On the road for ABS Transport in the Outback with an Actros Road Train

Was that just the wind, or is there something else rustling in the bushes? Perhaps a brown snake? No way to tell from here – and the last thing we need is risking an encounter with this extremely poisonous adder. “When I pull up in a lay-by in the evening they often come out and curl around the tyres because they are nice and warm,” says Dale Koutlis. So whenever he climbs down from the cab of his Actros he has to watch every step. “If I didn’t, it could be my last,” adds the trucker, with the chuckle of a man who hardly ever loses his cool because he knows exactly what to look out for.

Because this, the outback in the Australian federal state of New South Wales, is Dale Koutlis’s home turf. The “Mercedes-Benz Transport” team had arranged to meet up with the 55-year-old on a dusty parking lot along the “Kidman Way” in order to accompany him for part of his trip. Our meeting place is about 700 kilometres northwest of Sydney – not all that far from the densely populated east coast for Australian conditions, but still quite a long way out.

Concentration is key.

It is a shuttle service that on Koutlis’s trip covers a “mere” 260 kilometres. The rear trailer is loaded with cable drums, while the front trailer carries containers filled with printer’s ink, with a machinery part almost ten metres long along the top. To ensure that the XXL road train remains fully manoeuvrable, the crew loading the trucks have to place more weight in the front trailer than in the rear. Some 120 kilometres before we reach our destination, another shuttle truck picks up one of the trailers. At its full length, the road train would not be suitable for the streets of Brisbane, nor would it be permitted to enter this city with over a million inhabitants.

“When you drive a road train, concentration is key,” says the trucker over dinner in the mining town of Cobar. “The best way to do that is not to get stressed, and to take breaks regularly.” Which is easier said than done sometimes. On the way to Cobar, for example, a hail storm turned the soft road shoulders into muddy pits in no time at all – not a place for an extra-heavy truck to come to a halt, under any circumstances. “The Australian weather is unpredictable,” says Koutlis – who wouldn’t change jobs for anything.

– Terry Warn, director of ABS Transport Industries

One of the things that has made him enjoy his job for some time is the prime mover of this road train: an Actros. “In terms of comfort, it is fantastic,” says the trucker during a refuelling stop the next day. “Even after driving for hours, I don’t feel exhausted.” And then there is the low consumption – something which the ABS Transport boss Warn appreciates: “I compared the Actros with a five-year-old truck from the United States: it makes quite a difference when it comes to filling her up,” says the businessman. The saving per month was about 2 500 Australian dollars (about 1 640 euros) easy, he added.

After a test drive in 2016, Warn chose the Actros 2653, which was just becoming available down under at that time. “We were the first local provider to get one.” Today there are seven identical trucks in his fleet – and the entrepreneur is more enthusiastic than ever: “These vehicles are of such high quality that despite the enormous demands placed on them, we have been able to extend the service intervals for the long-distance trucks from 30 000 to 80 000 kilometres, with a clear conscience.”

Like most overland trucks in Australia, the Actros run by ABS Transport have an aluminium “bull bar” mounted at the front. That’s because there is one thing even seasoned drivers like Dale Koutlis cannot always avoid: the occasional collision with Australia’s national symbol. Kangaroos, which can reach the size of a grown man, become more active at dusk and often come out of nowhere, and they have a habit of hopping across the road. There are yellow signs alerting the drivers of these animal crossings – and in the event of a collision, the “bull bar” mounted the truck helps prevent serious damage.

If a truck were to break down in the outback, it would not only require a massive towing effort but, depending on the route, deliveries to sometimes more than 20 customers would be delayed significantly. This is simply not an option for the team from ABS Transport. After all, punctuality and reliability are the be-all and end-all even in Australian extra-long distance haulage. That is why after having shared his cab with us for a few hundred kilometres, Dale Koutlis bids the “Mercedes-Benz Transport” team a swift goodbye – he still has a few hundred kilometres more to cover before he gets to where he is going.

Photos & video: Alexander Tempel