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Professional Driving Solutions With Bd14 Ltd

Thursday 27 November 2014, 5:33PM

By Nish A

2099 views

Karl George Burgess is the Operations Manager and Founder of BD14 LTD, a Manawatu based professional solutions company which was established in early 2014. Karl is from an extremely hard-working family farming background and was successful in buying his first farm by the age of 30. This farm held great significance, as it had been handed down through the generations of his family and was the land that he was brought up on and where he gained his dairy farming expertise alongside his father, George. While growing up on the farm, like most young boys, Karl had a love for big machinery, trucks, diggers and tractors. You name it, if it was big, Karl wanted to learn how to drive it!!

After High School Karl went on to Massey University to further his career, studying a bachelor of applied science extramurally, while working on the Massey #4 dairy unit as an Assistant Manager. While at Massey he was able to pick up a truck driving job to help fund his way through university and it was during his time driving that he saw a gap in the industry for quality drivers. However is would be some years before Karl would have the confidence to create a solution to the problem he had identified. After studying for four years, the opportunity to own the family farm arose and Karl made the decision to leave university and his truck driving job, and head back home. After extreme hard work farming his own farm and milking a heard of up to 600 cows, Karl began to gain the rewards from his farm until a very serious and devastating case of mastitis hit his herd in 2008. The cost of this was too great and eventually forced Karl to sell. It was during these hard times that Karl’s positive attitude was tested and his will to get back up after such a huge knock brought him back to the driving industry. Karl went back truck driving and soon realised that the industry hadn’t changed and that there was still the need for quality drivers and service. Once again, Karl’s work ethic and will to succeed became the determining factors in him creating something, and this is how he came to establish BD14.

BD14 has been developed to supply transport companies with high standard professional drivers. Karl believes passionately in delivering excellence to his clients and because of his supreme service and hardworking ethics he has seen BD14 grow and develop rapidly over its first 6 months. He has engaged with many local transport companies and is proud to now be the sole provider for two of the largest companies within New Zealand. When employing drivers Karl always looks for the drivers who show real pride in their work and take the time to go that little bit further. He believes that the success of BD14 is due to the passion and hard work of his “team mates” who all strive to deliver excellence. Karl never asks or expects his drivers to do anything he hasn’t already done. However he does expect his drivers to go that extra mile and deliver excellence to the customer.

Because of this, and good old fashioned ‘word of mouth’ BD14 has flourished. BD14 has now begun to expand out of the area and into the Wellington and Picton regions and also into New Plymouth. Karl has created BD14 to be a tight team effort and gives his drivers full credit for the success of his company. BD14 is now employing around 20 full time drivers and 10 part timers; however these numbers keep growing due to high demand.