NZ Truck & Driver September 2020

NZ TRUCK & DRIVER

FREE GIANT TRUCK POSTER LIFTOUT

| September 2020

September 2020 $8.50 incl. GST

FLEET FOCUS BIG TEST No bull from Blake | FLEET FOCUS Living Ian’s fun-loving legacy | FEATURE Trev’s testing times

Living Ian’s fun-loving legacy

FEATURE Trev’s testing times

The Official Magazine of the

Issue 238

NO BULL FROM BLAKE

ISSN 2703-6278

Celebrating 3 0

Thank you to all our am for your co

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CONTENTS Issue 238 – September 2020 4 Aeolus News

The latest in the world of transport, including….Scania buys Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz dealer Trucks & Trailers; 30 months of change that rocked and intrigued the industry – the background to the Scania/Trucks & Trailers deal

24 Giti Tyres Big Test

At 24, Blake Rickaby’s at the wheel of NZ’s first Euro 6 DAF XF. The only thing is….he’s a bloke who loves Kenworths. Ah well, at least it means this livestock driver therefore shapes up as a man likely to deliver a nobull opinion on the new DAF

41 Transport Forum

Latest news from the Road Transport Forum NZ, including…..future government policies for greening the freight task must include financial incentives; everyday overthe-counter medications can impair your driving; one driver learnt first-hand that trains travel faster than you think

48 Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus

Marlborough operator the late Ian Higgins’ legacy lives on – in a trucking company like few others. Renwick Transport is now run by

MANAGEMENT Publisher

Trevor Woolston 027 492 5600 trevor@trucker.co.nz

Advertising

Trevor Woolston 027 492 5600 trevor@trucker.co.nz Hayden Woolston 027 448 8768 hayden@trucker.co.nz

EDITORIAL Editor

Wayne Munro 021 955 099 waynemunro@xtra.co.nz

Editorial office Phone

PO Box 48 074 AUCKLAND 09 826 0494

Associate Editor

Brian Cowan

CONTRIBUTORS

Recognising NZ’s best-looking truck fleets….including a giant pullout poster of this month’s finalist

FEATURES

87 Recently Registered

64 Southpac Trucks Legends

For more than half a century in engineering – half of that time with Williams & Wilshier – Peter Withington has managed to stay under the radar. Until now….

66 Trev’s testing times

In over 30 years, NZ Truck & Driver publisher Trevor Woolston has test-driven over 300 trucks – most probably including every make sold here since 1985. Now he’s announcing his enforced retirement from the enviable job

REGULARS

New truck and trailer registrations for July

COLUMNS 81 NZ Heavy Haulage Association

Operators shifting oversize loads need to know the rules, to ensure they’re compliant

83 Road Transport Association NZ

Transport infrastructure spending has to be a top priority

85 National Road Carriers Association

79 Truck Shop

To help you decide who to vote for in the General Election, here’s some critical questions to ask about our political parties’ attitudes to key trucking industry issues

New products and services for the road transport industry

Gerald Shacklock Dave McLeod Olivia Beauchamp

ART DEPARTMENT Design & Production Luca Bempensante

Zarko Mihic EQUIPMENT GUIDE AUCKLAND, NORTHLAND, BOP, WAIKATO, CENTRAL NORTH ISLAND Advertising Trudy Woolston

027 233 0090

trudy@trucker.co.nz AUCKLAND, LOWER NORTH ISLAND, SOUTH ISLAND Advertising Hayden Woolston

80/ PPG Transport Imaging 81 Awards

two of his daughters….in the same style as Ian – with lots of laughs, respect and a love of family

027 448 8768 hayden@trucker.co.nz Dion Rout 027 491 1110 dion@trucker.co.nz

ADMINISTRATION Sue Woolston MANAGER accounts@trucker.co.nz SUBSCRIPTIONS

NZ subscription price

ADDRESS Phone Freephone Postal Address Street Address Web

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Contributions: Editorial contributions are welcomed for consideration, but no responsibility is accepted for lost or damaged materials (photographs, graphics, printed material etc).

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Copyright: Articles in New Zealand Truck & Driver are copyright and may not be reproduced in any form – in whole or part – without permission of the publisher. Opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by, the publisher.

NZ Truck & Driver Magazine

PRINTING & DISTRIBUTION Printer Bluestar Retail Distribution Ovato Publication: New Zealand Truck & Driver is published monthly, except January,

by Allied Publications Ltd PO Box 112 062, Penrose, Auckland

Net circulation – ended 31/03/2019

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Truck & Driver | 3

NEWS

A sign of the new era that’s emerged from over two years of changes: Keith Andrews Trucks’ Hamilton operation shows off a fully-integrated Daimler Trucks range

An end to the intrigue?

By Wayne Munro, The Editor

SCANIA’S PURCHASE OF LONGTIME FREIGHTLINER and Mercedes-Benz dealer Trucks & Trailer’s heavy commercial business may have finally ended not just one….but two major developments/disruptions that have rocked and intrigued the New Zealand new truck industry over the past two and a half years.

On the one hand, there’s been the evolution of Scania establishing itself in NZ, starting on January 1, 2019 – taking over from 28-year representative CablePrice the responsibility for importing, distributing and selling Scania trucks and buses, and for parts and business services.

A deal was struck though for CablePrice to be Scania’s key provider of aftersales service and in-service support to customers, through its existing network.

At the same time as Scania began building its own NZ presence, there have been fascinating manoeuvrings involving Daimler Trucks’ representation in NZ, triggered by the announcement in late 2017 that it would replace its own NZ operation with a local distributor.

At the time it seemed reasonably clearcut that either North Island Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz dealer Trucks & Trailers or longtime FUSO dealer and recently-appointed distributor, Keith Andrews Trucks (KAT), would get the role.

But for more than two years there was no appointment.

Then, late last year, in a surprise announcement, Trucks & Trailers said it had bought South Island Daimler Trucks dealer Prestige Commercial Vehicles – fulfilling “an important objective” in its plans to be “a leading heavy and light commercial vehicle supplier across NZ.” One interesting/unusual spinoff of the deal was that Prestige sold FUSOs along with Mercs and Freightliners….and thus it was in a way, working for its rival, the KAT Group.

Soon after, it was announced that KAT had been appointed an authorised Freightliner dealer for the North Island – in addition to its Mercedes-Benz dealer status in Northland and the Waikato, and its FUSO representation in Northland, Auckland and the Waikato.

Thus KAT and Trucks & Trailers were now head to head competitors 4 | Truck & Driver

in selling Freightliners and Mercs in the North Island.

In February came two more bombshells – the announcement from Daimler Trucks Australia that Prestige Commercial Vehicles’ 11-year Daimler Trucks’ representation in the South Island would end on April 1…. with former Scania distributor CablePrice appointed the new dealer.

Fuso NZ (part of the KAT group) also announced that its South Island FUSO representation was shifting from Prestige….to CablePrice.

It left many in the industry wondering what would become of Trucks & Trailers – seemingly out of favour with Daimler Trucks and with a South Island operation in place without a major truck make to its name.

Now we know: First came the announcement from Scania NZ, on August 11, that it will end its relationship with CablePrice as an approved service dealer…..in August 2022.

A two-year notice period is part of the termination agreement, so it will be “business as usual with CablePrice dealerships for the immediate future,” said Scania NZ MD Mattias Lundholm.

He added, a little mysteriously, that “we will be making a further announcement very soon to provide more information and timelines around Scania’s future presence in NZ.” Scania NZ, he said, is “about to enter a very exciting period. It is time for us to take things to the next level. Scania is a premium brand with a focus on customer service and delivery to match. We are moving forward with great anticipation and confidence.”

A day later, there were rumours of the Trucks & Trailers buyout. Two days later, the deal was confirmed.

So….after two and a half years of intrigue, let’s sum up: The longtime Scania rep (CablePrice) has become a leading player in Daimler Trucks’ representation in NZ…..Scania has taken over its own show….and the dealer (Trucks & Trailers) that was once NZ’s leading Freightliner and MercedesBenz seller, has gone to Scania....while a dealer that used to be a FUSO specialist (KAT) has expanded its sales region – and is selling the full Daimler Trucks range. T&D

Scania buys Trucks & Trailers

NEWS

Celebrating the deal are, from left: Trucks & Trailers owners Shannon and Mark Wright, Scania NZ MD Mattias Lundholm and Trucks & Trailers founder and director Don Wright

SCANIA HAS MADE A HUGE MOVE IN DEVELOPING its presence in New Zealand, with the purchase of the heavy commercial arm of longtime Daimler Trucks dealer Trucks & Trailers.

In a “multi-million-dollar” deal, Scania NZ – with the backing of its global HQ – is to take over the business of seven Trucks & Trailers service centres around the country.

The purchase is “one of Scania’s most significant investments in our global structure this year,” says Scania executive vice president – head of commercial operations Mathias Carlbaum.

On top of the seven Trucks & Trailers sites, Scania will establish an additional workshop in Rotorua.

Carlbaum says NZ especially appealed for an investment of this scale, adding: “During these challenging times, we are taking an important step in our business commitment in NZ, where we see capacity for growth within its local market, to support our NZ customers.”

Scania NZ commenced business on January 1 last year and has been building its presence since then – but managing director Mattias Lundholm says the Trucks & Trailers acqusition is “a massive vote of confidence for the growth and direction of the brand.

“We have increased our market share by 100% in the last year, and now acquiring these centres significantly expands Scania’s footprint across the country. Just as important this move also underlines our commitment to our customers and provincial NZ. “Globally, Scania has the biggest retail presence of any truck manufacturer – now NZ is proud to be following in those footsteps.”

Lundholm says: “This expansion will lift Scania’s stable of nationwide dealerships to 30, and almost treble its current number of employees to a

team of more than 190.”

The deal will become effective from November – with rebranding of the service centres completed before then. In the interim, Lundholm says, Scania customers will continue to be supported by Scania’s independent dealers across its existing network.

He says this deal also represents, and allows for, what will be a significant investment going forward by Scania NZ into the provincial communities where the acquired service centres are located.

“Beyond that, this is also a business decision that sends a powerful message to other global brands about the attractiveness of NZ Inc, with its comparatively strong fundamentals – especially given what is currently happening around the world.”

The deal has been characterised by Trucks & Trailers as it “joining forces” with Scania – owner Mark Wright saying that the company, which has been in existence for more than 30 years, represents much more than a business to his family.

The family, he adds, is “delighted to have been acquired by a premier brand like Scania.

“One of our key motivations for considering this opportunity was to build on what Trucks & Trailers have already proudly achieved in the last 33 years. It is clear our business philosophies, culture and aspirations are very well aligned, and Scania NZ provides the scale and infrastructure to continue this on our behalf over the next 30 years and beyond.”

Lundholm says it was also important for Scania to align with a business that shares its values towards its people, customers and community – and Trucks & Trailers is an ideal fit: “Customers are very happy with Trucks & Trailers and the work they do. The industry sees them as a benchmark.” T&D Truck & Driver | 5

This is Japan’s most advanced truck.

The new FUSO Shogun sets new standards in efficiency, comfort and safety.

— Efficiency The new 10.7 litre engine is available with 400 or 460 horsepower and, coupled with the new 12-speed ShiftPilot transmission, gives effortless power that is tailor-made for New Zealand conditions. The OM470 engine is more efficient, giving less fuel consumption and extended oil change intervals.

— Comfort The new Daimler-inspired seat has an integrated seatbelt and improved ergonomic cushioning. Add to this easy-to-use steering wheel switches and a new Silent Cabin Package and you get unprecedented levels of driver comfort.

— Safety Shogun’s new advanced safety features are based on world-class Daimler technology and take trucking safety to a new level. Shogun is fitted with Active Attention Assist - a driver monitoring system using an infrared camera which monitors the driver’s face and eye closure. It also features Active Emergency Braking, Lane Departure Warning and Adaptive Cruise Control.

— New 7” Touchscreen and Reversing Camera Featuring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for safe, hands-free communication and navigation via smartphone.

The new FUSO Shogun is a game-changer designed to get you home safely, night after night. Check it out at fuso.co.nz/shogun

We look after our own

NEWS Members of the TR Group Australia team – from left to right: David Kelly, Anthony Blight, Kim Kelly, Adam Kennedy and Eddie Reinsma

TR Group extends brand to Aussie TR GROUP HAS EXTENDED ITS BRANDING TO ITS Australian truck and trailer hire operation.

Semi Skel Hire, the Melbourne-based trailer rental company TR bought in July last year, has been renamed TR Group Australia – a name that’s more in keeping with its plans to go nationwide.

In its first year in Australia,TR has expanded the 1300-strong trailer-only fleet to now include 45 new prime-movers and 20 fully-permitted high-productivity A-Double and Super B combinations.

In February it opened a Brisbane branch close to the port and is scheduled to open a new 75,000 square metre site in Melbourne this month.

The Australian operation was operating as TR Semi Skel Hire, under the leadership of TR Group’s Chris Perry, who moved to Australia to take up the role.

He declares himself “absolutely delighted with all the hard work done by the team over the past year” and says “the time is right for TR Group to become known in its own right across Australia.

“We bought a fantastic business in Semi Skel….that was extremely wellknown here in Melbourne as a great trailer hire company. As we expand beyond Melbourne and add trucks to our fleet, we feel the time is right to be clear about who we are and what we can offer to the Australian transport industry.”

“TR Group has grown steadily over the last 30 or so years in New Zealand, on the back of being the best we can be at renting and leasing trucks and trailers.

We couldn’t have done that without a great team and the support of our fantastic customers. Our aim is to try and build a similar business across Australia showing the same level of service and expertise so we can all be successful together.

“We appreciate these are tough times for everyone in Australia and NZ, but our aim is to be ready for our customers with quality gear at competitive rates whenever and wherever we’re needed. If we can do that, I’m confident customers will see the benefit in what TR Group has to offer for all of their heavy commercial short-term and longterm needs.

TR Group’s 28-year-old business now boasts a fleet of 7000 heavy commercial rental and lease vehicles and a team of 200 staff across Australia and NZ. T&D

KAT adds Detroit to its portfolio THE KEITH ANDREWS TRUCKS portfolio continues to grow - the group announcing that, in addition to its FUSO, Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner representation, it is now also an approved parts and service dealer for Detroit in Hamilton, Auckland and Whangarei.

The appointment is the latest in a list of recent additions to a KAT stable that it says makes it New Zealand’s largest commercial vehicle dealer.

CEO Aaron Smith says the business is now well positioned for growth: “There have been a lot of changes to the business over the past 12 months –

KAT CEO Aaron Smith at the KAT Hamilton site. Smith says KAT’s inclusion as an approved Detroit dealer adds further weight to its position as a Daimler specialist

by far the biggest being the loss of its founder Keith Andrews. I think Keith would be pretty happy with the progress that’s been made. There is still a lot of work to do to achieve his aspirations – and that’s what drives us each and every day.”

Smith adds: “Detroit are a cornerstone of the Daimler product and KAT’s inclusion in the manufacturer’s approved dealer network adds further weight to its position as a Daimler specialist.

“Now, across the top of the North Island, Keith Andrews Trucks is the one-stop shop if an operator is looking for a Daimler solution.” T&D Truck & Driver | 7

NEWS

The TMC Trailers Hamilton facility is purposebuilt for repairs, servicing, inspections and engineering work

TMC opens Hamilton branch CHRISTCHURCH-BASED TR AILER manufacturer TMC has opened a new truck and trailer service and repair facility in Horotiu, Hamilton.

The centrepiece of the purposebuilt complex is a 1400 square metre building which offers drivethrough service bays, a 24m CoF inspection pit and two five tonne gantry cranes.

As well as being able to provide CoF and VCA inspections, the TMC team will be undertaking

repairs and servicing on all makes and models of truck decks and trailers. LT400 certification of repairs is available onsite, while the complex has extensive parking for trucks and trailers.

Along with TMC’s existing Auckland and Christchurch service centres, the Horotiu operation is able to provide a complete range of engineering and service work as well as CoF/ VCA inspections – providing a one-stop shop for operators.

TMC director Richard Currie says he’s excited to see the new facility in operation: “With easy access just off the Waikato Expressway and close to the Ports of Auckland Waikato freight hub, its location is ideal to help support our growing North Island customer base.

“Along with our Auckland and Christchurch workshops, it means we are now able to provide the best customer backup and support of any trailer manufacturer in New Zealand.” T&D

Smallbone Isuzu sold THE SALES DIV ISION OF MID-SOUTH CANTERBURY truck dealer Smallbone Isuzu has been bought by another South Island company, Oakwood Motor Group.

Dealerships in Ashburton and Timaru are included in the sale.

However, Isuzu service and parts activity in the region will continue to the handled by ACL Smallbone, established last year when Ashburton Contracting bought Smallbone’s service division.

Oakwood is a major player in the South Island automotive field, with the long-established Blackwells, Cooke Howlison and Arthur Burke dealerships already in its portfolio. The Smallbone acquisition increases its holdings to 13 car and truck dealerships employing 340 staff, with the Smallbone locations now added to sites in Balclutha, Dunedin, Cromwell, Christchurch and Amberley.

Oakwood group managing director John Marsh says the decision to purchase the Isuzu truck franchise was part of the company’s strategic plan for developing its successful Isuzu truck business in the South Island: “We are very pleased with the acquisition of the Timaru and Ashburton dealerships, which complement our existing Isuzu master dealerships in Christchurch and Dunedin.

“The purchase is also a show of confidence in the Mid and South Canterbury economies and the exciting future for Isuzu Trucks, which 8 | Truck & Driver

has been New Zealand’s No. 1-selling truck for 20 consecutive years.

“The market for truck sales seems pretty buoyant and we see this purchase as an opportunity for growth in the region.”

The sale will benefit existing Isuzu truck customers, says Smallbone board chairman, Craig Carr: “They will have access to a larger team of sales experts and stock throughout the region and will continue to receive best-in-class sales support from the wide network of staff available, and the world class service and parts facilities ACL Smallbone has created in both Ashburton and Timaru.”

He adds that the purchase affects only the sales division of Isuzu trucks at Smallbones and will not affect many staff members.

Smallbones has been a household name in Mid Canterbury for more than a century. Brothers Harold and Frank Smallbone opened their first garage in Ashburton in 1919, and secured the agency for Chevrolet and General Motors vehicles in 1930.

Christchurch-based Blackwells goes back nearly as far – established in 1923. It has franchises for Isuzu trucks, Mazda and Holden.

Cooke Howlison is older than both, being founded in 1895 in Dunedin. The business was purchased by the Marsh family in 1963, and has franchises for Isuzu trucks, Toyota, Holden, Hyundai and BMW. T&D

NEWS

Dangerous road a “disgrace” The Napier-Taupo road – a critical link in the North Island’s state highway network – is in a deadly dangerous condition, says Leggett THE DEADLY NAPIER-TAUPO ROAD HAS BEEN slammed as “a national disgrace” by Road Transport Forum CEO Nick Leggett.

In the past 12 months, he says, eight people have died on State Highway 5, which connects the central North Island with Hawke’s Bay and, importantly, Napier Port.

Leggett recently drove the road in company with Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst, deputy mayor Tania Kerr, and truck driver Antony Alexander, and was disturbed with what he saw: “At points where there have been fatal accidents we stopped and observed how vehicles handled potholes and the uneven surface.

“Not to put too fine a point on it, the surface is rubbish, Both in summer and in winter, it lacks traction, making it like an ice rink for cars and trucks. This is down to the engineering and design of the road surface.

“It has been so patched up it looks like a patchwork quilt, and this makes the surface even more dangerous, as vehicles bounce around and drivers lose control.

