NZ Truck & Driver April 2021

NZ TRUCK & DRIVER

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| April 2021

April 2021 $8.50 incl. GST

BIG TEST Tex’s American dream | FLEET FOCUS 2m tonnes, 100 trucks...5 fulltime staff | FEATURE Cranes career caps uni degree

FLEET FOCUS

2m tonnes, 100 trucks...5 fulltime staff

FEATURE

Cranes career caps uni degree

The Official Magazine of the

ISSN 2703-6278

Issue 244

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CONTENTS Issue 244 – April 2021 4

Aeolus News

The latest in the world of transport, including….

Mondiale Freight merger creates “global giant;” TAA Logistics’ path to compliance hailed

by Waka Kotahi NZTA; alarming statistic in damaging AND dangerous rail bridge strikes

22 Giti Tyres Big Test

It’s no surprise that TSI Logistics contractor Alex (Tex) McKillop has been the first to put a Cascadia – Freightliner’s latest and greatest – on the road in New Zealand. He loves Freightliners – and has almost exclusively run them in his fleet (there’s been just one exception) for 19 years

REGULARS

64 Southpac Trucks Legends

80/ NZ Transport Imaging Awards 81 Recognising NZ’s best-looking truck fleets….

Willie Malcolm’s love of trucks began with him cleaning fizzy-drink trucks as a kid, and he’s had a passion for them ever since – converting that into a highly-successful career repairing, restoring and modifying cabs

Latest news from the Road Transport Forum NZ, including…..random roadside drug testing getting closer….finally; Climate Change Commission realistic about heavy transport; as trucks get “fitter” – ie smarter and more fuel efficient – there’s a growing scrutiny of the fitness of the person behind the wheel

48 Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus

Log transport company Aztec’s target this year is to shift two million tonnes of logs – running a fleet of around 100 trucks…..with just five fulltime staff!

91 Road Transport Association NZ

RTANZ members face a raft of ongoing legal and industry challenges

Within months of a frightening “wakeup call,” Taupo truckie David Adie has reversed the Type 2 diabetes that tipped him into a medical emergency – by adopting a ketogenic diet

Hayden Woolston 027 448 8768 hayden@trucker.co.nz

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

027 233 0090

trudy@trucker.co.nz

Brian Cowan

89 National Road Carriers Association

81 Dave’s dealt to diabetes

ART DEPARTMENT Design & Production Luca Bempensante

Zarko Mihic

Gerald Shacklock Dave McLeod Olivia Beauchamp Garry Cooper Rod Simmonds

AUCKLAND, LOWER NORTH ISLAND, SOUTH ISLAND Advertising Hayden Woolston

Road layout changes that the NZHHA isn’t notified of can cause big problems for operators moving oversize loads around the country

The call to ditch fossil fuels gets loud…and urgent

A longstanding cause of friction between heavy vehicle recovery operators and Police has been sorted, following a day of tests involving towtrucks hooked up to HPMV combinations

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

Associate Editor

87 NZ Heavy Haulage Association

77 Testing times eased….by testing time

Advertising

PO Box 48 074 AUCKLAND 09 826 0494

COLUMNS

Last year, teenager India McKay switched from a plan to study forensic science at uni…to instead become a Class 2 certified heavy-haulage pilot – the first step towards a career in cranes

CONTRIBUTORS

Editorial office Phone

New truck and trailer registrations for February

The COVID-delayed National Truck Driver Appreciation Week saw truckies shown lots of love and respect, with roadside events around the country

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

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

93 Vertex Lubricants Recently Registered

67 Showing the love

Publisher

EDITORIAL Editor

including a giant pullout poster of this month’s finalist

71 Cranes career caps uni degree

39 Transport Forum

MANAGEMENT

FEATURES

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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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

Logbook probe prompts TAA Logistics focus on compliance AN INVESTIGATION INTO LOGBOOK NON-COMPLIANCE among TAA Logistics owner-drivers has prompted a company push for compliance that’s being hailed by Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency.

The agency says that an investigation of “many” TAA owner-drivers – from late 2019, into early last year – found “many issues” of non-compliance with logbooks.

“That had safety implications, primarily through potential driver fatigue.”

What happened next is a course of action that Waka Kotahi is encouraging any transport operator with concerns about compliance to follow.

Andrew Faire, who co-owns the company with wife Tracey (they started it 13 years ago), explains: “We’d heard from our drivers that they’d been investigating us for several months.

“Eventually a meeting was set up (with Waka Kotahi) and it was laid out pretty clearly that they were not satisfied with our logbooks.

“It can be stressful when your company is under investigation and we decided fairly quickly that we wanted to be compliant. After all, it is the law.

“Luckily we were already in the process of modernising our fleet management system with on-time tracking and electronic logbooks. Completing the process therefore was not problematic. It would have been a lot harder if we’d started from scratch.

“I’m pleased we’ve done it. There are still stresses running the company – for instance, making it all work. But becoming compliant has removed the stress of being under investigation.”

Faire says that the increased emphasis on compliance has benefited TAA: “I do take some issue with the rules around logbooks, but that’s another discussion.

“I understand that it’s the job of Waka Kotahi to enforce the rules. It has safety at the forefront and of course we all want our industry to be safe. We fully support what Waka Kotahi is doing.

“It means that the 150-odd people who rely on us for employment are secure in their jobs because we are a compliant company. If we’d been shut down, that would not have helped anyone – including the Government, which received millions in tax from us last year.

4 | Truck & Driver

“It also means we no longer need to worry about issues of non-compliance in Waka Kotahi audits, and that is a good feeling.

“But more than that, our customers are delighted that we have made these efforts to become compliant.

“Tracey and I are grandparents now. We understand the importance of safety.

If we save even one life through what we have achieved, well that’s a great result.”

At the same time, he makes the point that “safety is a two-way street,” and adds: “A major problem in our industry is the state of the roads. That is an area where safety is in jeopardy. The onus is on Waka Kotahi to get the roads better.”

He says that his relationship with Waka Kotahi is improving: “It was pretty adversarial for a while, but there is now some trust building. It’s still early in the journey.”

Ben Gamboni, Waka Kotahi manager compliance, says he’s pleased with TAA’s willingness to ensure it became compliant: “We had some very productive meetings with Andrew and Tracey and found their attitude towards making safety a priority very encouraging.

“It was apparent we had a lot of common ground to work from. We both want a thriving transport industry and their employees and other road users to be safe. Those aren’t mutually exclusive.

“They made valid points to us that we have taken away to consider. As is always the case, you can’t beat having face-to-face meetings.”

Gamboni says the excellent work of Waka Kotahi investigators, working alongside WorkSafe and NZ Police, was crucial in pulling together the facts and finding some non-compliant behaviour: “That meant all parties were looking at the same picture and could make well-informed decisions.

“The way TAA has responded, by prioritising safety and compliance throughout its operations, implementing electronic worktime and in-cab fatigue monitoring and improving its dispatching procedures, places the company in good stead and it’s starting to see the benefits already.”

He encourages any operator experiencing the same challenges or worried about being able to meet compliance to get in touch: “A proactive and constructive approach will pay dividends in the long run.” T&D

NEWS

Mondiale Freight merger creates $1.3bn “global giant” NEW ZEALAND’S LARGEST PRIVATELY-OWNED logistics provider, Mondiale Freight Services, is to merge with its major Australian equivalent, VISA Global Logistics – creating “a new global freight giant.”

Mondiale says that the combined Mondiale VISA business will have a turnover of $NZ1.3billion – “propelling it into the top 30 ocean freight forwarders in the world” and making it the largest privately-owned freight forwarder in Oceania.

“The integrated service offering provided in NZ and Australia will be unrivalled, given the investment in logistics infrastructure that this merger provides to the market,” says Mondiale CEO Ray Meade, who will take the same role in the merged group.

“We work in a sector where scale is increasingly important,” says Meade.

“The strength of the combined entity, supported by its extremely valued and dedicated staff, will deliver significant advantage to both its existing and future customer base.”

Meade says that despite disruption in global shipping and supply chains, there has been a big increase in volumes to deal with, which lifted the profitability of the shipping companies.

“Our revenue has increased substantially, as has the number of shipments that we handle.”

Mondiale and VISA combined currently handle around 500,000 containers annually and employ over 1500 people globally – in its operations across NZ, Australia, North Asia, South East Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Europe.

Both companies have made significant investments in wharf transport in NZ and Australia, where they offer a total end-to-end supply chain solution.

The founding seven executive shareholders of Mondiale and VISA will remain with the company as shareholders in their executive positions.

Meade and Mondiale’s directors say on the company’s website that the “coming together and collaboration of our two very successful businesses is very positive news” for Mondiale customers.

“It will deliver an even greater global reach through our combined network of our own offices throughout NZ, Australia, Asia and Europe….supported by an unequalled global agency structure.”

It will mean, “from day one…. very much business as usual.” There will be no disruption to the current service.

The two businesses have both been operating for more than 30 years and say they share the same values, customer focus and experience. T&D

Mondiale CEO Ray Meade (inset) takes the same role in the new Mondiale VISA business

Truck & Driver | 5

This is Japan’s most advanced truck.

It’s part of a commitment from FUSO to use innovative technologies to save lives and save money by avoiding or reducing the cost of accidents. These advanced safety features, based on world-class Daimler technology, really set Shogun apart.

— Active Attention Assist

— Lane Departure Warning

This monitors a number of different inputs, including an infrared camera which monitors the driver’s face and eye closure.

A camera detects lane markings and warns the driver when the vehicle moves out of its lane.

— Active Emergency Braking

— 7” Touchscreen Media Unit with Reversing Camera

Avoids or mitigates collisions with pedestrians and other vehicles by using a radar to monitor the road ahead.

With Apple CarPlay and Android Audio compatibility. Enables hands-free talking and text to speech.

SCAN HERE TO SEE SHOGUN IN ACTION! POINT YOUR CAMERA AT THE CODE TO ACCESS THE VIDEO. NO APP REQUIRED!

— Adaptive Cruise Control Automatically adjusts the vehicle’s speed to maintain a safe distance to the vehicle in front.

The 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

The damaged bridge, near Taihape, had to be supported by temporary scaffolding until permanent repairs could be made

Rail bridge strikes damaging AND dangerous A TRUCK HITTING AND DAMAGING A RAIL BRIDGE near Taihape last month has highlighted an alarming statistic.

KiwiRail says that the March 12 bridge strike was just the most recent of 29 truck versus rail overbridge incidents in 12 months.

Damage to the rail bridge on Pukenaua Road, just off State Highway One – caused when it was hit by a digger being transported on a truck – forced the closure of the main trunk line for 24 hours. That caused the cancellation of 11 trains and disrupted the national rail freight network.

But that isn’t the worst of it, as KiwiRail chief operating officer Todd Moyle explains: “Most alarming of all is that in the vast majority of cases, including the incident.....(on March 12), the driver has left the scene and has not reported the incident to KiwiRail.

“This has serious safety implications. Each time a bridge is struck, a structures inspector needs to check over the bridge and ensure it is fit for trains to travel over – and this can only happen if we know that the incident has occurred.

“By not reporting what they have done, drivers are putting our locomotive engineers and members of the public at risk.”

Adds Moyle: “We’re asking drivers firstly to heed height restriction warnings

on rail bridges and, if they do make a mistake, to consider the implications for others. They do need to do the right thing and contact our emergency number (0800 808 400).”

KiwiRail says it “will be following its usual practice and seeking to recover costs from the truck owner – incurred as a result of the Taihape incident. This will include the cost to the business of closing the line, train cancellations and repairs to the bridge including materials and labour.”

After the latest bridge strike an inspection by KiwiRail engineers revealed damage to the bridge span, “which meant the bridge was unsafe for trains to pass over and needed immediate repairs,” says Moyle.

“As a result, the rail line between Hamilton and Palmerston North was closed until Saturday afternoon, which had massive implications for our freight operations.” As well as the cancellation of 10 trains, another four already en route at the time of the accident were delayed almost 24 hours.

“These cancellations and delays mean some freight also missed connections with Cook Strait ferries and South Island train services.”

Support from a temporary scaffolding structure under the bridge allowed train services to resume – albeit at reduced speeds. T&D

Another blow for Brizzy show THE BRISBANE TRUCK SHOW ORGANISERS’ DECISION to shrug off COVID-19 uncertainties and go ahead with this year’s show has suffered another setback, with the withdrawal of Isuzu.

It joins Volvo Group Australia (Volvo, Mack and UD), Scania and Cummins as no-shows for the two-yearly show, to be staged next month.

Isuzu Australia director and COO Andrew Harbison says the company held off making the decision whether or not to attend for as long as possible: “We wanted to ensure that we were acting on the most up-todate information and have been constantly monitoring the outlook and viability of attending this

year’s show for IAL and our people.”

It “weighed the balance between the health and welfare of company staff and the ongoing risk of the foreseeable recurrence of state-based border closures and snap lockdowns, against the benefits of attending the show.

“While the current situation with COVID and the commencement of the vaccination programme is positive, given that IAL is based in Melbourne and the responsibility to our staff and the level of commitment we make when attending events such as the Brisbane Truck Show, we have decided that unfortunately we cannot exhibit this year.” T&D Truck & Driver | 7

NEWS

New aero US Kenworth KENWORTH HAS LAUNCHED ITS T680 NEXT Generation flagship model for the North American market – its improved aerodynamics resulting in a claimed (estimated) 6% improvement in fuel economy.

The new model has a 12.9-litre Paccar MX-13 engine and complete Paccar powertrain as standard, which Kenworth says also contributes to the improved fuel efficiency.

The T680 Next Gen’s aero styling includes a streamlined bumper and bonnet, turning vanes, durable lower fairing extensions, chassis fairings, wheel well closeouts, 28-inch/71 centimetre side extenders, tandem drive-axle fairings and

wheel covers.

Engineers reduced aerodynamic turbulence with a bonnet that’s eight inches/22 centimetres narrower and a restyled bumper that extends back under the chassis….without reducing ground clearance.

Other aero aids include optional side panel extenders that help to close the tractor/trailer gap and smooth airflow from the top and sides of the tractor unit onto the trailer.

The T680 Next-Gen – “the most aerodynamic truck in company history” – also has a 15-inch digital screen dash display. T&D

Electric sideloader for NZ THE WORLD’S FIRST ELECTRIC SIDELOADER HAS been launched by Hammar – and could be working in New Zealand within a year.

A prototype has been trialled with several customers in Australia over the past seven years – the Swedish company having now decided to put the electric sideloader into production.

It says it’s a milestone in offering green, environmentally-friendly alternatives in the sideloader industry.

And Hammar NZ managing director Fred Sandberg believes NZ operators will be early adopters of the zero-emissions container lifter: “I can confirm we will be offering the electrified sideloader option for the NZ market – and we do have a customer who is very interested in electric vehicles that we are talking to.”

Hammar says the electric sideloader offers numerous advantages over diesel-powered lifters, including zero emissions, a healthier working environment, lower operating costs, a lower weight and significantly lower noise levels. Growing regulation to reduce noise and emissions in heavilypopulated urban areas add to the attractiveness of the electric sideloader.

The application is well-suited to electric power as the actual daily working time of the cranes is quite brief – with most time spent travelling 8 | Truck & Driver

to and from loading or unloading locations, says Hammar. The actual lifts only average two to five minutes each.

A fully-charged electric power pack (ePP) provides sufficient stored energy for repeat lifts of 35 tonne containers. It can be charged by the truck while driving to the next lift and can also be charged by plugging into a 230-volt source at a base.

Hammar CEO and owner Bengt-Olof Hammar says: “We have a customer in Australia who doesn’t have to stop to charge the sideloader at all – and the charging during transport is enough to last for a whole week without plug-in charging.

“This same scenario will apply to many of our customers. In combination with plug-in charging, the ePP will work great for anyone with some transport distance.”

Denmark has become the second country to see the Hammar electric sideloader put to work – Ancotrans, the country’s biggest sideloader operator, explaining that it decided to go electric “because it is the right solution, both for the climate and for the working environment of the driver,” says COO Mogens Røigaard.

“The lower sound levels, no particles and cleaner air when working in confined spaces are all important factors.” T&D

YOUR HAMMAR. YOUR WAY

HAMMAR 195:

+ Versatile – PrecisionLeg™ for optimal stabilising + Light – low tare + Strong – 36-tonne Safe Working Load (SWL) or 40-tonne option + Stable – legs extend for firm base and transfer + Weighing – by each crane or total + High lift – ideal for stacking option + Reach – long outreach cranes + Ease – crane/stabiliser side-by-side design + Safety+™ – computer monitored handling as std + SDS – Hammar Soft-Drive System + Flex – Trailer or Truckmounted

HAMMAR 110: + Fast + Narrow + Light + Safe + Reach + Weighing + Strong + Stable + High lift + Ease + Safety+™ + SDS + Flex

– new SledgeLeg™ technology, 50% faster – SledgeLeg™ use for confined spaces – from 8.4-tonne tare – optimal crane geometry – long outreach cranes – by each crane or total – 36-tonne Safe Working Load (SWL) – legs extend for firm base and transfer – ideal for stacking option – crane/stabiliser side-by-side design – computer monitored handling as std – Hammar Soft-Drive System – Trailer or Truckmounted

HAMMAR 130:

+ Versatile – handles two 20’ containers or one 40’ container via 3 cranes + Unique – middle crane folds into chassis to accommodate a single 40’ + Sliding – for maximum payload with a single 20’ option + Light – only 7.5 tonne tare + Strong – 16-tonne Safe Working Load (SWL) + Stable – legs extend for firm base and transfer + Reach – long outreach cranes + Ease – crane/stabiliser side-by-side design + SDS – Hammar Soft-Drive System + Flex – Trailer or Truckmounted

Every freight delivery is different, so our three high-performance HAMMAR models are designed for your needs. Each HAMMAR is constructed from premium grade steel from Swedish and NZ components, to be stable, strong, fast and built to last. Designed for easy operation, service and maintenance in mind. You cannot buy a better sideloader.

With more than 45 years experience in sideloaders and a reputation for quality of manufacturing and service, HAMMAR sets the standard.

Now sold in 115 countries MADE IN NEW ZEALAND

HAMMAR Sideloaders are Made in New Zealand from local and Swedish components to suit YOUR transport needs.

Hammar New Zealand Ltd, 16 Marphona Cres, Takanini, Auckland. 0800 2 HAMMAR sales.nz@hammarlift.com www hammarlift.com

ARE YOU READY?

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NEWS Cummins signs huge global engine supply deal with Daimler CUMMINS HAS LANDED A HUGE DEAL WITH Daimler to take over the engine supply for all of the global truckmaker’s medium-duty trucks and buses worldwide within the next eight years.

Daimler Truck says it will halt production of medium-duty engines by 2029, with Cummins to establish its own engine production line within the existing Mercedes-Benz engine plant in Mannheim, Germany – using established resources to produce the Euro 7 Cummins powerplants.

Daimler’s own Detroit DD5 and DD8 engines will be phased out, Daimler Trucks boss Martin Daum explaining that the Euro 7 emissions standards would have required the investment of “considerable resources” to further develop its own medium-duty engine range.

This, he says, will allow those resources to be used to accelerate development plans for alternative and emerging engine technologies: “We are now freeing up these funds to focus them on the technologies that are crucial to our longterm corporate success in the transformation of our industry.”

In the future, Daimler Truck says it will focus on further developing zeroemission drive technologies, as well as further development of commercial heavy-duty drivetrains.

The partners announced they will evaluate a broader global strategic partnership through identifying potential synergies in areas such as

powertrain components and engine system components. Daimler will continue with its heavy-duty engine platform (HDEP) for the group’s global HD truck and bus needs.

Cummins chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger says the partnership is “a terrific opportunity for both companies to be more competitive, drive global innovation, expand offerings to customers and reduce emissions.

“We are looking forward to working with Daimler on this and exploring other potential opportunities to grow our respective companies. As the leading independent global power solutions provider, Cummins is committed to ensuring any customer, anywhere, has the right solution – by offering them a broad range of power solutions, from advanced diesel, nearzero natural gas, fully electric, hydrogen and other technologies.”

Cummins has backed-up that deal with another supply agreement – to provide Hino Trucks in North America with engines for its medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks.

Hino’s L and XL Series models will be on the market with Cummins B6.7 and L9 engines by the end of this year. The smaller Cummins engine, with 240hp and 260hp ratings, will be paired with Allison’s 2000 and 3000 Series automatic transmissions.

The Cummins L9 engine will be offered in the Hino XL Series, initially in 300hp, 330hp and 360hp versions and mated with Allison’s 3000 or 3500

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NEWS autos or an Eaton manual.

The deal will allow Hino to redirect engineering and other resources to accelerate the development of a battery electric vehicle (BEV) as part of its Project Z development path to zero emission vehicles.

Hino Trucks has already said it plans to develop and produce a full range of Class 4 through to Class 8 (heavy-duty) BEV trucks by 2024. It says low volume production of its BEV models will begin before the end of next year.

