New Zealand Trucking August 2020

HRT SCANIA HITS THE RURAL SWEET SPOT

AUGUST 2020

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CONTENTS WATCH T HE V IDEO IN T HE DIG ITAL EDIT ION

22

38

Wood from the trees – All in good time

Just like number 8 wire – Scania makes it work

42

A truck that had a home – Farewell ‘Argy’

INTERNATIONAL TRUCK OF THE YEAR

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EDITOR

Dave McCoid

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Gavin Myers

Ph: 027 492 5601 Email: editor@nztrucking.co.nz Ph: 027 660 6608 Email: gavin@nztrucking.com

For all advertising enquiries for NZ Trucking magazine and Truck Trader contact: Matt Smith

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Pav Warren

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SUB EDITOR

OFFICE ADMINISTRATION

Faye Lougher

Georgi George

CONTRIBUTORS

PUBLISHER

Craig Andrews Carl Kirkbeck Faye Lougher Craig McCauley Jacqui Madelin Niels Jansen (Europe) Howard Shanks (Australia) Will Shiers (UK) Paul O’Callaghan

Long Haul Publications Ltd

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Ricky Harris

Long Haul Publications Ltd 511 Queen Street Thames 3500 PO Box 35 Thames 3500

06 Editorial 46 Ben’s ultimate logger – Main test follow-up

DIGITAL IMAGING

Willie Coyle

50 Top Truck – Smooth as whisky

DIGITAL MANAGER/CONTENT

Louise Stowell New Zealand Trucking magazine is published by Long Haul Publishing Ltd. The contents are copyright and may not be reproduced without the consent of the editor. Unsolicited editorial material may be submitted, but should include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. While every care is taken, no responsibility is accepted for material submitted.

Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of New Zealand Trucking or Long Haul Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

This magazine is subject to the New Zealand Press Council.

Complaints are to be first directed to: editor@nztrucking.co.nz with “Press Council Complaint” in the subject line.

If unsatisfied, the complaint may be referred to the Press Council, PO Box 10 879, The Terrace, Wellington 6143 or by email at info@presscouncil.org.nz Further details and online complaints at www.presscouncil.org.nz

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A new direction in truck design – Meet the Volta

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54 Just Truckin’ Around 56 Top Truck of the Year – Time to vote 58 When towing gets exotic – Big money Canter 62 Good on ya mate – Making a young man’s day

84 Moving Metrics 92 Product Update – More from MyTrucking 94 Business Profile – Auto Batteries 96 IRTENZ – Lockdown and the law 98 Truckers’ Health

64 Classics Locker – Early days of broadcast

99 Health and Safety

67 Gallery – Back down the road

102 NZ Trucking Association

68 International Truck Stop – Long-haul legend

104 Road Transport Forum

72 Light Commercial Test – Amarok’s dark side

100 Legal Lines

106 The Last Mile

76 New Rigs 78 New Bodies and Trailers

B R OUG HT T O YO U B Y

80 Little Truckers’ Club 81 What’s On 0820-10

ABC Audited circulation 7092 as at September 2017 Nielsen audited readership 95,000 as at 01–2016

KEEPING NEW ZEALAND ON THE ROAD WITH SERVICE OUTLETS IN 28 LOCATIONS AROUND THE COUNTRY

0820-10

JUST ONE OF THE REASONS WE’VE BEEN #1 FOR 20 YEARS

EDITORIAL

STAND UP, BE COUNTED

N

ews outlet Newsroom Pro recently reported the NZTA is signalling to suppliers a significant reduction in road maintenance budgets for both state highway and regional roads.

Given the current state of both networks, this must constitute a workplace safety issue for the road transport industry, and as such the industry and its representatives must take a significant stand.

The 1 July RUC increase, and now this, are clear signs of the contempt with which our needs are considered in Wellington.

The premise behind the move is cribbing money to fund big infrastructure projects. As the piece rightly said, maintenance is something that can start today,

without need for protracted consenting processes. We absolutely cannot afford to wind the wick back on maintenance.

If the government believes a half-court basketball facility in Stratford, or beautifying Taupo’s main street, are more important than fixing the Napier-Taupo Road, Takaka Hill road, or every inch of Northland’s bitumen, then that belief needs a response beyond what we’ve been able to muster for some time.

Spending Covid-borrowed money on community projects to win votes, rather than on lifelines key in the generation of vital national income, is nothing short of reprehensible, and will put lives at risk.

So, now what? I implore everyone to get on board

the NRC’s 2020 Roading Campaign. It’s no use starting something new – we’ve got more representation than Winston Peters has excuses or Ardern platitudes – and NRC has a mechanism in place. It doesn’t matter if you’re a member or not, this is a national industry crisis and workplace safety issue.

Here’s an excerpt from NRCs call for data: “…we need your help identifying areas of disrepair to our country’s roads, highlighting potholes, shoulder collapses, uneven surfaces, and any other safety concerns regarding the road condition.”

Here are the delivery conduits cited in communications: • Share photos (if you can take them safely) and locations to

Dave McCoid

our [NRC’s] Facebook page • Email them to: enquiries@natroad.co.nz • Text to 021 011 665 060 • National Road Carriers Roading Complaints portal https://www.natroad.co.nz/ ContactForm?Action=View& ContactForm_id=2 Following the collection phase, I assume NRC will lobby government via the RTF. We can then give the government some suggested courses of action and consequences if we’re ignored.

The result of inaction on this will be dead truck drivers.

Plain and simple.

IF THERE WAS EVER A PLACE reinforced that we may in fact be a generation that immerses itself in celebrating mediocrity, it’s State Highway 60, the Takaka Hill road joining Golden Bay with the rest of New Zealand.

Golden Bay is home to 6000 people, dairy farms, a dairy factory, a growing aquaculture scene, forestry, a quarry, Farewell Spit, and one end of the Heaphy Track.

SH60 is the only realistic practical way in or out.

In early 2018 Cyclone Gita gave SH60 a beating, shutting it for a short time. The road progressively reopened; first cars, then trucks, then trucks with trailers, and finally in April that year, all-comers, albeit restricted to a single lane of 1.5 kilometres length on traffic light control at either end.

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In December 2019 the NZTA put out a press release saying $20 million had been provided to complete the last five major repair sites “this summer”. In the release the contractor said it “will now conduct essential planning and preparation work before rolling out the heavy machinery”. This would allow completion in a safe and efficient way.

On the day I penned this editorial, the end of summer 2019 was 152 days past, but the single lane on SH60 was longer, and the traffic lights on a 14-minute phase. Let’s be fair though, and allow 60 days for Covid, so the new number is 92 days.

There’s no question Gita caused significant damage to the road, but in terms of

scale as a civil engineering or remediation project, it’s not grand. If we showed the old codgers who worked at Twizel, and said ‘here’s the issue, and here’s where we are two and half years later’, they’d be aghast.

Agriculture, aquaculture, and forestry are all jewels in the Covid recovery plan evidently. We’re being petitioned to holiday locally so we can keep tourism on life support while our borders are shut. Yet here’s a region that has it all, facing its third spring/summer with its critical arterial route compromised but for a mere 1.5 kilometres.

You have to ask, in two decades, what will we have to show for $50 billion dollars spent. I’d suggest not a lot.

Dave McCoid Editor

0820-24

F

rom a clinical perspective we did well curbing Covid’s attempt to ransack the health of New Zealanders. Was success due to leadership, timing, demography, or oceans?

Those with something to gain will choose whichever suits their cause. In reality it was probably a combination of all four.

Determining the success of the economic recovery won’t have such fuzzy edges, its tap roots will be in plain view.

We’ve borrowed $50 billionodd dollars; how we spend it and what it yields starts now.

Prior to Covid, the government lamented a lack of productivity, a situation that’s not their fault alone; its roots were spawned long ago.

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ROAD NOISE NEWS

HINO FINANCE OFFERS 12 MONTHS DEFERRED PAYMENT With the aim of giving business a boost, Hino New Zealand and Heartland bank have partnered to provide an improved finance offering.

Payments on new Hino Trucks can now be deferred for 365 days with a 25% deposit, 180 days with a 15% deposit, and 90 days with 0% deposit.

Hino Finance provides up to 100% finance (including GST) on payment terms of up to seven years.

It is hoped that this will ease the cashflow burden for business operators in these challenging times. “We developed this finance offer to provide our customers with the opportunity to increase cash flow by putting their Hino asset to work straight away, before paying for the asset at a later date,” says, Hino NZ general manager Darren Salt.

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

The offer is available until 31 December 2020 and can be applied for in minutes via a simple online form at: www.hinofinance.co.nz.

8 New Zealand Trucking

ROADSIDE DRUG DRIVER TESTING BILL INTRODUCED

T

he government has announced details of a planned new law to give police the power to conduct random roadside drug testing of drivers, through The Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill.

“This new law will allow police to test if drivers are under the influence of drugs anywhere, any time, just as they do now for alcohol,” said Minister of Police Stuart Nash.

Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter said that last year, 103 people died in crashes where the driver was later found to have drugs in their system, and more needed to be done to stop impaired drivers getting behind the wheel.

“The Bill allows police to use oral fluid tests to check drivers for drugs, which are likely to include THC (cannabis), methamphetamine, opiates, cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy), and benzodiazepines. These are currently the most prevalent and high-risk drugs and medications used by drivers in New Zealand.

“Under this law, drivers who test positive for the presence of drugs will be fined, immediately

August 2020

suspended from driving for 12 hours, and lose half their demerit points.”

Drivers would also face harsher criminal penalties where blood tests confirm impairing levels of drugs in their system, or drugs combined with alcohol.

“We all want driving on our roads to be as safe as possible. Driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol makes drivers more likely to speed, lose control of the vehicle, or crash,” said Genter. “It’s important we get this right. I expect the Bill to head to the select committee after the election where experts and the general public can weigh in on the details of the proposed law.”

Specific criminal limits for drugs will be added to the Bill by Supplementary Order Paper and provided to the select committee for scrutiny, allowing the independent expert panel sufficient time to provide advice on the setting of these limits.

Nick Leggett, CEO of the Road Transport Forum, has commended the new law.

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

professional drivers.

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

Truck drivers are in the unique position of sharing their workplace – New Zealand roads – with the public, said Leggett. “While the road transport industry follows workplace health and safety laws to ensure drivers are not drug impaired, with extensive testing regimes including pre-employment, random and post incident/ accident drug testing, there is no guarantee that those they are on the road with won’t be impaired by drugs, as there is no adequate testing regime for them.

“This Bill won’t be passed before the election, but the RTF hopes it will be high on the list of legislation to progress once the next government is formed. We have a ridiculously high road toll in New Zealand and drug use is a big contributor. We need to do something about it.”

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ROAD NOISE NEWS

CLEAN ENERGY BOOST AS ARA AKE LAUNCHED In July Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Energy Minister Megan Woods launched Ara Ake in New Plymouth – the National New Energy Development Centre funded by the Government and established by Venture Taranaki.

Are Ake will lead the development of new clean energy technologies and work with businesses to commercialise their innovations, creating highpaying local jobs.

“We have an opportunity with Ara Ake to power our economy with affordable clean energy that creates jobs while leading the world in developing new forms of energy that will help combat climate change,” Ardern said.

“It aligns with our five-point economic plan to keep New Zealand moving, including creating and protecting jobs, preparing for the future and positioning New Zealand globally. Importantly it also helps us meet the long-term challenge of transitioning to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

The government invested $27m in the centre in Budget 2019 as part of its Just Transitions strategy for Taranaki. Venture Taranaki, the region’s economic development agency, was given responsibility for setting it up.

Woods said the Taranaki region is well placed to drive the advancement of new lowemissions energy.

“Ara Ake will help us ensure that we can lead the world in sustainable energy solutions,” she said.

10 New Zealand Trucking

NEW FREIGHT HUB FOR LOWER NORTH ISLAND

A

regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced.

The government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design the planned intermodal freight hub to deal with growing freight volumes in the lower North Island.

“KiwiRail has looked at a range of potential sites around Palmerston North, considering a range of factors. Building the 2.5km-long road-rail hub between the airport and Bunnythorpe makes sense,” Jones said.

“New Zealand’s freight volumes are forecast to increase by more than 50 percent in the decades ahead and Manawatu’s role in this is nationally important.”

August 2020

Jones said Palmerston North is already a key logistics and distribution centre for the lower North Island and the regional freight hub will help take that to a new level – attracting more distribution businesses and helping create jobs while reducing congestion from heavy trucks in and around the city.

“Building the hub next to the major distribution companies in the North-East Industrial Zone will ensure rail is close to potential customers and Palmerston North Airport, while supporting the local and regional councils’ vision for Palmerston North.”

The regional freight hub will also link to planned council and NZTA road improvement projects, which will manage road freight traffic around Palmerston North and Bunnythorpe.

“The regional freight

hub will bring a log yard, a container terminal, warehousing for freight businesses, and KiwiRail’s operations and maintenance facilities, together in one place,” Jones said.

“It will make the transfer of domestic and export goods between road and rail safe and easy, and create an ‘inland port’ that will attract more logistics businesses to the area.

“This is the kind of big picture view we need to take across our transport system.

It’s not about road versus rail. Innovations like this hub are about making the best of all transport modes, which sets our regions up for economic growth while minimising the impact on our people.”

KiwiRail will be seeking public feedback as it finalises the design of the hub, including mitigating environmental effects.

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CENTRAL DIESEL SERVICES – FUSO IN TAURANGA

E

ffective from 1 August 2020, Central Diesel Services Ltd is the authorised Fuso Truck and Bus parts and service dealer for Tauranga.

CDS, a family-owned operation run by managing director Robert ‘Bert’ Hayden and his wife and fellow director Debbie, has been servicing the needs of the heavy transport industry in the Bay of Plenty for 25 years. It currently holds service and parts agreements for Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner Trucks, Detroit and Cummins engines, BPW and Jost.

“The addition of the Fuso brand is a very exciting development for CDS and one we will work very hard to honour the trust that has been

placed in us,” Hayden said.

CDS operates from two purpose-built facilities on Hull Road in the heart of Mount Maunganui. At 70 Hull Road, there are six drive-through bays, including two full-length pits and brake rollers. It also provides on-site CoF testing in association with VTNZ. The recently opened premises at 55 Hull Road has enabled the expansion of the company’s engineering division. This has allowed CDS to cater for the growing demand in engineering work, including new truck fit-outs, and truck and trailer repairs and maintenance. The engineering team has experience in steel, stainless and aluminium welding.

“Daimler has very stringent

CDS managing director Robert ‘Bert’ Hayden and Keith Andrews dealer principal Erwin Stolze. standards and expectations of its dealers; a unified network ensures consistency of technical training, parts supply and, most importantly, customer service. We are delighted to have Bert, Debbie and the team at CDS on board. They are experienced in ‘the Daimler way’ and have a strong reputation in the Bay of Plenty,” Fuso NZ managing director Kurtis Andrews said.

“We are already seeing the benefits of a fully integrated Daimler network across

the country, through Keith Andrews Trucks in the North Island and CablePrice in the South Island, where the three lead brands of Fuso, Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner are serviced by the same operation.

“I would like to thank Truck Line Services for its support over the past four years with Fuso NZ. The change of representation in Tauranga is more strategic than a direct reflection on its operations,” Andrews added.

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ROAD NOISE NEWS

A $13 million investment from the government will create jobs and improve the resilience of the rail connection between Christchurch and the West Coast. The funding comes from the tagged contingency set aside in Budget 2020 for infrastructure projects and forms part of the $90 million allocated to the West Coast.

“This is a critical regional infrastructure project to ensure transport connections to the West Coast are resilient and reliable,” Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones said. “The rail line to Greymouth brings more than 80,000 tourists into the region each year, and gets the equivalent of 50,000 truckloads of exports to port.

It’s a vital part of the regional economy.”

It comes after a 100-metre slip at Omoto in October 2019 closed the rail line and State Highway 7 between Christchurch and Greymouth for more than a month.

Though there are alternative road routes to the West Coast, the slip stopped the popular TranzAlpine tourist train reaching Greymouth and prevented freight leaving the region by rail.

With the government’s support, KiwiRail will be able to install drainage and strengthen 2.5km of the hillside at Omoto.

“It is about KiwiRail getting ahead of future problems and helping to ensure rail outages do not happen,” Regional Economic Development Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau said.

12 New Zealand Trucking

H

yundai Motor Company has won two 2020 Future Mobility of the Year (FMOTY) Awards for HDC-6 Neptune and the company’s builtin e-scooter. Established by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Graduate School for Green Transportation in 2019, the awards recognise concept vehicles that make outstanding contributions to the future of mobility.

FMOTY awarded the hydrogen-powered fuel cell heavy-duty truck HDC-6 Neptune in the ‘Public and Commercial’ category.

Sixteen judges, including top automotive journalists from 11 countries, selected Hyundai Motor’s submissions from a total of 71 concepts that have

debuted at international motor shows for consideration in three categories: Private, Public and Commercial, and Personal. The judges lauded Hyundai Motor’s concepts for introducing innovative transport technologies and services for the future of mobility.

HDC-6 Neptune, which debuted at the North American Commercial Vehicle Show last November, took inspiration from the iconic Art Deco streamliner railway trains of the 1930s. The concept embodies Hyundai Motor’s vision for a zerocarbon emissions future as the company leads a paradigm shift to eco-friendly commercial vehicles. As the demand for zero-carbon and eco-friendly commercial

vehicles is expected to increase gradually, FMOTY judges showed support for the first concept vehicle to incorporate hydrogen fuel cell power into commercial delivery.

“HDC-6 Neptune is like an ambassador concept vehicle that illuminates Hyundai Motor’s top status and prowess in next-generation fuel cell electric vehicles and fuel cell technology,” said SangYup Lee, senior vice president and head of the Hyundai Global Design Center. “It embodies Hyundai Motor’s vision and customer value as the leader of global hydrogen mobility industry in its futuristic design.”

The Hyundai HDC-6 Neptune has won the 2020 Future Mobility of the Year award in the ‘Public and Commercial’ category.