“The type of seal used is affected by the temperature variations the area experiences. Using the inappropriate bitumen mix is a primary contributor to flushing and the chip seal not sticking to the base.”

The lack of adequate runoff areas on the road, poor shoulder design, and steep shoulder gradients often exacerbate the problem for trucks that might arrive suddenly at an accident scene and are forced to take evasive action, he adds.

The RTF has drawn the attention of local New Zealand Transport Agency representatives to the situation on many occasions, and has even written directly to the Minister of Transport – so far to no effect, says Leggett: “We are calling for NZTA, as a priority, to concentrate on resealing SH5 and, where required, redesigning dangerous parts of the road.” T&D

End-of-life tyre regulations welcomed A GOVERNMENT MOVE TOWARDS regulations that will put the responsibility for end-of-life tyres on the industry, has been welcomed by Tyrewise, which has been lobbying for the move.

“This will end illegal stockpiling and dumping, which has over time cost both ratepayers and the environment heavily,” says Adele Rose, chief executive of 3R Group, the project managers for Tyrewise.

She says the move has been long-awaited by the tyre industry, which saw stakeholders establish Tyrewise in 2012 to push for the introduction of an industry-led framework for a

regulated stewardship scheme.

“However successive Governments failed to make use of the tools available to regulate endof-life tyres.”

The July announcement by Associate Environment Minister, Eugenie Sage, was part of a wider plan to reduce the amount of rubbish ending up in landfills – by establishing regulated product stewardship schemes for plastic packaging, e-waste, refrigerants, agrichemicals and their containers and farm plastics as well as tyres.

Rose says: “The key impact of regulated product stewardship is ensuring there is a level playing

field for all manufacturers and distributors, without the negative impact of free-riders who choose not to participate in a voluntary scheme.”

A proposed Tyrewise regulatory scheme has an advanced disposal fee built into the cost of tyres, which will be used to fund the scheme, says Rose: “It is critical that people understand this is not an additional fee for consumers but replaces the existing disposal fees charged by most tyre retailers without any surety of good environmental management at end of life.”

Sage said that NZ’s 15 voluntary product stewardship schemes have had limited success in minimising waste. T&D Truck & Driver | 9

NEWS

Daimler e-trucks clock up big Ks DAIMLER TRUCKS’ BAT TERY ELECTRIC Innovation Fleet of medium-duty and HD trucks – Freightliner eCascadias in North American and Mercedes-Benz eActroses in Europe – have now clocked up big mileages of silent, emissions-free operation….in real-world applications.

In the United States, 30 trucks – eCascadias and eM2s – have run more than 300,000 miles (500,000 kilometres) in the past year, working in the fleets of the giant Penske Truck Leasing and big Californian container carrier, NFI. “Co-creation with our customers is a cornerstone of Freightliner’s unique approach to the market,” says Daimler Trucks North America senior vice president, on-highway sales and marketing, Richard Howard.

“The knowledge and expertise our logistics customers have in fleet operations with their thousands of trucks is invaluable as we design and engineer the zero emissions future of the commercial vehicle.

“Crossing the threshold of 300,000 miles of testing, then one million

miles, then more – together – before we begin series production of battery-electric trucks will ensure we deliver the performance and reliability our customers count on and which has made Freightliner the undisputed leader in commercial trucks.”

The eCascadia is scheduled to begin series production in mid-2022, with the eM2 following later that year.

Meantime, in Europe, a similar (but smaller) testing programme – which has seen 10 customers using the eActros on daily working runs for about a year – is now going into a second phase.

Eight new customers around Europe are now each receiving an eActros, which they will run (along with two of the first-phase operators) for the next year.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks head of marketing, sales and services, Andreas von Wallfeld says that the test trucks have so far clocked up “hundreds of thousands of kilometres electrically.

“The findings from the first phase have made a valuable contribution to the planned start of series production next year. We are now testing

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NEWS

Two of the 30 eCascadias in work around the US our electric truck for its suitability in everyday use with new customers from various sectors in Germany and abroad.”

One finding is that the range of the eActros of around 200kms has been proven realistic – regardless of load, route or topography.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks says that the eActros “is in no way inferior to a conventional diesel truck in terms of availability and performance in urban traffic, on highways or on overland routes.”

The cooling system for refrigerated units and the aircon – both

electrically operated – functioned without any limitations in both extreme heat and winter conditions.

And, Merc adds: “Drivers are very pleased with the continuous availability of torque across the entire speed range. They also particularly mentioned the truck’s quietness in operation and the pleasant, smooth driving experience. Furthermore, if the truck is driven with foresight, electrical energy can be recovered through recuperation, ie motor braking. It is then rarely necessary to use the brake pedal.” T&D

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NEWS

Volta etruck for London trial An artist’s impression of the Volta Zero, at work in London for parcel delivery giant DPD

THE VOLTA ZERO, RECKONED TO BE THE WORLD’S first purposebuilt, full-electric 16-tonne delivery truck, is to begin a trial in London next year.

The partnership between Scandinavian startup Volta Trucks and DPD, the United Kingdom’s biggest parcel delivery service, will see the etruck work inside London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone.

DPD UK’s Olly Craughan, says that the Volta Zero is “an ideal fit for our urban logistics strategy,” which has seen the company establish allelectric parcel micro-depots in London in the last 18 months.

The company recently announced that it now has over 700 fully electric vans in its delivery fleet – achieving its 2020 target of going 10% electric.

Says Dwain McDonald, DPD’s CEO: “We know retail customers

want this and the reaction on the doorstep is great.”

Volta Trucks CEO Rob Fowler says that the Zero, designed and built to deliver parcels and freight in inner-city locations with demanding air quality and noise pollution challenges, is perfectly suited to the task in London.

The driver sits in the centre of the cab, with a much lower seat height than a conventional truck and better visibility of pedestrians and cyclists.

A glasshouse-style cab design also gives the driver 220-degree vision, minimising dangerous blind spots.

Adds Fowler: “Its full-electric drivetrain also offers near-silent operation, meaning DPD will be able to utilise the Volta Zero in the centre of London in an efficient 24-hour operation.”

The Zero has a 150-200 kilometre operating range. T&D

Roadside drug testing bill welcomed THE INTRODUCTION OF A BILL that will give Police the power to carry out random roadside drug tests on drivers has been welcomed

by Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett.

“We commend Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter and Minister of Police Stuart Nash for the introduction of the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill,” Leggett says.

“Once passed, it will allow Police to test if drivers are under the influence of drugs, on the roadside, just as they do now for alcohol.

“We have been lobbying for some time for the introduction of adequate roadside drug testing, as drivers on drugs present an increasing risk to our professional drivers.”

Leggett says that in 2019 103 people died in 12 | Truck & Driver

New Zealand road crashes, in which “the driver was later found to have drugs in their system: Unfortunately, this is an upward trend and is surpassing those killed with excess alcohol in their system.

“Those of us in the safety sensitive industries are very concerned about this Government’s plans to legalise recreational cannabis, so it is imperative some steps are in place to ensure employers can meet workplace health and safety laws. This is one step in that direction.”

Leggett points out that truck drivers are in the unique position of sharing their workplace – NZ roads – with the public.

And, he adds: “While the road transport industry follows workplace health and safety laws to ensure drivers are not drug impaired – with extensive

testing regimes, including pre-employment, random and post incident/accident drug testing – there is no guarantee that those they’re on the road with won’t be impaired by drugs, as there is no adequate testing regime for them.

“Overseas, there is roadside drug testing, but until now there has been a reluctance in NZ to introduce oral fluid tests to quickly check drivers for drugs such as THC (cannabis), methamphetamine, opiates, cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy) and benzodiazepines, which are the high risk drugs and medications used by drivers in NZ.” The RTF hopes that the Bill “will be high on the list of legislation to progress once the next Government is formed. We have a ridiculously high road toll in NZ and drug use is a big contributor.

We need to do something about it.” T&D

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NEWS

Nikola has landed a 2500 truck order for an electric waste collection truck

Nikola wins huge waste etruck order ELECTRIC TRUCK STARTUP/UPSTART NIKOLA SAYS it has secured a milestone order for 2500 electric refuse trucks from Republic Services.

The trucks will be based on the Nikola Tre battery electric tractor units, which are to be built by IVECO – in a partnership announced six months ago.

Republic Services – the second-biggest recycling and refuse collection operator in the United States, with a strong commitment to zero-emissions vehicles – has an option to expand the order to 5000 trucks.

Nikola, which is also championing an ambitious plan to build hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks for long-distance freight haulage – and a network of hydrogen refuelling stations to keep them running – says it will start full production of the electric refuse trucks in 2023. Onroad testing will likely begin in early 2022.

The refuse trucks are expected to have up to 720kWh of energy storage and a range of 250 kilometres or more. The powertrain software will be

limited to 1000 horsepower/745 kilowatts, allowing it to outperform current diesel and natural gas competitors.

Nikola founder and executive chairman Trevor Milton says because the huge order allows Nikola to share the same platform, the same batteries, controls, inverters and e-axles as the Tre tractor unit “we can drive the cost down for both programmes…”

Nikola CEO Mark Russell says the order is “a game changer,” in that refuse truck customers have traditionally ordered chassis from truckmakers and bodies from other suppliers: “Nikola has fully integrated the chassis and body, covering both with a single factory warranty. Trucks will include both automated side loaders and front-end loaders — all of which will be zero-emission.”

The order is the biggest so far for electric rubbish trucks in the US – Milton saying that the deal may eventually be worth $US1billion-$2bn.

Nikola has said that it has more than 14,000 orders for its hydrogen fuel cell trucks, which are due to go into production in 2023. T&D

Roadside drug testing bill welcomed THE INTRODUCTION OF A BILL THAT WILL GIVE Police the power to carry out random roadside drug tests on drivers has been welcomed by Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett.

“We commend Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter and Minister of Police Stuart Nash for the introduction of the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill,” Leggett says.

“Once passed, it will allow Police to test if drivers are under the influence of drugs, on the roadside, just as they do now for alcohol.

“We have been lobbying for some time for the introduction of adequate roadside drug testing, as drivers on drugs present an increasing risk to our professional drivers.”

Leggett says that in 2019 103 people died in New Zealand road crashes, in which “the driver was later found to have drugs in their system: Unfortunately, this is an upward trend and is surpassing those killed with excess alcohol in their system.

“Those of us in the safety sensitive industries are very concerned about this Government’s plans to legalise recreational cannabis, so it is imperative some

steps are in place to ensure employers can meet workplace health and safety laws. This is one step in that direction.”

Leggett points out that truck drivers are in the unique position of sharing their workplace – NZ roads – with the public.

And, he adds: “While the road transport industry follows workplace health and safety laws to ensure drivers are not drug impaired – with extensive testing regimes, including pre-employment, random and post incident/accident drug testing – there is no guarantee that those they’re on the road with won’t be impaired by drugs, as there is no adequate testing regime for them.

“Overseas, there is roadside drug testing, but until now there has been a reluctance in NZ to introduce oral fluid tests to quickly check drivers for drugs such as THC (cannabis), methamphetamine, opiates, cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy) and benzodiazepines, which are the high-risk drugs and medications used by drivers in NZ.” The RTF hopes that the Bill “will be high on the list of legislation to progress once the next Government is formed. We have a ridiculously high road toll in NZ and drug use is a big contributor. We need to do something about it.” T&D Truck & Driver | 15

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NEWS

The eCanter SensorCollect is intended to go about its waste collection duties autonomously, overseen by the driver walking alongside it. It can be told to follow him, for instance

Driverless electric rubbish truck demonstrated FUSO HAS SHOWCASED ITS LATEST AUTONOMOUS truck developments with a demonstration of a new self-driving eCanter waste collection truck.

The FUSO Future Innovation Lab event at FUSO’s Japan HQ unveiled the eCanter SensorCollect concept truck – intended to make waste collection safer, more efficient and environmentally friendly.

An operator walking alongside the truck can control it remotely, through a wireless HMI (human machine interface).

The eCanter, equipped with LiDAR, ultrasonic sensors and high-accuracy GPS, can autonomously and safely perform remotely transmitted commands.

As instructed, it can follow the operator, drive around obstacles and stop immediately if a person or object comes in close proximity.

The FUSO eCanter SensorCollect is the outcome of a new development

approach, which has aimed “to encourage innovative product ideas that address social needs and challenges.”

To that end, FUSO organised workshops with Japanese and overseas universities and collaborated with technology startups – the approach generating 100 potential ideas.

FUSO senior VP and head of product engineering Avdogan Cakmaz says: “Creating innovation is one of the major pillars of research and development at FUSO, as it decides longterm market leadership.

“We will continue to develop innovative products to address customer and societal needs with our advanced technologies.”

The platform for the autonomous waste truck, the all-electric FUSO eCanter, is now in use in Japan, Europe and the United States – with 160 examples so far on the road. T&D

Wellington truck ban will cause economic harm A PROPOSED BAN ON TRUCKS ON Wellington’s so-called Golden Mile (the route formed by Lambton Quay, Willis Street, Manners Street and Courtenay Place) could seriously harm the city’s economy, Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett warns.

It’s his response to a report by Let’s Get Wellington Moving (a joint initiative between Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council and the New Zealand Transport Agency) that, among its proposals, suggests that trucks and other delivery vehicles should be banned

from the area.

The report ignores the significant impacts on commerce the plan will have and creates a greater public safety risk, says Leggett: “It shows a complete lack of understanding of how the city’s commerce works. By suggesting freight delivery vehicles will have to be parked some distance away from the receiving site, drivers and delivery people will be expected to move the goods lengthy distances along pavements – while being mindful not only of their own health and safety, but also of the apparently many cyclists and pedestrians using the same space.

“Wellington is not some European city with wide open spaces and plazas and equally wide thoroughfares. The Golden Mile is Wellington’s primary inner-city arterial retail canyon. It is narrow and that presents problems for the delivery of goods, not just to retail stores, but to coffee shops and restaurants, and high-rise offices and apartments.

“The side streets that have been delegated for delivery vehicles are totally unsuitable and will involve reversing and other manoeuvres that will compromise safety.” T&D Truck & Driver | 17

NEWS New valve tech can slash fuel use A U NITED KINGDOM AU TOMOTIV E ENGINEERING research company believes its intelligent valve technology (iVT) system can cut fuel use by 5% in a typical heavy truck engine.

And, as an added bonus, Camcon Automotive says its system requires vastly simpler and less expensive exhaust aftertreatment systems to meet emissions regulations.

For a typical New Zealand truck, travelling 150,000km per year at an average of 2.1 kilometres per litre, the fuel saving would represent around $4800 worth of diesel in 12 months.

Camcon Automotive iVT takes the concept of variable valve timing to a level beyond existing systems, by offering virtually infinite control over lift and duration. In its design, every valve has an individual cam lobe and shaft, turned by its own digitally-controlled electric actuator.

This means lift and/or duration can be seamlessly varied for optimal efficiency under all conditions, while exhaust gas recirculation, ondemand cylinder deactivation and engine braking can be easily accomplished without extra hardware.

In multivalve heads, the variable operation of individual inlet valves can be set to precisely match a cylinder’s instantaneous breathing demands, introducing swirl or tumble (or a hybrid of both conditions) to the incoming air.

A key feature of iVT, says Camcon, is that it doesn’t require a redesign of an engine’s cylinder head, so the size and shape of ports and valves remain standard. Roller follower arms enable desmodromic

k c u k r c T u r r u T o Y Your

operation (positive opening and closing), meaning that conventional valve springs can be dispensed with.

In a heavy vehicle diesel engine, says the company, catalysts can be maintained at their optimum operating temperature over a greater proportion of the drive cycle and, while iVT cannot eliminate aftertreatment equipment entirely, it can reduce its size, cost and weight. For instance, thanks to the system’s greater optimisation of emissions control, a truck would not need to use as much AdBlue.

Neil Butler, technical consultant for Camcon Automotive, says iVT is effectively breaching a final frontier in internal-combustion technology: “All key combustion process parameters have been under digital control for some time now. But breathing has been stuck under the control of increasingly complex but essentially mechanical variable valve train systems. iVT is as big a leap forward as the change from carburettors to electronically controlled fuel injection.

“Another factor to consider is that heavy duty trucks require long ranges as well as rapid unloading and loading – so electrification is a lot further away than it is in the passenger car industry. We believe iVT can reduce running costs, dramatically improve emissions and require no change to the current refuelling infrastructure.”

Looking even further into the future, Camcon Automotive’s vision is to incorporate a suite of software that allows iVT to be calibrated through machine learning, combining hardware and software in one package, resulting in the most optimised internal combustion engine yet – the fully digital engine. T&D

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NEWS

CDS managing director Bert Hayden (left) and Keith Andrews dealer principal Erwin Stolze at the combined CDS parts and service and KAT sales multi-brand Daimler dealership in Mt Maunganui

New Tauranga FUSO parts, service dealer CENTR AL DIESEL SERVICES (CDS) HAS BEEN appointed the authorised Fuso New Zealand parts and service dealer in Tauranga.

It replaces Truckline Services, which has handled FUSO parts and service work in the area for the past four years.

CDS is already an authorised parts and service dealer for MercedesBenz and Freightliner trucks, so its appointment provides further alignment of Daimler brands into a cohesive network, says Fuso NZ managing director Kurtis Andrews.

“We are already seeing the benefits of a fully integrated Daimler network across the country, through Keith Andrews Trucks in the North Island and CablePrice in the South Island, where the three lead brands of FUSO, Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner are serviced by the same operation.

“Daimler has very stringent standards and expectations of its dealers.

A unified network ensures consistency of technical training, parts supply and, most importantly, customer service.”

Andrews thanks Truck Line Services for its support and explains that

the change of representation is “more strategic than a direct reflection on its operations.”

CDS, a family-owned operation run by Robert (Bert) Hayden and wife Debbie, has been servicing the Bay of Plenty heavy transport industry for 25 years.

It operates from two purposebuilt facilities in Mount Maunganui – one Hull Road site with six drive-through bays, including two full-length pits and brake rollers. It also provides onsite CoF testing in association with VTNZ. The company has also recently opened an engineering division along Hull Road, allowing it to cater for the growing demand for the likes of new truck fitouts, truck and trailer repairs and maintenance. Also housed at the location is Keith Andrews Trucks’ new Tauranga sales office.

As well as Mercedes Benz and Freightliner trucks, CDS also currently holds service and parts agreements for Detroit and Cummins engines, BPW and Jost.

The introduction of the FUSO brand completes a service and parts offering that now covers all the Daimler Group brands. T&D

“Safest” Hino 300 Series arrives A NEW HINO 300 SERIES LIGHTduty truck has been launched in New Zealand – with the claim that it is NZ’s “safest light-duty Japanese truck.”

The newcomer offers “class-leading levels of safety, comfort and efficiency while also delivering benchmark levels of on-road performance,” says Hino NZ. Its package of safety features includes collision avoidance and lane departure warning systems – utilising technology from Toyota.

Hino NZ says that the new 300 Series “boasts maximised power and performance,” with options for four-litre or five-litre commonrail turbo diesel 20 | Truck & Driver

engines that “deliver an ideal combination of power and efficiency.”

It says also that “superior levels of interior ergonomics….improve the driving experience” – with an improved dash layout and new steering wheel controls.

Hino NZ general manager Darren Salt says the new 300 Series “will make a significant impact in the light-duty truck market, giving a safer, more efficient and more comfortable option for NZ drivers and operators.”

