were needed.
In June 1967, Spirit of Enterprise was sold in London for an undisclosed figure. Time had
taken its toll of the idle aircraft and maintenance costs were too high to make its continued
retention worthwhile. The IPEC service from Brisbane to Cowra was abandoned around this
time, the company believing it was better not to confuse customers with a piecemeal
approach. However, airfreight between Melbourne and Launceston continued, still employing
chartered DC-3s.
Rival carrier Comet, was running freight up the Newell Highway in New South Wales and
making a success of it. Comet was winning a lot of business from the railways. In typical
fashion, IPEC believed that whatever Comet could do IPEC could do better and the first major
overnight express service to rural towns on the Australian mainland was introduced by IPEC
in 1966. Known as the IPEC Newell Express, the new service offered next-day delivery of
urgent consignments ex Melbourne to country centres from Albury to Tamworth.
Boom years for agriculture meant a high demand for the urgent delivery of spare parts, and
this was the catalyst IPEC needed to grow in New South Wales. Two major Melbourne clients
using the Newell Express Service were Massey-Ferguson and International Harvester. The
popularity of the service can be imagined when urgently needed replacement parts could be
received from Melbourne within 24 hours.
However, IPEC's plan to seek business off the beaten track in central New South Wales
received a major blow as a result of the vagaries of the Australian climate. Continuing
droughts meant harvesters fell out of use, few spare parts were ordered and those that were
delivered were often not paid for. Without a harvest, the farmers had no money.
In 1967, IPEC expanded its fleet of vehicles with the introduction of two new types of trucks
produced specially for the company, one by the MAN plant in West Germany and the other by
Toyota.
The MAN 650s, which could carry six tons of freight, incorporated the most advanced features
to be found on any commercial vehicle in Australia at the time. The designers placed great
emphasis on comfort, everything possible being done to make sure the driver remained fresh
and alert during long spells at the wheel. The trucks featured a sophisticated suspension
system, built-in pedal grip, divided steering shaft and an hydraulically-supported seat with
automatic adjustment to the driver's weight. The driver's job was made easier by a 12-forward
gearbox of a type previously available only on much larger vehicles.
During the long legal battle with the Commonwealth Government over permission for IPEC to
operate a freight airline, various cartoonists had a field day. This cartoon of IPEC is one of
numerous penned by Paul Rigby
Mr. A.T. Dewar, QLD Minister of Industrial Development at Archerfield Airport, officially opens
IPEC’s Brisbane – Melbourne Airfreight service and consigns a carton of tropical fruit to be
delivered in Melbourne the following day.
The 650 chassis was manufactured to take the prefabricated all aluminium bodies, designed
and assembled in IPEC’s own body building shop in Sydney. These aluminium bodies were at
this point being fitted to most trucks in IPEC’s growing interstate fleet.
The MAN 650 introduced to linehaul in 1967
The fleet was further expanded a few months later with the introduction of the Toyota Dyna
radio controlled pickup and delivery vehicles. As with the MAN 650’s, the bodies were
designed and manufactured by IPEC’s own engineering staff. They were fitted with all steel
bodies – totally enclosed to afford maximum protection for consignments and could
accommodate up to 400 cubic feet of freight, with a total weight of two tons. A further
advantage of the purpose built bodies was that the driver could stand upright inside,
facilitating quick and easy stowage of goods.
Night scene at Cowra Airport NSW, during freight transhipment on the new IPEC Melbourne Brisbane overnight service
IPEC’s premises in the Brisbane suburb of Salisbury established in 1967
The year 1967 also saw the introduction of a new system of freight transport across Bass
Strait. IPEC-AIR had been in operation for more than four years, but IPEC believed it could
complement this system with an additional service to handle larger consignments and
volumes. An intensive research and planning program resulted in a new road-sea system,
which dramatically improved on rival delivery times between Melbourne and Tasmanian
business centres.
The basis of this FASTFREIGHT service - also known as SEAROAD - was containers. IPEC
had been using containers in the form of wardrobes, to transport urgent consignments of
fashion goods - frocks, coats, suits and so on - for many years but, through its REX
FASTFREIGHT operation, IPEC became the first Australian express freight organisation to
use large containers for the interstate movement of urgent general freight. The new
containers measured 14 x 8 x 8 feet.
Many firms engaged in the carriage of non-urgent general freight had been using containers
for a considerable time, but with little or no improvement in their former delivery times. IPEC
soon showed its competitors how containerisation should work!Through a combination of
proven organisational methods and efficient freight handling, the company was able to take
advantage of the sailing schedules of all four ferries crossing Bass Strait - the three roll-on
roll-off vessels, Princess of Tasmania, Bass Trader and Seaway Queen and the container
ship, William Holyman - to achieve faster schedules.
The IPEC Newell Express Service offered next day delivery from Melbourne to towns from
Albury to Tamworth for the first time
The Toyota Dyna introduced to IPEC’s fleet in 1967.
Utilising a complex movement schedule, FASTFREIGHT consignments were moved out of
Melbourne to various Tasmanian ports on a daily basis. This meant that in most cases, freight
was collected one day, ferried to Tasmania the next and delivered to the consignee on the
third.
Chartered Brain and Brown DC3 at IPEC’s Launceston Airport Depot opened in February
1966.
Tasmanian Bush Fire Relief
It was while Les Arnold was in Tasmania, organising the new arrangements - on 7 February
1967 - that the horrific Tasmanian bushfires, fanned by gale-force winds, swept into the heart
of Hobart. Houses exploded like bombs in the path of the flames, 55 people lost their lives
and 1,400 homes were destroyed. After the initial shock, Australians rushed to comfort and
sustain the survivors of the disaster and Arnold, appalled by what he had seen, immediately
marshalled the entire available IPEC fleet to help with the rescue operations. Truckloads of
food, blankets and other relief supplies were transported free of charge from a wide area of
Australia.
The scenes that moved Les Arnold after the Hobart fires on 7th February 1967. (Re Printed
with the kind permission of Don Stephens and Associates Photographers)
The scenes that moved Les Arnold after the Hobart fires
One of IPEC-AIR's regular Bass Strait consignments was notable for the fact that when IPEC
flew it one way it flew back on its own!
Racing pigeons were regularly freighted across Bass Strait - following an original urgent
request from fanciers and breeders in Melbourne and Tasmania. Every October more than a
thousand birds left Melbourne for Launceston, where they were fed and watered before being
set free to compete in the annual Bass Strait Race for the Les Abracia Memorial Shield.
Since the island was too small to conduct long-distance races, IPEC-AIR literally kept the
sport alive in Tasmania. Pigeons were also carried from Tasmania to the mainland for release
in Victoria.
M
anager of the Rex Fastfreight Sea-Road Service to Tasmania, John Trafford checks loading
of containerised freight at the Melbourne depot
Containers being loaded onto the Bass Strait ferries
The growth in output of manufactured goods coupled with renewed industrial expansion, had
a significant effect on the development of Australian road transport at this time.
IPEC Moved into new premises in Newcastle in 1968
Because interstate road transport had been comparatively expensive, rail transport was
inefficient and transport by sea was slow, it became common practice among manufacturers
either to build factories in the different States or have a central manufacturing plant
distributing to large interstate warehouses. The system was both cumbersome and
expensive. Many manufacturers felt the returns were not sufficient and often they completely
dismissed the idea of competing with local manufacturers in other States.
The situation was to change dramatically however, with the increasing efficiency of road
transport. As national distribution by road became more cost effective, a number of
manufacturers built central factories and warehouses from which their goods could be
dispatched promptly and cheaply to their interstate branches. This increased their freight bills
but substantially reduced their overall distribution costs. IPEC was able to get goods to most
stores throughout Australia within two to three days.
To ensure an efficient, trouble free service for its customers, IPEC highway patrol cars were
introduced in 1968 to follow the last trucks out of the Sydney and Melbourne depots and deal
with any breakdowns or other problems which might occur on the road. The yellow and black
patrol cars carried spares for the vehicles and would if required, also help other stranded
motorists. In addition to ensuring the company lived up to its motto of delivering freight on
time, every time, the patrol cars were also an effective form of public relations.
Tw
o of the Highway Patrol Cars first introduced in 1968
Many a stranded motorist was able to complete their journey thanks to IPEC's tiger patrols.
The system of third party distribution - under which IPEC trucks served virtually as
manufacturers' warehouses, brought about by the growth in road transport in which IPEC
featured so prominently in turn contributed to sustaining that growth.
As industries grew, so too did the flow of manufactured goods from State to State. However,
compared with the amount of freight coming in from New South Wales and Victoria, very little
was leaving South Australia, Queensland and the other states with the result that many trucks
were returning empty.
In 1968, seeking new avenues for expanding its road transport operations, IPEC decided to
get into the furniture removal business. It was felt that - if started in places like Adelaide,
Perth, Tasmania and Brisbane - the service would provide IPEC vehicles with convenient
back-loading to Sydney and Melbourne. IPEC put the plan into effect with its purchase of the
established Adelaide furniture removal business of W.H.A. Clues.
W.A. Clues Removalists, pictured through the years until shortly after IPEC’s takeover in 1968
Clues Removals vehicle fleet comprised a number of Bedford bus chassis with bodies built on
and an old Bedford truck with pan and a semi-trailer 30 feet long and eight feet high, pulled by
an early 1950s International petrol truck. All were kept going with lacings of luck and fencing
wire!
IPEC promptly pensioned off the Clues fleet and started moving furniture interstate in its own
linehaul vehicles. Unfortunately the furniture, not being designed to cope with the heavy
pounding it received in linehaul, was quickly reduced to matchwood. As one company wag
commented at the time it seemed that IPEC would soon find itself in competition with Bryant &
May! (match manufacturers) The back-loading idea was promptly abandoned and specially
modified vehicles were introduced for furniture removals.
With one problem solved, however, another soon loomed. The company had organised
reciprocal arrangements with furniture removal agents in Melbourne who it hoped would fill its
vehicles for the potentially lucrative return run from Melbourne to Adelaide. But the Melbourne
end was not doing its job, and IPEC was getting the rough end of the deal. Vehicles that left
Adelaide fully loaded with furniture were returning unfilled. To make matters worse, the
Melbourne agents were sending their own vehicles to Adelaide fully laden for IPEC to unload
under its part of the arrangement!
The problem was overcome in typical IPEC fashion. The company dispensed with agents and
started its own self-sufficient Melbourne removals operation.
From that decision the furniture business naturally grew. Philliphoffs Removals in Perth was
purchased in 1969, and Broughton Cornish was acquired in Hobart. IPEC also needed to
establish its own operations in Sydney and Brisbane, agents again being a problem.
By the end of the year, IPEC had a national furniture removal business. Not much to show in
the way of profit, but the new venture represented an expansion and diversification of the
company's base of operations. Profits, it was hoped, would come - in the good fullness of
time.