August 2020

0820-03

SUPPORT FOR RESILIENT WEST COAST RAIL CONNECTION

2020 FUTURE MOBILITY OF THE YEAR AWARDS FOR HYUNDAI

Mills-T

SQUEAKY CLEAN WITH CONVENIENCE

S

outh Island truckies may already be familiar with Parkhouse Truck Wash in Sockburn, Christchurch. Ideally located near Mainfreight and many other logistics businesses, the facility has been servicing the industry for some time, but is now under new management with owner/ operator Lee Young having taken over the business nine months ago.

Young has been purchasing officer, fleet maintenance and truck driver with United Fisheries Ltd for the past 32 years. As such, he understands the demands and time constraints placed on truck drivers – and that cleaning a truck needs to be done as quickly, efficiently and hassle-free as possible.

How quick and efficient? Young says any truck and trailer can be washed, including tankers and swinglifts, in 15 to 25 minutes depending on configuration.

How hassle-free? With his class 5 licence and relevant insurance, Young offers to pick up, wash, and return trucks to yards or hotels within 10km of Parkhouse Truck Wash, for no extra charge. For those who

drive in themselves, a customer lounge with TV and coffee-making facilities is available to pass the time in comfort.

Only one level of wash is offered, a detailed wash (no speed wash), so customers know what standard they can expect each time. The cost per truck and trailer is the same no matter how many axles, however pricing is higher for the likes of swinglifts or tankers as these have to be brushed by hand. Detailing and de-tarring services are also available.

Parkhouse uses an Omega Automated Machine that washes the vehicle’s sides, roof and rear wall. Young recently switched to Nerta Soap with the help of Power Wash in Auckland. “Nerta is the top truck wash soap in Europe and we believe it is the best soap for washing trucks. We switched after testing it, and we couldn’t even compare other soaps with it. The product speaks for itself when you see the results,” he says.

Young says he knows everyone has a choice of where to go for a truck wash, and so he shows his appreciation to his

customers with a loyalty programme. After every 10 washes the 11th wash is free, and this is based on the rego of the truck so it doesn’t matter how many different trailers may be washed.

“I’m new to this business and I am learning as I go,” says Young. “But I have strong beliefs that guide how I do business: do a great job, charge an honest price, and treat customers with respect and build a good relationship with them.”

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14 New Zealand Trucking

PENSKE’S PORT OF CALL FOR USED TRUCKS

P

enske New Zealand has launched Penske Certified used trucks to offer buyers high quality used trucks and peace of mind.

Penske Certified used trucks will undergo a rigorous mechanical check that includes a 90-point mechanical inspection and a report of the results that outline a clear summation of the truck’s condition, along with the job card detailing rectification work. In the spirit of transparency, the results are posted in the vehicle window for customers to see.

“The Penske Certified portfolio boasts various high quality solutions for numerous requirements, noting each truck has its own merits,” says Brent Warner, general manager Penske New Zealand. “When chatting with customers who were purchasing new trucks from Penske, we were hearing that customers who were also in the market for used vehicles were lacking confidence in the used truck market, and we identified a gap in the market.”

Putting its money where its mouth is, Penske New Zealand also offers each new truck with a comprehensive, 12-month, bumper-to-bumper protection plan that covers both parts and labour, all with no claim excess.

August 2020

“As we investigated the used truck market in New Zealand, we saw a significant opportunity to implement a programme with a comprehensive protection plan that wasn’t currently on offer to used truck customers.

With Penske Certified, not only do customers receive a premium product that has been rigorously checked prior to purchasing, customers also have peace of mind from our bumper-to-bumper protection plan that covers parts and labour,” Warner says.

Furthermore, the Penske Certified programme offers buyers a range of benefits including access to discounted parts and labour, exclusive specials, preferential booking, and repairs at any of the 17 Penske authorised service centres across the country.

“Penske Certified customers will be backed with parts and service

support by our factoryaccredited technicians across our three Penske New Zealand dealerships, and be further supported by our 13 authorised nationwide repair centres,” says Warner.

The Penske Certified programme is running across all Penske sites nationally.

The current used offering comprises a mix of Western Star and MAN trucks, however Penske expects its range will rapidly broaden to include alternative brands as the programme gains momentum.

“Promisingly, we have received a number of genuine enquiries and have already sold a number of trucks within the first week of the programme’s launch. We will continue to promote Penske Certified trucks along with more information on our social media pages and website: www.penskenz.com.”

0820-12

Success Formula and the RTF hosted a trans-Tasman webinar during July to present the findings of the Australian NTI’s 2020 National Truck Accident Research Centre Accident Investigation Report.

The report data is incredibly detailed, down to the day of the week and time of day accidents involving trucks occur. For example, in Australia, one in five (21.1%) truck driver deaths occurred between midnight and 6am.

This time period accounts for only 13.5% of truck movements, which equates to a 55% higher risk of a truck driver dying between midnight and 6am than the daily average. This kind of data allows operators to think about parking up trucks between 10pm and 4am unless they really need to be on the road for a delivery within that timeframe.

Australian research shows that while there has been an increase in the number of truck driver deaths on Australian roads, in 80% of all serious crashes involving cars and trucks, the car driver was at fault. It also found that the number of truck driver deaths caused by distraction more than doubled in the past two years and that 82% of the crashes involving truck drivers aged 25 years and under were caused by distraction.

“The data may not always show us what we want to see, but it gives us a chance to better influence the causes of road accidents

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ROAD NOISE NEWS

CONTIUNED FROM PAG E 1 4

and deaths,” said Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett.

“We need an accurate picture so we can see where we need to improve safety and change culture. The RTF would like to have accurate data to shape the way we build skills and competency in drivers to make them safer on the road, and to enable the government to better understand road safety,” Leggett said.

NTI’s Adam Gibson, transport and logistics engineer and author of the report, and Chris Hogarty, chief sustainability officer, believe there is scope for New Zealand to do better when it comes to truck road safety. New Zealand has a three-times higher long-term trend of truck occupant deaths/year than Australia.

“We shouldn’t shy away from what the data shows as it gives us a chance to do better and develop solutions. The industry must take more of a hold in embracing information and using it to improve their safety and competency practices to improve safety results,” said Leggett.

“We don’t believe the New Zealand government has addressed road safety in a way that will reduce road deaths significantly.

We think there should be more collaboration on this issue with professional drivers. Driver behaviour stands out as the biggest cause of accidents over mechanical failure. Yet much government time and sweat goes into obsessing about the truck, rather than improving the skills of the driver.”

16 New Zealand Trucking

AUCKLAND TRANSPORT PROJECTS UPDATE

T

wo major Auckland projects in the New Zealand Upgrade Programme have moved closer to construction. The Auckland projects are part of the New Zealand Upgrade Programme’s $6.8 billion investment to save lives, get our cities moving and boost productivity in the country’s growth areas.

The improvements on the Southern Motorway (SH1) between Papakura and Drury South will improve travel reliability and support significant residential and employment growth in the southern Auckland region.

The $423 million project will connect with capacity improvements on the Southern Motorway between Manukau and Papakura, extending the benefits through improved traffic flow and reduced peak time congestion further south. This will see a third lane provided

August 2020

for both directions along 8km of SH1, an upgraded interchange at Drury and replacement bridges over the motorway. A separated shared walking and cycling path will run alongside the motorway.

Construction is planned to start later this year and be completed towards the end of 2025.

The Penlink two-lane, tolled, 7km state highway with a separated shared walking and cycling path, will help grow North Auckland, allowing more reliable access to wider Auckland. Penlink will take congestion pressure off the Silverdale interchange, the Hibiscus Coast Highway and the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.

The new transport link will also provide greater capacity, supporting planned growth in Silverdale, Wainui, Dairy Flat and the wider Hibiscus Coast in the next three decades.

Construction is planned

to start in late 2021, with the road opening in late 2025.

Furthermore, approximately 800 jobs are expected to be created through a $182 million investment in four transport projects, and this investment protects around 200 jobs on the two projects already under way. It also frees up $98 million in Auckland Council’s Emergency Budget to be reinvested in other infrastructure projects.

Two West Auckland projects have the green light; $100 million worth of improvements to the North Western Motorway to allow faster and more frequent bus services, and a new $37 million shared path alongside the Whau River connecting New Lynn and Te Atatu.

These two projects still need detailed design and consenting work, and construction is expected to begin next year.

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Re TR SEMI SKEL HIRE BECOMES TR GROUP AUSTRALIA

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R Group has announced the launch of TR Group Australia, formerly known as Semi Skel Hire Pty Ltd. TR Group acquired the Melbourne-based trailer rental company in July 2019 as a first step into the Australian truck and trailer hire market.

Over the past year, TR has expanded the 1300-strong fleet by adding 45 new prime movers to what was a traileronly fleet. In addition, TR now has more than 20 PBSapproved A-doubles and super B combinations, fully permitted in accordance with NHVR regulations.

As part of TR’s strategy to expand nationwide, a Brisbane branch close to the port on Lytton Road was opened in February this year, and the new 75,000m3 Melbourne site

on Boundary Road opens in September.

“We bought a fantastic business in Semi Skel 12 months ago that was extremely well known here in Melbourne as a great trailer hire company. As we expand beyond Melbourne and add

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“TR Group has grown steadily over the past 30 or so years in New Zealand, on

the back of being the best we can be at renting and leasing trucks and trailers.

Our aim is to try and build a similar business across Australia, showing the same level of service and expertise so we can all be successful together,” Perry said.

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ROAD NOISE NEWS LIGHT COMMERCIALS

SHELBY UTE HITS NEW ZEALAND IN RHD Shelby launched its Mustang here this year, and will now sell a right-hand-drive Shelby F-150 ute based on the American F-150 platform. Kiwis can buy any of the Shelby F-150 lineup, including the supercharged 4WD Snake Sport with its 575kW V8 engine, which will shove this behemoth from zero to 100kph in just 3.45 seconds. It will then scorch to 160kph and back to a stop in only 8.3 seconds, to make yours the quickest delivery ever.

Prices have not yet been announced, but promise to be in line with US values and under the same model’s price in Canada, Europe and Australia.

MAZDA REVEALS ALL-NEW BT-50 Mazda’s all-new BT-50 comes via Isuzu on an OEM basis, selling in New Zealand under the Mazda brand before 2021. It’s the first all-new ute from the brand to hit New Zealand in nine years, and it comes with a typically Mazda face, and the sort of on-road equipment and performance likely to please Kiwis and those in the rugged markets it typically sells in – including Australia, South America, the Middle East and Africa. Tow rating is 3500kg, max payload 1065kg, and the 3.0-litre diesel delivers 140kW at 3600rpm and 450Nm of torque from 1600 to 2600rpm.

MITSUBISHI EXPRESS VAN ARRIVES DOWN-UNDER Mitsubishi NZ has added the Express delivery van to its line-up, its first all-new van since the L300 departed seven years ago. To arrive by year end, it will come in manual or auto options with a 5.2m3 capacity and 1150kg payload maximum. Manufactured in France by Renault, it’s designed for delivery drivers and includes dual sliding doors and full-width glazed rear doors, with 85- and 160-degree stops. The rear bumper has an integrated step, and the 1268mm width between the wheel arches will accommodate a standard New Zealand pallet or Gib sheet.

Standard features include 16 built-in cargo rings, and a bulkhead with a load-through flap. The manual will tow up to 2000kg braked and the auto up to 1715kg braked, with either a 1.6-litre twin-turbo diesel and 6-speed manual, or 2.0-litre singleturbo diesel with 6-speed auto doing the work. Both are frontwheel drive with a traction control mode, and both fit three front passengers.

Pricing will be set nearer to arrival.

METRO BRIEFS Ford’s Ranger ute and Transit van now come equipped with FordPass Connect, which allows control and monitoring of various vehicle features via a smartphone. Download the free app and check fuel level and tyres via your phone, start the engine before leaving home to get it warm or cool according to the weather, lock remotely if you forgot to do it as you left the car, locate it in that packed carpark your colleague left it in, or get alerts when the ute needs a service.

Ram Warlock adds aggressive style to this 5.7litre V8-powered American truck, with black accents, fender flares, 20” alloys and a lockable storage system built into the side rails of the

tub. Payload is 820kg and the standard towing kit will haul up to 4.5 tonnes. Warlock arrives in September, at $119,000.

Toyota has tweaked the Hilux arriving later this year, with more power and torque taking the totals to 150kW and 500Nm for the 2.8litre turbodiesel thanks to a modified block, pistons, turbo and cooling system designs.

There’s also a gruntier look up front, while inside the touchscreen is now eight inches, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are fitted.

Talk about quick on the draw, the Swedish-designed CabiBUS delivers transport in private cabins for door-todoor travel within 100km from

base, in a design predating – but ideally suited to – a post-Covid world. Planned to launch in a couple of years, it’s designed to make shared rides more attractive. One

version may replace the six cabins with cargo boxes, enabling transport of diverse door-to-door deliveries on the one vehicle.

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August 2020 21

COVER FEATURE

WOOD FROM THE TREES Kenworth’s hard man at the head, Patchell Industries bearing the load, and local talent at the tiller – it would appear Self Loader Logging Ltd has no problem separating the wood from the trees along the hallowed carriageways of the mighty Kaingaroa.

Story by Dave McCoid

Photos and video by Carl Kirkbeck, Gavin Myers, Dave McCoid

SE E T H E V I D EO I N T H E D I G I TAL E D I TO N

D

“

amn! It’s raining,” said Carl.

“It’s July, and plus, it’s Kaingaroa,” I replied. “It does its own thing weather-wise, whatever the time of the year. It’s all part of the mystique.”

‘Mystique’ is not too romantic a word to describe Kaingaroa, be it the 1829-square-kilometre forest, the people who have made their living there, or the machines … oh the machines.

For truck enthusiasts, Kaingaroa has Elysian qualities, a pilgrimage destination, not just for locals,

but truck spotters the world over. Pacific, Kenworth, Mack, Western Star, and even Scania have each sent their biggest and best into this green world where VDAM, as the outside knows it, is left at the gate. Off-highway forestry is in a class of its own.

Then there’s the roadscape.

Truck driver or not, few New Zealanders will ever see or experience the vast roading network that has beaten many a machine to the point of submission. High Level, Low Level, Pekepeke, Waihu, Bonisch, Goudies, Wheao, and Wairapukao, are as much

a part of roading folklore in New Zealand as any of the famous highways that exist beyond the forest’s outermost trees.

At this point it would be customary to say ‘but it’s the people who bring life to the roads and the trucks that ply them’. But here it’s more than that, it’s far deeper. What makes Kaingaroa, and Kinleith for that matter, so special is they are living things in their own right. Millions of living entities all contributing to the whole. The trees are the tissue, the roads are the arteries, the trucks are the

SE E T H E GA L L E RY I N T H E D I GI TA L E D I TON

blood cells, the towns and mills their vital organs, and the people their DNA. Were it all gone in an instant, would we grieve a loss beyond jobs and commerce? Absolutely.

That analogy explains so much; it brings clarity.

Kaingaroa is not just a nursery for pine trees, it’s also a nursery for the right kind of person. Growth is about opportunity, making the most of where you are and striving for the light. For some, Kaingaroa has brought opportunity where there may have been none, and they have thrived as a result. The

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 23

Cresting Wairapukao hill.

Dunks turns onto Tiriti Road. forest has nurtured according to her own requirements, none more so than in the cabs of her trucks. The off-highway has no place for haste, erratic acts, or impulse. The ability to bring countless huge loads in for processing over many years with the deftest of touches and unflappable demeanour is the reason those of the ilk of Olsen, Calteaux, Higgins, Hepi, and Blyth will resonate in the pages of New Zealand’s trucking history forever, deserved of the highest honours and utmost respect.

Hard act to follow So here we are, in the

24 New Zealand Trucking

privileged position of having been granted access to Kaingaroa in order to check out the latest in stem carting creations recently commissioned by Bryan Smith’s Self Loader Logging Ltd. Bryan’s been involved in carting logs from the giant central North Island plantations for more than half of their almost 70-year harvesting life. Cranes, highway loggers, heavy haul, bin-wood and off-highway cartage; he’s done it all. There are few who know what it takes to survive and thrive in the game better, so when he decided it was time to retire a couple of his aging Western August 2020

Star stem trucks, we were keen to see what turned up.

“The first thing I want to say is the Stars were bloody good trucks. They’ve got fullwidth cabs, great visibility, access, and ride well. The drivers love them. I don’t change suppliers without good reason, and the truth is, Western Star couldn’t supply the engine we needed in terms of emissions and power in their off-highway truck chassis. We tried, believe me we tried, but just couldn’t get it over the line.

“The Kenworths? Nothing wrong with them, don’t get me wrong, we run them also, but it wasn’t a case of the

Western Stars not being up to it, they’ve been really good trucks. Penske has stood by them and Peter Motzyoloski has been nothing short of brilliant to deal with. It was just a case of not having what we need, and Adam [McIntosh – Southpac] did.”

From that, you’ve got the answer to the question we asked above. It was Kenworth that won the order number for the Western Star replacements, and Bryan’s opening comments that the Stars will be a hard act to follow was a recurring theme throughout the couple of days we were in camp, both from Bryan, his general

manager Tony Golebiowski, and the drivers we spoke to.

Taking the stage If you want to chase a tough Western Star with a tough Kenworth, then the C509 is your go-to guy. In last month’s Aussie Angles section, talking about outback cattle cartage, RTA’s Glen Smith cited the C509 as “the perfect bush truck”. You might ask why an Australian reference? Because C5s are built to cart multitrailer loads over 100-tonne GCM in the hardest country, where tare is not the prime consideration. Those criteria aren’t overly common here and speak volumes for what

goes on in Kaingaroa, home to New Zealand’s highest concentration of C5 series Kenworth trucks. Rotorua Forest Haulage, Williams and Wilshier, Self Loader Logging, and Graves Log Transport all run C5s in their off-highway stem fleets.

“Rails. Big rails, that’s why we chose the 509,” said Bryan. “The original Stars on stems needed strengthening, so do the Kenworth 909s.