The new model is available around the country for customer test drives. T&D

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The bullbar, the front panels and grille on the Volvo FH16 show the force of the impact....and some of its cooling package was moved. But the truck was able to drive on for another 18 hours

A high-steaks Oz test TORTURE-TESTING TRUCKS IN THE AUSTR ALIAN outback is popular with the Brisbane-based Volvo Group Trucks Technology team – not only for its Australian models, but also on behalf of Volvo and Mack engineers from around the world.

But the renowned Outback challenges went next level recently – when the usual heat, dust, heavy gross weight and rough road tests were joined by a spooked cow….

In what Volvo is terming a “high-steaks” encounter, the GTT engineers testing a European-spec Euro 6 16-litre engine in a Simons National Carriers Volvo FH16, discovered “just how much damage a Volvo FH can handle…and still get the job done.”

The night-time collision occurred on the Barkly Highway, in the Northern Territory, as the 131-tonne triple roadtrain combination was heading for Darwin.

The big hit damaged much of the cab structure ahead of the engine… and even relocated some of the cooling package.

Post-collision, the two drivers onboard inspected the damage – and were amazed to see that no coolant had been lost and the major components of the cooling system remained intact.

So they carried on – for another 18 hours….all the way to Darwin, where the load was delivered before they headed to the local dealership for repairs.

It was, as Volvo Group Australia notes: “No mean feat for a badly damaged vehicle.” The FH16 needed a new cooling package, including the air-conditioning condenser and gearbox cooler. Bent front cab shock mounts were also replaced – along with an electrical repair to the throttle assembly.

Once back in Brisbane the truck received further repairs in the form of a new Wild-bar and some new panel work.

But all checks confirmed that “the impact with over half a tonne of bolting beef failed to damage the chassis or steering components of the FH. Not a bad testament to the strength and durability of the Volvo FH at all.” T&D

Knorr-Bremse changes NZ representation TRUCK BR AKING, CONTROL AND drive assistance systems giant Knorr-Bremse has changed its New Zealand representation.

Knorr-Bremse Australia announced last month that BPW Transport Efficiency would no longer be supporting Knorr-Bremse OE trailer product from August 1.

“Aftermarket Knorr-Bremse and Bendix product continue to be available in NZ through

distributors including Commercial Transport Spares (BPW AM), Truck and Trailer Parts/ BNT and Multispares.

“Knorr-Bremse OE trailer product continues to be available through Truck and Trailer Parts/ BNT.” At the same time, Knorr-Bremse announced the appointment of Paul Chandler to the role of technical sales manager – NZ: “Key aspects

of this role include providing a local presence for OE trailer manufacturers and to provide factory support for technical, training and warranty matters.”

Customers who have purchased KnorrBremse OE trailer product from BPW Transport Efficiency “can contact KnorrBremse directly for any technical or warranty concerns.” T&D Truck & Driver | 23

New Zealand’s first Euro 6 DAF XF heads away from the Glen Murray farm where it’s picked up 38 cattle destined for....Bulls

24 | Truck & Driver

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OU GET THE DISTINCT IMPRESSION THAT IF 24-YEARold Helensville truckie Blake Rickaby had been doing the choosing, his new truck would be a Kenworth. Yep, maybe a K200 like the one his Mum drives.

It means that this second son in the heavily trucking-oriented Rickaby family (Dad Craig drives a Freightliner Argosy bulk tipper for Neville Brothers in Silverdale, where he’s worked for over 25 years, Mum Shiralee drives for West Auckland operator Richie Malam and older brother Dylan steers a Scania tipper for Winstones), shapes up as a man likely to deliver a no-bull opinion on his new stock truck – which just happens to be New Zealand’s first Euro 6 DAF XF. The OnRoad Transport driver is just three weeks into his new drive – carting livestock around the North Island in the nine-axle XF HPMV unit.

So, what does this Kenworth devotee think of the brand-new 8x4 DAF XF 530 FAD? “We don’t hate the truck, put it that way,” Blake says as he loads 38 $1000 per head Angus steers onto the truck and five-axle trailer at a farm in Glen Murray, west of Te Kauwhata in the northwestern Waikato.

He‘s going to be taking the cattle on a six-odd hour drive south, all the way to (the appropriately-named) Bulls. So we’ve got a bloke who knows trucks…and knows what he likes, a brand-new truck to NZ, the sun is shining and the countryside is stunning. It’s a great day for a long truck ride (even if it is a Sunday).

The DAF’s tall Space Cab sits proudly above the farm track road and ORT’s colour scheme – Datsun Green (a light olive shade) and contrasting silver, white, black and darker green stripes, with white stock crates, bearing green stripes – looks great against the backdrop of rural NZ. Blake’s been with OnRoad Transport for around 18 months, driving an older 620hp Scania until the XF arrived. In two full weeks he and dog Rose (who travels in a dog box below the truck) have clocked up around 5000kms moving stock around the country.

With near on 24 tonnes of cattle now checked and loaded – a process that Blake says is just “commonsense,” we climb on board and set off.

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by

The DAF has a tare weight of 11,500kg, the Jackson Enterprises trailer sits at 10,100kg, so we’re at around 45,600kg all-up (well below the DAF’s 70t GCM rating and the ORT unit’s plated 49t HPMV permitted maximum), as Blake gets us onto Highway 22.

The DAF quickly takes itself up the box to 12th gear, with the 16-speed TraXon 16TX2640 OD automated manual’s Eco mode turned off. At 58km/h, the 390 kilowatt/530 horsepower PACCAR MX-13 12.9-litre engine revs out to 1600rpm – close to the point where it produces peak power (1675rpm, to be exact).

As the speed edges up to 60k the TraXon changes up to 14th and the revs drop to 1300, Blake says he thinks the AMT is “a little bit high-geared – so they’ll have to re-ratio the diffs, because in Eco (mode) it will lug itself down to around 900rpm before it’ll change down. And by the time it does that it’s lost all its momentum and all its guts.”

ORT owner Don Wilson agrees that for the work it’s doing, the XF possibly does need a diff ratio change: “It’s working a bit higher up in the revs. It’s better to be running at 1400-1500 at 90km/h.”

The DAF’s first decent challenge of the day comes almost immediately after we turn right onto Glen Murray Road – a testing 16-kilometre stretch of windy and undulating tarmac that will take us through to Rangiriri. The first hill knocks us back to ninth gear, at 20km/h – the MX at 1300rpm.

With a truck and trailer full of stock Blake is relatively conservative in his driving, explaining: “Especially in the first part of the journey, I need to get them to settle down – let them find a place to stand and whatnot.

“These cattle are quite boisterous….always a bit angry.” I don’t blame them: It’s a Sunday. I’m pretty angry too!

Blake explains his driving style: “You approach the corners without trying to touch the foot pedal, so you don’t have to corner too hard and brake. That’s when the cattle fall over.

“And they’ll still be full of grass. It’d be like you having a milkshake and a burger and going on a roller coaster! That’s what I tell all these farmers – if you get your cattle in a little bit earlier they travel a lot better.”

Truck & Driver | 27

Main picture: OnRoad Transport had the first Euro 5 CF85 in NZ and owner Don Wilson liked the idea of also having the first Euro 6 XF Top, left: Thirty-eight of these guys are loaded into the Nationwide stockcrates

Top, right: Blake Rickaby is from a trucking family, so he knows trucks....and he knows what he likes

On a hill, the TraXon drops down to 10th, 1400rpm and 30k on the climb, then we descend at with the MX-13 engine brake in its second stage – our speed holding at 30km/h in ninth gear, with the engine spinning at 1700rpm. Blake selects the 3rd stage, bumping the revs to 1900.

In a short span the TraXon shifts back up to 12th, 13th….then downshifts to 11th. Blake says this is the sort of situation where he goes into manual mode: “I’ll keep the revs up a bit higher and I can hold that gear, ‘coz you’re slowing down so much for the corners you don’t really need it to change.”

He’s mainly holding it in 11th, letting the revs fluctuate between 1400 and 1800 and keeping the speed around 40km/h.

Maintaining a smooth line through the twisting corners however, he sometimes drops down to 10th. In Manual mode, the gearchanging is just as quick and smooth as it is in Auto.

The road tightens through a series of S-bends that leave Blake unfazed: “It’s tarseal so it’s classed as a good road – compared to other roads we go on.” In places the lane departure warning system that’s part of the XF’s safety suite, beeps a few times.

Blake’s comfortable on the DAF Super Air driver’s seat….without its air suspension engaged: “I’m so tall anyway, I don’t like sitting up too high. I’d look like a real bus driver! This seat’s comfy without it…. that and the cab suspension.”

The XF rides on Michelin 275/70R

28 | Truck & Driver

22.5 tyres (on Alcoa Dura-Bright alloys), suspended on parabolic springs on the front and rear air suspension. The cab has mechanical suspension.

Blake reckons the steering is really light and cornering is good but says that it leans: “It’s just about getting used to the bigger cab and the cab roll. It’ll lean quite a lot as it goes around the corner.”

On a descent Blake drops down to 10th gear, the revs rising to 1800: “If I was in auto and on the third stage, it would bring the revs up to 2100/2200 – apparently that’s where the engine brake works the hardest.

But if I leave it in auto it’s changing up and down too many times. It gets a bit frustrating.

“I’m one of those drivers who prefers manual. Nothing beats a gearstick. It’s peace of mind that it’s in that gear and going to stay there.”

As we crest another hillclimb in 11th gear, at 40km/h and the MX-13 revving at 1300, the cab is really quiet.

There’s very little noise coming through from the engine bay.

“That’s the biggest thing that’s taken me a while to get used to,” says Blake: “Not being able to hear the truck. It’s almost like driving a flash car – just how quiet it is. The engine doesn’t feel stressed on any of the corners.”

Unstressed as it is, the MX-13 isn’t what Blake would have chosen: “I’ve always wanted a Kenworth. I like horsepower.”

It doesn’t help his attitude to the DAF that he climbed out of the 620 Scania and into

the XF: “I can’t really compare the last truck’s horsepower to this, because you’re coming out of something with a V8 and with a retarder and everything. It’s all a big learning curve. But it is what it is.”

It has to be said that the Euro 6 MX-13, with its 390kW/530hp and 2600 Newton Metres/1917 lb ft of peak torque (available from 1000 to 1460rpm) seems to be coping just fine.

And Blake looks pretty relaxed behind the wheel – up for the six-hour drive (including a break en route).

He’s been driving trucks for six years now, having done two years working in earthmoving – driving bulldozers and the like.

“I tried to tell myself that I’d never be a truck driver but…we made it here,” he laughs.

How come he’s chosen livestock cartage? “I suppose you’ve got to love your job – because who wants to come to work, get covered in shit and get rained on!

“But it’s the change of scenery, the physical work. You’re always going somewhere new, you’re not just staying on the tarseal all day. You’re in and out all day…. and you’ve got to deal with the animals.”

He also believes driving livestock trucks requires more concentration than linehaul or general cartage: “I’ve done a bit of bulk trucks before – but that load doesn’t move.

These things here, they’re moving around, they’re shaking around and you’ve got to try and keep them on their feet. You’ve got to be aware of them as you’re driving, ‘coz if one of them dies on the truck then Don’s insurance has got to pay for it.”

“It’s almost like driving a flash car – just how quiet it is.”

Truck & Driver | 29

Clockwise from above: The XF offers DAF buyers a bigger, more spacious cab than the little-bro CF; the leather-wrapped steering wheel frames a stylish dash display; a sharply-raked dash turnout puts controls within easy reach

He says wryly that he doesn’t get attached to livestock: “I like eating them. You can’t get attached to them, ‘coz you’re going to all these plants and seeing them in the pens.”

But he does take their welfare while they’re in his care seriously – pulling over near Rangiriri to check on the cattle and Rose (the dog).

She pokes her head out of the box as we walk around the truck and trailer.

Says Blake: “That’s her house – she’s with me every day and she’s about six years old. She loves it there. You can’t leave her at home for a week – she’ll tear the back yard apart. She’s been a truck dog since a pup.”

The Nationwide stockcrates are the same as Blake had on the Scania, so he’s used to working with them. The truck is three-deck sheep, two-deck cattle and the trailer is four-deck sheep, two-deck cattle, with fold-up handrails.

Like his Kenworth preference, Blake has a favourite load as well: “Sheep are easier. I’d cart sheep around every day.” But mostly his loads are cattle.

And that’s better than it might be: “I hate carting dairy cows.

Stubborn old bitches!”

He reckons that the new livestock transport rules are definitely making the job harder. It means that sometimes it forces drivers to refuse to carry some animals: “You’ve got to make that call (about whether or not cart them) – and sometimes the farmers get a bit shitty.

“But they’re not paying the fines. The secret is not to second-guess it: If you don’t think it’s suitable for the drive just say no. You try to 30 | Truck & Driver

check them all, but you don’t study them or anything. The animal has got to be standing on all four feet – not limping or anything like that.

If it’s looking all skin and bone then you don’t take it. If there’s any issues we just have them (the farmers) call Don.” As if the moving load, the need to focus and the demands of being a wannabe vet aren’t enough, Blake needs to think about keeping the truck and trailer clean too! “If you’ve got time at the end of the day and you’re near a hose you can wash out then…or either back at the yard, or some plants have got facilities.

“It maybe takes a couple of hours if it’s really bad. But you throw the wet weather gear on and you’ll be right.” He adds with a laugh: “We won’t quibble over spilt milk. It’s only a bit of green grass really.”

With the roadside check over, we get under way again and Blake shows that he’s very au fait with the tech in the XF – happily scrolling through the menus and calling out things like the AMT mode, speed info, vehicle info, air supply and so on.

“There’s a warning light about the rear fog light and that’s due to Don changing them to LEDs and the system not recognising the lack of current draw.”

Blake thinks that the dash and instrument layout is pretty much the same as the old DAFs and doesn’t think that the cab interior overall has changed that much: “I had a bit of a play in Don’s old XF (105) with the manual box and it’s about the same.”

In terms of controls, the park brake is unmissable on the dash and the gearshift controls are on the steering column: Pull up to change up and vice versa to change down. Pull towards you for the engine brake. And it’s all on the one stalk, right beside the leather-covered

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Clockwise, from top left: Blake gets in a bit of exercise, manually jacking the cab; good grabhandles each side, a wide-opening door and three good steps make for easy access into the cab; a large flat mirror on top and smaller convex mirror work well and don’t create a bad blindspot; lockers above the windscreen and drawers under the bunk provide good storage...and (in one drawer) a fridge

TD30901

steering wheel.

ORT runs EROAD on the unit and Blake is a fan: “It saves me having to get out of the cab in the rain and checking the hubo. I’ve got a dashcam too, just ‘coz there’s idiots on the road that do dumb things to you.”

Overall, Blake concedes that the new DAF is smarter and more comfortable than the old Scania…..but on the other hand, the XF doesn’t have as much horsepower and the engine brake isn’t a matcher for the Scania’s retarder.

Don says that he’s talked to DAF distributor Southpac Trucks about one shortcoming with the engine brake on the inline six MX-13 – the fact that, if you leave it switched on, it doesn’t automatically disengage when you put your foot on the throttle pedal.

He reckons that initially the older DAFs couldn’t do it either – but Southpac did some work and figured out how to do it, so believes they’ll be able to “work it out” for the new Euro 6 truck.

There is another braking shortcoming, by Blake’s judgment – the lack of a trailer brake control: “Because we’re butting-up so much, we’re always trying to slide the drawbar underneath – and when we’re on uneven terrain it makes it hard.

“At the moment you’ve got to either lightly put your foot on the foot pedal and it’ll try and lock the trailer brakes on, or I use the top part of the handbrake.

“With the automatic, you’ve got your foot lightly on the brake and then you’re trying to accelerate. I think the computer says ‘what are you trying to do? You wanna stop or you wanna go?’

“I think Southpac is trying to sort out a switch that’ll get into the brain and lock the brakes on the trailer. Other than that, it does the job.”

Don Wilson agrees with Blake: “It’s good to have either a pull button to lock the trailer brakes in, or a hand control. Again, Southpac are looking into it. Because if you’re playing with the brake system you’ve got to do things correctly. We can buy a (DAF) CF85 with a hand control – so, to me, it shouldn’t be a biggie.”

This job often involves Blake jumping in and out of the cab a lot and he reckons the access is good. He’s right: The three steps up are wide and well-spaced and there are good grabhandles front and rear.

Best of all, he reckons: “It’s got a place to leave my jandals on the step, so I keep the shit on the outside of the vehicle.”

Visibility is all good too, he says: “It’s like a fishbowl. There’s heaps of window, plenty of vision and a pulldown blind that covers the full length of the windscreen for when the sun comes up.”

The rear-vision mirrors are the usual flat and convex pairing – heated and with electric adjustment. There’s also an overhead on the left-front corner.

As Blake puts it: “Visibility all round in this bus is good. I call it a bus as I feel like I’m a bus driver. I can’t hear the truck, so it doesn’t feel like you’re driving a truck – it’s like you’re driving a bus.”

DAF says that the cab exterior styling has been smoothed and rounded – the most obvious visual changes coming in the form of its teardrop-shaped headlights, the large slat grille and the fog lights integrated into the bumper.

Inside it details stylish new materials, extra space and a new heating, ventilation and aircon system. The ORT XF’s Space cab is 1735mm from the floor to the roof – 270mm less than the Super Space alternative.

There’s plenty of storage space inside, courtesy of the three lockers above the windscreen, a drawer under the bunk, plus two more with Truck & Driver | 33

Taken out of Eco mode, the XF’s TraXon AMT hauls up hills comfortably

exterior access. There’s also a rollout fridge under the bunk.

The new DAF comes with high-tech safety aids including lane departure warning, vehicle stability control and adaptive cruise control – the latter primarily intended to reduce stress and strain on the driver by autonomously maintaining a set distance between the truck and the vehicle ahead.

But it also boasts active safety features in the form of forward collision warning and advanced emergency braking – both of which work to help avert (or at least reduce the severity) of an impending collision.

Blake seems unimpressed by this high-tech safety stuff – adaptive cruise, for instance: “I use it but it’s a bit weird – bit of a learning curve. Not sure if I trust it or not.

“Plus, you could have it going and if a car in the right lane quickly zooms in front of you, the truck will instantly slow to maintain the gap, so it’s not really ideal for cattle.”

Heading down the new section of the Waikato Expressway, the DAF is cruising. Blake flicks the gearbox into manual mode, sitting in 14th at 1600rpm, with the speedo on 80km/h.

Left to its own devices, he reckons, the TraXon goes into coasting mode: “When it’s cruising along the flat and it thinks it can maintain its speed, it takes itself out of gear in order to save fuel. That takes a bit to get used to. You’ll be cruising along and all of sudden all your revs will die but it’ll maintain that speed. As soon as the speed starts dropping it’ll go back into gear. It’s constantly looking for ways to save fuel.”

He flicks through the trip meter and it shows that it’s recently done 1404kms at an average speed of 57.7km/h – consuming 724 litres of fuel…for an average 1.93kms per litre. It also means that the 430-litre fuel tank (backed-up by a 45-litre AdBlue tank) is good for over 800kms.

Fuel economy is not something that Blake concerns himself with: “They’re still drilling for oil so there’s plenty of it,” he quips, adding: “I just fill up the tank when it tells me to. I think it is better than the other DAFs but you’ll have to ask Don.” Don confirms that his other DAFs typically do around 1.85 litres 34 | Truck & Driver

per kilometre and he was hoping for close to 2kms per litre....so he should be happy with the XF. Blake understand that since it’s Euro 6 compliant “it’s better for the environment and fuel economy – but I think Don bought it because of the safety features. Being part of (National) Road Carriers (he is, in fact, the current NRC board chairman) he’s promoting road safety. And I think he always wanted to have the first one on the road.”

