Just over 10 years ago, Gary Fleming decided to take the great leap and go out on his own with a truck and a dream. Having cut his teeth driving a range of vehicles – from trucks to tractors, cars and everything in between – his time as a plant operator and driver had seen him segue into working at a local Canberra tow truck business.
After enjoying the challenge of driving bigger trucks, he decided he wanted to start his own business. In 2013, that’s just what he did, purchasing a second hand truck and forming A Plus Towing.
Just over five years later, he had 10 trucks on the roads around Canberra and a team of roughly 15. Now, a dozen years after he made the bold move to go out on his own, A Plus Towing is going from strength to strength, with his team welcoming different trucks amid a new era.
“In 2020 we bought our first heavy tow truck to get into the heavy towing side of operations,” A Plus Towing operations manager Trai Hildebrand told OwnerDriver.
“About five years ago we also switched up our operations by getting a Scania prime mover. In that time, we’ve also added another two twin steer tilt trays, a couple of prime movers and a few new super tilt trailers along some little rigids.
“We’ve loved getting into the special build side of things to meet our customers’ needs.”
Amid these new arrivals is a Scania truck that has quickly captured the hearts of many truck lovers around Australia. Just on two years ago, a special Scania R 620 XT 8×4 model arrived at A Plus Towing. It was professionally wrapped by Capital Sign and transformed into ‘Thor’, as it is affectionately known. Now, its recent run at truck shows around the nation has seen it picked as a finalist for the first instalment of the National Truck competition.
“Gary told me the good news just before Christmas and I was so excited,” Trai says.
“To get an invite to the Brisbane Truck Show for the final was awesome, we know it’ll be a high calibre stage but it’s a great chance for exposure for us and Scania.
“A lot of companies have put a lot into this truck, so everyone is proud that the truck is being well received in the industry.”
Enough about the truck for now – as A Plus Towing has thrived with a new range of trucks arriving in recent years, the business’ operations have also grown. With Gary’s tech savvy and innovative approach, alongside his customer service focus shining through constantly, the Canberra based operation is finding success with some major contracts.
“One of the fundamental reasons why the business has flourished is our commitment to high safety standards and compliance and how we have conducted ourselves in the industry – it’s enabled us to win the contracts that we have recently,” A Plus Towing general manager Darren Power told OwnerDriver.
“Gary is an innovator. He’s been using and pioneering a new software system that evolves how we run our contracts and businesses.”
This has included servicing the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project for the past seven years. Providing tow truck operations for the major renewable energy project in south-east Australia, it’s contracts like this that has pushed A Plus Towing to the next level.
Trai can trace the company’s remarkable growth journey back to the COVID days when the business was able to remain busy and capitalise on the lack of traffic on the roads.
“Everyone needs a tow truck at some stage, it’s never planned. We focused heavily on the transport industry at that time, I was busier than I’d ever been,” he says.
“It was all trucks going back and forth, no cars, so I was out towing every night. The only issue was there were no servos open after 9pm on the highways, so I would kick around at car parks in between towing trucks.”
Whether it’s coincidence or not, A Plus Towing’s rise occurred at a similar time to when it decided to trial a different truck brand’s vehicles. When looking at the affordability and specifications available from Scania, A Plus Towing first welcomed one of its models into its fleet back in 2020.
“It was set up as a heavy haulage truck fitted with the V8 engine, hub reduction diffs, front and rear airbags and a hydraulic gearbox retarder. It came equipped with PTO hydraulics, and we got it built as a day cab that would have a lower tare weight and a higher payload on our float,” Trai says.
“On the second day we got it we had a minor electrical issue with it, and the Scania team, via Express Truck Service, came within 10 minutes and fixed it. In the four years after this, we had no breakdowns, incidents or broken parts, nothing wrong at all.
“We all love both the power and affordability of the Scania model.”
While Trai cites Scania’s hydraulic gearbox retarders as a key selling point for the OEM, the ongoing durability of the first truck soon became a highlight. He says the stopping power of the retarder increases the service life of the braking components of our trailers – this means the Scania can be put to work in alpine and mountainous regions while still maintaining good power and reliability.
From the general manager’s point of view, the aftersales capabilities of Scania has also proven to be a winner for A Plus Towing.
“The service agreement with Scania is a massive win for our business,” Darren says.
“How they service these trucks and the contract maintenance involved is awesome.
“Our local Scania dealer is Express Truck Service. They’re excellent to deal with, from the aftersales service team to general maintenance.”
This was recently recognised when the dealer won a prestigious local 2024 business award for outstanding services. It also came into its own on the truck build, playing an integral role from the factory layout and design to completing the pre-delivery on the vehicle where all the accessories were fitted.
After such a positive experience with the first Scania, it was a no-brainer for A Plus Towing to go back to Scania Australia for another one soon after. Another V8 came that was built to A Plus Towing’s specifications to become a long distance truck with a big bed, bunk cooler and plenty of cab storage.
