Moving home or business even within the same city can be a stressful experience, let alone relocating to the other side of the world – fortunately companies such as Palmers Relocations make the process a lot easier…

The company’s roots in the industry are interesting. Founders Greg Palmer and his two brothers began a domestic relocation service in the 1980s, and as the children of prominent antique dealers, the trio fast developed an excellent reputation for the extra care and attention they took while handling their clients’ precious furniture and collectables.

Several decades on, Palmer Relocations now employs over 100 staff, and operates 40 trucks from its Laverton, Melbourne site.

Company Business Director and part owner, Kieran O’Hara, said although the business still offers local and domestic relocations, most of the company’s recent growth had been in global relocations, a service it began providing about five years ago. 

“The move to extend our services to include an overseas offering has been extremely positive – we identified a niche in the market and focused on areas where we believed we could provide a better service than competitors, and we haven’t looked back.” Kieran said.

“A lot of the appeal in using Palmers Relocations is that we have an enduring presence in the industry and our employees view what they do as a career not just a job – our care and attention to detail is also second to none.

“Another benefit is that we offer complete solutions to customers by providing associated services to help them make the big move as easy and seamless as possible; these include storage solutions, transport and pet relocation, home cleaning, valet unpacking service, international money transfer and more.”

As part of a recent fleet renewal program, three new IVECO trucks have made it onto the Palmers Relocations fleet, a Stralis 360 ATi (360hp and 1,500Nm) 4x2 prime mover, X-WAY 360 (360hp and 1,650Nm) rigid and most recently, a Eurocargo ML160 rigid with 280hp and 1000Nm of torque.

Kieran was keen to begin transitioning the fleet from Japanese trucks to European produced IVECO, to access the brand’s added refinement, comfort and safety benefits – it’s a move that’s paying dividends with excellent feedback from drivers as well as a reduction in fuel consumption compared to their predecessors.

“The drivers and I really like the IVECOs – the added comfort was immediately noticeable, yet the power is there, they have torquey engines, good weight distribution and are also great on fuel,” Kieran explained.

“We also like the look of the trucks, they’re stylish and modern and help present our business in a professional light.”

The IVECO trucks are primarily used to take containers to port, with the Stralis hauling 20 or 40 foot skel trailers while the rigids are set-up to carry a single 20 foot container and tow a pig trailer if required. 

For ease of use, the trucks all feature automated manual transmissions which make them easier to manoeuvre and save on clutch wear in heavy traffic. 

Despite experiencing some challenging times during COVID which restricted population movements and workflow, Kieran said the business had shown resilience maintaining all employees, and was now eyeing further growth.

“We’re continuing on a steady growth path and exploring new opportunities, while maintaining the strong core values that have made the business successful for so many years,” he said.

“We look forward to more IVECO vehicles joining the fleet in the coming months, and are also very pleased to continue our strong relationship with selling dealer Adtrans.”