They’re just not up to stems work stock standard. Even in saying that, we still prep everything with extra bracing before it goes on the road, regardless. Yes, the 509s might be fine, especially with

the smaller hangers on the 38-tonne suspension, but it’s a shit-load cheaper to prepare than it is to repair. Re-railing a truck is a really expensive job, and not something you want to be doing very often.

“The 509s are bloody expensive, but in saying that, they’re a lot of truck.”

We may rely on our ANZAC whanau to build our tough trucks, but when it comes to bearing the load over the rails and out back, it’s all homegrown. No country will ever boss New Zealand around when it comes to putting a log on a truck, and in terms of grasping the forest’s invitation to prosper,

Ian Patchell stands among the tallest.

Milk Arrowroot biscuit and a cup of tea, a sausage wrapped in white bread. Two Kiwiana beauts! In terms of log truck combinations in Godzone, a Kenworth truck with Patchell log gear is a comparative association.

“Yep, Patchell right through for stems,” said Bryan.

“Again, it’s not bloody cheap, but they stand by their gear.

Pete [Elphick] is a top bloke, and it’s good gear.”

“A lot of truck” Tony Golebiowski drew the short straw of chaperoning a ute-load of raving

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 25

Spot the difference. Pretty much fleet numbers and the spot lights on Glenn’s guards. truck-heads into paradise.

A flick of the indicator just out of Broadlands saw the Colorado turn up Tiriti Road, an innocent looking corridor, but one that eventually intersects with the fabled High Level Road. Before that junction though, something appeared out of the drizzly murk, “There it is!” It was the unmistakeable shape of a Kenworth C509 stems unit parked up on the side of the road, waiting… for us!

We pulled over to the side and jumped out to find 11-year stem carting veteran Duncan Herewini having a

glance over his new charge just a week into its life.

As we stood there breaking the ice, a pair of flashing beacons appeared in the distance.

“Here’s Glenn now in the other truck,” said Duncan, and before we knew it, we had them both idling away beside us. Self Loader Logging 309 and 312, the two newest stem trucks in Kaingaroa.

Glenn Wilson drives 312 in a four-on four-off roster with Brad Stilwell, and it was only on its second day of operation. As such it was all

very new. The cab width and access weren’t rating highly with Glenn and initial thoughts were that the ride was harsher than the Western Star he’d got out of. Duncan endorsed Glenn’s thoughts, but being a week in, he was becoming increasingly settled with his charge.

“It’ll take a while to suss it

out, eh,” said ‘Dunks’, as he’s known.

The initial impact is the cleanliness of the rigs, meaning absence of ‘stickyout’ unnecessary bits, and in concert with that the fact they’re built like a brick privy.

Behind the cab guard the tractors are completely plated and protected, and aside

The loading procedure is safe, fast, and keeps the gear out of harm’s way. Impressive to watch and well thought through.

26 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

Through the State Highway 38 underpass. from a quarter guard, the mud guards are the uber-cool Aussie style heavy rubber on spring hooks. In the distance aft, the Patchell Tridem Ultimate log trailer is devoid of anything it doesn’t need – that includes guards, for reasons that became obvious soon after. You might think it would give them a bland look, but with the decorative accoutrements forward of the log frame, and Self Loader

Logging distinctive blue bolsters and grey chassis, they are anything but.

Chat over, Glenn’s bonnet lifted as the Cummins, Roadranger, and tri-drive Meritor setup overcame the inertia and got 80 tonne of logs, truck, and trailer under way.

Back in 309, Dunks picked up the bush radio and made the kind of call that’s echoed in the trees for decades:

Dunks, looking every bit the 2020 log truck driver, tends to the load prior to lift-off.

“Empty stem off Tiriti onto Road 1 heading for Road 4.”

Stemming the flow For those new to the game, a stem is pretty much a whole, limbed tree, of around 28m in length. Known as the Kaingaroa Processing Plant (KPP), the Webb Road facility near Kaingaroa village opened in 1995, its role to consolidate log processing, reduce the amount of on-skid work required, and slash highway truck traffic in the forest. That last point was a two-way benefit. Grabbing your load from the Webb rather than blazing around the vastness of Kaingaroa certainly affects what can be done in those precious 13 hours you’re not allowed to be tired.

In doing all of the above, the Webb birthed the dedicated stem truck concept in Kaingaroa. A fleet of specialist trucks able to cart stems from the bush skids in for processing. Rotorua Forest Haulage’s Sargison family pioneered the dedicated stem cartage operation and still hold the master contract, with Williams and Wilshier, Self Loader Logging, and Graves Log Transport sub-contracting to them.

“Where the stems are today is all down to so much grassroots work done by Colin and Tony [Sargison],” said Bryan.

“Payloads today are limited to 65 tonne, and that’s governed by what the Wagner at the Webb will comfortably lift.”

Dunks eased the 509 into position alongside the load-out site on the skid. The modern log skid, particularly here, is a ghost town compared with years gone by. Once a hive of people dropping trees, measuring, spraying paint, and cutting, today it looks like a scene from a sci-fi movie, with machines inching their way around the forest compartment (the name given to specific blocks of trees), doing all the felling, limbing, and loading, their operators safely behind a ROPS framework.

Back to the clean simplicity of the Patchell trailer – here’s why. On a right-side load-out, the loader grabs the stem close to the butt end and lifts it so the log lies on the trailer bolster about two-thirds the way down its length. The operator then pulls the butt in a low arc over the left side using the bolster bed on the trailer as a fulcrum to lever the tail up. They then place the butt, setting it down on the front bolster bed. Easy! So smooth to watch.

The technique keeps the logs away from the vehicle mechanicals as much as possible, and right to the last few seconds an errant log slipping from the grapple will likely fall harmlessly on the ground to the left with the tail still in the trailer bolster/ stanchion. The technique also ensures the log is grounded at one end all the time. As

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 27

The obligatory weigh-in.

impressive and safe as it is, it does means stainless guards and running lights will never be part of a stem trailer options box. The one concession to vulnerability on the trailer is the small tail light.

Making tracks Loaded, chained and ready.

Drizzly but far from cold.

Dunks jumps in, selects second low, and with the locks in, he engages the clutch. The 509’s bonnet gives a shudder as the three big ‘screws’ under the butt end of the load start making tracks in the mud.

“Loaded stem on Road 4 for heading for Tiriti.”

Neither of the trucks is set up with central tyre inflation, something that’s generally considered standard fit nowadays in a roving highway Well-built and everything is within half an arm’s length. A great operator’s ‘possie’, but the ‘snugness’ of the narrow cab dates it in 2020. Bring on the 2.1m in the big-boppers! Below: The Wagner lift capacity governs the payload the stem trucks carry. Mind you, 65 tonne’s pretty handy.

28 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

log truck.

“We tried it on stems, not for traction though, with tridrive and the terrain out there it’s not really needed for that,” said Bryan. “It was more an inflation management thing, saving cases, but it doesn’t work with the 13R tyres.

They’re big lungs, and it just couldn’t keep up when one goes down. And you’ve got 12 of them remember. Trying to stand a loaded stem up if it’s gone a bit sad on the side of the track with tyres off the bead is not fun.”

On the turn out of Road 4 onto Tiriti the truck offered a mild demonstration of the stem unit party trick: sledging.

Twenty-six, 28m logs on a tridrive off-highway chassis in greasy conditions can mean the solitary steering axle up front may need all the help it can get in order to coax the unit into a change of direction.

That help can only come from Dunks, and upon reaching the end of the road he guided the big Kenworth around with minimal fuss.

“Yeah, you have to be careful of them, they’ll want to go straight ahead in certain conditions. Today is those conditions,” he chuckles.

Straight and true

H

e may not have spent his entire life behind the wheel of a Kaingaroa off-highway log truck, but 52-year-old Duncan ‘Dunks’ Herewini is every inch a man of Kaingaroa.

One thing trees and people have in common is grounding, and if their roots are in solid ground there’s a high likelihood both will end up straight and true. If you’re talking a grounding in offhighway logging, the young Dunks had plenty to draw on, having been born and raised in Kaingaroa’s log truck epicentre, Murupara, and being the nephew of Vern Higgins.

Neither was he short on work ethic; proven by the fact Dunks has spent more than two decades of his working life as tyre man to the logging industry. Anyone who knows anything will willingly say that those who earn a living via a fleet tyre truck generally earn every penny.

“I’ve done them all,” he says. “From the smallest runabout to the biggest wheel loader.”

Growing up, he said he was always around the truck yard at Murupara.

Finding his feet as a young fellow he eventually got a job as a ‘fleety’, working for Paul Robinson at Wheelers tyres in Edgecumbe, servicing the Murupara yard under boss Barry Lane.

“That’s where I really got introduced to all the owner-drivers. Back then they

were all owner-drivers. I drove the trucks around the yard when I did the tyres.

They trusted me, and said, ‘keys are in it Dunks, do your job and park it up’.”

Having gained work experience it was off to Australia to do a stint for Bridgestone, before returning home to Beaurepaires in Taupo.

“I learn best with my hands. Show me what you want done and how you want me to do it, and I’ll pick it up straight away. I’ve taught heaps of new fleeties over the years.”

It was while at Taupo that Dunks met Bryan Smith, and operations boss at the time Darren Sinclair.

“I’d had enough and said I was quitting; I’d just done enough tyres you know? Darren said ‘Are you finishing Dunks? Can you drive a truck?’ I said ‘Yes, but I’ve never done it for a job, but I’m willing to learn. I don’t have my trailer licence either’. ‘That’s no problem’, he said. ‘We can fix that’.”

Fix it they did. Bryan and Darren recognised good roots and work ethic; helping Dunks through his trailer licence on the fast track programme was easy.

“I remember my first load by myself.

I was coming down Waihu [Road] holding the wheel tight-as, and I was in about second gear,” Dunks laughs and throws his head back. “A truck came up behind and the driver said ‘Hey boy, if I were you I’d put that truck in a high

“The job, my family. It’s all my buzz.” Dunks Herewini.

gear and let her go’. I said, ‘Hey boy, if I were you I’d shut my mouth!’ Lucky uncle Vern [Higgins] was listening to the whole thing and took me aside and said ‘Boy, don’t ever listen to anyone else, just do your thing’.

“I still live by that and what Bryan told me when I first started. ‘Keep yourself safe, keep other people safe, and keep my truck on its wheels’.

Every morning I start my day with those rules.”

Eleven years after that course of events here we are, again on the Waihu Road, heading for Low Level, in a brand new Kenworth C509 and Patchell stems unit worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“I don’t ask for much, I just do my job. See these gumboots? They’re new; my old ones are the original ones I got when I started. They’re still good but the tread’s gone, I can’t stand up in the mud any more.” The cab fills with laughter.

Back to Bryan for comment. “Dunks has been on the stems his whole driving career. That’s a long stint on the stems; it’s not for everyone. He’s great with the gear, and just loves it. He knows what he’s doing each day, who he’s going to work with, where he’s going to go, and that’s how he likes it.”

“It’s my buzz, eh,” says Dunks. “The job, my family. It’s all my buzz.”

It’s one of the reasons Bryan goes for the big 13R feet, and both he and Dunks believe they make a real difference. They also give the Smith trucks a bigger, ‘chunkier’ look.

Once on Tiriti the 509 starts making progress as Dunks works quietly through the gears.

His is a driving style not really taught but inherited. It’s

obvious from the get-go his ear for what an off-highway log truck should sound and feel like was ingrained as a young fella growing up in and around the KLC workshops in Murupara, and spending precious time with the likes of his uncle, Vern Higgins.

Off Tiriti and onto the High Level Road, then Waihu as High Level swings away left. Waihu’s a long,

gradual descent to the Low Level Road. Interestingly there’s no blazing roar of the engine brake, more a gentle controlled glide. The engine’s nowhere near max rpm; it’s sitting in the upper mid-range, around 1700rpm, easing it all down gradually.

For Dunks it’s all feel, and his style, like all the good heavy load practitioners, is about conducting energy,

knowing who owns it at any one moment, whether it’s the load or the truck. Coming down Waihu he knew the potential energy in the load was immense and best not to let it out, then have to wrestle it back with a howling Jacobs and hot brakes. He’s concentrated and you know he’s reading the situation by sensing what the truck’s telling him.

Heartbeat

I

1) The first truck, a Mack FR 375 V8. 2)The MH 500 V8, the first new truck.

‘Big payload, powerful, and fast’, but a troublesome child. 3) The right truck and well on his way. Loading the 8x4 525 MH.

30 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

f you’re a truck buff with a bent on logs, the Smith brothers and their trucks in either burgundy or blue will have been a part of your life and central North Island photo collection over the past three-plus decades. They’re a great story for anyone with aspirations and a desire to drive or operate big trucks, and again, testament to jumping in, working hard, and not worrying about what anyone might be thinking.

Neither Reg nor Bryan were born into trucking; they came from a farming background well north of the central region.

The family bought a shoe shop and relocated to Taupo when the boys were young. In time the shoe shop became a motel business, something that had little appeal for Bryan.

“No, motels weren’t for me.

Not interested at all.”

Trucks on the other hand?

Different story. Bryan was driving a log truck for Trevor Reed when brother Reg took the plunge and put his name on the door of a truck.

“I helped Reg and learned a lot. I decided that was a bit of me, so went and had an interview with logging manager Colin Cornelius at New Zealand Forest Products Kinleith. In those days you registered your interest, and when someone retired or was ready to sell, you went through

the interview process, they made sure you had the money and could service it, and all going well, eventually off you went.”

The first truck was the ex Gordon Gallagher, Barry Ogilvie 375hp V8 FR Mack self-loader.

“Yep, she was a good truck. Back then there was me and Reg, Gordon Dahm, Alan Forbes, Errol Henley, and Graham Sheldrake with self-loaders. I only ran that truck for 18 months as she’d largely done her dash by the time I got it. I replaced it with a new MH V8 500 and Jonsered crane.”

The MH was a single steer but had another single tyred non-steering lift axle in front of the drivers. On highway, the axle took the weight burden of the crane without the full penalty imposed by a dualwheeled axle. It was innovative in the days before load-share was a requirement, but there were other aspects of the truck that meant it wasn’t all good news.

“It was my first new truck, I asked for ‘something that could cart a lot, was powerful, and fast’,” laughs Bryan.

“The spec was all wrong.

The engine was awesome, the 500 was years ahead of its time, but it was way too highly geared for the 12-speed Maxitorque, and it just ate

Although the Jacobs in the X-15 is a good friend to have in this style of operation, with strong mid-range retardation (392kW (525hp) at 1700rpm), Dunks said he had a BrakeSaver in a previous ride and rated it a great tool in the quest to control lots of mass on wheels that’s aiming downwards.

Our mind went back to our chat with Bryan the day

diffs and gearboxes. I will say Motor Truck stood by it 100%; I’d take it in and the next morning drive it out. The minute it was out of warranty I quit it. I learned a hell of a lot with that truck.”

That MH was replaced with another, a 525 V8 8x4 crane truck. A truck that served Bryan well.

In the classic adversity/ opportunity paradox, Cyclone Bola in March 1988 would signal opportunity for Bryan.

“There were trees down everywhere and I was helping pick up the wind blow. That got me to Kaingaroa. The amount of work was huge. I got to know Roger Clotworthy at Maroa in that time also.

What that man didn’t know about Mack trucks wasn’t worth knowing. I had a huge respect for Roger, he was a great bloke.”

The demise of Mack’s premium cabover was a blow, as Bryan was a keen Bulldog man.

“I run Volvos, they’re a

before. “A good driver can put years on a truck’s life, or take years off it. It’s that significant.”

We reached the compulsory stop at the bottom of Waihu Road. Not the best designed corner, the stop sign is on a sweeping curve and intended to be the off-highway truck’s friend, but the placement of the sign means on a stem truck the huge butts can just

obscure the sight line back up the road. Dunks rolls up slowly and then has to adjust a tad more before stopping.

“It’s a bugger this one, hard to see the way it is. See, there’s a truck coming.”

“Loaded stem off Waihu onto Low Level heading for Wairapukao.”

Then the driving style changes, the greasy gravel roads are gone, it’s now

bitumen underfoot. It’s a lift-off from a flat start into a gentle rise and now Dunks owned the energy, and he had a load to get moving.

The X-15 is a different beast entirely, pouring every ounce of power and torque it can muster back to the drive units.

Dunks’s smoothness doesn’t alter one iota; it’s hard to believe this man’s only been in the truck a week. Each

good truck. The earlier FH was a good solid truck, better than the latter, but the I-Shift is a better gearbox.

The older gearboxes weren’t great, so it’s all swings and roundabouts. You do have to watch the Euros in the off-highway. They’re good trucks, don’t get me wrong, but they’re so smooth, and can disconnect the driver from what’s going on underneath.

They can bash a truck and trailer up. In the US-based trucks the ‘arseometer’ still tells you what the truck’s going through, and you just slow down; it’s that simple, easy.”

The Self Loader Logging fleet with its distinctive heartbeat logo on the door today stands at just over 40 trucks, with three self-loading units still in its ranks. Volvo, Kenworth and Western Stars dominate the fleet, with a couple of International 9870s in there too. The work profile is as mixed as ever, with bin-wood, highway and offhighway trucks still on the

morning roll call.

“I never aspired to own a lot of trucks, but you do a good job and people ask if you’d do more. If you don’t, someone else will come in and do it, so you’re buggered really.”

But you can’t grow anything without people and the heartbeat logo chosen all those years ago seems entirely appropriate as another unstoppable Kiwi is at pains to emphasise the importance of good people in building a business. “You know the old ‘happy wife, happy life’ one,” Bryan laughs. “Well, business is the same, ‘happy staff…’

People are all different; some like getting up early, some like working late. If you put an early riser on a late shift, you’re going to create yourself a problem, you know? Don’t get me wrong, you still have a business to run, and work to get through, but if you can work with your people so they’re happy at work, you won’t hear from them.”

Bryan will be 60 this year.

His office in the Taupo depot sits bang in the middle between operations and administration; he can hear both worlds. He has a cool desk fashioned from a log, and he faces the yard, able to see every truck that rolls in.

