To honour 14 years since CJD Equipment opened the doors to it’s purpose built trucks facility in WA, we are sharing an article from our archives that was released on the grand opening of CJD Trucks in July 2005 in a five-part series. We hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane.
CJD Equipment evolves …
KENWORTH DAF WA IS BORN
By Carly Crummey
Q&A with Alan Barnett
T&M: How will your role change with the shift?
Alan: Presently Ron Rafferty is the Kenworth Dealer Principal, but he’s going to be taking a step back and will pass the succession onto myself. In addition I will continue with my existing title as Marketing Director for the company as a whole, whilst Brad Fowler will be the day-to-day General Manager of this new business.
T&M: Are you looking forward to the move?
Alan: It’s exciting- it’s going to be a fantastic facility. We are investing in the future growth of the business with a great deal of money so of course we expect lots of growth over the next few years. We’re planning to maintain and improve our truck sales and to gain more service work because we’re a lot closer to our truck customers.
T&M: Do you have faith in the staff & product?
Alan: I’ve been employed at CJD for four and a half years and I love the industry and love the business. I think customers are down to earth and great to do business with. The Kenworth truck is a premium truck and being Australian made is a big plus for us and our customers – it’s custom made and is built to last in the harshest conditions. The DAF truck is also an excellent product. It has fantastic market share in Europe selling over 50,000 trucks a year … now we have DAF as part of the PACCAR family and we see the brand as a growing business. The combining of DAF and Kenworth gives us a very good coverage of the medium and heavy duty truck market in Western Australia. We are very fortunate with a very experienced and stable team of staff overall and they are all looking forward to the move to the new premises. There is excitement amongst all of the staff with new facility, which is wonderful to see.
T&M: Are there any other benefits to the facility?
Alan: Aside from the state of the art parts and service facility, which will really be a focus for growth, we also planning to undertake a lot more training, not just with staff, but also for customers. With some of our larger fleet customers we want to provide more training for them on how to better care for their trucks and enhance their economic life. This is part of our all round approach to looking after the business- we’re not just about selling trucks, we’re about selling the whole package and in the process, bring lower costs to our customer. We also note that at some of our other new facilities around Australia, you accrue more people interested in coming to work for you. Just like everyone else, we’re always looking for mechanics and other staff and it’s not always about money these days – it’s also about the work environment and stability of the employer. We want to offer the best service to our customers and I think now we have the opportunities to do better – there’s always room for improvement and I think that’s a positive thing. Separating our earthmoving and trucking business will enable us to greatly improve our customer focus.

Dealer Principal – Alan Barnett
Brad Becomes General Manager
Brad Fowler takes on the responsibility of heading up the new business very seriously. Brad Fowler’s position will change from the Financial Controller of the total CJD group to become General Manager where he will be focusing on all aspects of the truck division.
Brad started off in the administration department of CJD twelve years ago as a young CPA moving his way through the business and gaining a good grounding from the Directors, whilst completing his MBA at Curtin University. He says he’s looking forward to the challenge of his new role and the added responsibility and feels that CJD’s truck team is well and truly capable of success.
“We’ve got a well-established team – the people in our parts, service and sales departments have been here a long time … it will really just be a case of allowing these people to continue doing what they’re best at, while I manage the business.”

General Manager – Brad Fowler
Service Manager Wayne Burleigh
Understandably the service department is looking forward to getting into the new facility with the more user-friendly design at their fingertips. Service Manager Wayne Burleigh says the business will definitely grow, largely because of its new location, modern facilities and tooling; in particular the new embedded shaker diagnostic dynometer. He says hopefully word of mouth will play a hand in attracting more much-needed mechanics.
“We haven’t got nearly enough mechanics, there’s just never enough,” says Wayne, “although it isn’t promoted that way, mechanical work is very rewarding, plus we’ve got Kenworths to work on which are world class products … the new premises will certainly provide a great environment to work in.”
Wayne says the workshop has a good crew with decent people in place so that a sense of harmony continues amongst the staff. Neil Anderson is Wayne’s second in charge as Workshop Controller, then Team Leader Trevor Butler and New Delivery Team Leader Steve Preston report to Neil, with the remaining mechanics reporting to the team leaders. Wayne says it is one of his goals to promote a team environment at work, and whether you’re a third year apprentice or a workshop controller you are all an important part of the team.

