Stock north, grower freight south, one Bruce Highway run
EZ Trans moves chilled and frozen freight between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, about 100 km up the Bruce Highway and roughly 75 to 90 minutes from our Kedron depot. We deliver into Kunda Park, Maroochydore and Caloundra, and use the return leg to backload produce from Sunshine Coast growers.
Freight on the Sunshine Coast lane runs in both directions, which is unusual for a regional route out of Brisbane. Northbound it is temperature-controlled transport feeding retail, wholesale and hospitality trade from Caloundra through to Noosa. Southbound it is pineapples, ginger, macadamias, small-batch dairy and smallgoods coming off the Coast and the hinterland for distribution in Brisbane.
EZ Trans plans the two directions as a single vehicle movement rather than two separate jobs. A truck that would otherwise come back to Kedron empty is a cheaper truck for a grower to load, and that is where most of the southbound work on this lane comes from. It also sets the trade-off honestly: backload freight travels on the run’s timing, not the grower’s.
From Kedron it is Gympie Road north to the Bruce Highway at Bald Hills, then about 100 km through Burpengary, Caboolture and the Glass House Mountains. Outside peak the drive is roughly 75 to 90 minutes to Caloundra or Kunda Park, and longer to Noosa or up the range. The Bruce is a single corridor with few alternatives, so an incident north of Caboolture has nowhere to send traffic except Steve Irwin Way.
Once you leave the highway the delivery points spread out, and that is what shapes the sequence. Caloundra, Kawana and Maroochydore come off at Caloundra Road and work north on the Nicklin Way and the Sunshine Motorway. Nambour, Yandina and Noosa stay on the Bruce longer and drop down the Nambour Connection Road or the Eumundi-Noosa Road. We sequence by corridor rather than by postcode, and carry dry and ambient freight on the same movement where it fits.
A vehicle that delivers into Maroochydore in the morning has to get back to Brisbane regardless. The driver, the fuel and the vehicle are already committed to that return leg and the load space is empty. Freight put on for the trip south is carried against a cost that has largely been paid already, which is why backload space is quoted differently from a dedicated run and why the lane suits growers moving modest volumes.
What a grower gives up is control of the clock. The southbound leg leaves when the northbound deliveries finish, so you get a collection window rather than a departure time, and the window moves if a drop runs long or the highway is blocked. Product also has to be palletised, labelled and already at temperature when the vehicle arrives, because a run on a window cannot sit on a dock waiting for a cool room to catch up.
Where timing matters more than cost we quote a dedicated southbound run instead. Where harvest arrives faster than orders do, refrigerated and ambient storage in Brisbane takes the pressure off the collection date, with order assembly available through our pick, pack and distribution work.
| Option | Who it suits | Control over timing | What you need ready |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southbound backload space | Growers and small producers with regular, modest volumes | Collection window set by the northbound run | Palletised, labelled freight already down to temperature |
| Dedicated southbound run | Time-critical loads and buyer or market deadlines | Departure time agreed at booking | Load ready at the agreed hour and a receiver in Brisbane |
| Backload into Brisbane storage | Harvest volumes that outpace confirmed orders | Flexible collection, release from store on instruction | Holding temperature and product specification confirmed |
| Northbound scheduled delivery | Retailers, wholesalers and venues taking Brisbane stock | A fixed slot in the daily run | Receiving contact and access details at the drop |
Two geographies overlap here. The trade side is coastal: Kunda Park and Kuluin behind Maroochydore, the Kawana Business Village and Birtinya corridor on the Nicklin Way, Warana, the Bells Creek and Aura estates at Caloundra South, plus Noosaville and Nambour. The production side is inland and higher: pineapple country around Beerwah and the Glass House Mountains, ginger at Yandina, dairy at Maleny and Kenilworth, and macadamias, avocados and small crops on the Blackall Range around Palmwoods, Mapleton and Montville.
