Talkin' Trucks With Mike:A History of the TNT Companies

Concerning your question `` Is there anything TNT couldn't do ? `` the answer is no. In Australia alone TNT operated over 50 divisions, subsidiaries and affiliated companies providing shippers with expertise in all fields of transportation. Alongside the usual general freight and expedite/express freight the Group spread its activities in so numerous operations ranging

from :
--- bulk haulage ---car carrying ---waste management --- armored car --- removal services --- pallet hiring

to :
---coastal shipping services --- warehousing ---maritime agency ---hotel management ---passenger airlines --- customs clearance --- port terminal operation

and many others.

This extreme dispersal didn't prevent TNT to maintain a dominant position in many sectors :

--- The Group was the most important customer of the railroad companies

--- Through its affiliated Group Ansett, TNT operated one of the two largest Australian
passenger Airlines

--- It controlled, in the early nineties, 60% of the general freight road transport market, near 50% of the air express freight market and was one of the two largest expedite/express road freight transport carriers.

The slogan of the Group `` ANYTHING. ANYWHERE. ANYTIME .... IN AUSTRALIA `` was
more than a vague promise, it was a reality.

 

Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to read the book. However, I have a relatively good understanding of the man. I got access to the TNT archives through my Australian partner, Darren Highston, with whom I wrote a book about TNT published in June 2018.

Search for PressReader-Owner Driver: 2018-07-16-TNT BOOK LAUNCH

and look at : Werkhorse's TNT Book (1/1) - Historic Commercial Vehicle Club of Australia - Historic Commercial Vehicle Club of Australia

 

Ozstraya has more than Qantas as an airline?

 

Unfortunately, the book was available only in Australia for now because the exorbitant overseas postage cost brings the price of the book to an inaccessible level for the average reader. Even in Australia it is not available because it is already sold out. We are looking for a second print run. However, to make the book available for outside Australia it will be a lot more complicated. We do our best to find a solution.

 

What about making it available as an e-book? I am not sure how copyright and distribution would work to protect the author's interests.

Electronic books are easily sent around the world. Another option may be a contract printer in North America, they would print and distribute it.

 

All the options are on the table but the challenge is very high. The e-book is not a solution as easy as it seems to put in place. Our financial capability is limited, the book is adressed to a market with a limited potential and the fact that the book contains many colour photos, printed on high quality paper and cover + a substantial size push the cost of printing and expedition high enough. Produce a book in small number on two continents would be not an easy task.

 

The TNT Contrans division was dedicated exclusively to the operations of the TNT's gantry crane network the rail containers being always operated by the TNT Railfast division even if the containers showed the Contrans signature. From the early seventies to the mid-eighties the Group rail containers showed either TNT or Alltrans logoinherited from the early days of the merger when the interstate operations (road as well as rail) of the two companies was kept separate so as to encourage in house competition.



The type confusion and the multiplication of different signatures on the containers began with the introduction of the TNT worldwide standard paint scheme in 1986 which saw Railfast and Contrans signatures appear on the containers.Following a major restructuration of the general freight operations in 1987/88, TNT Roadrast, Railfast and Seafast divisions was merged under the sole umbrella of a new division named TNT Express. This new signature was applied on the containers. This new signature was followed shortly by another one (TNT Freight Services) in early nineties following another restructuration of the different components of the Group.

TNT Container Express was a totally different story. Its roots date back from the TNT partly ownership of Associated Steamships which offered during the 60's and 70's a coastal shipping service to the ports along the Australian southern coast. This service lost constantly money because the undercutting of its freight rates by the government owned railroad companies. So, when TNT acquired the majority interest in ASP in the mid-70's it changed the ball game transferring the ASP containers from ships to rail wagons puttig the
railroad companies in front of a done deal those companies having no choice to charge ASP the same low rates as the other customers. This new interstate rail transport division mainly involved in bulk haulage using 20ft containers was named ASP Container Express.

Source : www.matts-place.com

http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part4/aussie/20tntalldoor.jpg[img]

The name changed in 1994 when TNT spin off the majority of its shipping interests (TNT Bulkships) of which ASP was a subsidiary. Then, ASP Container Express was kept in the TNT stable and rebranded as TNT Container Express.

The following sites show a large sample of TNT containers of all size with different signatures. On the second site you can see two containers of Ansett Wridgways, the removal division of TNT. On the other sites you can also see Contrans container dedicated to GM-Holden and Toys R Us

http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part4/aussie.htm

http://www.hanovale.com.au/containers/container20/index.html

http://www.hanovale.com.au/containers/curtain40//index.html

 

Is self-publishing via Amazon possible from Australia? I have a friend here in the States that distributes his books that way. Amazon only prints them when they are sold, they take a few dollars of the sale price and distribute them from their closest warehouse.