Ronald Campbell
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2006.
Ron Campbell was one of the pioneers of refrigerated transport in Australia. He was the first employee of FrigMobile which was founded by Kevin Marheine and, whilst Ron was not a business owner, he was in a unique position to work with Kevin and forge the new concept of refrigerated transport. He held the title of Manager for FrigMobile.
FrigMobile was the pioneer of the Refrigerated Transport Company in Australia and it has many firsts in the industry to boast about.These include pioneering vehicle operations between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and between Melbourne and Devonport with the roll on, roll off principle on the Princess of Tasmania and the Bass Trader. They also helped pioneer the piggyback system between Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie on rail.
Later, their Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth run was the first mechanically refrigerated containers carried by rail and they also introduced the first pallet handling system into cold stores across the country. As it expanded, the business quickly spread into the more remote regions of Australia including to Katherine and Darwin hauling export meat to southern markets, up to the Gulf of Carpentaria and far north Queensland to haul export quality prawns back to Brisbane.In 1965 Kevin Marheine sold FrigMobile to the Swire group and both men commenced Charter Freightlines & Storage Pty. Ltd. in 1967.
Kevin retired in 1972 and together they had worked for over 20 years developing Refrigerated Transport and its concepts. The new company, Charter, was founded on the premise of providing a fresh seafood service between the north coast fish co-ops of NSW and the Sydney fish markets. Under Ron's leadership, with the assistance of FTE, Charter pioneered the introduction of 14.9 metre refrigerated trailers, which is now the standard for single trailer frozen-food transport.Ron has served on various road transport committees, on his local council and as an executive member of the NSW Road Transport Association.