There is also a bit of history between ORT and DAFs, Don explains: “When they brought the Euro 5 model DAF out we got the first CF 85, back in 2008. So I thought ‘righto, we’ll try to get the first Euro 6.’

The opportunity was there, I needed a truck and I thought rather than getting the last of the old model, I might as well get the first of the new one.”

He’s comfortable with the purchase despite a few “teething issues.”

Like he says: “It’s early days. We had issues with the first of the Euro 5s that they brought out – more the bolt-on stuff though. But look at how the Euro 5 performed at the end of its life – it was the secondbiggest-selling Euro truck.

“I’ve got an XF105 that’s done over one million kilometres and only dropped a valve close to a million. Rather than rebuild the engine I bought a new one. It was $45k for a brand-new motor and it was complete – turbo, the whole shooting box. Bolt in, away you go. The resale value is good and the backup service from Southpac was a deal-sealer. We’ve got a great relationship with them.”

We stop in Te Kuiti so Blake can check that the cattle are all okay.

One more hill and we’ll be turning back to head home, leaving Blake top carry on down to the Manawatu.

We start up the hill out of Te Kuiti in 12th at 40km/h, with the TraXon in auto and the Eco mode turned off: “I cruised up this hill last week in this mode and it seemed to be just fine,” Blake says.

A downshift to 11th sees the MX-13 at 1400rpm, holding 40k until the hill steepens – knocking us back to 30km/h and 1100 revs before the AMT downshifts to ninth.

The revs build from 1300 to 1700 as the hill eases again, prompting an upshift to 10th for a bit….and then to 11th at 1400rpm and a shade under 40km/h.

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The nine-axle truck and trailer unit, with its Jackson Enterprises deck and trailer and Nationwide crates, is rated to run at up to 49 tonnes Again the hill steepens and the TraXon drops to 8th and 1800rpm, at just under 30k. It’s able to shift up one so that the revs settle at 1500 as we crest at 30km/h. The gearchanging in each shift has been smooth, with little or no loss of momentum.

We start the following descent in 14th but engaging the third stage of the engine brake prompts a downshift to 12th. That pushes the revs up to 2200, holding us at 70km/h – the AMT upshifting as the gradient eases.

On the second downhill, the engine brake’s third stage sees the TraXon downshift again to 12th at 50km/h and 1500rpm. The revs rise to 2200 and it holds us back nicely until the hill eases and the AMT progressively upshifts to 14th, so that at the foot of the hill we’re doing 90k. Blake takes off the engine brake and we’re back up to 16th and cruising.

He’s happy with that: “It changes up and down really smoothly. I think it can go down two gears faster than you could change.”

Our test ends a little further down State Highway 3. Before I jump out of the XF I want to get some final thoughts from Blake. Clearly, he’s a Kenworth fan and a horsepower man…but is his experience behind the wheel of the new XF changing his view at all?

He reckons: “I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks. I’ve got to get used to driving it, but I’m gonna be open-minded, like Don says.

“It is nice – it’s a comfy cruising bus….it’s just lacking horsepower.”

Maybe, I suggest, he’s being overly critical: He does, after all, seem happy enough, despite his preconceived ideas….

Surely that is testament to how good this new XF really is?

Blake is not going to be swayed by me: “Or it could just be that I’ve got no choice,” he counters with a laugh: “Let’s say my review is ‘to be continued…dot, dot, dot.’ ” Since our test, Southpac Trucks has changed the diff ratios – and

Don Wilson says that has “made it more responsive and pull better on the hills.

“The top two gears are where it gets max horsepower and max torque, so the longer we can maintain those top two gears, the better it is.

“The lower ratio has made it perform a lot better in the terrain we operate in.”

Blake, he reckons, is “more than happy with the truck now.... He’s learning how to drive it and learning how to get the best out of it.

And that was always going to take time.

“And now with the diff changes, the traction is better than how a Kenworth would be. Value for money: We’re sticking with the DAF.” Southpac’s Richard Smart says that while the engine brake on Euro 5 DAFs would automatically disengage when you touched the throttle pedal, it’s not possible with the E6 trucks, “with the amount of safety features and the engine brake being much stronger.”

The diff ratios on the XF have been geared “to give maximum fuel efficiency, with the ability to use Eco performance to tackle bigger hills etc.”

Some customers, he says, “who are targeting performance over fuel economy, have felt a marked difference – so in those cases we have simply changed the ratio to suit that particular application.”

Southpac says that XFs have traditionally represented around 10% of the total DAF market in NZ – with the CF dominant...and that looks set to continue with the Euro 6 models. So far 20 XFs have been ordered or delivered.

For Don, an XF is for “the top end driver and a CF is for the driver who’s coming through.”

As for whether he’s happy with the XF: Action speaks louder than words. He’s already ordered another one. T&D Truck & Driver | 37

Trevor Test

A

LTHOUGH THIS IS THE FIRST OF THE new Euro 6 DAF XFs to go on the road in New Zealand (after extensive testing here, carried out by distributor Southpac Trucks), I have actually spent time behind the wheel of this model already.

That was in a left-hand-drive version, on a test track in Netherlands – after a tour of the DAF factory back in 2017.

We also, of course, drove one of the NZ test trucks – a CF model – over Arthur’s Pass late last year in the leadup to the launch of the new DAFs. My Sunday drive in OnRoad Transport’s XF starts at Whatawhata, when I take over the wheel from regular driver Blake Rickaby.

The climb into the cab is just as you’d expect from any European truck, with three well-spaced steps, a wide-opening door and grabhandles on each side.

The driver posi has a comfortable airsuspended, armrest seat with plenty of room and adjustment to suit any driver’s shape.

The cab layout is a stylish wraparound

38 | Truck & Driver

dash setup, with a radio head unit, storage inserts, airconditioning panel, various other buttons including diff locks, ride height etc and – most important of all controls – the Drive, Neutral and Reverse dial for the automated manual transmission.

The driveability of this truck is not much different to any other European truck on the market, with most things (if not everything) at your fingertips. The steering wheel has cruise control functions on the right-hand side and on the left are stereo and handsfree phone functions.

The left-hand stalk controls wipers and indicators and on the right the stalk controls the engine brake, manual gearshifting and (with a button on the tip) the switch for Eco mode and manual shifting.

The main dash display has the usual speedo and rev counter, fuel and temperature gauges and, in the middle, the multi-function driver performance assistant (DPA) – an interactive programme to assist the driver to achieve more fuel efficient

driving. Left of the steering wheel on the dash is a dial that changes the digital menu – calling up data ranging from phone settings to safety systems.

As I start off I have to negotiate some parked cars and then the sharp left/right turns to head south out of Whatawhata and the rear vision mirrors immediately prove to be very good. Blake had the standard large convex mirror swapped for a flat one – with a smaller convex one below it. I reckon that was a good move.

The mirrors’ positioning doesn’t create any issues with blind spots throughout my drive. On the passenger side is a superconvex overhead mirror providing a view so wide you can see forward past the front of the cab…all the way to the rear of the cab.

As we head for Otorohonga at around 46 tonnes all-up, the 530hp 13-litre engine and the TraXon 16-speed AMT work well together.

Ahead are a few hills that will be good for testing the Eco, Eco off and Manual modes. Blake mentions that he doesn’t like

• SPECIFICATIONS • DAF XF 530 AD 8x4 Space Cab

Engine: PACCAR MX-13 Euro 6 (with SCR, EGR and a DPF) Capacity: 12.9 litres Maximum power: 390kW (530hp) @ 1675rpm Maximum torque: 2600Nm (1917 lb ft) @ 1000-1460rpm Fuel capacity: 430 litres Transmission: 16-speed TraXon 16TX2640 OD AMT Ratios: 1st – 14.68 2nd – 12.04 3rd – 9.91 Hayden Woolston

4th – 8.13 5th – 6.78 6th – 5.56 7th – 4.56 8th – 3.74 9th – 3.21 10th – 2.63

the Eco mode as he can’t push the truck along as much as he’d like. We both agree that’s what Eco mode is for – stopping the truck working too hard in order to save fuel. We call it keep-the-boss-happy mode.

On the first hill I keep it in Eco mode and, as Blake predicted, the gearbox lets the engine lug down to 900rpm before dropping double gears. This leads to us cresting the hill at 30km/h – about 20k slower than you would in manual.

On the second climb I turn Eco off and the gearbox and engine work a little more aggressively, changing down four gears at 1100rpm.

Next, I go manual and find that the TraXon, with the Eco mode off, had it right: Around 1100 revs is the optimal point to downshift.

The three-stage MX-13 engine brake works really well – one of the best I have experienced. On the third stage, it pushes the revs up to 2200rpm and holds you back more than enough. The only issue I find is that you can’t leave the engine brake on when you want to accelerate away again.

In the XF the driver sits up high, so forward visibility through the big windscreen makes onroad placement easy, assisted by the Jackson five-axle trailer tracking really well.

I do find that the cab sways a little side to side in the corners and the steering is light, which takes a bit of getting used to. It feels like you are over-steering – and Blake agrees.

Other than that, taking into account we are carting stock, the ride in the XF is great. You can feel the animals moving – but not too much. The low noise level in the cab is one of the best I have come across.

When I stop in Te Kuiti it’s time to give Blake his truck back. He seems to be a little uncertain about his new ride, but considering he would have preferred a 600hp-plus K200 and the fact he’s so far only done less than 5000kms in the XF, I think we’ve caught him too early in the piece.

I reckon that in a few months he won’t be too unhappy about his armchair ride. He already admits that at the end of a long day’s work he’s feeling better in the DAF than he did in his previous trucks. T&D

11th – 2.17 12th – 1.78 13th – 1.48 14th – 1.21 15th – 1.00 16th – 0.82 Front axles: DAF 163N, combined rating of 14,200kg Rear axles: DAF/Meritor SR1360T, combined rating of 18,000kg Auxiliary brakes: MX engine brake Front suspension: Parabolic springs Rear suspension: DAF air suspension GVW: 30,700kg GCM: 70,000kg

Truck & Driver | 39

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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Better data on accidents will assist to make our roads safer

The greening of the freight task O

by Nick Leggett Chief Executive Road Transport Forum NZ

VER THE PAST FEW MONTHS, THE debate regarding the environmental performance of the transport sector has taken a back seat to the immediate challenge we have, as we try to pick up the pieces of an economy reeling in the wake of COVID-19.

However, the environmental issue remains and is something that both the Government and our industry have a significant stake in.

Road freight presents a major problem for policymakers tasked with reducing our emissions profile. New Zealand’s economic success is based on exports and imports, with 93% of domestic freight tonnage moved by road.

There are those who just say “put it all on the train” – but, as we know, this is just not possible. The reason why freight goes by road is because most of it is time sensitive and trucks are far more flexible and responsive than any rail system ever could be.

Even this Government understands that it can’t just tax and regulate trucks off the road until there is some viable alternative.

Speaking of viable alternatives, the Ministry of Transport recently released the 2020 Green Freight Working Paper, which RTF contributed to, and which looks at the three current alternative fuels options – electricity, green hydrogen and biofuels.

Unfortunately, none of these alternatives is currently a practical option for road freight, and that’s not because our industry is

resistant to change. Many trucking operators have customers who are taking a real interest in their emissions profiles and business practices. Many are, of course, finding that transport is an emissions-intensive part of their business.

The problem is that for NZ trucking companies there are no easy solutions. We are too small a market to support our own technological development in heavy vehicles, which means we are entirely dependent on the development undertaken by international truck manufacturers.

Policymakers can be assured that if and when new fuel technologies become available and are suitable for the NZ freight task, road transport operators will adopt them extremely quickly.

There is, however, a long way to go until we get to that point.

New technologies are not widely and dependably available – nor are they currently reliable in terms of range, performance and servicing, and they certainly aren’t cost competitive.

Future government policies for de-carbonising the road freight industry must also consider the renewable electricity sector’s ability to supply the electricity required, as well as the investment impact of purchasing new equipment and the availability of technicians and resources to service that.

What is required by the incoming government is the same kind of financial incentivising as has been done to assist the light vehicle fleet’s transition to electricity.

Truck & Driver | 41

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Transitioning the heavy vehicle fleet to alternative fuels requires significant investment and incentivisation

To improve road safety we need detailed accident data Finally, I just want to touch on the issue of road safety again.

I was recently lucky enough to co-host a trans-Tasman webinar with Kelly McLuckie from Success Formula, on the findings from (transport insurance specialist) NTI’s 2020 National Truck Accident Research Centre Accident Investigation Report in Australia.

The key takeaway for me was just how important it is, if we want to improve road safety, to develop accident data similar to what the Australians have got.

The NTI research shows that while there has been an increase in the number of truck driver deaths on Australian roads, in 80% of all serious crashes involving cars and trucks, the car driver was at fault.

This is important information that not only disproves the political

rhetoric that trucks are dangerous, but also helps improve the development of road safety policy.

The Australian report also found that the number of truck driver deaths caused by distraction more than doubled in the past two years.

Insurance companies tend to have the best data because they are always measuring risk, so it would be great if NZ insurers could help with the development and public use of information as NTI has done in Australia.

Insurance data is also extremely reliable, so it would be a big step forward for both government and industry to have the opportunity to embrace such information and use it to improve safety.

This, along with far more collaboration with our industry and professional drivers generally, would be a great area for the next government to focus on. T&D

Get those CoF inspections done R TF IS REMINDING OPER ATORS TO PRIORITISE getting their CoF inspections done as soon as they can, with COVID-19 extensions to vehicle certifications, including CoF expiries, expected to cease from October 10.

“Recent discussions that RTF has had with certification agents, supported by data analysis, has shown many operators are holding off getting their CoF B renewals – and that is a concern,” says RTF chief executive Nick Leggett.

Considerable differences between the 2019 and 2020 CoF B expiries shows that the majority fall within the June to December period, showing a distinct downturn in numbers leading up to next month’s extension expiry date.

“If these CoF B inspection renewals all take place at once – assuming that testing agents can even accommodate the increased demand – then the whole situation will simply be duplicated again in April 2021,” Leggett says.

“This could seriously disadvantage operators who cannot get their CoFs done and is something that RTF and testing agents are very keen to avoid.

“In the COVID-19 guidance RTF supplied to the industry during the lockdown we made the point that the six-month grace period and CoF B inspection waiver offered by NZTA had the potential to cause

these issues and that operators should look to get on with them as soon as is practically possible.

“Our advice is that if operators have CoFs due (even though they may fall within the grace period) it’s preferable to book them as soon as possible, rather than waiting until the last minute,” says Leggett.

“This will hopefully avoid the potential logjam next April.” T&D Operators should get their CoFs sorted as soon as possible

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Know, check, stop for impairment W

HEN WE THINK OF SUBSTANCE-IMPAIRED driving we naturally think of driving under the inf luence of alcohol or other recreational drugs.

However, “impaired driving” is, by definition, a temporary state – where your body or emotions are affected in any way that makes it unsafe for you to drive.

Simply put, if your abilities or senses are affected, you could be a danger to yourself, your passengers and other road users.

The effects of alcohol and illegal drug use on driving are wellknown. However, what is less well-known is that one in every four prescriptions given out are for medications that will also impair our ability to drive safely.

It is actually far more likely that someone who is impaired at the wheel will have taken perfectly legal medications prescribed to them or bought over the counter. These substances commonly include medications for pain, heart conditions, allergies, diabetes and mental health conditions.

Driving while impaired could involve something as innocuous as driving after taking cold and f lu medication obtained from a 44 | Truck & Driver

pharmacy or supermarket. You might take tablets designed to ease congestion or the aches and pains associated with a cold, but the sideeffects make you feel drowsy and less alert. This is a classic example of substance impairment that has a noticeable impact on your driving ability.

Substance-impaired driving in New Zealand is far more widespread than most people believe. Research shows that two out of three drivers regularly use medications that can impair their driving.

Of almost equal concern is that around half of NZ’s drivers are not even aware that it is illegal to drive if the medications they are on are causing impairment.

Whatever the reason may be, if you drive under the inf luence of medications, are even slightly impaired and have an accident as a result, not only can you cause serious or fatal harm but you run the risk of prosecution under transport law.

The heavy vehicle sector is definitely not immune from this issue either. Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency research over the last few years shows that one-fifth of heavy vehicle drivers will drive regardless of how they feel, and that more than half don’t realise that

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Everyday over-the-counter medications can impair your driving it is against the law to drive when impaired by medication.

Managing substance impairment should therefore be an important component of all road safety policies for transport companies. Heavy vehicles have massive potential to cause harm in a crash so it is important that the issue is discussed openly with drivers and they understand the effect that everyday medications can have.

Drivers should be empowered to choose not to drive if they are feeling drowsy or woozy, or are concerned that the medications they are taking may cause impairment. Drivers also need to feel that they can tell their boss if impairment is likely.

It is worth noting that privacy law means that drivers do not have to disclose their health condition or the name of the medication they are taking to treat it.

As an employer, transport companies need to consider medicationrelated impairment as a health and safety risk that they need to manage by law. They also need to demonstrate a duty of care towards the driver’s wellbeing and it is essential that drivers continue to take

any medication that has been prescribed to them.

Establishing a medication-related substance impairment policy, which is separate from any illegal drug or alcohol policies you may have, can help everyone within your organisation understand their rights and obligations under the law.

Ultimately, all those who use the road should take responsibility for their own suitability to drive. However, road transport operators are also responsible for making sure professional drivers can identify when they are likely to be impaired – as well as making sure that does not translate into an increase in the risk…either in the workplace or out on our roads.

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Truck & Driver | 45

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

The consequences of Daniel’s collision with a train could have been a lot worse

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UNEDIN ENGINEER DANIEL TIMNEY HAS BEEN driving and working with heavy trucks and trailers for more than 20 years.

But all of that experience still didn’t prepare him for an incident one morning last March….that could have cost him his life.

Daniel was returning a customer’s empty 20-metre truck and trailer unit to its yard in Mosgiel. He stopped on the left-hand side of the road to let cars pass before moving towards a railway level crossing.

“I didn’t see anything coming. I started crossing the railway lines, I heard a train sound its horn from my right. I was committed, so I made the split-second decision to carry on rather than try to reverse off the tracks.”

The train was made up of two locomotives pulling 10 wagons, weighing 516 tonnes and stretching 173 metres.

Two locomotive engineers were on board. When they spotted the truck and trailer on the tracks, they had just passed the Mosgiel Railway Station and were building up speed towards 80km/h. Knowing there was no way to stop in time, before hitting the truck and trailer unit, they applied the emergency brakes, took cover on the cab floor and braced for impact.

Daniel relives what happened next: “The train hit the rear of my trailer, which spun it around before hitting a parked car and a power pole.

46 | Truck & Driver

“I’m told the train travelled another half kilometre down the tracks before coming to a complete stop. I walked down to see if the train driver was alright. Luckily no one was injured, but it could have been so much worse.”

TrackSAFE Foundation New Zealand is a not-for-profit that raises awareness and educates about safety around tracks and trains. Its manager, Megan Drayton, says making truck and heavy vehicle drivers aware of the risks at level crossings is a priority and was a focus of this year’s Rail Safety Week.

“While collisions involving trains and heavy vehicles are quite rare, the result can be catastrophic. Over the past few years there has only been a handful of collisions, but sadly, some of these have resulted in fatalities.

“With the weight and size of trains and heavy vehicles, like trucks and buses, the risk of a serious incident or multiple loss of life is much greater,” she says.