“Our industry is in the midst of a generational shift from traditional vehicles to Zero Emission Vehicles,” says Hino’s Glenn Ellis: “This new partnership is in line with the recent shift we have seen among other OEMs who are looking to strong industry partners to help offset their growing R&D investments into new ZEVs.” Hino and Cummins will continue to evaluate additional opportunities to collaborate on powertrain strategies in the future.

Isuzu has also previously revealed that it will use the Cummins B6.7 engine to develop Class 6 and 7 models in North America and medium-duty models in Japan. T&D

A Cummins ISB 6.7 engine

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www.affiliated.nz Truck & Driver | 11

Through all conditions, it’s those who stay ahead of the game that reap the rewards and do well in the New Zealand trucking industry.

So, for those who want to be ready and equipped to seize new opportunities, the all new Freightliner Cascadia has arrived. Built and tested to unprecedented standards, with new levels of safety, comfort and fuel efficiency, the Cascadia is ready and capable for what lies ahead.

FRE10299_NZ_DPS_420 x 297mm_FA.indd 1

THE ALL NEW CASCADIA

TO FIND OUT MORE PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL DEALER Authorised North Island Dealers

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FREIGHTLINER.CO.NZ Freightliner is a registered trademark of Daimler Trucks North America LLC. Published by Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific Pty Ltd ACN 86 618 413 282.

9/3/21 12:31 pm

NEWS

Apprentice mechanic also a speedway rising star Ben Whalley’s wins this year (which have even surprised him!) have put his name on trophies alongside those of NZ’s greatest speedway stars

AT TRUCKSTOPS CHRISTCHURCH, BEN WHALLEY IS a second-year apprentice diesel mechanic, with ambitions to finish his time, doing a job he “loves.”

Away from work, the 18-year-old is something of a sensation in speedway motorcycle racing – this year having become the youngestever winner of the New Zealand Solo Motorcycle Speedway Champs.

That puts him on a Kiwi champions’ roll of honour that includes famous Kiwi speedway names like Len Perry, Ronnie Moore, Barry Briggs, Ivan Mauger and Mitch Shirra.

And, in the space of just a few months, he’s backed-up that NZ championship victory by coming second in the Burt Munro Challenge’s speedway event, winning the Ronnie Moore Memorial and taking out the South Island Championship.

Pretty impressive from someone who hadn’t won a single title until this year – and who didn’t really rate himself a chance at the NZ champs: “To be honest, I thought I had a go at making the finals (ie the top four) – but I never knew I could actually come right out on top!

“I hadn’t really thought about it to be honest. Well, maybe one day – in a few more years.”

Yes, he concedes, he “had dreamt of it – a wee bit. But I just didn’t think I was ready for it.

“To come away with it this year! I was quite surprised with myself to be honest.”

He reckons he “just scraped through” the semi-finals to make it into the finals.

“There was a wee bit of luck in it as well – but that’s just part of it.”

In the first of three finals races four-time champion Bradley Wilson14 | Truck & Driver

Dean dropped out with a blown engine.

When Ben won that race, and the next, he was able to start the finale needing only to finish to clinch the title.

“There were nerves,” he concedes. But he also says that one of his strengths is “probably just how calm I am in pressure situations.

“I’ve seen other guys muck up and they’re throwing goggles and helmets and they’re kicking bikes over. It doesn’t help at all.”

When he won the national title, Ben reckons he was “in a bit of shock. Took a while for the realisation to come.”

Interestingly, ask about his proudest racing achievement and Ben says: “Probably not the NZs to be honest: I just like it when I have to fight to win. To come from the back gives you a good feeling.”

He reckons he’s happiest with his performance at the NZ Under-21 Championships two years ago – even though he made a mistake, fell off…and missed the title: “Until then I was winning every race – and that was really my first time winning anything.”

Ben got his start in speedway when he was just eight years old, after the sudden death of his father. He and his younger brother “needed a sense of direction – and that’s where my Grandad stepped in and we got into speedway.”

His grandfather, Ivan Harris, who’d always been a speedway motorcycle racing fan, is Ben’s mentor, his race team and his No. 1 supporter: “He’s really passionate.”

The two of them do all the mechanical work on Ben’s purposebuilt speedway bike – a Jawa frame with a 500cc Italian GM motor, which produces about 80 horsepower. That makes for an exciting power to weight ratio, given that the bike weighs 70-80 kilograms…and Ben is

NEWS a super-lightweight 67kg.

Ben’s on-track success might suggest he’d be keen to head off to try to achieve his ultimate dream – to compete in Speedway GP in Europe.

He is – but right now, his biggest ambition is “just to get qualified. I’d like to race overseas – but I won’t be doing that till I’m qualified.

“I love my job. It’s kind of my life in a way. I’m always on the tools at home.

“I quite like trucks. Everything’s big and heavy…it’s nice and physical.”

His workmates, he says, are very supportive of his racing: “They think it’s pretty cool. They’re a good bunch of guys I work with.”

The feeling’s clearly mutual. His boss Nigel Broadhead says the whole branch is “extremely proud” of Ben: “He is a very quiet, humble young man with a huge future – not just in speedway, but also in the road transport world.

“The sort of commitment needed to achieve this at such a young age is inspirational to all of us.” T&D

Ben and his Grandad – his mentor, team-mate and No. 1 supporter – do all the work together on his Jawa frame/GM 500-powered race bike

No road freight focus in $31bn transport plan!

THE $31BILLION AUCKLAND TRANSPORT ALIGNMENT Project (ATAP) has been ridiculed by National Road Carriers Association CEO David Aitken – for virtually ignoring road freight.

Aitken lashed the plan – unveiled last month by Transport Minister Michael Wood and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff – for being “practically silent” on road freight.

The report, he said, “makes no mention of strategic freight routes that will enable trucks to move around the city more easily to deliver the supplies we need for daily life.

“This is very disappointing, because half of the (ATAP) investment comes from the National Land Transport Fund, whose main contributor is the freight community through road user charges…which were increased last year.”

He dismissed the report’s approach, which is “just about all about walking, cycling and public transport: It will help some people get to where they want to go – but what about transporting food to eat, medicines, clothing and manufacturing supplies?

“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted that truck drivers play a vital role in delivering essential supplies for New Zealanders. Everything we consume

is delivered by multiple truck trips from seaport or airport to distribution centres and then on to retail outlets or direct to homes. The public see the freight industry as heroes as a result of their work during COVID.” Aitken added: “ATAP stands for Auckland Transport Alignment Project.

Where is the alignment for the transport of material supplies? We have a longterm infrastructure deficit that needs addressing. It won’t go away by ignoring it.

“The increased freight for all the housing development alone will be significant: Houses don’t just pop up! Housing development timelines of five years will become seven years if we can’t efficiently transport the materials there.”

He pointed out that the “long-delayed, all important” East West link was “now back on the table” as the High Court had dismissed appeals by Forest and Bird and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei just the week before the ATAP was announced – but added: “There is no mention of the link in this report.”

Nor was there any mention of upgrades to other strategic arterial routes including Favona Road, Mangere – a Level 1B freight route (secondhighest in priority), which is “servicing 2021 transport on a 1960s road network.” T&D Truck & Driver | 15

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NEWS

Bombay aims to be even better THE NEXT TWO-YEARLY BOMBAY TRUCK SHOW isn’t on until next February – but planning is already well under way to make it “bigger and better – if that is possible.”

The organising committee for the second show, to be held at the Bombay Rugby Club (and adjoining private property) on February 12, says that both of the naming rights sponsors for 2020’s inaugural show – Allied Petroleum and Transfleet Trailers – “have jumped at the chance to come back onboard.”

That first show saw 280 trucks and 37 trade stands – overflowing from the two rugby fields onto more than 20 acres of what is usually market gardens.

It attracted 8000 showgoers to an event that resulted in $68,000 being raised for charity and local community organisations.

Committee member Marieka Morcombe says the organisers “are hugely thankful to all the sponsors of our 2020 event – and we really look forward to what 2022 promises to bring.”

New Zealand Truck & Driver has also committed to continue its support of the show – and director Hayden Woolston has joined the organising committee: “I was on the sidelines of the last show and I could see how well the show was run and how so many people got enjoyment out of it – plus the fact so much money got raised for charity and the local community.”

The five-strong committee, comprising Woolston and local operators and contractors, is “looking to make the show bigger and better – if that is

possible – but also being very careful about sticking to the show’s original concept.

“The Bombay Truck Show was created from a place of wanting to give back and showing off our amazing industry at the same time.”

The committee’s vision is to “create a show where the transport industry gets showcased to its fullest, at a not-for-profit event.”

In that way, says Woolston, “we can make a real difference – by giving donations to charities that help all of us and to the community that supported us from the start. Our intention is that everyone benefits from the event – and thoroughly enjoys it.”

The show’s concept is, he says, “the perfect way to run a charity truck show: The overheads are low – we don’t have to pay for the grounds, as the local community gets behind us in a big way, and they benefit from it…

“Last year the only expenses for the show were portaloos, security and show ‘n’ shine prizes! So close to 100% of the money raised went to charity and the local community.” Sixty-six prizes were awarded on the day to the participants with the best trucks.

Morcombe stresses that on the day the show “will feel the same,” but its organisation has been improved, made easier.

Exhibitor and sponsor information for the 2022 Allied Petroleum/Transfleet Trailers Bombay Truck Show is available by emailing bombaytruckshow@ gmail.com T&D

Top: A crowd of 8000 attended the inaugural show, which overflowed from the rugby fields onto surrounding properties Below, both pictures: The show attracted a spectacular 280 trucks, giving the crowd plenty to ogle

Truck & Driver | 17

NEWS Brokers United now has four workshops in three North Island centres

Business surge triggers Brokers expansion COMMERCIAL VEHICLE PANELBEATING, sandblasting and painting specialist Brokers United has met a surge in business in Tauranga – by setting up a second workshop there.

The company, which also has branches in Waitara and Rotorua, says that due to demand it’s expanding its Tauranga operation “by taking over an existing business just down the road.”

Its purchase of Shape & Spray “will bring exceptional service smackbang in the middle of the massively-growing area.”

Shape & Spray, owned and operated for 40 years by Geoff Rothwell – “a well-known name in the Bay” – is on Glen Lyon Ave in Tauranga….the same street as the existing Brokers shop.

Brokers says it intends “taking this business and transforming it into a high productivity and quick turnaround site,” like its three other branches.

The company says the decision to buy a second Tauranga shop arose from the fact that it has “a very customer-focused attitude” – making sure that “the needs of the customer are met and communicated so you don’t ever get left in the dark.”

After last year’s COVID-19 lockdown the Brokers management team decided it needed to have a fulltime salesperson on board – “to ensure all customers were getting the attention they require.

“Since Anna-Rose Peck came on board as sales manager the results have been staggering…” And, as a result of this growth, the company decided it needed to quickly come up with an expansion plan in Tauranga.

Director Kurt Broker explains: “Customers generally want their gear worked on straight away, as we understand that any downtime of a commercial vehicle, van or machine costs the customer a lot of money.

“And when we were getting so busy it was looking like we were not going to meet those needs anymore.

“So, so instead of backing-off or delaying the customer bookings, we made the decision to keep expanding.”

Having two Tauranga workshops means that the company can now guarantee fast turnaround for its clients in the city and the region – with plenty of space for commercial vehicles and machinery, ranging from trucks and trailers, cranes and buses, to vans, utes and campervans….plus tanks and structural plant and equipment.

Services at the Tauranga sites include sandblasting, industrial and 18 | Truck & Driver

commercial spraypainting in heated truck booths and smash, rust and CoF repairs.

Brokers have managers at each Tauranga shop and regard each as a onestop shop: “There’s no need to take your gear anywhere else.”

The new Brokers site, at 80 Glen Lyon Ave, has three vehicle entry/exit points and plenty of parking space.

The expansion, the company says, “will also be creating more jobs in the area, including taking on more apprentices, which Brokers are famous for…” T&D

JOST NZ now represents TRIDEC JOST NEW ZEALAND HAS TAKEN OVER THE SALES distribution in NZ of TRIDEC trailer steering and suspension systems.

The April 1 change sees the representation transfer from BPW Transport Efficiency to JOST NZ and the company says it will immediately commence sales distribution and full support/warranty commitments for the complete TRIDEC range.

It will, it adds, “provide the highest level of service and support to all existing and future customers. Our nationwide network and technical expertise will ensure a smooth transition for the customers currently utilising this technology in their equipment builds.”

It says that TRIDEC has been part of JOST World since 2008 and, with operations in Portugal and the Netherlands, it is a market leader in the design and manufacture of mechanical, hydraulic and electronicallycontrolled trailer steering and suspension systems – with more than 50,000 of its systems currently in use.

JOST NZ general manager Kate Bucknell says: “We’re looking forward to meeting all current users....of the TRIDEC range over the coming months. And, of course, we thank BPW Transport Efficiency for their efforts in promoting and supporting the TRIDEC brand in the past.” T&D

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NEWS

Online parts store for Transport Trailers TIPPER BODY AND TRAILER MANUFACTURER Transport & General Engineering has launched an online parts shop for its customers.

The Transport Trailers Parts Store allows the instant purchase of any of the 250-plus parts in the company’s catalogue.

The product range at the new shop – store.transporttrailers.co.nz – extends from cover parts to alloy and Hardox body parts, “and everything in between.”

Customers can create an online account for easy re-ordering, tracking current orders and viewing their complete order history.

T&G managing director Mike Stevenson explains the impetus behind this new initiative: “We are always focused on providing great service and support for our customers. The mission of our repairs and maintenance division is to

reduce the downtime of our customers so they can keep doing what they do best.

“This new online parts store furthers that goal by making it easy to jump online to order whatever you need – straight away – with a credit card or account. Customers can be out on the road and spot something that needs replacing; they can simply pull out their smartphone, load up the parts store, and order what they need right then and there. Any questions, we’re just a phone call away, as usual.”

The Transport Trailers brand has had another new online development – an updated design and new content for the company website, which is now at a new address – www.transporttrailers.co.nz. It includes photos of new trucks and tipping equipment built for customers nationwide. T&D

Affiliated adds huge transport and forestry insurance knowledge INSUR ANCE BROKERS AFFILIATED Insurance Wellington has added a combined 50 years of heavy transport and forestry insurance knowledge, with the appointment of Waikatobased brokers Di Watts and Kim Oettli.

Affiliated executive director James Shearing says “Di and Kim have built their reputations on doing the right thing, providing experienced/ expert advice and getting claims paid.

“They bring trust, empathy and knowledge to their client/stakeholder interactions. What this continues to deliver for our clients is unrivalled professional advice in key/specialist areas of insurance and a level of personal service that has become synonymous with Affiliated.

“In an industry constantly striving for efficiencies we remain committed to putting people in front of people. It is this ethos that has brought Di and Kim to the Affiliated team – a shared set of values: Acting with trust, honesty, integrity and transparency at all times.

“We strive to exceed expectations when it comes to service, maintaining the importance of understanding our client’s business in order to tailor an insurance programme most suited to individual requirements.

“Cheap insurance is nice, but if it doesn’t Di Watts

offer the protection you need, then its not very useful. This is where we as your broker come into play.”

Affiliated, which covers the whole country, is part of Australasia’s largest insurance broking network, Steadfast. T&D Kim Oettli

Truck & Driver | 21

n owa cklock C n a ia d Sh y Br Stor s Geral to Pho

22 | Truck & Driver

BIG TEST

New Zealand’s first Freightliner Cascadia shows off its streamlined, droop-snoot styling en route to Christchurch

Truck & Driver | 23

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The new Freightliner gets down to business as it hauls up State Highway 1 out of Dunedin

LEX (TEX) MCKILLOP LAUGHS AS HE GUIDES THE TSI Logistics Freightliner Cascadia up Pine Hill and onto Dunedin’s northern motorway.

“I’ve been a fan of Freightliner for years, so I was really looking forward to this model. But it has exceeded all my expectations – it’s the complete package.”

Given a 19-year association with the brand and the fact that he turns trucks over quickly, it’s little surprise that Tex has been the first to put a Cascadia on the road in this country. His six-strong fleet (five of them Freightliners) is fully contracted to TSI Logistics, the transport arm of Foodstuffs South Island. The trucks run doubleshifted and seven days a week, shuttling bulk temperaturecontrolled loads between the supermarket chain’s distribution centres in Dunedin and Christchurch, as well as servicing supermarkets in south Otago and Southland.

Trucks in the McKillop Contracting stable are usually replaced in just over three years – a measure of the distances they travel: Upwards of 470,000km per year.

As Tex points out, they are always a good proposition for the next buyer: “With around 1.5 million kilometres up, they might need a new engine, but in all other respects – things like wiring, suspension components and the like – they’re still great.”

From his viewpoint, the Cascadia is The Dream Truck. It’s not only packed with the very latest in safety technology, it also boasts the best drivetrain package in Daimler Trucks North America’s arsenal – and in its nearly 12 years on the US market it has forged a reputation for build quality that Freightliner owners of yore could only dream about.

But wait….there’s more: The company has now also committed to supplying the Australasian right-hand drive market with the current

generation of the model. No more two-generation-old hand-medowns – local fleets now have access to the same model as their North American counterparts.

Since the Cascadia’s launch in the US the company has committed itself to a process of continuous improvement, with major upgrades coming roughly every three years. This approach has helped the model achieve a dominant position in the US market, with around 38% of the Class 8 (heavy duty highway) segment.

So, it’s quite likely that when Tex goes to pass the newcomer on in three years’ time, a significant upgrade may well be on offer... though for the moment he’s buzzing with what he has already.

The test truck has a 6x4 configuration – the only layout available so far – and is hooked to a TSI Logistics quad-axle semi reefer.

It has been on the road less than a week, and has just 4200kms under its belt.

Our load today is potatoes, picked up yesterday from Stirling, near Balclutha, and destined for Foodstuffs’ distribution centre in Christchurch.

It’s not the usual for the Cascadia: A more standard daily run for the newcomer will be to pick up fresh eggs from Herbert, south of Oamaru, for delivery to Christchurch – returning with chilled and frozen goods for the Dunedin distribution centre.

However, today Tex – who normally drives only on a fill-in basis – is at the wheel to demonstrate the truck to us.

Before we take off from the McKillop Contracting depot in South Dunedin we take the opportunity to look around the unit. With the bonnet tipped, the accessibility of the engine bay becomes immediately apparent.

All the standard servicing and fill points – for engine coolant, Truck & Driver | 25

power steering fluid and windscreen washer, plus the oil and fuel filters – fall easily to hand, as the old saying goes. Though a relatively minor aspect of overall truck ownership it will be appreciated equally by drivers doing a pre-trip walkaround and technicians carrying out standard servicing, and speaks volumes of the thoughtfulness of the overall design of the Cascadia.

In the cab, the air of commonsense simplicity continues. Gone are the multiple minor gauges of a traditional American truck.

Instead, the long fascia return that’s angled towards the driver, sports operational controls like park and trailer brakes and crosslock buttons along its lower edge, with heater/ventilation knobs and radio deck above.

Tex likes his music and has replaced the standard audio with a high-end JVC unit, complete with twin speakers fitted to the underbunk space that in Euro brands might hold a pullout fridge.

Minor storage is good. A projection from the base of the fascia carries three cupholders, while on our Australasian-market model the beginning of the fascia return has two hingedown oddments bins.

On the 2021 Cascadias recently announced in North America this area sports a large digital display screen, which in time might appear on our models. In the meantime, Tex is putting it to good use with a bracket to hold his tablet, which carries apps for trip dockets, invoices and electronic driver logbooks.

26 | Truck & Driver

Two big lockers above the windscreen look capable of carrying a ton of kit, while above them an open parcel shelf extends right across the cab and around above the windows.

The main instrument panel has its own digital display, set between big conventional speedo and tacho dials. The test truck’s 36-inch sleeper cab provides more than enough space for a wide, comfortable looking bunk and boasts a flat, open floor between the seats, both of which are topline air-suspended ISRIs. Thick A-pillars hint at the strength of the cab, but are quite intrusive on side vision at intersections. However there is still a bit of a gap between them and the mirrors, which are neatly housed in streamlined unit casings and perform very well, offering excellent rearward vision.

Vision forward through the big, one-piece windscreen is excellent, although Tex – more accustomed to having the longer snout of a Freightliner Coronado in front of

Main picture, below: The fact that the Cascadia is a complete rarity on NZ roads, means that the McKillop Contracting unit is still a real eyecatcher – aided by the spectacular photo murals on the sides of the refrigerated trailer

Above, from left: Good steps and grabhandles make getting in and out easy....the 36-inch sleeper cab offers good headroom....the dash is an exercise in commonsense simplicity. The screen, by the way, is Tex’s own aftermarket tablet....there’s a good array of fingertip controls on the steering wheel...and then there’s a minimalist main dash display, with a digital screen at its centre

him – reckons it might take a while to get used to not seeing the newcomer’s more aerodynamic bonnet.