There are paintings of his first three trucks on the wall behind him, yet there’s not a hint of extravagance in any of this.

It’s humble, like the bloke, and rather reflects devotion to an industry he loves. Any stranger

being greeted in the yard would have no idea the bloke shaking their hand is the one whose name is on the gate.

Of course he’s shutter-shy, you’ll never get Bryan in front of the camera – he doesn’t believe it’s about him, and the “No” you get seals the deal without need for further clarification.

Yet it’s all about him really.

Energy is ageless and he appears as enthusiastic now as you’d imagine he was when he climbed into the FR on morning one, wiped the windscreen with a towel, and hit the ‘START’ button. And he can still do it all in a flash too; he’s driven the 509s.

The intellectual property he’s amassed on the subject of log cartage is spellbinding and you’ve almost got to be dragged screaming in protest from his office. The stories, the tips, the learnings, all willingly flow via a charisma that’s his alone; a no-nonsense yet jovial bloke. Listening is easy.

He has aspirations of taking things a little easier and handing more of the dayto-day running off to general manager Tony Golebiowski.

“Tony’s a top bloke. He left for a bit and I wanted him back, so I went and got him.”

Bryan Smith – you might say old school in all the good ways, but that’s a little clichéd; a better one would be to say he’s another who grew with the opportunity the mighty forests gave him.

time the needle hits 1950rpm, he picks off another gear from the 18-speed manual Roadranger, crisp as you like.

This lift-off is about power and impetus.

“It gets up and goes when you want it to, this thing, and hangs on too,” he says.

Yes, bitumen. You read right. For those who don’t know a lot about the offhighway’s main arterial routes, in terms of surface, markings, and signage, you’d be hard pressed to pick them from a state highway … actually you could, the off-highway arterials we saw were in better nick. To be fair, three things would make

any ‘little lamb lost’ twig they’d taken a wrong turn.

One would be the endless trees, two would be the nice Timberland’s inspector asking what it was they were doing, and three, the ‘ginormous’ trucks… not that most Kiwi drivers see trucks at the best of times.

The rules in here are nonnegotiable, and there’s little tolerance for violation. For a loaded stems unit 80kph is it, but that’s no issue, as there simply isn’t the constant and underlying time tension that haunts the lives of truckers in the rat race. Forest time is safe time.

Up to speed it’s all calm

and comfortable motoring.

The bolsters on the unit are two different sizes, 3.1m outside to outside on the truck, and 2.5m on the trailer.

The differential came about due to the butt-forward nature of the loads, and the width of the trucks’ bigger unit determined by the roads outside the bush, meaning the trucks can come into town for maintenance and not need a pilot.

Climbing hard into the Wairapukao Road hill (lower St Stephens Hill, maybe) the Kenworth held 5th low, at 1500rpm and 30kph. Then it was through the famous SH38 underpass and down

to KPP Webb Road for unloading.

There aren’t many Wagners left in active service nowadays, only in strategic places like KPP. Big and ungainly they may appear, and from all accounts not the easiest beast to see out of in terms of locating the spears, but when it comes to lifting 65 tonne of stems off a puny truck in one hit, the L130F Wagner would have few peers. And ‘puny’ is no disrespect to the 509. Like a big mine, Kaingaroa is an attack on the senses in terms of scale, and when the L130F rolled up, the C509 turned into a Fun Ho! Midget.

ULTIMATE SUCCESS “The reason it’s called the Ultimate trailer?

It was the culmination of years of trial and learning, bringing together the best of our own designs and customer feedback, as well as the Peerless Page and Superior trailers that came in from Canada originally,” says Patchell Industries founder Ian Patchell.

So, let’s piece all that together. Patchell Industries actually began its log trailer building history in the Kaingaroa offhighway scene. The engineering company was about seven years old when Rotoruabased Geoff Perfect approached Ian in 1979 about building off-highway trailing gear capable of carting 100-tonne loads.

“We hadn’t done anything like that.

Geoff wanted 4-axle pull trailers to go behind one of his trucks. We liked the Tidd suspension arrangement and so got some secondhand ones, cut them apart, and rebuilt them longer, bigger and stronger.

That was really the start of the big stuff.

The first big off-highway pole trailer was for George Comer in Taupo in the early eighties.”

While all this was happening, the replacement of on-highway trailers for the Whirinaki Mill in Napier had also taken off, and the company trailer catalogue grew and diversified across both disciplines. In the off-highway camp, things like 50-tonne

32 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

A set of the early trailers built for Geoff Perfect. Photo Credit: Gavin Abbot mobile drum de-barkers, and all-wheel drive rough terrain log trucks were also being built. These machines hauled whole trees from the forest to super skids, and some, like the first unit built on a Caterpillar 40-tonne dump truck chassis for forest operations in Napier, were able to cart up to 100-tonne-plus loads at a time.

The advent of the Kaingaroa Processing Plant (KPP) at Webb Road in 1995 birthed the need for high volume stem cartage in Kaingaroa. Rotorua Forest Haulage pioneered the work here, and owners the Sargison family imported a number of Peerless Page Tridem pole trailers from Canada to get things going, and so began the quest for Patchell to find the ultimate New Zealand fit-for-purpose trailer.

“The imported Peerless product is

good, but it’s not built in New Zealand,” said Ian. “It’s always a recurring theme, ‘it needs to be bigger and stronger for New Zealand’. That’s when we came up with our suspension, chassis and pole concept and called it the Ultimate. It worked great.

Everything’s bigger, even the ‘Pecker Pole’ up front. That, and the tapered bush mounting system for the bolsters, the same as on the truck, allows structural relief to the rigs twisting and turning under the heavy loads of long logs.”

The first Ultimate trailer was built for Warwick Wilshier in 1999, and since then the Ultimate pole trailer has evolved even further, with options now available to suit the requirements of what is an exclusive customer base. With Patchell Industries manufacturing its own walking beam suspension, and locally manufactured/

The run to home Heading back out to the Low Level, it’s a short one this time that will allow Dunks to finish his shift on time at about 1pm and swap with shift buddy Alex Tapsel. We’re heading for a gang on Kiorenui Road off Taupiri Road, about a 30km round trip from the Webb.

The C509 might be a beefed-up brute in the load carrying department, but remarkably normal in the load powering department.

A Cummins X-15 set at 448kW (600hp) delivers 2779Nm (2050lb/ft) of torque to the rear ends. Between the engine and triple drive setup is an Eaton Roadranger

Again the loading procedure. The big 13R tyres certainly give the 509 a tough and stauch look.

RTLO22918B manual transmission. After that things get a little more abstract.

sourced components, parts availability is no issue.

Did you know?

The Patchell portfolio of ‘beefy’ kit goes deeper than many would think. Back in the 80s, Caterpillar didn’t produce a 30-tonne excavator. Patchell Industries had work modifying Caterpillar’s 225SA Excavator ‘car bodies’ [cab/engine superstructure], and by using D7 track equipment, Patchell booms, and ‘Crab Grab’ forks, they manufactured 30-tonne log loaders in New Zealand for work in the Tasmanian native forest industry.

When the Caterpillar Mitsubishi JV expanded into this part of the world, the work ceased as Mitsubishi already had a 30 tonne excavator in its catalogue that only needed to be fitted with Patchell Crab Grab forks. Ian was heading home in October 1997 from Australia, having received the bad news, when he was

Front axle is a Meritor MFS73 rated at 7300kg on multileaf springs, and out back

directed to New Zealand Steel’s operation at Glenbrook. It had a need for five new heavy onsite transporters for hot steel slabs and scrap steel cartage around the New Zealand Steel Mill site.

“It was working with the heavy rigs on the New Zealand Steel job that taught us how to design and build big gear properly,” says Ian. The requirement was three 120 tonne hot slab carriers and two 75 tonne ‘U’ Frame Bin Carriers. Patchell built the big boys from Caterpillar 627E motor scraper tractor bases, modified them into 2-axle haulers by using modified D44 dump truck pivot assemblies and Patchellmanufactured 100 tonne capacity dollies, while the others were Caterpillar 615 scraper tractors married into Caterpillar 528 skidder pivots with Patchellmanufactured ‘U’ frames.

Interestingly, on the big carriers the ideal wheels were deemed to be from

Meritor RZ78-188 axles with diff-lock and cross-locks rated at 35,300kg and 4.89:1

Boeing 747s to carry the weight on small diameter tyres, however sourcing them proved impossible. Ian’s answer?

Make them yourself. So he took all the details required from scrap 747 running equipment and had the castings for the wheel rims and hub castings produced at A&G Price’s foundry in Thames, with all the machining done at Patchells. Kiwis!

Ian got a call for the first structural repair on one of the big boys after 24,000 onsite hours. A brake chamber mount bracket had failed.

Photo Credit: Patchell collection.

A example of a CAT stems unit built for Mitchell Bros in early 1999. Note the operator tending to the front bolster for a sense of scale. Right: Ian Patchell is just another Kiwi classic in terms of hard work and bravery.

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 33

1

1 & 2) Truck and trailer bolsters mounted via heavy-duty tapered rubber bush on on slew rings. 3) The trailer’s connection to the truck. Note the sliding, rotating ‘pecker pole’, locked for empty running. 4 & 5) Hefty double-pivot Tridem under the Ultimate’s chassis.

2

final drive, perched on Neway AD378/10 Extra Heavy Duty Air suspension rated at 38 tonne.

Bryan runs the trucks for a little over a million kilometres, saying that by that time they’re generally getting tired and reliability will likely become an issue. “Again,” he says, “it’s so driver dependent.”

We arrive at the skid and Dunks needs to back up and jackknife a tad to get the big girl in and lined up, before the loading ritual recommences.

It gave us time to focus on the Patchell Industries Ultimate stem trailer. It’s a fascinating looking piece of kit because on the one hand it’s, well, basic as buggery,

3

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5 34 New Zealand Trucking

“Mate! She’s a pretty big job.”

“You’ll be right.”

August 2020

but it’s way cool at the same time.

Built like a blacksmith’s anvil in terms of resilience to the task, the Ultimate is the culmination of two decades of development (see sidebar), and its bones have been pretty much unchanged now for 10 years. Essentially a kickarse chassis, and a canny double walk-beam, double pivot, tapered rubber bush suspension support a turntable/slew ring rated at 50 tonne.

The truck and trailer bolsters are mounted the same way, each on slew rings; the bolsters locate via large heavy-duty tapered rubber bushes. The bolster configuration is called the Resilient Mounting setup,

S P E C I F I C AT I O N S

PATCHELL ULTIMATE TRIDEM STEM TRAILER Tare: 7330kg Axle: BPW HSM10010-16DL Wide Track Dual Suspension: Patchell Tridem walking-beam Bolsters: Patchell 2500mm (outside measure) Mounting: Imported 50 tonne rated heavy-duty turntable/slew ring Bolster mounting: Resilient mount. Compressed heavy-duty tapered rubber bushes fore and aft (the bushes locate into a tapered bush within bolster base, allowing limited fore and aft movement of the bolster) Tyres: Bridgestone L13R 22.5 6, 7 & 8) Armour plating above, big threads out back.

on account of its brute strength, with a little give when required.

Obviously, being a pole trailer, the load versus vehicle dynamics need to be accommodated. At the front end of the main pole there is a 3m-long round insert commonly known as a ‘pecker pole’ that extends and retracts in Teflon bushes as the trailer corners, and rotates about its central axis as the rig motors through irregularities in the road surface.

For the non-loggers and younger ones reading, on a longs unit when all is going well, it’s the load that holds the trailer to the truck, not the pole. The pole is locked and becomes the drawbar when empty, but when loaded it has to slide.

The Patchell Ultimate log trailer.

Simple! Strong! Reliable! Oh, and don’t let it run over your foot … just saying, it weighs north of seven tonne with the pole.

Loaded again and back we went.

On highway at speed the front bias loading of the stems certainly influences the rear of the tractor at times. It’s a seat of the pants feel in the corners, you can certainly feel the rear suspension working and the load trying to bully the show from the rear. There’s no doubt operating a stems truck is its own thing. Yes, they’re not necessarily the biggest out here in terms of gross tonnage,

but their loading brings its own challenges.

Trundling along we had a chance to look around the cab. It’s a snug hut, and has been on the C509 since 2013 when the cab got a major makeover that included more room, a windscreen redesign, and new dash layout. In terms of dimensions it’s the direct blood descendent to the narrow Kenworth cabs of yesteryear. There’s no doubting its build quality and fitout and everything certainly falls comfortably to hand in this no-nonsense workplace, void of frivolous trinkets like infotainment.

The SLL 509s are in deepbuttoned ‘Crimson’ (what happened to Oxblood? Is that not PC any more?) with black trim. The fact that all the drivers making the transition out of the Western Stars lamented the lack of width is a sure sign that K’dub’s fantastic 2.1-metre house can’t come quick enough to its ‘bigboppers’.

Another interesting aspect was the ride. On highway there’s no issue. These trucks are slightly shorter in the wheelbase than the Stars in an effort to get more weight on the trailer, but both Dunks and Glenn thought at this early stage the ride over the rough stuff was not as good as the Western Star. A couple of times with Dunks he buttoned

6

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8 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 35

S P E C I F I C AT I O N S

KENWORTH C509 8x6 Tare: 15,320kg GVM: 42,400kg GCM: 150,000kg Wheelbase: 6500mm Engine: Cummins X-15 Capacity: 15 litre Power: 448kW (600hp) Torque: 2779Nm (2050lb/ft) Emissions: Euro 5 Transmission: Eaton Roadranger RTLO22918B Clutch: Eaton Easy Pedal Advantage 3 manual adjust (2250lb/ft) Chassis: 295mm x 98mm x 10mm (double skin) Front axle: Meritor MFS73 Front axle rating: 7300kg Front suspension: Multi-leaf springs Rear axle: Meritor RZ78-188. Interaxle diff-lock, cross-locks. Final drive - 4.89:1 Rear axle rating: 35,300kg Rear suspension: Neway AD378/10 Extra Heavy Duty Air (38 tonne) Brakes: Drum Auxiliary braking: Jacobs engine brake Additional safety: EBSS, ABS, Automatic traction control, Drag Torque Control Fuel: 2 x 420-litre DEF tank: 170 Litre Wheels: 9.0 x 22.5 285 PCD steel wheels Tyres: Bridgestone L13R 22.5 Electrical: 12V Cab exterior: Steel and aluminium huck-bolted frame, steel, aluminium, fibreglass construction. Cabmate rear airsuspension. Traditional hood, external cleaners. Two-piece curved windscreen with rear cab window.

Daylight doors. Flat mirrors with spotters. Stainless sun visor, dual air horns, grille bars, stainless steel highrise air intakes with Donaldson Air Ram tops. LED headlights including high beam.

Cab interior: Crimson cab trim, HD diamond pleat, black hard trim. ISRI 6860/870 pro air driver’s seat. Air conditioner (Red Dot).

Central locking. Gold bezels. CB and UHF radios. FM/AM CD entertainment.

Day’s end The only thing you can really say is, amid life’s chaotic reality, it does deliver many golden days. Today was one. A C509 stem unit in the Kaingaroa is a special thing, and spending the day with man and machine a cathartic experience.

In terms of the machine, if you want to haul big weight in a tough place, then Kenworth’s

C509 is the gig. It’s a timeless device with nothing to prove, and although aspects of it wait patiently for their development cycle, PACCAR in Australia knows such development must be on the nail; there’s no second chance. Damaging the truck’s reputation and history via a penny pinched here, or a flitch missed there, is unacceptable. Customers stump up for this thing for one reason only, and it ain’t Apple CarPlay.

Then there’s the rest. If it’s logs you’re wanting to cart on the back, there aren’t many stops to make in New Zealand when looking, and Patchell Industries will be among the first calls. The product has been through the refiner’s fire, and like Self Loader Logging Ltd, the name on the gate still turns up most days to ensure the product bearing his name is worthy.

But there’s so much more to this giant green piece of New Zealand heartland. More to learn. Not just about speccing and building trucks and trailers to haul big loads, and then how to drive them, but about the unimportance of haste, the value of time, patience, and community. The ingredients needed to grow a forest are the same as those required to flourish within it, and Dunks Herewini, Bryan Smith, Ian Patchell, and the Sargisons for that matter, are all proof of that.

One thing’s for sure. At this time in history, Kaingaroa and its people have much to teach us all.

With Thanks

What a magical day made possible by the following people; Bryan Smith of course, for giving us the green light to do the story. Glenn Wallis at RFH for helping organise, and supplying key information. Evan Rarere at Timberlands for making access possible. Ian Patchell at Patchell Industries for access, information, and endless cooperation. Glenn Heybourn at Patchell Industries for teeing up so much. Tony Golebiowski from SLL for putting up with us, and of course Dunks Herewini from SLL for being a thoroughly good bugger!

August 2020 0820-31

36 New Zealand Trucking

off when the going got rutty or corrugated underfoot, commenting that in the Star he wouldn’t have felt that.

It’s interesting, because one of the big things on the option list that sets the C5 prefixed Kenworths apart from their stablemates is the famous slipper front end suspension.

Although it’s intended for 8.2tonne front axle applications, its big-ticket item among the road train set is its ability to ride effortlessly over the roughest ruts and corrugations.

Essentially, the front axle is located by tramp rods, allowing the front of the spring pack to move fore and aft in a hanger box. This allows significantly more up/down travel. In the stem application, the front axle loading is rarely north of 6.5 tonne so multi-leaf springs cope easily in terms of weight, but there was no doubting the harsh reaction causing Dunks to come off the gas and seek a less volatile line was emanating from the front. It might be worth investigating in future trucks. Our understanding is the price premium for the slipper is not end of the earth stuff.