“Even near-misses can create stress and anxiety for the driver and the locomotive engineer, so we’re doing what we can to keep level-crossing safety at the forefront of drivers’ minds.”

Her advice to heavy vehicle drivers is to be alert and aware, stay focused and know your surroundings and your route.

“It goes without saying to always look both ways for trains. Never try to beat a train over a crossing – they are usually travelling faster than they look and research has proven that as drivers we can’t accurately predict the speed of a large moving

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

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n you think vehicle.”

Daniel Timney still wonders how on earth he didn’t see the train: “I perhaps should have waited longer and had a better look up and down the tracks. But you look twice and then focus on what’s ahead, not side to side. As big as a train is, you don’t always see it – and it’s moving faster than you think.

“It was days later when the shock of the incident kicked in and I realised the severity of what had happened, and the expense of it. It has definitely made me more cautious in general when it comes to level crossings, Give Way and Stop signs – even when I’m driving a car,” he adds.

As a result of Daniel’s accident, the Mosgiel crossing is to be resurveyed and a new risk assessment undertaken.

Sightlines and vegetation will be reviewed as part of this process.

Every August TrackSAFE NZ and KiwiRail lead Rail Safety Week to raise awareness about how to stay safe around railway tracks and trains. More information is available at: www.tracksafe.co.nz. T&D

National Road Carriers (NRC) PO Box 12-100, Penrose, Auckland 0800 686 777 09 622 2529 (Fax) enquiries@natroad.nz www.natroad.co.nz David Aitken, Chief Executive 09 636 2951 021 771 911 david.aitken@natroad.nz Paula Rogers, Commercial Transport Specialist 09 636 2957 021 771 951 paula.rogers@natroad.nz Jason Heather, Commercial Transport Specialist 09 636 2950 021 771 946 jason.heather@natroad.nz Richie Arber, Commercial Transport Specialist 021 193 3555 richie.arber@natroad.nz Road Transport Association of NZ (RTANZ) National Office, PO Box 7392, Christchurch 8240 0800 367 782 03 366 9853 (Fax) admin@rtanz.co.nz www.rtanz.co.nz Simon Carson, Chief Operating Officer scarson@rtanz.co.nz Area Executives Northland/Auckland/Waikato/ Thames-Coromandel/Bay of Plenty/ North Taupo/King Country Scott Asplet 0800 367 782 (Option 2) 027 445 5785 sasplet@rtanz.co.nz

South Taupo/Turangi/Gisborne/ Taranaki/Manawatu/Horowhenua/ Wellington Sandy Walker 0800 367 782 (Option 3) 027 485 6038 swalker@rtanz.co.nz Northern West Coast/Nelson/ Marlborough/North Canterbury John Bond 0800 367 782 (Option 4) 027 444 8136 jbond@rtanz.co.nz Southern West Coast/Christchurch/ Mid-Canterbury/South Canterbury Simon Carson 0800 367 782 (Option 5) 027 556 6099 scarson@rtanz.co.nz Otago/Southland Alan Cooper 0800 367 782 (Option 6) 027 315 5895 acooper@rtanz.co.nz NZ Trucking Association (NZTA) PO Box 16905, Hornby, Christchurch 8441 0800 338 338 03 349 0135 (Fax) info@nztruckingassn.co.nz www.nztruckingassn.co.nz David Boyce, Chief Executive 03 344 6257 021 754 137 dave.boyce@nztruckingassn.co.nz Carol McGeady, Executive Officer 03 349 8070 021 252 7252 carol.mcgeady@nztruckingassn.co.nz Women in Road Transport (WiRT) www.rtfnz.co.nz/ womeninroadtransport wirtnz@gmail.com

Truck & Driver | 47

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Karen Higgins with daughters Jen (left) and Jax. In their management of the company the sisters are very much keeping alive the spirit of their father Ian, who died last year

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AY THAT YOU’D LIKE TO LEAVE LOVING MEMORIES behind you when you’re gone from this world….and you’ll likely not find many who’d wish otherwise.

But saying it is one thing. Achieving that high ideal is a rare and special thing.

Well, Marlborough transport operator, the late Ian Higgins, achieved that...and so much more. That’s something that’s very evident in his living legacy – a trucking company like few others.

Renwick Transport is a place where irreverent banter melds seamlessly with obvious and heartfelt respect, where grief for a great man taken before his time lies very close to the surface – yet does little to muffle the peals of laughter that punctuate conversations….

And where the concept of family is not only spoken of but also lived out in all its rambunctious variety and tolerance.

Furthermore, the company is run by a couple of women. Not as off-mainstream as once that might have been, but noteworthy nevertheless.

And Jax Smith and Jen Hall are certainly not shaped by your standard management cookie-cutter – they’re self-deprecating, bubbly and obviously love what they do.

But that doesn’t mean they’re not serious about it at the same time. Beneath the surface is a steely commitment to customer service and a determination to run the business to their standards...even if that means walking away from work when the rates on offer are too low to maintain those standards.

They are the daughters of company founders Ian and Karen Higgins, and credit their parents with shaping their attitudes to life and work. When Ian died unexpectedly of an aneurism to his aorta a year ago – in September 2019 – the girls lost a guiding light and mentor, and say they still miss his input dreadfully.

They weren’t dumped into their roles in an instant, however: They’d both been hands-on for some years, Jax having joined the company in 2005 and Jen in 2008.

Before that though, neither had followed a transport-related career. Jax had managed a pharmacy and Jen was a PA with a real estate agency and a business partner with younger sister Pip in a children’s clothing store in Blenheim.

Confident that the company was now in good management hands, in the couple of years before he died Ian had stepped back from day-to-day involvement – switching his attention to developing a five-hectare vineyard on the family property in the Waihopai Valley, inland from Blenheim.

However, he was a regular visitor at Renwick Transport, and filled-in wherever he was needed – be that driving, helping Jen mix up various fertiliser recipes in the company yard, or a myriad of other tasks.

In the days before he died, he’d been spreading fertiliser up the Wairau Valley. But “feeling a bit tired,” as he put it, he decided to take a day off. His standards being a little different from most people’s, a day off didn’t mean sitting back with a good book and a cold beer….but spraying the vineyard.

Mid-afternoon he phoned Karen to tell her he didn’t feel so good. He was taken by ambulance to hospital in Blenheim, then flown to Nelson Hospital where he died late that night.

For Karen, Ian’s death meant the loss of a lifelong love. The pair were both born and raised in Havelock, 40 kilometres from Blenheim – on the way to Nelson – and started going out when she was 14 and he was barely 17. The local fish and chip shop where she worked was the setting for the beginning of their romance, she recalls: “Ian was a successful go-karter, and quite often he would be competing at Nelson and would pop into the shop to pick up Truck & Driver | 51

Main picture: Mack bulk units generally cart fertiliser and lime. They’re the only trucks in the fleet with any striping, the rest carrying only the company name on a plain background colour

Above, left: Wearing his signature braces, Ian Higgins at a company awards ceremony in 2018, with Jax and Jen on the right. The driver, Joel Atkinson, began with the company with a car licence only, progressed through to Class 5, now does linehaul runs in a 50MAX rig Above, right: Tribute signwriting was attached to all the trucks for Ian’s funeral

Opposite page: The Higgins family on the occasion of the company’s 25th anniversary, two years ago

his tea on the way home after a meeting.”

Within five years they were married, and three girls and a boy – Jennifer, Jacqueline, Philippa and Andrew – followed not long after. Karen gives a wistful sigh: “We didn’t plan the names to be shortened, but quite quickly – and how or why I don’t really know – that’s what happened to them all. For most of their lives they have been Jen, Jax, Pip and Andy, and you rarely hear their full names.”

Ian’s family farmed near Havelock and this was where he spent his early working life, interspersed with shearing, all around the South Island. Later, he got a job driving for Renwick-based Broadbridge Transport. This triggered a lifelong passion for trucks that, in 1993, led to the couple setting up their own transport and

52 | Truck & Driver

agricultural contracting company, Truck N Loader.

It was about as modest as a startup could be, with just one truck – an 18-tonner Isuzu flatdeck. The deposit for it was raised by the sale of the family’s near-new Toyota car.

But growth was quite rapid. Early on in the piece the company picked up a contract with Placemakers in Blenheim to deliver packs of gib board from Christchurch.

Ian did the run every day, and Karen would often go with him: “It meant getting up at four in the morning, but I was able to keep him company, and help with the tiedowns and the like,” she remembers.

“The work just kept growing and it wasn’t long before we were able to buy another truck, a curtainsider, and

employ a driver.”

The expansion of the Marlborough wine industry was at its peak, and the company was able to grow alongside this, carting posts and wire to the new vineyards that were being established.

Then followed fertiliser spreading – on farms in the area and in vineyards.

Truck N Loader was no different from the majority of family transport startups, in that from the beginning it was based in the couple’s home, with Karen handling the paperwork and accounts.

This job was rendered even more exciting (or maybe that should be fraught? Or terrifying?) by Ian’s entrepreneurial attitude

to growth. Karen explains: “In those days all the finances were handled through the chequebook. You weren’t able to keep a running update on the state of affairs as you can now with internet banking, and it was only when the statement arrived at the end of the month that you knew exactly where you stood.

“And, in the meantime, all you could do was keep an eye on the cheques that had been written.

“However, my sneaky husband used the last one at the back of the book to buy a spreader! The first thing I knew was when I was down in the yard one day and this machine was sitting there. In fact, it was already earning money before I knew of it!”

Jax and Jen reckons that this “give it a go now and worry about the money later” attitude of their father, if anything, increased over

Truck & Driver | 53

Top, left: Hay cartage has been a consistent part of Renwick Transport’s work since the early days Top, right: Jen Hall in her distinctive pink overalls readies to load another truck with fertiliser Left: No lack of variety in this load from Truck N Loader days!

time…..rather than diminishing.

As Jen puts it: “Oh my God, could he get excited! He would come up with all these crazy ideas, and he was so infectious you couldn’t help but get excited as well. But the last thing he ever thought about or mentioned was the money.”

Jax chimes in: “He could light up a room, but he never dominated. He would come down here, sit in the smoko room and have a cup of tea and a sandwich, and joke with the drivers.

Everybody looked forward to him coming down, he was so much fun.

“And fart...gosh he could fart!” (At the recollection of this the room dissolves in peals of manic laughter.)

Jen cocks an eyebrow at her sister: “I think it’s hereditary, don’t you?” (Cue even more manic laughter.)

A decade of expansion forced three major changes on the company in the early 2000s – the first a shift to a bigger base in Renwick, the second a name-change to Renwick Transport.

And the third – getting Jax on board to handle the burgeoning administration workload.

She recalls she had to hit the ground running: “As well as the 54 | Truck & Driver

pressure on the overall accounting side, at the same time health and safety was becoming much more of an issue and demanded a lot of extra work. I had been quite involved with the business structure of the pharmacy, and although the activities were quite different the underlying principles were very much the same. It was just a matter of learning to dispense trucks as opposed to dispensing drugs!

“It wasn’t long however, before we got bigger and bigger and I was thinking, ‘holy heck!’ So in 2008 we asked Jen if she would like to come on board as well. It has worked perfectly.

She understands the accounting side, has a great brain, works incredibly hard... and always has your back.

“We were able to slot in brilliantly with Mum and Dad and we work very well together. There are probably not many families who are lucky enough to have that sort of cooperative relationship.

We also respect each other. We might not always agree, but we can agree to disagree and still get the job done. We both have strengths and weaknesses but we complement one another.”

Jen admits she can be a little bit blunt at times, making her sister the better person for conflict resolution: “Jax has the polish

– she’s able to smooth things over.”

In the division of responsibilities, Jax handles the general freight division and HR matters, while Jen is fertiliser operations manager and looks after the office and finance.

A year on from Jen’s arrival, Renwick Transport grew significantly, diversified and again shifted its base. It struck a deal with Broadbridge Transport, which has an extensive yard and workshop, also located in Renwick.

Broadbridge had decided to confine its activities to stock transport only, selling its logging division to another operator and its general freight and fertiliser operations – including six trucks – to Renwick Transport….as well as leasing it space in the yard. The two companies have separate offices on the site, but share drivers’ smoko rooms and other amenities.

The big workshop is effectively all Renwick Transport’s and fleet manager Nigel Barnett and mechanic Chris Timms handle a full range of servicing and repair work. Chris also doubles up as fleet safety officer and looks after driver training.

Though by the standards of many fleets Renwick Transport is still relatively small (the current lineup is around 25 trucks), its diversity is a real strength, explains Jax: “As a company we pride ourselves on that diversity. We don’t do stock and logs, but our range of other activities means that we can cover the seasonal ups and downs quite well.

“For example, in winter there’s less work for the big spreaders on pastures, but the minis are flat-out in the vineyards, because that’s the time when the grapes need fertilising. Later on, in the spring and early summer, that’s when the big spreaders get their main work.

“During the grape harvest, in March and April, the freight trucks have their sides taken off and grape bins fitted, because for that two months the work is round the clock.”

The fleet lineup includes two conventional Macks, a CH470 and a Granite, for bulk work. The curtainsiders are predominantly DAFs, while the tippers are a mixture of UDs and DAFs. One of the latest additions has been a DAF and its associated trailer, built by Domett. The truck and trailer both have increased ground clearance to more easily deliver vineyard posts offroad. It was a project Ian was working on when he died and has been finished off by Karen, Jen and Jax. Many of the trucks are H-rated to 50 tonnes. Because the process is simpler and you don’t have to meet so many regulations, say the sisters, they have stuck with 50MAX. The majority of the freight division’s vehicle movements are between Blenheim and Nelson. Around six trucks are regularly involved in this work, with three curtainsiders taking processed timber from local mills to Nelson, returning with imported wine bottles picked up at Port Nelson and destined for the Wineworks bottling operation at Riverlands. In peak winemaking times, these trucks do two runs to Nelson every day.

Three dropside tippers also carry timber to Nelson, then swing south via the Goldpine Downs treatment plant near Kohatu, to pick up vineyard posts for the return trip. Another curtainsider takes insulation products from a factory in Blenheim to Nelson, returning with a variety of freight including bagged fertiliser.

The grape harvest runs from vineyard to winery are generally quite short distances. However, the trucks also cart the grape marc (the pips, skins and other solid material left over after the

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Above: Admin staff (from left) Myles Benseman, Jodie Milligan, Pam Shaskey and Pie Wilson, share a crowded but warmly friendly office Above right: Jax Smith in her cramped work environment.

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Right: From its beginnings as Truck N Loader, the company’s activities have been closely tied to the Marlborough wine industry.

New vineyards call for thousands of treated timber posts

juice is squeezed out) as far afield as Murchison. It makes for an excellent organic fertiliser or stock food, and needs no further treatment before being applied to the paddock. It can be either put on fresh, or silaged for later application.

Jax comments that with the longer runs it’s a never-ending challenge to see if the trucks can run loaded both ways: “Our dispatch/logistics manager Pie Wilson looks after that side of things, and he’s very good at his job.

“We did have an overnight freight run to Christchurch, but that was proving to be uneconomic and was affected further by COVID-19. The lockdown gave Jen and me the opportunity to drill down and look at all aspects of the business, and it is now twice weekly. The freight being carted on that run is predominantly steel, and the trailers are swapped at Kaikoura. As well, we still have a day run to Christchurch three or four times a week.

“For the more local work, one of our big clients is Goldpine Blenheim. We distribute their products – posts, wire, waratahs and the like – around the region.”

Renwick also carries quite a lot of hay, not only from harvests in the local region but also trucking it in (mostly from Canterbury) when it’s in short supply locally.

Jen’s involvement with the fertiliser side is totally hands on, says Jax: “More often than not you’ll find her out in the yard, on the loader or the forklift. You can’t miss her, she’s got these pink overalls. She’s also hot on health and safety, always wears her seatbelt on the forklift, and tells everyone else off if they get a bit sloppy.”

The fertiliser section has five trucks, explains Jen: “Our two big broadacre spreaders are 4x4 MANs, which we find do the job very well and reliably. Some of the hills we handle are challenging.

“Dad was my mountain goat! I used to hate watching him on the slopes. Our senior spreader driver now is Murray Marsell, who trained under Dad, and it’s great to see what he can do as well.

However, he’s near retirement and has dropped to four days a week.

“Kelly-Anne Rasmussen is now our team leader, and her technical brain when comes to the computers is amazing. She is also bringing a younger driver, Hayley Allen, through the minispreaders, with a Class 2 licence. Hayley started in general freight with our small local delivery trucks, and is working towards a Class 5.

“We have a lot of people on the staff who started with a Class 2 Truck & Driver | 59

This page: Conventional broad-acre fert spreading plays a key role in Renwick Transport’s portfolio. The company’s MANs are fitted with the latest equipment Opposite page, top: Isuzu mini-spreaders service the vineyards. Winter application, as opposed to spring/summer for broad-acre, means the fertiliser division’s work continues through most of the year

Opposite page, bottom: The driving staff mounted a surprise sendoff for a well-loved boss, parking-up the entire fleet as a guard of honour as Ian’s coffin was carried to the cemetery and went on. It gives you a real sense of satisfaction to see them coming through. Sometimes they don’t even have that when they begin.

“We have three Isuzu mini-spreaders, two 4x4 and one 4x2.

The vineyard rows are typically 2.5 metres to 3m apart, and that’s what the trucks are set up to handle. However, some growers in Marlborough are beginning to plant the rows tighter and tighter, sometimes down to 2.2m. In those cases we collaborate with a company that has over-row spreading gear.”

The big spreaders are set up with twin chain systems, she adds, so that if needed – for example when running alongside a water race, or a fence – one side can be shut down.

As well as conventional fertiliser, Renwick works with several organic vineyards and has dedicated bins for mixing certified brews. The company also carts bulk lime in from the Waipapa Quarry near the Clarence River (on the way to Kaikoura).

The sisters are unfazed about being women running a trucking company, Jen summing up that it sets them apart a bit….but it isn’t the most important factor: “The values that Mum and Dad brought us up with – to work hard, never give up – they’re far more important. Our own travels and life experiences have helped us, of course, but the way we were brought up gave us a great grounding.

“In the beginning, it took a while for some of the older members of the farming community to come around to talking to Jax and me. But we come from a farming background ourselves, so for the most part we knew what we were about. And Dad, in a nice way, 60 | Truck & Driver

made them deal with us by making himself unavailable.

“When we came to the overall business, we were further influenced by Dad. He was very infectious, with a great zest for life. He was placid – you never saw him angry – but the mana and respect he gained from everyone he met was amazing.

Jax: “He was very unassuming and if you didn’t know him you could never tell from the way he behaved that he was the boss...”

Jen adds: “And the scruffy one at that!”

Jax: “We would sometimes have stories coming back from relief drivers who were helping out with the grape harvest and Dad would be driving the truck for the next shift. The casual would point out to him what needed doing and all the things to look out for... not knowing who he was. And Dad wouldn’t say a word.

“There was the occasional red face when later they found he was the boss, but from we girls’ perspective it was good. We train the relief drivers on all the things that need to be done at shift changeover, especially in bringing the next person up to speed, and this proved that the training had worked.

“One very important thing our parents taught us is that it’s not about the money. The most important thing is to do your job as well as you possibly can. Respect your clients and they will respect you.

“Dad was a true-blue honest man. We were lucky to have been brought up that way, and I think it’s a huge part of why we have been successful.”

Jen: “We absolutely pride ourselves on our service. We are happy to look at contracts, but we won’t compromise on the

pricing, because we need to maintain our quality and integrity and we’ll never waver from that.