Steering wheel buttons handle not only the various display panel menus but the Cascadia’s adaptive cruise control. Tex is very impressed by the system, saying he trusts it completely: “I’ve inducted my drivers on the truck by taking them through the Dunedin one-way system with the cruise control switched on all the way. It takes a bit of faith at the start, but its ability to maintain a steady distance to the traffic ahead – and come to a full halt when the traffic is stopped at lights – is quite uncanny.”

Also part of the Cascadia’s safety package is autonomous emergency braking, which can identify the likes of a pedestrian stepping into the vehicle’s path and is able to react far quicker than any human driver.

When the new truck arrived in the country, Tex decided to make a road trip of its delivery, driving from Auckland to Dunedin, accompanied

by Trevor McCallum,

Freightliner brand manager for South Island agent CablePrice.

The pair decided to dive straight in with the cruise control, he recalls: “As soon as we picked the truck up we switched the system on – and didn’t turn it off until after Hamilton. It works absolutely brilliantly in motorway traffic and in roundabouts, where you simply keep station with the traffic ahead without having to do a thing.”

He’s equally impressed with the cruise control’s behaviour on more conventional highways, especially its ability to sense the easing of an uphill slope and the beginning of a downward grade, a situation in which many systems can be caught out, leading to a momentary overspeed and the need for a higher level of brake intervention.

Instead, the Cascadia is immediately on the case, usually by way of a downshift, followed by a gentle application of the Jacobs engine brake.

This immediacy of response is seen to best effect in the sort of rolling country that can be found in, say, the Waikato or southern Marlborough. The trip from Dunedin to Christchurch doesn’t offer as much of this, but has its own stern challenges in the descent from the Dunedin northern motorway to Waitati and Blueskin Bay, and the drop off the Kilmog to Waikouaiti.

In both instances the integration of engine, transmission and cruise control is so thorough you could almost imagine the truck is fitted with predictive cruise control, which uses

Truck & Driver | 27

Tex McKillop (right) doesn’t go too much for shiny bling....but he does have a signature look on his McKillop Contracting trucks – and that is green glow-lighting under the cab, behind the grille and in the Freightliner cutouts on the cab’s side fairings

GPS to map the topography of a route and thereby anticipate changes in slope and alignment.

In stop/go city traffic, the cruise control automatically moves the truck off from rest as long as it has been stopped for less than two seconds. Longer halts call for the accelerator to be pressed once again.

Control of all the transmission modes (forward/neutral/reverse as well as Manual/Auto) plus the three-stage engine brake are handled elegantly and simply by a single steering column stalk, adding significantly to driver convenience and comfort.

The marriage of the Detroit DD13 engine and DT12 automated manual transmission is near ideal. Both share their core design elements with counterparts in the wider Daimler family, putting them right at the forefront of heavy-truck technology.

Unlike many competitor engines which have their peak torque flattened electronically to a constant level, the 505-horsepower/376 kilowatts variant of the DD13 fitted to the test truck offers a gentle downward curve from its peak of 1850 lb ft/2508 Newton metres at 1075rpm to the peak power revs of 1625rpm. There is no abrupt rise to the torque peak, nor any equally-steep drop after peak power – a full 90% of peak torque is on hand between 900 and 1620rpm, the practical result being a super-relaxed delivery of effort over a wide rev range.

Naturally, the test truck’s semitrailer configuration means the engine isn’t toting the load of a 50MAX truck and trailer, but the power delivery is ideally balanced. The DT12’s overdrive internal ratios match the power band nicely, offering an easygoing 1260rpm at 90km/h in top gear.

I get the impression the DT12’s shifting action mightn’t be as blazingly fast as some other AMTs, but this is more than compensated for by the timeliness of the software’s decisionmaking...rather like the way a vastly experienced driver handles an 18-speed Roadranger – unhurried and smooth, but every action spot-on to the millisecond.

In some respects, the DD13 is not at the leading edge of heavy diesel technology, being fitted with a single asymmetric fixed geometry turbocharger and using a common rail fuel system with a comparatively modest peak pressure of 900bar (around 13,000psi).

However, attention to fuel saving measures like reduced internal friction and shorter fan-on times, as well as an advanced coasting 28 | Truck & Driver

feature, have led to an improvement in fuel economy of around 2% compared with the earlier version of the same engine. This has been partly offset by a higher AdBlue dosing rate to meet the latest American exhaust emissions standard (EPA10/GHG17 – equivalent to Euro 6), but Detroit claims the fuel cost savings will be double the extra you’ll have to spend on AdBlue.

With only a few thousand kilometres under its belt, the test Cascadia is already returning close to 2.6km/l, reports Tex, with the expectation of even better to come as the unit loosens up.

Depending on driver behaviour and fuel burn, oil servicing intervals can be up to 80,000km, says Freightliner. But Tex isn’t quite that bullish: “I’m a great fan of oil sampling. I think that gives you a better handle on maintenance and wear than a nominal mileage.

“With our Coronados we were told they could go 40,000km, or even up to 60,000km, between services. We had been doing 25,000km with the previous CAT engines, so I thought, this is great. We started at 40,000 but the overall figures looked so good it was suggested we could go to 60,000. However, at this figure the oil samples started to look not so happy, so we have settled at 50,000.”

He is very impressed by the unfussed power delivery of the DD13: “When you put your foot down, you don’t get that immediate rush of torque like a CAT or a Cummins...it just ticks over sweetly.

But then you look down and think ‘Whoa!’ – when you see how quickly the speed has built up.”

The 19.45m overall length of the truck and its trailer is allowed under a special proforma overlength permit. A day cab would have seen it sneak under the standard 19m limit, but as Tex points out, for a moderate extra initial outlay the sleeper can prove very useful: “The runs we do mean we are home every night... but surprisingly often the highway can be blocked by flooding or a major crash and the driver gets held up for several hours. Under those circumstances the opportunity to use the bunk for a rest is really appreciated.”

Tex hasn’t been a driver all his working life. In fact, he began as a builder’s apprentice and got within six months of finishing his time before deciding that truck driving was better paid – leaving building to fill a couple of part-time driving positions. One of them involved backing up an owner/driver for TranzLink who was also a

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“So I went and bought a DAF, just to show I was annoyed!”

KiwiRail train driver. Whenever he was on the trains Tex would take over the truck.

At the time, he says, it was quite difficult to break into TranzLink as an owner/driver, but his experience with the job meant that when a refrigerated freight run to Central Otago came up he was offered it: “I was just 26, had barely $20,000 saved, so it was a huge challenge to get into a truck. I’d had no joy with several other distributors, but Trevor McCallum helped me get into a new C120 Century Class. I would have liked an Argosy, but we couldn’t stretch that far.

“They showed faith in me, so from my perspective it has been Freightliner pretty well ever since.”

The only divergence from this one-brand approach came a couple of years ago, following a fire in the Detroit engine of a near-new Argosy, caused by a fitting on a high-pressure fuel line vibrating loose. The engine repair was handled under warranty and Tex’s insurance covered the rest of the damage, but he said he felt disappointed by what he saw as less than wholehearted support from Freightliner: “So I went and bought a DAF, just to show I was annoyed!”

The DAF is still on the fleet (alongside two Argosys, two Coronados and the new Cascadia) and performs very well, says Tex... but normal relations have been resumed by way of brand loyalty.

He covered the Central Otago run six days a week for 11 years until TranzLink’s refrigerated service was sold to Hall’s, who elected to run the bulk of the service out of Christchurch, virtually halving the distance of his contract and consequently his income, he says: “I then got an offer to work with TransOtway at more than double the ks per week, so I took it. However that didn’t last too long before that company went bust.”

TransOtway was the primary transport contractor for Foodstuffs in the South Island, and it’s demise prompted the supermarket giant to set up its own logistics company. Thus, TSI was formed.

From the perspective of the owner/drivers who had worked for TransOtway things barely changed, Tex says: “We just turned up the next day to do the same work, only now for TSI.” He is a believer in the model Foodstuffs has adopted: “The product has to be delivered on schedule virtually every day of the year. The major general transport companies have other clients,

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Top & lower left & top right: Tex is very impressed with the unfussed power delivery of the 505hp Detroit DD13

Above: Slender support arms for the rear vision mirrors help to counter the impact of the thick A-pillars on the driver’s vision to the sides at intersections

so with the best will in the world their needs can often conflict with the supermarkets’. Having its own dedicated operation gives Foodstuffs full control.

“We leave Dunedin at the same time every day and, barring breakdowns, we’re doing the trailer swap in Christchurch at the same time every day. It’s the same with our Southland runs, servicing the individual supermarkets.”

It’s not a job for everyone, he says: “The only days we don’t work are Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Good Friday. And the only way you can schedule the drivers is on a four days on, two off basis – so that doesn’t work for those who want to be off every weekend.

“On the other hand, there’s total job security in lockdown periods, and the drivers are home every day. And the early shift drivers who have young families are finished by midday or early afternoon, depending on when they start. That gives them good time with the kids...and they’re also off to sleep at the same time as the youngsters.”

We make excellent time on the trip to Christchurch, the DD13 barely drawing breath on the two big climbs and the DT12 transmission demonstrating an almost preternatural ability to second-guess ratio selection. With a setup like this you would

rarely if ever need to be in Manual mode.

The coast function is most impressive, switching in and out almost imperceptibly. On the other hand, there is little chance of ignoring the lane departure warning... which is obviously what it’s designed to achieve. Tex reports that it can be turned off, but will revert after 15 minutes: “I reckon that’s quite a good function. If a driver is getting drowsy, it will keep reminding him.” We keep it on for the whole trip and it performs its duties well.

Early on, there’s discussion about the size of the large housing for the forward-facing safety cameras associated with the lane departure and cruise control systems, which intrudes down into the centre of the windscreen. It’s one of those things you notice straight away but soon forget because, although big, it doesn’t interfere with the driver’s normal line of sight.

In terms of ride, steering and handling, the Cascadia is not yet right up with the best Euros. As test driver Hayden Wolston reports during his stint at the wheel, the steering feels slightly nervous, while the ride is a little choppy over uneven surfaces.

Unlike many owner/drivers, Tex doesn’t believe in maximum bling...although his trucks still sport some pretty fancy visuals.

Among them is what you could call a McKillop Contracting calling card of green glow lighting under the bonnet and cab and Truck & Driver | 33

Above: The Cascadia’s adaptive cruise control displays an uncanny ability to “see” the crest of any hill – holding a gear longer than it would otherwise....seemingly knowing that the climb is almost over

Right: The fuel tanks are good for 720 litres Far right: Will we be seeing more of this badge in NZ? Probably, given the huge success of this model for Freightliner in the US

projecting through the “Freightliner” cutouts in the rear cab extensions. With the other models in the fleet, the extenders are steel, but on the Cascadia they’re plastic, which posed a challenge when fitting the lights.

It was a challenge brilliantly met by Phil Fitzsimon at Fitzsimon Motor and Engineering Services in Christchurch, who has handled all of Tex’s engineering work on his new trucks. He fashioned bracketed steel backing plates behind the extenders to carry the lights. They look for all the world like they were factory-fitted.

Tex is loud in his praise of Fitzsimon: “It doesn’t matter what idea I come up with, Phil will find a way to make it work brilliantly.” He points to the stainless steel shrouds and their associated steps covering the alloy fuel tanks and the plastic AdBlue reservoir: “That just finishes the look of the whole truck.”

Trevor McCallum is equally unstinting in his comments: “I don’t know how many times a prospective buyer has asked me can we offer some custom design and I’ve said yes, knowing that Phil is sure to come up with a superb solution.”

34 | Truck & Driver

The TSI livery is fairly plain, consisting of mid-green and grey on a primarily white background, but the company is fairly relaxed about the detail treatment of its contractors’ units, as long as the main logo remains front and centre. Consequently, the test truck boasts elegant scrollwork and pinstriping, courtesy of Timaru Signs Graphix.

And so to a Cascadia-sized, 8x4-shaped elephant in the room. It’s a question Trevor McCallum has obviously been asked many times, and he’s ready with an answer: “Three-quarters of our market is for eight-wheelers, so we cannot ignore it. We already have 8x4 variants of several of our other models, and developing an eight-wheeler Cascadia is top of the agenda.”

So, watch this space. In the meantime, operators like Tex McKillop, whose stock in trade is based on the semi-trailer, are enjoying what will increasingly be the look of the future – a classic American truck that also carries all the technological developments that until now have been the preserve of European models. T&D

MTE 3R4 SEMI TRANSPORTER

Test

HTAYDEN REVOR

WE FINALLY HAVE A BRAND-NEW BREED OF TRUCK LAUNCHED IN New Zealand, but – thanks to COVID – with very little fanfare and some delays.

It’s a truck that I’ve been really looking forward to testing: It’s no secret that we have always found faults with Freightliners’ cab rattles. The last Coronado we tested had part of the dash falling off – and it had only 5000kms on the clock.

Now, when the Cascadia had its Australasian launch, Daimler Trucks North America president and CEO Roger Nielsen said deciding to build a right-hand-drive version of the Cascadia “comes down to having the guts to make the investment. If I go back to making a RHD version of the Columbia, or the FLC 112, or even the Coronados today…you wouldn’t find us spending money that was more than one single digit million (dollars). Okay.

“And you saw that impact – of that low investment, that cheap…. low-volume tooling that went into those products – that resulted in basically a product that….yeah didn’t meet all the expectations of the customers. Let’s say that nicely.

“But now to go out and spend $100million to tool this up properly and to keep it configured at eye-level with the American configurations not only allows us to get that truck durable and reliable from Day 1, but now allows us to keep pace with everything else that we change on the Cascadia going forward.”

When I read this it really made me interested: Things should be a lot different to the past. So I’m keen to find out just how different, as I head down to Dunedin to meet up with Tex McKillop’s Cascadia – the first one in the country.

36 | Truck & Driver

Hayden Woolston Tex runs the truck over Pine Hill to Waitati and I take over for the run up the Kilmog and then on to Palmerston.

Getting in is very good, with a low cab, wide-opening door, well-placed steps and very good grabhandles. Once in the very comfortable leather ISRI seat, it’s a much more refined interior than I’ve seen before in a Freightliner – but still has that American feel to it, with a woodgrain dash and gauges to the left.

The aircon has a nice, easy to use toggle set up. The stereo is an aftermarket JVC unit. There’s a digital display on the turnout section of the dash – but it is a big tablet mounted on the dash by Tex himself. Below this are all the cab and axle function buttons and air brake control, plus a good three-cup holder and storage setup with more room for driver miscellany.

The left side of the steering wheel has functions that control the digital dash in front of the driver and the right-hand side has hands-free phone, cruise control and headlights flash buttons. The right-hand steering column stalk is just like those in the Mercedes-

• SPECIFICATIONS • Benz and FUSO trucks with Drive, Neutral and Reverse, plus the three-stage engine brake.

The left-hand stalk has window wipers and indicators.

As I pull of out of Waitati I can see that the mirrors work well with their slim arm mounts, which reduce blind spots.

The Detroit DT12 automated 12-speed box and the Detroit DD13 engine, producing 505hp, work well together to pick up speed and it’s not long before I’m at 90km/h ready to tackle the Kilmog.

On the climb, the transmission is initially quite conservative – hanging on in the higher gears to 1100-1125 before downshifting and bringing the revs up to around 1450rpm.

But as the climb steepens it almost seems to predict what’s coming – downshifting at 1300 and bringing the revs up to around 1550.

It handles the steepest section in seventh at these revs, with 33km/h on the speedo, and comfortably in the meat of the torque curve.

Down the other side I take it at 60km/h at its steepest part and the third stage of the engine brake works very well – so that I contemplate easing it back to the second stage.

On the run on to Palmerston I find the ride is a little rougher than I expected – but that’s just a good reminder that I am driving an American truck on NZ roads – and not a European truck.

The ride and a soft steering means it requires constant although minor correction to cope with the multitude of bumps and camber changes.

Cruise control is brilliant with a 3km/h preset overrun that the truck sticks to. I don’t get a chance to use the adaptive cruise control but Tex is impressed with it.

The 5km speed adjustments in the cruise control are good for dropping your speed in small towns, instead of having to take the truck out of cruise control completely.

The final major impression from this test is that the sloping bonnet means that from the driver’s seat you can’t see what’s immediately in front of you – so I’d worry about that if you’re in tight manoeuvring.

Then again the advantages outweigh this negative as you get a great view further ahead and it should help fuel economy with its streamlined shape. Tex thinks he is going to be seeing some good fuel figures as the truck wears in.

I do hear one squeak above my right shoulder while driving but I believe it’s coming from a curtain mount, which will be removed.

In Palmerston, with a driver change I’m left feeling impressed by the leap forward the brand has made with its Daimler Group influence and cab build. T&D

FREIGHTLINER CASCADIA 116 6x4

Engine: Detroit DD13 Capacity: 12.8 litres Maximum power: 377kW (505hp) @ 1625rpm Maximum torque: 2508Nm (1850 lb ft) @ 1075rpm Engine revs: 1260rpm @ 90km/h in 12th gear Fuel capacity: 720 litres Transmission: 12-speed Detroit DT12 AMT Ratios: 1st – 11.67 2nd – 9.10 3rd – 7.06 4th – 5.50 5th – 4.40 6th – 3.43 7th – 2.65 8th – 2.07 9th – 1.60 10th – 1.21 11th – 1.00 12th – 0.78 Front axles: Meritor FG-941, rating of 14,600kg Rear axles: Meritor RT46-160GP, combined rating of 21,800kg Auxiliary brakes: Three-stage Jacobs engine brake Front suspension: Freightliner taper steel, shock absorbers, stabiliser bars Rear suspension: Freightliner AirLiner air suspension, shock

Heading north past Shag Point, the Cascadia is just one week into its life with McKillop Contracting

absorbers, stabiliser bars GVW: 26,000kg GCM: 65,000kg

Truck & Driver | 37

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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Roadside drug testing a step closer New Zealand’s driving conditions are challenging enough for professional drivers without having to worry about motorists under the influence of drugs Attribution:“Storm on the Hutt Road, Wellington, New Zealand, 6 July 2006” by In Memoriam: PhillipC is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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by Nick Leggett Chief Executive Road Transport Forum NZ

HE ROAD TRANSPORT FORUM HAS LONG advocated for roadside drug testing and I am pleased that, finally, this could be the year it becomes a reality.

While the time it has taken for a testing regime to come about is frustrating, legislation introduced in 2020 should be in place this year, giving police the power to conduct random roadside saliva-based testing of drivers they suspect are under the influence of drugs.

From its establishment, the RTF has had a zero-tolerance policy on illegal drug use in the transport industry. I’m encouraged by the fact the majority of operators support our position and regularly carry out drug testing of their staff. It’s time all motorists were subject to the same scrutiny, to ensure a higher level of road safety for all road users.

Data from Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency’s Crash Analysis System shows the number of fatalities from crashes where a driver has been found to have used drugs has increased to the point where they now outnumber the fatalities involving drivers who have exceeded the drink driving limits. The scary thing is that this is likely to underrepresent the problem – because not all drivers involved in accidents are drug tested.

It’s equally disheartening to see the Ministry of Transport

statistics for 2019 show there were 137 fatal crashes, 286 serious injury crashes, and 1409 minor injury crashes where alcohol/drugs were a contributing factor. This resulted in 160 deaths, 391 serious injuries, and 1936 minor injuries.

Quite frankly, the figures are appalling, and there should be provision in the law for drugged drivers who cause someone’s death to be given a higher penalty. I believe far too much emphasis is placed on the drugged drivers’ rights at the expense of those they kill and maim.

For commercial drivers, especially truck drivers, NZ’s public roads are their workplaces. These highly skilled drivers have to share their workplaces with members of the public who may not have the driving hours, skills, or drug-testing regimes that professional drivers have.

Drug-impaired drivers on public roads present significant risk to commercial drivers, as well as every other road user.

Despite their best efforts to safeguard the health and safety of their staff, transport operators are powerless to protect them from drugged drivers on public roads.

The RTF supports a harm minimisation approach to drug driving and wants to see adequate funds diverted to cover drug education and rehabilitation programmes. However,

Continued on page 40

Truck & Driver | 39

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

The NZ Road Transport Industry Awards night is a great social event

INDUSTRY AWARDS RETURN

O

N T HE B ACK OF T HE N EWS T H AT T HE Road Transport Forum Conference is back in 2021, the RTF is also pleased to announce the return of the New Zealand Road Transport Industry Awards.

The awards were set up a number of years ago to recognise best practice and achievement in the industry. They are a way of honouring individuals, organisations and companies that have gone above and beyond industry requirements in raising skills, safety practices, knowledge, training, industry awareness, innovation and expertise.

As well as the Supreme Contribution to the Road Transport Industry Award, there will also be awards for health and safety, the Young Driver

of the Year and for the Outstanding Contribution by a Woman in the Road Transport Industry.

