In 1908 Captain Charles Dyer purchased the Paddle Steamer ‘P.S. Royal’ and commenced transporting people and cargo along the Murray River between Renmark (S.A.) and Morgan. The second generation entered the industry when Charles’ Son Walter Leo Dyer returned from armed service at Gallipoli and purchased the Paddle Steamer ‘P.S. Arcadia’. He then began transporting goods, in particular fire wood for the steam engine irrigation pumps, along the Murray. The paddle steamer industry faced increasing competition from the rail transport industry and the fast growing road transport industry which soon took it’s toll. The ‘P.S. Acadia’ was run up on a bank of the Murray and stripped for it’s timber.
In 1930 Walter Leo Dyer took the philosophy that ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ and went into the road transport business with his brother Dick. The business doubled each year and by 1932 the brothers were running 8 trucks. The transport industry, with ever expanding roads, was competing vigorously with the Government owned railways and to address the problem the South Australian Government passed a bill to restrict competition. Overnight it became illegal to compete against the railways for freight between Adelaide and Renmark. In return the brothers were paid compensation. providing they agreed not to transport contraband freight.
Dick converted his four vehicles to tipper bodies and carted gravel for the ever improving road network. Walter Leo looked for greener pastures in Victoria, which was regulated to protect rail also, but to a lesser degree. He purchased the ‘Gippsland Transport’ arm of the large ‘Wimmera Transport’ and relocated to Sale (Vic). He soon purchased the other local carrier ‘Hoy’s Transport’ (Maffra) and rationalised the fleet. The Victorian Government issued licences to transport particular products that did not suit the rail network, such as perishables.
The business suffered greatly during the Second World War with nearly all the vehicles being taken for the war effort, and those that weren’t were struggling for sufficient fuel to continue operating. After the war Walter Leo’s eldest son, Chas Dyer assisted in re-establishing Dyers as one of Gippsland’s largest transport companies. Later the Chas’ younger sons Doug and Graeme joined the organisation. Today the organisation is owned jointly by Graeme Dyer and the fourth generation being three sons from left Greg, Scott, and David. In over 90 years since the initial transport pioneer Dyers has remained a dynamic and growing company to become an expert in distribution. Dyers has strong strategic relationships with clients such as. Dyers now operates a fleet comprising of more than 150 items of road registered equipment and employs more than 60 full time employees. n peak times this full team is complimented by up to 20 casual employees and up to 10 subcontractors.
Recent growth in revenue and fleet has been attributable to the expansion of our contract distribution relationships with customers, and the expansion of our customer relationships to include other geographical areas within Victoria. Our diverse and important customer base allows us to provide synergies not available to companies who operate their own distribution fleet. Another important part of our diversification is that no single customer represents more than 10% of our Total Sales Revenue