“It’s a very comfortable truck to drive. The airbags and front and rear suspension limit driver fatigue,” Trai says.
“You can drive in it all day, jump out of the air-conditioned cab and feel refreshed at the end of the shift. You don’t get that with many other trucks.
“When I pick up other drivers and they ride in the cab with me, they always marvel at it and make comments about the driver comforts.”
Like many tales, wonderful things tend to come in threes. After revelling in the quality of the first two Scania models to join its fleet, A Plus Towing struck gold when it put extra effort into designing and ordering its third truck from the European brand.
“We wanted to get a third Scania that also had the retarder in place, as this really saves chewing through trailer brakes,” Trai says.
“With most trucks, Gary works with the bodybuilders and comes up with a unique design and functionality. This R620 XT model is no exception – no other truck has this spec out there on the roads. It may look like it, but they can’t do what this beast can.
MORE OWNERDRIVER TRENDING STORIES:
- TOTM: A tribute Mack for Mick
- Major competitor buys substantial shares in Lindsay Australia
- Lindsay Australia announces acquisition of GJ Freight
- World first owner driver and gig worker laws kick in
- January TOTM: Morgans keeps it in the family with new K220
“Working with EKEBOL to build this was great. They produce a top notch, high quality product.”
In December 2022, the special truck was handed over to the A Plus Towing team. By Valentine’s Day 2023, it was on the road after extensive pre-delivery and accessory fitting. With 100,000kms now chalked up without any mechanical issues, the Scania has performed flawlessly like the other two. But it’s the exterior that is making this truck a standout in A Plus Towing’s fleet.
“This truck stands out on the roads – people always comment about it and its blue and orange light under glow,” Darren says.
“You can spot it from a mile away. It’s won awards at four truck shows in the past 12 months, and now it’s going to be at the Brisbane Truck Show.”
The R 620 8×4 model is a finalist for the National Truck competition to be held at the Brisbane Truck Show.
“We’d had the truck for over a year by the time we had it wrapped and took it to its first local truck show,” Trai says.
“People thought we had gotten another truck – it’s simply transformed, and Capital Signs took on the mammoth job to design and wrap it. When we pick up drivers of trucks that we tow, they all marvel at it.
“The other day, I towed a 20-year-old tipper in the Scania and old mate had been driving it for three years. He jokingly said he would quit driving where he was because the Scania made him hate the truck he was in. But in all seriousness, he couldn’t believe the quiet and comfortable surroundings of this Scania.”
Outside of these clear benefits, the Scania also has more power than previous models supplied to A Plus Towing. One of the key features in the body build was when the team opted for a dual winch set up.
“It gives you the option to do angle recoveries – single winch was good on our original truck, but the dual winches are an absolute powerhouse on the new build,” Trai says.
“We couldn’t have done a recovery a few months back of a ute off the side of a hill without using two winches. It’s this upgraded technology that is making life easier for us.
“I was also able to roll a B-Double solo the other day using two winches. There’s so many things we can do now that we didn’t dream of doing with a single winch.”
In the lead-up to the truck’s all-important date in Brisbane this May, it’ll be taken on a journey through New South Wales up through to Queensland. Car care product provider Sonax Australia will wash, clean and prepare the truck with a ceramic coat to give it that extra sparkle. Then, starting in Canberra, the Scania will stop by dealers on the way.
The ceiling is enormous as to what A Plus Towing and its partners can do to promote the truck ahead of the competition final in Brisbane. This truck will proudly display the EKEBOL brand by adorning branded flags.
“We’re aiming for a win – Gary wanted these trucks to serve one of the largest project contracts in Australia right now that also run Scanias,” Darren says.
“Once this is all done, it’ll go back to servicing the other Scanias on these projects.”
With truck shows also part of the agenda for the special Scania in 2025, the model and its brand is set to continue playing a major part in A Plus Towing’s expansion, which also now includes towing motorsport vehicles.
“We’ve got a few builds planned for the future involving some more specialised gear – we also just received a new truck two weeks ago that’s a very specialised custom build,” Darren says.
“We recently started A Plus Motorsports Solutions too to add another side to our business. With Gary being a drifter and competitor in several Drift Championships, we’ve started supplying trucks to events to run all the towing and recovery.”
The first car to go on A Plus Towing’s recovery trucks was former F1 driver Kimi Räikkönen’s vehicle from about five years ago. All of this is keeping the A Plus Towing team very excited, so expect to see the brand at many race days moving forward.
“We can’t wait to see what the future holds for the company,” Trai says.
“We now have the Canberra Festival of Speed contract for the next five years running towing and recovery for supercars, while in the past couple of weeks alone our trucks have moved high end exotic cars like Lamborghinis, F1s and Ferraris.
“For anyone interested, go to the A Plus Towing Facebook page to see videos of our escapades, events and, of course, our trucks and their capabilities.”
Subscribe to the weekly Owner//Driver newsletter here.