The hinterland leg is the part most often underestimated. Range roads are slow, narrow in places and unfriendly to a larger rigid, so a Maleny or Montville collection is planned with a suitable vehicle and a realistic run time instead of being tacked onto the end of a coastal sequence.
Yes, and skipping it is the most common reason a load arrives out of specification. A refrigerated vehicle is built to hold a temperature, not to pull field heat out of a pallet picked that morning. Load a bin warm and the unit spends the trip fighting it, while the centre of the pallet may never come down at all. Pre-cooling belongs in the grower’s cool room, before the truck arrives.
The standards set the target rather than the method. Food carried under temperature control must be kept cold at 5C or colder, or hot at 60C or hotter, and the same limits apply through storage and transport, not only at the point of sale. For chilled produce that means the pallet should be at temperature when the doors open and stay there through every handling point on the way south.
Accreditation is worth checking on the grower’s side too. In Queensland, accreditation under the Food Production (Safety) Act 2000 is a legal requirement for certain activities, including transporting horticulture produce, meat, eggs, dairy or seafood, so confirm where your own operation sits with Safe Food Production Queensland before setting up a regular run. We plan the run around the handling and temperature requirements of the freight, and the Australian Cold Chain Guidelines, released by the Australian Food and Grocery Council in 2017, are a useful reference for handling, transport and storage practice.
Volume is not even across the year. Southbound freight follows harvest, so strawberries, pineapples, ginger and macadamias each bring their own weeks of pressure. Northbound freight follows visitors: the Coast fills through December and January and in every school holiday block, which lifts cafe, restaurant and grocery ordering at exactly the time the Bruce Highway is busiest and roadworks north of Caboolture bite hardest.
Wet weather is the other variable. Summer storms across the highway corridor and the range roads can cut access to a hinterland property for a day, and chilled product with a short shelf life does not wait well. We work to conditions on the day and talk to you early rather than let a load sit. Our post on warehousing and supply chain efficiency covers how storage absorbs that kind of shock, and you can book a collection or delivery once the timing is settled. Other regions we run to are listed under our service areas.
Heading south it is the Bruce Highway to the Gympie Road exit at Bald Hills, then about ten minutes through Chermside to Kedron. Our depot sits at 2/21 Castle Street, a short turn off Gympie Road. Allow 75 to 90 minutes from Caloundra outside peak, and read the directions to our Kedron depot before a first delivery.
Every area we cover is listed on the service areas index.
Caloundra and Kunda Park are about 100 km from our Kedron depot, roughly 75 to 90 minutes up the Bruce Highway outside peak. Noosa and the hinterland towns add time, and the range roads to Maleny or Montville add more again. An incident on the Bruce north of Caboolture affects everything behind it.
A backload is freight carried on a return leg the vehicle is already making. After a northbound delivery the truck has to come back to Brisbane, so driver, fuel and vehicle costs are committed either way. Filling the empty space spreads the cost of the trip, which is why backload space is quoted below a dedicated run.
Yes. A refrigerated vehicle holds temperature rather than removing field heat, so produce should leave your cool room already at its carrying temperature. Pallets loaded warm may never reach specification in the centre, and the temperature limits apply to the load right through transport, not only at the destination.
Yes, provided a vehicle can get in and turn around. Farm and packing shed collections around Beerwah, Yandina, Palmwoods, Maleny and Kenilworth are part of the southbound work. We ask about the access track, the hardstand and where pallets will be staged when quoting, because those details decide the vehicle we send.
Often, though not always efficiently. Caloundra, Kawana and Maroochydore sit on one coastal corridor, while Noosa and the hinterland sit further north and inland. Where volumes justify it we sequence by corridor and run them separately, which gives tighter delivery windows than forcing every drop onto a single vehicle.
Send us the pickup and delivery points, the product, the temperature it holds at and how flexible your timing is. If a backload suits your volumes we will say so, and if it does not we will quote a dedicated run.