Entry guidelines and the nomination form are available for download from the RTF website. Nominations are also open for the Castrol Truck Driver Hero Award, so if you know someone who has – through their actions – helped others while out on the road, go to the RTF or NZ Truck & Driver magazine websites to make a nomination.

The RTF Conference will take place on September 24-26 in Invercargill, with the NZ Road Transport Hall of Fame to be held on the evening of the 24th. This will provide out-of-town delegates with the opportunity to combine the two events in the one trip, so save the dates! T&D

Continued from page 39 driving under the influence of drugs is a deliberate act and should be treated accordingly. No concession should be given to those drivers who flagrantly break the law and have no respect for other road users.

The RTF supports the establishment of a new random roadside oral fluid testing regime to sit alongside the current compulsory impairment test (CIT) approach to drug driving.

However, the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill’s proposal that drivers would submit two consecutive oral fluid tests before there would be any infringement penalties, does not make any sense to me – there should be just one test, consistent with the drink-driving testing regime already in place. If there are to be two consecutive oral fluid tests, the reasons should be explicit.

40 | Truck & Driver

I also hope that before the roadside drug testing comes into force, police staff are provided with all the necessary tools to test for drugs and will not be restricted to a process that excludes CIT or oral testing if one is done before the other. Rest assured, in an attempt to escape conviction, drug-drivers and their legal counsel will exploit any loopholes the testing process may uncover, so the process needs to be as robust as possible and apply to everyone equally.

NZ’s road toll is an embarrassment and must be taken seriously.

Our members already have to deal with dangerous situations on the roads every day. Let’s give the police the powers to target at least one of those hazards. The RTF urges the Government to enact the Bill as soon as possible. T&D

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Climate Change Commission r

The transition to alternative fuels remains a complex problem for heavy vehicles as manufacturers must ensure their powertrains remain fit for purpose

A

T THE END OF JANUARY, THE CLIMATE CHANGE Commission released its draft report on how New Zealand can achieve our commitment to reach net zero emissions of long-lived gases, and significantly reduce biogenic methane emissions by 2050.

The challenges for NZ are clearly laid out in the report – further steps must be taken over the next few decades to align our actions with our emission reduction targets.

“For the heavy transport industry however, things aren’t that simple.

The industry cannot accept the development of policy on a wing and a prayer. It can’t proceed into a future where the technology that powers its vehicles is imagined, rather than real,” says Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett.

“Emission reduction policy needs to be about what is possible, rather than what is desirable – and at present too much is unknown about the kinds of future energy that will power heavy vehicles.”

The Commission acknowledges that the vast majority of NZ’s freight task will remain on the road, but says switching some freight movements from road to rail and coastal shipping could reduce emissions.

“This may please the anti-road lobbyists, but the report indicates only about 4% of freight can switch by 2030 – and that’s a very small proportion of the 93% of the freight task currently shifted by road,” says Leggett.

“The reality is, moving freight by road will remain the most efficient way to move goods around NZ.” Under the Commission’s approach, NZ will need to almost completely decarbonise land transport. This means eventually 42 | Truck & Driver

changing how most vehicles are powered, including heavy vehicles.

The report recognises that medium and heavy trucks will be slower to electrify than the light vehicle f leet, because current battery technology does not provide the range needed for effective long-haul road transport.

The recommendation is that of the trucks imported in 2030, 15% of medium trucks and 8% of heavy trucks would be electric. By 2035, those proportions would increase to 84% and 69% percent respectively.

Says Leggett: “It is encouraging to see the Commission accepts that it can’t predict what the eventual solution for powering heavy transport will be. That won’t stop some others though, and we must guard against people who think they can lock in a solution for us so far into the future.”

The Commission also recommends scaling up the manufacture of low emission fuels like biofuels or hydrogen-derived synthetic fuels. In 2019 the Government released the Green Freight Project, a background paper on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from freight through the use of alternative fuels.

“For trucks, particularly heavy trucks, NZ is dependent on new power system development by international truck manufacturers, because we are too small a market to support independent development.

The transport industry will adopt the new fuel technologies when they are widely and dependably available; reliable in terms of performance and servicing; and cost competitive,” says Leggett.

“What we have to bear in mind though, is that early adoption of new technology is risky and expensive, and any higher costs will be passed on to our customers and, eventually, all consumers, thereby increasing the cost of living.”

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n realistic about heavy transport The choice of fuel (hydrogen/methanol/electricit y) will be dependent on the availability and cost of those fuels in NZ. Each of the possible fuel types depend on there being an adequate electricity (or gas) supply for its manufacture, or direct use to recharge batteries.

Therefore, policies for decarbonising 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.

“Ultimately, delivery of freight is a service industry and the customer sets the terms and conditions,” says Leggett.

“The most signif icant reason road freight is increasing is the improvement of truck payload efficiency – that means bigger trucks carrying larger loads, reducing the number of truck trips. Efficiency gains through the uptake of HPMV and 50MAX have been realised in dairy, logs, livestock, aggregates and petroleum distribution.”

In the latest round of the Low Emission Vehicle Contestable Fund, FUSO and Hyundai Motors secured funding for both electric and hydrogen demonstration trucks respectively. Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods says demonstrating and proving the potential for electric and hydrogen heavy vehicles is important, because heavy freight has an outsized impact on transport emissions.

Leggett believes the Government should acknowledge that heavy trucks meet some environmental imperatives – fewer journeys equals fewer emissions – and provide the road freight industry with some kind of financial incentive, as has been done with electric light vehicles.

The Government also confirmed new average emissions standards for light vehicles, a move that has concerned the Motor Industry Association. CEO David Crawford said while accepting the fuel economy standard is necessary, the speed at which NZ must reach the average target of 105 grams of CO2 per kilometre is the most aggressive and severe in the world.

Crawford urged the government to amend the target to 2030, saying the 2025 target date does not allow time for model development or vehicle sourcing arrangements, and does not recognise that for many local distributors their model choice is tied to the Australian market.

“This is something the transport industry fears too,” says Leggett: “Our focus must be on reducing our emissions as a country and as a world: Net zero by 2050 – that is the end-goal here.

“Right now, we don’t know what the future holds for the heavy transport industry, but the RTF is here to assist road transport businesses be more sustainable and prepare them for the uptake of future technologies – whether that be hydrogen, electric, synthetic, or some as yet unknown energy source.” T&D

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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

It can be hard for long-haul drivers to avoid takeaways, such as burgers and fries Attribution: “Raph Burger and Fries Beatbox Burger at Rooftop Bar AUD11, AUD5” by avlxyz is licensed under CC BYNC-SA 2.0

Maintaining a healthy body and mind A

TD31383

S TRUCKS GET “FIT TER” – SM A RTER, MOR E fuel-efficient, more aerodynamic etc – the f itness of the person behind the wheel comes under increasing scrutiny.

In the United States, for instance, there is a new emphasis within transport companies on both equipment efficiency AND driver health.

Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency is about to undergo a review of the Medical Aspects of Fitness to Drive publication.

Considerable advances in medical treatments have occurred since Fitness to Drive was last reviewed, and things such as medicinal cannabis or fatigue may also need to be taken into consideration this time.

While the Road Transport Forum and member associations will not be actively involved in the review process, it is a timely reminder to consider the health of everyone involved in the transport industry, particularly truck drivers.

“Those of us who work fairly normal hours and are home every night still find it hard to find time to exercise and eat healthily, so spare a thought for truck drivers,” says RTF chief executive Nick Leggett.

“They may be away from home for days on end – sleeping in their trucks or in motels – and the long days aren’t conducive to regular exercise and healthy meal preparation. If you arrive in a small town Truck & Driver | 45

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

at 8pm, often the only food places still open will be takeaways, and it’s not like a driver can stop off at the supermarket and whip up a meal in their cab or motel room.”

Instead of stopping and grabbing junk food when on the road, drivers should have on hand a supply of healthier food and snacks, the RTF recommends. This can be anything from fresh fruit or bags of dried fruit and nuts, to a packed lunch, or leftovers.

“Exercise isn’t always easy to find time for, particularly for longhaul drivers, but it is important to make movement part of everyday life, even if it’s just a walk around the block or taking the stairs instead of the lift,” says Leggett.

We know that paying attention to diet and exercise can pay off, with better sleep quality and improved mental health. Poor physical health often goes hand-in-hand with interrupted sleep and a brain that won’t switch off.

“Sleep apnoea is a common aff liction among professional drivers and is a potentially serious condition in which a person stops breathing during sleep. Typical symptoms include snoring, not feeling refreshed on waking, daytime sleepiness, altered mood and morning headaches. There are many causes, but the risk is higher if the sufferer is overweight, a smoker and/or a drinker.

“Australian research a few years ago found that about 40% of commercial vehicle drivers in Australia were likely to suffer from sleep apnoea, despite averaging eight hours of sleep on their nonworking days and nearly seven hours while on shift. The research also found obstructive sleep apnoea increased a driver’s accident risk between two to seven times what it would normally be.

“If being over weight and unf it increases the likelihood of developing sleep apnoea, and sleep apnoea in turn signif icantly increases the likelihood of having an accident, then don’t we all have a responsibility to look after ourselves and watch what we eat?” says Leggett.

“As well as having a healthy body, we should also be asking that important question of our friends: ‘Are you okay?’

“At the RTF conference in 2019, keynote speaker Craig Membrey, who lost his son to suicide, urged us all to seek help, share our problems, surround ourselves with family, friends and work colleagues – and, above all, look out for each other.

“After the year we have all just experienced, Craig’s message resonates more than ever,” says Leggett.

“Looking after our physical and mental health and that of our loved ones has never been more important.” T&D

Road Transport Forum was established in 1997 to represent the combined interests of all members as a single organisation at a national level.

Members of Road Transport Forum’s regionally focused member associations are automatically affiliated to the Forum.

Road Transport Forum NZ PO Box 1778, Wellington 04 472 3877 forum@rtf.nz www.rtfnz.co.nz Nick Leggett, Chief Executive 04 472 3877 021 248 2175 nick@rtf.nz 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 46 | Truck & Driver

Road Transport Association of NZ (RTANZ) National Office, PO Box 7392, Christchurch 8240 03 366 9854 admin@rtanz.co.nz www.rtanz.co.nz Simon Carson, Chief Operating Officer scarson@rtanz.co.nz Northland/Auckland/Waikato/ Thames-Coromandel/Bay of Plenty/North Taupo/King Country Simon Vincent, Senior Industry Advisor 027 445 5785 svincent@rtanz.co.nz South Taupo/Turangi/Gisborne/Taranaki/ Manawatu/Horowhenua/Wellington Sandy Walker, Senior Industry Advisor 027 485 6038 swalker@rtanz.co.nz Northern West Coast/Nelson/ Marlborough/North Canterbury/West Coast John Bond, Senior Industry Advisor 027 444 8136 jbond@rtanz.co.nz

Otago Southland, South Canterbury , Mid Canterbury Lisa Shaw, Senior Industry Advisor 027 231 0953 lshaw@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

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Contractor Mike (Bull) Rainsford’s Mack Trident gets loaded at a woodlot site near Huntly N ITS FIRST YEAR IN BUSINESS, LOG TRANSPORT COMPANY Aztec shifted around 88,000 tonnes of logs.

That sounds impressive enough….until you hear that this year, the operation is aiming to cart two million tonnes! And that’s not some unrealistic flight of fantasy – not seeing as Aztec trucks shifted over 1.5m tonnes last year (and that’s even with the entire fleet parked up during the COVID-19 Level 4 lockdown period).

That’s a helluva growth, given that it’s just 23 years since then Carter Holt Harvey owner-drivers Steve Segetin, Peter Phillips and Ken Angus got together and formed Aztec.

It’s another measure of their success that the Aztec fleet, just four trucks strong back in 1998, has now grown to around 100 – working all over central North Island and the top half of the island.

It’s a success that has emphatically silenced those in the industry who predicted that the three owner-operators would never become bigtime operators. Who reckoned that they didn’t deserve the status of key suppliers accorded in late 1997 by Carter Holt Harvey – in the company of a select group of others….mostly bigger companies.

Who reckoned too that their three-way business “marriage” would soon end in a messy divorce!

Naming their new company Aztec hints at grand plans harboured by the trio – of building an empire, just as the Aztecs did. But in reality, that was far from their minds as the business got going.

Ask how big they visualised Aztec ever getting back then and Ken reckons: “Maybe two – two trucks each. And that was the limit.” And Pete agrees: “We never thought it was gonna be this big.”

After all, as Steve points out, they figured that CHH wasn’t “going to let just one or two transport operators have it all…. They wanted a group of four or five….to keep everyone honest.”

One thing that they were all agreed on was that they quickly had to live by the promises they’d made on the way the business would be run in Pete’s proposal to CHH – aka “The Bible.”

Pete was convinced that CHH would take stock of its key suppliers pretty quickly – probably within a year – and there’d be further rationalisation: “So yeah, I wanted us to be ready to jump the next jump. And to Ken and Steve’s credit, they got on with it. We all did.”

It was important to live up to the whole concept put forward in the

proposal to CHH – the professional presentation of the trucks and drivers, the health and safety measures, the fitting of central tyre inflation systems, the extra trucks that would be put on to meet the market.

As Pete says, it was mostly about making a distinction between Aztec and other operators: “We’re all carting logs, we all deliver to the same places, we all work for the same people. What could we make a point of difference? And that’s when we came up with quality, safety and service.

“That’s in terms of how we did the job, how we presented ourselves, how we turned up for work, how much wood we moved, and the fact that we didn’t cause any grief. We just wanted to get on with the job, and also find...solutions to problems.

“And so, whenever things weren’t quite right….we’d get alongside management and make suggestions to help them. And if they asked us to jump off the cliff, we’d jump off the cliff. It didn’t matter: We never ever pushed back, or caused them grief. We just got on with it.”

Ken chips in: “We were just young enough to be innovative. And the biggest thing was…a lot of older guys were stuck in their ways, but we were prepared to change.

“When the three of us got together, Peter said: ‘Whenever you go to a forest company meeting with a problem, also go with an answer….a solution.’ And they worked with us because we made it easy for them.”

So when the three co-owners struck a problem that needed sorting, Peter says, “we’d all come up with ideas...get the conversation going and we’d all chip our bit in.”

These discussions weren’t carried out in anything like your typical corporate setting, as Steve recounts: “Often that discussion was held as we were each behind the wheel – driving down the road.”

That’s how it had to be, adds Ken, when they were getting “three and four hours sleep – and just work, work, work.”

Steve, for instance, was known to habitually get up at midnight to beat the rush – driving to the locked forest gates, parking his Mack… and going to sleep in the cab, secure in the knowledge he’d be the first truck loaded every day.

Until, that is, “this fulla unlocked the gate one morning and left me asleep behind the steering wheel – and all these trucks went past me!”

Truck & Driver | 51

From then on he parked right up against the gate, so it couldn’t be opened without the Mack moving.

In the directors’ on-the-run discussions, a constant in coming to some resolution was the plan they’d put to CHH – the “meetings” often ending up with Peter saying: “Boys, we’ll just stick to the rules.

This is the Bible”….

“I said to the guys – ‘we’ve got to do everything we said we will do.’

Which was uniforms, paint schemes and all of our policies – health and safety…everything.”

Among the measures they put in place was what Peter terms “that whole attitude towards the job. Although the rates were competitive, we had to reinvest in our own businesses, pay the right wages, maintain our gear, have the right gear.” It meant, he adds, “there wasn’t much margin in it….”

Its safety measures included upgrading suspension systems for improved stability, installing onboard scales to prevent overloading, compulsory wearing of seatbelts, replacing twitches with winches…

“Another one that really got us going was central tyre inflation.

Where other fleets would only have a small number of their trucks with central tyre inflation, we were probably 90% (of our trucks fitted with it) pretty much from the get-go.

“It meant reliability, self-sufficiency in difficult conditions….but also it was to our detriment a little bit – as we would get sent to jobs where other trucks couldn’t go. And so those jobs were time consuming and we didn’t make as much money. But we were providing a service.”

Peter says that initially life as an Aztec co-owner “was, I would say, busy. And we were pretty excited because now we were a key supplier for a big forest company.

“So, it was kind of that adrenalin that kept you going…. And when we hit opposition and rough spots, you had enough momentum that you’d just go through that. We’d always find solutions…”

Well, except for problems completely outside their control – like the ups and downs of the international log trade.

52 | Truck & Driver

Says Ken: “We’ve been through our hard times…” In fact, they weren’t long in showing up: Early in Aztec’s first year “I’d just bought my second truck….and we came to work and…was it the Asian market had crashed? Yeah. So, straight away we were on four-day weeks. I’d just employed a guy for the first time.”

It was to be the first of numerous market-driven setbacks that they’ve had to endure over the years – but they always stuck to the same policy, as outlined by Steve: “You’ve gotta keep your wages drivers. So, you pay them….to keep them there.”

Even when, as happened during another downturn, around 2003, “we’d got up to about five trucks each – and for three or four months we had three trucks working and two parked up, because of the work volume.”

Peter points out that even the first, early, setback did have one positive spinoff: “We would go off and we often found additional work – outside work – to keep going. All sorts of crazy shit…. But we did it, and we all got through it.”

He, for instance, began to cart logs from woodlots and smaller forests for other forest management companies – one of them, Wood Marketing Services, eventually becoming a major Aztec customer…one that’s still a valued client today.

Peter Phillips’ hunch that there’d soon be further rationalisation of CHH’s key suppliers – and that Aztec would be well-served by being pro-active in securing its future – proved correct.

A few years after Aztec’s appointment as one of CHH’s Hauraki and northern region key suppliers, it was invited to put in a proposal to also become a key supplier in the forest owner’s central region…and was duly appointed.

But it was a worry when CHH subsequently had a sort-out of its central region key suppliers. As Ken remembers well: “They said ‘some of you are going to go.’ They needed to thin us out. It was pretty stressful.”

Stressful…but with a happy ending for Aztec: The company was

Opposite page: Aztec’s three owners – (from left) Peter Phillips, Ken Angus and Steve Segetin – have grown the business from just four trucks in 1998, to around 100 currently Above: Scania R730 was added to the operation by Ken Angus’ son Chris last year made one of an even more exclusive group of companies offered a key supplier contract.

It meant more work…which, of course, also meant more trucks. And that led to the first of Aztec’s owner-operators – a business model that has, over the years since, grown and grown….to the point where now there are 56 sub-contractors, running 75-odd of the fleet’s trucks, currently sitting at around 100. It fluctuates, but has been 100-plus at times.

The first two to sign on with Aztec in the central region were a couple of the former CHH contractors who’d been unsuccessful with their own key supplier deals – Hill Log Haulage and T. Doidge. They were welcomed as preferred sub-contractors – along with Cheyenne Haulage in the Hauraki region. The addition of their trucks to the fleet under Aztec’s direction saw it leap from 15 (five apiece for Steve, Pete and Ken), to around 27.

The sub-contractor business model made sense, says Peter: “We needed to expand fairly quickly, as this work kept coming up. And the quickest and easiest way to do it was to take on owner-operators.”

Adds Ken: “It was about spreading the risk. We could see that we were growing, and we couldn’t do it on our own.”

It became necessary too because Aztec’s so-called woodlot work – which, in fact, covers not only woodlots but work for owners and/or managers of other forests (some of them quite big) – was growing... demanding more trucks.

This “outside” work had expanded thanks to a conscious decision early on in its CHH relationship – prompted by the one occasion when the then CHH management “put us over a barrel” on its cartage rates.

As Ken says now, the Aztec directors “did take a risk” in “venturing out to get other contracts.”

But, as Peter adds, the three of them were adamant: “We can’t let this ever happen again. We’ve got to get some outside work.”

As things turned out, the threat of it happening again soon disappeared anyway – the hard-nosed attitude that had come to pass

at CHH, whereby “it used to seem to be all about rates,” says Aztec’s central operations manager Garry Stewart, was suddenly replaced with a “totally different” attitude.

That was in 2005 and 2007, when significant CHH forests were bought – first by Matariki Forest/Rayonier and then by Taumata Plantations (Hancock Forest Management).

At the very first meeting with Matariki Forest/Rayonier “they said ‘we’re working with you’ and talked about working in with contractors and longterm arrangements and that. It was a breath of fresh air for us. We had not come across it.”

Likewise in 2007, with the new partnership with Taumata Plantations: “They had a similar approach of us all working together – treated as a vital component in their business’ success.”

In its work for these major clients and other companies, Aztec has always stuck to its quality-first credo. Even if it meant its rates were higher than some rivals.

It lost some woodlot jobs over the years to bigger companies that could do the transport cheaper….if, for instance, the jobs happened to fit with their other work, says Peter.

But eventually, because the woodlot and smaller forest management clients weren’t getting a dedicated service, some of those jobs lost came back to Aztec.