PATCH HE ELLLL PATC INDUSTRIES

SPECIALISED LOG TRANSPORT EQUIPMENT manufactured with 48 years of Industry Design & Experience The Proof is in the Product

STRONG RELIABLE DEPENDABLE LEADING TRAILER MANUFACTURER IN NEW ZEALAND FOR

NEW ZEALANDS' LEADING TRAILER MANUFACTURER YEARS

Contact us for further information ALL ENQUIRIES: Peter Elphick 021 595 873 | peterelphick@patchell.co.nz Glenn Heybourn 021 301 274 | glennheybourn@patchell.co.nz

0820-31

HEAD OFFICE: 150 View Road, ROTORUA 07 348 7746 enquiries@patchell.co.nz

PATCH HE ELLLL PATC GROUP OF COMPANIES

www.patchell.co.nz

JUST LIKE

8WIRE NUMBER

Pukekohe Hiab Transport lifts the lid on its new Scania R620 B10x4*6. A multi-purpose truck that can do two applications in one, being a rigid truck and also a tractor unit pulling a semi-trailer.

N

ew Zealand has long been known for taking a product and changing it to suit the needs of Kiwi operators.

This was very prevalent in the heavy trucking industry, however as New Zealand has moved into a more

governed industry, the ‘ole number 8 wire’ thinking has had to improve dramatically to fit within the safe working conditions we now operate in.

With this in mind, when Scania New Zealand was approached by Craig Morris of Pukekohe Hiab Transport to

Story by Kere Menzies Photos by Gavin Myers and as credited build a unit that didn’t quite fit into the NZTA’s guidelines, the thinking cap had to be put on and some hard work done.

Of course changing the NZ Transport Agency’s mind on what configuration of truck axles are permitted on New Zealand roads is not an easy task, and not one you want to take on every day. But when a job needs to be done, and an axle configuration needs to be devised to do that job, it takes a combined effort by the operator, local engineers, and the OEM to make it happen.

The finished product is Pukekohe Hiab Transport’s new Scania R620 B10x4*6.

The first truck on New Zealand roads to legally have five axles, a rear steering axle, and be able to pull a semitrailer. But let’s go back to the

Above: Pukekohe Hiab Transport owner Craig Morris (left) and BIGENF driver Jordan Morris.

start.

The rules are quite clear: NZTA’s factsheet 13A states that ‘Heavy rigid vehicles with a coupling for towing a heavy trailer must not have a rear steering axle’.

That’s fine, but when you need to be a tractor unit towing a tri-axle semi, or maybe with the addition of a short deck and a 4-axle dog trailer, then add in a rather large mid-mounted Fassi 710 knuckle boom crane, the combinations become quite complicated – especially when you need three rear axles to legally meet the anticipated weights on the rear, and a rear steered tag axle to improve the turning radius.

This job fell into the lap of Eddie Davids, Scania New Zealand’s in-house

Crane, fifth wheel, Ringfeder and a rear steering axle. Not an easy one to accomplish.

S EE THE G A LLE RY I N THE DIG ITA L E DI TON

sales engineer. To comply with New Zealand rules he initially approached the Scania factory with a request to permanently lock the rear steered axle. This was duly refused due to no development by Scania of a 5-axle truck without rear steer.

The only option from Scania was a 5-axle truck with rear steered tag that complied with European ECE standards.

Scania did not see any benefit in a proposed business case to research such a configuration with a fixed

Photo Credit: Scania NZ.

Easy does it… tag axle when the steered versions work well.

Eddie then turned to the NZTA to see how such a configuration could possibly be achieved within New Zealand’s framework and there were two areas to be examined: the rule regarding steering axles, and the other aspect of the law to be considered was getting the rear axle bogie rated to 18 tonne. The Scania trailing axle is fitted with super single tyres and they would need to be recognised as twin tyres to

fall within New Zealand’s triaxle set criteria.

As you can imagine there was much toing and froing, which eventuated in an exemption to the rule, and the rest, as they say, is history.

But in this case it’s not, as the truck is very much a case study and will be watched to ensure it carries on performing as expected.

Pukekohe Hiab Craig Morris and his wife, Janine, started their family trucking business Pukekohe

Hiab 15 years ago.

Trucking for Craig is in the blood. His father owned trucking firm B & M M Morris Limited and was an ownerdriver for Colgate Palmolive.

Craig’s father put him behind the wheel at 18 in a 3-tonne Ford Trader. After doing his time in the Ford, he worked his way up the fleet into a D1314 before getting into the big time with a new N-series Ford.

B & M M Morris was carting containers from the railhead to be devanned and

Photo Credit: Scania NZ.

From left: Jordan’s view of the world – and she’s a manual shift! Scania’s V8, always a favourite. Lockers and drawers galore.

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 39

which is a little way north. In his experience, having Don, Thomas, and the team from McKenzies build them means that all the little extras they add make the truck operation easier, and the finishing, including the stainless dressing of the toolboxes and other little bits and pieces, make the drivers proud of the gear.

Introducing BIGENF

Photo Credit: Scania NZ. Craig takes delivery from Scania New Zealand account manager Blair Stapleton (left) and product engineer Eddie Davids. then delivered to various bulk warehouses around the Auckland region. The company then went on to deliver these goods to most of the food shops around Auckland.

Craig become an ownerdriver for them in 1994 at Bluebird Foods until the end of the contract in 1999. After this he went back driving for other companies but decided that being self-employed was where he was heading and he has been at it ever since. He and Janine bought a secondhand Mitsi and new Palfinger crane and have carried on building the business.

Pukekohe Hiab, based south of Auckland, has had a mixed fleet over the years.

The first two Hiab trucks were actually Mitsubishi; they then quickly moved to European, and the first tractor/Hiab

combination unit they had built was a Scania 124 GB. Craig mentions that he chose Scania because of the wider spacing in the front steer group helping with the weight of the crane.

The company now has four Scania crane trucks, two rear-mounted and two tractor units (including the new one). The company also has three Scania tractor units with reefer trailers contracted to Foodstuffs NI. The fleet also has a Fuso, a DAF, and a Hino.

Up until this new unit, Craig has built his Scania crane trucks on secondhand chassis and the latest unit may have been also, but after an exhaustive search the right chassis couldn’t be found and the new build was commissioned.

Craig tends to work with McKenzie Welding in Kaitaia,

Photo Credit: Scania NZ.

The new Scania is a R620 B10x4*6 (R – rest cab, 620 – horsepower, B – chassis adaptation, 10x4*6 – wheel configuration, the *6 means the vehicle is equipped with a non-driving tag axle behind the rearmost driving axle).

Blair Stapleton, the Scania account manager who put the truck build together, is very happy with the finished product. “To work with someone who knew what they wanted and could visualise the finished product made the build go so easy,” he says.

Being an NTG (Scania’s acronym for the New Truck Generation), it’s the latest offering from the Scania brand and features many of the safety and bodywork features available.

The reconfigured cab is perfect for the crane industry, with the driving position allowing good visibility as the operator moves around cramped and busy worksites.

The Euro 5 engine is a

DC16 115 with 462kW and 3000Nm of torque (620hp and 2212.6ft/lb for you old fellas), and it’s coupled to a manual gearbox, which is rare these days, but the cab fitout is just what you’d expect from Scania: leather everywhere, the V8 interior package with red trim, V8 leather steering wheel, and a fridge.

The truck arrived with the necessary functions to ensure the crane works with the truck and that the axle configuration complies with the NZTA exemption.

The steered tag axle is equipped with Scania’s electrohydraulic tag axle steering system (EST). With EST, an electronic control unit receives information about the steering wheel angle and vehicle speed and sends signals to an electrohydraulic pump unit that is located close to the tag axle in the rear. This unit generates the required pressure to manoeuvre the hydraulic cylinder of the tag axle, adapted to the driving situation (in this case under 40kph only).

A quick look at the livery of the truck says that Craig has put quite some effort into making this his pride and joy. The graphics are impressive and set off what is an impressive unit for both Pukekohe Hiab Transport and Scania New Zealand, and of course a first for the New Zealand trucking industry.

Photo Credit: Scania NZ.

Fassi F1710RA.22.8 – max lift capacity of 12.7 tonne at 4.5m reach, and 1.3 tonne at the maximum 25m extension. BIGENF has a helluva presence on the road.

40 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

THE FIGURES ADD UP At Scania, we understand how difficult it can be for operators to maintain their fleet and their service levels during these difficult times. While we are seeing a tightening in credit criteria across the finance industry, we are providing an initiative that enables you greater flexibility to rejuvenate your truck fleet without compromising vital cash flow.

For a limited time Scania is offering interest only payments*.

To find out more, visit www.scania.co.nz/cashflow-initiatives or contact Scania Finance New Zealand on 021 885 226. *Terms and conditions: Purchase finance offer applies to Stock Trucks and Used Trucks only and available for orders taken from 1st June to 30th September 2020. Scania Finance is subject to credit terms and conditions which are available by contacting Scania Finance New Zealand on 021 885 226.

Offers exclude national fleet buyers. The information provided on scania.co.nz in general is nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. Before making any decision, it is important for you to seek appropriate legal, tax, and other professional advice.

MADE FOR NEW ZEALAND

Story by Dave McCoid

Photos as credited

A TRUCK THAT HAD A HOME Two decades after it arrived, the Freightliner Argosy’s time here has come to an end. In hindsight it was a truck built for New Zealand, and we were the ones who loved it most.

A ‘

large merchant vessel with a rich or heavily laden cargo’ is what the word Argosy means, and was there ever a moniker more befitting the product of Freightliner? It’s all the company’s legendary founder Leland James ever wanted for his creation, to be heavily laden, in fact, more laden than any other truck on the road. As the sun set on the 20th century, Freightliner’s new Argosy was the cutting edge of what US technology could deliver in pursuit of his dream.

Jim Hebe was Freightliner’s top man at the time, and he attempted to relight the founder’s fire for trucks built to earn money

42 New Zealand Trucking

through productivity in terms of payload. Built on Freightliner’s Century Class platform, the Argosy was light and powerful, but unlike James’ early creations, it would bring the cabover engine truck bang up to date and eliminate all that detracted from a truck with no hood, allowing more room for paying freight. The floor was as close to flat as possible, and inside there was comfort and space to burn. Additionally, those famous swing-out steps were all about making entry and exit every bit the equal of its conventional siblings and counterparts.

But in all reality, none of it was to be. At this point in August 2020

history things were different.

Political and cultural forces thwarted the Argosy’s success on home soil. With federal laws imposing a maximum length on trailers only, the bonneted truck had – and still has – the US truck market all to itself. As such the Argosy was binned in the home market in 2005, a mere seven years after its arrival.

All was not lost Argosy was also an exported vehicle, sent to far flung corners, even to places with steering wheels on the wrong side: places like South Africa, Australia, and of course New Zealand.

All three of those markets had vehicle dimension

Freightliner. If it needs explaining… well? Photo credit: Trucks and Trailers

SEE T H E GA L L E RY I N T H E D I GI TA L E D I TON

and mass constraints that kept cabovers in play. The numbers stacked up enough to maintain supply, and therefore Freightliner’s return on investment.

The physical constraints on vehicle size and weight applied to us especially; you might say we were the Argosy’s spiritual home. It was unwittingly built for us, we just needed our SANZAR buddies to keep the numbers right.

In 2014 the announcement came that Argosy would cease in South Africa, and from there the dominos quickly fell. Daimler was working to a global strategy around platforms and safety architecture, and the Argosy wasn’t part of that plan.

Photo credit: Trucks and Trailers

Photo credit: Ed Mansell

(Left) The first 8x4 went to Godfrey Holdings Ltd. (Right) One of the original four that went to C.W. Nicholson Transport Ltd.

Back we go… and there it was Following the Australian launch in late 1998 the crowds flocked around the first example of the Argosy on our shores at Transport 1999 in Hopuhopu, a 110” high top tractor in factory gold and swirly paint. The first new US cabover since the Mack Ultra Liner, the soft lines of the big American replaced the hardarse no-nonsense look of the FLB. The Argosy promised much, and twenty years later there’s no question that, with few exceptions, it delivered on its promise.

The reason for that is twofold: firstly it was a great market fit, and secondly the people selling it believed in it.

“The Argosy was underrated by the traditionalists when it first arrived but paved its own way as shown by the sales figures.

It was powerful, spacious, comfortable, and lightweight; it proved to be everything operators wanted,” said Mark Wright, dealer principal at Trucks and Trailers.

The first four Argosys to hit the road here were bought

by C W Nicolson Transport in Auckland (New Zealand Trucking magazine; March 2000). All 6x4s with Caterpillar C12 power, the trucks were put into line haul work, two in the company’s own blue and white livery, and two in the colours of customer Ansett Express. The first 8x4 was again C12-powered

and snapped up by Godfrey Holdings Ltd in Rotorua on residue cartage.

Unlike the FLB it replaced, the Argosy came ex-factory as an 8x4, and Don Wright, Trucks and Trailers founder and director, says in his mind it’s still the best US 8x4 setup there’s been.

“We’d done the FLB here and they sent out an engineer, Wayne Brock, to look at it.

With better resources they were able to improve the drop-arm and you couldn’t fault the result. They also put rubber bushes in the front springs, something that set the Argosy apart from the opposition until the end.”

The Argosy came in a number of cab variants from day-cab, through mid-roof sleepers, up to the superimpressive 110” raised roof travelling condo, but it was the 90” mid-roof sleeper that proliferated.

“A great bread and butter truck,” said Don. “Perfect for stock, and pallet footprint.”

In those days you could also have a choice of engines, Caterpillar, Cummins, and Detroit. Due to its time in history, the Argosy was never available with an N14 Cummins.

“Was a time there that an Argosy with a Gen2 Cummins Signature ruled the road,” said Mark.

Of course when you’re talking Freightliner Argosy salesmen, Trevor McCallum, formally PCV in Christchurch,

The Argosy has played a huge role in rural transport. Todd Stephens (top) rates its steering, stability, and traction as having no peers. (Bottom) Laurie ‘Ferg’ Ferguson’s truck sporting classic drop-sider configuration. and now Cable Price’s Freightliner man, has to be shoulder-tapped. Trev’s Argosys are pretty much his babies, and he’s known far and wide for his association with the brand.

“It’s sad days,” he said when we rang. “I’ve been with it all the way, and there’s a tear in the eye for sure. Eighty percent of the Freightliners I’ve sold have been Argosys. They’ve

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 43

made a lot of people a lot of money, but in the end it’s just about numbers I guess.

South Africa took 3500-odd a year and when that stopped, you can’t do much.”

Time for a grilling Development of the Argosy for the antipodes wasn’t exhaustive. “A truck built for Interstate 5 isn’t going to stand up too well to places like Northland,” as Don put it. Although the 90 tonne GCM gave it ‘good bones’, a comprehensive PD programme was undertaken here, strengthening aspects of the dash and tending to the cab in the raised roof sleepers. Other refinements included reconfiguring intercooler mounts, replacing nylon hoses with more heatresistant materials, and trimming fan blades in severe duty applications so they didn’t foul the shroud.

“The dashes in the US trucks were injection moulded,” said Don, “but they vacuum moulded ours due to numbers. With vacuum moulding you can’t guarantee density of material in the key places. That was largely the issue around the dashes.”

In time other refinements were added, including air assisting the clutch, and reconfiguring the shift tower on the manual transmissions so the cables had a less severe path in. For many that change was transformational.

One of the interesting anecdotes surrounded the first grille update, around 2006.

“That grille was developed here in New Zealand by Greg Biggs, who drove for Tranzlink owner-driver Paulus van Zantvoort at the time,” said Mark. “He wanted something different. Initially they were made up of two pieces but eventually he had a single piece overlay made and we fitted them as part of the PD. The truck itself was the same.”

44 New Zealand Trucking

Photo Credit: Trucks and Trailers Logs (above) or transporting, no job was too savage.

Photo Credit: Trucks and Trailers As global corporate acquisitions and emissions rules moulded the engine OEM landscape, your choice of ‘horse’ under the floor disappeared, and by the late-2000s Argosys came with Detroit power only.

Interestingly Cummins made a return, fleetingly, late in the piece in 6x4 tractors only, to meet demands in the Australian market.

Over the years Freightliner made subtle embellishments to fairings and cab corner vents, as well as minor August 2020

improvements to the interior.

However, real change for the Argosy came in 2012, with the second-generation truck, affectionately tagged the ‘cheese grater’ due to its imposing grille, an early incarnation of the style that appeared on the 2018 Cascadia.

This machine was significantly different, a switch to the Coronado platform emissions and electrical architecture. Argosy Generation 1 was a cabover Century Class, 2 was the

cabover Coronado.

“The whole front end was different,” said Mark. “Doors, radiator mounts, guards, grille, header tanks, electricals, and master switches.”

As part of the 2012 model, Freightliner also now injection moulded the dashboards and adopted some of the bracing the New Zealand sales agents had been building into the trucks. Trevor said at that point PCV stopped what they’d been doing in terms of PD bracing, and things were fine.

Trucks and Trailers continued

An original still hammering out a good mile in 2015.

Mark Wright, dealer principal at Trucks and Trailers Ltd.

The ‘Biggs’ grille in Booth’s Transport livery. What Argosy story would be right without a Booth’s truck.

Founder and director of Trucks and Trailers Ltd, Don Wright, believed in their product 100%.

Argosys have been key in the Riordan and West story.

Formerly in sales at Prestige Commercial Vehicles in Christchurch, and now with Cable Price Ltd, Trevor McCallum is known far and wide for his association with the Argosy, and has been there the whole way. “There’s certainly a tear in the eye.”

with their programme.

In the succeeding eight years Generation 2 Argosys have done nothing to diminish the model’s reputation as a strong, honest truck for the bulk of people who have bought them, and then returned to them again and again.

We tested several Argosys over the years and repeatedly the sentiment was an honest truck for a hard-earned dollar spent. In the August 2018 test, Riordan & West’s Dave West said, “They’re very good

trucks. Very good, not perfect, but nothing is.”

A quick ring around to some other Argosy stalwarts for this piece yielded the following.

Bill Hammond, owner of Bill Hammond Transport in Carterton said, “Great numbers truck, power to weight they were a great truck, and if you required the driver to sleep in them, they had a roomy cab. It’s a sad day to see the end of the Argosy.”

Laurie ‘Ferg’ Ferguson, Ferguson Trucking Ltd in Milton, has two of the last

Argosys, one at the body builders and one cab and chassis in the yard. They bring the current tally to 10.