Service Manager Wayne Burleigh and Workshop Controller Neil Anderson
Jack Greig on Parts
Jack started his career with his father at a Volvo Truck dealership in Port Melbourne, rising through the ranks to become the Parts Sales Manager. After 10 years he moved into an OEM support role at Stemco Truck products and after a two-year
stint at Kenworth Truck Sales Footsray, Jack came to WA for a holiday and never returned back to Victoria. He has now been at CJD equipment for 17 years, with a grand total of 30 years in the industry. Leading up to the move, T&M caught up with Jack.
T&M: How comprehensive is your current parts range?
Jack: We carry an extensive range of spare parts from 1971 W Models right through to the latest C510 Kenworth, and everything in-between.
T&M: What will the move mean for your department?
Jack: The improvements in the new building will be clearly visible, both from a customer’s point of view with a huge parts showroom and supermarket, to behind the scenes where streamlined and effective parts distribution and storage is provided. There will be loads of space in the new building, and this will enable us to grow our stock and sales and be more user-friendly both to our staff and customer base.
T&M: Do you stock other brands of parts?
Jack: When it comes to parts to suit other brand trucks, we have one of the largest stocks in Australia of heavy-duty driveline parts; i.e. gearboxes and driveheads, both new and service exchange, to suit not only Kenworth customers but all USA sourced gear. We take pride that most of our opposition come to us at some stage when they can’t source a drivehead or gearbox, because they know that we will probably have it on the shelf. Other parts and products that we carry are one of Perth’s largest ranges of Castrol oils to suit most truck applications from mineral to the latest synthetic oils and cleaning products including wash poles, brushes, cleaning chemicals and polishes.
T&M: Is everything held on-site or do you have to order it in? Jack: We have a simple philosophy – you can’t sell something you don’t have. In most cases we operate on a 93 percent parts fill rate. Due to our WA location being so far from the eastern states, it just means we have to carry more parts than most dealers, and we are more than happy to provide this service and will be even better equipped to at our new location.

Parts Manager – Jack Greig
The Kenworth sales team
As Kenworth Sales & Marketing Manager, John Corderoy has been in the truck-associated business for over 30 years, spending six years with Kenworth before joining CJD where he has spent the last 12 years. John says the shift into new premises makes a clear statement to the industry that Kenworth intends to continue to as a market leader in WA for many years to come. Kenworth DAF WA has an extremely dedicated sales team consisting of Norton Docking, Paul Wilson, Joe Csikos, David Ashby and newly appointed Tim Fiegert.

Kenworth Sales and Marketing Manager – John Corderoy
Norton has been at CJD since 1987, and although he has a mechanical background, he has always held a Kenworth sales position at the company. Norton is looking forward to moving into the new premises, both for the sales team’s benefit and for that of customers. Norton says Kenworth has proved over many years that it is the best.
“Although Kenworth may be out of some people’s range as far as dollars and cents go, if you can afford to buy one it’s probably the best thing you’ll ever do,” says Norton, “they’ve got high resale value, and they’re built to last. .. a lot of the trucks that we built in the 1970’s are still running up and down the road making people money.”

Norton Docking
Joe has been at CJD 21 years and he too has a mechanical grounding. Joe started in the workshop at the Guildford dealership as Foreman, and then progressed to Service Manager, coming into sales in 1988. He says everyone is looking forward to eventually getting into the new premises and continuing to achieve high levels of truck sales, although he admits the sales team will have to work hard to pay for the new place. This shouldn’t be an issue however with business levels set to continue for the next three years and the modern premises able to cater more for customers, not just in truck sales, but also in respect to parts and service.

Joe Csikos
Paul has been with the dealership for eight years, previously employed as a diesel mechanic. Paul says his technical knowledge helps to understand what the customer wants and when they’ve got an issue or want to discuss something, he can relate to their concerns and priorities.

Paul Wilson
Dave came to the CJD dealership eight months ago, specifically employed to look after the DAF range – with Dave’s attention and the exposure the new premises will bring, the prediction is that we can expect to see a lot more DAFs on the road in coming times. Dave has been in the industry all his working life. He spent 28 years working for Skipper Trucks in various roles within the company.
“I have a very good working knowledge of the industry,” says Dave, “it has been exciting learning about the OAF product specifically … l think I’m getting a better knowledge week by week about DAF’s specifications, its strongest points and exactly where it fits into the marketplace.”
“For instance, Kenworth is a custom built truck in that the customer specifies just about every component, however DAF is a mass produced truck and is fully made in Holland and imported completely built into Australia … there are variants of specification, as DAF has looked at the market and said ‘alright this specification should fit into this market’ … it has done this to determine what models are best suited to our Australian conditions.
“At the moment DAF is a very underrated product in Australia, and particularly in WA, but after PACCAR’s recent acquisition of DAF and the subsequent promotion of the product, I’ve got no doubt that DAF is going to go ahead in leaps and bounds now that the brand is supported by the powerful Kenworth organisation. I am very happy to be part of the team.”
DAF has been integrated into Kenworth’s distribution, support systems, parts and service, so DAF customers can all expect the same benefits attained with Kenworth, obtaining this support immediately and locally.

DAF Sales and Marketing Manager – Dave Ashby