NZ Truck & Driver May 2021

NZ TRUCK & DRIVER

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| May 2021

May 2021 $8.50 incl. GST

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BIG TEST Fabulous...AND functional | FLEET FOCUS Old bones....new blood | FEATURE Fifty years a truckie

Old bon S es.. new blo . od

FEATURE

Fifty yea rs a truckie

Issue 245

al n o i t c n u f D N A Fabulous...

The Official Magazine of the

ISSN 2703-6278

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AUCKLAND PARTS COUNTER SALES

PARTS WAREHOUSE PERSON

This role involves:

This role involves:

• phone and parts counter sales of heavy duty truck parts

• Monday to Friday plus some rostered Saturday work

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• Position comes with staff benefits and incentive scheme after a qualifying period.

TD31434

For any further information about Southpac and/or our career opportunities, please visit our website: https://spt.co.nz/, or email: info@spt.co.nz

CONTENTS Issue 245 – May 2021 4

Aeolus News

The latest in the world of transport, including…. big freight sector companies back “ambitious” zero emissions plan; NZ’s biggest distribution centre opens; mudguard recycling project launched

22 Giti Tyres Big Test

The just-arrived Kenworth T410 SAR is an exercise in blending new technology and a traditional, old-school North American look.

Similarly, Phil Collinson – owner of NZ’s first T410 SAR – was looking to achieve seemingly opposite needs: Good looks…AND cold, hard, commonsense business practicality

37 Transport Forum

Latest news from the Road Transport Forum NZ, including…..a call for truck drivers to get priority treatment in the COVID-19 vaccination rollout; RTF’s Te ara ki tua Road to success aims to overcome the industry’s employee shortages; Worksafe increases its focus on safe vehicle operation on work sites

46 Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus

Herbert’s Transport has been around for less than 30 years – and in its present form, only since 2018. On the other hand, the history of this Southland company stretches back more than 100 years

FEATURES

81 Apocalyptic….in a good way

A post-apocalyptic scene near Christchurch – with truck wrecks littering the location – is actually all good. It’s been carefully created to provide heavy vehicle recovery operators and emergency services with the chance to practice their techniques

60 Southpac Trucks Legends

You’d think that running a successful livestock transport operation would easily soak up all your time. But somehow OnRoad Transport owner Don Wilson also manages to work tirelessly for the whole industry…at the National Road Carriers Association

63 Castrol Truck Driver Hero

87 New York, Tokyo, Paris….

Auckland

Three and a half years after the world’s first series-produced electric truck was put to work, it’s New Zealand’s turn to get the FUSO eCanter

Like many truck drivers on the East Coast, William Houkamau has come across many crashes while working. But he goes beyond helping those he encounters by chance – answering many more accident callouts as a volunteer fireman

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

67 In It For The Long Haul

including a giant pullout poster of this month’s finalist

After 50 years driving log trucks, as Bob Rauhihi says, he’s got enough stories about “the old days” to fill a book. He shares a few special memories…and a few hard-case ones as well!

95 CrediFlex Recently Registered New truck and trailer registrations for March

77 Lots of fishers…and fishes

COLUMNS

The Southpac Trucks Truckers & Loggers Fishing Tournament attracted a record entry…and saw some pretty good results

91 Road Transport Association NZ Operators need to understand Regional Land Transport Plans that are currently under review – and make their feelings known about them

93 National Road Carriers Association

An open letter to Government authorities: Don’t forget about road freight in your planning

MANAGEMENT Publisher

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

Advertising

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

EDITORIAL Editor

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

Editorial office Phone

PO Box 48 074 AUCKLAND 09 826 0494

Associate Editor

Brian Cowan

CONTRIBUTORS Gerald Shacklock Dave McLeod Olivia Beauchamp Chris Hoult Nigel Hope Ken Holland Ross Henderson Ian McKay The late Dave Carr Collection ART DEPARTMENT Design & Production Luca Bempensante

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

027 233 0090

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

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

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Truck & Driver | 3

NEWS

Big freight sector players back zero emissions plan NINE OF NEW ZEALAND’S LARGEST FREIGHT SECTOR companies, including four major road transport operators and two big-brandname retailers, have joined forces to back a 30-year plan to progressively decarbonise NZ’s freight system.

TIL Logistics Group, Toll NZ, Fonterra and NZ Post are among the companies that are members of the Sustainable Business Council’s Freight Group….

And all have declared their commitment to NZ’s targeted carbon-neutral status by 2050, with an interim 50% reduction by 2030 – and are encouraging others to join them.

The SBC Freight Group, which also boasts Countdown, The Warehouse Group, Lyttelton Port Company, Swire Shipping and Ports of Auckland as members, commissioned the SBC’s Low Carbon Freight Pathway Report.

The report, released at an event hosted by Toll NZ in Auckland last month, is termed “ambitious but achievable” by the council.

Toll NZ executive GM Jon Adams said at the launch that “the decarbonisation of freight is simply the right thing to do and can only come about with collaboration from everyone. Basically, it’s a call to arms.”

Transport Minister Michael Wood, also attending the launch, described the report as an “enormously important work” – adding that “the Government has a serious role to play if we want to achieve the goal of cutting freight emissions in half by 2030.”

The SBC’s Low Carbon Freight Pathway target is to hit that 2030 target – and then achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

The report says that without intervention – from the industry and from Government – these targets “are significantly out of reach, given projected TIL Logistics Group is to trial hydrogen fuel cell trucks in a partnership with Waitomo Group and Hiringa Energy

4 | Truck & Driver

increase in freight demand.”

But it proposes a pathway which “shows that significant gross emissions reductions are possible through a transformative action plan for the sector, that includes not only new technologies but also a mind shift across the heavy freight supply chain.”

It proposes “aggressive and early action by major users and the Government” and says the priorities are – in order: The uptake of biodiesel, hydrogen, battery electric vehicles and a freight mode shift from road to rail and coastal shipping where possible… along with optimising the supply chains through collaboration.

According to the Pathway report: “By 2030, 28% of net emissions reductions can be achieved through options that are readily available. These include improved vehicle efficiencies, telemetrics, BEV, freight-flow optimisation and mode shift.

“These opportunities can be harnessed through improved collaboration across the HV supply chains, a better understanding of customer demand drivers, and Government support to bring some of the required changes forward (eg BEV infrastructure, coastal shipping and rail infrastructure).

“The remainder of emissions will require an increasing uptake of biofuels or hydrogen, especially from 2030. Now is the time to act to remove barriers for those technologies so the scale of transformation is feasible. These barriers include high capital cost for hydrogen vehicles, and failures in the biofuels market.”

The report proposes an overall pathway (involving road, rail and sea transport modes) with three categories of solutions. The first involves fleet optimisation and modal shift: “Ensuring the current fleet is operating as efficiently as possible, minimising freight movement and moving freight in the most efficient way.”

NEWS

One step in the decarbonisation direction already taken by The Warehouse Group is the recent addition of four all-electric home delivery trucks The second is using G2 biofuels in the existing vehicle stock to minimise emissions.

And the third embraces the electrification of transport operations, primarily through battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell EVs. For the road freight pathway, it identifies emissions reduction opportunities including training drivers to make good low fuel use decisions, delivery route optimisation to reduce travelling distances and widening delivery windows – “allowing congestion to be missed and route optimisation enhanced.”

Other measures identified include reducing rolling resistance through fully-inflated tyres and the use of high-efficiency tyres, using anti-idling technology, reducing truck tare weights by lightening the likes of heavy rear doors, improving aerodynamics on long-haul trucks with the use of cowlings and skirts, and increasing carrying capacity “by using larger trucks to move more freight in one go.”

It also suggests “collaborative utilisation between companies to maximise load sizes, minimise empty running and optimise freight modes.” Existing distribution hub utilisation should be maximised to cut last-mile fuel use and freight should be directed to “coastal shipping/rail where possible, rather than on road.”

And, in terms of fuel use, it proposes the use of a 5% blend of G1 biodiesel in all heavy and medium trucks in NZ – evolving to battery electric trucks and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles….or the use of 100% G2 biodiesel in all remaining heavy vehicles.

Each of the nine companies in the SBC Freight Group has initiated its own measures: Adams announced that Toll NZ, for instance, will add two all-electric FUSO eCanters to its fleet in July, servicing the Auckland metro area.

And it is, he says, also reviewing the integration of G2 biodiesel – made from 100% renewable sources, primarily waste and residues – and hydrogen to power its longer distance linehaul movements.

“We are commencing a G2 biodiesel trial with the Ports of Auckland and The Warehouse Group this month. End to end, the collaborative trial will only use G2 biodiesel from the port tug to the customer.

“The great benefit of G2 biodiesel is that we can implement it straight away using our current fleet, as it does not require a change in fuelling operation or engines. Whilst this is an interim solution, it is an important step until other technologies gain traction.”

Tolls says that the use of hydrogen to power long-haul trucks is also being trialled with The Warehouse Group.

Countdown is moving freight outside peak traffic hours and TIL Logistics is to trial hydrogen FCEVs in league with Waitomo Group and Hiringa Energy.

And The Warehouse Group last month put four light-duty electric trucks into service on home deliveries of whiteware, appliances and other large items, in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga and Christchurch.

The company’s chief sustainability officer David Benattar says: “Moving goods to our customers is an essential part of our operations and decarbonising our transport and logistics is one of our business priorities.”

“It is our hope that the introduction of these trucks will accelerate the commercial uptake of electric vehicles because we will be able to demonstrate their viability in operational practice.”

Benattar says the acquisition of the EV trucks, with partial funding from the Government’s Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund, is an investment in the Group’s ongoing transition to electric vehicles – “an integral part of supporting the country’s efforts to decarbonise our economy.

“As one of NZ’s largest retailers, we recognise that we have a crucial role to play, but we cannot do it alone. The deployment of decarbonisation solutions requires collaboration between a wide group of stakeholders to make them economically viable and operationally successful.” T&D

Truck & Driver | 5

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NEWS

NZ’s biggest DC opens

This picture: Racking in the giant distribution centre stretches away into the distance Below: The outside perimeter of the DC is 1.3kms

NEW ZEALAND’S BIGGEST DISTRIBUTION CENTRE – the 13th biggest single-roof warehouse in the world, in fact – has gone into operation in Auckland for Foodstuffs North Island.

The state-of-the-art DC is 100 metres long, covers 77,500 square metres (about the size of eight football fields) and its outside perimeter stretches 1.3 kilometres.

It has the capacity to accommodate almost 80,000 pallets, 14,700 of them on the largest bank of semi-automated satellite racking in NZ – a system that uses remote-controlled shuttles to handle pallets within the racking.

The DC is equipped with an all-electric fleet of lift trucks and forklifts. The 25 reach trucks are fitted with camera and laser technology and reach up to 12 metres high.

Foodstuffs North Island says that products in the DC are picked differently to past practice – now by store brand – and this reduces by 40% the distance each product travels in the DC The company moved into the campus – comprising the DC and a Support Centre – after almost 60 years in its former Mount Roskill base.

Foodstuffs Landing Drive, near Auckland Airport, combines the company’s dry goods distribution, office workspace, events and people development functions onto one single campus for the NZ-owned co-operative.

It was purposebuilt for Foodstuffs North Island by Auckland Airport and leased to the company for an initial 30-year tenure. The company says that the facility has been designed to support its “aspiration to become one of the most customer-driven retailers in the world.

“It’s been key to our plans for three years so it’s really exciting to see our new home come to fruition,” says CEO Chris Quin.

“Foodstuffs North Island has provided nearly 100 years of service to NZers and absolutely everything about this integrated campus is centred around enabling our teams and partners to put our customers first and do the very best job they can, now and in the long-term. As we saw in 2020, keeping our team and customers safe and products on shelf for NZers is key.”

The company’s general manager of membership and property, Lindsay Rowles, says: “This location is absolutely perfect for us. With our fresh and chilled and frozen distribution centres close by, excellent transport links to all of

Auckland and the upper North Island, plus plenty of capacity built into the dry goods DC to accommodate future growth, Foodstuffs Landing Drive will make a huge contribution towards us meeting our customer promises and achieving our customer transformation plans.”

Its environmental credentials include NZ’s largest array of solar power panels (almost 3000 of them) on the DC roof, powering the Support Centre building.

Seven thousand trees or shrubs have been planted around the complex, another 750 trees planted in a Gisborne forest (one for every chair bought to furnish the place), there’s a rainwater harvesting system and there are 36 electric vehicle chargers in the carpark.

The support centre even has a hospitality manager, a concierge to greet arrivals and a demonstration/test kitchen, including an Innovation Hub, where suppliers will showcase their new products – and in-house chefs can trial new recipes, “innovate, evaluate products and carry out technical testing.” There’s also a bar.

Office-based teams have “home bases,” with the choice of a variety of different workspaces: “The desire to work flexibly was already factored into the building design long before the threat of a pandemic had us all working from home,” says general manager, people & culture, Wendy Hammonds.

“Our subject matter expert teams spend much of their week consulting instore and may touch base face-to-face just once a week, so we don’t need to hold a fulltime workspace for everyone.”

The Support Centre also has its own events centre, a flexible space to host anywhere from 10 to 300 people for company functions and meetings. T&D

Truck & Driver | 7

NEWS

Iveco sale to Chinese company called off Iveco, proudly Italian, on display at the IAA Show in Germany in 2018

IN THE WAKE OF PUBLIC CRITICISM IN ITALY, THE giant CNH Industrial says it has ended discussions about selling its Iveco truck business to Chinese company FAW Jiefang.

CNH says though that it will continue “to pursue its existing plans for a spinoff of these activities in early 2022.”

In a statement, the company added: “CNH Industrial believes there are significant opportunities to develop its on-highway business by accelerating the deployment of ever more sustainable transport solutions and infrastructure, in line with the EU’s Green Deal ambitions.”

Two weeks earlier, Italy’s League party leader Matteo Salvini urged the Italian Government to stop Iveco from being sold off to a Chinese company – saying the truckmaker is a strategic asset that has to be

protected.

“It’s a disgrace,” said Salvini: “I hope that the Italian government will do everything to safeguard, defend and protect a strategic asset. If we want to talk about sustainable mobility and ecological transition, we cannot lose a jewel like Iveco.”

Subsequently, Italian Industry Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti – a senior member of the League – said the government would start an inquiry into the possibility of an Iveco sale….and could invoke its so-called “golden powers” that allow it to veto or impose strict conditions on deals involving assets considered of national interest.

Said Georgetti: “It’s safe to say that this matter objectively falls into the ‘golden power’ regulation, so it means we’ll use it.” T&D

Realism needed on climate change measures SOME REALISM NEEDS TO BE INJECTED INTO the climate change debate, Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett believes.

The RTF is “in agreement with the broad mandate” of the Climate Control Commission – and the road transport industry is “committed to the decarbonisation journey that New Zealand must embark on to meet our climate change obligations under the Paris Agreement.”

But, says Leggett, the Forum believes that “instead of setting arbitrary timelines and showing early favouritism towards electric vehicles as the No. 1 solution, we need to pause and look at how this would all work and who would be most affected in the pocket.”

Leggett points out that currently there is no proven fossil-fuel alternative fuel source to power heavy trucks in a NZ context, available in a reliable and affordable form.

Nor is the infrastructure in place to support any alternative fossil-fuel source to power heavy trucks…

And there are no commercially available heavy trucks using alternatives to fossil-fuels, at scale, to replace the current heavy truck fleet needed to 8 | Truck & Driver

keep the NZ economy moving.

“We believe that any policy settings should be framed around there being viable, safe, affordable, widely available alternatives to what is being phased out.

“We want to be cautious about ‘greenwashing’ – that is, promoting alternatives to fossil fuels based on ideology, rather than a real pros and cons assessment of whether or not we are replacing like-for-like and what the impacts will be on people…..not just the environment.”

Adds Leggett: “For the trucking industry, a rush to EVs could mean reduced payloads and consequently, higher costs for moving freight.

Less freight would be able to be loaded on the truck because a lot of the allowable weight to carry would be in the battery.

“The idea should be to get more freight on the trucks so there is less truck traffic on the road – not require more trucks because they can’t carry the freight….because of the weight of the battery. That just isn’t efficient for freight movement, and it forces greater capital costs on transport operators that will ultimately be borne by the consumer – not to mention greater congestion from more trucks on the road.” T&D

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NEWS

Booth’s Transport extends its presence in the Waikato and Auckland regions with its latest acquisitions

Photo Booth’s Transport

Booth’s Transport expands...again PALMERSTON NORTH-HEADQUARTERED BOOTH’S Transport has expanded its presence in the Waikato and Auckland regions with the recent acquisition of Te Awamutu companies Couplands Transport and Trans NZ. The purchase follows Booth’s buyout of Hawke’s Bay operator Tomoana Warehousing in late 2019.

Booth’s executive director Trevor Booth says there are significant synergies in the sale, since both Booth’s and Couplands are family owned and operated and have similar service offerings, company culture, staff values and IT platforms: “We hope these similarities will help make the ownership transition smoother for everyone – from staff through to customers and suppliers.”

Regarding the sale, former co-owner of Couplands Transport and Trans NZ David Coupland says the time felt right: “My wife Rosalie and I have been contemplating our retirement of late and feel now is the right time, so have made the difficult decision to sell our businesses.

“We have built a strong working partnership with Booth’s Transport over

the years, and in recent months we began conversations around how to align the companies.”

Under this new ownership model, Trevor Booth believes all stakeholders will benefit hugely from increased resources, access to a broader network geographically and a wider range of service offerings.

David and Rosalie Coupland will also continue to work alongside the Booth’s Transport team during the hand-over period, and are thrilled that the family involvement will continue, with their daughter Amanda staying on as the Te Awamutu branch manager. The Coupland family involvement goes back to the establishment of the company in 1928.

Despite the upheavals of COVID-19 since Booth’s purchased Tomoana Warehousing, Trevor Booth said recently that adding Tomoana’s warehousing and container-focused services to Booth’s transport portfolio has worked well: “With little previous crossover of customers, we have since been able to take on a series of customer projects that have called on the whole range of services presented under the wider Booth’s Group umbrella.” T&D

EROAD signs big Aussie deal TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY services company EROAD has signed a supply deal with a new customer that will almost double its business in the Australian market.

EROAD says that Ventia, one of the largest essential services providers in Australia and New Zealand, intends to install around 2500 Ehubo 2 devices in its Australian fleet – and a further 1500 in its fleet in NZ. Although EROAD says that no minimum unit commitment is specified, it is expected that the proposed Ehubo unit installations will be completed this year.

Ventia, which has been an existing NZ customer “for a number of years,” has entered into a five-year agreement for a monthly subscription to EROAD’s SaaS products.

Ventia specialises in “the longterm operation, maintenance and management of critical public and private assets and infrastructure for corporate and government clients across a broad range of sectors.”

EROAD entered the Australian market in 2018 and has been building its brand on the back of regulatory reform and by the end of last year was providing monthly subscriptions to small-tomedium customers with 2625 connected units.

EROAD believes the Australian market has a remaining short to medium term enterprise pipeline of 15,000 to 20,000 connected vehicles.

“EROAD is looking forward to working in partnership with Ventia to deliver best safety outcomes” says EROAD CEO Steven Newman.

Ventia’s group chief executive officer Dean Banks says: “Safety and health, above all else, is our number one priority at Ventia. We are delighted to enter this strategic partnership with EROAD, which will enhance our ability to improve safety for our people, our clients and the communities we operate in.” T&D Truck & Driver | 11

NEWS

Jamie jumps in an Actros

Repeat Supercars champ Jamie Whincup welcomed the new Merc tractor unit to the Red Bull Ampol team....getting behind the wheel of the Actros for a quick drive SEVEN-TIME AUSSIE SUPERCARS champion Jamie Whincup has swapped his Red Bull Ampol Racing Holden for a new MercedesBenz Actros.