As Pete says, Aztec’s rates have always been its rates – with no cut-price deals to win work. They’ve always been based on a principal of “don’t goudge people – you just make sure that you’re happy with your rates….and be realistic.”

The company’s longstanding clients, he adds “get that. We still have to be somewhere near the mark. But we are definitely not the cheapest.”

Around 2007, Aztec began a long period (a decade or more) of what Peter Phillips terms “steady, continuous growth” – with a couple of surges – the first to meet the increasing wood harvest in the central region….and then in Northland, as the latter’s so-called “wall of wood” Truck & Driver | 53

Top, left: Aztec’s central operations manager Garry Stewart has brought expertise in the IT industry to the company

Above: Keiran Whittington left log truck driving to join Aztec as a dispatcher...is now its central and Hauraki region transport manager Left: Some of the Aztec “family” – a mix of owner-drivers, contractors and drivers at last year’s Mount Maunganui truck show started being harvested.

By then the work for big corporate forest-owning customers Matariki Forests/Rayonier and Hancock Forest Management was supplemented nicely by Aztec’s work for a “handful” of other big clients, which now “between them, bring a huge amount of volume to the company.” They may be smaller than the corporate giants – but some of their jobs can run for two or three years.

In fact, one of them – its landmark “outside” job so far – was a contract secured with Wood Marketing Services in 2013, provide all the cartage and dispatching of logs harvested in the Rotoma Forest.

Says Peter Phillips: “That was probably the single biggest external job we took on.”

Garry Stewart: “Yeah, we had to prove we could do it…and prove that we could manage it. Because (until then) we were dabbling in small wood lots, you know – 1000, 2000 tonne….and the job was finished in no time.”

The Rotoma job started with 15 loads of logs a day – and increased to 18. Says Garry: “We tendered for it, we got it – and then when it actually started happening, we were like…‘Holy shit! There’s some serious production/wood here.’ ” It was a first for Aztec in a number of areas: “It was a real cultural job and a business partnering job,” says Stewart – the company working closely with Wood Marketing Services, forest owner Rotoma No.1 Inc. and the Newton Logging harvesting crew.

Taking on extra work like this, while absolutely ensuring that it didn’t detract in the slightest from Aztec’s work for Taumata Plantations and Matariki Forests/Rayonier, was a big deal, says Stewart. The workload in the central region was “pretty big anyway: The annual cut was significant at Kinleith…

“And then we started taking on all these other jobs outside of that 54 | Truck & Driver

and managing them separately. It took a lot more time and resources to manage, as opposed to just handing trucks over to an independent dispatcher (for the corporate work) to manage them for you.”

And then the Northland log harvest boomed – “and Hancock’s volume went through the roof…their annual cut increased tenfold! So at that stage, we started taking on a bit more gear as well…”

Garry reckons it was around then – in 2013 – that there was a fundamental change in Aztec’s owner-operator structure – the company consciously focusing on an increased number of contractors, each running fewer trucks….rather than a smaller number of contractors, each with more trucks.

The problem was that “with the subbies with more trucks, you lost touch with who was on the trucks at any given time, and often they had quite a lot of other work, rather than being dedicated solely to Aztec.” It resulted, says Stewart, in the company needing to “focus on a different type of subbie, who had Aztec’s best interests at heart...

Reliable – who we could call on any time.”

It was necessary because, he adds: “At the time we were doing considerably more volume – so there was a lot of stuff happening in all regions.”

What Aztec arrived at is a mix of core contractors, totally dedicated to working for the company, and floaters – who, as Peter explains, “might work for us a month, and go away. Or they might drop (into our system) two or three times a week and pick up a load and carry on.”

It might sound like a nightmare to manage, but the Aztec directors and their key employees have an unswerving appreciation of the owner-driver business model.

Stewart came to Aztec in 2005 from the IT industry – “so I don’t have a trucking or transport background. I know nothing different than what I’m doing here.”

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Around 40% of the fleet is based in Northland, including this Northern Log Haulage Kenworth K200, here hauling a load away from a forest near Tutukaka So he’s happy that he doesn’t have to worry about things he knows nothing about – like “the mechanical side of things: I think that’d be a massive challenge to manage at a fleet level, especially given that our trucks are scattered everywhere.

“So the owner-driver model…I think it’s actually quite an easy way of managing the business.

“We don’t waste time on a lot of things that other companies have to deal with all the time – like putting out fires in places where guys haven’t turned up. Our guys have a vested interest, so they’re keen to work. And they do a bloody good job.

The owner/driver model also pays off bigtime in one other obvious way: The ability to run fleet of around 100 trucks with just a couple of modest offices and what is virtually a skeleton staff – comprising just five fulltimers (Garry Stewart, central/Hauraki transport manager Keiran Whittington, central dispatcher/planner Allan Gibbons, northern operations manager Ross McFarlane and H&S co-ordinator Tania Dickinson).

Yeah, Garry jumps in quickly, “but we need 20 more!” Cue lots of laughs.

There’s a hint of pride though when Peter adds: “So, we’re moving 1.5 million tonnes a year with five people!”

But, wait a minute! How about your classic owner/driver versus company scenario you hear ODs complaining about – whereby, when the going gets tough, the company trucks (in this case, the trucks owned by the directors’ companies) wind up getting most of the work that is available.

Keiran: “When I started, all three of these guys (the directors) told me that when I was doing dispatch, to ‘just keep it fair and keep it honest.’ ” Says Ken Angus, with a nod to Keiran and Garry: “That’s why these guys are employed – to keep an eye on it.”

And Peter explains: “All the trucks are just in the pool…they’re all just dispatched equally. We don’t have anything to do with it.

“Whereas I know with other companies it’s not always like that. And that creates despondency amongst the contractors.”

For sure, says Garry, allocating work during downturns felt more “challenging” back in the days when a large percentage of the trucks on the fleet were owned by the directors (they had 22 between them

at one point) – in a fleet much smaller than it is now.

“We’ve learnt that our future is with our valued subbies and the way you treat them. So there has to be transparency.

“So these guys have taken it onboard that it’s all very well saying we’re going to do something, then when it gets tight, we go: ‘Okay, we’ve got five trucks working – these guys are all parked up.’ Well no – you can’t do that!

“You have a turn, they have a turn and we’ll get through.’ And again, it’s been trial and error over a period of time….”

As Peter Phillips likes to say: “You need gas in the tank for when the work cranks up again!”

It helps that now the directors’ truck numbers have shrunken to just 12 trucks – and that in a fleet that’s grown spectacularly.

As Keiran elaborates: “So that’s the thing…if it does get quiet, we don’t have 100 company trucks that basically we have to keep going….”

And there is none of that last man in, first man off business either, Keiran reckons: “Once we’re committed (to a new contractor), we’re committed to try to keep them working. That’s the difference.”

As for getting to that point, there is a very specific, well-established induction process for taking on new contractors – one that has a detailed template or business plan. Rules, if you like.

From the outset, the company always had its own business plan – so when it began to take on contractors, says Peter, “they just had to come under the Aztec business plan. And we kind of grew that as we went too…. it got refined. As health and safety compliance got steeper and steeper, we just went with it and ramped that up. And the technology – the PDT (a Samsung tablet), the voiceless dispatch systems and the GPS and all that as well…”

In fact, Aztec’s H&S programme – having been developed by working closely with corporate clients for 18 years – was already good enough that it needed little change when the 2016 Health & Safety Act was introduced.

Its programme includes regular driver in-cab assessments, truck audits and contractor H&S system audits. Contractors are provided with an Aztec H&S manual, with a list of “critical rules” that all drivers and contractors must agree to stick to. They also have to attend regular H&S meetings.

Truck & Driver | 57

Top left: The very, very early days of Aztec, with the new name on the front of Peter Phillips’ ‘91 Foden S108 4000... at this stage still in his company’s pre-Aztec colours Above: A decade or more ago, this is Steve Segetin’s 2009 Kenworth T408

Left: Ken Angus’ trucks about 20 years ago – two Mitsubishi Shoguns flanking a ‘93 ERF E14 and a 1997 Western Star 7584

58 | Truck & Driver

to work, they are fatigued.”

Garry explains that when it detects potential fatigue, the system alerts a 24/seven call centre, which reviews it and notifies Aztec – “so you can make a call to the driver – just sound him out, see how he’s feeling. Tell him to take a break if he needs a break….find out a bit more of what’s going on. Then we’ll say: ‘Okay mate, we’ll look at getting you back home.’ ” And that, says Keiran, can reveal underlying causes: “That’s how you find out bits and pieces like external factors influencing the driver’s health and wellbeing – like, old mate’s struggling at home… And that’s when we do intervene and try to support them. And if they need an early day, it’s all good.”

If that sounds like they’re part trucking company managers, part psychologists, Garry reckons that’s all good: “Business has changed, trucking has changed. That’s part of the education of a lot of the guys who have been around a while – that the way it used to be in the transport industry is no longer. We’ve got to be smarter than that. We want to be here for the duration.”

The trucks also have to be fitted with Trimble’s WSX electronic voiceless dispatch system (“a brilliant tool,” says Garry) that Aztec invested in eight years ago, as part of its “leading edge philosophy.”

They believed it might open doors to new work...and it did!

It allows job info to be sent to drivers through display screens in their trucks. The WSX system also collects data about each job and enables clients to track load data associated with their operation. The system is also used as an H&S management tool in terms of tracking speed and location.

Truck Audit – a system designed by Peter Phillips and Aztec’s then northern operations manager Ian Newey – sees trucks checked against a template covering “all aspects” of truck and driver equipment. When a vehicle passes the audit, an Aztec audit label is applied to the windscreen – to give clients and forest management confidence in the condition of the vehicle.

Peter says that “onboarding process” is “basically about compliance.

It’s about understanding what the gear is, and getting them to understand what they can and can’t have and what we require. I keep saying to them: ‘It’s about the big picture.’

“We’re just as much employees as they are: We’re employed by the TD31276

A strict new drug and alcohol testing policy sees checks carried out pre-employment, randomly, after any incident and “whenever there is probable cause.”

All drivers and contractors are inducted prior to commencing work for Aztec. This is very in depth and covers all aspects of Aztec and its clients’ H&S and operational requirements.

As well as running a specified suite of Aztec safety and efficiency equipment on their trucks, all Aztec contractors have to be members of the Log Transport Safety Council – an organisation Peter credits with having developed and championed “huge improvements” in log truck safety.

“The industry has gone through massive positive change from the ‘90s to the present day. It’s the council and all of its manufacturing, transport, forestry and legal team that’s brought all of that incredible growth and development.”

In managing and making possible the growth in the Aztec operation there’s been a strong leaning towards new technology. The must-haves for Aztec trucks, for instance, include AutoSense fatigue management systems, central tyre inflation on drive axles, GPS, active speed management and trailer electronic stability control to prevent rollovers.

Aztec’s owners haven’t just talked about safety – they’ve also put their money where their mouths are: The AutoSense system – which utilises in-cab cameras monitoring drivers’ eyes for signs of inattention and tiredness – was introduced three or four years ago and, so far, over 65% of the fleet is running it.

It’s not inexpensive, says Garry – “but these guys (the directors) are committed: They’re funding 50% of the install cost in all the trucks.

He explains the rationale: Fatigue is a risk area that, until they introduced the monitoring system, they had “no visibility of that particular hazard.” Now, he adds, “we can actually manage it a lot better.”

While it’s “been a real learning curve to get the benefits – and we’re still learning” – they have seen rewards: “We’ve had a few guys identified that have had problems and they’ve gone through the right channels in doing the sleep apnea testing – trying to fix their lifestyle, their health.”

And Keiran: “The one thing we have noticed is, especially during winter with the cold and ‘flu season, drivers who have colds and come

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forest clients. If they don’t want to employ us, we don’t have a job.

Just like if we don’t have a job, the owner-operator doesn’t have a job.

Plain and simple.”

There can be times when contractors can “sometimes feel that it’s their business….and they can sometimes just wander a little bit offtrack in terms of the Aztec business model. It’s not a biggie. We just have to talk to them, and bring them back on track, and get them to understand that we can’t compromise the Aztec model.

“And to be fair, it doesn’t happen often. We have had a couple that just did not get it at all…

“We don’t want to sound mean and say: ‘Oh, it’s our way or the highway,’ but it is about the preservation of the good contractors we have and the good wages drivers we have…..because they’ve made the investment, be it in their labour, or be it in dollars.”

And, chips in Ken, “we do carry the risk.”

Clearly, managing risk – of various kinds – is at the heart of much of the Aztec business model and its rules…

And that is very much the case in evaluating potential new contractors – with the directors, Garry, Ross and Keiran tapping into their deep well of combined experience to ensure that the new recruits have a viable business plan of their own.

Garry: “We’ve learnt in the onboarding process some of the things we need to look at in terms of making sure they’re not overcommitted….haven’t got too much debt.”

Would-be contractors are told, says Keiran, “to ‘go get your truck specs and all that and then work out your payments and come and plug them in – and then we will sit down and work out if it’s manageable.’ But we just don’t want anyone setting themselves up for a fail.”

And Garry: “This industry goes up and down all the time, so you’ve got to be geared up so you can sustain a bit of time off over the years.

Because the reality is, it’s likely to happen.

“Yeah we normally get them in, have a bit of a chat, go over that part. Normally talk to the finance companies as well. And the directors are involved in that – oh yeah, they’re very hands on.”

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Adds Keiran: “Well you don’t want to set someone up to fail, otherwise in six months they could go, well this isn’t actually for me.

“Because it’s not for everyone – the early starts and that. Like some of these boys are starting very early in the morning.”

Not everyone who’s become an Aztec owner-operator has worked out – and as Garry says, Aztec has tried to learn “where we might have gone wrong when we took them on. Why didn’t it work out?”

Having some previous log-truck driving experience would seem to be an obvious starting point – but actually, as Keiran explains: “Some of our best drivers we’ve got were stock truck drivers.”

Inducting a new owner-driver can be one of the nice parts of the job, as Garry explains: There are some, for instance, for whom “that’s all they’ve ever wanted to do – have the opportunity to own a truck. And once they have it, they smile, they shine it, they look after it. Yeah, it’s quite cool.”

Garry and Keiran both say repeatedly that Aztec is lucky – it has great clients and “a very good bunch of contractors and owner/ drivers…you’ve got guys who watch out for each other and it’s not all about money. They work together as a team,” says Keiran.

“If one of their trucks is broken down and another one’s got a doctor’s appointment, they might drive that person’s truck – just to keep the wheels in motion.

“We can’t do it without them, they can’t do it without us – it’s all one, we’re all just a big team really.

If someone wants an early finish for some event at their kid’s school, “we’ll work around it. Family comes first: That’s our thing here,” he adds.

“We’ve become friends with some of them as the years roll by, to be honest. We put on functions and that. Like we have our health and safety meetings and then we have functions and catchups. The old alcohol flows and the truth comes out!”

The business is fortunate in that it has enough variety in its work that for those who enjoy doing something different, that’s possible.

In terms of what trucks and trailers Aztec contractors can run….the sky’s the limit – as long as it’s fit for purpose and is either new or in

Clockwise, from top left: Northland contractor MHL Haulage’s 2019 Freightliner Coronado with a load in its home territory....Te Kuiti-based Graeme New’s Volvo FH17 700 hauls out of a woodlot....2010 Kenworth K108 was one of Steve Segetin’s fleet when this was taken (picture Rod Simmonds)... Ken Angus’ ‘99 Mitsi gets a helping hand through a stream....a clutch of Aztec Kenworths at the Mount truck show (picture Garry Cooper)....Peter Phillips’ then all-Foden fleet in Aztec’s early years

good condition: Otherwise, there is no make nor model that they can’t run. The combinations are split around 30/70 between four-axle and five-axle trailers, with GCMs ranging up to 54-tonnes on permits.

Replacement-wise “ten and 10 is what we’re aiming for – for the truck and trailer,” says Garry: “A bit of flexibility there….we don’t want to put too much stress on them. But that’s what we’re aiming to try and get it in line with….and we’re a large way there already.”

Keiran confirms: “Our average age is four years – across the whole fleet.”

The directors themselves each have their own truck preferences: Over the years Ken, who’d started out with an ERF, became very much a Scania man and Steve’s truck choices evolved from International ACCOs and Macks to mostly Kenworth conventionals (and a couple of older DAFs)….

While for Pete, Fodens and a Mack made way a long time ago for Kenworth cabovers: “The point of difference (compared to Steve’s conventionals) is I’m a mechanic. I don’t want to work on a truck that’s got an engine buried under the cab!”

So just about every make available in NZ, with the exception of Sinotruk and Shacman, is now in Aztec colours. And in recent years that too has been stipulated as part of the spec: Trucks that are less than six years old have to be painted in the dark green Aztec colours, with the company logo – two hands clasped in a handshake, in front of a pinetree…both set inside a triangle – displayed on the doors.

So where does this leave Aztec in 2021? It has trucks and drivers based in Taupo, Rotorua, central Waikato, King Country, Tauranga, eastern Bay of Plenty, Hauraki, Thames, Wellsford, Whangarei and Kerikeri.

On any given day Aztec trucks will be working in more than 20 forests all around the upper half of the North Island. In the central area typical day will see the area’s 60 trucks split 50/50 between the corporate forest and the woodlot work. In Northland, probably 22-24 of around 40 trucks will usually be on corporate work.

At about 100 trucks it’s a big business – but they point out, it’s “still nowhere near” the size of RFH or Williams & Wilshier. And, as Garry

quickly says: “We don’t want to be the biggest.”

As the three directors agree, he adds: “We’re about that whole thing of making sure that the service and everything else that we’ve built the reputation up for is maintained. Because as soon as you get bigger you get a lot more problems and it’s harder to manage.”

The Aztec plan is “not a flash model.” It’s simply about customer service and doing the job right. To which Keiran adds: “It’s in our name (on the logo) – quality, safety and service. Or as some of the drivers like to call it, Q-double S.” Garry: “Basically, we’re very focused on making sure our clients are happy, and we don’t lose that focus. As soon as you start saying yes to all this other work, someone gets let down because you don’t have the resources.

“If something comes up and there’s three years’ work for X amount a year, and we’ve got some certainty, we’ll probably look at it.

“But we’re mindful that over the years that we’ve been together things go up and down in this industry all the time – so you’ve got to be prepared for the market to shrink….and shrink along with it.”

Peter: “One of the things I’ve always said to the guys is understate and over-deliver. That really puts you in good stead. There’s been times when our clients or potential clients will ring Garry, Ross or Keiran, and say: ‘Shit, can you give us a hand? The existing contractor is currently unable to shift enough volume....it’s near the end of the month – and there’s 15 or 18 loads sitting on the skid.’ ” It has to be weighed carefully, he adds – won’t be done if it compromises the service to existing clients, or can’t be properly managed.

Peter: “Garry might have a look it and say: ‘Yeah, I think we can do this,’ and we’ll just smash it. We’ve picked up clients like that eh – because they’ve just been blown away because you put bloody 10 or 20 owner-operators in there and they just blitz it.”

Peter believes that there is still room for Aztec to get bigger AND maintain its standards – “but we’re really at the point now where if we took too many trucks on, we’d need more staff.

“I’d never say never, but we don’t really want to go there. I’d say Truck & Driver | 61

Clockwise, from top left: Matamata-based Robert Moore’s DAF CF85 brings a load out of a forest at Pongakawa...Whangarei OD Faiyash Khan’s Shadow Transport Hino 700 gets loaded....Rotorua owner driver Ryan Teddy’s Ngatuwairangi Transport Kenworth leaves a woodlot with a load....a 2000 Peter Phillips Foden at work about 20 years back....Steve Segetin’s fleet in the first couple of years of Aztec’s existence....Ken Angus began a Scania era in the early 2000s, including this 2003 R164

‘prefer not to.’ But if a client said to us: ‘We’re going to give you a fiveyear contract and if you’re unable to take it on, we’ll have to give it to someone else….’ we’d have to look at it.”

Keiran also points out that “when we do get under the pump, I’ll put the pressure on Pete – and Ken gets out there and delivers loads and that: We’re one of the few companies that you still see directors in the logging trucks delivering loads.”

A major back operation about three years ago ended Steve’s days behind the wheel – but he still services the six Segetin trucks himself on weekends.

Ken sold his five trucks (all Scanias) to son Chris, who runs as an Aztec contractor – Ken enjoying driving nights for him, running trucks already loaded by the dayshift drivers through to Mount Maunganui port from Waihi and Paeroa: “I love it. All care and no responsibility.

I’m just my own man.”

Peter also drives…but infrequently: “Shit, I’d be lucky if I drive once a month.” But if he’s a driver down, he jumps in.

Ask Ken, Steve and Pete what have been the worst times in Aztec’s 23-year existence and they don’t have to go back far. Around 2014 or 2015, says Ken, “the industry started to dry up. We were over-trucked.”

Steve remembers it well: “I’d just bought three brand-new trucks… that was a hard time. It was down to three days a week. And you might only get two loads and the trucks were back in.”