INTER-OFFICE MEMO
From I.R.D. Perth To Mr. R.M. Dennis
Date 20/8/70
Re; Your I.O.M. Dated 14th August, 1970.
Photographs of I.R.D. Depots for IPEC "Express"
TOPIC: Mr.Jack Philiphoff,
Started off in I949 with $300.00 capitol after leaving the West Australian Government
Railways where he was employed as a Fitters Assistant.
Six years War Service as Fitter in R.A.A.F. sold Swift Taxi Trucks to purchase present
premises which at that time consisted of one store 30' x 40'ft.
Weathered a few storms and had more over droughts than sea breezes.
Built business up on Loyalty, Service, & Customer. Sincerely hope can do same for
IPEC Association. Please find enclosed photographs of external and internal views of
depot.
Regards,
Mr. ]. Philiphoff.
A concerted program of promoting the removals business did prompt further growth and new
premises were built or rented to cover increased storage and operations. A further innovation
was the introduction of storage in 4 x 8 x 8 foot boxes which enabled IPEC to stuff buildings to
the roof with stored furniture and, as a bonus, to use the boxes in its linehaul vehicles for the
interstate movement of freight.
BROUGHTON CORNISH
Mr. Broughton Cornish started as a General Carrier in February 1928. In time the
scope of his businesses changed to include furniture. By the end of the War,
after some close shaves, the business had 3 vehicles and using available
shipping he was performing interstate removals,
A long shipping strike in 1947 stopped all outbound goods, including furniture.
Mr. Cornish approached Trans Aust Airlines and arranged the first ever airlift of
furniture.
The service found great demand and Broughton Cornish flourished. On one
occasion, Mr. Cornish was contracted to carry a family cat to Perth, W.A., on a
special trip in a DC3. Refuelling at Ceduna, the airport became fogbound.
Unable to locate accommodation Broughton slept on the plane with the cat.
Being so cold he even took off his own coat and placed it over the cat. The
media took an interest in these events and following their arrival at Perth,
headlines appeared "Cat Arrives Safely".
It was a DCA condition of allowing aircraft to carry furniture that Mr. Cornish had
to travel with the cargo as supervisor. In 10 years he crossed Bass Strait 1352
times with 1 1/4 million air miles to his credit.
When IPEC took over his company in 1969, it employed over 20 people and
operated 14 vehicles.
But IPEC was not destined for success in the removal business even though it was to be
another five years before the crunch finally came.
John Konstas appointed financial controller in 1969
In 1969, the company made a significant move to improve its general efficiency and financial
procedures. It appointed John Konstas, who had joined IPEC seven years earlier, as its first
Financial Controller, a key position which was to exercise a major influence in the company's
affairs in the coming years. The Financial Controller was virtually second in command of the
entire group and the financial arm of the Group General Manager. The two worked in close
concert in analysing and directing the group's various activities.
John Konstas had come to IPEC with Rex Trucking in March 1962 having started his
accounting career in May 1959 in a defunct Sydney funeral parlour which then served as
Ivory and Barton's head office. His starting pay was £30 a week and, for the next 20 years in
the transport industry he had - to use his own colourful expression -more fun than a barrel of
monkeys.
Konstas never forgot his first day in the trucking business when, proud as punch and full of
his own importance, as he would have it, he presented himself to 1 Arundel Street, Glebe,
promptly at 8.30 a.m. Monday to find that no-one knew he was to start that day. There was
not even a desk for him to sit at, let alone an office and neither Gordon Barton nor Greg
Farrell were around to introduce him. They always started their day at the Annandale depot.
Pandemonium and embarrassment all round!
Immediately after the merger with IPEC, Konstas and his family moved to Adelaide where he
set about sorting out IPEC’s latest accounting worries. One of the most pressing needs was
for the completion of bank reconciliations going back five years for six IPEC companies with
separate bank accounts!
Talking of encounters with reconciliations, Konstas liked to recall the story of Lionel Pullen
who, when he joined IPEC as senior clerk in 1963, had never done a bank reconciliation in his
life. But, like all IPEC staff, Pullen was of course intelligent and willing to learn! He threw
himself enthusiastically into each new reconciliation – day in day out, for seven years. About
the end of 1968, he finally bounced into Konstas's office, exclaiming proudly 'Done it! I've
done it! I've reconciled the major bank account and got it right very first go!"
"Good on you, Lionel," Konstas said, encouragingly. "Congratulations!" As an accountant
himself, John Konstas fully appreciated the feeling of joy and satisfaction his offsider must
have been feeling having reconciled a major account first up after six years of unsuccessful
trying. But the Financial Controller had missed the real point of the excitement. "Well?" Pullen
said. "Well, what?" said Konstas. "Don't you remember? You promised me an extra week's
pay the day I got the major bank account reconciliation right first go!"
Lionel Pullen's dogged determination got him his extra week's salary and he left Konstas's
office feeling at least ten feet tall.
In 1970, IPEC acquired a controlling interest in what had been a minor rival - Jetaway, a
company started by Robert and Clarrie Doyle in 1968.
Robert Doyle tells the story this way: "It all started when we couldn't pay our freight bill to
IPEC. They were the only ones we could get credit with to move our Tassie freight and
eventually we owed them so much money they thought the only way they were are going to
get their money back was to take us over! Negotiations were conducted near the Coburg
cemetery. When we were short of money, Dave Jacobs - IPEC's Victorian manager - would
come down in the middle of the night, give us some more money and away we'd go again. It
was getting embarrassing because some people in IPEC were asking where the money was
going."
And there was some embarrassment at the time too for Group General Manager Les Arnold
when one of Jetaway's MAN trucks broke down and Jetaway rang Fred Gardiner who, as
IPEC's national maintenance manager was firmly in possession of all the MAN spare parts.
Clarrie Doyle pictured with a Jetaway linehaul truck shortly after IPEC purchased his and
Robert Doyles Business
"No way," Fred exploded, when he heard the plea. "You're the competition!" Feeling very
pleased with himself, he rang Arnold to tell him of their struggling “competitor”. Les Arnold still
had to keep the true situation to himself.
When Jetaway became part of IPEC - officially - Clarrie Doyle took over from Dave Jacobs as
Victoria's State manager while Robert Doyle remained at Jetaway.
Jetaway, which started with six staff, was employing 40 people by the time it was taken over
by IPEC. It retained its own identity - as a division of IPEC - until 1982.
Among the major clients IPEC collected with Jetaway were Carborundum, Carabonum,
Venture stores, Sharp and Philip Lazarus.
The following year, 1971, saw the acquisition of Dart Express - started by a handful of
Kwikasair drivers and Phoenix Transport, a deal which furnished IPEC with three rather lovely
pink trucks. They were instantly transformed into tigers! The two takeovers brought into the
IPEC camp some clients which were destined to become important, including Michaelis
Bayley Footwear, Amway, Hobbytex and Paul's Merchants.
In 1972, a committee was appointed to study the possibility of splitting IPEC and Rex into
separate operational organisations to improve profitability and customer service. An even
more pressing reason for the separation was that in Melbourne a change of council road
regulations on tonnages meant IPEC trucks were unable to use local roads.
At the end of the year, Rex in Sydney was relocated from Alexandria to much larger premises
at Parramatta Road, Flemington, and IPEC in Melbourne moved from its hopelessly
overcrowded location at Brunswick to a huge new depot which Gordon Barton found for the
company on the Hume Highway at Campbellfield. IPEC's new Melbourne home, originally
intended to be developed for Fruehauf Trailers and Centenary Motors, a Ford dealer in
Coburg, was popularly known as "The Glasshouse" because of its vast windows.
“The Glasshouse” IPEC’s new Melbourne premises established in 1972 on the Hume Hwy
Campbellfield
Inside IPEC’s new Melbourne premises established in 1972 on the Hume Hwy Campbellfield
For some time the two groups operated as separate entities, each with its own general
manager and premises but eventually, after a lengthy trial period, the separation of Rex and
IPEC was judged to be only marginally successful, and the arrangement was terminated,
IPEC and Rex joining forces once again.
Rex Sydney’s new Flemington depot following its move from Alexandria in October 1972
IPEC's rapid growth at this time made increased efficiency of accounting and procedures
absolutely essential, and this was just why John Konstas was in his new position as Financial
Controller.
In 1970, with the company's chief accountant, Barry Ellis, Konstas assessed the feasibility of
computerising the accounting systems. The result was the introduction of computer
processing - through an IBM bureau which operated for four years until the company installed
its own mainframe computer in 1976. The enormous task of establishing a database,
redesigning stationery, transferring customer accounts from manual ledgers and retraining
staff was completed well before the deadline set for changeover day - July 1972.
Computerisation of accounts resulted in faster, more accurate and more concise customer
invoicing involving in excess of 300,000 consignment notes a month. The new system
revolutionised the business, and a new world had been opened up for IPEC.
In July 1972 the accounts department at IPEC’s Head Office was computerised. This photo
shows the key punch room where all the data was punched onto tape for computer
processing
It was at this time that IPEC bought Barlow Transport, an Adelaide family general freight
business that was experiencing financial difficulties. Barlow's main line of business was
between Adelaide and Melbourne, and it had enormous tonnages out of Adelaide. Major
Barlow clients included W.H. Faulding and Gladwrap.
Most of Barlow's vehicle fleet, mainly flat-top semitrailers, was obsolete and beyond repair
and disposed of shortly after the takeover, but the vehicles were of less interest to IPEC than
Barlow's Melbourne site in Barry Road, Campbellfield. The premises subsequently played
host to Jetaway, Rex, IPEC-AIR and IPEC-Rex when the two companies merged again.
The 1972 takeover of Barlow’s Transport was for some years to provide IPEC with a general
freight service, but it did not last.
Syrian Bear – Amongst the more unusual consignments handled over the years by IPEC was
a Syrian Bear. The Bear was moved from Adelaide to the Melbourne Zoo. It was destined
eventually for the Colombo Zoo in Ceylon. The 2 year old female named Soraya weighed in at
120lbs and was moved without a hitch on 30th October 1972.
Loading a Syrian Bear
In April 1973, IPEC formed an international freight division, utilising Australian Meadows
Aircargo as a freight forwarder. This was IPEC's first tentative step towards providing an
express service outside Australia - something that was to occupy IPEC management's
thoughts and time increasingly as the 1970s progressed.
Establishment of IPEC’s first international freight service was to lead to greater things
In July of the same year, IPEC's success as a third party distributor prompted the company to
relocate its Adelaide freight terminal to a new two and a half acre site at West Beach Road,
Richmond leaving Head Office as the sole tenant of the Frewville site. The spacious, fastmoving complex, with air-conditioned offices and huge vehicle parking areas, was a new
dimension in freight-handling facilities, providing excellent working conditions for drivers and
staff alike.