Whincup IS retiring from fulltime racing after this season. And he DOES have a multicombination heavy vehicle licence….

But this was a strictly temporary switch. He was on hand when the team collected the keys to the Actros, which will pull the team’s transporter to all of the Australian race meetings this year – carrying his car and that of team-mate (and 2016 champ, and current series leader) Shane van Gisbergen, plus their spares and the team’s tools and equipment.

And he took the opportunity to take the tractor unit for a quick drive, coming back impressed –

not so much with the 625-horsepower of the Merc (still short of the “635hp-plus” of his racing Holden), nor even its 3000Nm of torque….

More so with the state-of-the-art tech on board, including MirrorCam, a digital dash, Predictive Powertrain Control and active emergency braking: “The cab is a real standout.

It’s really impressive how much of the technology you see in Mercedes-Benz cars is also in these trucks,” he says.

“These screens and the touch controls on the steering wheel are excellent, because it’s really easy to keep on top of everything.”

Whincup said of Daimler Trucks’ involvement with the team: “We always want to work with the leaders in each field and it’s clear that Daimler Trucks is a leader with advanced trucks like this

Actros,” he says.

He says he’s hoping to get a longer run in the Actros on the way to one of this year’s meetings – joining experienced transporter driver Dave Lewin. T&D

CablePrice makes Nelson a full Daimler Trucks dealership SOUTH ISLAND DAIMLER TRUCKS DEALER CablePrice has taken another step in the development of its Mainland network of branches.

The company’s Nelson’s branch has become a full Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner and FUSO trucks dealership – and the region’s official Mercedes-Benz van service and parts dealer.

CablePrice MD Aidan Mahony says that since taking on the South Island representation for Daimler Trucks, “we’ve seen exceptional interest coming from the Nelson region.

“For us to ensure that our customers receive the best possible aftersales service and support for these premium products, it became appropriate that we expand to include service and support into our existing Nelson operation.”

The branch, located on a high-profile industrial site in Stoke, has had its 12 | Truck & Driver

workshop expanded to cater for full-length truck and trailer combinations, buses and vans – and the roof raised to accommodate heavy-duty lifts. It also has a redesigned site layout with extra yard space, and the branch has employed a team of qualified Mercedes-Benz technicians – and added the latest diagnostic equipment and tooling to cater for the Daimler brands.

Like all CablePrice branches, the Nelson operation covers everything from scheduled servicing and routine maintenance to general repairs and 24/7 roadside assistance – supported by a fully-stocked parts department.

Says Mahony: “The addition of truck and light commercial to our Nelson operation further strengthens our South Island footprint, while providing Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, FUSO – and Mercedes-Benz van – customers with the added assurance that one of CablePrice’s six South Island branches is never far away.” T&D

NEWS The four-strong female team at Transport Repairs Blenheim: From left – Shavaughn Baker, Steph Foulsham, Tori Armstrong and Kayla O’Donoghue

Gender equality in Blenheim GENDER EQUALITY IS AS-YET UNUSUAL IN THE ROAD transport industry, but Transport Repairs Blenheim is leading by example.

Of the eight-strong staff, four are women – branch manager Steph Foulsham, parts interpreter Kayla O’Donoghue, service adviser Tori Armstrong and apprentice mechanic Shavaughn Baker...making for a perfect 50/50 ratio.

Steph took on the role knowing she would be the first woman branch manager in the company and also knowing it would bring her some challenges.

She admits that when former general manager Mike Webster asked her how she’d feel about taking over the branch she instantly felt nervous: “All of the other branch managers are male – and diesel mechanics by trade. Though I’ve worked in this industry for nearly six years, my qualifications and training are in accounting.

“But with the support of Mike and the other TRL managers, I decided to give it a go.

“While it brings challenges, they are ones I enjoy and I feel I can bring something a little different to the group – both from being a woman and with my accounting background.

“Customers have been pretty good about the situation, and the staff have adapted to it well. And though I am the first female branch manager, I’m sure I won’t be the last!”

Last December Kayla joined the branch, followed by Tori a week later. Both have settled in well to their new positions and like the challenge of making their own paths in the male-dominated industry.

Steph has nothing but positive words about them: “Both Kayla and Tori are hard workers and have loads of potential inside the company – I just keep my fingers crossed no other branches want them!”.

The most recent addition, apprentice Shavaughn applied for the position online and was put through multiple interviews and tests before making the short list to face the interview panel. There, she really stood out, says Steph: “She radiated motivation, knowledge and commitment.

“We were after someone who sees Transport Repairs as their future – someone who is motivated to study and work, and someone who held good knowledge of the industry and vehicles. I felt quite proud to be the only branch

to have a female apprentice and I have no doubt she is going to succeed with us: I’ll feel even more proud if she can do that in our branch and under our leadership.” T&D

Carbon-neutral trucks must have EC support TRUCKMAKERS AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS HAVE joined forces to push for the establishment of 11,000 charging points for electric trucks across the EU by 2025 – rising to 42,000 by 2030.

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and Transport & Environment (T&E) called on the European Commission to give urgency to the deployment of charging infrastructure in its member countries…

That, it says, is essential if the Euro road transport industry is to achieve the environmental targets mandated by the Commission in its Green Deal plan, requiring road freight transport to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

EC action is needed urgently, says the ACEA, “given that there are currently close to zero truck-specific charging stations in operation…”

Also required by 2025, it says, are 300 or more hydrogen refuelling stations suitable for heavy-duty vehicles – increasing to around 1000 before 2030.

The ACEA wants to see binding targets for infrastructure in all EU member states to ensure seamless cross-border operations: “This is urgent and crucial to encourage professional transport operators to make a swift transition to zero-emission vehicles.”

ACEA says the Commission must address these specific needs…. ensuring that charging and refuelling is possible at truck depots, logistics hubs, public sites in urban areas and along highway corridors. T&D

Truck & Driver | 13

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NEWS The Grey Ghost, a K125CR, was the first truck off the Kenworth assembly line, in 1971

Kenworth Oz clocks 50 KENWORTH HAS BEEN CELEBRATING THE 50 TH anniversary of its first Australian-made truck.

Since that K125CR cabover – long since dubbed the Grey Ghost and now, fully restored, on show in the Kenworth Dealer Museum in Alice Springs – 60 models and 70,000 trucks have been built at Kenworth’s Bayswater, Victoria plant.

A celebration at Bayswater in March to mark the 50-year milestone was attended by government officials and Cabinet Ministers (including Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg), industry partners and suppliers and factory staff.

PACCAR Australia managing director Andrew Hadjikakou paid tribute to the foresight of those who first brought Kenworth to Australia and those responsible for establishing the Bayswater plant – describing its development as a defining moment for the Australian road transport industry.

“We are extremely proud of this achievement and honoured that the Treasurer and his colleagues have joined us to show their support for our industry and for PACCAR. “The company’s success has been underpinned throughout by an unwavering commitment to the manufacturing of quality trucks designed specifically for Australian conditions.

“Today, the workforce behind each truck is measured in the thousands – an extended family of exceptional employees, dealers and suppliers that span the nation.

“Not everything has changed though. Each Kenworth is still specifically

application-engineered for its intended task and the desire to build the world’s best trucks still inspires and unites us.”

Hadjikakou added that fostering a culture of innovation and investing heavily in next-generation technologies had Kenworth rise to every challenge over the 50-year journey. They included the removal of import tariffs, soaring fuel costs, economic downturns, global recessions, dimensional changes, emission reductions and, most recently, a pandemic demanding changes to the production line to protect the workforce and maintain supply of trucks to the essential transport industry. T&D Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg puts the finishing touches to another new Kenworth

When will frontline truckies get vaccinated?

A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FROM COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins on where frontline truck drivers rank in New Zealand’s vaccination priorities has yielded only a “somewhat disappointing” response, says Road Transport Forum CEO Nick Leggett.

Leggett says that a letter to Hipkins in January resulted only in a pro forma letter, received in March, directing “us to government websites about the vaccines and the Public Service Commissioner’s guidance for public sector agencies and staff regarding the vaccination, as it is not mandatory.”

And he adds: “Our industry is keen to understand when its frontline

workers – mainly truck drivers – might be in line for a vaccination and whether they will have priority over the general population, given their importance in keeping the supply chain running.

“Many truck drivers interact with the border – at ports and airports – in the course of their daily work. We believe as such, they should be among the first groups to be vaccinated.”

Adds Leggett: “We aren’t trying to jump the queue – merely pointing out the situation truck drivers are in every day and asking for due consideration of that.” T&D Truck & Driver | 15

NEWS

Volvo FM gets good design gong Volvo says its design team set out to create “the best mobile office in the industry”

THE NEW VOLVO FM HAS WON A PRESTIGIOUS international design prize – the Red Dot Award 2021’s Product Design category for commercial vehicles.

Volvo says that it designed the new FM “with an uncompromising purpose: To be the optimal work tool for a wide range of transport assignments, with the driver always the primary focus.”

Its development followed extensive surveys and customer interviews, “which confirmed the importance of the driver’s contribution to transport companies’ profitability and image. The design team therefore set out to design the best mobile office in the industry, resulting in a versatile truck that is agile, spacious and, most importantly, safe and comfortable for all drivers.”

Carin Larsson, Volvo Trucks chief designer says that “by purposeful design of the exterior, interior and user experience, we are improving the daily lives

of our drivers and keep our society running.”

Improvements in the new FM include a spacious new cab and improved visibility by using a lowered door line, new rear-view mirrors and an optional passenger corner camera that gives a complementary view of the side of the truck. It can also be specced to return “significant fuel and CO2 savings.” T&D

Isuzu Grandmaster awards

Scania NZ further expands network

ISUZU TRUCKS NZ HAS announced the winners of its annual Grandmaster awards, presented to the best-performing dealerships in the company’s nationwide network.

CAL Isuzu Hamilton was named best metropolitan dealer, while Robertson Isuzu, in Palmerston North, claimed the title as the best regional dealer.

Grandmaster award winners are selected on excellence in vehicle and parts sales, service, customer satisfaction, facility standards, commitment to technical training and administration.

Announcing the awards, Isuzu Trucks NZ general manager Dave Ballantyne, said 2020 was “a rather unusual and challenging year,” but across the network the dealers continued to focus on their customers: “Pleasingly, their hard work and dedication meant Isuzu Trucks maintained our title as the leading new-truck brand in the country, which was

SCANIA NEW ZEALAND HAS AGAIN expanded its service dealer network, with two new workshops opening in Whangarei and Gisborne.

The Whangarei site was the previous CablePrice workshop for Northland. It will now be operated by Scania NZ and has been rebranded.

The Gisborne site is the location of the new, authorised Scania service dealer for the region – East Coast Heavy Diesel and Machinery.

Both sites offer a full suite of service, parts and afterhours support.

Scott Hale, director of East Coast Heavy Diesel and Machinery, says the company is delighted to come into the Scania stable and looks forward to maintaining the make’s high professional standards and customer-focused service.

Scania NZ managing director Mattias Lundholm assures Scania customers of a seamless transition of service as the centres come under the Scania brand: “Scania’s renowned quality customer service remains our top priority. We are very pleased to be able to extend our service offering by adding these key locations to the Scania network.” T&D

16 | Truck & Driver

a remarkable achievement considering the uncertainty COVID-19 considerations forced on the industry.

“Our key dealerships performed above and beyond, but there were two in particular which went that bit further. For their efforts, they have been recognised as Grandmaster winners for 2020.”

Ashok Parbhu, Cal Isuzu dealer principal, said his team was “humbled to receive this recognition, which has been achieved by a truly dedicated sales, parts and service teams. Without the support that these teams provide to our customers, we would not have achieved this award for the seventh consecutive year.’’

Terry Kurvink, dealer principal of Robertson Isuzu, was similarly happy: “I am extremely proud of our people. Their commitment and efforts are reflected in what we were able to achieve in such a challenging year.” T&D

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NEWS

Fonterra is a key supporter of the recycling project, each unit in its huge fleet of milktankers – like this one, with its original guards – equipped with a dozen or more mudguards

Plastic guards get recycled A COLLABOR ATION BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND manufacturers and transport operators will save hundreds of plastic truck mudguards from going to landfill this year.

The project, led by truck and trailer manufacturer Rhino Manufacturing in Rotorua, will see the company’s used mudguards repurposed as NZ’s first recycled plastic truck mudguards. It says that the recycled units perform well in terms of strength and colour consistency, and meet the necessary industry requirements.

Rhino Manfuacturing GM Will Samuel says the project has taken a year from initial concept, through prototypes, to hitting the road on trucks across the country: “We are absolutely thrilled with the development of this innovative and sustainable product that will go some way to helping the freight industry reduce its carbon emissions.

“It’s a really small step, but it’s an important one...and it goes to show how a bit of creative thinking can start making a difference.

“It’s also a cost-effective solution for trucking companies, as the recycled mudguards are the same price as new guards.

“We’ve been blown away by the support and feedback from the industry and believe that this is just the start of the potential for this product and process,” he adds.

The first operator to use the recycled guards is TR Group. National sales manager Shane O’Grady says that TR has a strong commitment to sustainability and the recycled mudguards are a “no-brainer: We are always looking for innovative solutions to help us reduce waste and Rhino has really stepped up to the plate.

“We are also returning our own used guards for recycling so it’s great to see the finished product back on our trucks, having come full circle.”

Fonterra is one of the largest contributors to the recycling effort – with hundreds of milktankers on the road and over a dozen mudguards on each one...and has been a key partner in getting the product off the ground.

Fonterra national parts and warranty manager Guy Cooper says Fonterra had started looking at its own recycling options, but found the Rhino scheme fitted ideally: “We liked the fact that we know our old guards are being completely repurposed for the same purpose. It’s a great example of

a circular economy.”

Vision Plastics manages the supply of plastic and the recycling process and GM Steve Lewis says though plastics can sometimes unjustly get a bad name, the project demonstrates that companies can cost-effectively achieve environmental benefits.

Trucking companies can return their used Rhino guards for no charge and shipping may also be covered, depending on proximity to specialist plastic recycling centres. T&D TR Group’s Shane O’Grady (left) and Rhino Manufacturing GM Will Samuel with handfuls of the powder used in the recycled plastic truck mudguards, like those fitted on a TR Group truck

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18 | Truck & Driver

Mills-Tu

NEWS

Hillary heads Hiab sales BUSINESS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST Hillary Naish has been appointed Hiab New Zealand national sales manager by TRT. Naish will lead business growth plans across all the Hiab equipment brands.

And TRT says that the appointment supports its “continued focus on growth” for the Cargotec range of products – including HIAB cranes, ZEPRO and DEL tail lifts, JONSERED and LOGLIFT log cranes, MOFFET forklifts and MULTILIFT hooklifts in the construction, transport and marine industries.

Bruce Carden, TRT’s director of innovation and sales, says Hillary’s appointment confirms the company’s commitment to support new and existing Hiab customers and their assets for the long term: “From the time TRT became the Cargotec distributor in late 2018, we have been committed to the success of the Hiab brands and equipment in NZ and we have developed a team with a depth of knowledge and a nationwide service agent network to support this.”

Naish, originally from Hamilton, has returned from a career in Australia, to be home with his grown family.

Starting his career as a design engineer, he has naturally progressed to business growth and development roles – among them commercial manager for the Chiefs Super Rugby franchise and in the automotive

industry for Volkswagen NZ. Naish says his new role presents an exciting challenge: “The strength of the Hiab brands and the customer relationships TRT has developed in its short time as the distributor provide the ideal platform for the next phase of growth for the brand in NZ. With an experienced, dedicated and knowledgeable team to support me, I look forward to meeting with customers in the coming months.” T&D

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Fabulous...AND Story Brian Cowan Photos Gerald Shacklock

22 | Truck & Driver

f

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BIG TEST

The Eden Haulage T410 SAR is looking fabulous – and so too is Aoraki/Mount Cook – as one of New Zealand’s newest Kenworths goes by Lake Pukaki

Truck & Driver | 23

At around 41 tonnes all-up, the MX-13 is totally untroubled by the challenges of the Lindis Pass

OKAY, SO YES – THIS IS A TEST OF A NEW KENWORTH that’s the first of its kind in the country….

But let’s just say upfront that whatever else this T410 SAR is, its immediate impact lies in its looks.

It is, quite simply, spectacular. It’s very, very likely that there’ll be a Best in Show award (probably many) in this truck’s future.

Invercargill operator Eden Haulage has built a reputation for smart-looking units and this month’s test subject is, very clearly, no exception. The 6x4 tractor unit is resplendent in the Eden fleet colours of broad green stripes over a base of Chardonnay Gold.

But not just any old stripes! These ones feature a woodgrain effect...with a handful of the wood-knots containing little black skulls!

It’s the work of airbrush wizard Darren Caulfield of Rotorua’s Caulfield Signs, who also produced the Western gunslinger Daddy’s Girl mural on the back of the cab.

Company owner Phil Collinson says the mural isn’t a representation of either of his daughters (the eldest, Eden, did lend her name to the company). Nor is it regular driver Aaron Callendar’s daughter Kaitlyn – even though over the years she has often helped her Dad out at truck shows.

Both agree though that it is a nod towards their daughters’ fierce protective streaks – and perhaps the fact that Phil’s trucks are seen as his “girls.” Regardless of its origins, the mural is pretty impressive.

The attention to visual detail goes beyond that – as demonstrated in a couple of small yet significant ways. The hinged air vents at the back of the sleeper cab and the backing for the dummy slots either side of the bonnet are normally finished in chrome or stainless steel

ex-factory, but Phil has had them painted.

Where many an operator goes for maximum bling, Phil believes the cluttered shiny stuff doesn’t fit with the image of the Eden Haulage units, and he’d prefer to accentuate Darren Caulfield’s skills instead.

So, square-bonnet Kenworth, detailed pinstriping and scrollwork, the skulls, the mural...this guy’s gotta be a traditionalist to the core, right?

Actually, no. While Phil does appreciate the traditional look of the SAR, it’s actually dry old business practicality rather than aesthetics that mainly dictated its choice ahead of the standard “aero” T410 – or even bigger conventionals in the Kenworth range….

That saw it get the nod for a specific task – an overnight produce run from Invercargill through Central Otago that he set up last year.

The economic and societal upheavals of 2020 had presented Phil with an opportunity to look after businesses in Central Otago that were struggling with a reduced service from their normal freight providers.

Though overall activity by way of visitor numbers was well down, some hospitality and catering businesses in the area were still open – and needed to have fresh produce and clean linen daily. And there was an ongoing demand for general freight into the region.

Coming the other way, Central Otago growers needed a reliable overnight refrigerated service to ensure their produce reached the Invercargill markets – run by MG and Turners & Growers – or the supermarkets, early in the morning.

So the concept of a set run was born, carting the critical fresh and frozen goods, fresh linen and what Phil terms “rats and mice” freight on the outward journey – and returning with fruit and vegetables and linen cages.

Truck & Driver | 25

Main picture: Modest its engine horsepower may be, but the T410 SAR still manages to look mighty impressive on the road Top, from left to right: Kenworth bug matches the Eden Haulage colours....woodgrain effect stripes include knots – that contain skulls!....

Daddy’s Girl mural adorns the back of the cab....even the KW bug on the toolbox glows gold....sure, this is the first T410 SAR in the country, but first impressions are dominated by the Eden Haulage tractor unit’s carefully-created looks

Late in the afternoon the run leaves Invercargill and proceeds via Gore, Tapanui and Rae’s Junction to Roxburgh, then on to Cromwell and Queenstown – returning around 2am via Kingston.