What work there was, he adds, “we just shared it right around – made it equal for everyone. You take the cut, same as them. They appreciate it.”

Peter: “Like Ken said, we took on our owner-operators to spread the risk. And so, if say just one of us had of owned all of those trucks (in 2014 or 2015), we would have tipped over. But because it was well spread and we all took a hit, we all survived. That was the difference.”

So, did they ever come close to failing? Ken jumps in quickly on that one: “Never! We were survivors. We wanted to work, and we made it work.”

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Dealing with setbacks (of a smaller nature) in recent years has led to a further refining of how many trucks any one owner-driver should be allowed to run, as Peter outlines: “We’ve come to the conclusion that we have to be careful not to have a contractor working for us who owns too many trucks, because what happens is that exposes you.

“For example, if a contractor had, say, five trucks working for us, and he decided he doesn’t like Aztec anymore, he takes five trucks and disappears. That leaves a big hole. And we have had that happen to us.

“And so we’ve said, going forward, we won’t allow that to happen again. So we won’t allow anyone to go beyond three trucks. So our exposure is less.

“But in terms of the three of us growing our own business….we all got to a point where we thought: ‘No, that’s enough trucks for us.’ ” At that point, around 2011, Peter owned six trucks, Ken got to five and Steve had 11 (which he’s now cut back to six).

Ask Pete, Steve and Ken what they’re most proud of achieving with Aztec, and Steve reckons: “Making it grow to where it is today. You don’t really think about it eh – until you fullas (NZ Truck & Driver) have actually made us really think about it.

“But we’ve got some good jokers around us,” he says – then turns to Garry and Keiran and growls: “But don’t get too smart!”

It prompts Ken to say that Keiran deserves the credit for making them think hard about helping preserve and secure Aztec’s future place in the industry: “Pretty much up until five years ago, we liked to fly under the radar – so our trucks were all different fleet colours.”

All in ODs’ own colours – apart from, that is, the trucks owned by the directors.

“Keiran came to us….and said: ‘I think you guys need to start painting all the trucks the Aztec colours.’ We said: ‘Why’s that?’

‘Because,’ he said, ‘one day you guys won’t own trucks – and Aztec will disappear.’ ”

Keiran explains: “We had quite a bit of gear getting replaced and I was quite vocal in the background with the three amigos that with them getting older and wanting to retire, there’s going to be nothing to carry on the Aztec name. The company paint scheme – it would basically fade away.”

Ken concedes that he “didn’t agree with it initially – but I’ve got a lot of admiration for what he said. You look around now and we’ve got 90-odd trucks painted Aztec colours. It’s pretty impressive.”

For Pete there’s satisfaction from something else altogether: “What I’m most proud about is the fact that we’ve created opportunity for owner-operators – for individual guys to own their own trucks and have their own businesses. That’s what gives me a buzz, because those guys otherwise wouldn’t have that opportunity.

“Well there are other opportunities, but I’d like to I think that with our company, they get the BEST opportunity, and they’re treated the most fairly.

“So, that’s what I’m most proud of: Apart from the fact that we’ve created a huge company, we’ve created opportunity. That’s the one for me.”

So, 23 years ago, some in the industry snidely reckoned that Aztec would be like a three-way marriage….that would very quickly end in divorce. So how come they have, so far, stood the test of time?

Ken: “Because we live in three different towns.” They all laugh at that – and again when Steve chips in with: “And we don’t wear wedding rings!”

Garry points out that the directors have “three very different characters and attributes….and that has “enabled the company to be where it is. Peter is very driven on the quality, the innovation and all the rest of it – and these guys bring different aspects. Between the three of them, we’ve got quite a good mold to work from going forward, so we nut problems out all the time.”

Steve: “The beauty about it is you’ve got not just one brain, you’ve

got the whole group of us. You toss ideas around – and someone will come up with something just out of the blue, and it’ll fit in just like that, you know.”

Having exceptional staff is also key, says Ken: “In fairness, these two guys over here (pointing to Garry and Keiran), plus Ross up north....are the nuts and bolts. They have all the exposure, they make a lot of decisions… Conferring with us – but they are the Johnny’s on the spot.”

Peter: “And also, I think the reason we’ve survived in this partnership, is we’re all prepared to give and take.

“Because none of us is right all the time. Ken will have a better idea than me, and Steve will have a better idea than me – or vice versa.

And sometimes we’ll even disagree about things, but in the end we all know that we have to find a way through it. And that’s the difference.

Not one of us ever says: ‘F*** you. I’m off. I’m not putting up with this.’ It’s never happened.”

Ask about the future and, before any of the directors can answer, Garry jumps in with: “Basically, their shareholding’s gonna be given to us!”

When the laughter dies down, Peter tries his best to sum up: “So, all three of us are passionate about trucks – and we’re passionate about the people who work for us, so nothing will ever change.

“It might come to the point where none of us own any trucks any more – but we will still be directors and managers of the company.

Hand on heart, I don’t think I would ever consider selling the company, because I couldn’t do that to our good staff and our good contractors.

“Because if we sold the company, suddenly you wouldn’t have the same family feel to it like we have now. And you’d get someone come in with a new broom and change the whole dynamics of the company.

“There’s a lot of people – contractors – who are successful because of themselves and because of Aztec. Well, I’d hate to see them get it all upended on them.” T&D Truck & Driver | 63

LEGENDS

Fizzing about the transport industry Willie Malcolm - Malcolm Cab Solutions

F

ROM CLEANING FIZZY DRINK DELIVERY TRUCKS AS A KID to meticulously repairing crashed Kenworth cabs, restoring the old and modifying the new as an adult, Willie Malcolm’s attention to detail and buzz about the industry has not only brought him a truck load of ardent admiration from his peers but his enthusiasm has been passed on to future generations to come - that’s why he’s a Southpac Legend.

Although Willie was born in Rotorua, his parents hailed from Sterling in Scotland. His father took up a role as a branch manager of a soft drink company that produced brands such as Schweppes and Coke, and that’s where Willie’s love of trucks began. He says, “As kids we went to work with Dad on Saturdays and washed trucks, it was all Bedfords and TKs back then.”

Willie recalls that when production stopped in Rotorua, Wayne Ballin of Combined Haulage started bringing the soft drinks to Rotorua on the back of big commercial trucks and Willie’s passion grew along with it.

With academia not high on Willie’s list of favourite things, he opted to join the workforce although not initially in transport.

“I left school early, actually I think they asked me to leave and started doing a bit of commercial cleaning at night time. And then I applied for an apprenticeship in a car panel beating shop. I was there for about a year and a guy by the name of Gary Jackson from Rotorua Motorbodies was after somebody, so I went to work for him - he did all the Kenworths, all the big truck smash repairs and a lot of modifications, he was a very, very clever man.”

Willie says that over time Gary ‘sort of got the shits doing the crash stuff’ and started converting Kenworths from left hand drive to right and that left a gap in Rotorua to do crash stuff, which Willie filled.

64 | Truck & Driver

He says, “I knew a guy called Dick Moree, he had a diesel shop and he was doing Warwick Wilshier and John Ramsey’s work, servicing all their trucks. Warwick and Dick encouraged me to go on my own. So I started here in eighty four. I was young, I was twenty one or twenty two but it was something I wanted to do, my mates were all doing their OE and stuff that didn’t really spin my wheels.”

Malcolm Cab Solutions seemed to have Gary Jackson’s blessing too.

“When I started, Gary introduced me to a guy from Direct Transport. Direct had trucks that were rusty, bent and twisted.

I spent a fortnight fixing each one and sent them off to the paintshop and they’d give me another one. Also Dick was the Hino and Foden agent and that’s where I met Dave Tennant and Maarten Durent.”

Willie reckons that despite his young age, he had no fear about setting up the business.

“I did the sums and you could pay your rent by Monday lunchtime, and then by Wednesday…”

Willie started his shop just off View Road next to Roadmaster repairs and then a year later moved to Hyland Crescent next to Patchells where he shared a workshop with Dick Moray, Mike Spires and logging trucker Gibbo Dhanjee.

“Then Mike Spiers and I built a workshop just down the road a bit where I was for quite a few years and I bought Mike’s side of it..”

The business moved to their current location in Monokia Street, Fairy Springs about five years ago and Willie is over the moon about the way things have evolved.

“We’ve just progressively grown. We’ve got nine staff and we’re

Above left: Willie’s dad was the manager of a soft drink co in Rotorua for thirty or so years this is where the passion for trucks came from Above middle: Phill Collinson Eden Haulage Ltd. Kenworth K200 probably the biggest custom job Willie has done Above right: Williams & Wilsher Kenworth K100e customised side lockers, step infill panels, mesh grilles and grille bars etc still doing the same work, we’re still doing rusty cabs if people want them done and we’re still doing the big crash stuff on Kenworths. We’ve got a bit of a name for fixing Kenworths, that’s the sort of support you get from Maarten and Dave.”

He says that they’ve also got a name for modifying trucks.

“We’re passionate about fixing them but then we started modifying them too. Guys were coming in to us and saying I want this bit chromed or I want an old school grille on my brand new truck or I want to make a cupboard in the dashboard, things like that.”

It’s not all been sunshine and lollipops though, Willie says that as with all businesses there have been some rough times, particularly around staff, saying that he had a guy working for him that was just toxic ‘he would just wreck everybody around him’.

However, rather unusually it was Willie’s ‘customer’ that came to his aid.

“After years of having hassles I had a cup of tea with Warwick and although he wouldn’t tell me what to do, he said ‘this is what I did once before’ and this fixed my problem. So it’s good to have guys like him, Mark McCarthy and Maarten Durent to bounce stuff off. They’re great people, really influential customers.”

Willie goes on to say that these guys are really interested in what he does. “Maarten will turn up here out of the blue and ask what’s happening. He’ll ask about staff and help me out and advise with all sorts of stuff. He’s so passionate about the industry and people like us. He’s there to encourage me.”

It may sound like a (refreshing) strange way to do business but as Hayden Woolston points out, “I think if you really simplify it, you’re taking the worst part of what happens within their businesses, truck crashes and sorting the problem out. They don’t have to worry about it. And you’re a good bastard too, that helps.”

The business may specialise in repairing crashed cabs and modifying new ones but Willie finds joy in restoring a few old ones too.

“We’ve got a few customers, older guys that have slowed down a little bit and are wanting to get some toys. So we do up their pride and joy. A lot of them are their first new Kenworths and they’ve bought them back off people, some they still own and they want to do it up. But also there’s the ‘childhood dream’ trucks as well.”

When he’s not sorting out trucks for others, Willie works on his own ‘project’.

“I’m actually doing something completely out of the gate, we’re building a Rat Rod truck. I thought we’d do something that no-one

else has. There’s a Rat Rod in the Hotrod scene but I’ve never seen one in a truck.”

Nowadays Willie is less hands on and has plenty of praise for his staff, young and old of which he’s trained and inspired.

“My foreman Dave Wasley turned up as a 19 year old and he’s been with me for 20-years. Now we’re trying to take him off the tools a bit to run the workshop and help train the staff. I need to be running my business.”

Willie says that attracting the youth to the business is an ongoing issue, however he’s really proud of his foreman’s niece Sam. “I used to put up a notice in the local high school for kids to come and sweep up the floor. Young guys would turn up and ask ‘how much do I get?’ I tell them $60 a week for an hour a day and they’d say no. Another guy turned up for two days’ work and then went missing for three days. He’d turn up again and then go missing for a fortnight - in the meantime, I’m paying a tradesman wages to sweep the floors. After two years, you just get sick of it.

It’s hard to get the youngsters involved.”

He continues, “When Sam first turned up here she said I hear you’ve got a job sweeping up the floor. She didn’t ask how much, she just said ‘what time would I have to start?’ I told her half past three to half past four. She then said ‘if I was to get the job when would I have to start?” I told her whenever you’re ready. She said, ‘where’s the broom?’ She was finished by ten past four and then cleaned the smoko room and other jobs.”

Willie says that Sam’s just signed up for her apprenticeship.

“MITO hasn’t been able to give us a coachbuilding apprenticeship until now, they’ve been revamping it for the last three or so years.

But she signed up this week.”

As far as business expansion goes, Willie feels that it’s not likely.

“I’m too old to expand, I probably need to be working on an exit plan. There’s not one right now but my 15-year old son has shown interest in the trucks. My older son is 20 and he’s an apprentice electrician, he says I’m too pedantic to work with.”

Willie agrees that he can be a bit of a perfectionist.

“We have to be. We don’t always get it right but we try our best for the truck to be better than before the accident. So if it was 100 percent before the accident it’s got to be 110% when it leaves here.”

Despite having decades of experience within the industry, Willie still gets fizzed about each and every truck.

“One of my guys is just valeting one now to go to Napier and I just go wow.” T&D

Truck & Driver | 65

CIVIL CONTRACTING EQUIPMENT, EX STOCK & CUSTOM BUILT TO YOUR REQUIREMENTS.

AUCKLAND Ron Price Sales Engineer 021 701 098 ron@tmc.kiwi

Auckland 8 Oak Road, Wiri

CHRISTCHURCH Paul (Skippy) Goodman Sales Consultant 021 701 110 skippy@tmc.kiwi

Hamilton 18 Evolution Drive, Horotiu

Phil Hawkes Business Development 027 701 4000 phil@tmc.kiwi

www.tmc.kiwi

Christchurch 56 Edmonton Rd, Hornby

Police Commercial Vehicle Safety Team officers chat at a Southland Road Transport Association stop for National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, with truckies (toting gift bags), RTA senior industry adviser Lisa Shaw and HWR Group director and acting CEO Scott O’Donnell

Showing the love I

F THE NEW ZEALAND ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY WAS to look for a silver lining from COVID-19 it would be that truck drivers kept the country moving through the lockdown in March/April of 2020…

And in that time a lot of people became more aware of truck drivers as essential workers.

National Truck Driver Appreciation Week was initially planned for November 9 last year – however COVID meant things were still uncertain around August/September, so it was decided by the industry to push it back to February this year.

This time we were lucky: Auckland was in Level 3 lockdown the week prior to our special week….and then moved back into that alert level at the end of the event, so as NZ Truck & Driver NTDAW co-ordinator Olivia Beauchamp says happily: “We just snuck in.

“And off the back of the COVID response from the transport industry, the week was well received by those outside the industry – and hopefully the wider NZ public.

“And what a week it was: We had a number of roadside

events organised around the country, alongside National Road Carriers and the Road Transport Association NZ. They co-opted and co-ordinated members of the Police Commercial Vehicle Safety Team and others to join us.”

Most events had a barbecue and, of course, all drivers who called in were given a gif t bag each. Says Beauchamp: “The response from drivers was, once again, amazing – with all of them feeling appreciated and somewhat surprised by the gesture.”

A fundamental part of the week was a nationwide media campaign “aimed at achieving some appreciation in the wider community of what it is we do for all NZers….every day – by delivering everything and anything they need.

“This included a number of interviews across some radio networks, an interview on TV One’s Breakfast show – featuring National Road Carriers CEO David Aitken, and Bonneys truck driver John Goldthorp – and a number of other media initiatives.

“We wanted to get to every driver nationwide, but it’s just not possible, due to the people and resources that would require.

“We had asked transport operators themselves to thank Truck & Driver | 67

their own drivers – and some jumped on board with that initiative.

“We heard of one operator who put correspondence out to its suppliers about NTDAW happening and, in response, received a lot of gif ts from the suppliers for its drivers.

“Another operator we’ve heard from has now decided to do a monthly appreciation award – to a company driver who has gone above and beyond. And if nothing else a little bit of job satisfaction goes a long way sometimes.

“The objective of this event was to get a wider appreciation for what our industry does – and, most of all, what our drivers do – for us all on a daily basis. An acknowledgment that they are not just the people driving ‘those big trucks that are a nuisance on the roads each day – getting in everybody’s way….’ but they are doing a vital job, delivering everything everybody needs.

“There have of course been some learnings from this year’s

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event which will see future events change accordingly: We will continue to build a foundation for a way to show our appreciation of drivers for years to come.

“We hope to make National Truck Driver Appreciation Week bigger and better next year,” she adds.

Finally, she gives “special thanks” to the Road Transport Forum board and its CEO Nick Leggett, the E. J. Brenan Memorial Trust, National Road Carriers Association and the Road Transport Association NZ for their support of NTDAW. And to industry supporters including: Bigfoot, Bridgestone, CablePrice, CAL Isuzu, Castrol, Cummins, Fruehauf, Fuso, Hella, Hendrickson, Isuzu, Iveco, Keith Andrews, Mills Tui, MyTrucking, Patchells, Roadmaster, SI Lodec, Southpac Trucks, Teletrac Navman, TR Group, TWL/Transpecs and Mac Valves. “ NTDAW wouldn’t have been possible without this support and we are forever thankful to these companies for their generosity.” T&D

Celebrating our drivers saw roadside “appreciation stops” around the country – from Uretiti in Northland, right down to Dacre weighbridge in Southland.

Road Transport Association, National Road Carriers and Road Transport Forum execs and staff, CVST Police officers and operators were among those who turned out to show their appreciation for drivers, with free barbecue food, fruit, drinks, gift bags and kind words.

The result? Plenty of happy drivers.

Truck & Driver | 69

FEATURE

India McKay is believed to be the youngest-ever to become a certified Class 2 heavy vehicle pilot by gaining an NZQA unit standard

Cranes career caps uni degree

Story Dave McLeod Photos Pollock Cranes

T

AURANGA 18-YEAR-OLD INDIA MCKAY HAD BEEN planning to go to university this year, to study forensic science.

Instead, late last year she left school….for something completely different! – starting work at Bay of Plenty-based Pollock Cranes.

She’d just turned 18 when she took the first steps in a career in cranes, earning certification as a Class 2 heavy-haulage pilot.

And now she’s busy working all over the North Island as a pilot – working with the company’s five heavy-haulage units, other combinations in the general transport fleet carrying overdimension loads and its mobile cranes.

The work includes piloting Pollock’s biggest heavy-haulage unit, a former Aussie roadtrain Western Star Constellation 6964

FXC prime mover and its eight rows of eight transporter, rated up to 260 tonnes.

India (Indy to her workmates) did have some solid influences in the trucking and crane industries – her grandfather drives roadtrains in Australia and step-Dad Clint Higgins is Pollock Cranes’ Auckland/Waikato regional manager.

He got her a school holidays and weekend job with the company about three years ago – and she says that convinced her to make a radical change to her career plans.

Higgins says she initially helped out in the office, doing filing and photocopying…but she wasn’t happy with the work.

Then, he adds: “She got the opportunity one day to go outside and give the boys a hand washing the cranes and trucks – and that was it. That was the start.”

Truck & Driver | 71

In between her heavy-haulage piloting duties India is being trained on a variety of Pollock’s cranes. Here she’s operating a 90-tonne Liebherr at one of the company’s sites

India confirms it: “I started off….washing trucks. Then I started driving them around the yard and started learning about cranes – and I realised I really enjoyed it.

“So I decided that I preferred doing this sort of stuff rather than going to university to study. This was more me.”

Higgins says that even given her part-time work with Pollocks – her career decision was a revelation and completely blindsided him and Indy’s Mum: “Believe me mate, both of us were completely surprised by this.”

If she’d asked him, he’d probably have told her that operating cranes and moving them around the country is “tough work: It’s big gear, the hours are horrible and long…it’s stressful and complex.”

Despite having her stepfather in the business there was no free pass for India, he confirms: “Far from it! I’m her harshest critic.”

But he then goes on to say that he and India’s Mum are “both proud of her: She does a very good job and works hard.

“She’s a very, very intelligent girl...who did so well at school.

“She has an attitude whereby when she does stuff, it has to be at 100%. She won’t go away and do something half-arsed.....she’s very committed to what she does.”

India herself says it’s not that she set out to follow her stepfather or grandfather: “I don’t think that they had much of an influence to be honest. Obviously my step-Dad helped me get the initial job but he’s not my direct boss.”

She was taken on as part of Pollock Cranes’ own trainee/ apprenticeship scheme – Higgins explaining: “Crane operators are very hard for us to come by, so we train them from an early age. In our industry we don’t have any formal apprenticeships

available, so we’ve created our own. We start with a full car driver’s licence – and then piloting through the heavy haulage side of things.

“This teaches them how to get out of bed and trains the sleep patterns: Heavy haulage drivers don’t work normal hours.”

So India first got her car licence, then – last December – gained her Class 2 pilot certification by gaining an NZQA unit standard.

Trainer and assessor (and highly-experienced pilot) Greg Sheehan believes she is the youngest to ever gain the qualification by completing a unit standard.

She’s now working most of the time as a pilot…while also undergoing training, at Pollock Cranes’ own sites, at the controls of some of the company’s 30-odd mobile cranes – the largest of them a 600-tonner.

Since starting fulltime work in December, she’s clocked-up 15,000 kilometres on heavy-haulage piloting duties.