“In a way you have to pick your battles. We have had situations where we haven’t scored a contract, but then the customer has come back to us later. We promise what we will do, and we deliver...that’s our strength. There’s no point in getting into bidding wars, because you just lose respect, even with the customers whose work you’ve gained.

“We charge what we feel the work justifies – that’s the way we’ve always done it. And, because we’re consistent and upfront about it, we retain good relationships, even with people whose work we’ve missed out on.

“One thing Dad always said was, ‘all you need is to be comfortable – to pay the mortgage off, be able to afford a holiday with the kids, that’s enough.’ ” Nowhere is this non-materialistic approach more in evidence than in the Renwick Transport managerial office – a small portable cabin out of which Jax and Jen work. All the floor area (and much of the vertical space) is jammed with the accoutrements of an office twice the size – desks, filing cabinets, monitors, printers, piles of paper. Add one more person to the room and movement in and out can be affected only by polite shuffling and edging past. A fourth body leads to total gridlock.

The girls are unfussed by the modest accommodation. Says Jax: “We don’t bother about putting money into ourselves – it’s all for the trucks and the company. It’s only lately that we have had relatively new vehicles – Dad drove around in a heap of rubbish for

years.”

Adds Jen: “If we found out what the managers of other transport companies pay themselves we’d probably wet ourselves!”

The focused application of resources extends to the fleet livery.

In nearly every instance the trucks carry only plain blue lettering over a white or silver base colour. No airbrushed murals, scrollwork or fancy stripes: The money is better put to the productive side, say the sisters.

There’s no hard and fast rule on gear replacement, says Jax, rather a careful ongoing monitoring: “Each month we have a fleet meeting and look closely at all the equipment items, analyse what needs to be done on them, how profitable each one is, and try to look longterm on when they might need to be replaced. We’ve got to the stage now where a lot of our gear is quite new and looking good. It’s taken a lot of hard work, but we feel we are pretty well up with the process.

Adds Jen: “The spreaders have a shorter working life than the other trucks, but having our inhouse mechanics really helps them last as long as possible. The gear – bins, spinners, hydraulics etc – is generally stainless steel, so it lasts well. Every year in the quiet time we take the bins off and strip everything right down, touch up the paint and repair things where needed.”

Accurate monitoring of the road/offroad proportions of the spreaders’ work is critical. For that the company uses EROAD, while that firm’s Ehubo2 driver analysis system has proved invaluable, says Jax: “We have made it the basis for annual awards – things like the greatest number of kilometres travelled, the best fuel Truck & Driver | 61

Clockwise from top left: Chris Timms gets down to it in the well-equipped workshop; 4x2 trucks’ duties include supplying mini-spreaders and making local deliveries for Goldpine Blenheim. They’re also invaluable for training beginner drivers; Kelly-Anne Rasmussen is a senior spreader operator; some of the units have a silver base colour, but equally minimalist signwriting

economy and the like.

“When we introduced it a few of the staff were a bit suspicious, but now they’re right behind it. It’s a mark of honour to do well and everyone strives to do better. We put up a monthly ladder, and people are very keen to see how they’re progressing.

“The information we gain gets fed back into training, so the drivers can see where it’s being applied, and how it benefits them.”

If the company’s managerial suite has no room to spare, the admin office is little better, despite being part of a permanent building. There, a room that would typically house at most two people accommodates four – dispatcher and logistics manager Pie Wilson, accounts and admin manager Pam Shaskey, health and safety rep and admin support Jodie Milligan and Myles Benseman, who backs up Pie on dispatch and Chris Timms on training.

Among them, as with Jax and Jen, the sense of mourning for Ian is palpable – and attested to by photos of him on every desk.

But the same love of life is equally evident. When we arrive, Pie is wearing a bright pink wig, in anticipation of being photographed for the story.

Later, he pulls a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin out of his desk drawer and asks: “How often do you find something like this in a transport office? Ian loved his gin, and seldom missed a Friday night session down here. Don’t get me wrong, he was the boss, but more than that he was just one of the boys.

“There’s a very family orientation. Apart from the very busiest times, everyone works five days, and the whole structure is based around family. Compared with corporate businesses where you’re just a number, the girls care about every individual. I’m waiting for 62 | Truck & Driver

Mrs Higgins to sign my adoption papers!”

Nowhere was this family spirit more in evidence than in this year’s grape harvest, scheduled to begin the day after the Level 4 COVID-19 lockdown began.

Each year, the core driving group is bolstered by around 30 casuals to allow the trucks to keep running around the clock. They include retired former drivers, contractors, or people who take leave from their normal jobs to help out just for the fun of being part of the annual tradition.

Under the Level 4 regulations, the numbers were cut by more than half in a single swoop as those over 70 or with an existing medical condition were barred. What could have been an absolute disaster was averted through incredible teamwork and resilience, says Jen: “Everyone pulled together. Several of the office staff put their hands up to help out, even though normally they’d not be directly involved. Chris from the workshop volunteered as a night shift driver, which meant Nigel kept the fleet going singlehandedly, while Hayley Allen and Myles Benseman were at the yard at one (o’clock) every afternoon and again at one in the morning to sanitise the trucks between shifts.

“Jax and I were putting in 80 to 90-hour weeks, coordinating it all, hunting for extra drivers. But it wouldn’t have happened without the team we had behind us. They were magnificent.”

In the middle of the grape harvest the company lost another loved member of the crew – in the shape of Smokey, a stray cat who wandered in some years back and promptly made herself a key part of the family…..not only with her mousing skill but in her habit of draping herself, purring, on drivers’ shoulders in the smoko room.

Top: The fleet’s two conventionals are both bulk units, and both Macks

Above left: Ian Higgins ready for his last ride. Plate on the coffin is a replica of the one on his ute Above right: Karen Higgins in the family vineyard, which has just had its second vintage A quirk of staking out a patch of the yard and forcing trucks to navigate around her was tolerated, if less fondly. Smokey was in remission from cancer diagnosed a couple of years ago when it struck again, this time terminally, in the middle of Level 4 and she needed to be taken to the local vet to be put down.

The only vehicle to spare was Kelly-Anne Rasmussen’s spreader. At the vet’s Kelly-Anne was told she couldn’t come in under Level 4 regulations: “Try and stop me,” came the response. “Smokey’s not going to die alone.”

Not surprisingly, Ian Higgins’ funeral last September was no sombre affair, but a loving and heartfelt sendoff to a unique character. Unbeknown to the family, the staff had commissioned commemorative vinyl murals which were fixed to all the trucks.

His coffin was placed on one of the tractor units and escorted in convoy to the funeral home in Blenheim. There – again without the family knowing a thing – the drivers surreptitiously drove their trucks back to the Renwick area, returning quickly to the service in a rented bus.

Just as quietly, they got back on the bus at the end of the service. Ian was to be buried in his hometown of Havelock, and when the funeral cortege approached the bridge over the Wairau River on the way to the cemetery, there was the fleet lined up alongside the road, air horns blasting, and dozens of blue-and-white balloons being released by the drivers and their families.

Loving memories... T&D Truck & Driver | 63

LEGENDS

Under the Radar - Peter Withington

C

ELEBRATING OVER A HALF CENTURY IN ENGINEERING and the last twenty-five years of that with Williams & Wilshier, you could say that Peter Withington has seen it all. However this modest engineer whose philosophy is to ‘always put back into the Industry’ has throughout all these years, managed to stay under the radar - that is until now thanks to Southpac Trucks Legend series..

Peter’s first real encounter with an engine came when he was still at school. His father was a hotel manager in Milford Sounds and one of the tractors that frequented the Milford track reported a faulty clutch.

Peter says, “a guy, Bruce Hoffman was his name, came all the way from his shop in Invercargill to fix it. I went up with him to work on this Fergie 28 tractor. It was a really interesting exercise. Turned out it wasn’t the clutch but the guy knew how to solve the issue - I became interested in engineering there and then.”

At that stage Peter didn’t have any idea as to what he wanted to do when he left school, so he took up an apprenticeship as a diesel mechanic and the same Bruce Hoffman gave him a start.

Peter says, “Bruce worked on all sorts of things. He sold and serviced RT radios, he overhauled and reconditioned dental drills and we had our own fuel shop where we overhauled injectors and fuel pumps, we did a bit of everything.”

One of the bigger projects Peter did at that time was look after the diesel generators on Stewart island.

He says, “because there was no power in those days, we’d go over there to do service and repairs and then do the same thing up in

64 | Truck & Driver

Fiordland and places like that. It was a really broad apprenticeship.”

Broad indeed, however, with the apprenticeship over, Peter left for Auckland and got a job through his brother in law with Cook Motor Racing in Manurewa where he maintained performance cars and built engines, the company used to race the cars too. Peter stayed there for around two years before moving on to Industrial Steel Plant in Penrose.

He says, “they were the NZ agents for ERF Trucks, Cummins engines and Wabco Earthmoving gear and one other agency that was really interesting, Liebherr Tower cranes. I worked there for a number of years, moreso in the truck and machinery side and then I moved with them to Hamilton to work semi-autonomously.”

Lower Left: Kenworth is a major part of the Williams & Wilshier Fleet Above Left: Off highway logging is another part of the trucking operation Above right: Peter at home in his workshop His work had him covering most of the Waikato region and he enjoyed the freedom of self-management but then moved on to International Harvester who sold International trucks and then onto a private company called Purdy and Sherson that were in to earth moving and roadworks.

But it was his next move to Murupara in the Kaingaroa forest, that elevated him to management status and gave him a chance to ‘give back to the industry’ by employing his own apprentices.

Initially working with Direct Transport as a workshop manager Peter and his family lived out in Murupara for a number of years, even commuting to the small town when the family moved to Rotorua.

Thankfully, Direct Transport moved into town and Peter moved with them before taking up a role with (what turned out to be) Southpac Trucks. He says, “I worked there as a Foreman to start with, then Service Manager for quite a few years. It was a big operation about sixteen mechanics and apprentices at one stage, then I was approached by Warwick Wilshire, he asked if I wanted a job. That was about twenty five years ago.”

As it turned out, Peter needed a bit of a change, so he joined Williams & Wilshier and has been there ever since. So, having such a broad background, travelled the length and breadth of the country and worked for a multitude of organisations, why did Peter remain at Williams & Wilshier?

“I haven’t had the need to move on, I haven’t seen anything better.” He jokes. “It’s changed a bit obviously since I started here.

When I began there were about ten or twelve trucks, now we’ve got close to nearly a hundred.”

He reckons that the industry has changed alot too, now it’s all controlled by electronics. Peter says, “you’ve got to be computer literate to work on engines, trucks and trailers nowadays. You plug in and find out why things like the ABS are not working. You can’t fix things without plugging in.”

He also says that the parts are more ‘disposable’ now.

“Once upon a time you’d take a water pump off. Dismantle it on the bench, assemble and put it back on. Now you just go and buy a water pump and bang it on. That’s the unfortunate thing, a lot of the old skills are lost. You don’t recondition cylinder heads like we used to when I was at Cummins.”

It’s not just the workload that’s changed, according to Peter the industry appeal to staff and work ethic has too.

“The difference is that in the early days people wanted to work, people don’t want to work that hard nowadays. I still regularly come

to work on a Saturday because that’s what I’ve done all my life but you don’t see that much in the younger people now. They want a job that starts on Monday morning and finishes on Friday afternoon but in our industry we’ve got to have our workshop open Saturday morning to keep up with what we’ve got going on.”

In saying that, Peter has employed a huge amount of engineers over his career and he continues to employ apprentices.

“Everywhere I’ve been we’ve always had apprentices and some places two, three or four at a time, continually adding to the industry.

We’ve always got to put back something because it’s very hard to find people to do this job now, younger people want to play around with computers or office work, no weekend or after hours work, so we’ve got to put something back.”

Peter also tries to make the working conditions the best as possible and look after the people the best way he can. He says it encourages people to stay and encourages people to want to come and work there.

“I do get on well with the guys out there, they’re basically all my mates too. We joke and laugh, it’s about making the place a good place to work. We have a very low staff turnover. The whole Williams & Wilshier company is a good company to work for.”

He also reckons that a lot of people are surprised at how easy the owner Warwick is to talk to.

“He’ll tell the guys a lot about what’s going on. He’ll tell them about the industry as a whole and really include them.”

Williams & Wilshier currently have six mechanics for their fleet of trucks and trailers.

“We generally do all our own gearboxes and diffs. We do as much as we can and depending on how busy we are, sometimes we send things back to the dealer. If there’s any major engineering stuff needed on the trailers they go to Patchell Industries.”

And despite the ever changing industry, Fleet Service Manager Peter stays on top of things.

“I always say that I know a bit about everything and that gets me through.”

Although he’s been in the industry since the age of sixteen and has happily ‘flown under the radar’ sixty-six-year-old Peter says he’s basically near the end of his career.

“I might stay on for a couple more years yet hopefully, it’s a good place to be so I might as well stay. When I retire I’ve got a lifestyle block with some work to do on that.”

Maybe Peter will buy an old Fergie 28 and work on that too. T&D

Truck & Driver | 65

Story Wayne Munro

This page: Trevor Woolston’s first-ever truck test was on his own 350-horsepower R Model Mack. For his first year as a magazine publisher (and truck tester), he sold ads by day....and drove the Mack at nights Opposite page: Woolston in his happy place – in this case, behind the wheel of a Maroa Logging Mack Titan off-highway logger. The Titan, tested in 2001, was the heaviest (at 176 tonnes all-up) and longest (at 48 metres) of his test driving career

66 | Truck & Driver

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The range of trucks Woolston has tested is pretty much as widely varying as the national fleet. This Western Star Constellation Series 4764 SXC readymix concrete truck , tested in 2015, runs an Allison auto and a 316hp Cummins ISL engine

F THERE WAS A TROPHY FOR THE TRUCKIE WHO’S DRIVEN more different truck makes and models than anyone else around, New Zealand Truck & Driver publisher Trevor Woolston would have to be the hands-down winner.

After all, the truckie turned trucking magazine owner has been in a unique position to build his claim to the title – having been testing trucks for three decades….

First for the magazine he started in 1985, NZ Trucking: He did 110 test drives in 10 years….until it was sold.

And then for his second-go-round in publishing, NZ Truck & Driver: Since establishing this magazine in 1999, he’s clocked-up over 230 tests….

From DAFs to Daewoos, Inters to Ivecos….and Isuzus.

Freightliners, FUSOs and Fodens. CATs, Bulldogs and Eagles. And, along with those Macks – MANs, Mercs and Mitsis.

There’s been almost two dozen Kenworths, a few Sinotruks – plus Sterlings and Scanias. ERFs, heaps of Hinos, one Peterbilt, a solo Rheinmetall MAN (Army truck). Nissan Diesels and UDs, a Renault trio, a variety of Volvos and a wodge of Western Stars…

But now that enviable run is over: Woolston is announcing his enforced retirement from doing the driving for the magazine’s monthly truck tests.

It’s the unhappy consequence of health issues that began 30 years ago – when an undiagnosed allergic reaction to a commonlyprescribed medication damaged his kidneys.

That in turn has triggered a chain of health dramas including a recent kidney transplant – and subsequent circulatory complications…that have led to the amputation of his lower right leg.

“So, my prognosis is that I’ll get a prosthetic limb – I’ll be able to walk again, but we’re still battling to get me right….and it certainly curtails my ability to carry on doing what I’ve been

doing.

“I’ll continue to keep working on the magazine….but as far as test driving trucks goes, it’s time to hand it over to (younger son) Hayden,” who has worked alongside his Dad on the magazine’s Big Tests over the past seven years.

Says Trevor: “I don’t know if I’ll ever drive a truck again or not – but there is a possibility. They’ve told me that they have fitted prosthetic legs to truckies, who have gone back driving.

“It’ll depend on how much control I have over the leg, because it’s my throttle foot. On an automated manual truck it wouldn’t be a problem at all. Where it would become an issue is driving an 18-speed (manual): Getting your timings right and that. But that’s something that could be learned.”

Trevor, now 64, started driving trucks almost 50 years ago – happy to jump behind the wheel of farm trucks and trundle around the paddocks helping with haymaking (like so many other truckies brought up in country areas).

He’s not too specific about exactly what those early rides were – just “bloody old shitters….old Bedfords and Austins and things.”

Also like many others in the industry, he came from a trucking family: “Dad (Bill Woolston) and his brother Philip were both into trucks. When I was just a baby they drove concrete trucks – bloody old Albions and things – for Roy Moore in Hamilton.”

Against his “better judgment,” truck driving wasn’t his first job: At 16 he left school and, as directed by his Dad, got an office job – in an insurance company.

Luckily, he still found a way to drive trucks – joining a transport unit of the Army’s Territorials, getting his HT and enjoying himself driving RL Bedford Army trucks.

He put the HT licence to fulltime use in 1975, when he started driving a V8 Cummins-engined D1000 Ford tipper for Mitchell Transport in Ohaupo.

Truck & Driver | 69

Right: Have hard hat and viz-vest....will test trucks

Opposite page, top: Mighty Mack Titan off-highway unit was the biggest rig Woolston ever tested

Next, he became a driver/salesman for General Foods, driving a 4x2 TK Bedford with a chiller body – delivering frozen goods around the northern Waikato.

Two years on, about to get married, he and wife-to-be Sue bought his Dad’s milk run, covering the northeastern corner of Hamilton. It came with an old three-ton Austin 4x2 and a couple of weird mechanical delivery platforms, built out of an old Ford Escort and a Triumph 1200, driven from rear-located controls: “All

your milk was packed in front of you and you just jumped off and delivered the milk as you went down the road.”

The old Austin was soon traded on a secondhand D Series Ford, with a new milk crate body.

But Woolston’s “real” trucking career began in 1982, when he and Sue bought a 1974 Mack R Model tipper from Dibble Bros in Te Awamutu and joined four others – Barry Stamp, Derek Smith and the late Alf Quaife and Geoff Dibble – to form Dibble Independent

This pic: There’s clever...and then there’s very clever, said Woolston of this Freightliner Argosy quad and its Krafty Quad foldup logging trailer – able to cart up to 18m logs, even on tight Tuhoe roads Opposite page: One of the first Volvo FH16 750s in logging in NZ, delivered effortless hillcimbing...and luxury

70 | Truck & Driver

Transport co-operative.

It may have been a dream come true….but, thanks to the gear, it sure wasn’t a dream experience for the first year: The truck was, he reckons, “the oldest R Model.” And, because it’s what he could afford and what was available, he’d bought “an enormously heavy and impractical” Supermat trailer…purposebuilt to deliver fert, but not much use for anything else.

He had no choice but to use the Supermat for carting

everything: “Mate, I had to – just to make money. We were doing fert, fert lime, metal…grain.

“Couldn’t do my job without it. But it was no good – wasn’t suitable for what we were doing. Yeah, grain would run out of it like water! I had to get rid of it.”

On top of that, the old Mack was costing plenty in repairs and maintenance.

So, a year after their start in trucking, the Woolstons bought

Truck & Driver | 71

both a new three-axle Transport & General alloy tipping trailer…and a brand-new 350-horsepower R Model.

“It was just a matter of having to. You had to get out of it (the old truck)…..it cost us too much to run.”

The new Mack was chosen on the back of the mobile service network set up by Motor Truck boss Ron Carpenter: Rick Wood, the Waikato region mechanic, would come “any time, day and night” to work on the truck while Trevor slept – leaving a note on the window for when he left on his next job.

Not that he got to sleep much! Right or wrong, like most other truckies, “we worked every hour we could. We were probably getting three hours sleep – if we were lucky!” Sometimes, when an urgent job needed doing – like running burnt lime around the clock to the Kawerau mill – it could run to zero sleep in 24 hours.