So, what truck to buy? The modest volumes of freight expected to be generated precluded using a high-powered truck, Phil explains: “Sure, it would be nice to have a 600hp Cummins-powered T909 or K200, but it would be like taking a rocket launcher to a gunfight, when all you need is a revolver.

“There’s another aspect too. If you turn up on a run like this with a new T909 customers could think you were charging them over the odds – to be able to afford a big, flash unit, when something more modest would do the job equally well. Buy the correct truck to fit the job, not the other way around” Enter the 6x4 T410 SAR, offering adequate power...and, just as importantly, a set-forward front axle (400mm ahead of the standard T410) allowing a tractor unit and quad-axle semitrailer to fit under a 19-metre length limit. The shorter tractor unit will also make manoeuvring in the restricted areas of orchard packhouses and supermarket loading bays much easier, adds Aaron Callendar.

Most times the unit will be running at an all-up weight of 38 to 40 tonnes...though occasionally it will get up close to its 44t permit.

And, should volumes on the run increase, says Phil, it still offers flexibility: “If in time we hook it to a six-axle B-train, it will still fit under that layout’s length limit.”

26 | Truck & Driver

Only at the peak of the stone fruit season running to Christchurch, or when it’s running double shifts carting frozen meat from Invercargill to Mosgiel, will the truck be close to its maximum permitted weight, he adds: “Because of that I can see it lasting forever. Replacement short or long blocks for the MX-13 engine are not expensive, so we have already made the decision with the two DAF 50MAX units that we run that when they reach around 900,000kms the engines will be replaced by brand-new crate units.

The same is likely to be the case with the SAR.” An unabashed fan of cheesy humour, Phil has long adorned the trailers of his fleet with Mr Potato Head-type characters spouting groan-inducing quotes – one early example was a black, helmeted figure tagged as Darth Tater saying: “Use the ‘forks’, Luke.” The potato connection derives from one of Eden Haulage’s early (and still major) clients, Southland potato and carrot grower Pyper’s Produce.

Over the years the characters have morphed into produce-themed representations of various bands, including Kiss, AC/DC and Guns ‘n’ Roses, along with mangled lines of song lyrics, among them being Gene (Per)Simmons declaring: “I was made for feeding you, baby,” rather than the Kiss original’s “I was made for lovin’ you, baby.”

The trailer for the SAR will feature Jimmy Barnes, along with relevant lyrics. However, at the time of our test it’s still being finished, so the truck is hooked to a white Fairfax

quad reefer carrying the logo of Prime Range Meats – another Eden Haulage client.

Because Aaron’s standard run is mainly at night – offering little opportunity for photos to illustrate our test – Phil’s put the SAR on a regular daytime run to Christchurch, while one of the other Eden Haulage units does the new Kenworth’s night run.

So we meet Aaron and the truck at Darlings Fruit packhouse in Ettrick, at the southern edge of Central Otago’s fruit-growing region.

The Darling family have been growing a wide variety of fruit in the area for nearly 60 years, their lineup including apples, pears, peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries and plums. But today, in mid-March, the apple harvest is moving into full gear, and we’re here to pick up a full load of apples destined to be processed into fresh juice by Mill Orchard, near Rangiora.

As the 24 square, wooden bins of fruit are loaded into the trailer, orchardist Stephen Darling tells us that COVID-19 has really put the harvest season under pressure, with the lack of Pasifika migrant pickers pulling the usual numbers right down.

On the other hand, technology rules in the packhouse. We watch, fascinated, as a forklift lowers field bins gently into a channel of slowly flowing water and the newly-picked apples float through to a pair of Compac automated sorters. The NZ-developed machines use a combination of mechanical, electrical and optical sensors to pick each apple up and rotate it,

checking the entire surface for blemishes, scars and less than optimal shape. The required colour balance of the skin (for example, the proportion of red to green) can even be preset to match the most demanding of buyer requirements.

The great majority of the apples that come through the process rated for juice-only and get loaded in the trailer look perfect to eat – a scar here or there, maybe a slight bruise, possibly a bit misshapen, but that’s it.

As we pull out of Darlings Fruit and head up the Clutha River towards Roxburgh, Aaron explains that the cargo doesn’t need constant temperature monitoring. Though it’s a clear, bright day, there is also a touch of autumn in the air and the early morning temperature has been around eight degrees. The Carrier fridge and trailer insulation will keep the apples at a coolstore temperature for the 540-kilometre trip. In the peak of summer the fridge is working constantly, he says Since it’s obviously below its certified limit there’s been no need to put the rig over a weighbridge. He reckons we’re running at something under 41t.

Aaron has packed a wide variety of driving into a 20-years-plus career. He comes from a solid transport heritage, his grandfather having driven one of the first trucks in Dunedin, for a company called Buckley & Spencer, while his father and uncles all made careers as truckies.

Truck & Driver | 27

Top: The Kenworth cruises north over the Pukaki-Ohau Canal, heading for Rangiora via Central Otago

Lower left: Eden Haulage owner Phil Collinson mixed practicality and appearances in the latest addition to his fleet

Lower right: Regular driver Aaron Callendar likes the T410 SAR’s blend of modern tech and North American traditional However, Aaron himself actually started as a motorcycle mechanic in Oamaru, though he soon swapped to driving a van for a local transport company. This morphed into spells driving trucks for several companies, including PBT, Tullochs and Summerland, before a few years with McLellan Freight in Balclutha, carting export meat from regional freezing works.

The job with Eden Haulage was based on a long-standing acquaintance with Phil, he explains: “When we were both doing Invercargill-Dunedin runs Phil and I would pass each other every morning on the road and have a chat on the CB. We’d also see each other at truck shows, and he said if ever I shifted to Invercargill he could have a job for me.

“I eventually did shift there and was doing fill-in work for Allied last year during lockdown when he called me and said he was setting up this Central run. It works brilliantly for me because it means I’m home every day, as opposed to some runs where you regularly have to overnight. That is often part of the deal with driving, but it can play hell with family life and it’s something I want to avoid.”

The route today will take us along SH8 over the Lindis Pass and 28 | Truck & Driver

through the Mackenzie Country to Fairlie, then on to Geraldine and out to SH1. There are a couple of options for this last bit, Aaron reckons: “Ashburton in the late afternoon can be a real nightmare, so occasionally we might go cross-country to meet the main road at Rakaia.”

Having started in Invercargill this morning he’s pretty right for hours, though if he was running out on them he’d generally overnight in the Ashburton area, since the juice run isn’t time sensitive, he adds: “However, more often, when we’re carting out of Darlings the fruit is headed for the Christchurch markets, and then we have a stricter delivery timetable.”

With the highway following the river, the average gradient through Roxburgh, Alexandra and Clyde to Cromwell is gentle...but there are a couple of savage little pinches, one climbing out of Gorge Creek before Alexandra, the other at Clyde. Neither fazes the MX-13. Aaron simply slots the Roadranger down a couple of full ratios and the truck grumbles its way steadily to the top.

At Cromwell, NZ Truck & Driver tester Hayden Woolston takes over for the run through to the Mackenzie. The Lindis isn’t the steepest stretch of highway in the country, but it is a long, steady grind that

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gives a loaded truck no time for a breather. In the ten and a bit kilometres from the beginning of the climb at the Dip Creek bridge to the summit it picks up around 500m in elevation.

And you can’t get a full run at it, because of a tight bend just past the bridge, which we exit at 42km/h in sixth high, with 1300rpm showing on the tacho.

The last stretch to the summit can also be a trap for the unwary.

With the top in sight, it’s easy to miss the subtle steepening of the gradient. Aaron reckons that Hayden might have to drop into the low box, but the MX-13 slogs it out beautifully, holding a steady 1100rpm in fifth low.

Just as deceptive is the downhill run from the Lindis summit towards the Ahuriri River, where a loaded vehicle’s speed can creep up quickly. But, with the stalk for the three-stage engine retarder on its highest setting, the SAR makes simple work of the challenge. The system adds a Jacobs-designed compression brake to an exhaust brake and at 2100rpm produces close to the engine’s peak output in stopping power.

As fitted to the T410, the MX-13 meets Euro 5 exhaust standards and makes 375 kilowatt/510 horsepower at 1600rpm. In the Euro 6 version fitted to the latest DAFs, it revs a bit harder and peaks out at 530hp.

Comparisons with the Detroit DD13 that powered the Freightliner Cascadia tested last month are inevitable, because the performance figures of both are so close they could almost be within the expected variation of readouts from successive dynamometer runs of a single engine.

There are some differences in method – the MX-13’s common rail

fuel delivery system works at a significantly higher pressure, and the engine uses a variable geometry turbocharger, whereas the DD13 plunks for a twin scroll asymmetric unit – but the engineering teams from PACCAR and Daimler Truck have come up with similar results.

Bore and stroke dimensions are very close, the MX-13’s 130mm x 162mm yielding a 12.9-litre capacity (for the DD13 it’s 132mm x 156mm and 12.8 l.). Peak torque is identical, at 2508 Newton metres/1850 lb ft, and the PACCAR engine’s five horsepower advantage exactly matches its extra capacity.

In part, the torque cap of each reflects limits dictated by transmission suppliers, but the broad – and identical – torque spread of both engines (90% of peak from 900rpm to 1600rpm) ensures that their onroad performance with similar weights makes them almost indistinguishable.

One aspect of the Kenworth’s engine/transmission behaviour that requires a bit of concentration is a light accelerator response. As Aaron comments: “When you’re used to a heavier pedal feel it can take bit of practice to match the revs exactly for downshifts.”

It’s said that photographers will often spend weeks camping out to catch a shot of Japan’s Mt Fuji unobscured by cloud. A view of Aoraki/ Mt Cook is equally elusive – the mountain showing itself barely one day in five. We score that one day, the mountain soaring in a clear sky over the cobalt blue of Lake Pukaki.

In common with its aero sibling, the SAR’s cab clearly demonstrates the results of the money spent on its development, being wide and spacious and with a nicely flat floor. The left side of the gently curved fascia is dominated by half a dozen analogue gauges, backing up the six smaller ones that bracket the speedo and

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tacho on the main instrument panel…..

And, if you want more dials, another half-dozen virtual ones can be called up on the big touchscreen to the left of the steering wheel.

Throw in the pleated vinyl door facings and rear wall trim and you end up with what Aaron describes as “a nice blend of a classic American truck, but with modern touches.”

Among these touches are the embossed leather seats and a 42 l. pullout fridge under the bunk. The bunk itself is not huge, the 600mm aero sleeper being the shortest of the cab extensions in the T410 range, but it’s ideal for the times when snow blocks the highways or the occasional overnight is called for on a longer run.

Extra shelving at either end of the bunk adds to the standard minor storage upfront.

Access to the cab is good, with two evenly-spaced steps attached to the big fuel tanks and well-placed grabhandles either side of the door openings. However, because the main mirrors are mounted to the A-pillars, the doors don’t open as wide as they do on other trucks.

32 | Truck & Driver

The mounting method ensures the mirrors remain rock steady no matter what the provocation from the road surface, and they’re designed to offer a handy view between them and the A-pillar, so aiding safety at intersections. The generous width of the cab and the big curved screen make for brilliant forward vision...though the SAR’s short bonnet isn’t visible from inside. Aaron says he uses a crease on top of the bonnet and the top of Kenworth grille bug to position the truck accurately on the road.

The test truck is fitted with an aftermarket blind spot camera, mounted to the top of the left side mirrors and facing backward.

However, when its output is called up on the main display screen the image is reversed, giving the impression it’s showing the right side of the truck and calling for some mental recalibration to understand what’s being shown.

On the move, the SAR impresses us with its dynamic elements.

Ride comfort over patchy sections of highway is wonderful, the steering proves lightish but accurate, and even with the windows partly open wind noise is subdued.

The Fairfax quad trailer uses Carrier refrigeration and sits on

Above, all pictures: The T410 SAR interior presents a mix of traditional North American pintucked vinyl, woodgrain-effect dash, analogue dials and a gearstick for the 18-speed Roadranger manual, with a more modern approach that includes a wide cab, a bunch of fingertip controls and a digital menu in the centre of the dash....plus a digital touchscreen just an arms-length away Below, opposite page: Today’s trailer behind the T410 SAR is a stand-in, while its dedicated quad-axle semitrailer – featuring Aussie rocker Jimmy Barnes and a Mr Potato Head-themed character and caption Below: At Darlings Fruit packhouse, today’s load is apples...and plenty of ‘em ROR air suspension and Bridgestone tyres. Aaron says that it is a lovely trailer to use, with a really light feeling on the fifth wheel and accurate tracking through bends.

Despite agreeing with Phil that a bigger, 600hp model “would be nice,” Aaron is equally on board with the pragmatic aspects behind the SAR’s purchase, and is a particular fan of the MX-13 engine: “I think it is a bit underrated by a lot of people. I’ve driven a lot of the high-powered stuff, and this is not far behind them. The truck is very well suited for the work it normally does. It has more than enough grunt for what we do, handles brilliantly and is really comfortable.

“It also has all that you’d expect from a classic American layout – but at the same time it’s very modern and well thought-out in terms of the minor controls and display screens. If I wanted to be picky,

the pause button on the audio unit is quite small and difficult to reach in a hurry, say when the phone rings. There’s a mute button on the steering wheel, but that doesn’t stop the music, just cuts the volume, so if you’re listening to a podcast (which I do often) and want to go on from where you were, you can miss out.

“One of the few other downsides I’ve found is that when you’re in cruise control and it gets into overspeed the system is quite slow to react with the brakes, unlike the Euro models which are on the case straight away.

“I love my American and big Euro trucks. I don’t have a particular favourite brand, because they all have their good points and bad points. But this one handles everything we ask of it so well that it’s very hard to find fault with it.” T&D

Truck & Driver | 33

Test

HTAYDEN REVOR

I WAS AT THE LAUNCH OF THE NEW Kenworth T410 in early 2019, at a test track outside Melbourne, when the question was asked: Will there be an SAR version of the T410?

The answer from Brad May, Kenworth Australia marketing manager, was “maybe.”

But, he insisted, “there are no current plans.”

Well, I guess it didn’t take long for plans to be put in place! Because here we are, just two years later, testing the first T410 SAR to go on the road in New Zealand – a 6x4 tractor unit, run by Southland-based Eden Haulage.

We meet the new Kenworth in Ettrick, Central Otago, where it’s being loaded with apples to be carted to Rangiora.

I take over the wheel from regular driver Aaron at the Cromwell end of the Clutha Valley – ready for what should be a good test, taking the Kenworth over the Lindis Pass.

The T410 SAR is an impressive looking truck, even with it being one of the smallest in Kenworth’s heavy-duty range, the square bonnet giving it a traditional KW look.

Access into the cab is good, helped by the fact the cab floor is 75mm lower than its bigger brother T610. There’s also a wide-

34 | Truck & Driver

opening door, two steps on the fuel tank that are inclined (so you’re not climbing a vertical face) and grabhandles on each side of the door.

Once inside the 2.1 metre-wide cab the spaciousness is noticeable in comparison with older Kenworths. Understandably, since the majority of the development on these newbreed KWs went into the cab.

The interior finish is a nice mix of traditional Kenworth woodgrain and a newerlook vinyl dash, traditional oldschool gauges and a touchscreen for hands-free phone, navigation and audio controls. It’s very user friendly.

I like that in these new cabs Kenworth has purposely left the dash screws exposed so that it’s easy to get behind the dash if necessary.

The steering wheel has all, any driver will need on it with stereo controls on the left and cruise control on the right, and Kenworth has moved the engine

Hayden Woolston

• SPECIFICATIONS • brake to the right-hand steering column stalk… which is great.

The dash display has all the necessities (ie tacho, speedo, oil and fuel gauges), plus the PACCAR digital information screen.

As I pull out onto the main road, the foot pedals feel well spaced, with plenty of room for your left foot when it’s not busy. The mirrors, mounted on the A-pillars, work well. Together with the bigger side windows they make for great rear vision.

I had thought that the squarer bonnet of the SAR would hamper forward vision, but it doesn’t – it has a nice slope to it.

As we head along the lake north of Cromwell in top gear the forward vision and road positioning is great, using the Kenworth bonnet badge to keep far enough left and the bug deflector to monitor our distance from the centre line. It does help that the roads are nice and smooth – giving us a pleasant ride and very little cab noise.

For the haul up the Lindis, I take the tight bend at the bottom (Dip Creek) at 34km/h in 6th Low, with 1300rpm on the tacho.

On the steepest pinch I downshift into 5th Low, where the PACCAR MX engine settles at 1100rpm and 21km/h – hanging

on well.

I do miss a clean shift on the way up – my fault, not the truck’s…although I do find the throttle quite touchy. I figure I just need more time to get used to it.

The Lindis Pass is now my new favourite drive route – helped by the performance of the 510hp MX 13-litre engine, a forgiving 18-speed Roadranger and an easy soft-pedal clutch.

Coming down the northern side of the Pass, the engine brake works well, holding us back with only minor touches of the service brake needed.

With the Lindis behind us it’s an easy, flat run, where I set the truck in cruise control at 90km/h and drift along nicely.

The truck’s ride and cab noise levels are super, and the steering is positive. So all too quickly we arrive at Omarama and my drive is done.

I’d love to do this drive over and over: It’s not so often that we get to test trucks these days with an 18-speed manual, so it’s a nice novelty for me.

This Eden Haulage T410 SAR is a credit to owner Phil Collinson: He has done a great job making this truck a standout on the roads.

Even better, it’s not hard to come to the conclusion that he has made the right choice with this truck: Even though it has only modest horsepower, it seems well-suited to coping with anything it will encounter in its Eden Haulage working life. T&D

KENWORTH T410 SAR 6x4

Engine: PACCAR MX-13 Capacity: 12.9 litres Maximum power: 375kW (510hp) @ 1600rpm Maximum torque: 2508Nm (1850 lb ft) @ 1000rpm Engine revs: 1450rpm @ 90km/h in 8th High Fuel capacity: 780 litres Transmission: 18-speed Eaton Fuller Roadranger RTLO-18918B manual Ratios: Low L – 14.40

Low H – 12.29

1st low – 8.51

1st high – 7.26

2nd low – 6.05

2nd high – 5.16

3rd low – 4.38

3rd high – 3.74

4th low – 3.20

4th high – 2.73

5th low – 2.28

5th high – 1.94

6th low – 1.62

6th high – 1.38

7th low – 1.17

7th high – 1.00

.86 8th low – 0

8th high – 0.73

Front axles: MFS66-122, rated at 6600kg Rear axles: Meritor RT46-160GP, together rated at 20,900kg Auxiliary brakes: Three-stage exhaust and engine brake Front suspension: Kenworth taper steel, shock absorbers, stabiliser bars Rear suspension: Kenworth Airglide 460 air suspension, shock absorbers, stabiliser bars GVW: 26,500kg GCM: 65,000kg

Truck & Driver | 35

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Truck drivers must be prioritised in vaccination rollout T

by Nick Leggett Chief Executive

TD31518

Road Transport Forum NZ

HE FREIGHT INDUSTRY AND THE New Zealand economy in general require a plan for how we are going to open up and recover from the impacts of COVID-19.

Other countries are moving ahead with COVID-19 recovery plans and NZ needs to follow suit and move past the rapid alert level changes we have recently experienced.

In New South Wales, flareups in Sydney have been contained without a citywide lockdown or closing businesses. Instead, the focus is on lockdowns on the most affected suburbs and limits on gatherings – not banning them altogether.

Here, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence of this kind of planning – or even a way to reduce the huge holdups of freight at the Auckland borders when that city goes into Level 3.