Next steps from here include going for her Class 2 and (later) her Class 4 heavy vehicle driver’s licences (which are necessary for mobile crane operators) – and possibly also her Class 1 pilot’s certification.

The path for trainees includes operating a HIAB truck...and then starting on one of the company’s smallest mobile cranes, a 13-tonner.

India likes the progressive plan, which has seen Pollock Cranes train five or six young operators so far: “I’ll be able to go out and get to know my way around the country and know the heavy haulage routes and all the stuff that will be useful when I get into cranes.”

Higgins says India’s rapid development is also a credit to the Truck & Driver | 73

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For India, the piloting work (left) is a stepping-stone to her end-goal – operating some of Pollock’s biggest cranes. Here’s she’s getting training in the company’s yard

Pollock Cranes crew that she works with and “some really great female pilots out there.

“Our heavy haulage drivers and the other three pilots...it’s those guys sharing their knowledge and information with her.

“And a big influence has been Greg Sheehan” – who she went to for training as a pilot.

Sheehan says that the unit standard entry to oversize load piloting is a NZQA assessment – “a prerequisite to obtaining a Class 1 Pilot Certificate further down the track” – and is a far more involved way to obtain this certificate than the basic ASPEQ online exam. It includes an in-cab assessment, working with a loaded transporter.

India and Pollock Cranes transport supervisor Pete Hinton – who was doing his Class 1 pilot assessment – guided one of Pollock’s transporters, at 90t all-up, with a category 3 load permit….from Tauranga over the Kaimai Ranges to Matamata and back.

India admits that at the start she was really scared to do loads by herself: “Even the smaller loads scared the shit out of me! But the guys here are really good, really patient. They’re good at what they do and are good at teaching.

“I still get a little nervous doing stuff by myself or when I get thrown out in the front and have to be the lead pilot though.”

For India “it’s being outside and being involved in stuff” that

she likes about her job: “With cranes and trucks, what I’ve found is no job or day is the same. It’s really interesting and I really enjoy it.”

She has her eye on the future too: “I figure if I start off on the smaller stuff I can move onto the bigger cranes and eventually maybe go overseas. But at the moment I just want to see where it takes me.”

The industry is very male dominated, she concedes – but this doesn’t faze her at all. “I don’t see many women in the worksites but there are a couple of female pilots. I do find that I get treated very differently….by a few people: I don’t know whether that’s because I’m a girl or that I’m just a lot younger than the rest.

“I think girlpower and breaking gender ‘norms’ is a good reason to do this – but most people don’t really care that I’m a girl.”

India is grateful to Pollock Cranes owners Wayne, Thomas and Cas Slater and Cheryl Pollock for giving her and other young people a start in the industry.

And she says that she’d recommend the same career path to anyone and is surprised it’s not shown as an option at school: “Anything in this industry is good – piloting, truck driving, crane driving.

“But I didn’t even know that it was a job option when at school: They don’t really advertise this kind of industry when they talk about careers – they push us towards university.” T&D Truck & Driver | 75

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TESTING TIMES EASED...BY TESTING TIME

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LONGSTANDING CAUSE OF FRICTION BETWEEN HEAVY vehicle recovery operators and Police has been sorted, according to Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency.

In dispute has been how heavy vehicle towtruck operators could legally and safely recover High Productivity Motor Vehicles stranded on the highways – sometimes hundreds of kilometres

from a practical emergency destination.

But now, NZTA reckons, the “heated issue of heavy vehicle towing has been cooled – thanks to a day of tests in Auckland last year and good collaboration between Waka Kotahi, the Police and key industry groups.”

The agency says that heavy vehicle towtruck operators and

Both pictures: Two heavy vehicle recovery units from ACE Towing hooked up to four combinations, supplied by Carr & Haslam and LW Bonney & Sons, for the tests Truck & Driver | 77

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Police “have been at loggerheads” for years over interpretation of the Vehicle Dimensions and Mass (VDAM) rule – as it has been applied when HPMVs break down and need to be towed to a safe place.

It has, the agency adds, been a problem with bulk tanker and car transporter units in particular.

Says NZTA: “It was once normal practice to break down the disabled combinations – recovering the prime movers and the trailers separately.

“But this is sometimes now impossible and can mean the towtruck and the vehicle it is towing have a combined length of up to 37 metres and weights approaching 80 tonnes. Questions then arise over safety and legality.”

The issue was discussed at heavy haulage forums organised by the agency during last year’s national COVID-19 lockdown.

NZTA concedes that “the industry had been raising the issues around heavy towing for a number of years and got little traction.”

And its safer commercial transport senior manager Brett Aldridge recognised that it was an issue in which what the industry was saying made sense: “I could see a pathway to resolving things and a group was formed to investigate the issue.”

That led to a heavy vehicle towing test day in Auckland organised by Waka Kotahi in conjunction with Auckland transport operator Chris Carr (whose Carr & Haslam operation is heavily involved in car transporter work) and Transport Engineering Research NZ (TERNZ).

Carr and fellow Auckland operator Calven Bonney – whose LW Bonney & Sons operation has a large tanker fleet – each offered

two combinations for the test….as did Auckland heavy vehicle recovery operator ACE Towing.

Waka Kotahi says: “A day of rigorous testing was undertaken and filmed. Low-speed testing took place in the yard, and the trucks went on to the roads for higher-speed testing.”

Says Carr: “It was a valuable day. It didn’t reveal anything unexpected, but reinforced some of our beliefs: These heavy vehicles are towable, but measures can be taken to make the operations as safe as possible.

“The tests will assist in the recovery of HPMVs and so reduce the number of heavy vehicles on the road and increase freight efficiency.”

Waka Kotahi principal engineer heavy vehicles Don Hutchinson says the test day provided practical information and benchmarked the performance of a large heavy combination under tow for lowspeed manoeuvrability, plus high-speed dynamic handling.

“We commissioned TERNZ to do a desktop exercise concerning heavy vehicles under tow and wanted to validate that the vehicles could perform safely at speed,” he adds.

“The results of the testing gave us confidence to proceed to set up a new permitting template for towing of HPMVs. “Importantly, it assisted us to configure permit conditions to ensure safety of the operation within the infrastructure limits (bridges and pavements).”

Hutchinson says Waka Kotahi will continue to work with the heavy vehicle towing sector to ensure “the right balance” between permit conditions to manage safety and the operational constraints of “these quite special operations” on the public road network. T&D Truck & Driver | 79

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FEATURE

Dave’s dealt to diabetes

a,

Story Dave McLeod

E

TD31434

IGHT MONTHS AGO TAUPO TRUCKIE DAVID ADIE GOT A frightening “wakeup call” – that the food he loved was….well, it was killing him.

And, it seemed, it had come close to succeeding – or was at least hastening his demise.

The badly overweight 52-year-old was rushed to hospital after becoming ill and near collapse while washing his truck one Saturday with son Liam.

Paramedics shocked the career truckdriver when they quickly figured out that he was diabetic – and was close to going into a diabetic coma.

And so began an inspiring turnaround in his lifestyle and diet – one that he and wife Corena – and their GP – say has now reversed his diabetes. And one that they want other at-risk truckies to hear about.

The day of David Adie’s health emergency back in July last year started typically enough for the truckie, who’s been driving for 34 years and who loves his linehaul job as much as he loves his food.

He and 19-year-old son Liam headed to the yard to wash the International 9870 he drives for Twist Trucking. But not before stopping off (as usual) at the local bakery en route – Dave grabbing a pie, a doughnut and a fizzy drink for breakfast.

Things turned worryingly bad during the wash though, when – as he remembers all too clearly – “I started getting all dizzy and couldn’t stand up straight. And then I started shaking. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I got Corena to come and pick me up.”

By the time they got home, he figured it was “just a cold” – so he sat by the heater for a wee while: “I had some water and brought that straight back up, then had some lemonade – and the same thing happened.

“By then it was starting to get into the afternoon and things still weren’t right, so we took the next step and called up the ambulance.

“My body temperature went cold and they (the ambulance paramedics) said that was the early stages of the body going into a diabetic coma.”

A blood glucose test on David prompted an instant response: “They said, ‘we’ve got to get you to hospital.’

The new-look David and Corena Adie. They’ve lost a combined 76kg on the keto diet “There they took more blood and urine samples – and did a COVID test too. My blood sugar levels were up around 18mmol/L (heading towards severe). About an hour and half later they came back and said you’re full of diabetes.”

David was shocked: “They kept me in overnight and kept the drips going through me. And every couple of hours during the night they woke me up to make sure I was alright.”

Only the next evening, when his numbers had dropped to 12-13, was he discharged from hospital.

The experience was, he says, “a wakeup call, I can tell you!”

And more jolting news followed in the next two days – his doctor telling him he was classified “in the obese red zone.” And that his 85 count on the HBA1C diabetes measure system was very high.

“I was told by the doctor that I’m too young for this and that I’ve got to get a grip on things and start turning my life around.”

And that is exactly what he’s done: “I thought ‘shit, I’m too young to go yet! I haven’t even got any grandkids.’ So I went home, cut all the sugar stuff out – no more pies and doughnuts – and cut out the bread.”

Luckily perhaps, David’s wife Corena had been on a lowcarbohydrate, high-fat ketogenic diet for about six months to reduce weight and counter a thyroid condition…and had achieved some amazing results.

With the help of friends “who we now call our coaches” – John and Eja van Deventer – “she started cooking up stuff that I thought ‘geez, that’s a bit flash for a truck driver to be eating!’ says Dave.

“But since being on the diet, her thyroid has settled right down and her medication is down to next to nothing – and she’s now lost 50kg!”

So, when he had his big scare, David immediately started on the keto diet too. He also stopped having his usual “couple of beers” when he got home from work….and started fast-paced walking two or three times a week.

Now he too has seen a dramatic improvement: In two months, his HBA1C rating dropped from 85 to 47, which his GP, Dr Glen Davies, says “is into the pre-diabetes range. And he is now at 35, which is in the non-diabetic range – so he no longer has diabetes.”

Truck & Driver | 81

All pictures, from left to right: Dave weighed in at 118kgs before he ended up in hospital on the verge of a diabetic coma....after eight months on the highfat, low-carbs keto diet he’s down to 92kg and feeling hugely healthier....Dave’s sons Brayden (left) and Liam have also lost weight on the keto diet Dave’s weight has dropped from 118 kilograms at the time of his near-collapse, down to 92kgs currently.

And there’s more good news: David says that when he was diagnosed last July “they said my liver was shot and needed to be looked at straight away. I’ve now cleared my liver too.”

Corena likes to think of the Adies now as “the keto family” – the ketogenic diet having also been adopted by David and Corena’s sons, 24-year-old forklift driver Brayden and Liam, 19, who drives a livestock truck.

Brayden has lost 25kg, Liam has lost “a bit,” and together the four have “lost over 100kgs between us.”

And now Dave and Corena are hoping his story will inspire other truckies who are living a sedentary lifestyle and have a high-risk diet of takeaway food, to follow their lead.

Corena has dedicated herself to helping her family get healthy – to the degree that she spends one full day a week in the kitchen preparing food for Dave and the boys to eat while they’re at work. It’s especially important for Dave, given that he regularly spends a few nights a week away from home: He only eats food she’s prepared.

He concedes that the keto diet costs more in money terms: “Our grocery bill has probably doubled now. It costs a lot of money to eat healthy.”

But as Corena says: “What price do you put on your health.” She says she had a friend die recently due to diabetes: “I don’t want to lose my husband.”

For Dave the big word is willpower: “They say diabetes is hereditary but it’s not – it comes back to what you put in your mouth. You’re the contributor to it, not your family.

82 | Truck & Driver

“My issue was slow weight gain over years of sedentary lifestyle and poor eating choices. I thought I was doing alright, but If we hadn’t acted that Saturday night, I would have probably been dead Sunday morning.”

Whenever he can, Dave has been attending a keto diet support group started by Dr Davies – Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Taupo (RT2DT) – and credits that, plus the mentoring received from the van Deventers and the support of his wife and family, close friends and bosses, Tom Twist and David Keenan (DK), for his health turnaround.

And, of course, there’s been his own commitment: “It’s just the willpower of cutting all the sugars out – including the energy and soft drinks – drinking a lot of water and a bit of exercise. It’s just a better way of living.”

He says that the keto class has helped. And he says happily that of the 100-plus people who attend RT2DT he thinks he’s the only one “that’s knocked diabetes on its head within six months.

“And I’m quite proud of that ‘coz I think with my lifestyle it’s a lot harder to do than it is for the guys that get to go home every night.

“Life on the road ain’t easy for a truck driver. I regularly spend a couple of nights away from home, so when I stay away overnight I take a prepared meal with me. Before, I used to take sandwiches and stuff like that, but I would stop at McDonalds too. And that’s the problem in NZ, we’ve got all these fast-food outlets: You fill up with a burger and fries and a soft drink and think ‘shit. Well that was nice’ – and you go back for another one. That sugar works like a magnet.”

But David reckons that once you get the sugar out of your system the desire for fast food goes too: “Corena does all the home baking and all that keto stuff. I still take my lunches, but it’s now classed as

a special lunch. There’s no more hamburgers or McDonalds for me – I haven’t had a takeaway for six months. I’ve cut all that out now. All those potatoes and chips are all carbohydrates and that’s what goes into sugar.

“What happens after a number of years is your filter, the liver, says ‘I’m not doing this anymore’ and that’s when the warning signs come in.”

David says that he still has a steak, but instead of having chips with it he has salad or greens: “You eat the stuff that grows out of the ground and we cut a swede into chips.

“We eat a lot of eggs – maybe 90 a week ‘coz I eat a couple of boiled eggs in the morning. That starts my day. We cut out the rice – rice is no good for you….that’s full of sugar. Instead we have slowcooked meat over cabbage, or fish and salad.”

For snacks David has a keto bun with all the flour taken out of it: “It’s like eating dried up cardboard when you start,” he confesses – “but once you start and get onto it, there’s no problem after that.”

And he eats a lot of walnuts now: “They’re good for you. When I’m heading home in the afternoon I might have some nuts to finish the day off and some sugar-free chewing gum to take the boredom side of things out.”

David says that he doesn’t miss the takeaways but there are things that have taken a while to adjust to: “Not coming home and having a beer is the hardest part. I haven’t had a beer in six months. It’s the old truckie lifestyle: You come home and have a couple of beers and at the weekend have a few more.”

The payoffs though are huge – even including better energy levels: “I used to get a little bit tired in the afternoons but now I’m a lot more motivated to carry on and do things.”

He says that he’s proof that it can be done, it’s just a matter of changing your lifestyle and eating the right food.

Dr Davies, who has run RT2DT for the past three years, says that Dave is one of 114 of his patients at the Taupo Medical Centre who have reversed their diabetes or pre-diabetes.

The key to it all, he says, “is the ketogenic diet. Exercise is not an effective weight loss tool. Exercise is brilliant for your mental health and your fitness but not a necessary component for weight loss.

“I’m aware that truckies are very limited with time and I would much prefer them to be putting that time into preparing their meals than trying to squeeze some exercise into their programme. I’m not saying that exercise is not important – but for me, if there was a choice...”

He says “it would be very interesting” to do a questionnaire on “why truckies are overweight – whether it’s time, preparation, lack of sleep....

“But when you stop on the road, your options for healthy eating are quite limited generally. There’s virtually nothing in a service station that’s suitable for a keto diet: You really have to prepare the food and take it with you.

“For a keto diet – No. 1 step: Softdrinks are poison – as are sugar sweets. They just have to go. The next thing that has to go is sugar – and it’s interesting that sugar actually makes you crave sugar.

“And then the refined carbohydrates – white bread and anything highly processed. A doughnut would be a classic example. Calories are not the enemy – carb grams are what we need to be thinking about. The eat less/move more model has failed abysmally: We should be restricting carbs to 20g a day or under – so, less than two slices of bread a day.

“But you can have eggs, bacon, meat, fish, chicken – plenty of those things.”

Dr Davies points out that Type 2 diabetes “is usually adult onset and usually caused by carbohydrates and an overTruck & Driver | 83

production of insulin.

“We know that a low-carb diet is a most effective way to lose weight and lower diabetes – but what’s also interesting is that we are also seeing an impact on Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinsons disease, migraines….

“Sugar has a high role in causing cancer, so we’re seeing a potential benefit in treating cancer. And Type 2 diabetes is really the canary in the coalmine – because you could also have hypertension, gout, unusual lipids which put you at risk of heart attacks or strokes. And we also know that a high-sugar diet can have a negative impact on your mental health – including anxiety and depression.”

The patients who have lost weight with the ketogenic diet say, “almost universally....they sleep better, their joints have stopped hurting, they have more energy and that their brain fog has gone – and I think that’s a big issue for truck drivers, because I know there’s a real issue around fatigue.”

He has praise for Dave – and anyone else – “who makes the commitment to change their health and then is able to make it happen.”

It is not easy to change, he concedes: “There’s a lot of processes you have to go through to make a major lifestyle change, so I congratulate the people that have the intelligence and willpower to make it happen.”

Corena believes that her husband, unknowingly, “had become a liability on New Zealand roads – and he was a liability to his company.

“I want others to know how fast you can become a diabetic.

One day I hope to open a keto truck stop to support healthy eating in our industry. I would hate to see other truckies get so sick like my Dave did.”

“We want to try make a difference to our transport families who maybe think it’s in the too-hard basket – because we know (and have proven) it is not.”

David believes that obesity and diabetes are dangers that “as transport operators we really need to jump on.” He says that he’s lucky to have such a supportive boss, who’s given him time off for tests and appointments – but believes drivers have to take responsibility as “it’s not getting any easier out there.

“It’s only gonna get harder to get a licence. General practitioners are being told to come down harder on it: I’ve got to have my eyesight checked every two years now ‘coz of diabetes.”

He urges other truckies, “if you think you’re not right – if you’re getting very tired and have no energy – go and see your GP.” He also says that if you are diagnosed with diabetes, get on the keto diet: “There’ll be big wins for you at the end of it.”

It comes down to managing diabetes and looking after yourself better: “There’s too much quick and easy food out there that’s bad for you. Then we sit in the truck all day and don’t get any exercise.

“How many tarped loads are you seeing on the roads now? When I started out all you ever did was tarping, so we were getting a lot of exercise out of that.

“And with auto boxes you’re not even doing the movement you were before. I do a lot of walking now.

“When I started driving I was only a skinny fella and over the years it built up and up – and it caught me out. Tripped me up. I was lucky to get back up and I’m now leading a better lifestyle.

“I’m a lot happier now. The weight loss is starting to flatten out now, but I’ll continue to maintain or slowly improve. I’ll stick at it and continue to have that willpower.” T&D

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Above left: The slim-look Adie family. Corena likes to think of them as “the keto family” Above right: Corena devotes a full day each week to making keto food for the family

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New Zealand Heavy Haulage Association

The installation of a centre median on a stretch of SH1 at Karapiro was carried out without consultation with the NZHHA – prompting the need for a survey of roadside signs that would need to be shifted and trees removed to allow its continued use for some oversize loads

Seeking certainty on oversize routes

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

I

N ORDER TO MOVE OVERSIZE LOADS AROUND NEW ZEALAND for their clients, transport operators need to have routes that have the capacity and the design requirements that enable the operators to manage the safety of their loads.

The NZ Heavy Haulage Association is concerned that recently, the design of such roads is compromising the ability to move loads in a way that minimises the risk to other road users.

Provisions in the Vehicle Dimension and Mass Rule detail the way that the on-road safety of oversize loads is to be managed, and this includes a wide range of hazard warning equipment, load pilots that provide active warning to other road users, and travel times that restrict movement to times when there is less traffic on the road.

Another key aspect of the minimisation of risk, is to transport oversize loads on roads whose design means that wide loads can be transported most safely. Clearly those routes that have four lanes with a median between opposing traffic, means that the greatest risk – oncoming traffic – is eliminated…and other traffic moving in the same direction can be managed using load pilots to get them past at appropriate locations.

The NZ Transport Agency’s Safe Network programme has some great goals, and we support the reduction of deaths and serious injury on our roads – but in many cases this is coming through the retro-fitting of medians down the centre of existing two-lane roads.

This has a significant impact on the ability to transport oversize loads on the roads, as there needs to be sufficient pavement width on each side of the median – and a sufficient over-dimension zone in which to carry a load on the back of a specialised transporter

– in order for transport to be undertaken safely….without the load overhanging the barrier.

To assist with this, the association has for many years provided a Road Design Specification for Oversize Loads, which details the overall requirements that we seek, as well as providing specific details for properly mountable kerbs and the like.

A recent instance of a road layout changing occurred at Karapiro, on State Highway 1. It was a situation where there may have been consultation with local affected parties, but there was none with nationwide road users…such as members of the NZHHA. This resulted in a tight section of road having a median barrier installed just before Christmas – forcing the association to undertake its own surveys of the roadside to identify signs that need to be shifted and trees and vegetation that need to be chopped out.

