Ask brothers, Damien and Adam Bennett, what it is that keeps customers coming back to their business, Total Fleet Imaging (TFI), and they will tell you it’s all about making a commitment, religiously sticking to it and delivering on time. It was the same for their father Barry, when he ran the business that he had started 55 years ago, as a 19-year-old sign-writer. In 2006, TFI moved into a vast new workspace in the Melbourne suburb of Laverton but less than a decade later it was already feeling the pressure of not enough space. However, it was very much positive pressure, says Adam.
“It was all about the growth in our customer base. For example, a customer might have only had one truck 15 years ago but now they 15, 50 or even 100 trucks and they are still our customers. We don’t lose many customers so it really built demand.”
Workflow at TFI falls into three basic categories – painting trucks (refurbishments, re-liveries, etc), painting trailers and preparing new curtains for tautliner style trailers. Unfortunately, they were all competing for valuable production time and space, says Damien.
“Although we had two 20 metre booths, because a truck could be sitting in a booth for an extended time, it really held up production of curtains which are much faster moving. It made sense to move truck painting elsewhere and we were fortunate enough to be able to purchase the property next door just over three years ago. Beforehand, we sat down with our accountant and bank manager to crunch the numbers on how much better off we could expect to be after the expansion and that forecast has been on or above our target.”
As well as increasing total land area to around 12,000m² (about three acres), TFI has been about to add a third truck sized spray booth, a spacious undercover area and a dedicated truck workshop. In total, TFI now boasts around 5,000 m² under roof. There is also the ability to manoeuvre a b-double combination right around the building. Importantly, it has freed up floor space in the original workshop to allow curtains and trailers to be processed far more efficiently. As well as space, it comes down to a combination of scheduling correctly and having the right equipment, tools and skilled staff, Adam explains.
“Scheduling is a big part of our productivity and profitability. To create a schedule, you need to understand the timeframes and exactly how long jobs take. Then you need to follow that on a day-to-day basis in order to meet the promised timeframe for customers – we get a lot of pressure to make sure we meet targets! Our General Manager, Mark, looks after the overall scheduling and then we have a Workshop Manager, a Paint Shop Manager and a Paint Shop Leading Hand who take care of their different areas. Mark runs everything on a computerised scheduling system which has monitors on the shopfloor so the guys don’t need to come looking for instructions – they just look at the monitor to get all the information about the next job.”
“There is now 43 staff and they work as a close-knit team. We have not had staff turnover for a long time. In fact, we often find new staff from friends of current staff and that has made it easier for us to grow. We work hard to look after staff and they would not suggest their mates should come and work here unless it was a good place to work.”
Another factor that helps with fast and consistent production is the partnership with PPG which spans almost 30 years. Although TFI spent two short stints with other brands, they quickly returned to PPG and today’s partnership is stronger than ever, says Adam.
“We have seriously never had an issue with PPG. For trucks and trailers we use the Delfleet Evolution paint system and the new F4949 tintable primer (Delfleet CT Productive Chassis Primer Mixed Colour) has been a really good product for us. On the curtains we use PPG 2K – it has a makeup that adheres extremely well to the vinyl of the curtains and then we apply 2K HS Ultra Flexible Clearcoat over the top to give long term protection. PPG’s backup support is second to none, too. There is always training available when we want it and we also get help from Mindy Roberts and Greg Tunks from PPG’s MVP Business Solutions team on the financial side and with ‘lean’ processes, etc. Mindy and Greg even gave us advice on the layout and workflow for the new extension. Colour is another area where PPG supports us. For our customers, colour is about being instantly recognised. With many fleets, you don’t need to see the name, you can tell the brand by the colours. PPG’s FleetSpec makes it easy for our painters to get it right every time, whether it’s a prime mover, a trailer or a curtain. People often ask if we advertise. We don’t but every job that goes out on the road is our advertising. You can’t beat word-of-mouth!”
Rather than just apply high quality liveries, TFI has worked to develop another string to its bow via its in-house graphic design department. It’s a great way to attract and hold customers, according to Damien.
“Originally, we had one graphic designer but he got snowed under so we had to put another on and we have since added another to meet demand. It means we can offer a full branding service. It might be an existing client who wants to rebrand or tweak their livery or it might be a new client who comes in off the street and wants branding done from scratch. Whether it’s vans through to prime movers, we work with them to do a design for each type of vehicle. It helps turn them into long-term clients.”
The brothers, split basic responsibilities, with Adam looking after the truck painting side while Damien takes care of the trailer and curtain production. Both of them like to keep a ‘finger on the pulse’ on the production floor, to support and guide the TFI team, as well as ensuring they know exactly what stage each job is at should a client ring. Indeed, customers have typically been very loyal and over the years have actually become friends, according to Adam, and that is hardly surprising when you look at the family nature of the business. At 74 years of age, Barry Bennett still comes into work every day, Damien has been with the company for 31 years and Adam a few years less. Not only has the recent expansion made it clear that Total Fleet Imaging is here for the long haul, there are even future plans in place, says Adam.
“When we purchased the property next door it came with an existing business operating at the front. That is our future growth avenue where there is another 3,000 m² of space if needs be. We even have council approval for the stage two expansion. We believe that we are already the oldest surviving signage company in the country and there is a good few years left in us yet!”