Online Ag co-directors Bryan Florence and Robert Bruns.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Online Ag is a local, trusted, asset management and rural real estate business, but its newest venture will corner the market in trucks and transport auctions.
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“We do handle the odd truck and trailer here and there with our multi-vendor auctions or in clearing sales, but we just reckon that there’s a gap in the market,” co-director Bryan Florence said.
“We’ve done a little bit of canvassing about how these bigger trucking mobs around here, where they dispose of their second-hand equipment, in particular, and a lot of them have to send them down to Melbourne, and they pay fairly exorbitant fees to run through the big auction houses down there.”
So they became the solution, providing a local place to sell equipment and vehicles.
“Country people helping country people is what we’re trying to do, that’s where we're coming from,” Bryan said.
“I’m a long-time resident of the area, and I've actually worked in the transport industry with trucking companies here in Shepparton and I understand the management of their assets.”
One of the benefits of going to Online Ag is that you can keep the item you’re selling right up until it’s dispersed.
“We obviously charge a fee for what we do, however, that’s a lot less than what it would be to lose the asset and go down to Melbourne,” Bryan said.
They’re accepting anything from tippers to commercial vans and are expecting their first auction to take place in late May.
“Rob’s been doing this for five years, and we’ve done 61 auctions, and that’s excluding clearance sales,” Bryan said.
“So we're not the new kids on the block, we’re a trusted platform.”
“Country people helping country people.”
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Online Ag co-director Robert Bruns is well versed in both the real estate and agricultural side of life.
“I've been in the real estate game since 2018, primarily focused on the rural side of things, more so than residential,” Robert said.
“I’ve been conducting online auctions, which was a spin-off from COVID-19 because we used to just run public clearing sales in the paddock, and we couldn’t do that because you couldn’t have public gatherings, so we had to move across to online, and it’s been successful, and we haven’t sort of looked away from that since.
“But prior to that, my background was agriculture, I was actually a farmer.”
He said one of the things he enjoyed most about the auctions was that he could stay “connected with the ag sector”.
Bryan is a Goulburn Valley man through-and-through.
“I grew up in Shepparton,” he said.
“I worked in the transport and mining industry for most of my life, and then I had the Dookie pub, so went from publican to real estate.
“I saw what Rob was doing and, and thought, ‘wow, this is great’ and I like the connection with the country people.”
Their first Goulburn Valley-based truck and transport auction will happen in late May.
For updates on their online auction, head to Online Ag’s Facebook and website, or to contact Robert and Bryan directly, call 5833 0221.
With dozens of auctions under their belts, Bryan Florence and Robert Bruns are ready to step into the world of trucking and transport auctions.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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