About Freight Haulage Ltd and Winton Cranes

Freight Haulage Limited continues to grow and strive to be the best transport and logistics company in Southland.

Freight Haulage Limited is part of the HW Richardson Group. Currently, we have a substantial fleet of trucks, forklifts, a 20’ or 40’ container top loader and loaders. The business employs over 30 permanent staff as well as some casual employees.

Freight Haulage is now a standalone company, with the main branch in Invercargill. In 2009, Freight Haulage purchased and now operates out of the Clifton Wool Scour. There have been many benefits of shifting to this site, not least the extra storage space, which allows us to store all our client’s products in one area. Currently, we have 24,000m² of covered storage and 8,000m² off-site storage. We also have the ability to grow the business, as the site comes with 20 acres of land. As part of our commitment to NZAS, we are able to offer more than 5,000m² of storage facilities for their raw material products, as well as their export product. Another aspect of the new site is having our own rail siding which is of benefit to both ourselves and our clients.

Freight Haulage focuses on local contracts, undertaking container cartage (Freight Haulage Limited was the first company to own a swing lift south of Christchurch), container packing and devanning, bulk cartage of fertiliser, bitumen as well as skins, meat meal and offal cartage from local meat works. Freight Haulage Limited is also a high-risk MPI accredited transitional facility and we are in the process of becoming a Customs Controlled area. Freight Haulage is also proud to continue to have strong working relationships with New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS) and NJ Crisp.

 

The History of Freight Haulage

In 1968 Southland Freight Haulage was established as a result of the amalgamation of Ian Guise Limited, Ohai Carrying Co and Ohai Freight Service. The following year Otautau Transport was also purchased, with depots in Invercargill (Clyde Street) and rural Southland. The nature of the operation was to meet the rural areas and farmers requirements by carting wool, stock, grain and general freight.
 
In 1974 Southland Freight Haulage moved to their new purpose-built premises on Spey Street. Amongst the contracts held by Southland Freight Haulage was the contract for carting aluminium for the NZAS. This contract started when the smelter opened and is still held by the company today. Prior to the smelter commencing operations, Southland Freight Haulage was involved with the cartage to the construction site. Another long-standing contract that was in place then, and is still going strong today, is that with NJ Crisp (Customs Agents). Southland Freight Haulage was a licensed customs carrier at the time.
 
Southland Freight Haulage was purchased by Southland Frozen Meats in 1975. Ian Guise stayed on, looking after the business. This was followed by the purchase of three other transport companies; Cunningham Transport of Gore in 1976, Waihopai Transport in 1980, and Ian Pheloung Holdings in 1982.
 
Following the deregulation of the Land Transport Sector in 1981, the old New Zealand Railways Department was corporatised and Freight Haulage (Otago) Limited was formed in Dunedin. 1983 saw Southland Freight Haulage change its name to Freight Haulage Limited with the purchase of West Otago Transport and a branch in Christchurch was opened. In 1986 Freight Haulage Limited lost its identity when it was bought by Transpac, and Ian Guise handed over the reins to John King. This was short-lived, however, as in 1988 Transpac went into Receivership.
 
The Invercargill branch of Southland Freight Haulage was purchased in 1989 by Ken and Bill Richardson and renamed Freight Haulage Limited. Ownership was later taken over fully by H W Richardson Group Limited and has remained in the group ever since.
 
Freight Haulage purchased Winton Cranes and Purdue Bros in September 2017.
 

Winton Cranes Now

Winton Cranes (formerly McDermott’s) is a Southland owned and operated business, that is now part of Freight Haulage and the HW Richardson group. Based, as the name suggests, out of Winton, Winton Cranes offer a range of crane trucks operated by experienced drivers. As a business, we believe in utilising the latest in modern equipment, which helps to deliver our customers a great service at a great rate. We work throughout Southland moving things big or small
 

The History of Winton Cranes

McDermott’s HIAB service started in 1989 with one crane truck transporting timber and blocks for the local market. A second crane truck was purchased in June 2008 to help with the increased work with the dairy boom. In 2010, a third crane truck was specially built to cater for concrete tank deliveries for Harvey Tanks and Burford Tanks. Our next acquisition in 2012 was a tractor unit and trailer to transport longer loads for our growing business; such as backing gates for dairy sheds and trusses from Preston Pre-cut.

In August 2017, McDermott’s sold their HIAB business to family-owned HWR Group and the day-to-day running has continued to be operated by the same team trading as Winton Cranes. Winton Cranes continues to deliver a great service and has many years expertise in crane work and delivery of products to their loyal and new customer base.