“I remember stopping in the middle of the night, walking into Lake Rotoma and cleaning my teeth and having a wash! Then coming out, drying myself….and hop back in the truck, carry on.”

At Bluegum Corner, alongside both State Highway 1 and the Main Trunk railway line near Marton, on summer nights he’d grab some sleep on the bin covers – waking up with a start every time a train rumbled by.

Scarily, he remembers once waking up in a picnic area near Ohakune in the Mack, with the engine running – “and I couldn’t remember pulling over, putting the brake on.”

Tough as those times were, he remembers them fondly: “I mean, there were a lot of good guys on the road in those days. We were 72 | Truck & Driver

all pretty matey – we all knew each other. It didn’t matter whether it was your company or one of the opposition – whether it was one of the Cronin’s boys or the Rorison’s boys or one of the Lambert guys.”

If someone was in trouble – with a puncture or whatever – “you’d stop and help each other out. I remember at three in the morning stopping somewhere near National Park to help one of the Ohakune market guys change a wheel on his truck. I got a sack of potatoes for it!”

One thing though that irked him while he was living out his truckie dreams was getting his copy of the Aussie Truckin’ Life magazine every month…and hating the lack of good Kiwi content.

One morning he opened the latest magazine…and told Sue: “ ‘I’ve had a gutsful!’ I got pissed off with all the shit that was in it about NZ. It was all crap…..nothing decent about NZ anywhere. And she said: ‘Why don’t you start your own magazine?’

“I said, ‘Yeah well, why don’t we? It’s wide open – there’s nobody else doing it.’ ” He quizzed boyhood water-skiing mate Mitch Plaw for tips: He’d been a partner in starting a new powerboat magazine. He was spurred on to recruit Auckland journalist Jon Addison as the editor….and Trevor, Sue and Addison launched NZ Trucking in March 1985.

His first-ever truck test…was on his own R600 Mack: “We did a road test around the Waikato with the truck fully loaded with metal.

On the hop we developed our programme – on how we’d do a test.”

Clockwise, from above: Unspectacular truck maybe....but in a spectacular setting, in the Port Hills, this 2011 UD GW470, with an Eaton AutoShift, provided one of Woolston’s favourite tests; the Woolstons’ first “real” truck - a ‘74 Mack R Model; D Series Ford was Trevor’s milk truck; impressive Haulmax dumptruck boasts a 787hp Cat V12; Woolston at the top of the Freightliner Argosy’s controversial swingout staircase, back in 2000

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And no – he wasn’t too proud to bring up a few negatives about his own truck: “Yeah, we made some critical remarks about it. Oh mate, the ride wasn’t the greatest in those things, I can tell you.

Tons of old guys have got busted backs from them.”

For the next year or more Trevor had a driver on the Mack during the day – while he sold ads and ran the magazine – then he did three or four loads at night. It was just as exhausting as being a truckie – plus “it was a bit weird. It was a bit tiring too, I tell you.

“The funny thing was, the magazine just took off. Yeah, I could never have predicted how well it would go.” Although he’d never done anything vaguely like selling advertising, “I think by our third issue we’d sold out…..

“We built up a mass pretty quick. We had really good circulation.

Back in those days people bought magazines….and the magazine went from strength to strength.”

So in late 1986, the Woolstons sold the Mack and their share in the Dibble co-op –committing fulltime to the magazine.

For the next decade, every issue (11 per year) featured a truck test as its main feature – all with Woolston the test driver. Plus there were some special extras – like driving Pacific loggers in a Sarawak jungle (“that was pretty hair-raising”) and new Scania 112s in the Arctic Circle (on a memorable trip that apparently involved as much drinking as driving!).

Not all of his opinions on the trucks driven went down well: “Oh yeah, there’s always critics,” Woolston sums up. Ford, he says, “hated it when I said their F series Ford trucks (which were Hinos)

had a big engine…..that couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding.

“It had this big, bad engine that produced no power, no torque.

I drove it down the Napier-Taupo (highway) and I said: ‘This is bloody terrible!’ ” Back in the 1980s and early ‘90s, there were lots of trucks that, to put it charitably, “were not very sophisticated. But then you’re judging them by the standards of trucks now – not how trucks were back then.” Ride-wise, many trucks “were pretty harsh, hardriding.”

As a result: “I was critical of a lot of trucks over the years – but I just stood by the fact that it was my point of view. We have always said that we can’t afford to write nice things about something we don’t agree with.

“Especially because people are ringing you up wanting to discuss things with you about the truck. If you’ve just written something that says it’s the greatest truck in the world and then they say, ‘but what about this?’ It wouldn’t be a good situation would it?”

Between the monthly test drives and managing the magazine, Woolston still found time to stage national trucking exhibitions at Mystery Creek and Ngaruawahia every two years, between 1989 and 2001.

And he played a pivotal role in introducing truck racing to NZ in 1989 – drawing one of the biggest motorsport crowds in years to Pukekohe for the Caltex NZ Truck Grand Prix , featuring Aussie and Kiwi drivers in purposebuilt (and some roadgoing!) tractor units.

The first issue of NZ Truck & Driver, in 1999, saw Woolston (right) at the wheel of this 600hp Cat-engined Western Star 6900 off-highway unit in Kaingaroa Forest – running at 100 tonnes

74 | Truck & Driver

Clockwise, from above: Woolston at the wheel of the NZ’s first new K108 – the truck Kenworth said was “defining tomorrow”; Woolston at the wheel of a Volvo FMX for the 200th NZ Truck & Driver test; Yep, test drivers do get checked out by the cops too; 1999 Iveco Eurotech MP4500 test was caught in ice and snow....necessitating a couple of tows up hills

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He promoted the sport for the next five years.

But in 1995, his time as NZ Trucking’s test driver came to an end when Independent Newspapers “made an offer we couldn’t refuse” – and bought the magazine. He stayed on as manager of INL’s industry magazines division….but soon decided that the corporate structure didn’t suit his style.

The truck tests resumed though….just four years later. After an approach from the Road Transport Forum to take over its monthly newsletter, Woolston saw an opportunity to return to publishing a newsstand trucking magazine….that would also become the official RTF magazine.

NZ Truck & Driver was born in March 1999, the first issue featuring Woolston in his element – test driving a Western Star 6900 off-highway logger, powered by NZ’s first 600hp CAT 3406E 16-litre, in Kaingaroa Forest.

“It’s beautiful,” he purred about the engine: “You can virtually forget the gearbox – you just don’t need it. Just stick it in top and drive.” Well….almost. It would actually have taken a little while to get up into top gear in the 18-speed, considering that the Merehini Transport Company’s two-trailer unit was running at around 100 tonnes all-up.

In the first 12 months, he drove a 530hp Scania 144G livestock unit, tried out NZ’s first Cummins Signature 565-powered T604 Kenworth tipper, drove the first Daewoo to go into service here (a 370hp tractor unit), and tested a Navistar (International) 8100 tipper and a 460hp MAN 32.463 8x4 logger…

He also tested NZ’s first Mack Qantum cabover – towing a curtainsider semi-trailer – took an Iveco Eurotech MP4500 stock truck through a North Canterbury snowstorm, took the first

Freightliner Century Class (in the form of a curtainsider B-train) on a tour of the North Island, and joined a Volvo FH12 460 on its roundabout milk run to Hawke’s Bay….via Taranaki!

Then, to complete the first year of tests, he drove an Anchor Milk Foden Alpha 3000 milk tanker over the Pigroot – the road that runs between northern Otago’s Kakanui Mountains and the Rock and Pillar Range.

That’s the kind of variety of trucks, applications and runs that’s been repeated for 20 more years since.

So what’s his favourite – of all the trucks he’s tested? “I don’t have a best truck. I mean I like a whole lot of different trucks for different reasons.

“Like I love the new Merc (the Mirrorcam Actros was actually the last truck he tested, just a few months ago) because it’s a cruisy drive – bloody laidback, simple thing to drive.

“But I also love the K200 Kenworth because it’s just an institution. It’s been there, done it. And there’s something else about driving the bloody things, you know?”

Most recently he drove a K200 8x4 put on the road by A.S. Wilcox & Sons – carting potatoes and other produce. At driver Jimmy Clark’s request, it was specced with an 18-speed Roadranger….and Woolston loved driving it: “Whilst I love the AMTs, there’s nothing like getting to grips with an 18-speed and throwing some gears. It’s good to get in a truck and be able to drive it nicely.

“Part of my problem has been that I’m jumping in and out of things too quickly – you don’t get enough time to fall into the groove with them. But if you get your gearshifts sweet, you can do anything with them.”

Grabasub

Something different: In 2015, as the Army began operating the first of its new fleet of Rheinmetall MAN trucks, Woolston drove this HX77 8x8 on its offroad training ground, at the foot of Mount Ruapehu

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Truck & Driver | 77

Above, left: On the gnarly climb from Sumner to Evans Pass, Isuzu’s new Smoother-G AMT struggled to downshift quickly enough in its automated mode....forcing a halt and a restart in manual mode. This was in 2005 Above, right: Loggers, thanks to the tough terrain and rough roads they work on, delivered Woolston some of the most memorable tests While he doesn’t have favourite trucks….he does have favourite tests: Among them are memorable drives at the wheel of NZ’s longest and heaviest rigs – off-highway loggers…

And there’s been a couple of beauties on Canterbury’s Port Hills.

One of them wasn’t even a spectacularly powerful truck – a 470hp UD GW470 demo unit, running an Eaton AutoShift 18-speed AMT, back in March 2011.

The fun part was the big slog up the hills from Little River to Hilltops, with a full load of bagged cement on the five-axle B-train – the AMT in manual mode: “That was one of the best drives I ever did. You were up and down through the box all the way up the bloody hill. It was steep, mate – it was steep.”

But with the AutoShift doing everything that was asked of it – and when it was asked – it was one of those times where “you become one with the truck.” It was the same when the regular driver took it down the steep descent to the Akaroa Harbour.

The Port Hills also featured in an interesting tryout of Isuzu’s new Smoother-G AMT in a new GIGA EXY530 demonstrator.

It was on a pretty unchallenging run to Lyttelton….until Woolston decided to take the steep DG route over the hill, from Sumner to Evans Pass, rather than the tunnel.

Even in Power mode the AMT couldn’t downshift quickly enough and almost stalled, forcing a stop, a restart in manual mode and then a big effort from the engine.

It was, he reckoned, “a shame” – because apart from that, the truck seemed to be “a real winner: Powerful, economical, easy to handle, quiet, comfortable and very well built.” In fact, that proved to be a telltale first sign of a troublesome model for NZ’s No.1 truck make.

Another favourite place that’s been the scene of numerous standout tests is the Kaingaroa Forest in the central North Island.

Back in 2001, he drove a Maroa Logging Mack Titan XHD, with its three Kraft log trailers stretching out to 48 metres long….and weighing 176 tonnes all-up.

It was “without a doubt….the longest and heaviest rig I’ve ever handled.”

Since that one there have been off-highway Western Stars, Kenworths and another Titan – all of them requiring absolute and utter focus on always having them in the right gear, at the right revs, on the right part of the road….

78 | Truck & Driver

“They were beautiful to drive and you do have to really drive them the whole time – you can’t take your mind off the job for a moment. You’ve got a lot of weight on and you’ve just gotta be hitting your gearshifts every time.”

You couldn’t put a foot wrong either, driving a Volvo FH16 750 8x4 logger (one of NZ’s first), on a steep uphill drag from a Pohokura, Hawke’s Bay skid-site. Mind you, the I-Shift AMT made those gearshifts a breeze, albeit in manual mode. The climbs, said Woolston, “really are a non-event when the power and torque of the 750 engine hits them.”

There have also been oddities, like driving the Rheinmetall MAN HX77 8x8 – one of the Army’s fleet of new trucks – back in 2015.

That included driving it down The Wall – a steep ravine in the foothills of Mt Ruapehu that looked like it was bloody close to the maximum 60% gradient that the 8x8s are reckoned to be good for.

And there was his time behind the wheel of a Haulmax 3900 6x4 dumptruck, with a 787hp 26.9-litre Cat V12 engine, repeatedly carting close to 80 tonnes of coal down a one in 20 gradient at the Stockton opencast coalmine.

If he won’t nominate a best truck out of those he’s driven, how about the worst? That, he reckons, would probably be a JAC lightduty truck: “That was a shocker. I couldn’t drive it in a straight line!

And a bit of trim fell off it while we were driving.”

But don’t get him wrong: He’s not dead-set against Chinese trucks overall – even though they do currently lag behind the quality of what else is on the market: “If you buy one of these trucks, don’t expect it to be as good as a new FUSO or a new Isuzu…because it’s not. But probably, in five or six years, Chinese trucks will be as good as any truck you get out of Japan.”

Not that he’s likely to be driving them. Son Hayden, who has worked on the magazine for 11 years, is taking over the test driver duties: “He’s been with me on the road tests – got experience of them. But yeah, it’s his turn to take it on.”

The last truck Trevor tested left him reflecting on how good new trucks are these days – and how the best of them hold the key to turning around the driver shortage. As he said, of the MercedesBenz Actros 5 1846LS MirrorCam – the world’s first production truck to replace rear-vision mirrors with mini-cameras, mounted in streamlined winglets: “With trucks like this, who wouldn’t want to be a truck driver!” T&D

TRUCK SHOP

Hino's offering various deferred finance repayments on new trucks

Hino offers deferred finance repayments T

O HELP EASE THE IMPACTS OF THE COVID-19 emergency on trucking businesses, Hino New Zealand is offering up to 12 months’ deferred repayments for finance on new truck purchases.

“With the aim of giving business a boost,” the company has partnered with Heartland Bank to provide an improved finance offering.

Hino Finance provides up to 100% finance (including GST) on payment terms of up to seven years, with payments on new Hinos now able to be deferred for 365 days with a 25% deposit, 180 days with a 15% deposit or 90 days with 0% deposit.

“It is hoped that this will ease the cashflow burden for business operators in

these challenging times,” says Hino NZ general manager Darren Salt.

“We developed this finance offer to provide our customers with the opportunity to increase cashflow by putting their Hino asset to work straight away, before paying for the asset at a later date.

“While Hino Finance provides a great solution for managing costs of the truck, our Hino online service calculator provides clarity around aftersales costs, providing a full cost of ownership picture for our customers. We realise that understanding and managing costs is more important than ever.”

The offer is available until the end of the year and can quickly be applied for via an online form at www.hinofinance.co.nz. T&D

MyTrucking adds new online booking capability

B

OOKING JOBS HAS GOT EASIER for the customers of trucking companies using the MyTrucking transport management programme, its developers say.

A new customer portal enables trucking company customers to submit job requests – “at any time, anywhere….making it even easier for people to do business with you,” says MyTrucking.

The free add-on to the management programme creates greater efficiencies, saves time and money and reduces errors, say the developers of the “simple and practical transport management programme that vastly improves the old-fashioned diary system by moving it online.”

While the new customer portal adds greater efficiency, the transport operator retains complete

control over the MyTrucking system and chooses who has access to the portal.

When a customer submits a job request, the operator receives a notification, which can be reviewed and the job accepted or declined.

Once a job is accepted, it will simply appear in the operator's daysheet, “just like any other job, waiting to be assigned a vehicle.

“Key benefits include having customers enter jobs for you – saving time on data entry; mistakes are reduced; there’s no double handling; and you’ll never miss or lose a job request.”

Customers submit jobs when it suits them and they get automatic real-time updates on their jobs.

The portal also “makes it a breeze” to share proof of delivery and dockets.

VT Transport’s Pana Sharma says that the new customer portal is a welcome addition to MyTrucking: “I’ve got my two main customers on it, and they are loving it. Having photos and signed copies of POD available straight away, after a job is done, is fantastic. I also like the idea of being able to choose what you want the customer to see in the portal.” T&D

Truck & Driver | 79

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New Zealand Heavy Haulage Association

Operators transporting over-dimension loads need to be fully aware of the requirements in the Vehicle Dimensions and Mass Rule

Jonathan Bhana-Thomson

Know your oversize rules

By Jonathan Bhana-Thomson – chief executive, New Zealand Heavy Haulage Associationsociation

T

HE TRANSPORT OF OVERSIZE LOADS REQUIRES COMPLIANCE with a raft of extra requirements, in addition to all those required in the transport industry, such as loading weights, road user charges, worktime logbooks and so on.

Operators regularly engaged in the transport industry get to know the rules for oversize loads almost like the back of their hand – but when undertaking a different type of load, or working outside their normal operating area, it certainly pays to check the rules.

For overdimension loads the rules are contained in the Vehicle Dimensions and Mass Rule, and while this document is not exactly riveting night-time reading, it is necessary to be across it – to ensure that drivers comply with the various requirements.

There are easier to read summaries of the Rule – such as the New Zealand Heavy Haulage Association’s Driver Guide – but each operator involved in the transport of overdimension loads should obtain and read a copy of the Rule. There are some common areas that operators need to be aware of, such as: Over-height requirements There are rules around the heights that operators can travel with, and when they need to get permission from overhead authorities, such as powerline companies. The other issue is being aware of your route and making sure that the actual height of your load on the transporter can fit on that route once loaded. There are plenty of low overhead structures scattered around the roading network, and operators (and their drivers) need to be aware of these and plan their routes accordingly.

Travel areas To manage the risk to other road users from a wide, high or long load, some areas – such as listed city areas – have more restrictive

travel requirements. In addition, for larger loads there are different travel zones. Apart from the region south of Christchurch, these haven’t changed for some time…but operators still need to get familiar with this.

Travel times In conjunction with the travel zones, then there are restrictions in terms of times when overdimension loads can be shifted in each of the zones. Generally, in the more builtup areas, the larger the load, the less time options there are available for travel. Drivers need to work out the dimensions of their load and then what this means in terms of the available travel times in the area that they’re working in. This particularly applies if you’re travelling from a rural area into an urban area.

When you need a pilot Once you exceed a width of 3.1 metres, generally you need a pilot.

But there are also other situations when you need a pilot – or should consider a pilot. For example, a Category 2 load at night needs a Class 1 pilot in addition to the Class 2 (pilot). And if the rear overhang exceeds 7m there are requirements for extra pilots. For other types of loads – for example those that are only over-height – you’ll need a pilot if you have to deviate outside your lane, or if the route that you’re travelling on means requires you to cross the centre line. The precise details are in the VDAM Rule, so get reading.

The point that I’m getting to is that there are detailed requirements for transporting oversize loads – so get yourself a copy of the Rule and find out for any load what the requirements are….and think about the route that you’re travelling on.

If you don’t do this, there are not just legal ramifications….but also potential safety risks for other road users, drivers and other staff. T&D Truck & Driver | 81

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Road Transport Association NZ

Transport spending a top priority Transport plans focus heavily on Auckland, but the rest of the country also needs better roads, says David Killick

A

S NEW ZEALAND’S POPULATION AND CITIES HAVE STEADILY grown, it has become increasingly apparent that the country’s network of mostly two-lane national highways simply isn’t up to the task.

While some big projects, such as Wellington’s Transmission Gully motorway and the Waikato Expressway, are already under way, more investment is needed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored, yet again, the vital role that the trucking industry plays in keeping the nation’s economy running.

All political parties have pledged to spend more money on transport – but their plans vary.

The Labour-led Government has announced it will spend an extra $5billion on infrastructure projects around NZ, creating more than 20,000 jobs. That’s on top of the $12billion NZ Upgrade Programme and existing Provincial Growth Fund investments.

