It was no ordinary truck, with air conditioning units on the roof, and an equipment cabinet beneath the floor – was it an outside broadcast truck?

Photo by Enbytv, via Wikimedia Commons

But turns out it wasn’t – this barely readable logo on the side being the critical clue.

I eventually worked out that the ‘7’ was actually a stylised ‘V’, so the logo read ‘HatchTraveller’ – leading me to the website of a Dutch firm that specialises in chick hatching and transportation equipment.

They describe the trailer I saw as.

This extensive, high-capacity trailer is designed to meet the needs of larger poultry companies that already have a significant transportation need, or those looking to grow their business in the future.

Measuring almost 47 feet in length, the trailer is composed of nine sections. Together, these are able to accommodate up to 183,600 day-old chicks at any one time, making this one of the largest chick transportation systems available on the market. Having this additional square footage can allow poultry companies to consolidate their transport fleet: maximising the capacity of each trailer can result in fewer journeys, helping to reduce operations costs.

This HatchTraveller model is equipped with a hybrid power system as standard, which powers the trailer independently of the truck’s main fuel supply. We note that the charging range can be extended with the use of additional batteries.

So what was this “chick transportation system” doing in the back streets of Pakenham? The big unmarked warehouse down the road was probably why – run by chicken processor Ingham Enterprises.

Google Maps

So what does Inghams do in that warehouse? According to animal liberation groups it’s a chicken hatchery.

Footnote: so why was I there?

So why was I doing in the back streets of Pakenham?

It happens to be the same street that Ventura’s Pakenham bus depot is located on.

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