“They’ve just always been a good reliable truck for us,” he said.

Waipukurau in the Hawke’s Bay is home to Stephenson Transport Ltd, and CEO Todd Stephenson rates the Argosy: “The best truck ever in terms of stability, traction, and steering. Nothing comes close to the Argosy for steering.” An interesting point considering Don’s comments on the

Argosy’s 8x4 setup.

So it is that the sun is now well and truly setting, with Trucks and Trailers recently having a reserve placed on what is understood to be the last new 8x4 machine available, with barely a handful of 6x4s remaining. Freightliner Argosy, a truck whose true glory days existed in one of the world’s remotest corners.

No one will miss the Argosy like us, we were its best fit, but maybe that’s because we know merchant vessels work best when they’re loaded!

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 45

MAIN TEST FOLLOW UP

Story by Dave McCoid and Gavin Myers

Photos by Gavin Myers

BEN’S ULTIMATE

LOGGER When we tested Ben Reed’s highriding FH16 750 8x4 logging truck in our November 2019 issue, he was looking forward to welcoming a third truck, a hybrid of the heavy-hitting cover star, and his original FH13 540 – ‘The ultimate logging truck’. Now it’s here, we checked in with Ben to see how it’s getting on.

O

ut of the Woods, Morning Wood, and now Woodworker – the Reed Enterprises 2006 Ltd fleet of Volvos has welcomed its newest member – the truck that owner and Volvo enthusiast Ben reckons is the best spec he could have for logging in Northland.

For the benefit of newer readers and those who might have missed the November 2019 test, Ben kicked off his current Volvo crop with a FH13 540 8x4 logger, which he complemented last year with the 750. The trucks were identical in spec other than in two important areas. First and most obviously was their drivetrains; the 750 had crawler gears and bigger diffs as well as its bigger engine.

Second was their suspension setups.

46 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

Extra height of the straight-beam front suspension is unmissable.

While the 540 retained its standard 2-leaf parabolic springs and shocks up front and an airbag setup at the rear, the 750 quite literally took things up a notch. Up front now was Volvo’s FA-XHIGH straightbeam front axles rated at 13-tonne, the additional clearance of which Ben felt was an advantage to his predominantly woodlot work profile. Out back there was a 26-tonne hub-reduction bogie on Volvo’s B Ride parabolic springs, which added an overall weight penalty of 325kg.

Both towed identical 5-axle Patchell trailers, were fitted with shiny King Bars bull bars and Alcoa Dura-Brights, and employed SI Lodec weigh scales and a Traction Air CTI system on the driven wheels.

Ben reckoned his ideal truck would be

a 540 with all the extra front axle gubbins he’d specced to the 750. He said the mammoth FH16 750 was a great owners’ truck but they’re not a fleet truck.

MTD Auckland-Northland account manager Carl Capstick duly obliged, and just as the implications of Covid-19 began to hit home, Ben took delivery of Woodworker. Timing as it was, the truck has only clocked 17,000km to date, but Ben already knows he’s onto a winner.

“It’s worked out as intended, which was to be the best spec for the job. It’s doing everything I was hoping it would do,” Ben says. In fact, it’s doing more – already proving more fuel efficient than the others. (When we tested the 750, it was averaging 1.72km/l average and 1.85 on the day, with the 540 at a

lifetime average of 1.89km/l.)

“There’s a bit more tech in this truck that the others don’t have,” he says.

“Every time we get a newer truck there’s something on it that’s better than the older one. Volvo’s always improving little things, which is quite exciting. It’s all about making the job easier and saving a bit of money. It definitely makes a difference.”

MTD product trainer and online services coordinator Sean Webb explains some of the new systems: “The systems in play have improved. The new I-Cruise system has a working range for under- and overspeed; depending on which level you set it for it manages the speed for fuel savings according to the traffic conditions.

“The FH now also has the full safety pack, standardised across the range.

The great thing is, Ben embraces these changes and understands the benefit of them to his business.”

Like its older siblings, Woodworker runs 50MAX. It’s nicked the older Patchell 5-axle trailer off Out of the Woods, with that unit paired with Ben’s old 4-axle trailer for the meantime. “One day we’ll get another 5-axle and keep the 4-axle as a spare again, but for now we’ll just take it as it comes,” says Ben. For now he is happy to keep his fleet at three. “Three seems to be quite manageable for a small fleet,” says Ben, who likes to keep his finger on the pulse. “I can hop in each truck and if there’s anything going on with them I’ll know about it and fix it straight away.”

Nonetheless, when the time comes to expand, we have a feeling which repeat

The Reed Enterprises 2006 Ltd fleet looking sharp.

Ben Reed with drivers Roger Holmes and Morgan Toia.

Like the Volvos, the Patchell 5-axle trailers feature a few Reed enhancements.

Loading up to 50MAX.

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 47

Basic specifications order Ben will be placing.

“It’s overall just a nice truck to drive.

There’s something about it that I can’t explain. It ticks all the boxes. It’s all good,” he says.

Ben sends out his thanks to the team at MTD and Sean Dowling at UDC Finance for helping to bring Woodworker to the roads. “Along with MTD, UDC has been instrumental in supporting the business and ensuring the vehicles hit the road.”

Three in a row, each better than the last.

VOLVO FH13 540 HA 8x4 AIR EXTRA HIGH Engine: Euro 5 SCR, DC13 13-litre, 403kW/2600Nm (540hp/1920lb/ft) Transmission: Volvo I-shift 12-speed AMT with crawler gears Front axle: FA-XHIGH straight Front suspension: 3-leaf parabolic springs, extra-high ground clearance Rear axle: Single reduction tandem, 23t, GCW 70t, 3.09:1 Rear suspension: Extra-high air ride G2 Additional safety: ESP Package, ACC and forward collision warning, emergency braking, lane departure warning system, lane change support, driver alert sensing system Electronics: Volvo Dynafleet telematics and fleet management system.

SUPPORTING NZ TRUCKING FOR THE LONG HAUL From logging and forestry to servicing the port of Whangarei, whether you’re an owner driver or a fleet owner, we’re ready and waiting with hassle-free finance to help with your transport needs.

Sean Dowling – Senior Commercial Manager (Northland) | 027 232 5928 or 0800 500 832

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31/07/20 1:27 PM

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TOP TRUCK

SMOOTH AS

WHISKY under the Hokonuis

A livery synonymous with rural cartage in Southland has just put its second Scania on the road – this time HRT has gone big, safe, smart, and comfortable – the latter meaning for all the occupants!

Story and photos by Craig Andrews

S

mooth as whisky with a punch to match pretty much sums up the latest acquisition for Gore’s Hokonui Rural Transport (HRT). The company is known for having a mix of brands making up its 20-strong truck fleet. All the trucks are charged with servicing the rural sector in some way or other. This month’s Top Truck is the second Scania in the company’s colours, the first being a spreader. Managing director Adam Waghorn weighed up several things before getting the Scania across the line. Price, backup service and reliability are your main tick-box items on the list, but for Adam, driver comfort, safety, and the ability to get a low chassis height were just as important.

Hokonui Rural Transport is

50 New Zealand Trucking

a joint venture between Adam and the HWR group, so it’s not easy getting something outside the normal into the fleets, but the safety features on the R620 fitted right in with what HWR requires, operator safety being high on the list of requirements.

“The tare isn’t bad for a high roof sleeper cab Euro, coming in at just under 25 tonne. It weighs the same as the sleeper cab K200 Kenworth on the same work, with the lightweight leader being the Argosys at just under a tonne leaner than the other two,” says Adam, who points out that the weight was a small price to pay for the driver comfort and safety.

The Scania does have some additional stainless steel for extra eye appeal, and highly rated Steve Keast from Transport Engineering August 2020

Spectacular in any setting. The HRT R620 is a magnificent ambassador for the business.

Southland Ltd (TES) in Invercargill has done his best to keep the weight down without skimping on the shiny stuff either. The beautifully built trailer and monocoque deck carry equally impressive Delta crates. All HRT crates are Delta units, as their workmanship is hard to fault.

The step-decked trailer and crates were chosen to give the cattle more back room.

In a region now teeming with dairy farms, carting cattle is a huge part of the business, and having the best options available to carry them is

important.

Scania invited transport operators throughout New Zealand to Geelong in Australia to test drive the Scania, and Adam was impressed with the standard spec and the new Opticruise GRSO905R 14-speed gearbox, with its increased shift speed over the previous version.

The 620 V8 Euro 5 went to Cliff Mannington’s Truck Signs in Tauranga where they worked their magic on the truck. From there it went to HRT, its new driver Adam

English, and then straight onto milk cartage, common for new HWR Group trucks.

After 70,000km in that work it was set up with its new crates and trailer.

Adam English learnt the transport game the right way, and he says piloting the big Scandinavian is a pleasure. Coming out of high school at 17, he went to HRT washing out sheep crates before obtaining his class 2.

He started doing flea (small truck) work around Eastern Southland, while still washing out crates, and then gained

Thanks to tech, materials, craftsmanship, and pride from the likes of Transport Engineering Southland and Delta Stockcrates, trailers today are co-stars rather than bland ‘ole mate out the back that simply carries the load. his class 4 and 5 licences.

An FH 460 Volvo was the first big mount, followed by an FH

540 with I-Shift, then a new Freightliner Argosy with a 5-axle trailer in 2013. He ran

that to 600,000km after six years before he went onto the new R620 V8. He’s been with

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 51

HRT for 10 years now and is happy to be there for another 10 years. For him, the Scania is the pinnacle. A bit of driver training from Scania’s driver training supremo Chris Foot, and from there, he set the truck up to suit himself.

“Everything about this truck is just 10 times better than anything I’ve driven. It’s 10 times more comfortable, more powerful, has better retardation, and better fuel economy,” he says.

Adaptive Cruise Control makes life behind the wheel a dream, and at the end of the day he doesn’t feel like dropping off to sleep on the couch after dinner. The R4100D retarder is one of the best when it comes to keeping the service brakes fresh.

The truck looks great on the outside and Adam is

equally spoilt by the inside.

He removed the carpet for a more user-friendly vinyl in the cab, which made sense for livestock work. Add in a

great bed, plenty of room in the cab to stand up in, and no shortage of storage, and you can see why he is happy to spend as much time as

possible in here.

Adam operates the Opticruise AMT in the standard mode to get the best fuel economy, and is

Adam English rates the Scania as the pinnacle in his truck career to date.

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The NTG interior is one that sets the bar on truck driver workplaces in the 21st century.

always looking for ways to get the most out of the engine.

Little adjustments lead to big gains. Everything the Scania does seems effortless, and Adam is surrounded by some of the best safety features of any truck on the market.

Adam Waghorn has specced the unit with Wabco TailGUARD just to make backing safer. The system stops the truck dead if it senses something in the way when backing. It also lessens any impact in its line of work, protecting the rear of the truck or trailer as well as the livestock ramps.

The HRT Scania is a standout in a region swamped with standout gear. There is an attention to detail with the way this truck looks that is not lost on either of the Adams.

The new generation Scanias are proving popular, and the Hokonui unit with its step

FAST FACTS Engine: DC16 115 L01 V8 Capacity: 16.4 litre Power/torque: 462kW (620hp), 3000Nm (2213lb/ft) Emissions: Euro 5 (SCR) Transmission: 14-speed Opticruise GRSO905R Clutch: K432 26 Automatic Retarder: Scania TMS R4100D 5-stage Rear Axle: Scania RBP662 with full lockup/load transfer Suspension: Front springs/rear air Extras: Dura-Bright wheels, lighting, stainless guard, Wabco TailGUARD

deck trailer, a design style in vogue currently, is not only receiving fleeting glances, but also hands-on-hip nods of approval from those in the industry.

It remains to be seen what Adam Waghorn purchases next. Only time will tell.

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after he passed his class 4. As with his class 4, he gained his class 5 off his own bat, and moved on to TSI doing floating work. But a desire to have his own run saw him head to Blair Wellsford driving a FH Volvo carting steel between Dunedin and Invercargill on contract to K&S Freighters. It was from there that he went to Coombs, firstly on floating

work driving an FH Volvo, which then led to the current Scania.

Trucking is in his family, with his dad and both granddads driving at some stage, so for Mark it was a good idea to follow in their footsteps.

His vexing question was dairy farm or sheep and beef farm. His answer? “Beef and sheep all the way.”

Mark Fegan

Mark Fegan from Dunedin has been in the driving game for 10 years now, and continues to enjoy every day he does it.

And why wouldn’t he? He pilots one of the sharp A and L Coombs Contracting Scanias, carting bread from Dunedin to Timaru each day for Goodman Fielder.

The 2018 R730 Scania has 780,000km on it, and still looks like it did when it first went on the road. It’s a credit to Mark and his shift partners, Dave, Shaun, and Pete.

It was in for a service when Craig Andrews caught up with Mark and asked him what makes him tick. “The freedom of driving on the open road with the radio going and enjoying my own company,” he said. There’s nothing he dislikes about the work or the industry.

His driving career started back with Subzero on a small class 2 Isuzu Elf delivering chilled and frozen products around Dunedin. This is where his love of driving began. He went to Mainstream next, doing metro work

Nick Rangiawha anywhere around New Zealand.

Nick’s passion for trucking started at the age of six when he spent a lot of time riding in trucks with his uncle, a longtime truckie. Nick has been driving trucks for 15 years, with eight of those working for Brett Marsh, who Nick rates as a great guy to work for.

Nick says “the freedom of just being out on the road” is what he enjoys most. His frustration with the industry is knowing the ongoing struggles trucking companies face with taxes, fuel price increases, and changing rules and regulations.

When Alison asked the vexing question, Nick chose number 18, wine, whisky or beer? The answer was “definitely beer”.

0519-15

Alison Verran spotted Nick Rangiawha heading along Cameron Road in Tauranga, to unload at PAK’nSAVE. Nick has been behind the wheel of this impressive Kenworth T909 since it went on the road in January 2019.

With a 459kW (615hp) Cummins X15 under the bonnet, there’s plenty of power to pull the refrigerated B-train.

Nick is based in Hamilton and currently carts from Auckland to supermarkets in the Tauranga and Rotorua areas. During lockdown, he was an essential worker, supplying much sought after groceries for all of the patient shoppers queuing outside supermarkets. Outside his current assignment, you’ll see Nick and his KW almost

54 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

Just Truckin’

Around

www.trt.co.nz

Just Truckin’ Around – Overseas

Dragon Sampson

Dragon Sampson, like many others, left his home state of Victoria in search of adventure and big rigs in the north of Australia. After working as a cattle station ringer, he drove Kenworths on side tippers and general freight for Roadline and Dean Wilson Transport in Broome, WA. When cornered by Paul O’Callaghan in Kununurra, WA, he was on his second month into a new gig with North Star Pastoral, which has bases scattered around the Northern Territory. He had just been loaded with corn for delivery to the NSP feedlot and cattle station at Maryfield near Daly Waters.

The 25-year-old is working his way up to pulling six decks

of cattle for the company, which runs a fleet of nine Kenworths including Dragon’s Cummins Signature Gen 2 powered C501 Brute, two T909s and five C509s. “I’m delighted to be given the opportunity by North Star Pastoral, especially as I’ve only had my licence for 12 months now,” said Dragon. “It’s a great place to work. We cover the territory, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland.”

Dragon loves the free range the job offers, although dealing with breakdowns in remote areas is the thing he dislikes most.

When questioned on the Ford versus Holden preference, he states that he is a staunch Holden man. 

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0519-15

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New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 55

TOP TRUCK

SE PT E M B E R 2 01 9

N OVEMB ER 2019

OCTOB ER 2019

TOP TRUCK

DEC E M B E R /JA N UA RY 2 020

FEB RUARY 2020

OF THE YEAR 2019 – 2020 M A R C H 2 02 0

APRIL 2020

T

AU G U ST 2020

JULY 2 020

he team at New Zealand Trucking Media is delighted to bring you the John Murphy Memorial Top Truck 2019 – 2020.

This year Covid-19 got in the way as it did in all our lives, so there are only 10 entrants due to the May 20

Top Truck being a thank you image dedicated to all the truckers who worked through the lockdown month. The other Top Truck monthly winners from September 2019 until this issue are in the draw for the John Murphy Memorial Top Truck of the year plaque.

Given the circumstances all

businesses have faced this year, an extra special thanks must go Power Retreads, key sponsors of the monthly and annual competition. Without hesitation they have again put up the major prize for the winning truck, a set of eight premium Vipal drive axle retreads. This prize package

MONTH TRUCK

COMPANY

September 2019 October 2019 November 2019 Dec 2019 / Jan 2020 February 2020 March 2020 April 2020 May 2020 June 2020 July 2020 August 2020

Stock Lines Haz Haulage [Chemcouriers livery] Northchill Ltd Counties Bulk Haulage McNulty’s Transport Ltd Toxic Transport Ltd Camo Transport Ltd [Mainfreight livery] not awarded Alexander Group Kerley Brothers Transport Ltd Hokonui Rural Transport Ltd

Volvo FH16 Scania R620 Kenworth T900 Legend International 9870 Western Star 4864 FXC Volvo FH 540 Scania S650 not awarded Kenworth K200 MAN TGX 35.640 Scania R620

is valued between $3500 and $4500! We can’t thank them enough for their support.

Likewise, Little Truckers’ Club contributor and renowned truck artist Rochelle Thomas will again present the winner with a portrait of their truck.

Voting will be via public vote on the New Zealand Trucking website www. nztrucking.co.nz. Simply tick the box next to the truck you want to vote for.

Voting opens on Friday 14 August 2020 and runs through until Sunday 13 September 2020. The winner will be announced in the October 2020 issue of New Zealand Trucking magazine.

Good luck to all those who have trucks in contention.

Get online and get voting for your favourite truck.

0820-15

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10/6/20 8:31 pm

TOWING EXOTIC

WHEN GETS

Story by Gavin Myers

Car transport, towing and recovery are usually undertaken by a generic eightcar trailer over a low-cab truck, or your average towie with an open rollback.

That is unless you’re dealing with the upper echelon of the car market – where specialist service, care and discretion are valued above all else.