During Auckland’s time in Level 3 recently, truck drivers were queued for up to six hours. This is just totally unacceptable – from a perishable goods, health and safety

or, in the case of livestock operators, an animal welfare point of view.

A group of business leaders has called on the Government to share its planning on a clear path out of COVID-19, given we will be living with it for some years.

As a trading nation, we cannot remain locked off from the rest of the world indefinitely.

NZ business needs to reconnect with critical overseas customers, international students must return and we also need to develop safe travel zones to resume contact with friends and family.

The group wants to assist the Government in its longerterm planning by providing input and expertise into its strategy for virus management. It wants the status of NZ’s near to longterm COVID-19 strategy to be made available beyond Government circles, and, among other things, is calling for a clear explanation of the key metrics, thresholds and milestones officials are tracking to judge the ongoing performance against this strategy over time.

Truck & Driver | 37

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

I think most NZers would agree with the group’s concerns, which include our access to vaccines, who will be getting them (and when), as well as future plans around testing, tracking and tracing, health passports and other technology to manage the vaccine rollout and future community outbreaks.

A future where people and goods can be moved safely is one we desperately need, and the Government’s recent purchase of 8.5 million additional doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is welcome news.

Back in January I wrote to COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins to ask how the Government would be prioritising COVID19 vaccinations for workers in sectors such as road freight, given the transport industry’s importance in keeping the supply chain running….no matter what the alert levels.

The Government announced its COVID-19 vaccination rollout plan on March 10, and at the time of writing I am still awaiting clarification of whether truck drivers are to be included in Group 2 – frontline workers and people living in high-risk settings.

In my opinion, truck drivers definitely qualify as a priority population. They are on our roads at all times of the day and night – day in, day out – delivering essential goods such as food and medicines.

If they are not vaccinated early, the entire transport industry and the wider community will be at risk. I urge the Government to consider

this when deciding who gets vaccinated first.

It doesn’t take much of a crystal ball to see a situation where highrisk businesses start demanding that any workers on their sites also be vaccinated.

In March, Transport Minister Michael Wood and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff announced the $31billion Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) 2021-‘31. Wood said it reflected and built upon the $28bn 2018 package, which focused on developing a rapid transit network, walking and cycling, safety and unlocking growth.

Along with National Road Carriers Association CEO David Aitken, I am disappointed that there is nothing in the plan about road freight, or the infrastructure needed for it to work efficiently.

When you consider how important road freight has been in keeping the country connected since COVID-19 reached our shores a year ago, I had expected vital routes such as the East-West Link to at least gain a mention.

Instead, increased road user charges and payments to the National Land Transport Fund appear to be diverted to prop up walking, cycling and public transport.

It’s about time this Government realised that continually ignoring the sector that moves our economy around will have detrimental consequences for NZ in the longterm. Consumer prices will rise and the costs to our exporters will eat into their already thin margins. T&D

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THETRUCKING DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND

Road to success trainee Betty Heremaia Sola has hit the ground running at Carr & Haslam

Road to success supporting new entrants to the industry

N

E W Z E A L A N D ’ S S HOR TAG E OF T RU C K drivers has led to the development of the Road Transport Forum’s Te ara ki tua Road to success traineeship, aimed at assisting road transport operators to recruit new trainees and overcome the industry’s considerable workforce problems.

The RTF administers Road to success and is working with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) on placing registered job seekers and those affected by COVID-19 with road transport operators.

This is not the only source of trainees however, and any suitable person can sign up for Road to success once matched with a willing employer.

The traineeship lasts a year.

“A huge amount of work has gone into working with both the industry and Government to develop the programme and we believe that over the next five to 10 years it can, if the industry continues to support it, play a major role in helping operators take on new staff,” says RTF chief executive Nick Leggett.

If a trainee is sourced through MSD there will be no administration fee cost to a business employing that trainee. Furthermore, MSD may be able to subsidise approximately one-sixth of a trainee’s wages, as well as providing some financial assistance for the trainee’s work readiness.

A survey of more than 600 operators undertaken by the RTF in early 2020 found that a large number of trucks were parked up because of the lack of drivers.

The Road to success training, which is a mixture of practical and theoretical components, is designed to lead directly to qualifications relevant to the industry. These are in the form of micro-credential qualifications completed online. It also allows recruits to undertake large chunks of training while going about their normal day-to-day jobs.

While a lot of operators already undertake some inhouse or external training, it is largely based on progressing drivers through the various driver licence levels. What Road to success seeks to do is make the industry more appealing to young people starting out on a career, Truck & Driver | 39

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

or those looking to try something new, by offering formal qualifications while they work and earn money.

“The reality for a lot of young people is that they simply do not have the luxury to gain qualifications before they enter the workforce, so it is imperative that as an industry, road transport offers them the chance to both earn a decent wage and work towards qualifications at the same time,” says Leggett.

Betty Heremaia Sola is the first trainee from the Kiwi Can Do course, and the first MSD job seeker placement in the traineeship. She started with Carr & Haslam in Mt Wellington in February, and the team there is already impressed with her attitude and approach to the business of car transportation.

Betty is 21 and lives in Auckland. She heard about Road to success when project co-ordinator Fiona McDonagh attended a careers open day through MSD’s Kiwi Can Do programme. She drives a Class 2 truck with the company’s driver trainer and has begun her online training.

“There are regular check-ins – both in person and via phone and emails,” says Betty.

“They have reminded me many times that they are always there if needed. If I have any concerns about my place of work or am struggling with the micro-credentials, then at any time I can contact them. I appreciate the support they offer; it is very motivational for me.”

Following her experience, Betty urges others to follow her path: “There are so many opportunities in life and if you have the chance to jump at them, then I say jump. I have noticed that truck driving is a very maledominated industry but if I – a 21-year-old woman who is currently training to become a truck driver – can do it, then so can all the other young individuals wanting to.

“Don’t let age, gender and experience intimidate you – we all start somewhere. We don’t get to the top without beginning at the bottom, and that is a lesson within itself.

Through courage and confidence, we can all make it.”

Connor Mose from Whangarei learned about the programme through the company he works for, Mainstream Freight.

“I grew up around trucks from as soon as I could walk, and I have always wanted to be a trucker. I already had a full Class 1 licence and now hold a Class 2. My friends and family are really supportive of this programme – they help me and encourage me to do my best so I can be fast-tracked to my Class 5.”

Connor has been working for Mainstream’s W hangarei depot since July 2020. He 40 | Truck & Driver

G

Fiona McDonagh talking to Grey District mayor Tania Gibson about the Road to success at the Westland’s Inspire to Aspire careers event

undertakes a variety of tasks, from office work to driving and loading.

“I am doing lots of buddy driving with an experienced driver who works for us. I have enjoyed all aspects of the programme as it has been very interesting and I have learnt a few new things.”

Connor says the training is very useful and he can’t wait to put his learning to use when he is driving: “I would love to own my own trucking business. I wouldn’t mind getting into tipper trucks and heav y machinery operating. I would suggest that people who want to start this course come into the course with their eyes and ears wide open – willing to learn and use everything they learn in their everyday lives.

“I have really enjoyed this programme and can’t wait to complete it. It has been an awesome opportunity and I’d like to thank everyone who has supported and helped me.”

Mainstream Freight operations manager Michael Lovell can’t speak highly enough of Connor: “I know his attitude and what his work ethic is like. And I just know I have got a little superstar on my hands.”

Lovell says that Connor already knew a lot of the material in the traineeship microcredentials and for what he didn’t know, he

used his instincts: “He’ll take information on like a sponge and then apply it the next time he goes out. He is willing to learn; he’s willing to take that step further.”

There are, Lovell adds, good reasons why it takes a long time to get the licences needed to be a professional driver: “I personally believe that a truck is a weapon – even a car is a weapon in an uninitiated driver’s hands. And unfortunately, 18-year-olds prove themselves to be idiots behind the wheel.

“Not all of them – it’s just some of them.

You do get those sensible people out there and I think we live in a world that punishes the sensible people for what the stupid people do.

“A programme like this, where you are willing to fast-track the licence process for somebody who wants it badly and is sensible about it, is a good thing,” he adds. “Because otherwise he would have breezed off and done something else – he’d get bored very quickly.

He’d look at six or seven years of his life and end up doing something else.”

RTF now has two staff members, Fiona McDonagh and Caleb Rapson Nuñez del Prado, dedicated to Road to success and operators and potential trainees can find out more about getting involved in the traineeship at www.roadtosuccess.nz T&D

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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Providing dedicated pedestrian routes is a recommended way to separate foot and vehicle traffic on a work site – Supplied by WorkSafe NZ

WorkSafe focuses on safety around vehicles

W

ORKSAFE NZ IS increasing its focus on the use of vehicles at work sites, in response to the large number of vehicle-related fatal and serious injury accidents occurring each year.

Two new pieces of guidance for PCBUs (persons conducting a business or undertaking) in managing vehicle and worksite safety have been released – covering seatbelts at work and site traffic management.

This is important information for all transport operators and RTF has picked out some of the key points. More information, including the complete guidelines are available at www.worksafe.govt.nz Seatbelts at work Workers should wear seatbelts whenever they are using vehicles or mobile plant for work, and there is a seatbelt available. Transport operators are reminded to promote and monitor the use of seatbelts by their workers. There are a number of ways you can do this: • Encourage workers to look out for each other by reminding each other to use a seatbelt.

• Use brightly coloured seatbelts, so it is easier to see when they are being worn.

• Install semi-rigid buckles that sit up from the driver’s seat – getting in the way of the worker until they buckle them. In-cab cameras can be used to monitor seatbelt use too.

• Stress the importance of wearing seatbelts at all times and provide training on how to wear them correctly. Consult and work with staff to overcome any issues they may have with wearing seatbelts.

• Include a seatbelt-wearing policy in your business’ health and safety documents and worker training resources.

Ensure seatbelts and any approved seatbelt modifications are in good working order.

Checking the seatbelt should be part of the daily safety check.

Managing work site traffic Businesses have a duty to keep people safe around vehicles and mobile plant at work sites.

This includes when entering and exiting a work site. Good practice guidelines include the

following: • Working together with other PCBUs where more than one business shares a work site. The PCBUs must work together to manage the risks related to work site traffic, and must consult with their workers when deciding how to manage the risks related to work site traffic.

• Risk management: Hazards must be identified and a risk assessment carried out for each. All reasonably practicable actions must be taken to eliminate or minimise the risks that have been identified.

• Safe work site design: A well-planned and designed work site can reduce the risks to people working near work site traffic. The most effective way of ensuring pedestrians and vehicles can move safely around a work site is to provide separate pedestrian and vehicle traffic routes.

• Plan vehicle routes: Ideally work sites should have a one-way system with separate entry and exit points. This removes the need for vehicles to reverse.

• Keep vehicle routes clear of known hazard Truck & Driver | 43

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

areas: Avoid putting vehicle routes and parking areas near designated hazardous substance storage areas.

• Avoid vehicle routes that cross public parking and pedestrian areas: Where relevant, work site traffic should have separate entry and exit points from the general public.

• Have dedicated parking areas: Parking for workers, visitors, trucks and other vehicles should be located away from busy work areas and traffic routes. Walkways leading to and from parking areas should be separated from vehicles and vehicle routes.

• Provide good visibility and lighting: Work sites should be designed so drivers and pedestrians can always see each other clearly.

• Clearly identify traffic and activity zones: Areas designated for certain activities should be clearly marked using signs, colour-coded road or floor markings and barriers.

• Speed: Reducing vehicle speed is an important part of work site vehicle safety.

Speed limits should be based on the individual

circumstances of your work site but should remain within industry-accepted levels (for example, 10km/h in trucking yards and 30km/h on farms).

• Coupling and uncoupling: Coupling and uncoupling should be done in a designated area that is well lit, has a firm and level surface that is suitable for the tare of the trailer and truck.

Trailer swaps should be done in designated truck stop areas, away from busy roads and with good lighting.

• Loading and unloading: To minimise the risks to workers involved in loading and unloading vehicles, information should be provided on the nature of the load and how it should be properly loaded, secured and unloaded. All loads and load restraint methods should follow the NZ Transport Agency Truck Loading Code.

• Driver waiting areas: There should be a safe place where drivers can wait throughout loading and unloading.

Please visit www.worksafe.govt.nz for more information. T&D

WorkSafe NZ is stressing the importance of wearing a seatbelt when operating any vehicle or mobile plant on a work site – Supplied by WorkSafe NZ

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 44 | 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 027 556 6099 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 027 261 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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Old bones...

Story Brian Cowan Photos Gerald Shacklock

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Fonterra’s Edendale plant provides an appropriate backdrop to a couple of Herberts trucks. It is, after all, a company that has serviced the dairy industry in the region for more than a century

Y

OUTHLAND’S HERBERTS TRANSPORT HAS ONLY been around for 28 years – and in its present form way less than that: Just three years, in fact.

And yet the foundations of the Edendale-based trucking company date back more than a century.

The current name and the incorporated commercial entity that goes with it was established in 1993, as an equal partnership between Dynes Transport and the HW Richardson Group – with Jim Dynes and the late Bill Richardson as directors.

But the roots of the firm stretch back way before that, in the guise of WJ Herbert Ltd, whose history – if not the actual trading name – goes back to 1918.

That’s when William John (Jock) Herbert started using a horsedrawn wagon to cart whey from the little dairy factories around Edendale to the town.

The work soon expanded into other areas – and by 1923 Jock was operating as a general carrier in the region. He stayed in charge of the operation until the early 1960s, when ill-health forced his retirement and the management of the company was handed over to his son, Roy. Jock died soon after, in 1967. And sadly, Roy survived him for just a comparatively short time: He passed away in 1976, while only in his 50s.

His widow, Margaret, ran the company for a few months before son Des took over. He in turn was replaced in time by his youngest brother, Douglas – who remained in charge until the company was sold and renamed in 1993.

By all accounts it was a thriving business during the 1960s and ‘70s: Ian McKay, who drove for the company for more than TD31546 TD27300

)

20 years from 1963, recalls for instance having two brand-new trucks – a Leyland Beaver and later a Mercedes-Benz L1924.

He still lives close by Herberts Transport’s Edendale HQ and maintains a keen interest in the company’s activities.

Ken Holland, another long-serving staffer, joined the company in 1976, just months before Roy Herbert’s death. He drove for the company till it was sold to HWR/Dynes – then shifted into the office as “manager, dispatcher, cleaner and spare driver.” His time with the business ended in 2012.

Back when he joined Herberts, dairy farming had yet to have its full impact on the area, as he recalls: “When I started we had 13 trucks, with eight of them dedicated to stock transport.

Farming in the area was still dominated by sheep, and a lot of our work involved carting ewes and lambs to the Burnside works in Dunedin.”

The explosive growth of dairy during the 1980s and Nineties led to a vastly increased output of whey – a byproduct of the cheese and casein that were at the time the major products from the Southland Dairy co-operative’s giant Edendale factory.

Rich in proteins and minerals, it’s widely used as a nutritional supplement, but also performs well as a pasture fertiliser.

Herberts Transport was used to supplement Dynes Transport’s contract with the Co-operative (and later Fonterra) to cart milk and whey – an intriguing echo of Jock Herbert’s start in business 70 years before.

Over time, with the increase in the volume of whey coming out of the factory, the milk work dropped away. Today, the company handles the full Dynes Transport whey contract with Edendale.

Ken Holland says the scale of the activity has changed Truck & Driver | 49

Main picture: International 9800, still in the colours of Scott Hutton’s former Murihiku Haulage operation, picks up one of many loads of hay at Glen Islay Station, Mandeville

Top, from left to right: Brand new 2011 Freightliner Argosy picking up its first load of milk from the Oamaru transfer station, bound for Fonterra Edendale....new Foden A3-8R on its first load of straw, in 2004....in 2019 Scott Hutton accepted an offer from the Dynes/HWR joint venture to buy his small fleet – with him becoming a shareholder and manager of Herberts

50 | Truck & Driver

markedly in the past 25 years: “In the mid-1990s we used to cart whey a relatively short distance – no more than 20 kilometres – to farms around the outskirts of Edendale. We had a fleet of little trucks, with tank capacities of around 10,000 litres, that zoomed in and out like bees from a hive and applied the whey to the pastures directly.

“Nowadays the truck tanks are more than three times that volume and the trucks travel 10-80kms away, servicing huge storage tanks.

“The other difference is that then the spreading was a permitted activity, based on historical usage – whereas now

it requires formal consent from the regional authority. Though there were similar rules regarding application rates and the like, you didn’t have to go through the quite complex consent process.”

The modern reverse osmosis practice that abstracts water from the whey at the factory to reduce its original volume by around a half, had not been introduced in the 1990s, he adds: “In the peak of the season we were spreading around three and a half million litres a day. Some of us didn’t get much sleep at those times!

“For several years, between September and March we ran a 24-hour operation. Every day was the same. We even had a crew

Truck & Driver | 51

Top left: Kenworth still in MHL colours but now wearing Herberts name reflects how new the current ownership structure is Top right: Herberts 1972 Mercedes-Benz LK1924/36 at the Seaward Downs Dairy Company in ‘76. Photo Ross Henderson Bottom: The 18-truck Herberts fleet in 2007. Photo Ken Holland

that would do Christmas Day. It was certainly character-building.”

Even the reduction in volume conferred by reverse osmosis has done little to stem the factory’s output in the peak of the season.

To best service both its traditional rural clients and the whey work meant that Herberts Transport had to be highly versatile.

To this end, all the truck and trailer bodies were made easily demountable, by way of twistlock attachments to the chassis – a practice that makes changes in configuration quick and simple and continues to this day.

Inbuilt versatility notwithstanding, maintaining a balance between Fonterra and the company’s rural clients was always 52 | Truck & Driver

going to be tricky, and by the end of the 2000s decade Herberts had lost a few of the latter group – a situation that a young local man, Scott Hutton, saw as a good business opportunity.

Scott explains the background to his involvement: “I came from a farming background, but my career passion was for trucking. At 18 I began driving for Titiroa Transport on a stock truck.

“I was there for three or four years before a short spell with Southern Transport on logging. Soon after, I bought my first truck – a Kenworth K108 – and worked as an owner/driver with Mainfreight, running linehaul from Invercargill to Christchurch.”

Scott was on his way north one evening in February 2011 when

an oncoming stationwagon failed to take a gentle bend south of Milton and collided head-on with the truck, killing the driver and a six-year-old passenger. Post-mortem tests showed the driver to have been seriously intoxicated. The coroner said Scott was not responsible for the crash: “You did everything you could and should have done.”

Scott says the experience “taught me a lot: As a manager it has helped me understand much better what drivers who are working for me are going through when this sort of thing happens.”

A year later, at just 23, he started his own company, Murihiku Haulage. A literal translation of the name is “the tail end (of the land)” and was traditionally applied by Maori to the region of the South Island below the Waitaki River...though now more generally to Southland.

A strong connection with the Southland farming sector was a decided bonus in getting the fledgling company up and running.

As Scott explains, his family is very much involved in export beef production: “My younger brothers run three farms in this area – two beef with onsite feed lots, and one sheep – that annually fatten around 1800 head of cattle, contracted to ANZCO Foods for the Japanese market and Southern Station Wagyu.”

There is also a strong stock transport element in Scott’s heritage. His great-grandfather Frank Hutton and grandfather Eddie Hutton were both legendary drovers in the area, who in their time shifted thousands of head of animals from farm to farm – or from farms to stock sales and freezing works, often overnighting at the Hutton holding paddocks in Edendale.

MHL grew steadily, and by 2019 was running three trucks….

when Scott was approached by Peter Dynes, general manager of Dynes Transport, with a proposal: For Herberts to buy out MHL – and for Scott to become a shareholder in the company, as well as its manager.

