Building Good Foundations: Biltar & Isuzu Trucks

Residential construction is an integral part of our landscape, and no matter what crisis our country sees, housing infrastructure will always be needed. 

And for Ben Carr, a career in residential construction has always been the goal. 

After finishing his apprenticeship in carpentry, he leaped straight into a world that the brave do—business ownership. Ben established Biltar Pty Ltd, a custom house framing company based in south-east Melbourne. ​ 

Young and eager, the first thing Ben did, after his registration was completed, was run around to all the local job sites, grab numbers off the door and start ringing. And people answered. With the work locked in, he set out to hire a team of quality framers to maintain the impressive beginning Biltar had embarked on. 

Over the decade, Ben grew his team to 18 members, hiring not only experienced team leaders, but also taking in apprentices who would be trained up until they can run their own worksite. And just like the rapid growth in their team, Biltar also recorded stellar years, finishing 215 house frames in just one year. 

The COVID situation has not dampened their passionate approach to their work, though. 

Ben explained, “Because of the nature of our work, it’s been pretty much a business-as-usual approach for us. 

“When we work, we’re pretty spaced out, so there’s already that social distancing in place. We just keep doing what we do.” 

Ben attributes a lot of Biltar’s success to their Instagram account, which has allowed them to show off all of their latest builds, as well as give an insight into the team at Biltar, allowing prospective customers to build a relationship with the crew at Biltar before they even meet. 

On top of this, Biltar’s focus on quality and building good relationships with builders and clients has allowed them to work on multiple projects within the same partnerships. 

The sheer number of frames Biltar was constructing meant Ben needed to focus on having equipment that would improve business efficiency. And here the 2015 Isuzu NPR 55-155 Tradepack comes in, assisting in the transport of materials and tools between worksites. 

“Before this, I would never have been able to fit all of the timber and other materials onto the old trailer, but I can now with the NPR Tradepack,” Ben said. 

“If the timber needs to be moved by one of the other work crews but they can’t take everything, the truck can. So, it fixes those problems. 

“We’ve got a couple generators as well, which we can put in the tray and drop them off at other sites. The Isuzu’s ability to hold a lot of the equipment and materials has been a big benefit to the business.” 

The Tradepack’s GVM rating of 5,500 kg and GCM of 9,000 kg allows it to easily carry a load full of timber in its heavy-duty aluminium tray, giving Biltar the ability to improve workflow and reduce extra trips to the supplier or to jobs. 

Improving efficiency matters to Biltar, whether it be on housing estate projects or three million-dollar homes with tricky architectural structures and lots of steel—meeting deadlines is an important priority, and their Tradepack helps them achieve that. ​ 

Another feature of the truck Ben has found joy with is the genuine Isuzu bullbar, which he said has saved him from a couple of head-on collisions with rogue kangaroos around his home. ​ 

Ben said, “Unfortunately, I’ve hit a couple of kangaroos when driving the truck and thank god for the bullbar on the front… it’s saved me and the truck.”