Cooma H Hardware has grown its Toyota fleet

Located in Polo Flat, Cooma, in New South Wales' Snowy Mountains region, High Country Truss and Frames and adjoining business Cooma H Hardware have experienced exponential growth over the last 10 years, thanks to Canberra's booming building industry and a fleet of Toyotas equipped to handle bourgeoning workloads.

Manufacturing roof trusses, wall frames and flooring systems, High Country Truss and Frames was originally opened as an extension of Cooma H Hardware.

Mirroring its staff growth from three to 20 employees over the last decade, the Toyota 'engine room' at the heart of the third-generation family-run business started with a single gas-powered 2.5 T 32-8FG25 forklift in 2013 and two more - another 32-8FG25 and a gas-powered 3.5 T 32-8FGJ35 forklift - were added over a seven-year period. All three Toyota forklifts were in the fleet simultaneously in March, last year.

Duties include using the 3.5 T 32-8FGJ35 forklift for handling large packs of trusses and wall frames. One of the 2.5 T units handles smaller packs in the plant and its twin is used in the hardware store for loading and unloading building materials.

High Country Truss and Frames manager David van der Plaat says the business had some older forklifts from another brand, but as they reached end-of-life, he was influenced for several reasons to make the Toyota switch.

"Toyota's reputation for quality preceded it ahead of our decision to purchase TMHA equipment and they have proven reliable so we added another, and another, Toyota forklift to our fleet - which wouldn't have happened if the first and second machines had problems.

"We can't afford downtime so we need them to be reliable. Our first one is seven years old and has proven reliable. We haven't really had any issues with them, so we're happy with the product."