Included are four major Auckland transport projects worth $182 million – expected to create 800 jobs. The Puhinui Interchange and Stage One of the Ferry Basin Redevelopment are already under construction. The other projects are improvements to the North Western Motorway and a new $37m walking and cycling path connecting New Lynn and Te Atatu in West Auckland.

Investing in public transport and cycling helps get cars off the roads, so that should help the road transport industry.

Meanwhile, a decision on shifting the Ports of Auckland’s freight operations has been deferred until after the election.

National, unsurprisingly, has criticised the Government for failing to deliver on projects so far.

In July, the opposition National Party’s third leader this year, Judith Collins, announced an ambitious $31billion transport policy. Collins called it “the biggest infrastructure programme in NZ’s history.”

The policy is focused mainly on the upper North Island, with projects in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga and Whangarei earmarked to receive the lion’s share of spending – about $17bn.

The projects would include a four-lane expressway from Whangarei to Tauranga (including tunnels under mountain ranges);

By Road Transport Association NZ communications manager David Killick another Auckland Harbour crossing; bus rapid transit and a rail link for Auckland; upgrading Auckland’s ferry services; and building Auckland’s Northwest Rapid Transit Bus Corridor.

National ruled out new fuel taxes and pledged to repeal the Auckland regional fuel tax. Funding would come from borrowing and future budgets. Some funding would come from tolls.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson criticised what he called National’s “contradictory position on debt,” and warned that public services would be slashed. He said some “new” National projects were already part of the Government’s plan. The plan was also criticised for being Auckland-centric.

National also announced it would fund a Palmerston North rural ring road.

In early July, short-term former National leader Todd Muller – alongside now-disgraced former National MP Andrew Falloon – promised a $1.5bn upgrade for SH1 between Christchurch and Ashburton, turning it into four lanes, to connect with the Christchurch Southern Motorway.

Muller said the project would be “transformational” for Canterbury, while Falloon criticised the Government for funnelling funding into Auckland transport projects.

Whether that highway gets built is uncertain.

So, what’s the takeaway from all this? On the plus side, all major parties are pledged to improving transport in NZ. As always, the devil will be in the detail. Concerns remain about the amount of money being allocated for Auckland and the north of the country, ahead of other parts of the country…..and about 0where the money will come from.

Whatever the outcome, the Road Transport Association – by bringing members’ concerns to the attention of roading and territorial authorities – and the Road Transport Forum, through lobbying government, will make members’ voices heard. T&D Truck & Driver | 83

LEADERS IN TRAILER MANUFACTURING Fruehauf is a name that has been associated with quality, craftsmanship and dedication to excellence since its establishment in the United States in the late 1800s.

As a market leader in NZ Transport Manufacturing, Fruehauf NZ offers excellence in ongoing after Sales Customer Support within New Zealand Fruehauf NZ Ltd is extremely proud to support the New Zealand Transport Industry with Manufacturing, Servicing and Repairs of Truck and Trailer products for all NZ Transport businesses and will work to do so well into the Future.

During the past 10-year management of Fruehauf NZ Ltd by Phil Watchorn and Jeff Mear, Fruehauf NZ has become a New Zealand leader in the manufacture of road transport equipment for both truck trailers and truck bodies.

With an innovative approach to the industry and by working closely with its Customers and the NZTA, Fruehauf NZ has continued to support the Transport Industry. Fruehauf NZ has introduced some highly successful products giving higher payload options and enabling transport companies’ greater revenue with ongoing sustainability in the marketplace.

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National Road Carriers

Your vote counts: Ask the hard questions

By David Aitken, CEO of National Road Carriers Associationn

B

Y THE TIME YOU READ THIS THE GENERAL Election (on Saturday September 19) will be less than three weeks away.

Hopefully, you will have kept your eyes and ears attuned to the news media, attended some candidate meetings, or researched online to learn about the political parties’ transport policies.

Here are some of the issues National Road Carriers has been working hard to address over the last 18 months. Exploring these issues and asking hard questions about the parties’ approaches to them should help you decide who to vote for.

Road maintenance Last year our road maintenance campaign – dubbed by Transport Minister Phil Twyford as the “NRC Pothole Campaign” – received 6000 Facebook views in its first two days…and appeared on television news.

The problems have not been fixed, so we have relaunched the Facebook campaign to highlight the continuing deterioration of our roads. Check out the campaign and comments on the NRC Facebook page and then ask the politicians: Which party can be trusted to fix New Zealand’s chronic road maintenance problem?

RUC increase We had 15,859 people sign our petition to have the Government’s 5.3% increase in road user charges postponed. Our beef was that the Government was handing out money and support packages to almost every industry, but hitting ours with an extra tax. It was an insult to the good work the road transport industry does to keep the country’s supply chain moving.

In our petition, presented to Parliament by ACT leader David Seymour, we also pointed out that this increase will affect everyone because the cost of moving freight must

ultimately be built into the price of goods. So, the simple question is: What will your party spend money collected from the RUC and fuel excise on?

Infrastructure In March, the Labour-led Government pledged to plough $54billion into transport investment over the next 10 years – upgrading and building roads, railway lines and cycleways.

In July, the National Party announced a $31billion transport and infrastructure package including a four-lane expressway linking Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga, the reinstatement of the East West Link and the repeal of the Auckland regional fuel tax.

Our question to each party is: What infrastructure will you promote to ease congestion and get freight moving?

Ports of Auckland To get some commonsense thoughts on the issues around moving the Ports of Auckland to Northport, we commissioned business consultant Tony Garnier to interview road transport stakeholders.

The key findings of his report were that Ports of Auckland should stay put at least until 2050, that Northport was logistically impractical and that the key issue is the efficiency and safety of road and rail access to the three upper North Island ports – Auckland, Tauranga and Northport. Read the key points summary of the NRC report on our website and then ask: What is your party’s approach to freight in the upper North Island?

Driver recruitment During the COVID-19 lockdown we created a database of 360 available drivers to cover for any companies that were caught short. We are now collaborating with Talent Central to assist people in the NZ transport industry to

David Aitken

connect with new employment opportunities or training.

We have also teamed up television production company Stripe Studios with support from Teletrac Navman, Mobil Oil NZ and Bridgestone NZ to produce NZ Truckers, a new TV series to improve the image of the industry. The question for the politicians is: What will your party do to help bring new people into the trucking industry?

Future fuels Road transport accounts for about 20% of the country’s carbon emissions and there are a lot of pressures to reduce these. We know NRC members are keen to know more because when we held a Future of Freight seminar last year to look at clean diesel, electric vehicles, biofuels, and hydrogen we had 125 attendees.

So, the question is: How will your party support the road transport industry to reduce carbon emissions?

Drugs Several operators have expressed concern about the potential legalisation of marijuana as a result of the referendum. Their questions are about the safety of their drivers from potentially impaired road users and whether they will they have to test drivers daily? Also, the possible increased costs of insurance and ability to employ staff who are drug free.

Over the last two years, more people have had drugs in their system than alcohol in road death stats. We don’t want to see this increase, particularly when we keep talking about making the roads safer. The question is: What impact would marijuana legalisation have on road safety?

There are plenty of other issues in our industry that would benefit from political support, but these questions should get your grey matter ticking to ensure that your vote counts. T&D Truck & Driver | 85

Caltex Invercargill Oil Shop

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We pride ourselves in being able to offer and supply the best product backed by the best service in the industry. Along with our oil shop network Caltex Lubricants are available in many areas.

Just give John a call, who has over 35 years experience in the automotive industry, to discuss your requirements.

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This new Coronado 114 logger is the first Freightliner sold by Keith Andrews Trucks in Whangarei. Matt Lusty’s MHL Haulage has put the 560hp 8x4 to work in Northland. It has Patchell logging gear and a matching five-axle trailer.

OP Ltd

It’s business Jim… but not as we knew it I

TD30935

N COVID-19 TIMES, JULY’S new truck market was positive – maintaining similar registrations to the previous month.

Then again, that “new normal” was still well down on the market at the same point last year: July’s 380 registrations in the overall truck market were 20% down on the same month last year.

Worse, it brought the year-to-date registration total to 2247 – fully 27% down on the 3096 sales at the same point last year.

Similarly, the 133 trailer registrations amounted to 17 more than in June….but the 683 registrations to the end of July were still almost 25% down on the 910 at the same point last year.

In the overall truck market (4.5 tonnes to

maximum GVM), July saw longtime No. 1 Isuzu (542/101) again extend its lead, with an impressive 101 registrations. F USO (332/48), Hino (291/55) and Volvo (167/13) held their positions, in order behind.

The top eight positions were unchanged, although Scania (162/34) did close right up on Volvo – but remained fifth, ahead of Iveco (150/24), Mercedes-Benz (109/12) and Kenworth (93/10).

DAF (87/25) had a good month to go ahead of UD (80/12), for ninth.

In the 3.5-4.5t GVM crossover segment, Fiat (149/27) extended its lead, while Mercedes-Benz (55/6) easily held onto second, ahead of Chevrolet (26/5), Renault (20/4) and Ford (16/1).

In the 4.5-7.5t GVM division, Isuzu Truck & Driver | 87

McCarthy Transport has put this new Kenworth K200 2.3 metre flat-roof sleeper to work in the central and lower North island, carting logs. Shane McGowan drives the 8x4, which has a 600-615hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox and Meritor 46-160 diffs on Hendrickson Primaax suspension. It has McCarthy Engineering logging gear and a matching five-axle trailer.

4501kg-max GVM

Brand ISUZU FUSO HINO VOLVO SCANIA IVECO MERCEDES-BENZ KENWORTH DAF UD FOTON SINOTRUK MAN MACK VOLKSWAGEN INTERNATIONAL FREIGHTLINER FIAT HYUNDAI RAM PEUGEOT WESTERN STAR JAC OTHER Total

2020 Vol % 542 24.1 332 14.8 291 13.0 167 7.4 162 7.2 150 6.7 109 4.9 93 4.1 87 3.9 80 3.6 43 1.9 35 1.6 34 1.5 29 1.3 26 1.2 17 0.8 16 0.7 12 0.5 10 0.4 4 0.2 3 0.1 3 0.1 1 0.0 1 0.0 2247 100.00

July Vol % 101 26.6 48 12.6 55 14.5 13 3.4 34 8.9 24 6.3 12 3.2 10 2.6 25 6.6 12 3.2 15 3.9 4 1.1 2 0.5 6 1.6 10 2.6 3 0.8 0 0.0 2 0.5 4 1.1 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 380 100.00

3501-4500kg GVM

Brand FIAT MERCEDES-BENZ CHEVROLET RENAULT FORD PEUGEOT IVECO LDV VOLKSWAGEN Total

Vol 149 55 26 20 16 14 5 4 2 291

2020 % 51.2 18.9 8.9 6.9 5.5 4.8 1.7 1.4 0.7 100.00

July Vol % 27 58.7 6 13.0 5 10.9 4 8.7 1 2.2 1 2.2 0 0.0 1 2.2 1 2.2 46 100.00

4501-7500kg GVM

Brand ISUZU FUSO IVECO HINO FOTON MERCEDES-BENZ VOLKSWAGEN FIAT HYUNDAI RAM PEUGEOT Total 88 | Truck & Driver

Vol 162 151 79 58 31 26 26 12 8 4 3 560

2020 % 28.9 27.0 14.1 10.4 5.5 4.6 4.6 2.1 1.4 0.7 0.5 100.00

July Vol % 35 34.7 13 12.9 16 15.8 10 9.9 9 8.9 2 2.0 10 9.9 2 2.0 4 4.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 101 100.00

“In the premier 23t to max GVM division, Volvo (167/13) held onto the No. 1 spot.....”

7501-15,000kg GVM

Brand ISUZU HINO FUSO IVECO FOTON UD MAN MERCEDES-BENZ HYUNDAI JAC OTHER Total

Vol 244 75 73 24 12 6 3 3 2 1 1 444

2020 % 55.0 16.9 16.4 5.4 2.7 1.4 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.2 0.2 100.00

July Vol % 49 59.8 11 13.4 11 13.4 5 6.1 6 7.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 82 100.00

15,001-20,500kg GVM

Brand HINO FUSO UD MERCEDES-BENZ SCANIA IVECO ISUZU DAF MAN SINOTRUK Total

Vol 62 23 17 12 10 6 5 5 4 1 145

2020 % 42.8 15.9 11.7 8.3 6.9 4.1 3.4 3.4 2.8 0.7 100.00

July Vol % 14 56.0 6 24.0 1 4.0 2 8.0 1 4.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 4.0 0 0.0 25 100.00

20,501-23,000kg GVM

HINO FUSO ISUZU FREIGHTLINER SCANIA DAF Total

14 5 2 1 1 1 24

2020 58.3 20.8 8.3 4.2 4.2 4.2 100.00

July 1 33.3 1 33.3 1 33.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 3 100.00

23,001kg-max GVM

Brand VOLVO SCANIA ISUZU KENWORTH HINO DAF FUSO MERCEDES-BENZ UD IVECO SINOTRUK MACK MAN INTERNATIONAL FREIGHTLINER WESTERN STAR Total

Vol 167 151 129 93 82 81 80 68 57 41 34 29 27 17 15 3 1074

2020 % 15.5 14.1 12.0 8.7 7.6 7.5 7.4 6.3 5.3 3.8 3.2 2.7 2.5 1.6 1.4 0.3 100.00

July Vol % 13 7.7 33 19.5 16 9.5 10 5.9 19 11.2 25 14.8 17 10.1 8 4.7 11 6.5 3 1.8 4 2.4 6 3.6 1 0.6 3 1.8 0 0.0 0 0.0 169 100.00

Trailers

2020 Vol % Brand PATCHELL 76 11.1 FRUEHAUF 61 8.9 58 8.5 DOMETT ROADMASTER 54 7.9 MTE 51 7.5 TMC 40 5.9 4.8 TRANSPORT TRAILERS 33 FREIGHTER 30 4.4 25 3.7 TRANSFLEET TES 21 3.1 CWS 17 2.5 JACKSON 15 2.2 MAXICUBE 14 2.0 HAMMAR 10 1.5 9 1.3 SDC MAKARANUI 9 1.3 EVANS 9 1.3 8 1.2 MILLS-TUI MTC EQUIPMENT 8 1.2 MD ENG. 8 1.2 KRAFT 8 1.2 TIDD 6 0.9 TANKER ENG. 6 0.9 PTE 6 0.9 LOWES 6 0.9 LUSK 6 0.9 HTS 5 0.7 COWAN 4 0.6 FAIRFAX 4 0.6 TOTAL TRANSPORT 3 0.4 WHITE 3 0.4 SEC 3 0.4 COX ENGINEERING 3 0.4 FELDBINDER 2 0.3 TEO 2 0.3 KOROMIKO 2 0.3 OTHER 58 8.5 Total 683 100.00

July Vol % 14 10.5 10 7.5 17 12.8 11 8.3 5 3.8 7 5.3 6 4.5 3 2.3 3 2.3 3 2.3 5 3.8 5 3.8 7 5.3 4 3.0 1 0.8 1 0.8 2 1.5 1 0.8 1 0.8 2 1.5 2 1.5 1 0.8 1 0.8 1 0.8 1 0.8 3 2.3 0 0.0 1 0.8 1 0.8 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.8 1 0.8 0 0.0 1 0.8 0 0.0 11 8.3 133 100.00

NZ Post contractors and longtime DAF owners Mike and Teresa Pickford have put two new DAF XF530 Super Space Cab 8x4 trucks to work, out of Palmerston North. the nine-axle units have 530hp MX-13 engines, 16-speed TraXon AMTs, DAF SR1360T diffs on DAF air suspension. The extras include a tv, DVD player, fridge, microwave oven, smart stereo with GPS, super-luxury heated/cooled seats, LED headlights, tyre pressure monitoring, onboard axle weight indicator, climate aircon and an alloy rooftop light bar.

(162/35) overtook F USO (151/13) for the top spot. Iveco (79/16) and Hino (58/10) held third and fourth respectively, while Foton (31/9) overtook Mercedes-Benz (26/2) for fifth.

In the 7.5-15t GVM class, Isuzu (244/49) rocketed further ahead of its rivals – alone claiming more than half of the year’s sales to date in the segment. Hino (75/11) and F USO (73/11) continued to fight over second place, well ahead of Iveco (24/5). Foton (12/6) doubled its registrations to jump ahead of UD (6/0).

In the 15-20.5t GVM category, Hino (62/14) increased its lead, while F USO (23/6) retained second, ahead of UD (17/1), Mercedes-Benz (12/2), Scania (10/1) and Iveco (6/0).

In the tiny 20.5-23t GVM division, Hino (14/1) increased its lead on F USO (5/1), with Isuzu (2/1) the only other brand to register a unit in the category in July.

In the premier 23t to max GVM division,

Volvo (167/13) held onto the No. 1 spot, although Scandinavian rival Scania (151/33) closed in. Isuzu (129/16) and Kenworth (93/10) held onto third and fourth respectively, but immediately behind them Hino (82/19) and DAF (81/25) improved – both relegating F USO (80/17), albeit narrowly.

DAF’s improvement also came at the cost of Mercedes-Benz (68/8), which dropped a place to eighth. UD (57/11) and Iveco (41/3) completed the top 10.

Trailer market leader Patchell (76/14) extended its 2020 lead on second-placed Fruehauf (61/10), but Domett (58/17) was best for the month – improving to third (and closing in on Fruehauf ), ahead of Roadmaster (54/11) and MTE (51/5).

The rest of the top 10 held their order, with TMC (40/7) sixth, followed by Transport Trailers (33/6), Freighter (30/3), Transfleet (25/3) and TES (21/3). T&D Truck & Driver | 89

This new Kenworth T610 8x4 RD Petroleum tanker is now carting fuel around the South Island, out of Christchurch. It has a 600hp Cummins engine, an Eaton UltraShift AMT and Meritor RT46-160GP diffs on Airglide 460 suspension. Tanker Solutions built the 18,000-litre tank for the truck and the 32,000-litre five-axle trailer. It has the full Bendix Fusion suite of safety features.

Pukekohe-based Northchill has put two new DAF FTD XF530 Super Space Cabs on the road, carting refrigerated goods nationwide for Foodstuffs. They both have 530hp MX-13 engines, TraXon AMTs, DAF SR1360T diffs on air suspension and MaxiTrans hard-side refrigerated quad trailers.

90 | Truck & Driver

This new Kenworth K200 2.8 Aerodyne tractor unit is now in work hauling general freight nationwide for Hamilton’s AlTranz.

Reuben Weightman drives the 6x4, which has a 600-615hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual and Meritor axles on Airglide 460 suspension. Among the many extras are 45-year anniversary graphics, celebrating the founding of AlTranz predecessor company Lochore Contractors (LCL).

Nelson Toll contractor Andrew Stuart now has this new Iveco Stralis Active Day Cab carting containers between Nelson and Spring Creek. The 8x4 has a 500hp Cursor 13 engine, a Eurotronic transmission and Meritor RT46160GP diffs. It pulls a Roadmaster quad trailer.

This new DAF CF 530 on Hamilton’s Les Harrison Transport fleet runs back and forth to Tauranga with 20/40 containers. It has a 530hp MX13 engine, TraXon AMT and factory diffs and rear air suspension. Pic Larry Beesley

Higgins Concrete has put this new Mack Trident 6x4 tipper to work carting sand and aggregate out of its Palmerston North base. It has a 535hp MP8 engine, an mDrive AMT and a Jackson Enterprises bulk bin and matching four-axle trailer.

Truck & Driver | 91

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Mills-Tui A4 Advert 2020-06.indd 1

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