It is disappointing that, despite all the association’s previous work with the agency to reinforce the need for consultation, that it is lacking in situations like this, on a key route.

The association is developing an Oversize Route Strategy that we intend to partner with NZTA on – as well as with key local authorities. The strategy will agree to identify key routes, set expectations around what capacity is available, aim to keep the routes open when maintenance is being carried out and to consult where there are changes being considered for these routes.

We anticipate that when we work together on such a strategy and then apply it across the country this will lead to more certainty and safety when transporting oversize loads. T&D Truck & Driver | 87

National Road Carriers

Hiringa Energy and Hyzon Motors say they will put 1500 hydrogen fuel cell trucks on the road in NZ by 2026

Call to ditch fossil fuels gets loud and urgent

By David Aitken, CEO of National Road Carriers Associationn

T

HE SUN IS RAPIDLY SETTING ON THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS for transport. While the jury is still out on the most effective replacement energy sources for heavy transport, the calls to move off petrol and diesel are getting louder and more urgent.

On January 31 the Climate Change Commission issued its draft advice to the Government on what New Zealand has to do to meet our commitments under the 2015 international Paris Agreement to keep global temperature increases to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The reductions we need to make in carbon emissions are pretty scary and the commission says we have to get cracking with thinking, planning and acting on this problem now – rather than trying to do a last-minute catchup as we near the 2030 and 2050 deadlines.

The report says transport has been NZ’s most rapidly growing source of carbon emissions, with road transport accounting for 90% of transport emissions. Cars, utes, vans and SUVs are the main cause of that….but truck emissions have doubled in the last 20 years.

In 2018, road transport emissions were around 15 Mt (million tonnes) of carbon dioxide. The commission’s report says there are multiple options to decarbonise freight on a 10 to 20-year horizon, including electrification, biofuel or hydrogen.

Trucks accounted for about 3.7 Mt of emissions in 2018 and there is significant potential for electrification: The commission estimates an emissions reduction potential of 2 to 2.5 Mt each year. The economics of electrification for medium-duty trucks are similar to light vehicles – perhaps better – due to their higher

utilisation. Cost projections suggest that by the early 2020s, new medium battery electric trucks would be cheaper on a lifetime total cost basis than diesel trucks.

By about 2030, as battery technology improves, even new heavy trucks above 30 tonnes, which accounted for approximately 1.4 Mt CO2e of NZ’s truck emissions in 2018, would typically be cheaper on a lifetime total cost of ownership basis than diesel trucks.

The report suggests heavy trucks could be powered by hydrogen. On February 17 Hiringa Energy and Hyzon Motors announced a partnership to deliver 1500 hydrogen fuel-cell powered, zero emission heavy trucks to NZ by 2026, as Hiringa expands its nationwide hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. The trucks will be assembled at Hyzon’s facility in The Netherlands and the first batch of vehicles is expected to enter service in NZ by the end of 2021.

Also, in December 2020 the heads of seven European truckmakers signed a joint pledge to ditch traditional combustion engines by 2040 – a decade earlier than previously planned. The alliance of Daimler, Scania, MAN, Volvo, DAF, Iveco and Ford plans to focus on hydrogen, battery technology and clean fuels.

And finally, the election of Joe Biden as United States president means the fossil fuel industry’s strong grip on the reins of power has been loosened. As soon as he took office in January, Biden signed a raft of executive actions to combat climate change, including pausing new oil and gas leases on federal land and cutting fossil fuel subsidies.

Almost overnight the switch from fossil fuels to planet-friendly cleaner alternatives seems to have changed gear. T&D Truck & Driver | 89

The new Actros.

A truck ahead of its time.

The new Actros is a truck ahead of its time. Setting the standard in long-distance and heavy-distribution haulage, this ground-breaking new truck is more comfortable, economical and reliable than ever before1. Featuring new innovations like the Multimedia Cockpit, MirrorCam, Active Brake Assist 5 and Predictive Powertrain Control – it’s designed to reduce fuel consumption, boost vehicle use and offer the driver all the support they need.

See the new Actros in action at actroslivedrive.com.au or contact your local authorised Mercedes-Benz Trucks Dealership to experience this outstanding new vehicle for yourself.

Compared to the previous model.

Please note: changes may have been made to the product since this publication went to press (October 2020). The manufacturer reserves the right to make changes to the design, form, colour, and specification of the product. The images shown are to be considered examples only and do not necessarily reflect the actual state of the original vehicles. Please consult your authorised Mercedes-Benz Truck Dealer for further details. © Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific Pty Ltd (ACN 618 413 282). Printed in New Zealand.

1

Road Transport Association NZ

A raft of ongoing legal and industry challenges

By Simon Carson, RTANZ chief operating officer

D

URING EARLY FEBRUARY I SPENT TIME IN REGIONS 2 AND 3 with Sandy Walker and our new man in Region 2, Simon Vincent – visiting members in the Napier, Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne areas.

The continuing trend of main industry concerns were focused on compliance, roading and the driver shortage. With much of the Poverty Bay area working in New Zealand’s logging sector, a number of concerns were taken away to be worked on by the association.

The Eastland Road Transport Association held its annual general meeting in Gisborne on February 10. Notable points were the appointment of Steve Kent as the new Eastland president, supported

by Campbell Gilmore in the vice seat; the commendable effort that has been put into the Tairawhiti Road Transport Cadet scheme by Dave Pardoe and his team to secure ongoing funding for the project; and ongoing placement of staff into industry businesses.

The specialist HPMV certification problems continue to escalate, not only on the East Coast, but right across NZ. Operators still find it difficult to have equipment or repairs certified by heavy vehicle certifiers, where nationwide our industry is still experiencing a massive shortage of approved certifiers.

With the barriers to entry and the implications for new certifiers presenting no appeal, industry is likely to have this challenge, on top of many others, for some time to come. The LT400 process is also extremely slow and restrictive. It simply does not allow operators to move re-certified gear back into a working environment in a timely manner. We have been clear with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency that this is costly and unproductive and addressing this issue needs to be treated as a point of utmost priority.

Members should be aware that next month, changes in legislation will allow enforcement action against anti-competitive behaviour.

The changes have been made under the Commerce (Criminalisation of Cartels) Amendment Act 2019 – which is due to come into full force on April 8. Under the new statutory regime, criminal penalties may be imposed on individuals and businesses that deliberately engage in cartel type conduct. Illegal collusion, or “cartel conduct,”

Simon Carson

“Operators still find it difficult to have equipment or repairs certified by heavy vehicle certifiers” occurs when two or more businesses agree to co-ordinate their activities in order to increase profits and limit competition. This coordination can take various forms, including price-fixing, dividing up markets, bid rigging, or restricting the output of goods and services.

Fines and penalties are significant and whilst currently any cartel conduct identifiable with any individual constitutes a civil offence under the Commerce Act 1986, from April 8, cartel conduct will also constitute a criminal offence where imprisonment and/or fines will apply. Businesses will also be subject to the new criminal regime, and will face criminal fines equal in value to those which may currently be imposed under the civil enforcement regime. If you require further information on this topic, please contact RTANZ commercial legal partners, Wynn Williams.

Over the week of February 22, truck drivers and RTA representatives came together at towns and cities around the country to recognise National Truck Driver Appreciation Week (NTDAW).

Supported by NZ Truck & Driver magazine and The Rock radio station, hundreds of drivers enjoyed some well-deserved barbecue food, drinks, giveaways and even (at some venues) voluntary health and wellbeing checks, courtesy of the RTF and the association.

RTA staff hosted NTDAW events at Invercargill, Dunedin, Glasnevin (North Canterbury) in the south, with Taranaki and Ohakea featuring in the north. CVST and Waka Kotahi NZTA representatives, along with RTA life members and supporters, came along for a chat – with some proving to be dab hands on the grill. Thanks to everyone who came together to make the week a success and to say “job well done” to the guys and girls behind the wheels of heavy industry. T&D Truck & Driver | 91

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TD31351 TD30811

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When your name’s Golden and your company’s called Golden Contracting, it seems only right that when Mack puts out out a 100 Years Golden Anniversary Super-Liner – in gold – you should get one. And so it is, with this new 6x4 tractor unit now in work for the Silverdale operator. It has a 685hp MP10 engine, an mDrive AMT and Mack 2370B diffs on air suspension. The factory paint was given a premium finish in Brisbane, with custom detailing, signwriting and artwork added by Truck Signs in Mt Maunganui. Extras include customised 100 Years leather seats, a customised King Bars bullbar, a 40-litre fridge, 24-inch TV/DVD and microwave.

COVID, FUSO both play leading roles

C

s.

.

TD31351 TD30811

d

OVID-19 CRASHED THE NEW ZEALAND NEW truck market again in February… unsurprisingly.

There was little comfort in the fact that the 321 total of new truck registrations in the overall market (4.5 tonnes to maximum GVM) for the month was 26 up on January’s disappointing tally – and also narrowly topped February 2020’s total.

But, keeping it real, in comparison to the alltime best February sales, achieved in 2019, the February 2021 figure was 68 trucks and 17.5% behind that 389-truck milestone.

Likewise, the 616 total registrations for the first two months of this year were 11.74% behind 2020’s 698 at the same point – and almost 23.5% behind 2019’s record.

NZ Transport Agency registration statistics show that the heavy trailer market continued to be pretty similar to the start of 2020 – the 105 February registrations were actually four up on the same month last year, two less than February 2019…but 16 down on the alltime best February registrations.

The 206 trailer registrations for the first two months of 2021 were just 13 behind last year’s total at the same point and 17 behind 2018’s alltime record.

In the overall 4.5t-maximum GVM truck market, FUSO (126/66) was again best for the month...and thus the year to date. It headed longtime market leader Isuzu (116/61) for the second consecutive month – claiming a 20.5% YTD market share. Following in the 2021 standings was Hino (86/50) and Kenworth (40/15), while Volvo (37/23) edged ahead of Mercedes-Benz (35/17) for fifth.

Scania (31/19) moved up into seventh ahead of Foton (23/10) and Iveco (23/11) in 8th-equal. DAF (22/10) dropped one spot to round out the top 10.

In the 3.5-4.5t GVM crossover segment, Fiat (60/32) raced further into the lead, way ahead of Mercedes-Benz (10/4), Volkswagen (6/0), Renault (5/2),

Peugeot (4/2) and Ford (2/2).

In the 4.5-7.5t segment, FUSO (66/36) jumped further ahead of Isuzu (42/19), with Mercedes-Benz (23/12) retaining third. Hino (16/9) moved into fourth, ahead of Hyundai (14/7), which edged ahead of Foton (13/5).

In the 7.5-15t class, Isuzu (49/28) continued to open up its lead – although well short of the 50.7% market share (and 71 registrations) it achieved at the same point last year. Hino (36/21), FUSO (27/13), Foton (10/5), Iveco (6/3), UD (4/2), Hyundai (3/2) and DAF (1/1) followed, in that order.

In the small 15-20.5t GVM category, Hino (13/8) led clearly at the end of February, ahead of FUSO (6/2), Scania (5/4), and Mercedes-Benz (4/2).

And in the tiny 20.5-23t division, FUSO (3/2) remained the only manufacturer to register any vehicles.

While Kenworth’s (40/15) great start to the year in the 23t-max GVM premier division slowed in February, its 15 registrations for the month were still enough to see it retain the lead, with 40 sales.

Volvo (37/23) remained in second place, while Scania (26/15) moved into third – clear of FUSO and Isuzu (both 24/13), these two again tying (for 4th-equal). Hino (21/12) moved up a place into sixth, ahead of DAF (20/9) – down from third in January.

UD (14/5) remained 8th, ahead of Mercedes-Benz (8/3) and MAN and Sinotruk (both 7/6) were 10th-equal.

In the heavy trailer market, No. 1 Patchell (27/11) retained its lead, ahead of Fruehauf (21/11). Roadmaster (17/9) moved up into third at the expense of Domett (14/5).

After a three-way tie for fifth last month, MTE (10/4) again tied with TMC (10/4) for 5th-equal, while Transport Trailers (9/6) moved up a place into seventh. Freighter (8/2) dropped to 8th-equal alongside TES (8/6) and Transfleet (8/5). T&D Truck & Driver | 93

Silverdale’s Neville Brothers has added this new DAF Euro 6 FAT truck and trailer tipper unit to its fleet. The sleeper cab 6x4 has a 530hp MX-13 engine and a ZF TraXon AMT. It works all around the greater Auckland region.

23,001kg-max GVM

4501kg-max GVM

Brand FUSO ISUZU HINO KENWORTH VOLVO MERCEDES-BENZ SCANIA FOTON IVECO DAF UD HYUNDAI MAN FIAT SINOTRUK WESTERN STAR FREIGHTLINER INTERNATIONAL MACK SHACMAN VOLKSWAGEN Total

2021 Vol 126 116 86 40 37 35 31 23 23 22 19 17 9 7 7 5 4 4 2 2 1 616

% 20.5 18.8 14.0 6.5 6.0 5.7 5.0 3.7 3.7 3.6 3.1 2.8 1.5 1.1 1.1 0.8 0.6 0.6 0.3 0.3 0.2 100.0

February Vol % 66 20.6 61 19.0 50 15.6 15 4.7 23 7.2 17 5.3 19 5.9 10 3.1 11 3.4 10 3.1 8 2.5 9 2.8 6 1.9 4 1.2 6 1.9 2 0.6 2 0.6 0 0.0 0 0.0 2 0.6 0 0.0 321 100.0

3501-4500kg GVM

Brand FIAT MERCEDES-BENZ VOLKSWAGEN RENAULT PEUGEOT FORD Total

2021 Vol 60 10 6 5 4 2 87

% 69.0 11.5 6.9 5.7 4.6 2.3 100.0

February Vol % 32 76.2 4 9.5 0 0.0 2 4.8 2 4.8 2 4.8 42 100.0

4501-7500kg GVM

Brand FUSO ISUZU MERCEDES-BENZ HINO HYUNDAI FOTON IVECO FIAT VOLKSWAGEN Total 94 | Truck & Driver

2021 Vol 66 42 23 16 14 13 9 7 1 191

% 34.6 22.0 12.0 8.4 7.3 6.8 4.7 3.7 0.5 100.0

February Vol % 36 37.5 19 19.8 12 12.5 9 9.4 7 7.3 5 5.2 4 4.2 4 4.2 0 0.0 96 100.0

In the heavy trailer market, No. 1 Patchell (27/11) retained its lead...

7501-15,000kg GVM

Brand ISUZU HINO FUSO FOTON IVECO UD HYUNDAI DAF Total

2021 Vol 49 36 27 10 6 4 3 1 136

% 36.0 26.5 19.9 7.4 4.4 2.9 2.2 0.7 100.0

February Vol % 28 37.3 21 28.0 13 17.3 5 6.7 3 4.0 2 2.7 2 2.7 1 1.3 75 100.0

15,001-20,500kg GVM

Brand HINO FUSO SCANIA MERCEDES-BENZ IVECO MAN DAF ISUZU UD Total

2021 Vol 13 6 5 4 2 2 1 1 1 35

% 37.1 17.1 14.3 11.4 5.7 5.7 2.9 2.9 2.9 100.0

February Vol % 8 42.1 2 10.5 4 21.1 2 10.5 1 5.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 5.3 1 5.3 19 100.0

20,501-23,000kg GVM

Brand FUSO Total

2021 Vol 3 3

% 100.0 100.0

February Vol % 2 100.0 2 100.0

Brand KENWORTH VOLVO SCANIA FUSO ISUZU HINO DAF UD MERCEDES-BENZ MAN SINOTRUK IVECO WESTERN STAR FREIGHTLINER INTERNATIONAL MACK SHACMAN Total

2021 Vol 40 37 26 24 24 21 20 14 8 7 7 6 5 4 4 2 2 251

% 15.9 14.7 10.4 9.6 9.6 8.4 8.0 5.6 3.2 2.8 2.8 2.4 2.0 1.6 1.6 0.8 0.8 100.0

February Vol % 15 11.6 23 17.8 15 11.6 13 10.1 13 10.1 12 9.3 9 7.0 5 3.9 3 2.3 6 4.7 6 4.7 3 2.3 2 1.6 2 1.6 0 0.0 0 0.0 2 1.6 129 100.0

Trailers

2021 Vol % Brand PATCHELL 27 13.1 FRUEHAUF 21 10.2 17 8.3 ROADMASTER DOMETT 14 6.8 MTE 10 4.9 TMC 10 4.9 TRANSPORT TRAILERS 9 4.4 FREIGHTER 8 3.9 8 3.9 TES 8 3.9 TRANSFLEET JACKSON 6 2.9 CWS 4 1.9 EVANS 4 1.9 LILLEY 4 1.9 4 1.9 MILLS-TUI TIDD 4 1.9 COWAN 3 1.5 FAIRFAX 3 1.5 KRAFT 3 1.5 MAXICUBE 3 1.5 SDC 3 1.5 HAMMAR 2 1.0 LUSK 2 1.0 MTC EQUIPMENT 2 1.0 SEC 2 1.0 MAKARANUI 1 0.5 OTHER 24 11.7 Total 206 100.0

February Vol % 11 10.5 11 10.5 9 8.6 5 4.8 4 3.8 4 3.8 6 5.7 2 1.9 6 5.7 5 4.8 4 3.8 3 2.9 2 1.9 1 1.0 2 1.9 2 1.9 0 0.0 1 1.0 1 1.0 2 1.9 3 2.9 1 1.0 1 1.0 2 1.9 1 1.0 0 0.0 16 15.2 105 100.0

Register your interest for Exhibitor space at bombaytruckshow@gmail.com

TD31374

February 12th 2022 Bombay Rugby Club

S. Chand Transport hauls general freight around the upper North Island with this new UD Trucks CG32-460AS 8x4 curtainsider truck and trailer unit. Fruehauf built the truck and trailer bodies.

This is the first of two new Kenworth T610SARs added to Carleys Transport’s fleet in Te Kauwhata. The 6x4 tipper has a 600-615hp Cummins X15, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox, Meritor 46-160 diffs, a Transfleet alloy bin and tows a matching five-axle trailer.

96 | Truck & Driver

Golden Bay Cement has added this new Volvo FH16 8x4 tractor unit to its operation – customising it in conjunction with TR Group and MTD Trucks. It has a 600hp engine, an I-Shift AMT, dynamic “turning” headlights and Volvo’s active safety system.

Blenheim operator Steve Vanderley has put this new Iveco Stralis AS-L 6x4 tractor unit to work in Mainfreight colours, running in front of a curtainsider B-train or a container skeletal. It has a 560hp Cursor 13 engine, a Eurotronic AMT and Meritor MT23155 diffs and is 90-tonne rated.

Southland’s DT Kings Transport has added this new International 9870 R8 LRS livestock unit to its fleet, operating out of Otautau and working all around the South Island. The 8x4 has a 580hp engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual transmission and Meritor 46-160 diffs and has a Modern Transport Trailers five-axle trailer, and Delta stock crates.

Brightwater-based A.C. Palmer & Sons has added this new Kenworth T410 to its fleet, carting containers in the Nelson region. Min Wells drives the 8x4, which has a PACCAR MX 510 engine and AMT.

Truck & Driver | 97

Tokoroa operator Mike Giles has put this new Kenworth T659 to work hauling logs in central North Island. The 8x4 has a 600-615hp Cummins, an 18-speed manual Roadranger and 46-160 diffs on AirGlide suspension. The log gear and the five-axle trailer were built by Evans Engineering.

TD30900

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98 | Truck & Driver

Otorohanga’s Main Road has put this good-looking Volvo FH750 dropside tipper on the road, carting bulk loads throughout the North Island. The 8x4 has a 750hp D16 engine, I-Shift AMT and the OCSAFE+ safety and visibility package. It has a Domett body, biXenon headlights, a factory bullbar and airbrushing work done by Truck Signs.

Auckland’s NZ TT Concrete has put one of the country’s first Chinese-built Shacman trucks on the road. The 8x4 has a Cummins engine, an Eaton AMT, a telematics system, reversing camera, lane-change warning system, tyre pressure monitoring and disc brakes all around.

This new Iveco Trakker 6x4 tipper carts aggregate around the Marlborough region for Blenheim’s Bryant Earthworks. It has a 500hp Cursor 13 engine, a Eurotronic 12-speed transmission and Iveco diffs. It has a livedrive PTO, super-singles and a reversing camera.

Truck & Driver | 99

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Truck & Driver | 103

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Wood chip

Feed Seed Grain

Fertiliser

Sawdust Unloading bulk materials horizontally in less than a minute, this trailer will get you down the road and unloaded safer, and faster than ever before.

Mills-Tui Limited 16–38 Pururu Street, Managakakahi, Rotorua 3015 P 07 348 8039 T 0800 MILLS -TUI (645 578)

Mills-Tui A4 XTREME Advert 2020-12.indd 1

soil metal Gravel sand

mills-tui.co.nz/x-treme

22/12/20 2:49 PM