South Nowra, New South Wales, Australia

This family owned and operated company commenced operations in 1986 in Nowra as a plasterboard wholesaler. Business founders Chris and Jayne Harrison soon realised that transporting the plasterboard to Nowra was a problem with transport proving to be unreliable. In an effort to provide better service to their customers Chris and Jayne purchase their own truck to pickup plasterboard from Sydney and deliver in the Nowra and South Coast areas. Chris and Jayne’s son Kyle joined Nowra Plaster in 1995 aged 15. Kyle started a mechanical apprenticeship and helped load trucks with plaster each morning prior to starting his work as an apprentice mechanic. After completing his apprenticeship in 1999 Kyle started driving full time pickup up freight in Sydney and delivering to customers up and down the South Coast. In 1996 as part of the expanding Nowra Plasterboard business Chris and Jayne became wholesales for cement and garden products to other local businesses and purchased another truck. Many of these cement and garden product suppliers are still valued customers of NTD today. Steve joined his brother at Nowra Plaster in 1999 aged 17, making the operation a true family business for the Harrisons. Steve helped with the ever-expanding workload and was involved in deliveries from Mittagong to Eden on the far South Coast of NSW. Steve and Kyles joining of the business allowed Chris and Jayne to concentrate on running the rapidly growing business knowing that the transport was in good hands. In 2006 the Harrison family decided to sell the Nowra Plaster business and move into transport full time. At this stage the fleet consisted of one prime mover and one rigid vehicle. This decision was made easier as a local transport business known as Nowra Transport & Distribution came up for sale. Their fleet consisted of two prime movers and two more rigid vehicles and provided a similar service model to the existing freight business with additional customers and it seemed like a good decision to purchase the business and expand. Kyle and Steve’s hard won skills while delivering plasterboard and other products to a wide range of customers enabled them win new customers and begin expanding the business with their first multi national customer coming on board in 2007. Coinciding with the sale of Nowra Plaster Chris and Jayne decided to step away from day to day operations of Nowra Transport. They have remained heavily involved with the management of NTD and the wealth of knowledge they bring is highly valued. Since 2011 Kyle and Steve have expanded NTD into a truly national operation with multi-national customers up and down the eastern seaboard of Australia transporting a wide range of goods from agricultural products and timber to high end health and pharmaceutical products. With this rapid growth, the companies new name of National Transport and Distribution reflects the true nature of this dynamic business. The current fleet consists of six rigid vehicles and sixteen prime movers with a wide range of specialist trailers which is growing all the time to enable NTD to meet our customer’s requirements. As the business, has continued to grow in 2016 the involvement of family members has increased with Kyle’s wife Kate and Steve’s wife Lauren both joining NTD in hands on roles. This has helped NTD to continue to provide friendly family service while “guaranteeing service and reliability” and going that little bit further for our customers.