He’s a little wistful at the disappearance of his company (not least the loss of its eyecatching livery and logo) but says that’s more than outweighed by the potential in Herberts to improve its showing in the rural sector: “That’s something we have worked hard on since I’ve been involved. We’re now running three stock trucks constantly...and up to five in busy times.

“The whey is a challenging contract, and that’s what the company tended to concentrate on, somewhat to the detriment of other work. People would ring up for a stock job and be told, ‘sorry we’re running whey.’

“When I came in here, Herberts had lost quite a lot of work to its opposition, and when you let rural people down it can be hard to bring them back. But they’re also very loyal, and the Herberts clients I have met so far are incredible people.

“I started up MHL because I could see an opening in the market, and when I came to Herberts every one of my clients came across with me.”

The three dedicated stock units work virtually fulltime, and range all over the country. Regular destinations include Taylor Preston in Wellington, ANZCO Foods, Alliance and Silver Fern Farms plants in both islands.

As an aside to the absorption of MHL into Herberts, one of the Kenworth K200s that came with the purchase currently remains in MHL colours.

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A flashback to the Sixties, with the company’s 4x2 Leyland Beaver stock unit delivering a load of sheep to the Burnside works in Dunedin.

Photo Ian McKay

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This page, clockwise from top left: A bit of diversification from the past, with a Nissan Diesel CW330 co-opted to help with a concrete pad for a holiday crib in the Catlins....general dispatcher Geoff Routhan is happy to be back at work after time off for a hip replacement....slippery going in southern Southland called for help from a Hino 4x4 spreader to get the truck and trailer load of lambs out.....new whey dispatcher Justin Robertson

Opposite page, clockwise, from top left: Clarkie Davidson drives a Kenworth T408, despite having lost his right leg in a car crash years ago....MAN TGS bulk spreader heading back for another load of lime.....DAF CF tanker transports a load of mother liquor from Clandeboye to Fonterra in Edendale

up around half of the 20-plus trucks now in the Herberts fleet, with PAACAR’s Euro brand DAF also strongly represented.

Scott explains his preference bluntly: “I’d rather go broke driving a Kenworth than a Mack! They’re a good, simple and reliable truck – developed to handle anything the Australian Outback can throw at them.

“They’re also rigid, so you get a much better feel of the road surface through the chassis, which is really important when you’re carting stock.”

You get the impression that if Kenworth made an all-wheeldrive model, it would be a shoo-in for Herberts’ fertiliser sowing work as well. As it is, that division runs MANs and Scanias.

All but one of the highway truck and trailer units run on 54-tonne HPMV permits and are all cabovers, bar one Kenworth T408, fitted with an automated manual transmission and with the throttle pedal on the left (!) where in a manual truck you’d find the clutch pedal. There’s a dummy throttle pedal on the right.

The reason for this unique setup is that the driver, Clark (Clarkie) Davidson, lost his right leg in a car crash some years ago and needs the go pedal on the left. The conventional cab plus the addition of an extra intermediate step also make entry and exit easier for the ebullient Clarkie, who explains that he had a background more in diggers and loaders rather than trucks – but before the crash had done some truck driving as well: “I have known Peter Dynes for years – we were actually at school together. A while ago he suggested he could organise something 56 | Truck & Driver

for me and this is the result.

“Mark Chalmers, one of the mechanics at Dynes Transport in Tapanui, did the job – and set it up so that it’s simple to swap the pedals over should anybody else need to drive the truck.”

This is his second season in the unit. He primarily handles whey, but also does a run to Clandeboye to bring back “mother liquor,” which is processed at Edendale and used as a liquid feed supplement for stock.

The 10-year-old T408, Outlaw, is now fully owned by Herberts, but remains in its original Dynes Transport colours.

Clarkie is rapt with the unit: “I’ve wanted for years to be able to drive again, and this truck has given me a fantastic opportunity. As I say, if you keep looking back all you get is a sore neck. Now it’s even easier to keep looking forward.”

Scott says the company doesn’t have a hard and fast policy on vehicle replacement: “I’ve found the thing that works best is to depend on the fleet analysis software, which gives you a good indicator of how much each truck is costing.

“And it isn’t automatically the old ones – sometimes newer trucks might be getting expensive and need to be moved on. I don’t agree with having a fixed policy, because that’s not the way the real world works.”

Where possible, he aims for consistency of suppliers for bodies and trailers. Delta is the primary supplier of stock crates, with Jackson Enterprises building the monocoque bodies to go with them. The crates are two deck/four deck, and are certified for a

full range of stock.

Transport Engineering Southland builds the dropsider bodies and tubs, while the stainless steel bulk bins come primarily from McMaster Engineering in Winton. Herberts is also starting to use self-loading bulk trailers built by Whanganui’s GED (Glasgow Engineering and Design).

The company has a big, but basic, workshop. Fleet manager Jason Fowler from Transport Repairs looks after CoFs and all other maintenance – contracted fulltime to Herberts.

A wash bay, effluent settlement area and Ravensdown bulk store are also on site, while an adjoining lot has been cleared in preparation for a new complex for staff to stay in over the peak season.

Monitoring the costing of the trucks has been rendered easier by the recent adoption of Teletrac Navman’s latest telematics platform, which provides ready answers to a range of fleet management challenges. Scott points to two areas where the

system has proved impressive: “The automated electronic logbooks mean we don’t have to bother drivers to check their hours when planning jobs, while the in-cab cameras have already proved their worth when one of our trucks was involved with a collision with a car on a roundabout. The cameras clearly showed the car driver was at fault.”

The system is also used for RUC offroad rebates and tracking exactly where trucks are at any time.

It has, he says, improved the way the business operates: “It’s just easier.”

Whey dispatcher Justin Robertson is also a fan: “It’s quite new to me, so I have a lot to learn, but I’m finding it has real benefits. Because you have an accurate realtime overview of where each truck is, it’s a great help in customer relations. You can easily keep people updated if a driver is running a bit late, and that’s something customers appreciate. Without that ongoing communication you’ve got nothing.”

Truck & Driver | 57

Previously, Justin had worked with MHL, primarily driving a bulk truck. When the HWR/Dynes JV started making overtures to buy MHL and incorporate it, Scott suggested to Justin he might like to come along as a dispatcher. He accepted.

It wasn’t a complete change in career direction. Before Herberts, he had worked with Southern Transport for 17 years – originally as a driver but then, for six years, in a dispatch role. He acknowledges some drivers can find the switch too stressful and are happy to get back on the road: “It definitely has its moments.

I’m a great believer in the old saying that driving gives you too much time to think. So something that, to the dispatcher in the office who is looking after a dozen or more drivers, is a relatively minor matter can assume immense importance to the individual in the truck.

“I enjoy the challenge. The whey contract is a big beast and in the peak of the milk season things can get intense, but at the end of the day you just have to make things happen.”

The day we visit Herberts, general dispatcher Geoff Routhan is off work after a hip replacement. He comes in for a short visit, however, and says he’s keen to get back in the traces.

Originally from the West Coast, Geoff met his wife (who was from Wanaka) when he was working for JJ Nolan in Haast. She didn’t relish the thought of living in Haast, so the couple shifted 58 | Truck & Driver

to Gore in 1980. Not long after, Geoff joined Tulloch Transport, staying there for 26 years before shifting to Herberts.

He says that when the dairy factory is at full production, its output of whey can fill the five million litre holding tanks at various spots in Southland in just a couple of days, so the pressure is on to keep getting it onto the fields.

Operations manager Ben Halstead was new to transport when he arrived at Herberts, having come from managing mussel farms on Banks Peninsula. His job, he says, involves an overview of the company’s activities, with a particular attention to client liaison with Fonterra on the whey contract: “They’re great people to deal with, which really helps, because when things are humming everyone has to be on their toes. “Time was when we had only a day’s worth of whey output capacity at Edendale, but we’ve put more tanks in there and extended it to three days. That has helped a lot.”

Whey output is at its peak in October and November, while in the winter when milk (and consequently whey) output drops, a proportion of it is replaced by effluent, which is extracted from dairy farm ponds.

As Scott explains, individual farms gain consents to apply the byproducts, which are then injected into the pasture by a clever piece of kit. The heart of the tractor-towed Veenhuis Rotomax

Clockwise, from top left: Mercedes-Benz Axor spreader at work....Foden hauls a load of lambs out of Mokoreta, southeastern Southland....

Scania P410 spreader is a fairly recent addition....the Foden all spick and span ready for the Gore Truck Show....1998 T401 Kenworths about to officiate at a company employee’s wedding.....MHL Kenworth loading stock at Lake Tekapo

(developed in the Netherlands) is a reel that carries up to 550 metres of 125mm flexible, lay-flat feed hose, one end of which is fitted to a static supply nurse tank. The hose is paid out from the reel as the unit is towed across the paddock, and reeled back in on the parallel return run.

The fluid is pumped to injectors across a 12m wide bar, the injectors paired with discs that cut 70mm deep slots, ensuring the nutrients are delivered to the pasture roots rather than the ground surface, for optimal fertilising effect. This also eliminates fluid drift in windy conditions.

With the system, up to 40 hectares can be covered in a single pass without needing to couple or uncouple.

The Rotomax represents a huge capital outlay, but as Scott points out, its ability to deliver precisely measured quantities of material to the pastures means that the increasingly-restrictive conditions of consents can be met easily. Another major benefit, by comparison with more traditional fluid distribution systems, is that the hose never has to be dragged across the ground, thereby avoiding the surface scuffing and crop damage that this often causes.

The investment in technology like the Rotomax and the development of systems to accurately determine soil moisture and weather effects was recognised by Environment Southland

in its 2019 community awards, with Herberts gaining a highly commended for environmental leadership and innovation in business.

In this regard, for several years Herberts has used the expertise of Invercargill-based WM Compliance Solutions, which handles all aspects of the environmental side of the business, including the development of compliance systems, routine reporting, liaison with the regional council, staff training, internal audits and preparation of consent applications.

Though the HWR/Dynes joint-venture looms like a colossus over the Southland/Otago transport landscape, companies in it do seem to be able to retain a high level of individuality...and that is particularly noticeable with Herberts Transport.

Its current iteration seems to reflect the personality of its manager – go-getting, tech-savvy, and willing to set off into uncharted commercial waters. Starting up MHL when he did was a bold move for Scott Hutton, and now – with the backing of the consortium – expect to see more of that boldness demonstrated

by Herberts Transport in the coming years.

The man himself has a more prosaic, but no less cogent, take on the situation: “We have an amazing team working here, and they’re our most precious resource. It’s all about looking after people...because without them, you’ve got nothing.” T&D Truck & Driver | 59

LEGENDS

A lifetime in livestock Don Wilson – On Road Tranpsort

W

HAT WITH INCREASED COMPLIANCE DEMANDS, DRIVER shortages and angry bulls, the livestock industry is hard enough at the best of times, however, not only does ORT’s director Don Wilson run a successful livestock transport business in Pukekohe but for the past eight years he’s also worked tirelessly behind the scenes at the NRC, assisting other operators and paving the way for a better industry - and that’s why Don Wilson is a Southpac Legend.

According to Don, had things turned out differently he’d have been a diesel mechanic but the long and short of it ‘trucking is in his blood’. His father had a carriers business (general and livestock) and he says “that’s just the way it is.”

But don’t think for one moment he’s not a passionate and willing participant.

Wilson got his HT licence the moment he turned eighteen and hit the road almost immediately in a Mercedes 1418. At first doing general freight as a relief driver and then jumping into a stock truck and driving full time.

Wilson started work for United Carriers up in Northland and then split his time between Whangarei and Pukekohe before moving to produce company Balle Brothers in ‘94 where he helped create their livestock business.

He says “I was involved with Balle Brothers in their livestock business from the beginning until when they decided that they wanted to concentrate on their produce business and separated out their livestock side.”

After around 18-months, the business had grown in size from one to two stock trucks and Wilson became part owner. The growth continued until 2014, when Balle Brothers opted to focus on their core produce side and after splitting the business, Wilson considerably increased his shareholding and began ORT (OnRoad Transport).

60 | Truck & Driver

He recalls, “we had six trucks when we split and two owner-drivers and now we employ around seventeen drivers on staff, have a fleet of fifteen trucks and we also have seven owner-drivers.”

ORT predominantly works as livestock carriers, however they have one truck that works with containers and two in the logging industry.

Don himself hasn’t been a full time driver since he was about twenty seven (having assumed a more managerial role), however, the 57-year old still hits the road in a part-time capacity when required “If I’m needed to fill in for a day or so, and I did the Milk Run this year.”

Around a similar time to when ORT began, Don joined the board of the NRC, his motivation was simple.

“Putting something back into the industry I work for. A lot of people complain about the industry but the only way to get something done is to get out there and do it, and you can’t win a fight or gain any traction by being an individual, you have to do it as a group. If you have a problem, you ring your association, they can lobby the problem for you. If it’s local we use the NRC and if it’s a nationwide issue then we use the Forum (RTF) to fight our arguments.”

Wilson says that it was Paul Chappell that invited him onto the NRC board and he immediately set about making a difference. He was heavily involved in instigating and organising the TR Group Driver Champs along with Mark Ngatuere (from the RTF). And again with Mark, spent a week touring the country talking to operators about the NAIT (National Animal Identification Tagging) declaration, we put a submission into Government and had the Operator liability taken out.

Wilson works predominantly in the livestock sector for the NRC and says that they’re continually fighting bureaucracy. Many operators are unaware but things go on behind the scenes that remove, change or minimise their impact on the industry. “We’ve got a big thing happening at the moment in the livestock sector, it’s a major problem

From left to right: Don’s fathers ( John Wilson) TS3 Commer, brought around 1967, was a 4x2 with a belt drive third axle.

Two od Dons earliest drives were at the wheel of the United Volvo G88 (left), then the F10 Don’s Euro 6 DAF was the first to go on the road in New Zealand and we’re trying to fix it. I spent two-days in Wellington just last week.”

He says he dislikes the increasing demands of compliance, but understands that it’s necessary, “I’m not saying we shouldn’t have it because without it the industry would be in a bigger shambles, but I’m about standardising things like health and safety policies, and consistency in rules for abattoirs or farms. For example, safety glasses on a farm on a humid day can present more harm than good, same goes for Hi-Viz wear near excitable Bulls.”

It’s clear that the NRC work can be very time consuming, a few days here, a week there, Wilson is frequently taking time out of his business for the better of the industry. Don points out that “without the support of my staff and the people around me I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

He says, “it’s a big commitment, not so much as a member of the board but when you get to vice chairman or chairman (which Don has been for the past 5 years) you have to dedicate a lot of time to it.”

Despite donating personal time and resources to the Association and the differences that he has made, there is an additional cost when taking time away from his business.

“The biggest impact on my business is while I’m trying to fight for the industry, people are in there chipping away at the business, that’s probably the biggest downfall of being involved. There’s still a disconnect between the industry and the Associations. Warren [Whittaker] said to me that ‘we [the livestock industry] need to employ somebody to do our fights’ but that’s what the Associations are for.”

Wilson says that there’s maybe three hundred registered livestock operators in the country, and although not all belong to associations, all reap the benefits of what they do.

“As an example, back in the day the Associations fought for 50-max, everybody got the advantages of the 50-max not just the members. Even currently with Covid border control, we worked with Nick Legget and the government about the animal welfare issues with lockdowns - it’s still not perfect but it’s better than it was.”

Wilson believes that to get a TSL number it should be compulsory to join an Association.

Regardless of the evident frustrations, Wilson is still incredibly passionate about the industry and moreover, its people. “the people you meet, the people you deal with. Our industry is probably getting to the point now where there’s a lot of good players in it, the Calven Bonney’s, Steve Doughty’s and Paul Chapell’s around the NRC environment and the Dave Benner’s, Warren Whittaker’s and Glenn Carroll’s from the livestock sector, we all get on really well. There’s less and less livestock operators out there now so you have to get on with other operators to try and make everything work.”

Wilson says that it’s impossible to pick out any one particular person that’s helped him out through his career, however, acknowledges that before he bought the business off Balles he spent quite a bit of time with Paul Chappell, ‘just sounding him out’ and when he’s had a few ‘issues’ that he’ll talk with Calven Bonney or Steve Doughty and ask “what do I do about this, or how do I fix this’, he also used to get a bit of knowledge out of Calvin Neville.

“You might have an idea to do something a certain way and then ring up and get a simpler (and often proven) way. That’s one of the main reasons I deal with Jackson’s, [Enterprises] I was told they’re simple and easy to deal with, and they are.”

Like many transport operators, there are a certain amount of challenges Wilson faces on a day to day basis, but he believes that the livestock sector has a few that are unique too.

“In terms of ownership or even drivers I don’t see the generation pull coming through any more. The industry does need a bit of a mindset change and how that’s done I don’t know. We pay our drivers what we can afford right now and we give them the best gear we can afford to buy, but the people we work for need to start appreciating us more for the effort that we put in. The new generation of farmers are normally not too bad but some of the old ones don’t quite understand what we have to do now to make everything work.”

When it comes to drivers, Wilson says that probably the biggest problem the livestock sector has is that there’s a big gap from when they leave school to when they can actually start driving the truck.

“There’s not too many livestock operators with a Class-2, so you can’t do much until you’re a Class-4. Also Animal welfare, you’ve got to have that at the back of your mind all of the time. How you drive, where you’re going, how you’re getting there. Some new driver’s can’t handle it.”

With nigh-on four decades under his belt, Wilson has accrued a lot of knowledge and seen plenty of changes along the way.

“When you’ve been in it all your life, when you’ve grown up with it, there’s a lot of information and experience in your head. When I first started there were no log books, now there’s work/time rules, health and safety is paramount now, employment contracts weren’t around, nor Port and Rail induction days. Animal welfare continually changes but we now have a ‘fit for transport’ app for drivers.”

With expansion still on his mind. the timeline for his retirement is still a fair way off yet, however, Wilson has a keen idea on how he’s going to spend it.

“I’d like to think that I’d get some time to myself when I’m in my sixties to fish and travel the world, and I think I’ll have a lifestyle block too.”

Maybe he’ll get some livestock of his own... T&D

Truck & Driver | 61

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East Coast truckies to the rescue L

IKE MANY TRUCKIES WORKING ON THE EAST COAST, WILLIAM Houkamau has come across many crashes on the narrow and windy State Highway 35.

In 21 years of driving logtrucks on the Coast he’s even once been first on the scene after a mate crashed his car and was trapped in it. William got him out: “Thankfully,” he adds, “it wasn’t lifethreatening.”

Incidents on the picturesque but dangerous Pacific Coast Highway are so frequent that in just two months late last year, for example, he and his fellow-drivers at Rangitukia-based Rewi Haulage alone were the first on the scene of three crashes.

A “very proud” Hoana Rewi, the company’s health & safety manager, says they administered first-aid, alerted emergency services and assisted medical staff.

And, she stresses, their actions were typical of East Coast truckies – across the industry…and that’s something that needs to be made public.

When Rewi Haulage driver Beau Hailey came across a rollover, “it was the first time he’d had to use his first-aid kit.”

Matri Kururangi and Pauly Hale were first to arrive at a 4WD rollover, helped get the occupants out of the vehicle and moved it off the road.

And William and fellow-drivers DJ Fox, Nui Lawson and Claude Waitoa were the first arrivals at a vehicle rollover in which five teenagers had been injured. Together they tended to the injured, alerted authorities, commenced traffic control and assisted medical staff when they arrived.

Says Hoana: “Will, being a first responder and fire warden, knew exactly how to handle the accident.”

That’s right: William’s good work on SH35 goes beyond helping those he chances on while at the wheel of his logtruck – he’s also been a volunteer fireman in hometown Te Araroa for 26 years.