In July 1973 the Adelaide depot moved to new premises at Richmond Road, Richmond SA.
More formal control of the linehaul operations was introduced with the formation of LES –
(Linehaul Equipment Services) - under Fred Gardiner as general manager. The new division
was responsible for the purchase of trucks, fitting them out, maintenance, supplying drivers,
managing change stations and determining linehaul routes and frequencies. Gardiner was
assisted in this by Eric Stuelcken and Don Taylor.
Assembling Bodies for Trucks, something IPEC did for many years
IPEC Maintenance division at Greeenacre in Sydney
Rigid regulations ensured that vehicles were in tip-top order for every journey, goods correctly
loaded and fully protected, and drivers healthy, alert and well rested before taking the wheel.
On every route schedules were carefully planned to eliminate undue strain on the truck crews.
Rest points and change stations provided for their well-being. Security checks and highway
patrols ensured that company regulations were strictly observed.
The change stations - established in the late 1960s - provided drivers with rest and recreation
during compulsory breaks along the road. Only the drivers stopped. The freight kept moving,
taken over by rested drivers, fresh from a spell at roadside centres that offered almost all the
comforts of home.
The IPEC change station at Glen Innes in Northern NSW
The sleeping quarters at the IPEC change station ate Glen Innes in Northern NSW
At Glen Innes, in northern New South Wales, there were separate sleeping quarters for 20
north-bound and south-bound drivers, planned so that they could all sleep undisturbed by
crews operating different schedules. Toilets with separate showers, a fully-equipped modern
laundry, and a kitchen with all cooking facilities, provided necessary amenities, while outdoors
a large filtered swimming pool in a cool setting of lawns and trees offered welcome relaxation
in hot weather. Crews could also relax watching television, or playing billiards in a recreation
room.
Other change stations were established at Albury, on the New South Wales-Victorian border,
and Bordertown, SA.
July 1973 also marked the introduction of metrication within the Australian transport industry,
and IPEC appointed Alan Howie as its Officer in Charge of Metrication. Howie, a long-serving
IPEC employee who took on many different jobs during his time with the group, was
responsible for the progressive, orderly conversion from the existing system through the
necessary conversion of scales, alteration to documents, staff training and all the other
complications the switch to metrics involved.
Howie was the best man for the job. He had his own way of getting things done, smoothly and
efficiently. When he was company auditor, he always made a point of ensuring that his golf
clubs arrived at a depot the day before he visited it to check the books. The system had a
double benefit. Warned of the impending audit, the depot was sure to have its books up-todate and in order. And the wily Howie, with only a simple approval of the paperwork to
perform, was soon putting his golf clubs to good use!
January 1974 saw the fourth move of IPEC in Sydney, from Chullora to Villawood. Over $1m
was spent on developing the two hectare site into the largest express freight facility in
Australia. The premises included a building for linehaul equipment services from which
IPEC's national linehaul and maintenance operations were controlled and aluminium vehicle
bodies fabricated.
Outside and inside Sydney’s new Villawood premises - January 1974
Also in January 1974, IPEC decided to expand its New South Wales country service.
Newcastle, the Central Coast, Wollongong and Canberra had long been serviced by IPEC
centres, and now three new linehaul routes were established - from Sydney to Tamworth,
Dubbo and Griffith. Agents were selected in 11 strategic country towns, effectively providing
IPEC customers with an express service throughout New South Wales. By the end of 1975,
IPEC centres had replaced the agencies in Tamworth, Gosford, Dubbo, Orange, Wagga and
Griffith.
IPEC added an extra 2,000 kilometres of service to its customers on 1 May 1974 when it took
over the financially ailing Tenex Transport in Townsville. Tenex had service centres in
Townsville, Mackay, Cairns, Rockhampton and Innisfail.
Three North Queesland Tenex depots after IPEC’s purchase in May 1974. Townsville,
Mackay and Cairns.
Tenex, started by Ken Thomas the founder of TNT, got its name - short for ten o'clock
express - from its claim to deliver freight express by 10 a.m. the day after despatch. After the
IPEC purchase, Thomas was engaged as a consultant.
This important acquisition of northern Queensland completed IPEC's coverage of Australia by
road and brought a new perspective to the linehaul division with drivers having to contend
with a lot more stray bulls and kangaroos as well as torrential downpours that could wash
away roads in a matter of minutes.
Even so, some southerners persisted in thinking of Townsville as a suburb of Brisbane,
judging by the frequency with which interoffice correspondence was sent there!
Another fascinating feature of the takeover was IPEC's introduction to the Tenex agent in
Hughenden who had his own unique system of bookkeeping. He always put his consignment
notes and cheques (for safe keeping) in the door skins of his old FJ Holden. And never sent
IPEC an account!
After 14 months of this, IPEC naturally investigated. Every consignment note, every cheque
and all the cash was still there in the door, debits and credits balanced, right down to the last
cent!
IPEC's relationship with Fosseys, the New South Wales and Victorian retailer, was a splendid
example of IPEC's role as a third party distributor, and of two companies, both expert in its
own field, working for their mutual benefit.
Fosseys had previously used rail transport but the railways only supplied a truck and driver
and Fosseys had to supply the paper work and loading crews. As the rail network became
smaller, Fosseys found the one way it could get goods outlying stores was road transport.
Fosseys contributed a highly efficient distribution centre, geared to the rapid dispatch of
goods to its 89 retail outlets, and IPEC its vast linehaul network and conveniently located
country depot to ensure the whole system worked at peak efficiency.
The successful relationship stemmed from disastrous fire in November 1974 which destroy.
Fosseys Sydney warehouse and its entire contents. The retailer decided never again to be in
such vulnerable position-- a warehouse with shelves piled high with goods awaiting
distribution and sent its operations manager, Warren Glenny, abroad to find a distribution
system that could be adapted to the company's needs. He found it in the United States, and
orders were placed in January 1976 for a complete semi automated facility. By July 1976,
IPEC was moving out the first freight from Ashfield, Sydney, to Fosseys stores throughout
NSW and Victoria.
In addition, IPEC carried out stock relocation between stores. When a sudden chill in
Canberra brought a demand for woollen goods that were sitting unwanted in still warm
Dubbo, IPEC quickly got the stock where it was needed.
IPEC's new computerised accounting system soon alerted the group' management to the fact
that profits from its furniture removals business were thin. Rates were low and competition
from anyone who could afford a vehicle was savage. The additional premises, bought during
the expansion phase in 1969, had resulted in additional costs, without any compensating
improvement in removal rates. And there seemed no prospect of increasing the existing
charges for any given volume of household goods.
IPEC's taxi truck division, which ran in parallel to the removal business, had already indicated
the way things were going with its own demise a couple of years earlier, in 1972. The major
reason for its failure was its inability to develop long-term clients on a profitable basis.
In June 1974, with IPEC under financial pressure and the removals operation still not showing
an on-going profit, the company's storage facilities were sold to Grace Bros. Removals staff
were retrenched equipment was disposed of and IPEC went back to concentrating on what it
did best - parcel express, fast and efficient.
IPEC'S linehaul expertise was amply demonstrated in March 1975 when a call from the
company's Perth office advised that the Trans Australia Railway was about to be cut by
unprecedented flooding east of Kalgoorlie, and that rail traffic was likely to be halted for up to
two months!
Faced with arranging an alternative linehaul system on his longest and most difficult route at
what amounted to at a moment's notice, LES manager Fred Gardiner and his team sparked
off frantic activity throughout the IPEC network around Australia.
Fortunately, the road across Western Australia was not affected by the flooding and remained
passable. Within a matter of hours, Gardiner, in Sydney, in collaboration with colleagues in
Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, had arranged for the necessary road equipment to be
brought into action, and organised crews to undertake the long haul across the Nullarbor.
The prompt action enabled IPEC's services between the Eastern states and Perth to be
maintained without any loss of continuity, a truly remarkable achievement in the
circumstances. Freight from Adelaide was still delivered in two days. From Melbourne in
three, and Sydney, Canberra and Newcastle in four.
Vehicles used for the long haul were equipped with sleeper cabs and manned by two-driver
crews. Linehaul control units were established at Ceduna and Norseman to assist crews if
required and carry out mechanical checks.
The emergency arrangements ended in mid-April - some four weeks after the flood - when
Commonwealth Railway engineers completed a new bridge across the floodwaters.
BRISBANE FLOOD
Taken at the height of the flooding, this photograph, taken from a boat, shows the roof of the IPEC
Brisbane depot barely above the waterline.
On 23rd January 1974, it began to rain in Brisbane. In 4 days, 25 inches of rain fell creating
the worst floods ever experienced in that city's history. The 1974 Australian Day Holiday
week-end will be long remembered as 8 people lost their lives and 10,000 were left homeless.
IPEC's Salisbury Depot teas not spared the ravages of the flood waters as these two
photographs depict. One shows the roof of the depot, barely visible above the flood waters,
whilst in the other you can see the water marks left on the inside of the terminal.
By Friday, 25th January, it was raining so hard that freight could not be delivered and I0 truck
loads had to be left on the depot floor. That night the flood water rose so quickly that the
freight could not be moved despite desperate efforts. The result you can tell from these
pictures was obvious. Unable to do anything about the depot, some IPEC staff were able to
help customers that were less affected.
By Wednesday, 30th January, the water began to recede and IPEC Brisbane was operational
again by the following Tuesday.
The same year, in an imaginative move for the industry, the company set up a new specialist
division - IPEC Fashion Express. Created specifically to cater for the specialised
requirements of the garment industry, and headed by its own national manager, Fashion
Express laid claim to the first trucks in Australia to be fitted with wall-to-wall carpets!
Unique racking was utilised in some IPEC vehicles in 1975 to accommodate the new IPEC
Fashion Hanger Service
Prior to its introduction, garments had been transported in wardrobes in standard trucks with
consequent delivery delays and creasing problems. Fashion Express enabled garment
hanger consignments to be handled independently of all other freight.
IPEC engineers designed and built a unique system of roller hanger bars, which not only
provided safe and secure hanging of consignments during transit, but also allowed extremely
fast transhipping operations. Interior walls of the Fashion Express truck were flush-lined and
floors carpeted to minimise the chances of soiling or damage to clothing. Local vans as well
as interstate linehaul trucks were fitted with the special equipment to enable the Fashion
Express service to operate on all routes throughout Australia.
The meticulous precautions for transportation were matched by those at IPEC's service
centres where specially-prepared, spotlessly clean areas were set aside to keep fashion
consignments well clear of other freight. The system actually increased efficiency by reducing
handling.
The new equipment, facilities and systems introduced by IPEC with Fashion Express
established it as a pacesetter for the efficient transport and delivery of clothing worldwide. The
service was the only garment delivery operation endorsed by the Australian Confederation of
Apparel Manufacturers (ACAM) - now the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Council of Australia.
