Tool Time: Paul Yandle’s custom Hino 300 tool truck

It’s not often you see a Hino 300 Series with twin stacks and a mammoth amount of bling. However, ex-interstate driver Paul Yandle has let his love of big shiny trucks shine through into his new venture, Tool Trucks Australia.

Original ACT archive feature. Images from the ACT archive; no individual photographer is identified in the retained feature.

It is easy to imagine Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, Tim Allen’s character in the 1990s sitcom Home Improvement building a truck just like this Hino 300 Series to transport his tools. Instead of just “more power” however this beast has got “more bling” with entrepreneur Paul Yandle ensuring his business stands out with style.

“I have a certain image I want for the business, a real professional look, and it lets me indulge in my passion for trucks, being a truck fan and such,” Paul explains.

“Presentation and cleanliness of my vehicles is really important to me, both trucks are washed and detailed at least weekly and often multiple times a week if required.

“At the end of the day they are our ‘shopfront’ and they represent a professional image for my business. Sure it was polished up for the photo shoot but more often than not, that’s the way it goes to work on a daily basis.”

His trucks are spectacular and as he says he wants people to recognise as soon as they pass through your gate, and they are going through a lot of gates.

“We provide automotive tools and equipment to auto technicians across Melbourne and Gippsland,” he says.

“We specialise in servicing the heavy truck and earthmoving industries and visit their workshops on a weekly basis.

“I spend most of my week based around the busy transport hub of Laverton in Melbourne’s West. I visit the workshops of all the heavy truck repairers and major transport company workshops such as Kenworth, Mack, Scania, CMV, Toll, K&S and Linfox, just to name a few.”

Paul comes from a transport background and this goes a long way in explaining why his little rig looks like a big rig.

He started off as a welder in a factory, no doubt learning some of the skills which allowed him to do most of the fit-outs on his trucks, but as soon as he could, he got his truck licence and with the help of his parents he set himself up in a D Series Ford 8 tonner doing all sorts of metro local work.

He had that for about eight months until it blew up, which he says had a silver lining because he ended up buying himself a brand new eight tonner.

Paul says once he got his newer truck he did a fair bit of work around Victoria and interstate around the Canberra region delivering kit homes.

“It was pretty exciting as a young bloke going interstate in an eight tonner,” he recalls.

“It was like an apprenticeship I suppose in transport, it was just a flat top so you can cart anything and everything.

“I could cart timber, steel, pallets and anything else that would come along.”

Paul has always had an entrepreneurial side and says at one point he even got into the very niche ostrich transporting business.

“I got into specialising in transporting ostriches and I carted them all over Australia,” he says.

“I had a big Ford F150 with a large modified horse float, modified to carry the birds in it.”

He explains those were the early days when ostriches were in vogue and were fetching around $150K.

“It was pretty specialised and I could spend weeks out on the road, there wasn’t too many people doing it but livestock cartage can be dangerous especially when it is a 10 foot bird that can kill you,” he explains.

“They are a very aggressive bird. They are very territorial and have the temperament of a nasty dog.

If you just walk into their paddock, they will come up to you and try and kick you.”

From there he worked making craft furniture, another skill which no doubt helps with his van fit outs, but eventually he found his way back onto the open road doing interstate once more.

This time it was for 10 years mostly for McDermott Transport Dandenong and as a subbie for Khalari.

The Khalari gig was shared between the truck owner and himself allowing four days on and four days off. This meant Paul had time up his sleeve and he started off selling tools online through eBay at first.

“I suppose when I was driving the truck I saw a few tool trucks driving around and thought that’s a pretty good idea, and I looked into it further. I did a bit of market research around Melbourne and I asked all the workshops I was going to with the truck, if there was a need for someone to sell tools directly to them,” he says.

In 2008 Paul made the big decision and started up with one truck.

“I started the business in 2008 and put the second truck on the road in January 2014. The new truck has done around 60,000 km’s so far and hasn’t missed a beat to date. My driver/sales rep who operates the older truck is Shaun Addison, who was one of my customers before he started with me, he does a great job, works very hard and looks after his truck,” he says.

He says it was always a risk doing up a little truck to look like a big rig.

“I reckon it can be risky to customise a smaller truck, as there’s always a risk of getting it wrong and over doing it to the point of looking silly, but I think I got the balance pretty right and judging by the many positive comments and waves I get from ‘big truck’ drivers I reckon it came up pretty well,” he says.

“Being an ex-interstater and a big fan of shiny trucks, it allows me to indulge in some added bling.”

Creating a small rig in the image of a big rig does have its challenges and Paul explains the body needed to be moved back to accommodate the twin stacks.

This meant working closely with the engineers and the body builders.

“I spent a lot of time with John from Prestige Hino because we had a bit of concern how the exhaust stacks would affect the DPF system, but we worked through the process with Hino engineers and they said at the end of the day that it would be ok,” he says.

“Even though it’s got the big stacks it is pretty much from the tailpipe onwards so it didn’t affect the DPF.

“It was one of those situations no one really knew what was going to happen because no one else wanted to put twin five inch stacks on a Hino,” he quips.

All Truck Bodies supplied the truck body and Paul put in all the shadow boards and the shelving, carpeting on the roof and the floors.

“I am pretty fussy about how I want it to be set up, so I wouldn’t be happy with someone else doing it, because you know exactly what you want. It is a lot of work but you also save a lot of money doing it yourself for the labour content.”

The stainless visor was made and fitted by Thorpe Custom Trucks. All other stainless was done by Paul and his mate John Volta from Jonco Engineering.

“We folded up the stainless steel profiles and we did the skirt at the bottom of the fuel tank with lights on it,” he says.

“John also did the tricky little bit on the roof scoop with the four LEDs on the front which is all polished mirror finish.

“ He shudders every time I walk into the shed because there is always something difficult or awkward for him to do,” he half jokes.

The professional graphics and vinyl wrap were supplied by Vision Signs and the extra cool aircon that keeps the van cool on very hot summer days was supplied by Custom Air in Thomas Town.

“John Edwards (workshop Manager), the Hino sales team and Sarah in finance were fantastic to deal with and very helpful when working out the many specs and extras fitted to the vehicle,” Paul says.

“Both my trucks are serviced there regularly and they look after us very well. I will definitely use them again when I put future trucks on the road.

“I have plans to expand the business further with another truck set to join the fleet in late 2015 or early 2016. Longer term plans and goals after that are set to keep me busy for a long time to come,” he says.

We should probably mention he reckons the truck is “excellent to drive”.

Paul would also like to thank and give credit to John from Jonco Engineering for all the stainless work, his mate Collin Griffin for his help with the electrics in the body fit out, his very loyal customers who he visits each week and most importantly “my very tolerant and supportive wife Jody, who is an absolute rock of support to me and the business.”

Rear Vision: where are they now?

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