Michael Jordan and Craig Tesch. It may seem like I am drawing a pretty long bow when I place these two individuals in the same sentence – after all, one is a 6’6 GOAT who played over 1000 NBA games, averaging more than 30 points per game, while the other is a little less than 6’6 with zero NBA games and subsequently averaging a lot less. Where they do cross paths is in their approach and attitude.
I recently had the privilege of sitting down with Craig Tesch to discuss his stunning new Kenworth K220 and learn about the family business he is a part of in Morgans Long Distance Transport. It was during this meeting that I drew the line between the two men, with one particular Michael Jordan quote coming to mind.
‘I truly love the game; I wouldn’t be playing if I didn’t love the game.’ While Michael was referring to his life in basketball, this quote holds sway over everything in Craig’s life, from the family company he grew up with that has now become his own family company to his career. It is a quote that holds true to everything Craig has thrown himself into and has now resulted in arguably one of the coolest looking units on Australia’s vast highways.
As is my usual style, before we take a look at the stunning piece of machinery on the pages before you, we need to a cruise down memory lane and lay the groundwork for this impressive K220. I will try and condense it down a bit, but to be honest I won’t be trying hard – there is so much history behind Morgans Longs Distance Transport, so many amazing characters and so many old school outlooks, that I don’t want to glance over it all. We need to start with the man that began it all back in 1973 – Lawrie Morgan.
I shouldn’t say ‘the man that began it all’ because it wasn’t a one-man operation. It was the power couple, Lawrie and Dulcie Morgan that started Morgans Suncoast Freighters, a family transport company whose current reincarnation is Morgans Long Distance Transport. Lawrie and Dulcie began back in 1973 with an old Cummins powered V8 Acco and Haulmark Bogie flat top. Lawrie was carting cement and timber from Gympie down into Brisbane. His ability to deliver great service with a friendly and professional approach saw him rapidly increase his workload and subsequently his delivery radius. Within four years the fleet had quadrupled, with a MAN and a couple of Mercedes-Benz models joining the Acco. More trucks and more work eventually led to Lawrie and Dulcie relocating to a new depot in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast.
As business grew and intra and interstate work became a part of the family business, there was a need for a Brisbane depot as well, and Morgans Suncoast Freighters moved in with McClintock’s Transport in Rocklea. There was a solid mix of trucks in the Morgans stables now, including International S-lines and T-Lines that joined Volvos, MANs, Mercedes-Benz models and an array of others. The Sunshine Coast work was building and the interstate work was thriving.
During this growth period for Morgans Suncoast Freighters, there were plenty of employees added to the books, with Lawrie’s family approach to his drivers being a leading incentive for his workers. The work was never easy, but the workers felt valued and appreciated. This led to a lot of long-term workers on the Morgans’ books, matched by a lot of long term clients. It was all due to the same reason – it was a very family friendly culture that Lawrie and Dulcie were cultivating.
It was this culture that led to Craig’s dad Gordon joining the employee registry all the way back in 1984.
“Dad had been actually working for Buntines up in the Northern Territory. He was driving road trains hauling cattle from station to station in an old 280hp W-model Kenworth,” Craig says.
“Then when mum had me, she wanted him closer to home, so he took a job with Morgans.”
It would have been a hell of change, from the rough open terrain of the NT with a couple of trailers of stock hanging off the back to local work delivering timber in an old Mercedes-Benz. However, that family philosophy that Lawrie and Dulcie were fostering was a driving factor in Gordon and Lyns’ move from the wilds of the Northern Territory to the Sunshine Coast.
Craig’s arrival on this planet came around the same time as Gordon’s position at Morgans Suncoast Freighters began. While his first experience with trucks isn’t officially remembered, Morgans Transport placed a huge emphasis on family and the yard was often the epicentre of family activities. Weekends and after schools would often see drivers’ kids hanging around the yard, so it’s fair to assume Craig was indoctrinated from day one.
“Me and my siblings grew up in and around trucks,” he says.
“We’d go for trips when dad was driving for Morgans – we’d be hanging out there on school holidays, sweeping the yard, stacking pallets and getting up to mischief with the other drivers kids.”
It is the kind of upbringing many of us can relate to and many of us wish we could introduce our kids to now.
While Craig was cutting his teeth on all things transport at Morgans, his dad was also learning so much from the same people.
“Lawrie had a great bunch of drivers, mainly older than myself,” Gordon Tesch says.
