Going the extra mile

From a young age, Alan Leslie had an eye for logistics. Although back then, the Founder and CEO of ECS Project Logistics wouldn’t have called it that. Instead, he was playing a game and road trips were his playground.

“When I was little, we used to travel interstate a lot to visit family and I would count the number of trucks that passed by. I’d ask the truck drivers where they were going, how heavy their loads were and how long they could drive before needing to refuel,” Leslie tells The CEO Magazine.

“At one stage, when I was about 10 years old, I even started bringing a notepad and pen in the car with me to write down how many trucks had passed, jotting down how many were doubles, road trains or oversized. I’ve just always seemed to have a keen interest in transport.”

Driven to succeed

Realizing his fate, one of Leslie’s first jobs was working in a supermarket storeroom. And to him, the most intriguing part was the process of improvement.

“I kept finding myself telling people that we could do this better or do it this way and that way,” he reflects.

Then his next move found him employed at a freight-forwarding company, dealing with supplying componentry for the oil and gas exploration industry.

“It was my first foray into understanding how the supply chain actually works,” Leslie recalls. “It was fast paced and taught me a lot about work ethic, being available to clients around the world 24/7, learning everything from shipping to air freight to charters.”

His curious mind and love of a challenge made this work engaging. Where others would shy away from the ‘harder stuff’, he gravitated toward it.

“The harder something was to move, the better as far as I was concerned,” he says. “I’ve always enjoyed looking for solutions.

“I’m interested in how we can make something work within a strict time frame or get something planned and moving when other companies advised that there were no services available.

“To me, there is no greater satisfaction than making something happen that, at first, seemed impossible, and then getting a call from the client saying, ‘Hey, we couldn’t have done this without you.’”

It wasn’t long before Leslie was headhunted by an up-and-coming Australian company involved in heavy industrial services and quickly became its logistics planning and asset coordinator. The job was very high stakes and stress quickly became his companion.

“If we couldn’t get it right or held up a job or a plant, it could cost the client hundreds of thousands of dollars a day in lost production. At 24, I was making sure that important tools and equipment got to where they needed to be in multiple projects happening around Australia and New Zealand,” he remembers.

“It was a challenging role and started to push me to the limit. The phone didn’t stop ringing, it was upwards of 90 hours a week and I had trucks, cranes and airplanes booked all over the place!”

Taking the wheel

Situations like that, Leslie explains, have been a glaring problem in the industry for a long time. He refers to it as ‘forced to bite off more than you can chew’, but doing it unnoticed.

“There are a lot of people in the supply chain that don’t understand or realize how hard others are working and the amount of pressure they’re under to deliver a service on time and on budget around the clock despite all the variables. It can be a real eye-opener,” he explains.

“The pressure of putting revenue and big dollars before health and safety is an ongoing fight in logistics. Thankfully, there’s now a lot of emphasis on ‘the chain of responsibility’, which indicates spreading the legal responsibility to keep everyone safe. Now, it’s not just the driver’s problem – everyone involved in the freight movement has responsibility.”

However, rather than let the hard work and long hours break him, the challenge opened up an avenue to entrepreneurship.

“I thought if I’m going to work as hard as I’m working, then I want to be working for myself,” Leslie reveals.

“So I put my proposition on the table that I’m happy to continue the work, but I’m going to do it as a subcontractor, controlling my own hours and employing my own staff.”

And standing up for himself worked. “I was met with a little pushback but, ultimately, they became very supportive,” he confirms. “And I ended up not only running the logistics, but my employer became my first customer.”

Now, 18 years and more than 250 clients later, ECS Project Logistics is continuing to grow depots around Australia, making sure each is complemented by a professional workshop. According to Leslie, developing stronger abilities to conduct in-house maintenance as the fleet has grown was a natural next step.

“The growth of the mechanical ability within our company has been extremely beneficial, so much so that I decided to create a standalone entity called ECS Mechanical. The facilities, particularly in Adelaide and Brisbane, are first class and we’ve begun doing mechanical work for third-party contractors, ensuring their fleets are looked after,” he says.

Realistic sustainability

To continue its strong growth trajectory sustainably, ECS Mechanical is now establishing pathways for apprenticeship schemes, further developing its capacity to fit and maintain decarbonizing technology.

“Decarbonizing advancements and developments in hydrogen technology will be the heavy vehicle pathway to emission reduction,” Leslie explains.

“Electric works for inner-city carriers, but we are a national project logistics company, so our trucks venture into some of the most remote areas of the country. Currently, it’s not possible to pull triple road trains thousands of kilometers in remote Australia, relying on rechargeable batteries.”

ECS Mechanical’s vision is to become a leader in advancing the technological applications to current engine technology and enhance the lifespan of heavy vehicle diesel engines in the face of emissions targets.

“We need to be environmentally responsible but also realistic,” he says. “We must help the older generations of truck owners stay viable and competitive.

“With the rate of inflation in new truck cost and the general expenses involved to run transport in Australia, there is a real need to focus on sustainable development.”

While the rapid pace of digitalization has been a double-edged sword, pushing some heritage transport companies out of business, it’s also helped to provide ECS Project Logistics with the insights needed to move better, faster and stronger.

“Every truck and trailer in our fleet is now monitored on satellite tracking, and the data we can pull from that analysis of vehicle movements is brilliant,” Leslie points out.

“Understanding how our assets are performing is critical to maintain efficiency and compliance. It’s just so much better.

“These days, we have all this data at our fingertips and it’s absolutely fantastic. It’s like having a dashboard in the office that allows us to watch a large fleet of trucks perform and then pinpoint where the performance is falling off or doing extremely well.”

Not only does it help internally, but these insights are helping the company serve customers better as well.

“Our investment in technology, along with our work ethic, helps us go the extra mile for our clients,” he adds.

“While many competitors have begun specializing in palletized goods, bulk parcels and warehousing involving a lot of linehaul, we’re maintaining our focus on project transport, general and oversize, anywhere in Australia.

“We have a huge variety of trailers, staff skills and the capability to handle difficult and remote area jobs. In fact, we target the technical and strategically challenging jobs – the ones that keep you up at night thinking about how you’re going to do it.”