Max Innovation

Behind the making of the largest LPG road tanker trailer in Australia and, possibly, the world is Peter Max, of Max Marmon fame

- Norman Chapman

As our feature on Marmon (October 2016 T&D) revealed, the American brand had a second life in Australia. This was down to transport entrepreneur Peter Max, who launched the truck as Max Marmon in 1995, selling 33 of them. His only regret is that he didn’t keep one of the trucks for himself. He has since tried to buy a used Max Marmon on the second-hand market but, as yet, has had no joy because the owners will not part with them.

You might think that as Max gets older, he might take things a bit easier. Far from it. He operates a business in Victoria, Gas Tank Hire, which hires out a small selection of bespoke LPG and cryogenic tankers built by the engineering wing of the business.

Max has had many ideas over the years, primarily to make the Australian road transport network better, more efficient and safer. In 1980 he pioneered the transportation of flammable, dangerous and corrosive liquids on the nation’s rail network in tank containers, a combined road-rail-road operation.

The unique equipment used was supplied by M1 Engineering in Bradford. “M1 was way ahead of anyone in the world at the time and is still operating today, a living credit to English engineering,” says Max.

He also found a niche in the marketplace and formed another company, Quad Skell Hire, which rents out skeletal trailers, transport tank containers and other ISO containers. The ‘Quad’ bit refers to the fact that the trailers have a four-axle set-up, not seen in the UK.

A decade in development