It was at this stage in the history of the company that it was shaken by the sudden loss of one
of its main driving forces. Still hard at work for his beloved IPEC, Group General Manager Les
Arnold was taken ill in the office. He died, after a heart attack in hospital, on 11 April 1975.
FRED GARDINER 1975 - 1980
Les Arnold's sudden death brought a new team to the leadership of IPEC. Fred Gardiner, the
Rex Trucking mechanic to whom Gordon Barton had confided his intention to buy IPEC, back
in 1959 and who later became the company's national maintenance manager, was appointed
Group General Manager with Barry Ellis alongside him as his Finance Director.
Fred Gardiner – Group General Manager 1975 to 1980
For the first time the Group General Manager's base was moved from Adelaide to Sydney,
with Barry Ellis remaining in Adelaide.
Barry Ellis – Finance Director 1975-1980
Ellis's predecessor, John Konstas, remained on the board of IPEC Holdings until 1977.
Konstas was subsequently recalled when Gordon Barton persuaded him to return to as
managing director of IPEC Europe in 1979, a post he held for two years.
Gardiner, who knew the trucking business inside out, had literally worked his way up from the
grease pit. Back in the early days when he was with “Ivory and Barton” and Gordon Barton
told him to go and take over IPEC's operation, Gardiner arrived at Chullora dressed as usual
in his dirtiest overalls. IPEC at that time was far ahead of the “Ivory and Barton” outfit in both
set-up and equipment, a fact that was signified by the maintenance manager always wearing
collar and tie. Chullora's immediate reaction to its first sight of its new boss was to offer him a
job in the grease pit!
Barry Ellis had started with IPEC in January 1966 as a management trainee, working in the
accounting section. In the ensuing years he was promoted to accounting supervisor, manager
of head office, Adelaide, and to chief accountant at the time John Konstas became Financial
Controller and moved to Sydney. As chief accountant, Ellis had been primarily responsible for
the introduction of computerisation and, subsequently, the Inforex key-to-disk system
Gardiner and Ellis took over at an exciting time for IPEC for, 14 years after making its first
application for a licence to operate its own freight aircraft- 14 years of promises, political
controversy, argument, court hearings, appeals and' injunctions - IPEC was about to take to
the air in a new Spirit of Enterprise, an Argosy propjet airfreighter named, with defiant
sentiment, after its unlucky predecessor.
Bligh Street Director’s Office. Acquired in 1974 as a corporate base for the executives of
IPEC Holdings Limited, it is one of the most distinctive Victorian style buildings in Sydney.
The foundation stone was laid in 1884 and construction finished in 1886. On completion it
became the home of the New South Wales Club until its sale to IPEC Holdings. The building
was sold in 1984.
The closing months of 1977 witnessed scenes of feverish activity at Melbourne's Essendon
airport - home base of the new IPEC-AIR - as qualified engineering staff were recruited, air
crews sought and engaged and the aircraft itself virtually stripped of every moving part and
component, checked and rebuilt. A search was instituted worldwide for available spares and
essential parts, and a complete engineering workshop and components storage facility
constructed in one of the two hangars which served as IPEC-AIR's operational headquarters.
With IPEC-AIR busily overhauling and refitting its own aircraft, it seemed to everyone that a
long-term company dream had at last come true. The proud new division was headed by a
director - Captain Bert Richie, formerly General Manager of Qantas - and managed by Phil
Petersen.
The Argosy took to the air late in December 1977 and a pilot training program commenced
early in January 1978. IPEC' s AIR-BRIDGE service - flying freight across Bass Straight started the following month.
There could have been no better designee aircraft for the AIR-BRIDGE operation than the
Argosy. Conventional aircraft when gutted for freight, could only be side-loaded, and at a
height necessitating substantial outlay for specialised freight handling equipment. The Argosy,
however had huge doors at either end of the fuselage at truck-tray height, facilitating the
simple push-on, pull-off loading of palletised freight.
To add even further to the advantage: of the Argosy, IPEC engineers developed unique
vehicles to speed up the loading and unloading process. These were converted MAN rigid
linehaul vehicles, stripped of their pan, with the chassis lengthened and special roller tray tops
fitted.
IPEC’s first Argosy “Spirit of Enterprise” at Essendon Airport
IPEC’s first Argosy “Spirit of Enterprise” in flight
One of the MAN rigid linehaul vehicles converted ny IPEC engineers to make loading more
efficient.
The monsters could take on their length the entire six-pallet load for the Argosy and by having
two of these specialised vehicles - one at either end of the aircraft- loading and unloading
simultaneously, turn-around times were reduced to 30 minutes, allowing four trips each way in
24 hours. With a payload capacity of 11 tonnes, the Argosy could thus shift 88 tonnes a day.
The Argosy AIR-BRIDGE service was a service about which IPEC could justifiably boast and
it was launched with an extensive advertising campaign, lots of media coverage and
celebration parties.
IPEC AIR-BRIDGE operated daily as a door-to-door freight service between Melbourne and
all Tasmanian centres. Freight collected by IPEC's vans during the day was taken to
Essendon, palletised and loaded for the flight to Launceston. On arrival at the Launceston
Airport depot, freight was transferred to the company's fleet of trucks for early morning
delivery to Hobart, Launceston, Devonport, Ulverstone, Burnie and the mining centres on the
West coast.
A further innovation in 1977 was the opening up of Victorian country areas to express freight
handling following IPEC's challenge to the notion that intrastate small parcel traffic was the
exclusive business of the Postmaster General's Department and the railways. Section 92 of
the Constitution protected both the PMG and the railways from competition, although
interstate carrying was open to road transport operators.
IPEC circumvented the restrictions by moving into places like Moama and Mount Gambier,
where loads were re-sorted and brought back into Victoria as "interstate" freight.
The Victorian country express freight business was opened up through a catalyst company
called Cannon Transport, formed, as IPEC promised at the time "to blow a hole in the
government monopoly". This was the beginning of the service later known as Country Road
Express.
In March 1977, IPEC INTERNATIONAL - initially formed in April 1973 - was re-organised by
Barry Ellis. The following month, IPEC INTERNATIONAL was appointed as the Australian
cargo sales agency for Garuda, the Indonesian airline, and this followed, in October, by a
similar appointment by Air India.
This was a notable achievement as it had been traditional worldwide for domestic airlines to
act as cargo sales agents. In both instances substantially increased cargo volumes followed
the IPEC appointment.
Over the next few years IPEC INTERNATIONAL opened offices in Singapore and Hong Kong
and, following the establishment of IPEC Europe, in 1979, the division was able to utilise the
European infrastructure to increase its share of Australia-Europe trade. Soon after, offices
were established in New Zealand and the United States, and IPEC INTERNATIONAL was
employing 150 people.
In June 1978, two Series 200 Argosy turboprops touched down at Essendon after "kangaroohopping" from Luxembourg in Europe. After refit, the two bigger, faster Argosies took over the
Bass Strait service from Spirit of Enterprise, more than doubling the daily freight capacity to
over 170 tonnes.
The arrival of the Series 200 Argosy’s in June 1978 from Luxembourg
The Series 200 Argosy’s stripped ready for the new IPEC livery
The type and volume of freight carried between the two States since AIR-BRIDGE had started
demonstrated the real need for the service, and it grew rapidly as clients realised its
advantages. Large, awkward and heavy consignments were handled with ease.
But - even with its service up and flying - IPEC, unbelievably, was still not clear of Federal
Government interference. As Gordon Barton put it in one of the most bitter speeches of those
difficult years, the Government remained "in steady pursuance of its long-established policy of
protecting endangered species" - by which he meant the two airlines, Ansett and TAA. His
anger was well justified. Canberra had restricted IPEC’s mainland airfreight license to the use
of DC3 aircraft!
The effects of this astonishing decision were even more remarkable than the decision itself.
Suddenly Australia's largest express freight carrier - just as it was about to commence a
national airfreight service - was compelled to ground its own choice of modern turboprop
aircraft in favour of ancient DC-3 piston-engine planes which the company regarded at that
time as being fully entitled to gracious retirement in the Hall of Fame.
Apart from the nonsense of the situation, there were endless repercussions-and costsinvolved. IPEC faced the prospect of having to decide whether to buy or charter DC-3s, and
set-up maintenance facilities for them in addition to its existing facilities. The Argosies used
cheaper fuel than DC-3s, and the older aircraft were not compatible with IPEC's alreadydeveloped roll-on, roll-off airfreight handling system. In addition, IPEC's aircrews, trained to fly
modern four engine turboprop aircraft, acquired re-certification to fly twin-engine planes which
were considerably older than most of the pilots themselves!
The Federal Government's intractability only served to heighten IPEC's determination to fight
the issue through and win. As Barton pointed out, the whole situation seemed to represent the
ultimate lunacy of government aviation policy and he set out to let the world know it in
typically flamboyant fashion.
On a cold and wet evening in July 1979, IPEC's national road-air service, the Midnight Flyer,
lurched into the air in the form of an ancient Douglas DC-3.
Barton told those who attended the inauguration: "Freight doesn't mind what sort of aircraft it
flies in, so long as it is reliable and arrives on time. Even DC-3s are fast enough to permit a
reliable overnight service between Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney and we are still permitted to use our Argosies to Tasmania."
The short lived but historical IPEC DC3 linehaul operation started in July 1979, was only to
last 10 weeks.
Barton was making a point. The Midnight Flyer was hopelessly cost inefficient as far as the
company was concerned and it was introduced purely as a matter of principle. The plane flew
between Sydney and Melbourne for only 10 weeks before the service was abandoned.
But, even with the old, cost inefficient aircraft, IPEC managed to provide its customers with
the fastest, most economical door-to-door freight system in the country. What's more, the
most noticeable improvement in customer service was achieved between non-adjacent
capital cities - Melbourne-Brisbane and Sydney-Adelaide.
And the short-lived service, bringing with it, as it did, a complete reorganisation of the freight
transport group, set the pattern for IPEC initiatives into the 1980s when the airfreight market
was finally deregulated.
By January 1979 the Northern Territory was the only "State" without an IPEC centre.
For seven years Porky's Pick-ups, under the management of Ray Jefferies, had acted as
IPEC's agent. Legend has it that Porky's Pickups got its colourful name from a bush graffiti
artist who once scrawled it on the dusty side of a truck. The graffiti washed off, but the name
stuck!
IPEC managed to persuade Ray Jefferies to sell his business and as IPEC manager set up a
depot for IPEC in Darwin. With this IPEC established a presence in every State.
The same year also saw the introduction - limited to head office - of the first Visual Display
Units providing debtors information online from a mainframe computer. The system increased
administrative efficiency and productivity and, in the years to come, on-line VDUs were to
impact all areas of IPEC, including operations, communications, accounting, customer service
and credit control.