“They would teach me a lot about loading and tying your load down so it got to the customers with no damage, which meant a lot. I was lucky enough to have learnt so much from those older drivers and it has stayed with me.
“Lawrie and Dulcie were very good to their drivers, so much so that a lot of their older drivers still stay in contact – it says a lot about them.”
After almost 10 years as a company driver, the opportunity arose for Gordon to purchase his own truck.
“In 1994 I had the chance to buy my own truck, it was a 1989 4800 Western Star and I towed one of Lawrie’s trailers,” he says.
“With a young family to feed, it was a hard slog – a lot of working day and night and most weekends. Sunday was usually greasing and washing. It wasn’t much fun for the family, but it had to be done.”
The hard work did pay off – soon Gordon purchased his first brand new trailer.
“It was very exciting when I bought the Freighter Tautliner as it saved a lot of time not having to tarp everything,” he says.
As I pointed out a couple of paragraphs ago, Morgans Sunstate Freighters kept growing as the work rolled in. Subsequently, Gordon and Tesch Transport also benefited. Soon he had two trucks towing for Morgans as well as work that Gordon had picked up himself.
In 2005, with one eye on a well-deserved retirement, Lawrie and Dulcie decided to sell Morgans Suncoast Freighters. All the local work got sold to Peter Carter of Carters Transport and Lawrie only just held onto one of his linehaul trucks. During the sale procedure, Lawrie approached Gordon about forming a new company that focused more on the linehaul work. Gordon was keen to learn and Lawrie was keen to pass on his experience, hence the creation of Morgans Long Distance Transport.
That’s a rough summary of the first three decades of the Morgan dynasty. Between Lawrie and Gordon, there would be several books worth of stories and adventures that could be and should be absorbed. Unfortunately, I don’t have the space here to be able to share, but I will work on it. For now, we will focus on the man of the moment in Gordon and Lyns’ first born Craig Tesch.
You should have an idea of the type of bloke Craig is by the opening quote I used. I had the pleasure of annoying him all afternoon for photos, then over an hour in the office for an interview and not once did he lose his enthusiasm for all things trucks and family. He is a bloke that truly loves what he does – he has a huge passion for trucks and gets his joy from working, be it behind the wheel, a desk or the tools.
Growing up in Morgans Transport’s yard fuelled his love of trucking, but it was actually the mechanical side of things that took hold of Craig first. Upon leaving school, he undertook a heavy diesel apprenticeship with Brown and Hurly in Darra.
“When I first started there, I was such a massive truck fan and we got to see all the cool gear coming into Brown & Hurley,” he says.
“I’d end up getting all starry-eyed admiring this cool gear until someone would yell at me to get back down and do some work.”
While he was at Brown & Hurley learning his trade, he made sure he took the opportunity to gain his heavy vehicle licence.
“We’d have to do the test drives and that as well, so I got my licence that way because I knew I also wanted to do some driving,” he says.
Craig did eight years with Brown & Hurley before taking a chance to chase some driving work.
“I’d always wanted to drive and I took a job in the workshop at Lindsay Transport hoping I’d get some experience there,” he recalls.
“Lindsays was good for the fact I had to learn new skills, working on trailers, fridge vans and even helping the tyre fitters, but the first truck I drove was actually for Tympats – he was known for giving young guys a go.”
After a couple of Gladstone runs, the bug well and truly bit Craig and he was hooked. His driving career was underway. Remember what I mentioned earlier about Craig doing what he does because he loves it? I should also have shone a light on the work ethic of this generational truckie. While Craig was flat out in Brown & Hurley’s workshop, or Lindsay’s workshop, or behind the wheel of a flat out Tympat truck, he was also a main mechanic for Morgans Transport. Every Saturday was spent servicing the fleet up on the sunshine coast.
MORE OWNERDRIVER TRENDING STORIES:
- Floods cause Bruce Highway closures
- SRV Road Freight acquires food and beverage carrier
- December TOTM: AKV Haulage’s tribute truck
- Works to repair busy Western Highway for grain trucks
- Historic funding announced for the Bruce
Even when his driving career took off and he was a regular in the old SBA Kenworths, weekends were still spent on the tools. When he tried his hand driving for Morgans, weekends were still on the tools. When he started his own mobile mechanics, Shift Transtech, obviously then he was still on the tools, but then his off season was behind the wheel. Needless to say, Craig loves to work and loves the work he does, hence why in 2018, when Lawrie and Dulcie truly decided to embrace the retirement concept, Craig and his very tolerant wife Nicole decided to buy into the business with his mum and dad. Morgans Long Distance Transport became a fully Tesch family operation.