And that means he’s also attended many, many more motor vehicle accidents on callouts.

Sadly, that has included serious injury accidents…and fatalities.

William Houkamau has come across many crashes and incidents on State Highway 35....as well as attending many, many more as a volunteer firefighter

Truck & Driver | 63

William (far left) and some of his fellow Rewi Haulage drivers. Hoana Rewi says they regularly are first at the scene of accidents.....as are other East Coast truckies in general

Worst of all, as William says, “was just recently, where a few people got killed at home here. I hadn’t started my shift and I had to jump on the fire truck with the team….and we knew the people.

“That was the hardest thing for me. They had 14 and 16-year-old kids.

“It was pretty harsh. The chief and I went in and we were pretty teary. Nothing prepares you for that: When there’s people that you know involved it hits you harder.”

Hoana Rewi says that being the first on the scene at serious accidents has an emotional impact on drivers that also needs to be acknowledged. Quite often they need “some time off work, because it can be quite traumatic.”

William says he’s lucky that Rewi Haulage owners Chubb and Agnes Rewi are very supportive of his role in the Te Araroa Volunteer Fire Brigade – even if it means him sometimes starting work late: “They told me ‘don’t hesitate – go to your fire callout first and worry about your work after.’ ” Fortunately, a lot of the incidents and accidents he’s encountered while at the wheel of his truck (which currently is a 2019 Western Star 4864) have been much less serious – although he has had to rescue people from their crashed vehicles on his own.

On many occasions it’s just a matter of using the chains and other gear on the truck to get a vehicle back on the road….or to drag fallen trees or branches off the highway: “We’re lucky – we’ve got gear on our trucks that we can use to help out.”

Hoana Rewi says William is “well-known for being the most courteous driver on the roads.”

And that’s something, he says, that he learnt as a young bloke: “For me I was lucky growing up when most of the drivers stopped

64 | Truck & Driver

(if they saw anyone stopped on the road or that a car had crashed).

Didn’t matter what – just to see.”

These days, “people see a vehicle and they seem to think ‘ah that’s alright.’ They don’t check it.

“But to me, it’s better to check….because you never know what’s there. There might be somebody that’s hurt and needs help.”

And it’s this message that he’s keen to share with other drivers: “Five minutes of your time is not going to make any difference in getting from A to B. I’d rather just stop and check and make sure: At the end of the day you may be able to save someone.”

William has been driving logtrucks for 21 years now – the last five of them with Rewi Haulage.

State Highway 35 – which winds its way from Opotiki to Gisborne, around East Cape – has increasingly been his most regular route, as he carts logs to Gisborne.

It is, as he says, “not the best of roads” – not only windy but “quite narrow. For instance, about five or six years ago a mate of mine was driving a metal truck and I met him going the other way on a narrow strip on 35.

“It was pouring with rain and although we were both on our own side of the road, our mirrors smashed.”

There are a number of places like that, William says, where two trucks meeting can be downright dangerous. It’s fortunate, he adds, that he and other local truckies know the road so well that they can avoid potential incidents with defensive driving – making allowances for other road users.

“We’ve driven on these roads for many years and we pretty much know them inside and out, but other people that come here don’t. If you don’t know the road it gets tricky sometimes.”

William Houkamau is “well-known for being the most courteous driver on the road,” Hoana Rewi reckons

“Please tell these guys that they are amazing and thank them for stepping up....”

Hoana believes that the reason there are so many accidents on SH35 is “not just the state of the road – it’s the speed.”

William’s interest in trucks came from his Dad, Tau – “who has been driving trucks since I was at school. He drove for Direct Transport back in the 1970s-‘80s – and then had a partnership on the East Coast.”

William got his car licence when he was 15 and his HT licence three years later….“because the old man said I might need them down the track.”

It turned out to be quite a long way down the track! He didn’t drive fulltime until he was 39. He started out as an apprentice plumber, but “there wasn’t much work around so I gave Dad and the business a hand….for about four or five years. But sort of in and out.

“Then I came back up the Coast to Te Araroa to give my grandparents a hand during Cyclone Bola in ‘88 – and just stayed,” working for 10 years as a school caretaker before getting into truck driving fulltime.

Hoana says William was reluctant to be featured as a “hero” and he insists: “I don’t think I’m any different to anyone else. Most Kiwis, all around NZ, will stop and help anybody – that’s who we are.”

And certainly Hoana says Rewi Haulage drivers’ experience in regularly encountering and helping at crashes is far from unique: “It’s not just our drivers – it’s across the whole industry.”

And that is not something that usually gets any publicity – which is why she was moved to let the local office of Waka Kotahi New

Zealand Transport Agency, the Road Transport Association of NZ local exec and forestry company management know about this example of some positive news about truckies.

As she adds: “It is nice to see them being the heroes of late and not the villains – as often portrayed in the media, when they have accidents.”

She says that the East Coast logtruck industry has had “our issues” in terms of truck accidents and incidents, “but let’s also acknowledge this side of it” – that they are so often the first on the scene at other people’s accidents.

RTANZ area executive Sandy Walker comments: “Yes, unfortunately our professional drivers are usually first on the scene and deal with a number of issues prior to emergency services or traffic control.

“It is great that someone has recognised the good work they do outside of their daily duties” – particularly since, he adds, it can result in them having “to deal with the trauma side of this when they get home to their families.”

The Rewi Haulage drivers were also praised by NZTA senior compliance officer, safer commercial transport, Lynn Williams, who acknowledges that truck drivers often “happen upon something untoward in the course of their day – and, most importantly, act on it.

“Please tell these guys that they are amazing and thank them for stepping up…..they are the eyes and ears out there and we rely on them as road users to help keep the roads safe for everyone.” T&D

Truck & Driver | 65

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IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL

G

Above right: Bob Rauhihi today, at the age of 71, pictured with his current drive – a Waimea Contract Carriers Kenworth T659

Above left: Bob in the 1980s, pictured with the 1977 Kenworth W924 he drove for Radiata Transport/Nelson Pine Forest for about eight years

W

HEN IT COMES TO DRIVING LOGTRUCKS, VETERAN truckie Bob Rauhihi reckons he loves it all.

“I just enjoyed everything I’ve done in logging: I enjoy getting out there, doing it….and then going home!”

No wonder then that he’s been driving loggers for 50 years.

No wonder either that the veteran driver laughs a lot. And why, at 71, he’s still going strong at the wheel of a 2019 Waimea Contract Carriers Kenworth T659.

He likes the fact that at the wheel of a logtruck he’s more or less his own boss: “Once they dispatch you, you go out and pick up the load, come back, dump it….and then they dispatch you again.

“You just go out and do it. No-one’s on your back. And you have a muck-around with your workmates.”

And he sees few, if any, downsides to the life of a truck driver: “You meet arseholes in all walks of life – but that’s just part of the job. It’s water off a duck’s back.”

Bob was born in 1950 in Te Awamutu and was brought up there, but moved to Christchurch when he was around 16 to be with his brother. Snaring a job at Feltex (“the carpet people”), in Riccarton he was pretty happy with his lot.

It was, as he sums up: “A good-paying job back in those days – bloody good money. Good bonuses.”

However, a Labour Weekend trip to Nelson with a mate around 1967 ended up with him getting a job there, working for “a road construction and sealing outfit.”

He started “on the shovel” with R.A. McLennans – and enjoyed it: He says that back then “you had good bosses and they looked after you. They weren’t scared to get on the shovel beside you and shovel shit.

“They were one of the boys. You thought ‘bloody hell, if your boss can get on the shovel beside you he’s gonna be a top bloke.’ ” It didn’t take long before, with the company’s help, he got his HT licence and ditched the shovel to get behind the wheel of an S Bedford water cart: “I was pretty keen to learn back then…hard work didn’t scare me. And I was a bit pushy in those days.”

He soon progressed on to a TK Bedford tipper, then an AB International, with a single-axle dog trailer. Finally he climbed into a 6x4 petrol-engined White, which pulled a tandem-axle trailer: “They were bloody good for what they did.” Which was Truck & Driver | 67

“Memories like that I’ll never let go of” carting bulk metal.”

Bob reckons that he’d probably still be there – but in 1971 he’d not long got married, and the McLennans job meant “I was away from home for too long… So I swapped to logging – which got me home every night.”

He started driving for Radiata Transport, carting logs pretty much all around the top of the South Island, initially at the wheel of an old Leyland AEC. He quickly got an upgrade – to a 1972 ERF CU 310 and then to the first of two Kenworths that have long since become iconic survivors of the era: A Cumminsengined 1973 LW 924 6x4 nicknamed Blue Mule .

It had been bought brand-new by Pan Pac in Hawke’s Bay and then moved down to Nelson where another Radiata Transport driver, “Neil Ford, got it new – then he got promoted to an office job and I took over from him.” He laughs about Ford’s “bad luck” and his good fortune.

When he got it the KW was still in its green and orange Pan Pac colours: Bob saw a movie – “can’t remember what the name of it was, but it had this LW with Blue Mule on it.”

He suggested it to the boss as a great name for his truck – and that’s been its nickname ever since…even now it’s been restored to as-new condition by current owner Steve Hill.

Bob went from Blue Mule to a brand-new 1977 Kenworth W924 6x4 that initially went to work with a two-axle pole 68 | Truck & Driver

trailer….but then went in front of the second logging B-train put to work in the South Island. ¬¬More importantly, driving that meant “better money – I got good money with it. The rate went up because it was classed as two trailers – more or less.”

Bob’s nephew Hayden Perry, who rode alongside his Uncle Bob many times when he was a kid and credits him with inspiring his own career as a truckie, says that a truck driver mate he now works with in Western Australia reckons Bob was one of his childhood heroes.

Says Perry: “He went to school on the West Coast. He says that back in the day the kids knew all the Radiata Transport trucks and TNL ones by their sounds.

“When they heard Bob coming the call would go out: ‘Here comes Bob and the B-train!’ – and they’d all run to the fence to see him go by. It was a big bit of gear in its day.”

Bob reckons: “There’s a lot of shit I’ve forgotten eh – from the good days.”

So nephew Hayden provides a few prompters, says that his Uncle Bob “has taught me a lot…..I have a lifetime of memories with him.”

And he suggests: “Ask him about how they used to tow themselves up onto the skids with the loader in the early hours of the morning – by themselves. The young blokes these days

Above: Bob at the wheel of Blue Mule, the 1973 LW924 that he drove for Radiata Transport for four years

Opposite page, top left: Bob’s second logtruck, a ‘72 ERF CU310. It’s still around – and in great shape, having been restored to as-new condition by current owner Neil Shayler Opposite page, bottom left: Blue Mule in its prime

Opposite page, right: Bob’s recently been honoured with the naming of a road after him in Golden Downs Forest wouldn’t believe it!”

Duly prompted, Bob explains: Early one morning in the Maruia Forest, “when I had the B-train, I couldn’t get up this hill to a skid – it was a straight climb, only about 50 yards up onto the skid….but quite steep and I couldn’t get up.

“So I run up the hill and they had an old Hough 70 (loader) – and they had a hand throttle in them.

“So I hooked up the chain to the loader, put it in gear, pulled the hand-throttle out a bit and then I run back to the truck, jumped in, released the brake, stuck it in gear and just crawled up the hill.”

Hayden, now 45 and driving a Kenworth K200 triple roadtrain in Western Australia – carting mostly grain, lime and fertiliser – recalls one experience he had alongside his Uncle Bob: “One trip I remember was in 1985. We went down the West Coast to Mawheraiti, south of Reefton – in the days when the beech logging was hitting its stride.

“Bob had the B-train then….he went up the bush track, turned her around at the bottom of a hill and had to back up the hill onto the skid as it was too small to turn around.

“On the skid they had a small traxcavator loader (a bulldozer with logging forks) that loaded us. Bob lifted me up on the back of the headboard behind the cab and we sat up on top and watched him load us. Memories like that I’ll never let go of.

“Bob wouldn’t realise it, but most of what I learnt from him, I learnt from a young age: I try to keep my truck clean

outside…inside is always on point: Everything’s in its place.

Just little things I picked up over the years.”

Mention of all this does spark other memories for Bob: “There is one that comes to mind. After I went off the LW onto the W, my mate Chris Hutchison took it (the LW) over – and we used to do the West Coast peeler run, from Nelson to the peeler factory in Greymouth. Then come up through Reefton, to Springs Junction, load up with native and then bring it back home here.

“Anyhow, this particular day we went down and come back to Reefton, where we stopped to have a feed. And these jokers come in and said: ‘You jokers have gotta park your trucks up.

We’re gonna take your keys.’ And we told ‘em to ‘f*** off,’ you know.

“Anyhow they said: ‘Didn’t you fullas know you’re on strike?’– because the Drivers’ Union was on strike.”

But, as employees of a forest and mill owner, the Nelson Pine Forest drivers weren’t actually employed as truck drivers.

So, says Bob laughing, “we said ‘no, that’s got f***-all to do with us….because we’re timber workers’ (who, he says now, got more money). We just jumped in our trucks and f****ed off!”

The terrain he worked in was nothing if not challenging: “There’s one job that I can remember in the 1980s. It wasn’t a bad job – it was just that we got stranded.

“We were carting out of the Maruia Forest at Station Creek (about 180 kilometres southwest of Nelson). That was when I Truck & Driver | 69

Above: Early on its life the Kenworth W924 swapped a two-axle pole trailer for the South Island’s second logging B-train. The truck survives – now in J. Swap Contractor colours. Photo Chris Hoult

Right: Bob and the W924 before it got the B-train. Photo the late Dave Carr

was with Radiata and I had that W Model. It pissed down as we were going in, and by the time we loaded and started to come out the rivers had come up – and we couldn’t get back out.

“We were lucky there was a truck on the other side of the river and there was a tree that we could scramble over.

Otherwise they were going to send a chopper in to get us.” The trucks had to stay there the night – till the river dropped.

Another time he and maybe half a dozen other truckies got stuck in snow on the top of the Hope Saddle: “We lit a bonfire – warmed ourselves up, sat around and had a chat. The fire was good – plenty of diesel in the tanks!” They got towed out the next morning.

“There were a lot of things happen in the old days – but ahh, you’d need a whole book to fit them all in! They were good days the old days – just the men you worked with.”

Like “the best boss I ever had – Kevin Steel, the boss of Nelson Pine Forest: “You know how you used to clock-in in the old days? Well …..I’d poke the card in only halfway – so it’d stamp the time, but didn’t stamp the date.

“So I’d stamp in for a week – because I’d start the same time anyway. The deputy-boss saw…and he went and told Kevin Steel.

“So this particular day I was knockin’ off and Kevin Steel come over in his car. He called me over, told me to get in his car. The deputy boss was watching and Kevin said to me: ‘Just make it look like I’m telling you off! And carry on with what you’re doing.’ He was a bloody good boss eh – he knew I was bloody doing my job properly.”

He recalls his “early years” with passion: “All the old fellas

were good buggers. You looked up to them. Totally different to today – you had a lot of respect for your elders and you learnt a lot off them.

“There was one old fella, Ward Higgins, who drove for Radiata Transport. He was real good eh – he taught me a lot.

He was a guy that could jump into any make or model of truck and run it smooth. Gearchanges, everything….just smooth.

“The funny thing about it, his grandson Kevin Smith now is into trucking here – as an O/D with the container trucks. He used to come for a ride with me as a kid! Now I think he’s got about three or four trucks with TNL. I said to him: ‘If you’re half as good as your Granddad, you’ll be a champion.’ ” Speaking of champions, Bob says there were some “big-gun” drivers in the area back in the day: “They always used to win New Zealand driving contests, so we had a lot to look up to and learn from. They set the standard and that’s what you had to reach to get to the top.”

He doesn’t mention it, but nephew Hayden lets us that Bob was named Nelson’s 1995 Logging Truck Driver of the Year – an award he shrugs off.

In 1985, Bob got out of the W924 (which has been restored and is now in J. Swap Contractors colours) and took over the steering wheel of a new Volvo N12. Another change was the name on the door – the old Radiata Transport name having been ditched in favour of Nelson Pine Forest when TNL bought the business (and the local woodchip mill) during Bob’s time in

70 | Truck & Driver

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the W924.

Around 1992 he ended up buying the Volvo from Pine Forest – becoming an owner-driver, contracted to the NZ Forest Service. The move was driven more out of necessity than desire: “Back then, Pine Forest – who owned the logging trucks – got out of trucking, so three of us had the opportunity to buy the trucks off them and go O/D. So we did.”

He carried on working exactly as he had been as a wages driver: “The Forest Service still owned the bush there and it was good money back in them days.”

Until, that is, “Fletchers bought the forest down here…and then they screwed everybody!” He laughs uproariously as he says it, but it clearly wasn’t funny at the time.

And when Fletchers sold the business, in Bob’s opinion “the Yanks came over and stuffed it all! They bought the forest out, lowered the rates and made us upgrade our gear.

“I didn’t want to buy any new trucks…..I was doing alright with the one that I bought off Pine Forest. But they sort of made you renew your gear.”

He had no choice but to upgrade, so bought a brand-new 1994 ERF EC14, then turned to Scanias, starting with a 420hp 124, then buying an R470 and, finally, an R500.

Through to 12 or 13 years ago, he ended up contracting to G4 Logging, “then we jumped the fence” to Borlase Logging….then to Waimea Contract Carriers, before selling the R500 to Waimea and joining the company as a wage driver instead.

“Work was getting a bit scarce and I couldn’t be bothered chasing it. It was getting tough eh – it was getting tough. So I’d sooner just get rid of it, and go work for someone else.

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“Waimea were keen to buy it – so I went to work for them and I’m still there now. Yeah nah, it’s worked out bloody good actually.”

In the time since, he’s driven another couple of 480hp Scanias for Waimea, before making a return to Kenworth – climbing into a new T659 in 2019.

Now 71 and wrangling the 18-speed Roadranger manual in his KW, he says he’s “still having fun.” He reckons he’s “always kept myself in good nick,” so finds it no problem working full days.

Looking back over a five-decade career in logtrucks, Bob says some things have changed hugely…and some hardly at all…so that “to be quite honest with you, there’s not a hell of a lot of difference.”

On the one hand: “Back in the old days we didn’t have as many restraints as you do now. For example, for strapping your load, I remember before the twitches came out you’d just pull the chain down with some wire strops and poke it through a lock memory. That was that – away you’d go.

“Everything’s tied down properly now. But in saying that, back in the old days we didn’t lose many logs.”

Obviously, your modern trucks are way more loaded with technology – “but you’ve still got to drive them the same, so nothing has really changed there.

“Nothing much has changed in the bush – the roads are the same. But the loading has changed – you’ve got bigger and heavier loads.”

The dispatching process is much improved, much easier: “Everything’s done on tablets now….your dispatching and

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Clockwise, from top left: Bob’s first new truck as an owner-driver was this 1994 ERF EC14.....after the ERF Bob switched to Scanias, with this 2000 124CB, here in G4 colours....current drive is this two-year-old Kenworth T659 All photos – Chris Hoult

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Top right: Around 1992 Bob bought the ‘85 Volvo N12 that he’d been driving for Nelson Pine Forest and became an owner-driver Right & above: The LW in the mid1970s....and as it now, after being treated to a spectacular rebuild by current owner Steve Hill

Top left: The 2008 Scania R500 (here in Borlase Logging colours) was Bob’s last O/D truck.

All photos – Chris Hoult

everything. It’s bloody good actually. I find it more efficient.”

In terms of drivers these days, in his opinion “some new guys are really good….but some of them are know-alls! They know everything before they hit the dirt. But they learn in a hurry.