Photos by Gavin Myers and as credited

A

mong those who are fortunate enough to own a car that can be considered rare, exotic, high performance or classic, there exists the need – every now and then – to transport that machine under the radar.

It might be just imported for a discerning collector

to be moved to its new marble-floored, climatecontrolled home. Or a highly Instagrammable supercar that must be trucked up to a main dealer for a teardown service. Or one that’s suffered at the hands of a ham-fisted driver, on its way to one of a few specialist repairers – large insurance

Above: The body pushes size limits but is necessary to accommodate wide cars with doors that open upwards, not outwards.

SE E T H E G AL L E RY I N T H E D I G I TAL E D I TO N

Sides fold outwards to clear the car and create room for unconventional doors. claim on the horizon.

Whatever the situation, the owners of these cars often want them protected from the elements and kept out of the public’s eye – and the reach of their grubby paws – while in transit. And that’s where a company like Exotic Towing comes into the picture. One of a couple such specialist car transporters in Auckland, Exotic Towing is a relatively young company (started in 2017) with a quickly growing reputation.

Owner and career towie Sar Khoshaba certainly has an appreciation for high-quality four-wheeled machinery – it’s how he landed up becoming towie to the country’s elite – and this is certainly reflected in the latest addition to his company’s fleet. At its base it may be a simple 8-tonne Fuso Canter, but it’s the attention to detail in this build that makes this truck the specialist piece of kit it is.

Sar explains that getting the level of quality he wanted wasn’t an overnight process – the whole build took eight months to complete. Then lockdown happened, just as it was ready to hit the road.

“It was a very frustrating 13 months; I heavily invested money and time in the truck. I wasn’t really sure about going

ahead with the project in the first place – I wanted to buy the truck just months after I purchased Exotic Towing in 2018. But it happened and I’m very happy with the result.”

The truck came as a basic transporter from Japan, which Sar bought from Henderson Motors in Hamilton. Buying it was the easy part, finding a builder who was willing to take on the box conversion was not… After having been turned down by a few builders, Fruehauf took on the project, spending four months on the build. “Jeff Mear took it on and did it right. It wasn’t straightforward; everything I wanted was custom and the main concern for me was the size,” says Sar. With the need to accommodate all manner of exotic cars – some more than 2m wide and with doors that open up to twice the height of the car – the Canter pushes the limits of size. The deck and headboard were cut and widened a few inches each side, and the inside dimensions of the box are 2.4m wide and 2.1m high, with a variable length thanks to adjustable tailgate latches.

Driving in the truck, one realises just how wide the box is. “We pushed the limit because we needed the

Canter’s compact footprint practically doubles once the box is lowered and ramp dropped.

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 59

Sar Khoshaba started towing in 2008 and is building Exotic Towing to be a leader in its niche segment of the industry. inside space. It’s 2.52m on the outside; the maximum we could go was 2.55. Getting all these sizes right was the hold-up for the project,” Sar says, explaining that it took a few months to convince the car manufacturers and dealers to share the basic dimensions of the largest cars he would need to fit into it.

The numbers found online proved to be unreliable, so this was a step that couldn’t be rushed.

Many of these vehicles have vulnerable body parts such as wings, mirrors and spoilers made out of expensive carbon fibre that Sar just wasn’t willing to mess with when loading the cars.

“You don’t want to spend a quarter of a million dollars and then find a car doesn’t fit. I want to avoid touching the mirrors, as some of them are carbon fibre and very expensive,” he says.

With this in mind, the sliding sides help with getting in and out of the cars. They’re easy to operate, can open from the front or the rear, and are designed to fold on the outside, not inside, so as to not drag along the cars. “Normal curtain siders operate slightly differently so this was the best option,” Sar says.

With barely any ground clearance and more vulnerable carbon fibre in the

firing line, it was imperative for the box to be as close to the ground as possible when loading the cars. It moves out virtually flat behind the truck and is helped by an extremely narrow ramp angle. There are lots of tow hooks and lashing points, each with 2.5-tonne capacity, and the hydraulic winch and four LED spotlights are conveniently operated by remote control.

Sar’s attention to detail goes further, with the use of high-quality Mac’s wheel straps. “I use them because the wheels on these cars have special coatings. The straps are very soft and don’t scratch the wheels. I put another rag around it if I still

feel it’s not good enough.”

These are usually stored in one of the toolboxes located each side of the chassis (by Vehicle Construction and Maintenance, which did most of the fittings on the truck) that also house a low-profile jack, tools, and everything Sar would need for roadside assistance, breakdowns, unlocking, jump-starting, changing tyres, and recovery and shipping.

As often happens when a vehicle needs recovery, the driver may need a lift in the tow truck. Again, the company’s image and target market was kept in mind and a standard Canter interior just wouldn’t do. Sar turned to RVE Vehicle Enhancement to custom-make the seats. “I’d seen this style in utes before and wanted them in the truck.

RVE hadn’t done that before so it took them about two and a half months to design and install. The truck was off the road for the year so that was fine,” he says.

Rounding off the build was a respray by Evans European Panel and Paint (incidentally, one of Exotic Towing’s first and longest standing clients) in the same black as a 1980’s MercedesBenz 190E, Peterson LED lighting installed by 24/7 Auto Electrical, and an Ali Arc bull bar (not yet fitted when we did our photoshoot). Sar says the truck has lost one tonne with the new body and

60 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

0820-02

Lockers house all the necessary accessories. Custom-made seats round off the image.

Rear-view camera comes on with reverse gear, and can be switched on at any time. all the other additions, but with a 5-tonne tare, he still has plenty of capacity for the types of cars he’d have to accommodate.

Sure, Exotic Towing caters to a very niche segment of the vehicle transport and recovery market, but that hasn’t stopped Sar and his various suppliers from looking at every single detail from start to finish. This truck is certainly well designed for its purpose.

“For the first time doing a project like this, thankfully everything worked out. There were a few issues along the way but it was off the road anyway, so everyone could take their time. I never put any pressure on anyone who worked on the truck because I wanted it to be done perfectly. Everyone who’s seen it loves it. The guys from Fruehauf are looking forward to building the next one already,” Sar says proudly.

(Top) Very shallow ramp angle necessary for ultra-low cars. (Below) The hydraulic winch and floor plate were standard fitment. Everything else around them has been added for the job.

Fruehauf is a name that has been asso ciated with quality, craftsmans hip and dedication to excellence since its establishme nt in the United Sta tes in the late 1800s.

As a market leader in NZ Transport Ma nufacturing, Fruehauf NZ offers excellence in ongo ing after Sales Customer Support within New Zealand Fruehauf NZ Ltd is extremely proud to support the New Zealand Trans port Industry with Ma nufacturing, Servicing and Repa irs of Truck and Tra iler products for all NZ Transport businesses and wil l work to do so well into the Futur e.

During the past 11 -year management of Fruehauf NZ Ltd by Phil Watchorn and Jeff Mear, Frueh auf NZ has become a New Zeala nd leader in the ma nufacture of road transport equip ment for both truck trailers and truck bodies.

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GOOD ON YA MATE(S)

A toot and a wave changes the world

T

ake a bow, truckers of New Zealand. Here’s an email we recently received from Wayne Hickman in Levin.

“Hi my name is Wayne and I have a son named Joshua; he is 11 years old and is autistic. In January of 2018 you guys had an article on your Facebook page about Joshua, who loves trucks. The article asked if the truckers could wave and toot to him as they pass, which they did, and he loved it so much. We are so grateful for what you all did for him and the impact it has made on him.

‘He missed it so much during lockdown but found out how to access trucking magazines online, without help. He wanted to send all truckers around New Zealand a big high-five, and thank you all so much for what you have done for him.

Thank you so much, Joshua and Wayne Hickman”

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CLASSICS LOCKER

RECREATING THE

MAGIC OF TV’S EARLY DAYS Story by Ruth Slavid Photos by Broadcast Engineering Conservation Group

A newly formed charity in England is preserving and using a number of vintage outside broadcast trucks that were originally used in the UK in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

Southern at a rally for the 50th anniversary of VAL trucks in 2014.

K

ey to the history of broadcasting, these outside broadcast trucks have been or are being fitted out with original equipment in full working order – and are finding use in today’s broadcasting and films.

One of the trucks, Southern, last year took part in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of colour broadcasting on BBC1 and ITV. On Friday 15 November 2019, Southern TV broadcast news live from an event at Birmingham City University, with part of the broadcast

going out from the 1968 truck, using vintage equipment.

And an earlier truck, Vivat, was used in filming of episodes of The Crown, showing Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965, and the investiture of the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles) at Caernarfon Castle in 1969.

Acquiring, maintaining and operating the vintage broadcast equipment is a passion and challenge, and the same is true for the trucks.

Why is the effort worthwhile?

Paul Marshall, chair of the Broadcast Engineering Conservation Group (BECG)

and the man who originally acquired the trucks, says: “Working in electronics [he is an electronics engineer] you are conscious that everything is tomorrow’s landfill. When the opportunity comes up, especially if it’s a whole truckload of kit, it gives you an opportunity to save something for posterity.”

Southern was built for Southern Television, one of the regional UK commercial broadcasters, on a Bedford VAL 70 chassis in 1968. Dell of Southampton was the coachbuilder. “Because it was designed just as a chassis, the coachbuilders could start from the chassis up,” Paul says.

The VAL was an unusual choice for a truck, as most of them were used for coaches.

They were popular in the early days of motorways, because their twin front axles meant that they could cope with a blowout at speed and therefore were safe.

Non-coach uses included a horsebox for the German Olympic team and as a pigeon carrier.

The main reason that

Vivat back to its former glory in the livery of a Coronation-era BBC outside broadcast truck. Here it’s on location for shooting of The Crown.

Southern – and other TV operators – chose a VAL was because it was considered a good-looking, sleek vehicle – it had a good image. Money was not really an issue because the cost of the trucks was relatively insignificant compared with the cost of the equipment that went inside them. The broadcasters wanted a high standard of coach building and a stylish appearance.

For Southern, Dell built the bodywork in fibreglass, since much of the service would be in corrosive sea air. In fact, it travelled more widely

than expected, including to Scotland to cover football.

The truck was in remarkably good condition when Paul acquired it in December 1994 – it had been in service until January 1994 and had always been kept under cover.

Most of the maintenance that was needed was cosmetic, although some of that was substantial. Sam Booth, who drives the trucks when needed, worked with his brother Kev and with Paul to respray Southern to its original colour scheme and logos. On other parts of the project, BECG also

The Vivat as found by BECG.

worked with a local garage, A & G Commercial in Lincoln.

A specialist in the repair and recovery of HGVs, it is sympathetic to old vehicles.

Southern, like BECG’s other vintage trucks, doesn’t travel far these days – in fact it never has done, with a total of only 64,000 miles (103,000km) on the clock. Today, there has to be a balance between driving the trucks enough to keep them running well, and not going too far because vital parts may wear out. If they have to travel a distance, it will be on a low loader. The furthest that Sam has driven

The Vivat’s interior houses equipment from another era, the 1950s in fact, as used by the BBC.

Southern is back to its original home in Southampton on the south coast – nearly 200 miles (320km) and a six-hour journey. When Southern travelled to Birmingham (about 90 miles/145km), the engine filter became clogged partway through the trip by the growth in the biodiesel that forms part of all diesel today. On a cold, wet English winter’s day, Sam had to lie under the truck at a service station to remove and clean the filter.

He was not, however, on his own. It is always better, he said, to have a passenger, because there is a blind spot on the driver’s left. What is it like to drive otherwise?

“There isn’t a lot of power,” says Sam. It has an 8.2-litre engine, which isn’t a lot for an 11.5-tonne truck, and the engine is only 143bhp.

“Modern trucks are just point and go,” Sam says. “These older ones haven’t got the power. They have a bigger range of gears – which means there are more things to play with.”

Changing gear varies as well, depending on which gear you are changing. “You have to remember where you are on the gears,” Sam says.

“It soon lets you know when you have got it wrong.” And although in theory the truck does have synchromesh, it is not very reliable. “It can catch

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 65

you out,” Sam says. “I always double declutch.”

Sam generally drives in ear defenders, as Southern is pretty noisy. And in winter a warm coat is another important accessory, as the truck can get draughty.

Everything is a stretch, Sam says, as nothing is close to hand. “You can’t just float your foot across – it’s like playing a big organ and dancing at the same time.”

Vivat is a very different beast. In fact an early 60s vehicle, it is being refurbished as a broadcast truck from the 1950s, a period from which no original operational outside broadcast trucks survive. This is made possible because the truck itself, a Commer, former BBC MCR 23, registration 390 EXH, is very similar to the outside broadcast trucks used in the 1950s, including at the Queen’s coronation. The BECG is currently fitting out Vivat with original broadcast equipment from the era.

The truck itself was in a sorry state.

After a chequered career, it ended up as a static classroom, and suffered a combination of adaptation, vandalism and neglect. It was therefore not in good condition when BECG acquired it. Some of the problems were with the bodywork, which is aluminium over steel and ash. It had rusted and rotted in places.

Another problem is getting mechanical spares. Unusually for a TV truck, Vivat has a petrol engine. This was a BBC specification, on advice from the military.

It was believed that the vibration from a diesel could shatter delicate valves (vacuum tubes) in the broadcast equipment. Although this was not the case – valves were pretty tough by then – it was still BBC policy.

The starter motor and the wipers needed repairs, which Sam carried out.

A & G scoured the country for a brake master cylinder and fortunately was, eventually, successful. Although it would theoretically be possible to machine new metal parts, recreating the rubber ones would be trickier. Another problem is that, long term, brake fluid tends to damage rubber components. BECG has had long and inconclusive discussions about which is the best brake fluid to use.

Sam says Vivat’s 4.75-litre engine is “dinky compared with today’s engines”.

And it has a huge steering wheel, which means that you are sitting quite a way into the body of the truck when driving. Vivat hasn’t, Sam says, “got low-down torque and it goes a lot better when it’s warm”.

On both these trucks, he adds, “you are driving by the seat of your pants”.

Vivat is already quite a star. Although

Driver Sam Booth in Southern. not yet fully fitted out, she had two appearances in the second series of The Crown and also appeared in the first series, as a truck with cameras on the roof at the Queen’s wedding. These trucks are not only of historic importance but are also fully functioning pieces of living history – more than justifying the effort involved in maintaining and restoring them.

Southern was designed from the chassis up (Bedford VAL) as a TV van. Here it is outside the workshop that did much of the restorative work.

GALLERY

A Scania T cab rigid stock truck! Let’s kick it off

Although he undoubtedly holds one of the South Island’s

with something as ‘rare as rocking-horse …’

foremost truck photo collections, finding Richard north of the

This photo was taken in the mid-80s, the truck

drain is not uncommon. He snapped this amazing photo of

operated by W J Herbert from Edendale.

a Lendich W Model Kenworth carting away from Auckland’s Westfield Freezing Works demolition in the 90s.

Back down the road a bit The first of a new regular gallery series in which we’ll be tapping into the collections of some of New Zealand’s great truck photographers, passionate recorders of the industry’s history as it unfolds. Here we welcome the work of Christchurch’s Richard Lloyd.

Right: A Service Transport Ltd Volvo G88 taken at Canterbury Frozen Meat (old Belfast Freezing Works) in Christchurch. Service Transport’s main base was in Amberley.

Left: The MC Mack was a regular sight on New Zealand roads in the 80s, working in applications its original designers hadn’t really figured on. This 1981 model ran the 320hp Mack engine and was operated by TNL (Transport Nelson Ltd). Note the wooden drop-sides.

Photo was taken at TNL’s port Nelson depot.

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 67

INTERNATIONAL TRUCK STOP That day the Scania Vabis tipped over…

LONG-HAUL

LEGEND Story by Will Shiers

Photos by Will Shiers and Gordon Pearce collection

Gordon Pearce had a 50-plus-year truck driving career, one of the most noticeable chapters of which was a regular dice-with-death stint between the UK and the Middle East. Through this two-part series we share in this trucking legend’s story.

W

hen Gordon Pearce got an agency job driving for supermarket Asda in the early 1990s, were any of his colleagues aware that they were working alongside a true legend?

As he backed his artic onto a loading

First trip to Tehran in 1966 with the old AEC.

bay at the RDC each morning, did the staff know – or care – that 25 years earlier he was reversing an AEC wagon and drag down the icy Tahir Pass in Turkey with equal precision?

When the temperature in the southeast of England reached 30°C that summer,

and his colleagues complained that their trucks didn’t have air conditioning, did any of them know that in the summer of 1978 Gordon nearly died of heat exhaustion alone in the Saudi Arabian desert?

And when a self-important, jobsworth, hi-vis-clad security guard gave him grief for arriving 15 minutes late for a tip, did he care that in 1966 Gordon turned up in Turkey three days late? But then he had almost frozen to death, having been stranded on top of a Turkish mountain in sub-zero temperatures!

The answer to all these questions is ‘no’. Not only because Gordon wasn’t the kind of man to shout about his achievements, but also because back in the 1990s nobody really cared. For the previous two decades thousands of British drivers had made (and in many cases lost) their fortunes travelling to the Middle East, but now that bubble had well and truly burst. Everybody knew somebody who had done the run, and the original long-haul legends were simply forgotten about. But that’s all changed now, and there’s a huge nostalgic interest in the jobs these men did.

Back in 2014, a year before he died, I was fortunate enough to spend a day in this legendary long-haul pioneer’s company.

Early days “I hope you take your coffee black,” said 76-year old Gordon, as we explored his South London flat, admiring his huge collection of model trucks and framed photographs charting his 50-plus-year truck driving career. “I don’t have any milk here. It’s an old habit from the Middle East days,” he explained. “Some of the drivers carried milk, but I didn’t want to risk it spilling in the cab.” But there was a time that Gordon did take milk in his coffee, and it’s these pre-Middle East days that we started off talking about.

Gordon’s driving career began in 1956,

Gordon loading the first trip for Doha, November 1970.

when he got called up to the army. His brother had been in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), and suggested that he follow suit. “He told me it was a good number, so I applied for REME, and signed up for three years,” he explained.

