SEW-EURODRIVE standardises its Australian material handling fleet with Toyota forklifts to boost efficiency and visibility.
A well known manufacturer of gearmotors and frequency inverters is partnering with Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA) to improve the operational efficiencies of its Australian business.
SEW-EURODRIVE has a warehouse footprint across Australia to service a variety of clients and currently uses a fleet of more than 30 Toyota forklifts, walkie stackers, and pallet movers to assist with its operations. The company’s national procurement manager, Fred Pizzicara, has been with the company for nearly three decades and has more than 20 years of experience with TMHA products.
Starting with Toyota walkie stackers, SEW-EURODRIVE has been slowly transitioning from multiple material handling providers to exclusively TMHA, with a goal of standardising its fleet to a single provider in the next 1-2 years. Fred says that SEW-EURODRIVE stood to gain from a standardised material handling fleet, with benefits to operational efficiency and servicing, coupled with Toyota’s I_Site telematics fleet management system.
SEW-EURODRIVE’s warehouse, supporting daily materials handling and inventory movement.
“That’s the endgame; to have a fleet that is serviced by Toyota and, where required, have the I_Site program,” says Fred.
With a fleet that spans across Australia’s major cities, having I_Site available to track equipment usage and accidents has been helpful for Fred. TMHA has a history with fleet management systems, allowing customers to track and manage the usage of their machines.
“From a very long time ago, at least 15 to 18 years, Toyota always had a system that you could jump on and see what’s happening with the units and their hours,” Fred says.
“TMHA’s visibility has always been ahead of the rest, so there’s more to it, particularly through the I_Site program,” says Fred. “Our compliance team has access to it, and so do I.”
Fred explains that if one of the operators has an accident, the truck goes into limp mode and the team must contact TMHA so it can be checked first to ensure it is not severe. If it is something simple, TMHA enters a code and allows the truck to continue operating. Choosing Toyota forklifts is down to multiple different advantages for SEW-EURODRIVE, from durability to compatibility and servicing.
“I think their after service, aftercare is better – they’ve got some programs that come with the machines, which are not offered by other companies,” Fred says.
“I find Toyota forklifts a bit more robust and can handle a little bit more. And because we deal with European skids in a lot of our assembly facilities, the Toyota unit is a lot more user-friendly for what we do.”
SEW-EURODRIVE has experience with reach and counterbalance forklifts, walkie stackers, pallet movers, favouring Toyota’s battery electric units for indoor use and LPG power for the larger units working mostly outdoors.
Fred and his team have formed a strong relationship with TMHA major account manager Leigh Odermatt, who has worked with SEW-EURODRIVE for years on their transition to Toyota equipment. Fred said Odermatt has helped in both arranging new orders and answering questions and also putting together a national service agreement for SEW-EURODRIVE, which will see all equipment serviced under the same account.
“We’ve always had a really good relationship – I throw a lot of things at him and he’s always onto it,” Fred says.
“He’s actually the one who’s helping with the national service agreement, which is not easy because there are plants all across Australia.
That national service agreement, which covers all existing units across Australia, brings everything under a single service framework. Fred points to the breadth of TMHA’s service network and the depth of experience among its technicians as key factors, noting that consistent access to knowledgeable technicians supports reliability and continuity across sites.
According to Fred, the servicing experience to date has been strong. He highlights the value of having regular technicians who understand the site and its operations, and says he expects those relationships to continue developing as the national footprint expands, with local familiarity maintained in each region.
“I’m extremely happy. For me, it’s more about the happiness of the staff using it,” he said.
“We’ve standardised here in Melbourne on a few models, but in other plants, I asked if Toyota could send out some rentals so they could get a feel for them, and so far I’ve had no bad feedback, so everyone has loved what they’ve played around with.
“I think having less downtime is what all businesses try to achieve, and having reliable machinery that can do the job is important. I think Toyota and SEW are a great partnership and hopefully it keeps growing as we grow.”