ON-LINE VISUAL DISPLAY UNIT NETWORK
IPEC's on-line computer network played an important part in IPEC's development since first
appearing in 1979. Installed in Head Office Adelaide, at first, they could only perform simple
tasks such as looking at invoice Statements and account reconciliations.
By 1988 they were installed in every Service Centre Australia wide and could perform over
200 functions applying to every facet of lPEC's business.
The Overnighters and Wards Express, two other Mayne Nickless business activities had
VDU' s connected to the IPEC mainframe computer and the IPEC software systems were
used by Parceline in the U.K., Loomis in Canada and Skyroad in Australia.
Towards the end of 1979, Wards Express was on the market and IPEC was one of a number
of companies interested in buying, negotiations had gone smoothly and at 2 p.m. on takeover
day, when the sale agreement was due to be signed, IPEC centres throughout the country
were standing by with champagne at the ready to celebrate. But 2 p.m. came and went with
no telex to start the corks popping. Then 2.30pm., 3.00pm., 3.30pm. Still no telex! Eventually,
after two hours of suspense, the word came down the line. The sale had fallen through! In
true IPEC style a vote was taken which sensibly decided there was no point in wasting good
victuals - so a wake was held instead! Soon after, it was learned Mayne Nickless had
purchased Wards Express.
Gordon Barton led IPEC's expansion into Europe with the purchase, in October 1979, of
Gelders-Spetra International, one of the Continent's largest and most reputable road transport
organisations, and Britain's Sayer Transport Group, to start express services between six
countries in Western Europe. Group executives were sent from Australia to help establish
Europe's first comprehensive express freight system.
From its humble beginnings with just two Trucks - a quarter of a century earlier - the company
had expanded to a major transport industry operating across two continents. In Australia
alone, IPEC's staff numbered 1,506 and the company had about 45,000 regular consignors.
Its trucks, vans and aircraft carried home 18,000 express consignments a day between cities
and towns.
Both importers and exporters came to rely on IPEC INTERNATIONAL to handle their urgent
international consignments through the network of 90 depots in Australia and Europe, and
through affiliates in other parts of the world. By 1980, with its European express freight
operations in full flow, IPEC had more than 1,000 vehicles, two turboprop aircraft and 2,500
skilled staff.
At the 1980 Sydney Truck Show, IPEC was cast in a new role -that of a truck assembler. The
IPEC Tiger Truck was the result of a long-standing plan by Fred Gardiner to produce a truck
that combined American power with European handling and driver comfort.
The IPEC designed and constructed Tiger Trucks pictured leaving IPEC’s Sydney Villawood
premises.
The truck was designed to meet IPEC'S strict performance standards and to be best suited to
Australian conditions - recognised as being among the toughest in the world. Almost a year's
planning and engineering went into the first Tiger, the production of which was supervised by
Eric Stuelcken, IPEC's national equipment manager. Powered by a Detroit Model 8V TT
diesel, it was rated at 365 hp at 1950 rpm which developed 1657 N/m of torque at 1400 rpm.
GVM was 22 500 kg, and CGM 38 000 kg. Operational tare weight was 9200 kg.
The result was a truck equal to the toughest conditions that Australian roads could offer. The
prototype travelled some 670,000 kilometres over three years before being sold, in
accordance with IPEC's standard vehicle replacement policy. The truck, which never went
into production was developed primarily to show the major suppliers exactly what was
required to handle Australian conditions.
The International Atkinson 4870 introduced to IPEC Linehaul in 1981 following the IPEC
Tiger’s resounding success.
This effort bore fruit in 1981 when International Harvester introduced its Atkinson 4870 which
provided the power, ride and comfort IPEC had been seeking.
Another innovation by Fred Gardiner during his time as Group General Manager was the
establishment of the group's own staff uniform factory at Wollongong.
The acquisition of Skypak was followed by unprecedented growth for the company which
became the second largest international courier in the world.
In October 1980, Ellis was appointed General Manager of the newly-acquired Skypak
operation, bringing to a close the eventful years through which he had shared managerial
control of IPEC with Fred Gardiner.
Gardiner became Group General Manager of IPEC's worldwide transport operations and, the
following year, moved to the United States. Gardiner stayed with IPEC until his resignation in
February 1983. Ellis was to remain with Skypak until its sale to TNT in January of that same
year.
The following useful explanatory list of job classifications appeared in the December 1980
issue of Tiger Rag, IPEC's in-house staff magazine.
Chairman:
Leaps tall buildings with a single bound. Is more powerful than a locomotive. Is faster than a
speeding bullet. Walks on water. Gives policy to God.
Group General Manager:
Leaps short buildings with a single bound. Is more powerful than a single engine. Is just as
fast as a speeding bullet. Walks on water if seas are calm. Talks with God.
General Manager:
Leaps short buildings with a running start and favourable winds. Is almost as powerful as a
switch engine. Is faster than a speeding bullet. Walks on water of indoor swimming pools.
Talks with God if special request is allowed.
State Manager:
Barely clears medium-sized gum trees. Loses tug-of-war with locomotive. Can fire speeding
bullets. Swims well. Is occasionally addressed by God's secretary.
Depot Manager:
Steps over dog kennels with ease. Recognises locomotives instantly. Can fire BB gun. Can
float on his back. Can talk with God's secretary if special request is approved.
Sales Manager:
Runs into buildings. Recognises locomotives three out of four times. Is not issued with
ammunition. Can stay afloat if properly instructed in use of Mae West. Knows that there is a
God.
Administration Manager:
Falls over steps when trying to enter building. Says "Look at the choo-choo". Wets himself
with a water pistol. Plays in mud puddles. Mumbles to himself.
Salesperson:
Lifts buildings and walks under them. Kicks locomotives off the tracks. Catches speeding
bullets in his teeth. Freezes water with a single glance. IS God.
Allan Blackwood, as Group General Manager, and Greg Boulton, as Financial Controller,
formed the new team at the top. Blackwood, who was to have a tragically short reign as the
head of the group he helped to found, had joined IPEC in 1960 as a salesman in Sydney.
Soon after, he became Australian sales manager, and was later appointed manager for New
South Wales. He had retired from the managerial team in 1974 but continued his association
with the company as a director of the transport group.
Alan Blackwood, Group General Manager, 1980- 1981
Boulton, on the other hand, was a comparative newcomer. He had joined IPEC in 1977 as an
accountant and company secretary, quickly rising through the ranks to become the group's
chief strategic thinker.
The Blackwood-Boulton team lasted only a few short months. Allan Blackwood died suddenly
on 2 April 1981, and a further major reorganisation of the group's executive structure saw the
creation of joint group general manager-ships with the responsibilities divided into transport
and finance.
Bob Bass became Group General Manager (Transport) and Greg Boulton Group General
Manager (Finance).
Bob Bass, Group General Manager (Transport) 1981-1983
Reporting to Bass and Boulton were Ken Auchterlonie, formerly general manager of Jetaway
who had become divisional general manager for IPEC-Rex; Russell Burke, previously
Victorian manager for IPEC-Rex and now divisional general manager Jetaway; two assistant
general managers for the IPEC-Rex division - Bob Wales and John Harris; Phil Petersen,
IPEC Aviation; Don Taylor, national linehaul manager; Eric Stuelcken, national equipment and
maintenance manager; Dean Nyland, formerly chief accountant and now financial controller;
and Allen Tapp, administration manager for the transport group nationally and also regional
manager Tasmania, South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Bass had joined IPEC in 1965 as a sales representative and was soon promoted to assistant
manager, Sydney. He later managed Canberra and Perth before being appointed National
Sales Manager at Adelaide head office in 1968. He became National General Manager of the
IPEC-Rex division in 1978.
The new Bass-Boulton regime was soon to be sorely tested, for IPEC was heading into
troubled times. But, meanwhile, it continued to flourish and grow.
Its new baby, Skypak - founded in Sydney in 1968 - employed 300 people in Australia,
Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland,
Malaysia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. It was already the world's second largest
international courier system.
Soon after the IPEC purchase, on-board courier services were introduced between Australia
and New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and the United States. Under this system,
couriers carried documents and freight as personal baggage at special discount rates,
avoiding delays at customs. Numerous IPEC employees at this time were able to enjoy free
international travel simply by acting as couriers.
In August 1981, a major breakthrough came with Skypak receiving approval to open three
offices in the lucrative Saudi Arabian market. Within a week or so two on-board couriers a day
were travelling between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.
By 1982, Skypak had 400 staff and European offices in Milan, Paris, Geneva, Zurich,
Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Brussells. At its peak it had its own offices in 22 countries around
the globe.
Among the many innovations IPEC introduced to the transport industry was a unique and
efficient "igloo" service to Tasmania for Coles-Myer in September 1981.
Igloo with Coles freight being loaded into an Argosy
Special aluminium containers were designed to fit the IPEC aircraft and the unique shape
imposed on them by IPEC's insistence that they configure to the fuselage interior gave them
the appearance of - and consequently the name - igloos. The containers were delivered to the
client, who packed them with goods. They were then transported by IPEC to Tasmania,
linehauled to stores across the State, unpacked by the client and returned to IPEC for reuse.
Igloo being delivered to K-Mart in Launceston
In the same year- just two years after the remarkable Federal Government ruling that
grounded IPEC's Argosies - commonsense finally prevailed and the controversial decision
was reversed. Canberra divorced airfreight from its two-airline policy.
The decision represented a major breakthrough for the transport industry and IPEC's
management immediately set to work to analyse the Australian airfreight market and establish
a new policy and new directions for its air operations.
After several months of detailed research, it was decided to replace the Argosies on the
Tasmanian AIR-BRIDGE service with more cost-efficient planes, redeploying the Argosies to
the mainland where, being turboprops, they would not be affected by night-time curfews at
restricted airports. The Argosies were to fly nightly in each direction between Melbourne,
Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide and the first Argosy owned by IPEC - and later sold as a
result of government policy - was repurchased for charter work and to augment the nightly
express service.
A thorough investigation of a number of other aircraft types was carried out before IPEC
decided to purchase a DC-9 for its Bass Strait run. Having decided that a DC-9 Series 30 was
the right aircraft for the job, the next problem was to find one.
Several were located and inspected in places as far a field as the United States and
Yugoslavia. IPEC settled on a 17-year-old aircraft operated by Inex Adria, a Yugoslavian
airline and an IPEC team was despatched to the airline's home base at Ljubljana, to take
delivery. Greg Boulton and aviation manager Phil Petersen who had negotiated the purchase,
kept a proud eye on its outward transformation as it took on the IPEC's conspicuous yellow
and black tiger livery.
Phil Petersen, IPEC Aviation Manager
A significant event at this time was the issuing by the new Department of Aviation of an airline
licence to IPEC - Regular Public Transport Licence No. 6. Despite the number, it was only the
second such licence issued in 32 years and the only one restricted to the carriage of cargo!