“If we ever did that we’d get a kick up the arse or a whack around the head. The old fellas would deal to us. You had a lot of respect for the old fullas.”

Talk about bosses and he reckons: “The bosses I’ve got today – the McIntyres (owners of Waimea Contract Carriers) – I’d put them on the same high grade as the ones I had back then.”

Another thing that Bob is unequivocal about is his belief that every load’s a good load: “I challenge myself every day to make it a good day – to keep my finger on the pulse….

“You see fellas today who don’t look at what’s going on behind them. It just becomes second nature when you do it all the time.”

How about the future? “I’ll see what happens. They might have a three to four days a week, hack-around job. I still enjoy the job – I’ve got a great passion for it.

“She’s been a good life – but I think we got the best of it back in the day, us old fellas.”

His achievement in Nelson log transport has been marked

appropriately – a road in the Golden Downs Forest southwest of Nelson was recently named after him: “They must think I’m a gem…that’s a bit of a privilege.”

Waimea Contract Carriers director Jenny McIntyre says Bob – whose relationship with the company started back in the ‘90s when he was an O/D – is “a great character and an operator that hasn’t needed 100 rules to make him a great operator…

“Because he takes pride in what he does, pride in the equipment, still loves the job. This is what has made him a great operator and this is reflected with his productivity and exemplary safety record.

“Bob has mana – and WCC has been very lucky to have had him as part of our team.”

Hayden Perry says that his Uncle Bob is “a very quiet, humble man – but haha…he changes when he gets in the truck! At work he’s an absolute character. He’s not afraid to speak his mind – so he’s probably upset a couple in his day.

“But those of us that know him well love being around him. An absolute legend in my book. A thankyou to you for running the story: He’s a shy man, but I think his story is one that may not be repeated very often. He’s seen a lot of wood come out of the forest!” T&D Truck & Driver | 75

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FEATURE

Truckers & Loggers

Fishing Tournament 2021

LOTS OF FISHERS… AND FISHES Team Kenworth, on Ata Rangi, tagged and released this marlin

T

HE 2021 SOUTHPAC TRUCKERS & LOGGERS FISHING TOURNAMENT set new records, with 47 teams entering – making the event a sellout.

And the big turnout was rewarded with good catches – the winners also benefitting from a record $80,000 prize pool.

Fishing started hot on day one on the game fish front, with Ata Rangi first to score, with a tagged and released striped marlin caught by Warwick Wilshier, on a 24kg line.

Soon after, there were more tag and release catches made by Steve Horton on Te Kotuku, Warren Whittaker on Mad Max and Grant Stewart on Te Totara. There were another four tags later in the day – on Diesel and Savana City…and two for Neil Weber on board Ata Rangi.

Defiance fished a bit later into the evening and managed to get a 143.4kg striped marlin on a 15kg line, which the team weighed at Whangaroa for angler Alastair Pearson.

The snapper and kingfish specialists were also out measuring and releasing a good number of fish.

Day 2 brought more of the same: This time Defiance was the first to get on a roll, with two tagged striped marlin on 24kg – to

Alastair Pearson and Greg Haliday. Family Jewels followed with a tag and release for Robert Wood, soon followed by Greg Haliday again on Defiance. On board Mad Max, Mark Tucker caught his first marlin and Gene Lewis on Centrefold followed – with Mike Beckham on Free & Easy joining them a bit later.

Day 3 was a bit rougher and a few of the tournament entrants came in – but there were plenty still out there braving the weather.

Diesel was first to tag one, on 15kg with Clarke McRobbie on the reel. Clive Gordon, who has fished the tournament every year for 19 years, achieved his first tagged striped marlin on 37kg line.

And, with only an hour and a half to “stop fishing,” Trevor Jackson – on board Family Jewels – hooked a blue marlin, landed it after over an hour of fighting, and brought it in to be weighed – this one tipping the scales at 150.3kg.

So, after three days’ fishing, the winners were presented with their prizes on Saturday night at the Bay of Islands Swordfish Club’s Paihia clubhouse. The event was aided by a generous sponsor shout and the Calcutta winners’ contribution.

On display – on a three-tier stage, thanks to Bay of Islands Scaffolding and Hire – was the record haul of prizes up for grabs.

Truck & Driver | 77

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There was $80,000-plus worth of Shimano fishing equipment, power tools from ITM Haururu, Weber BBQs and TVs from Barrels 100% Whangarei and “blokey stuff ” from the Man Cave.

The Mainstream team on Defiance dominated – with Alastair Pearson taking out top angler, while he and Greg Haliday and Paul Cocker also won the team honours, and Guy Sutherland was the top skipper. To cap it off, Paddy Bohane and Jessie Dixon won the top deckies prize. Family Jewels however collected the Calcutta.

The heaviest billfish first and second prizes went to Trevor Jackson (New Zealand Truck & Driver team, on Family Jewels) with his 150.3kg blue marlin and Alastair Pearson (Mainstream, on Defiance) with a 143.4kg striped marlin.

Tagged and released billfish first, second and third prizewinners respectively were: Neil Weber (Kenworth, on Ata Rangi), Steve Horton(Top Tranz, on Te Kotuku) and Greg Haliday (Mainstream, on Defiance).

Brent Butler (TRP, on Harlequin) won the heaviest snapper prize with a 6.2kg fish, while first, second and third in the snapper measure and release went to Dan Simmonds (Keri Builders, on Reel Evolution) with a 80cm snapper, Steve Rodgers (Realin & Dealin, on Realin & Dealin) with a 79cm fish and Mark Beauchamp (Keri Builders, on Reel Evolution) with a 76cm fish.

There were no kingfish weighed this year so that prize was given away in a lucky draw. Kingfish measure and release first, second and third went to the Car Haulaways team, on Animal – Alan Syme claiming first and third with 109cm and 101cm fish and Shane Holloway taking second place with a 103cm fish.

Two tuna prizes were awarded, first place taken by Warwick Wilshier with a whopping 64.6kg yellowfin, followed by Mitchell Unkovich with a 24.7kg yellowfin.

This is the 19th year that NZ Truck & Driver and NZ Logger magazines have organised this tournament and all indications are that there will be many more to come.

The organisers extend their special thanks to the contest sponsors: Southpac Trucks, Patchell Industries, SI-Lodec, Castrol, Cummins, CrediFlex, Auckland Oil Shop, Diesel Services Ltd (DSL), NZ Truck & Driver magazine and NZ Logger magazine. T&D

Clockwise, from opposite page, top left: Team TRP busy fishing on Harlequin....a striped marlin hooked up by an angler on Family Jewels. It was tagged and released....the Mainstream team, on Defiance, had a great tournament – taking out top angler, top team, skipper and deckies’ awards, plus other prizes.... Trevor Jackson (holding the rod) took heaviest billfish honours with this 150.3kg blue marlin......this 143.4kg striped marlin earned Mainstream’s Alastair Pearson second place in the heaviest billfish contest....Warwick Wilshier, fishing on Ata Rangi for the Kenworth team, caught the winning tuna.....Alastair Pearson (left) receives his top angler prizes from Southpac Trucks CEO Maarten Durent

Truck & Driver | 79

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FEATURE

Transport Repairs Kenworth K104 recovery unit at work at a simulated crash scene during the training exercise

Apocalyptic ...in a good way Story Brian Cowan Photos Brian Cowan, Nigel Hope

T

HERE’S A DEFINITE TOUCH OF THE POST-APOCALYPTIC to the scene in the worked-out gravel pit to the south of Christchurch.

Here, a tanker unit has rolled down a bank and crushed a car, there an ambulance lies on its side. A broken-down tractor unit towing a semi and a jack-knifed B-train are both blocking traffic, while several other wrecks litter the area.

But heavy breakdown/recovery units from several companies as well as the Army (from the nearby Burnham Camp) are on hand and working busily…

For this Saturday has been carefully set up with multiple crash scene simulations, specifically to provide heavy vehicle recovery operators the opportunity to practice techniques on damaged vehicles under challenging, real-world conditions.

Regional fire and ambulance centres have also been invited to hone their own techniques and have responded enthusiastically.

The weekend has been set up by Nigel Hope, a director of Canterbury-based BTRi (Bus Truck Recovery International). He explains the background: “About seven years ago we bought a set of airbags – used to support heavy vehicles as they’re righted after a rollover – from Australia.

“They were the first in the country and our staff had to go overseas to get training in their use. Several other operators here were interested in learning about them, so we set up a sort of training day, using an insurance writeoff semi we’d bought to demonstrate on. That’s how it started, and we’ve run several such demos since.

“What we found, importantly, was these occasions were also welcomed by the people in the heavy recovery sector as an opportunity to get together and share experiences and compare techniques. There was definite interest, and that has led to this weekend.”

Truck & Driver | 81

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Above: BTRi operators, using a Freightliner Argosy crane unit, practice their recovery technique on the damaged ambulance Below: Crash-damaged truck has served a useful purpose – after being written off

He emphasises the event is not a rigorous “Do it this way” exercise: “It’s not as if we tell people exactly what to do. A lot of these guys have vast experience in recovery techniques. But it gives everybody the opportunity to discuss these various techniques and to learn from one another.

“A lot of us are talking to each other at least once a week. We find it makes good commercial sense to co-operate with each other, and days like this are an opportunity to work on these relationships.”

Attendees for the day, which has the support of the Rolleston and Lincoln volunteer fire brigades, have come from all over the South Island.

Among those in attendance is Jason Popplewell, Gore manager for Transport Repairs, with a full team and the company’s 8x4 Kenworth recovery unit. He reckons exercises like this are invaluable for giving people a chance to practice under realistic conditions, but without the stress of actual emergencies.

Another reason for getting the group together, Nigel Hope says, is to discuss the new permit system, introduced by Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency, that allows heavy recovery operators to tow a full combination that has broken down. Previously, the truck and its trailer or trailers had to be broken into their constituent elements before towing.

But, as he says, operators have found the first set of permit regulations to be unwieldy and expensive: “There were lots of fishhooks in the system so, following submissions, the regulations had been modified. We have a representative from NZTA attending to explain the revised rules to us.”

The 17 or 18 operators around the country doing Truck & Driver | 83

heavy vehicle recovery and towing are members of the NZ Heavy Haulage Association. And though that body has not organised the event, it is very supportive of its aims. As Hope points out, having an umbrella body to look after the wider interests of its members – no matter how specialised their activity – is very important, and the association’s CEO, Jonathan Bhana-Thomson, is fully behind the concept: “Jonathan is very valuable to us because he has so many contacts in Government and official circles. He is very much our go-to man if we want to be in somebody’s ear.”

84 | Truck & Driver

Levin-based Peter Jacob from Jacob Transport Services has helped Nigel Hope organise the weekend. Previously a heavy tow operator, he now concentrates on assessment and consultation for overweight permits, and on piloting.

This weekend, he’s helping participants negotiate the minefield of permit applications. Like Hope, he’s keen to see workable national standards introduced for heavy towing, but believes that MITO is too academic in its approach.

Nigel agrees: “There is no standard in NZ for heavy towing –

All pictures: A terrible-looking accident scene – with a tanker rolled off the road, onto a car – provides a great opportunity for emergency services and heavy vehicle recovery operators alike to practice their rescue and recovery techniques without the stress and trauma of a real-life accident

never has been. So at BTRi we have adopted the online exams published by the Towing and Recovery Association of America.

It’s not ideal – the guys have to sit at a computer for three hours, and often they are more comfortable being tested in a hands-on, practical environment.

“But I believe in this day and age you have to have something that demonstrates you’ve achieved a certain level of training.

If Worksafe fronts up to a site and asks to see your certificate, it’s not enough to say you’ve learnt it all on the job. You’d look

pretty stupid if there was a court hearing after an accident and you had to tell the judge: ‘My Dad taught me how to do it.’

“My guys have all passed the American exams, and I’m trying to encourage the rest of the operators in our segment of the business to pick them up. I’m also hopeful of the American association sending me materials that lend themselves to a more hands-on training environment.

“I hope that in time we can establish a training standard that suits the needs of the industry.” T&D

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FEATURE

A FUSO eCanter cruises (silently, cleanly) through the streets of Manhattan.

Now the world’s first series-produced etruck is coming to Auckland

Story Wayne Munro

New York, Tokyo, Paris...

Auckland

H

ERE’S THE LIST: NEW YORK, TOKYO, BERLIN, LONDON, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Lisbon….and Auckland.

What have they got in common? Well, for one thing, as of sometime in the next month or so they’ll all be cities where FUSO’s all-electric light-duty eCanter is on the road…and working.

Three and a half years and 200-plus trucks into what Daimler Trucks says proudly is the world’s first series-production electric truck, it’s New Zealand’s turn to put some of them on the road.

The first six Kiwi FUSO eCanters are due to arrive here this month – five of them set to go to work in Auckland Transport’s so-called Queen Street Valley Zero Emissions Area (ZEA) trial.

Mainfreight, Bidfood, Toll, Owens Transport and Vector OnGas will be running the eCanters in the trial – the cost of the etrucks subsidised to the tune of almost $100,000 per truck by the Government, via the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority’s Low Emission Vehicle Contestable Fund.

The ZEA trial is to be used “to develop a clearer understanding of how the integration of electric trucks will affect transport and delivery systems.”

The project will generate data collected by EROAD, and provide “insights to inform future policy development for implementing the ZEA for urban freight, and high visibility.”

The other truck in the first batch of eCanters landing here this

month is earmarked as a demonstrator for Fuso NZ – picking up another $242,500 worth of EECA funding “to build transport industry awareness and wider acceptance of electric trucks.”

In February’s announcement of the EECA subsidies, in addition to the six eCanters, another $500,000 was put towards the cost of putting five Hyundai fuel cell electric trucks into “real-world daily logistics operation trials” in NZ. Together they were part of an EECA funding round totalling $3.7million – with the 22 recipients of grants themselves contributing an additional total of $9.4m.

In announcing the funding, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods said that the Climate Change Commission “rightly points out how crucial reducing transport emissions is to meeting our climate change goals.

“It shows we are on the right track by supporting the uptake of cleaner technologies.

“Demonstrating and proving the potential for electric and hydrogen heavy vehicles is important, as heavy freight has an outsized impact on transport emissions.”

Daimler Truck says that with the FUSO eCanter it has staked its claim “as a pioneer and leader in electric trucks – working towards providing sustainable, CO2-neutral transport.

By February, more than 40 eCanters were running in the United States, over 60 in Japan and over 100 in customer Truck & Driver | 87

operations in Europe. Between them all they’ve so far clockedup over three million kilometres.

FUSO is proud of its pioneering role in the development of electric trucks and their manufacture in significant numbers, saying it “leads the commercial vehicle industry into the future” – in line with Daimler Truck’s sustainability strategy and its aim to have all new vehicles in the Triad (Europe, North America, and Japan) “tank-to-wheel” CO2-neutral by 2039.

Fuso NZ managing director Kurtis Andrews says the company is “delighted to be the first to bring NZ a zero-emissions delivery truck, which includes fully integrated advanced safety systems.

“This is a project we have focused on for a number of years and we are looking forward to getting these units out to work for our customers.

“FUSO eCanter is ideal for inner city delivery,” says Andrews: “It is easy to drive, produces zero emissions and is virtually silent, which is a huge benefit for inner city residents and workers.

“We’d love to hear from operators interested in integrating an FUSO eCanter into their fleet.”

The eCanter is driven by a permanent synchronous electric motor, powered by an 81kWh (420v) lithium-ion, liquid-cooled battery pack. It delivers an impressive 135kW of power and 390Nm of torque – which is instantly available.

Fuso NZ says the eCanter will have a range of 100-150 kilometres on a single charge – making it well-suited to metro work including FMCG delivery, furniture removal, refuse and recycling, light commercial work and chilled goods delivery.

The eCanter has a 7500 kilogram gross vehicle weight, making it capable of carrying a 3500kg payload.

Two-stage regeneration captures kinetic energy created by the truck’s momentum and stores it in the batteries for future use.

The company says that efficient use of the regeneration settings will extend the practical range.

The electric drivetrain is fitted to a standard 3400mm wheelbase FUSO Canter cab chassis, meaning customers and bodybuilders have the same, familiar 750mm wide frame to work with.

A standard CCS2 plug is used for charging, with downtime minimised using DC fast-charge capability that will have the battery at 80% capacity in less than an hour. Each truck comes equipped with an AC charge cable (max 32A), which will allow a full charge overnight, using offpeak power.

Fuso NZ calculates that it will cost $10 to fully recharge the 88 | Truck & Driver

battery pack, from 20% – that based on an offpeak residential rate of $0.15c per kWh. The etruck also qualifies for RUC exemption, it adds. And it estimates that that truck will reduce maintenance costs by up to 50% compared to an equivalent diesel truck.

Fuso NZ says that “the eCanter’s sustainability credentials are matched by its exceptionally high safety standards.” Crash avoidance/minimising technologies on board include active emergency braking, lane departure warning, electronic stability control and disc brakes all around.

In the leadup to this month’s arrival of the first batch of Kiwi eCanters, Fuso NZ ran a day-long eCanter launch/familiarisation in Auckland for invited guests from the companies and organisations participating in the ZEA trial, plus Government and infrastructure organisations.

As well as being offered test drives, the guests were provided with a full demonstration of the eCanter and given “insight into developments and trends around EV technology and power infrastructure, particularly from a transport operator perspective.”

Fuso NZ head of sales and customer experience Kathy Schluter says “the knowledge shared was invaluable and created some great discussions amongst the group.

“We’re all excited to finally see FUSO eCanter arrive and go to work in the Auckland CBD. “The ZEA trial very much sets the scene for the future, particularly for these early adopters who have joined us on this journey leading the charge.”

So what is driving the eCanter actually like?

NZ Truck & Driver tester Hayden Woolston had the opportunity for a brief drive of a pre-launch test unit a few months ago and found the instantly-available peak torque from the electric motor “unbelievable: Initially, you find yourself wanting to beat cars off the mark at lights!

“Obviously, you soon settle into driving normally – but you find you don’t ever have to struggle to merge in traffic and so on.

“The torque is as smooth as hell: Obviously, no gearchanges, so no drop in revs – it’s just constant torque. Smooth all the way through.”

He hopped out (reluctantly) feeling impressed with every aspect of it…but most of all the pleasure of driving it.

I drove an eCanter on a FUSO media trip to Japan in mid-2018

All pictures, from left, to right: Participants in the ZEA trial were given a full demonstration of the eCanter at a recent launch function....the cab differs from a standard Canter primarily in its dash display....the eCanters will soon become a regular sight around the Auckland metro area

– and a previously negative attitude towards electric vehicles, spawned by the likes of the ugly, utilitarian Toyota Prius and its ilk, was immediately blown away.

It was, as I reckoned at the time, “good, clean fun” – what you’d expect in a Tesla Roadster, but a cool surprise in a 7.5 t. truck!

As I added: “The thought occurs that if you’re a transport operator running trucks in a metro area, and you’re short of drivers….replace all your current city trucks with eCanters! Once word gets around how cool they are to drive, you’ll have plenty of people wanting to drive ‘em.” T&D

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Road Transport Association NZ

Have your say on transport plans

By Simon Carson, RTANZ chief operating officer

R

EGIONAL LAND TRANSPORT PLANS (RLTPs) ARE CURRENTLY under review in many parts of the country.

These plans are usually set for between six and 10 years by regional councils, and come up for review every three years for accuracy of tracking, and to encourage further engagement from stakeholders.

Under the Land Transport Management Act, RLTPs then contribute to what the National Land Transport Plan (NLTP) will look like. The regional plans are posted to respective council websites, and distributed by RTANZ senior industry advisers to regional members who have an opportunity to have their say on the direction the plans might take.