I must apologise, because I am sure I have not done neither Lawrie, Dulcie, Gordon, Lyn, Craig and Nicole enough justice by trying to condense decades worth of enthusiasm, hard work, professionalism and dedication into so few words. If you take nothing else from this, I just need you to understand all three entities have grown up and implemented the same core values when it comes to trucking. It’s a family thing; your workers are your backbone and hard work pays off. Now I really need to shift focus to this Kenworth that just oozes cool.
If you have seen a Morgans’ truck on the roads, you know that black is not their colour. Looking good is their thing but it is normally done in a straight white suit with plenty of scroll work and a touch of red running through. They are also heavily invested in single trailer work and dominated by the big bonnets of the Western Stars and Kenworths. A K220 was quite the shift, much less a black one.
“We needed a B-double unit and one that works with a 34 pallet set,” Craig says.
“We’ve never had a brand new cabover, we’ve had a few 909s, but never a cabover, so we ordered the full set up. Then one night, me and the old man were having a few and just thought ‘f**k it, let’s go black’.”
That is the simplified and raw answer for all those asking why this truck is different and what its significance is. As Craig summed it up, he just wanted it. The problem with the written word is that sometimes it’s difficult to communicate tone and context.
I had the pleasure of heading to see Craig’s company and hence understood his motivation for the truck was the result of his passion for trucks, his love of cool-looking set-ups and his appreciation for Kenworth. I also loved his honesty, as he said the truck could also acknowledge the seven years he and Nicole have been a part of Morgans, but it could also celebrate the 20 years his parents have also been part of Morgans as well as paying homage to the Morgans’ 50th anniversary. All of those are valid, and even true, however sometimes you just want a cool truck, and the K220 nails that.
A lot of the credit for this truck falls at the feet of Brock and the Rocklea Truck Electrical team.
“When Nicole and I first bought into the company with dad, to celebrate we bought our first new truck in a 409SAR named ‘For the Hell of It,” Craig says.
“Through Brown & Hurley, we were introduced to Brock at RTE and he did all the custom work and made it look awesome. Brock just knows what looks good and works, so with this one, I had a couple of ideas, but basically just left Brock to do what he thought looked cool.”
When dealing with a company like Rocklea Truck Electrical, they have more than a bit of experience in making trucks look cool. Specifically, they know how to let owners know if their ideas will work.
“I remember talking to Brock about my vision, saying we should paint the visor and stuff, and he just said ‘leave it with me mate’,” Craig says with a smile.
“Then I went in there a couple weeks later and it was a stainless visor – he’d installed chrome air cleaners down to the pre-cleaners (they had originally been red) and I didn’t think of it. I saw it and thought it was sick – Brock had a vision and he made it work.”
There was some more subtle alterations from the RTE crew as well, like a whole new design for the cab wings. The new K220s have a bit of a pitched end so RTE designed a new wing that runs parallel to the fuel tanks and looks much tidier. The choice to stick with the white guards was something Craig was firm on.
“I wanted the white guards because that’s what we had on the trailers,” he says.
“As a whole unit, it stands out more than with stainless guards.”
Look at the photos and tell me he’s wrong, I dare you.
Another player that deserves a big round of applause is the legendary Tony Gibbs from Truckwriters, who was let loose with his brushes and skills. He subsequently brought a lot of the red lines that are symbolic of the Morgans trucks onto the black base while adding in a mix of scroll work that break the big cab K220 up perfectly. Craig is very quick to acknowledge all of those that have played a part in this epic build, from doyen of diesel and Brown & Hurley salesman Jim Boler to Nathan Tomkins at Trailer Sales who worked hand-in-hand with Fleetmark to ensure the 34 pallet B-double set looks as sharp as the pilot vehicle.
The end result is an amazing working work of art, designed and motivated by a family who still hold family days at the yard, still hire school kids to come and wash trucks in the weekends and who have a staff of mechanics that have progressed from those same truck washing weekends. It is a family company determined to share their joy and passion and have chosen to do that with arguably the coolest looking K220 around.
I shall end by just reiterating the quote that may have come from the GOAT, but it resonates through and through with Craig Tesch and his team.
‘I truly love the game; I wouldn’t be playing if I didn’t love the game.’
Subscribe to the weekly Owner//Driver newsletter here.