By the time the DC-9 was purchased in 1982, a monumental task was under way at
Essendon. IPEC-AIR was undergoing transformation from a single-route operation into a
freight airline servicing five cities and flying 9,000 kilometres from dusk and dawn each night.
The preparations - and complications involved in the introduction of a new type of aircraft are
well illustrated by the range of activities that followed the DC-9's arrival.
Additional flight crews were recruited and training programs planned. More engineers were
employed. New ground handling equipment ordered. A hundred DC-9 cargo containers were
specified and ordered from a German supplier. IPEC staff in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide
were brought to Melbourne for training as loadmasters.
TAA contracted to carry out the necessary training of crews for the DC-9. Each pilot
undertook an initial four-week technical school course followed by eight, four hour sessions
over two weeks in a flight simulator. Then came six hours of supervised flight training in the
DC-9 for a potential captain, or four hours for a co-pilot. Finally, each captain was supervised
by a check and test captain for the first two months of commercial flying. The total cost of
training was $30,000 per pilot.
New crews engaged to fly the Argosies between Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide
were trained by IPEC's own captains.
On the engineering side, it took some 4,000 man-hours to get the DC-9 ready for its
Australian debut. Some major modifications were necessary to the avionics before the
aeroplane was considered fit for duty in Australia. The repainting and polishing was a major
job, requiring something like 150 litres of paint before the plane was allowed to make its first
public appearance.
One major problem came to light as soon as the aircraft was delivered, in July 1982. The
manuals were written in a Yugoslavian tongue and used imperial measurements, which had
to be converted to metric. Translations were organised, but the many graphs involved
provided a real headache until they were converted to Australian by an obliging expert!
Eventually, all was ready and the DC-9 commenced service in August 1982 as Australia's first
all-freight jet, across Bass Strait. The Argosies - already flying the mainland routes - started
night runs between Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in October. An old dream was
at last coming true.
IPEC’s new DC9 Jet Trader arrives to welcoming crows at Essendon Airport
Readying the new aircraft for Australian operations
Painting the finishing touches on the new DC9
Ready to flow across Bass Strait
The introduction of painted fibreglass bodies on new delivery vans in October 1982 gave
IPEC the opportunity of resurrecting its old style look, going back to pre-aluminium days. This
involved the reintroduction of the classic IPEC motto - "If it's URGENT, send it... IPEC" - on
the rear doors.
A further development in October 1982 was a contract to act as a linehauler for TAA. This
contract resulted in IPEC-AIR being able to use its DC-9 aircraft and Argosies for movement
of freight for TAA to Tasmania and up Australia's eastern seaboard.
The years 1981 and 1982 saw some major areas of expansion for IPEC with the acquisition
and opening of a number of new service centres culminating in 1982, with the company
showing a record profit.
But like all good things, the good times ended and the pendulum of fortune swung the other
way. In 1983, for the first time in its history, the company recorded a loss.
Major losses occurred as a result of a significant downturn in the economy and high interest
rates at a time when the holding group was expanding into new casinos and involved in the
development and setting up of IPEC Europe, which particularly drained financial and
management resources. To add to the problems the effects of losses in Southlands
Reinsurance, an IPEC subsidiary in Europe, started to flow through to Australia.
Jetaway was closed at the end of 1982 and the following year the group was forced to sell
many of its assets. IPEC INTERNATIONAL - Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand - went
to Wards International, a division of Mayne Nickless, and Skypak was acquired for $20 million
by the TNT Group, which quickly acquired IPEC Europe as well. With that sale, Gordon
Barton ceased his involvement with IPEC but retained the chairmanship of TNT Europe.
It was at this dark point in the company's history that Bob Bass handed in his resignation as
Group General Manager (Transport), leaving Greg Boulton as Group General Manager
(Finance).
During this period, Boulton ran IPEC with an executive committee appointed by Greg Farrell
which included Owen Pike (National Industrial Relations Manager), Allen Tapp (National
Administration Manager) and Greg Farrell jnr (Manager, Tasmania), son of Gordon Barton's
old partner, Greg P. Farrell, who still retained a controlling interest in IPEC Holdings.
To ensure the company could continue its operations, 50% of the IPEC Transport Group was
sold to Mayne Nickless in October1983, after discussions with three or four different suitors.
This major move significantly assisted the company in reducing its borrowings but for many
employees, the period was a traumatic one with job changes and salary freezes.
Rationalisation within the IPEC Transport Group prior to the Mayne Nickless purchase had
already halved the number of senior executives and brought about the closure of Jetaway, the
sale of IPEC INTERNATIONAL and the merging of Barlow Transport with IPEC-Rex.
The drastic reorganisation - coupled with tight controls on costs and revenue growth and the
introduction of innovative ways of improving productivity - set a solid base for the future reemergence of IPEC as Australia's leading express freight company.
During October 1983, the first month of Mayne Nickless's involvement at board level, IPEC
Transport returned its first monthly profit.
NEW TIMES, NEW TECHNOLOGY 1985 - 1989
IPEC reverted to a single Group General Manager in January 1985 when Greg Boulton
inherited the post. The Boulton years were notable for the skilful and innovative use of new
technology to give IPEC a competitive edge in the management and delivery of freight. At the
same time, at Boulton's constant insistence, people were not forgotten. In fact, more
emphasis than ever was placed on developing, motivating and involving people in the running
of IPEC.
Greg Boulton Group General Manager 1989 to ???
One of Boulton's first moves was to improve the outdated facilities at IPEC's Sydney Service
Centre. It had become obvious early in 1984 that the Villawood premises were too small to
handle existing and future freight volumes.
A 'slat' type straight line belt had been in use since 1974, but freight growth was
overwhelming and the situation had reached the point where depot closures were as late as
11 p.m. Extensive use of casual labour was required to handle peaks and by 1984, both the
premises and its equipment had become obviously old and tired.
Boulton took teams of senior executives to inspect computerised sort systems working in
Japan and in October 1984 led other visits to France and the United Kingdom. In 1985, an
order was placed for a $2.5m automated sort system which could handle 4000 parcels an
hour and $7.5m was spent on the purchase and construction of new premises on a 3.6
hectare site in Monier Square, Villawood.
Bob Hawke (Prime Minister) speaking at the official opening of the Sydney South Centre
Part of the large crowd at the opening of the Sydney South Centre (Villawood)
1980s - as the best in the world for use by individual Mayne Nickless activities and a few
months after its 50% acquisition of the company, it decided to purchase the IPEC Systems to
reduce its administrative costs.
Allen Tapp, IPEC's National Administration Manager - with a team of over 20 people from
head office - led the program to install, test and set up the company's systems throughout the
world.
Wards Express and Overnighters in Australia had already switched in 1984, using IPEC as a
bureau. IPEC's debtors-revenue software package was sold to Loomis in Canada and
Parceline in the United Kingdom in 1985 and Skyroad in Australia bought the base system in
1987.
In Australia, access to information from the on-line system operating in Sydney and
Melbourne was extended to other major centres and the central computer' s capability
increased with new software developments - customer profitability analysis, production
customer quotes, message sending, bulk return systems and many other management
information formats.
During the latter half of 1988 all IPEC service centres were placed on-line and had facsimile
machines installed.
In January 1986 the new computerised Sydney Service Centre with its fully automated sort
and distribute conveyor system, was ready for occupation. It was the first of its kind in
Australia and IPEC, for its pioneering spirit, suffered the teething problems! The first night's
operations were an unmitigated disaster with linehaul trucks departing as late as 1 a.m. and
continual stops in the system.
For the first three months, 18 hour days were not uncommon for the New South Wales State
Manager, Terry Maytom, Operations Manager, Evan Wissell, and their operational teams.
Linehaul drivers, local drivers, loaders and other staff supported the new system to the hilt,
but had to persevere through breakdowns, mis-sorts and similar catastrophes. Mercifully,
things gradually improved and finally fell into place so that by the official opening day - 1 April
1986 - one union delegate was moved to ask a relieved Greg Boulton "Why didn't we install
this equipment five years ago?"
It was the ultimate tribute perhaps, to Boulton's style of management which was very aware
that the use of computerised equipment called for greater emphasis on communication skills,
staff training and understanding the individual needs of employees and customers alike.
The significance of the new centre, not only to IPEC but to the nation as a whole, was
emphasised by the fact that it was officially opened by no less a dignitary than the Prime
Minister, Mr. Bob Hawke, who in his formal address spoke of the importance of an efficient
transport industry to Australia and declared the Sydney service Centre to be an example of
the kind of efficiency the transport industry needed.
Boulton also appointed a human relations consultant, Robin Maslen, to provide specific
training for senior executives and their teams. Formalised performance appraisals and
progression planning was introduced in 1985.
Service certificates and awards were presented to employees and sub-contractors who had
completed five, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years of service. Bonus schemes for management, drivers
and other staff were introduced. New marketing slogans emphasised the company's new
people orientation: IPEC - The Parcel People, IPEC - The Air Express People.
In May 1986 IPEC launched a new service called IPEC Hi-Tech Express.
Utilising specialist equipment and two-man crews the new service catered for the
transhipment of sensitive, high value goods, locally, intrastate and interstate. It was managed
by Warren Mair- previously associated with Fliway Transport - and it performed so well that
IPEC was soon searching for an established business in the sensitive transhipment market.
Fliway Computer transport, which IPEC purchased in 1986 to join with IPEC Hi-Tech
How the wheels turn! Former IPEC director John Konstas was consultant to the Woodger
Corporation when it decided to divest itself of Fliway Computer Transport and he approached
Greg Boulton with a proposal for IPEC to purchase the operation. After four days of meetings
in hotels, restaurants and confidential conference room the deal was struck and IPEC bought
Fliway's hi-tech business in November 1986.
Allen Tapp was appointed general manager of the combined operation soon after the
purchase. Initial Fliway shareholders Kevin Weimiss and David Williams remained for a short
time as consultants.
Fliway had a strong image in the marketplace and a good market share of the specialised
business of moving sensitive computer equipment. After six months the Fliway name was
dropped and the business continued to operate as IPEC Hi-Tech Express.
IPEC's organisational structure was again changed in December 1987, to form more
specialised segments: IPEC Road Express, IPEC Air Express, IPEC Hi-Tech Express, IPEC
Fashion Express, IPEC Aviation Services, IPEC Operational Services. General managers
were subsequently appointed to each segment m Robert Doyle (Road Express), Max Eady
(Air/Fashion Express), Stu Dodds (Hi-Tech Express), Ron Tayles (Aviation Services) and
Terry Maytom (Operational Services).
Robert Doyle
Ron Tayles
Stu Dodds
Max Eady
Terry Maytom
Specialisation of business segments was designed to improve customer service, give more
autonomy to senior management and encourage greater innovation, profitability and growth in
freight volumes and job opportunities.