Often, the requirements of industry are overlooked by regional authorities reviewing RLTPs, resulting in decisions being made that have an adverse effect on productivity and efficiency of heavy vehicles using regional routes.

It is vitally important that the RLTP proposals are given serious consideration by operators and submissions from regions are aligned closely with industry requirements.

Along with the rest of the world, New Zealand has seen the price of almost every consumer product rise significantly due to the current international situation. NZ’s supply chain is based on an efficiency model – it does not have the capacity to handle requirements that turn up with little to no notice. Yet road transport businesses are expected to quickly scale up to cater for what is an unsettled international supply chain.

Containerised traffic through all our major ports is reaching near-record volumes and a recent Ministry of Transport stakeholder workshop identified that much of the congestion and market situation is because of the ports. Identification of import and export trends now will help mitigate longterm challenges.

Some serious work to develop a national supply chain strategy is required if we are to see any relief from our current freight congestion problems.

Compliance is continually at the top of the association’s radar.

Simon Carson

“It is vitally important that the RLTP proposals are given serious consideration by operators” Waka Kotahi NZTA’s Weigh Right programme continues to be rolled out through improvements at existing sites, and the construction of new facilities.

The CVSCs (Commercial Vehicle Safety Centres) are located on specified heavy vehicle routes and cover 46% of the total freight kilometres travelled in NZ. Selected sites are all locations that are difficult for truck drivers to avoid.

The Rakaia site in mid-Canterbury is no exception to this scenario, and RTA – along with other stakeholders – has for a long time been adamant that the chosen location for the proposed CVSC is dangerous.

The last discussion I had with Waka Kotahi NZTA was that it was still proposing to build on the Rakaia site between the two bridges, but has now “proposed” a split site – with northbound and southbound CVSCs to eliminate heavy traffic having to turn across a dangerous and extremely busy part of the highway.

Still, even this proposal does not assist heavy motor vehicles in merging onto SH1 in a heavy traffic area – using short merge lanes. RTANZ continues to advocate for members on the national Weigh Right programme.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to observe the passing of an industry stalwart from Region 5. On March 20, we lost David Roy Potter, 75, after a short illness.

Dave provided many years of service to RTA members in his time at the association, and working with industry in other roles.

He was a respected RTANZ life member and a 2015 inductee into the NZ Road Transport Hall of Fame, and will be missed by all who knew him. T&D Truck & Driver | 91

National Road Carriers

Open letter to Government authorities:

Please consider road freight

By David Aitken, CEO of National Road Carriers Association

T

O WHOM IT MAY CONCERN IN GOVERNMENTAL AUTHORITY – including the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Infrastructure and Building, their ministries and departments….and mayors and councils of cities and towns, and your transport and planning departments: When you are planning transport routes within and between cities and towns, and new developments – including houses, shops, schools and industry – please consider how we are going to transport building supplies in the first instance…

And, secondly, how we are going to transport food, clothing and medicines, as well as imported parts for our industries and exports to our trading partners overseas.

It seems blindingly obvious that the transport of goods should be factored into transport and infrastructure plans. But, from our perspective in the road transport industry, whenever there has been talk about transport recently, the focus has been 99% about how people move from A to B in cars, buses, trains, bikes or by foot – with little consideration of freight.

Two multi-billion dollar announcements in March highlighted the scale of this negligence.

The $31billion Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) report about the future of transport in our biggest city over the next 10 years, announced on March 12 by Minister of Transport Michael Wood and Mayor of Auckland Phil Goff, is practically silent on road freight.

There was one small paragraph about road freight buried in this landmark report, which focused almost entirely on transitioning people from travelling in private cars to public transport, walking or cycling (which we support, by the way).

Despite a National Road Carriers representative sitting on an Auckland Transport advisory committee, our views were not sought or represented in the ATAP report. There is almost 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. 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.

There was no mention of the long-delayed, all important East-West link project, between the Nelson St interchange at SH20 and the Mt Wellington interchange on SH1 – with connections to local roads in Onehunga and Penrose. Nor was there any mention of upgrades to other strategic arterial routes including Favona Road, which is a Level 1B route (second-highest priority) – servicing 2021 transport on a 1960s road network.

The second major announcement that will require a much more robust road freight infrastructure was the Government’s plan to build tens of thousands of new houses, announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on March 23. The proposed increased level of house

David Aitken

construction will require a corresponding increase in construction supply traffic….and our current roading plans do not allow for this.

We acknowledge that part of the Government’s housing announcement was a $3.8bn Housing Acceleration Fund for vital infrastructure, but we are yet to see how much of that is tagged for road freight infrastructure.

The Government is planning to boost apprenticeships, which will mean increased worker traffic that cannot be accommodated by public transport. And when each housing development is completed, often in formerly rural areas, there will be an increase in supermarket delivery vehicles, as well as waste, recycling and other utility vehicles.

The problem with not giving due consideration to road freight is that the authorities’ hoped-for improvements from these announcements cannot be realised unless the transport of building supplies, consumables, exports and imports is taken into account. The roads in our cities and towns will remain clogged and new housing developments will take years longer than necessary.

Our plea to you transport and infrastructure authorities is to talk to us – the road freight industry. We are Kiwis who want to see New Zealand flourish. We operate at the coalface of transport. We are open-minded to change – for example we are promoting industry initiatives to reduce carbon emissions from heavy transport to address climate change.

From our perspective, road transport is going to be crucial to deliver building supplies and goods for the foreseeable future. We want to ensure our onroad experience and knowledge contributes to making road transport as effective and efficient as it can possibly be.

On behalf of the road transport industry.

Yours sincerely T&D David Aitken Truck & Driver | 93

This new Kenworth T610 logger has gone to work for Tokoroa’s Alan Forbes Transport. Te Awamutu-based Ben Ostern drives the 8x4, which has 550578hp Cummins X15, an 18-speed Roadranger manual and Meritor 46-160 diffs on Airglide 460 suspension. It has Evans bolsters on the truck, and pulls a matching five-axle trailer

A positive sign?

H

ARD ON THE HEELS OF THE trans-Tasman travel bubble being confirmed by the Government, came positive signs in New Zealand’s new truck and trailer markets.

Maybe, just maybe, the industry is returning to some semblance of pre-COVID 19 normality.

The March Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency statistics on new truck registrations (4.5 tonnes to maximum GVM) showed a promising upturn.

Not only was the 503-truck total healthily up on February (321) – and on March last year (347)….

It also improved on the 495 registrations back in March 2019 – a time when COVID 19 was still many months away from even entering our vocabulary. And that has made this March performance a new alltime record for the month.

The ravages of COVID were still felt though, with 2021’s 1119 first quarter sales: While they amounted to a 7.08% improvement on Q1 last year, they still fell way short of 2019’s 1300. (That’s almost 14% behind the benchmark first quarter).

The official NZTA stats show that the heavy trailer market also lifted in March – the 131 registrations were significantly up on the previous month (with 105 registrations) and on March last year (when just 91 trailers were registered). On the other hand, it was still well behind the 153 registrations in March 2019.

Year-to-date, the 337 trailer registrations to the end of March were, similarly, 34 behind 2019’s Q1 total, but 27 up on last year’s tally.

In the overall 4.5t-maximum GVM truck market, Isuzu (220/104) reclaimed the top spot from FUSO (210/84) – for the month and the year so far.

However, the Q1 totals show that the longtime NZ market No. 1 has given up some of its market share to FUSO – Isuzu now holding a 19.7% share, compared to FUSO’s 18.8%. Their figures last year were 23.8% and 16.5% respectively.

The next three in the YTD standings – Hino (159/73), Kenworth (69/28) and Volvo (66/29) – retained their February positions, while Iveco (65/42)

(continued on page 97) Truck & Driver | 95

Hokitika company Henry Adams Contracting has put this new 130 tonne-rated Kenworth T610 6x4 tractor unit on the road, moving earthmoving machinery around the West Coast. It has a 615hp Cummins X15, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox and Meritor RT50-160GP diffs on Neway suspension. It works with a new MTE three rows of eight transporter

23,001kg-max GVM 4501kg-max GVM

Brand ISUZU FUSO HINO KENWORTH VOLVO IVECO MERCEDES-BENZ SCANIA FOTON DAF UD HYUNDAI SINOTRUK FIAT MAN FREIGHTLINER WESTERN STAR INTERNATIONAL MACK VOLKSWAGEN SHACMAN Total

2021 Vol 220 210 159 68 66 65 63 62 39 38 35 23 13 12 12 11 5 5 5 5 3 1119

% 19.7 18.8 14.2 6.1 5.9 5.8 5.6 5.5 3.5 3.4 3.1 2.1 1.2 1.1 1.1 1.0 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.3 100.0

March Vol % 104 20.7 84 16.7 73 14.5 28 5.6 29 5.8 42 8.3 28 5.6 31 6.2 16 3.2 16 3.2 16 3.2 6 1.2 6 1.2 5 1.0 3 0.6 7 1.4 0 0.0 1 0.2 3 0.6 4 0.8 1 0.2 503 100.0

3501-4500kg GVM

Brand FIAT VOLKSWAGEN MERCEDES-BENZ PEUGEOT FORD RENAULT LDV ISUZU Total

2021 Vol 92 36 13 11 9 6 2 1 170

% 54.1 21.2 7.6 6.5 5.3 3.5 1.2 0.6 100.0

March Vol % 32 38.6 30 36.1 3 3.6 7 8.4 7 8.4 1 1.2 2 2.4 1 1.2 83 100.0

4501-7500kg GVM

Brand FUSO ISUZU MERCEDES-BENZ HINO FOTON IVECO HYUNDAI FIAT VOLKSWAGEN Total 96 | Truck & Driver

2021 Vol 115 69 40 32 25 23 20 12 5 341

% 33.7 20.2 11.7 9.4 7.3 6.7 5.9 3.5 1.5 100.0

March Vol % 49 32.7 27 18.0 17 11.3 16 10.7 12 8.0 14 9.3 6 4.0 5 3.3 4 2.7 150 100.0

In the premium 23t-max GVM sector, Kenworth (68/28) continued to lead......

7501-15,000kg GVM

Brand ISUZU HINO FUSO FOTON IVECO UD HYUNDAI DAF MERCEDES-BENZ Total

2021 Vol 99 60 42 14 8 4 3 1 1 232

% 42.7 25.9 18.1 6.0 3.4 1.7 1.3 0.4 0.4 100.0

March Vol % 50 52.1 24 25.0 15 15.6 4 4.2 2 2.1 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 1.0 96 100.0

15,001-20,500kg GVM

Brand HINO FUSO SCANIA MERCEDES-BENZ IVECO ISUZU UD MAN DAF FREIGHTLINER Total

2021 Vol 19 12 5 5 5 5 5 2 1 1 60

% 31.7 20.0 8.3 8.3 8.3 8.3 8.3 3.3 1.7 1.7 100.0

March Vol % 6 24.0 6 24.0 0 0.0 1 4.0 3 12.0 4 16.0 4 16.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 4.0 25 100.0

20,501-23,000kg GVM

Brand FUSO HINO Total

2021 Vol 3 3 6

% 50.0 50.0 100.0

March Vol % 0 0.0 3 100.0 3 100.0

Brand KENWORTH VOLVO SCANIA ISUZU HINO FUSO DAF IVECO UD MERCEDES-BENZ SINOTRUK MAN FREIGHTLINER WESTERN STAR INTERNATIONAL MACK SHACMAN Total

2021 Vol 68 66 57 47 45 38 36 29 26 17 13 10 10 5 5 5 3 480

% 14.2 13.8 11.9 9.8 9.4 7.9 7.5 6.0 5.4 3.5 2.7 2.1 2.1 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.6 100.0

March Vol % 28 12.2 29 12.7 31 13.5 23 10.0 24 10.5 14 6.1 16 7.0 23 10.0 12 5.2 9 3.9 6 2.6 3 1.3 6 2.6 0 0.0 1 0.4 3 1.3 1 0.4 229 100.0

Trailers

2021 Vol % Brand PATCHELL 48 14.2 FRUEHAUF 35 10.4 24 7.1 MTE DOMETT 23 6.8 ROADMASTER 20 5.9 TMC 17 5.0 TRANSPORT TRAILERS 16 4.7 FREIGHTER 12 3.6 12 3.6 TES TRANSFLEET 11 3.3 JACKSON 9 2.7 9 2.7 CWS LUSK 6 1.8 MILLS-TUI 5 1.5 5 1.5 TIDD EVANS 4 1.2 LILLEY 4 1.2 FAIRFAX 4 1.2 MAXICUBE 4 1.2 HAMMAR 4 1.2 MTC 4 1.2 COWAN 3 0.9 KRAFT 3 0.9 SDC 3 0.9 MAKARANUI 3 0.9 MD 3 0.9 SEC 2 0.6 WAIMEA 2 0.6 LOWES 2 0.6 OTHER 40 11.9 Total 337 100.0

March Vol % 21 16.0 14 10.7 14 10.7 9 6.9 3 2.3 7 5.3 7 5.3 4 3.1 4 3.1 3 2.3 3 2.3 5 3.8 4 3.1 1 0.8 1 0.8 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.8 1 0.8 2 1.5 2 1.5 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 2 1.5 3 2.3 0 0.0 2 1.5 2 1.5 16 12.2 131 100.0

Christchurch operator Road Metals ran a Facebook contest to choose the name of its new Mack Trident. Rock Solid is the result – a 6x4 tractor unit with a 535hp MP8 engine, mDrive AMT, Mack 2370B diffs on air suspension and disc brakes all around

(continued from page 95) jumped three places into sixth, at the expense of Mercedes-Benz (63/28), Scania (62/31) and Foton (39/16). DAF (38/16) retained 10th.

In the 3.5-4.5t GVM crossover segment, Fiat (92/32) continued to lead, while Volkswagen (36/30) displaced Mercedes-Benz (13/3) for second, with Peugeot (11/7) and Ford (9/7) going ahead of Renault (6/1). The category saw the addition of newcomers LDV (2/2) and Isuzu (1/1).

In the 4.5-7.5t segment, FUSO (115/49) jumped further ahead of Isuzu (69/27), with Mercedes-Benz (40/17) and Hino (32/16) retaining third and fourth.

Foton (25/12) and Iveco (23/14) each gained a place, at the cost of Hyundai (20/6).

In the 7.5-15t class, Isuzu (99/50) made big gains – almost doubling its YTD total. Hino (60/24), FUSO (42/15), Foton (14/4), Iveco (8/2), UD (4/0), Hyundai (3/0) and DAF (1/1) held their places – joined by newcomer Mercedes-Benz (1/1) In the small 15-20.5t GVM category, Hino (19/6) held its lead over FUSO (12/6) – with Scania (5/0),

Mercedes-Benz (5/1), Iveco (5/3) and Isuzu and UD (both 5/4) tied for third.

And in the very tiny 20.5-23t division, FUSO (3/0) was joined by Hino (3/3).

In the premium 23t-max GVM sector, Kenworth (68/28) continued to lead, with second-placed Volvo (66/29) and Scania (57/31), in third, closing slightly.

Isuzu (47/23) and Hino (45/24) both overtook FUSO (38/14) for fourth and fifth respectively.

DAF (36/16) held seventh, while Iveco (29/23) improved four places to eighth, at the expense of UD (26/12) and Mercedes-Benz (17/9).

In the heavy trailer market, No. 1 Patchell (48/21) stretched its lead with a strong month, ahead of YTD runner-up Fruehauf (35/14). MTE (24/14) and Domett (23/9) both overtook Roadmaster (20/3) for third and fourth respectively.

The rest of the top 10 retained their positions, with TMC (17/7) in sixth, ahead of Transport Trailers (16/7), Freighter (12/4), TES (12/4) and Transfleet (11/3). T&D Truck & Driver | 97

Auckland’s Singh Roadways has put this new UD Quon GK17-420 tractor unit onto container hauling duties in the region. The 4x2 tows a two-axle Hammar sideloader

Balclutha’s McLellan Freight has put this new Kenworth K200 2.3 Aerodyne on the road. The 8x4 has a 615hp Cummins X15, an Eaton UltraShift AMT, Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Airglide suspension, an MD Engineering curtainsider body and a matching five-axle trailer

98 | Truck & Driver

This new Mack Trident tractor unit is now at work around the North Island, carting demolition material for the Nikau Group.

It has a 535hp MP8 engine, mDrive AMT, Mack 2370B diffs and Mack suspension.

Extras include a four-post King bullbar

Trimac Services

K & L Distributors BOP Ltd

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Trimac Services is owned and operated by Irene & Bruce McPherson. We have a long association with the supply of oil and lubricants to Northland with the majority of this time representing Caltex.

We pride ourselves in exceeding our customer’s expectation in terms of delivering product and service to our business partners.

Talk to us for quality Caltex lubricants to suit your specific requirements.

AND HAWKES BAY

Westland Engineering Supplies 03-768 5720

TD31098

Trimac Services Kioreroa Rd (behind Caltex Diesel Stop) Whangarei PH 09 4380 258 Email: office@trimacservices.co.nz

Bruce McPherson 0274 932 914 Call Rhys McPherson 0274380258 Email: rhys@trimacservices.co.nz

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RON SMITH LTD & DIRECT TRANSPORT

S This is the story of a gentlemen who purchased a small carrier’s business in Opotiki in 1940. With his leadership he built this up to be one of the major transport companies in New Zealand. His foresight and sincerity in dealing with people encouraged others to join him. Once Opotiki was established he shifted to Rotorua. With his very able accountant he formed Direct Transport (Holdings) Ltd. This was achieved by joining with Lightning Nelson Interests in 1966. He retired and continued his social work with church and service clubs. Ron Smith died in 1992.

After Ron Smith shifted to Rotorua, the Opotiki operation was run by Des Lysaght and Gavin Abbot.

Des retired in 1968 and I carried on as manager till I retired in 1985. This story mainly deals with Opotiki Depot and trucks until it closed when Dawes took over Direct.

LIMITED EDITION TD31544

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For your copy contact: Postage: Gavin Abbot, 34 Elliott Street, Opotiki 3122 Or email: clamyhen@xtra.co.nz Truck & Driver | 103

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We supply parts for Mercedes Trucks and Commercial Vans, imported directly from the parts manufacturers in Germany.

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116 Colombo St, Frankton, Ph: (07) 847 9343

sales@autosprings.co.nz www.autosprings.co.nz 1960’s

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104 | Truck & Driver

31 YEARS IN NZ (1964-1995) In the early 1960’s, New Zealand Forest Products Ltd in Tokoroa were looking for suitable replacements for their iconic fleet of International logging trucks. In 1964, two 848 model off-highway Kenworth’s were finally put to work hauling logs in to the Kinleith mill, and so started New Zealand’s love affair with the legendary Kenworth brand.

Over the next 31 years, nearly 1000 various model Kenworth trucks arrived to ply the nation’s highways & byways.

Edwin Mansell, Grant Gadsby and Paul Livsey have embarked on their next literary endeavour to encapsulate the photographic history of the ownership of these trucks over that 31 year period.

This edition, follows on from the successful sell-out of the Mack 1000 book.

With an approximate price of $150 + postage, it is envisaged that the Kenworth book will be published in 2023 to commemorate Kenworth’s centenary of manufacture.

Now is the time to place your order for this 500 page coffee table styled book. It will be the perfect partner for the Mack book in your collection.

Email Ed, Grant or Paul to advise your interest in this once in a lifetime Kenworth pictorial history.

mansell@orcon.net.nz grant.gadsby3@xtra.co.nz Paul.Livsey@trgroup.co.nz

BLENHEIM Riverlands Roadhouse State Highway 1

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Due to our ever growing business, we are looking for experienced professional Diesel Mechanics for our branches in:

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