How to choose an interstate freight company: seven checks that separate carriers

Every carrier's website says "reliable". The word is free. If you're responsible for choosing an interstate freight company — running a tender, comparing quotes, or replacing a carrier that let you down — you need checks that can't be faked. Here are the seven we'd run.

1. Do they own the trucks?

Ask whether the trucks and trailers on your freight are the carrier's own, or subcontracted. Owned fleet means the carrier controls maintenance, drivers and schedule — and answers for all three. We run 50-plus late-model prime movers, 200 trailers and 50 dollys, all in our own green and white.

2. Who actually drives?

Employed drivers on a lane they know beat a rotating cast of subcontractors. On long lanes, ask how fatigue is managed — two-up teams that keep the truck moving legally, or a solo driver parked up while your freight waits?

3. Ask to see the maintenance regime

Breakdowns kill schedules. Ask when the truck carrying your freight was last serviced — and how often that happens. Our answer: every truck comes through our own workshop after each Darwin round trip, backed by a maintenance management scheme and TruckSafe accreditation.

4. Check the specialty freight authorities

If you ship anything refrigerated, dangerous or oversize, generalists become liabilities. DG carriage needs authorisation and licensed drivers; cold chain needs equipment that holds temperature for the whole lane, not most of it. Get the authority in writing.

5. Scheduled service or "when we can"?

A fixed timetable is a commitment you can plan around; an ad-hoc service is a hope. Our Sydney–Darwin express has left twice a week, every week, for decades — Tuesday and Friday.

6. Who answers the phone at 2am?

Freight moves at night. When something needs answering after hours, do you get a person with authority, or a ticket number? Call our depot and you're talking to the people who own the trucks.

7. How long have they run YOUR lane?

Anyone can quote a lane once. Ask how long they've run it, week in and week out. Lanes like Sydney–Darwin punish carriers who don't know them.

The shortcut version

The pattern behind all seven checks is the same question: does anyone at this company personally answer for your freight? When the family name is painted on every door, the answer can't be no. That's been our operating model since one man put the Scarcella name on a truck in the late 1960s — and it hasn't changed as his two sons grew the fleet.