In 1988, IPEC Hi-Tech transported the largest single road or air consignment ever handled in
Australia - two FA-18 flight simulators - from Sydney to Tindal Air Base in the Northern
Territory. The load also constituted the most valuable equipment ever transported across the
Australian landmass with its value being placed at $70 million.
IPEC Hi Tech moved into separate premises in Sydney and Melbourne in April 1988 followed
by IPEC Air / Fashion in July 1988.
The appointment of a National Customer Service Manager - Mauri Pahl - in February 1988,
coupled with a two year program to assist employees in their day-to-day contact with
customers, emphasised IPEC's determination to greet the 1990s as a customer service
driven company. A national driver training manager - John Kirkwood - was also appointed in
1988.
By mid -1988, with new premises being built in Adelaide and planned for Perth, IPEC turned
its attention to South and Western Australian country areas.
With the exception of Mount Gambier in South Australia, country areas in both States were
serviced mainly by onforwarders. Plans were put in motion for the introduction of full overnight
delivery services, with the establishment of new premises and the appointment of additional
agents in both South and Western Australia.
The 1987-88 financial year recorded a record profit for IPEC Transport which was also
established as the biggest Mayne Nickless transport activity.
In August, a new Mission Statement was formulated – “IPEC will remain Australia's specialist
and most customer orientated air and road express transport company”.
September 1988 brought two more momentous events for the company that had started in
Adelaide some 33 years earlier. IPEC's head office and the Adelaide Service Centre were at
last reunited at a new $5.5m computerised sort facility alongside Adelaide Airport. And Mayne
Nickless purchased the remaining 50% of IPEC Transport.
At the same time, Greg Farrell retired from IPEC, the business he took over as a promising
but struggling concern that had spread its wheels and wings around the globe to achieve a
$160 million annual turnover and Australian staff of 1850 employees.
The Mayne Nickless Years
Please Note -This section is currently being researched and developed and will be updated in
the future.
IPEC Is Acquired by Toll Holdings
(Please note that this section is still work in progress and only briefly summarises the
period of Toll’s ownership)
On the 5th of October 1998 Toll Holding acquired IPEC from Mayne Nickless. The sale
followed a very unsettling time for the employees and customers of the business as the
options of closure, management buyout and sale were all on the table. Fortunately for all at
IPEC the result was a sale to Toll.
Negotiations for the sale had been solid going. Key players for Mayne Nickless had been
Graham Turner - Divisional Director and Pat Kasso the General Manager.
Key players for Toll during the acquisition included Mark Rowsthorn and Pat Kearns. After
Toll’s successful bid, Pat Kearns moved quickly to assume the role of General Manager for
Toll IPEC, a role he would maintain until June 2005. Paul Little Managing Director of Toll
Holdings was particularly pleased to have added IPEC to a long list of acquisitions by Toll.
Paul Little - Managing Director and Mark Rowsthorn – Executive Director - Toll Holdings
Pat Kearns – General Manager – Toll IPEC
The new Toll IPEC Management Team took over the reigns immediately after the acquisition
and a new positive culture started to permeate the business almost immediately.
Pat Kearns, Julie Feehan and Rob Sadler joined Toll IPEC from Toll while the remainder of
the National Management Team continued on from the old IPEC.
Back Row:-Tony Terso – Sales and Marketing Mgr., Kel O’Neal – State Manager WA,
Peter Shepherdson – State Mgr. SA, Joe Kosecki State Manager QLD, Craig McClelland –
Security Mgr.Rodney Johnston – Operations Mgr, Geoff Jackson - Projects Mgr, Adrian
Pitcher, Philip Bruggeman – IT Mgr, Peter Wicks – State Mgr Tas, Rob Sadler – GM
Operations, John Collins – Country Mgr,
Front Row: Austen Perrin – Divisional Finance and Admin Mgr. Lothar Beirmann – Linehaul
Mgr, Julie Feehan - , Peter Tripodi - Finance & Admin Manager
Pat Kearns – General Manager, John Ludeke – Division Director
Re Building Toll IPEC.
Initial estimates of the losses being incurred by IPEC were found to be somewhat short of the
mark and it was going to take some major surgery to bring the business back from the brink.
Early changes unfortunately included the need to reduce staff numbers dramatically. This was
achieved quickly with all staff who were made redundant paid their full entitlements.
Developing an Integrated Workplace
From the beginning Pat Kearns introduced a new style of leadership that would help to
revitalise the IPEC name. The National Management team developed a Vision, Mission and a
set of Values designed to create clear direction for all employees and guidelines in terms of
acceptable behavior.
The original term Integrated Work Place (IWP) was modified when the new vision was
completed and agreed to. The slogan used to promote Toll IPEC’s new vision was Leading
the Way. This term represents Toll IPEC’s strong commitment to being industry leader.
VISION
To be Australia's leading distribution company for customers with urgent freight requirements.
MISSION
Together, we will achieve our vision by ...
• Developing tailored and long-term relationships with each customer;
• Maintaining National Standards and Procedures that our customers’ can rely on;
• Developing workplace relationships where the capacity of employees to contribute to
our continued growth is both encouraged and recognised;
• Providing superior returns to our shareholders based on our unique levels of
customer and employee commitment.
VALUES
Recognition
We will recognise the total contribution of our people, our customers and our shareholders in
ensuring our success.
Consistency and Reliability
We will ensure that commitments we make to our customers and work colleagues can be
relied upon.
Customer Focus
We will ensure that we exceed our customers’ immediate and long term requirements through
responsiveness, pride and innovation.
Accountability
We know and understand what is expected of us in our responsibilities and are proud to be
judged on this basis.
Leadership
We will always positively influence and inspire our work colleagues and our customers.
Ethical Relationships
We will ensure that the way we work and relate to each other is both legally and morally
correct.
Toll IPEC’s New Livery
A New Priority Service
On Monday 2 August 1999 Toll IPEC introduced its new Priority service to the Australian time
critical transport market. The General Manager of Operations for Toll IPEC Rob Sadler, John
Collins National Country Manager and Russell Burke – Country Services Manager were key
drivers in launching the new service. For those who have taken the time to read about some
of the earlier years of IPEC, it is worth noting that Russell Burke was mention in despatches
back in 1981. Russell was previously Victorian manager for IPEC-Rex and was made the
Divisional General Manager of Jetaway in the early 1980’s.
NEW SOUTH WALES
The NSW Operation had seen one State Manager after another come to IPEC then leave the
business soon afterwards for a variety of reasons during both the Mayne Nickless times and
the early days of Toll.
The Villawood operation was the largest in the country and presented a reasonable
management challenge for a number of reasons. Mike Valkenburg held the post of NSW
State Mgr until from 1999 until 2000. Mike resigned for personal reasons and was then
replaced by Peter Clarke, Peter tendered his resignation on 29th December 2000. Peter also
resigned for personal reasons, and returned to his home country Ireland. Peter was replaced
by Rodney Johnston who was to fill the position temporarily until a new State Manager was
found.
As it turned out, Rod held the position until October 2002, making a weekly journey from
Melbourne each Monday and returning home each Friday at the close of business.
Rod was finally able to hand over the reigns to Alan Hill who assumed the role soon after the
commissioning of the new Moorebank depot in 2002.
VICTORIA
At the time of acquisition in October 1998, John Collins was State Manager of IPEC. John
continued in this role until March 1999 when Julie Feehan moved to become State Manager,
Victoria and John Collins became National Country Manager.
Victoria’s operations had been located at 620 Footscray Road then moved to 654 Footscray
Rd after Toll assumed control.
The Melbourne operation than moved again in March 2003 with the completion of a new
depot at Toll Drive in Altona North.
Soon after Rod completed his role as State Manager in NSW, Julie Feehan moved to the role
of National Commercial Manager and Rod move to the State Mangers role in Victoria.
The New Melbourne Depot – 2003
QUEENSLAND
Joe Kosecki continued as State Manager of Toll IPEC after the acquisition. He and his team
had to work in a very inadequate depot at Balham Rd, Rocklea for a number of years after
having moving from the larger Salisbury depot some years earlier.
With the initial success of Toll IPEC and the related growth in volumes, it was imperative that
Brisbane find a new site quickly.
On Saturday 12th August 2000 a dream finally became reality when our Brisbane operation
moved into a new purpose built depot in the Brisbane suburb of Richlands. Administration &
Sales followed the week after. Brisbane now finally has operations, book-ins, administration
and sales all under the one roof.
The total site of 6 hectares is occupied by Toll Ipec (6,300 sqm) and Toll Express (8,200sqm)
both with our own buildings. Our dock is designed so that all sides are fully utilised - and can
accommodate up to 24 Linehaul, 45 PUD’s and 8 Bulk vehicles.
The freight handling system had two separate conveyors, a U-shaped powered roller system
and a crescent-slat carousel. Merge-control devices are used to feed freight effectively at key
points. The system is able to handle many shapes and sizes and has already proven itself
with an impressive throughput.
Special mentions went to Greg Jensen, Carol Grannell, Mika Suominen and Debbie Formosa
for planning and managing the transition.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Peter Shepherdson was State Manager of South Australia at the time of Toll’s acquisition and
remained in the role until 1999 when he was replaced by Brad Spooner.
Adelaide had been the centre of IPEC for many years and even under Mayne Nickless the IT
department remained in Adelaide. While the Adelaide operation boasted an automated sort
system, the system was not able to process a large volume of freight due to the capacity of
the system to handle large cartons.
A new depot was constructed at Dry Creek and was commissioned in 2003.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Kel O’Neal was State Manager of IPEC at the time of acquisition and had been the State
Manager for some years under Mayne Nickless. Kel was previously State Manager of the
Overnighters. In Western Australia, The Overnighters had developed a very strong Intrastate
network. When The Overnighters merged with IPEC in the Eastern States, the Overnighters
were progressively absorbed into IPEC but in WA the reverse was the case and IPEC was
absorbed into the Overnighters.
Kel remained as State Manager until 1999 when he chose to resign. Kel was replaced by
Kenton Muller.
Toll IPEC moved from the old Overnighters site on Kewdale Road in late 2002 to a new
depot at Forrestfield.
TASMANIA
At the time a acquisition Peter Wicks was State Manger of Tasmania. By 1999 it was clear
that Tasmania was in need of some radical changes in order to bring it back into profitability.
A number of options were considered, but the final resolution was to convert the entire State
to an Agency. Redline Coaches became the sole Agents for Toll IPEC in Tasmania.
Toll IPEC Celebrates its first 5 years in October 2003
Left to right: Pat Kearns (GM), Rodney Johnston(State Mgr Vic) and James Irving (Financial
Controller)
Toll IPEC Sponsors a V8 Super Car
Key Dates
1955
JANUARY
• First parcel delivered.
1956
• Express service expanded to include Sydney.
1958
Express service expanded to include Brisbane First premises established at Moorooka.
•
1960
• IPEC moved Sydney operations from Bankstown to Chullora.
1961
• Perth branch opened at Dianella.
1962
MARCH
• National Telex link between depots introduced.
• IPEC and Rex Overnight Parcel Express merged.
• Bill Howard appointed General Manager.
• New yellow and black livery introduced. Rex opened in Hobart.
1963
FEBRUARY
• Inauguration of IPEC-AIR service, between Melbourne and Tasmania.
• Depot established at Launceston.
1964
OCTOBER
• Melbourne office moved to new premises at Hope Street, Brunswick. IPEC moved into
new Adelaide head office and depot at Frewville.
1965
• Canberra depot opened
• New service to Gold Coast introduced.
1966
FEBRUARY
• New IPEC depot opened at Launceston Airport.
MAY
• Bill Howard died.
• Les Arnold appointed Group General Manager.
JUNE
• Inauguration of IPEC Newell Express service.
JULY
Overnight road-air Bristol Freighter service (Melbourne-Brisbane via Cowra) launched.
•
1967
JUNE
• New Brisbane depot opened at Salisbury,
• IPEC purchased first MAN trucks.
1968
• IPEC Highway Patrol cars introduced.
• IPEC expanded into the furniture removal business with the acquisition of W.H.A. Clues.
Second Sydney depot opened at Mandible street, Alexandria.
• Newcastle depot moved to new premises.
• Hobart Depot moved to new premises.
1969
MAY
• John Konstas appointed Finance Director.
• IPEC Removals took over Philliphoffs in WA and Broughton Cornish in Tasmania.
• Removals depots opened in Sydney Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra.
1970
IPEC took over Jetaway.
Taxi truck service started in Melbourne.
•
•
1971
IPEC took over Dart Express and Phoenix Transport.
•
1972
Melbourne operations moved to new facilities on the Hume Highway at Campbellfield.
Rex Sydney depot moved from Alexandria to Parramatta Road, Flemington.
Computerisation of accounts.
Melbourne taxi truck service closed.
Takeover of Barlow Transport Company.
•
•
•
•
•
1973
APRIL
• IPEC International started.
JULY
• New Adelaide freight terminal established at Richmond.
• New and larger premises opened at South Guildford,
• WA, and Newcastle, NSW.
1974
Complement reached 800 employees, 400 vehicles.
JANUARY
• NSW Agents appointed in Bathurst, Orange, Dubbo,Wagga, Griffith, Singleton,
Tamworth.
• Villawood depot opened in Sydney.
•
MAY
IPEC took over Tenex Transport in northern Queensland.
•
JUNE
• Removals division sold to Grace Bros.
1975
• Tamworth depot opened.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
IPEC-AIR went national.
Gosford depot opened.
IPEC Fashion Express started.
National training officer appointed.
Takeover of Trans-United Express. Name changed to Trans-United Freight.
Additional NSW country depots opened in Dubbo,
Orange, Wagga, Griffith.
APRIL
Les Arnold died.
•
JUNE
• Fred Gardiner appointed Group General Manager. Barry Ellis appointed Finance Director
1976
•
Jetaway Brisbane opened.
1977
• Victorian country area opened up with depots at Shepparton, Mildura, Ballarat, Bendigo,
Morwell, Hamilton, Wangaratta, Bairnsdale and Mount Gambler in SA.
• Takeover of All Points Express, Wollongong. IPEC-AIR moved from Vfllaw0od to Mascot.
• Campbelltown depot opened.
OCTOBER
•
New IPEC depot open6d at Newcastle.
1978
JUNE
• Jetaway moved to new premises at Glenbarry Road, Melbourne.
• IPEC-AIR commenced operating Argosy air freighters across Bass Strait.
• Tenex Townsville moved to new and larger premises.
1979
First VDUs installed in head office.
Porky's Pickups taken over as IPEC Darwin.
Echuca depot moved to Moama.
Tiger truck designed by IPEC engineers.
Coffs Harbour depot opened.
Gladstone depot opened.
IPEC Fashion Express introduced in New Zealand.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
JULY
•
Midnight Flyer road-air service introduced.
OCTOBER
•
•
Purchased European transport companies Gelders-Spetra International and Sdyer
Transport.
Australian executives assist with start of express business in Europe.
1980
Skypak takeover.
New depot, Jetaway Adelaide.
Darwin depot moved to new premises.
Jetaway opened Northern Territory service.
•
•
•
•
MARCH
• Lismore depot opened.
OCTOBER
• Alice Springs depot opened.
• Barry Ellis appointed General Manager of Skypak.
1981
• Oracle system installed in Sydney.
• Ipec International commenced in Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand.
• Barlow Brisbane opened.
• On-line computers, Sydney and Melbourne.
• Canberra depot moved to new premises.
APRIL
• Allan Blackwood died.
• Bob Bass appointed Group General Manager (Transport),
• Greg Boulton Group General Manager (Finance).
NOVEMBER
•
Fred Gardiner appointed to the United States as World General Manager.
1982
• On-line computer network extended to Brisbane.
• Singleton depot opened.
• Agreement signed in Yugoslavia for purchase of DC-9 from Inex Adaria Airline
• DC-9 arrived in Australia.
AUGUST
• Barlow-Jetaway amalgamation.
• Inaugural DC-9 flight to Hobart
• Argosies switched to mainland routes.
SEPTEMBER
• First DC-9 freight flight to Launceston.
OCTOBER
TAA agreement commenced.
•
DECEMBER
Closure of Jetaway
•
1983
• IPEC Fashion Express International closed.
JANUARY
• Sale of Skypak to TNT.
FEBRUARY
Fred Gardiner resigned from IPEC.
•
APRIL
Gordon Barton left IPEC.
•
MAY
• Group General Manager (Transport) Bob Bass resigned.
• IPEC Europe sold to TNT.
JULY
• IPEC International Sold to Mayne Nickless.
OCTOBER
• Mayne Nickless acquired 50% of IPEC.
1984
JANUARY
• IPEC computer system installed at Overnighters.
MAY
• VDU installed in Townsville.
1985
JANUARY
• Greg Boulton appointed Group General Manager.
JULY
• IPEC computer system installed at Wards Express.
DECEMBER
• Road uniforms changed to new format grey shirts, black pants.
1986
JANUARY
• Work commenced on Sydney Service Centre.
MARCH
• IPEC computer system installed at Parceline, UK
APRIL
IPEC computer system installed at Loomis Courier, Canada.
Sydney Service Centre opened.
•
•
JULY
• Launch of Logistics Consulting Service
• Launch of IPEC Hi-Tech Express.
AUGUST
• VDU network extended to Canberra.
NOVEMBER
Fliway Computer Transport purchased.
•
1987
NOVEMBER
• New Albury premises.
• New Mount Gambier premises.
1988
FEBRUARY
• Appointment of national customer service manager. New Rockhampton premises.
• Max Eady appointed General Manager. IPEC Air/Fashion Express.
JUNE
• Appointment of national driver training manager. IPEC services reorganised into separate
specialist business segments.
• IPEC Transport's largest profit reported to date 1987-88
AUGUST
• New service centre opened at Kalgoorlie, WA.
• New Perth premises.
SEPTEMBER
Head office and Adelaide Service Centre combined at new premises.
Mayne Nickless purchased remaining 50% of IPEC
Transport. Greg Farrell retires from IPEC.
•
•
•
NOVEMBER
• Ron Tayles appointed General Manager. Ipec Aviation Services.
DECEMBER
• Robert Doyle appointed General Manager IPEC Road Express
• Stuart Dodds appointed General Manager IPEC Hi Tech Express
• Terry Maytom appointed General Manager. IPEC Operational services.
1989
APRIL
• Purchased J.S. Transport. 47 staff and $4 million turnover in S.A. Country.
1990
• Computer Aided despatched introduced
• On Line proof of delivery introduced
• Began to use pagers to advise drivers of pickups
• IPEC welcomes its new DC9 VH-IPC
1991
• IPEC first B-Double runs from Adelaide to Perth – Driven by Terry Denham
• IPEC took over the Linehaul operations for the Overnighters
1992
• Rod Johnston appointed Regional Manager Vic/Tas IPEC Road
1993
• 1 March Restructured - IPEC Road Distribution incorporating IPEC and the Overnighters,
Specialised Services – Air, Fashion, Hi-Tech and Metro
• 22nd March - Peter Israel appointed General Manager of IPEC Road Distribution
1996
• Hand held barcode scanners introduced to IPEC to enable automated freight tracking
1997
Campbellfield closed after a prolonged industrial dispute
Moved 620 Footscray Rd
•
•
1998
• October 5th - Toll acquired IPEC from Mayne Nickless
1999
• Toll IPEC’s Leading the Way program was rolled out to introduce our new Vision, Mission
and Values and the guiding principles under which the new business would grow.
• Toll IPEC began to image proof of delivery and finance consignment notes through HPA
2000
•
•
•
•
•
New Brisbane depot built and commissioned at Richlands. Brisbane Operations
commenced at the new site on Monday 14 August. Customer Service, Administration,
Credit and Sales moved on the weekend of the 19th and 20th August.
Barcode scanners introduced in country regions in NSW, QLD and Victoria
Radio Frequency barcode technology is introduced in Melbourne
Systems upgraded to handle GST tax requirements and Y2K problems
The Sydney Olympics added some additional pickup and delivery challenges
2001
• Peter Clarke State Manager NSW returned to Ireland and Rodney Johnston assumed the
State Managers role for NSW
• Gosford move to their new depot with Toll Express
2002
• New depots built and commissioned in Sydney (Moorebank), Adelaide (Dry Creek) and
Perth (Forrestfield)
• Barcode driven automated sortation commenced in Sydney – October. The transition
proved to be one of Toll IPEC’s most testing periods.
• National Office move from 654 Footscray Rd to a new Melbourne depot in Altona
• Toll IPEC started imaging POD’s and Finance copies in house.
•
2003
• March - the Melbourne operation moved from 654 Footscray Rd to 11-25 Toll Drive
Altona.
• Toll Parceline moves under the management of Toll IPEC
•
2004
• Toll Parceline re-named Toll IPEC Local
2005
• Toll IPEC celebrates 50 Years of Service
• Rodney Johnston takes over from Pat Kearns as General Manager
IMPERIAL - METRICS
Imperial weights and measures are used where they are appropriate to the historical context
of this book. The following table gives the metric equivalents for the imperial terms used:
1 foot = 0.304 8 metre
1 mile = 1.609 344 kilometres
1 cubic foot = 0.028 316 85 cubic metre
1 hundredweight (cwt) = 50.802 345 kilograms
1 ton = 1.016 046 9 tonnes
1 acre = 0.404 685 6 hectare