“I was driving Scamell recovery trucks, pulling tanks out of muddy holes.” He was soon posted to Germany, where he piloted Diamond Ts and Scamells, and earned a few extra Deutsche Marks recovering wrecked German trucks.

“I enjoyed the army,” he said. “They taught me about ropes, splicing, wire ropes, different breaking strains and first aid, and I learnt a bit of German too.”

These were all skills that would come in very handy a decade later.

“I got hooked on driving big trucks, and when I came out of the army I got a job with National Benzole, driving tankers.”

He looked back at that job, which he did from 1959 to 1963, with fond memories.

“But they operated some old stock [AECs, Albions, Clydesdales, Fodens], and today’s drivers wouldn’t believe what it was like driving their trucks,” he said, giving the example of a particularly notorious T-junction. “If you had a loaded 8-wheeler, you’d have to stand up to pull the steering wheel around.

And you daren’t let go of the wheel, as it would burn your hands.”

He recalled an occasion when he lost his brakes in a fully laden Albion tanker, while coming down a hill. “I had my handbrake on and both feet on the brake.

I put my headlights on as the speed increased to 60mph (96kph). Luckily, there was nobody in the way, and the road went up a slope before reaching a village. I stopped for an hour to let it all cool off and off I went again. It’s just one of those things. You were a proper truck driver back then.”

Then followed a brief stint as a selfemployed ice cream van salesman, and

10 QUESTIONS 1. What was your most memorable breakdown?

“Three days on Tahir in the AEC in minus-50 degrees,” he says. They warmed coins in their hands and placed them on the windows to make peep holes in the thick ice.

2. What was the strangest load you ever carried?

“Cans of oil to Saudi Arabia.”

3. Have you ever been arrested?

7. What is your favourite country to drive in?

“Yes,” he said, looking up at the sky, trying to recall how many times.

Needless to say all were trumped-up charges, designed to relieve him of some cash, whisky or cigarettes.

One of the most memorable followed a head-on crash with a coach on a single-lane road in Turkey. He saw the coach approaching, pulled over and waited. It drove straight into him.

Although the coach’s brakes had failed, Gordon got the blame. The army turned up, carted him away and locked him up. Later that day they asked to see his passport, and when he told them it was in the truck they sent him off in a taxi to retrieve it. He got in the Scania, started it up and drove for a day and a half to the border.

“Without a doubt, Turkey.”

4. What was your fastest Middle East run?

“I drove home in five and a half days once. That’s not bad going for 3500 miles (5600km). Of course this was in a Scania,” he said.

5. What is the longest wait you had at a border?

“Three weeks on the Turkish/Iranian border. But three weeks of drinking with your friends isn’t such a hardship!”

6. What is your least favourite country to drive in?

The Scania Vabis takes a break in Eastern Turkey en route to Tehran.

Gordon behind the wheel of his new Scania 110 BGH 172H in 1970.

“Iraq, because of the secret police and the problems with customs.”

8. What is your most memorable accident?

Gordon was driving on a straight road in Turkey in a truck that weighed 52 tonnes. The rear axle went too close to the soft earth at the side of the road, pulling the entire truck over. “It took 24 hours and three trucks to pull me out,” he remembered. But the worst place to have an accident is always Saudi Arabia, because here it is ALWAYS the foreign driver’s fault. “If you weren’t there the accident wouldn’t have happened, that’s the way they view it,” explained Gordon.

9. What languages can you speak?

“I can speak a bit of German, French, Turkish, Farsi and Arabic. I’m not fluent, but I know enough to get by,” he said.

“We spoke to each other with a mix of words in the different languages that we knew.”

10. Have you ever hit a low bridge?

“No, but I nearly got stuck in a Turkish tunnel,” he remembered. When he approached the entrance he saw a sign that read ‘3.8m’, and knowing he was under 3.8m he decided to go for it. But what he didn’t know was that in Turkey a ‘3.8m’ sign simply means ‘low bridge’ and isn’t an actual measurement. He got stuck halfway through and had to let the air out of all the tyres.

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 69

Gordon behind the wheel of a Scania 141 in 2014.

Asian Transport You could write a book about Gordon’s seven years as an Asian Transport (later Astran) driver – and fortunately someone already has, or at least a chapter anyway.

To learn all about his many adventures and dices with death while driving to and from the Middle East, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of Long Haul Pioneers by Ashley Coghill. I simply don’t have the space here.

Gordon’s first journey, which paid £20 ($40) per week, saw him double-man the new AEC with Bob on a trip to Tehran.

Gordon took a camera with him on that journey, and as he recounted the story he

Gordon on the highway with co-driver John Frost.

showed me the pictures in his photo album. It’s clear from the pictures that the weather in Turkey was appalling, the roads were narrow and treacherous, and serious crashes were commonplace.

But fortunately, despite some close calls, both men and truck made it there and back in one piece.

Cutting a long and very exciting story short, then followed 45 journeys to the Middle East (including the company’s first load to Qatar), firstly in the AEC, and then in Scania drawbars.

Gordon looked back at his Astran days with happy memories. Although there were tough times, and “the winters

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Bob Paul (left), an Iranian driver (centre), and Gordon Pearce.

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a year of teaching people to drive cars, before following in his father’s footsteps and working in insurance. “But I couldn’t hack office work,” he said, taking up the story.

“My brother-in-law was an architect, and one of his clients was financing Bob Paul’s [co-founder of original UK to Middle East haulier Asian Transport] new AEC and drag. This was after they had been out to Afghanistan in a Guy and seen there was some potential. He said they wanted a driver, so I went to see Bob. Of course, the interview was in the pub.

He was impressed with the recovery stuff and took me on.”

were bloody hard”, overall he loved the experience. “It was a fascinating job,” he said.

So why then did he decide to quit in 1974? Quite simply, to spend more time with his family. Gordon explained that although he would be in the UK for the best part of a fortnight between jobs, most of that time was spent waiting for the truck to clear customs in the Port of Dover on England’s south coast, unloading it and then dropping it off for servicing. “After seven years I told Bob I wanted to quit and spend more time with my wife and child. I wanted them to come first,” he said.

Ironically, shortly after he left, Astran purchased artics.

This allowed the drivers to drop their trailers in Dover and go home in their tractor units.

“I’d have probably stayed on if I’d known,” he told me. “I do love wagon and drags, but they have their shortcomings.”

Gordon thinks he got out at the right time. He didn’t like the way things were going in the mid-1970s, as hundreds of British drivers jumped on the Middle East gold trail. “I didn’t like it at all. They were flogging spare wheels and boozing it all away, then realising their paperwork was out of date.

They’d ask the office for up-todate paperwork, by which time they were out of money. Some of them were real cowboys.”

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DARK SIDE LIGHT COMMERCIAL TEST

OF THE STREET Story

and photos

by Jacqui Madelin

Volkswagen’s limited edition Amarok Darkside adds a bad boy flavour to a ute that stands the test of time.

R

eading freshly penned reviews of the latest and greatest new model launches might traditionally have featured near the top of any vehicle buyer’s to-do list, but it doesn’t help much if you’re interested in what will best do the job you want

to cover. After all, reviewers tend to look only at the latest market entry, and take the stance of a fictional ‘average’ buyer, which generally means someone wanting the perfect compromise. And there is no such thing.

Consider utes. A model that will tackle the roughest

terrain will make compromises on road, and one that feels comfortable and refined on road will likely lose some off-road credentials. Not to mention that the latest launch vehicle isn’t necessarily the greatest on sale in its bracket on any given day.

As ever, start by taking a

Unlock tonneau and lift, hydraulic struts take the strain, lid lifts high to ease access, hanging strap makes closing a doddle.

72 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

1) Design and features match car range, typically large buttons and dials suit workaday focus. Plenty of storage includes dash-top tray with 12V socket, roof-mounted sunglasses holder, cup holders and nice deep centre cubby under armrest (shame cup holders are nearer driver while handbrake is nearer passenger); 2) Rear legroom always a tad tight in utes; bench seat lifts for more luggage space, or back folds.

detailed look at what you need to do. Spend most time in the rough? You might not choose this Amarok. But those who need to spend long hours on the road, yet will need off-seal grip and ground clearance often enough to choose a ‘proper’ 4WD, should read on.

The Volkswagen Amarok Darkside Edition is a limited edition model variant. It tops the Amarok line-up at $79,000, and includes the same V6 turbo powerplant as the $75,000 Sportline, but with a package that includes the metallic paint, 20” alloy wheels, and blackout accessory kit.

Do without all that and opt for the entry-level 4-cylinder Comfortline, from $63,000.

This 3.0-litre V6 turbo diesel is a great engine.

There’s almost no turbo lag, and if you ignore American offerings, it’s the strongest out there. Sure, it doesn’t have the high-speed punch of a performance petrol, but this is a truck. It gets along well at road speeds, and with sufficient refinement – both in terms of engine and suspension control – to make this one of the comfiest utes in which to travel any distance on seal. That’s impressive given leaf spring suspension out back – and there’s very little body roll too.

Darkside comes with blacked-out details like side sills and alloy wheels, for a touch of menace.

The massive torque total – and the low rpm at which the maximum hit arrives – makes it feel all but unstoppable and is also a boon when there’s hard work to do, or slippery gunk to traverse.

Given strong winds and rain during much of our test we didn’t head far off seal, but did enough manoeuvring around muddy paddock gates on rough hilly ground to know that even with road tyres, this Amarok will idle its way over muck with more aplomb than expected.

Otherwise our test route largely involved multiple crossings of the Waitakere Hills and its winding, undulating roads, some steep gravel driveways and suburban traverses, and very little open-road highway.

Overall fuel economy showed as 8.9l/100km, smack on the company claim.

The cabin may be strong on big switches and solidly practical horizontals in deference to the fact that beneath the dark executive palette it’s really a workhorse, but it’s definitely also aimed at a fair few road trips. The interior has a ‘large car’ ambience, with specifications to suit. That means as well as all the now-standard safety systems and cruise control, there’s park distance control with a reversing camera, front

1 2

S P E C I F I C AT I O N S

Volkswagen Amarok V6 Darkside Engine: 2967cc V6 turbo diesel Fuel tank capacity: 80 litres Power: 190kW at 2500 to 4000rpm (200kW at 3500-4000rpm on overboost) Torque: 580Nm at 1400-3000rpm Claimed fuel economy: 8.9l/100km Transmission: 8-speed auto with 4Motion 4WD Suspension: Double wishbone front and leaf spring rear Wheels/tyres: 20” Taka alloys, 255/50 R20 Brakes: Ventilated disc brakes, ABS Stability/traction control: Y Airbags: 6 Min turning radius: 12.95m Max payload: 702kg

Darkside badges blacked out; separate lock for tailgate and hard tonneau

Kerb weight: 2218kg Gross vehicle weight: 2920kg Cargo length: 1555mm

fog lights that also light the right or left verge on tighter corners, rain-sensing wipers, auto headlights, climate control air con, front door pockets that will hold a 1.5litre bottle (and rears a 1-litre), storage compartments under the front seats, a touchscreen, voice control; we could go on.

Tall folk will appreciate the front headroom, but as in all double cabs, might not squeeze lanky legs into the more limited rear, though that back seat is slightly elevated to help passengers see out.

There’s also a one-third to two-thirds split fold, with the bases folding upwards if you need more luggage space, while the back folds down in one piece with a compartment for small items behind.

What you don’t get for all this money is a tow bar (though there is ‘tow bar prep’) or a tray liner – under that fancy lid is simply paint, and four rugged cargo loops.

That lid is a cost option, but if you need one, this is a goody. It has a separate lock

74 New Zealand Trucking

to the tailgate, and though the first centimetre or two of lift seemed a tad heavy to the lightweights on our staff, the hydraulics pick up after that, and closing it is a doddle. In between it lifts sufficiently high to give really good access for loading and unloading.

If you want a ute with an upmarket feel, this is now your only option since Mercedes-Benz announced the end of its X-Class, unless you go for the luxury of size and choose an American model.

Otherwise Amarok is the clear choice for anyone whose life includes long hours on seal, given its refined ride.

That’s all the more impressive when you consider Amarok launched 10 years ago, and has had only relatively minor updates since. That’s right, no new design, and yet it still makes a strong case against the competition, especially for those who spend a lot of time on the road.

August 2020

Cargo width: 1222mm to wheel arches, 1260mm between wellsides Cargo height: 508mm Cargo capacity: N/A Towing braked/unbraked: 750kg/3500kg (12% gradient, 140kg down ball load) Length: 5254mm Wheelbase: 3097mm unladen (3090mm laden) Width: 2228mm incl. mirrors, 1954mm at wheels Height: 1834mm Seats: 5 Options fitted: Hard cargo tray lid, front-hinged and lifting on hydraulic struts, with separate lock: “around $3000”.

New Rigs New ON THE ROAD ON THE ROAD

The Sky’s The Sky’s theLimit Limit Cool as itthe comes at 90 tonne

Renault Lander 460.32 8x4 Renault LanderProStar 460.32 8x4 International T6-HD 6x4 tractor Operator Roadex logistics Ltd, Mount Maunganui Operator Roadex logistics Ltd, Mount Maunganui Genius Homes Ltd – Timaru Operator: Frank Driver Richards Driver Frank Richards Cummins X15 458kW (615hp) Engine: 0Xi11, 460hp Engine Engine Transmission:0Xi11, 460hp

Eaton 20E318B-MXP UltraShift Transmission Transmission Optidriver Optidriver Meritor 50-160GP XLFR Rear axles: Renault

Rear axles P2191 with hub reduction Rear axles Renault P2191 with hub reduction Body: MTEfront push/pull, fullPK12000 oscillating turntable Truck body Flat deck with mounted Truck body Flat deck with front mounted PK12000 MTE extendable house removal, 3 rows of Palfinger crane Trailer: Palfinger crane Features brakes, Bluetooth, 8 with extra clip-on Features Disc Disc brakes, Bluetooth, wheels 90alloy tonne rated Features: Dura-Bright Dura-Bright alloy wheels Operation roofing around Dual material exhausts, alloy centre-pin bumper Extras: Carting Operation Carting roofing material around Bay ofBuilding Plenty area relocation – South Island-wide Operation: thethe Bay of Plenty area

Sales:

Shaun Drury

Twin TwinTippers Tippers Renault Lander 460.32 8x4 Freight mate Renault Lander 460.32 8x4 Operator Roadex logistics Mount Maunganui Fuso Shogun FS3146 8x4Ltd, rigid Operator Roadex logistics Ltd, Mount Maunganui Driver Frank Richards Driver Frank Richards Operator: 0Xi11, HLR Transport – Auckland Engine 460hp Engine 0Xi11, 460hp Engine: Optidriver Transmission Transmission OptidriverFuso OM470 343kW (460hp) Rear axles Renault P2191 hub reduction

Transmission: Fuso with ShiftPilot 12-speed AMT Rear axles Renault P2191 with hub reduction Truck body deck with Flat deck with front mounted PK12000 Fusofront D10mounted Hypoid PK12000 Rear axles: Flat Truck body Palfinger crane 6-rod trunnion Rear suspension: Palfinger crane Features Disc brakes, Bluetooth, 14-pallet Body: Roadmaster Features Disc brakes, Bluetooth, alloy wheels Freight – Auckland to Napier Operation: Dura-Bright Dura-Bright alloy wheels Operation Carting roofing around Operation Carting roofing material around Driver: Riteshmaterial Sharma the Bay of Plenty area Sales: the Bay of Plenty area Wes Gielink

Up into the blue and yellow Fuel HaulingFH FH Fuel Hauling Scania P450 XT A8x4HA rigid/tractor

ShootingStar Star Shooting

Renault Lander 460.32 8x4 Renault Lander 460.32 8x4

RenaultLander Lander460.32 460.328x4 8x4 Renault

Operator: Hammond Crane and Cartage – Upper Operator Roadex Roadex logistics Ltd, Mount Maunganui Hutt Ltd, Mount Maunganui Operator logistics Driver Frank Richards Engine: Frank Scania DC13 336kW (450hp) Driver Richards Engine 0Xi11, 460hp Engine 0Xi11, Transmission: 460hp Scania 14-speed Opticruise AMT Transmission Optidriver Transmission Optidriver Rear Scania RB662 Rear axles Renault P2191 with hub reduction Rear axles Renault P2191 with Rear suspension: Scania fullhub air reduction Truck body Truck deck with front mounted PK12000 Fit body out: FlatFlat deck with front mounted PK12000 Tractor/Demountable deck, Palfinger

Palfinger crane Palfinger crane PK65002 SH-E Features Disc Disc brakes, Bluetooth, Features brakes, Bluetooth, Features: Heavy duty bumper with 40 tonne tow

Dura-Bright alloy wheels Dura-Bright alloy wheels pin Operation Carting roofing material around Operation Carting roofing Stonematerial guard around Extras: thethe Bay of Plenty area Bay of Plenty area Operation: Crane operations in greater Wellington Sales: Mark Nurse

November 2015

76 New Zealand Trucking August 2020 10 10 NZNZ TRUCKING TRUCKING November 2015

Operator Roadex logistics Ltd, Mount Maunganui Operator Roadex logistics Ltd, Mount Maunganui Driver Frank Richards Driver Frank Richards Engine 0Xi11, 460hp Engine 0Xi11, 460hp UD Quon CG 32 420 8x4 rigid Transmission Optidriver Transmission Optidriver Rear axles Renault P2191 with hub reduction Rear axles Renault P2191 with hub reduction Operator: Braybrook Farms – Mt Maunganui Truck body Flat deck with front mounted PK12000 Truck body Flat deck GH11TC with front mounted PK12000 Engine: Euro 6 313kW (420hp)

Palfinger crane Palfinger crane Transmission:

UD ESCOT-VI 12-speed AMT Features Disc brakes, Bluetooth, Features brakes, Rear axles: Disc

UDBluetooth, RTS2370A

Dura-Bright alloy wheels Dura-Bright wheels Rear suspension:

UDalloy air suspension Operation Carting roofing material around Operation Carting roofing material around Body:

TMC, Steelbro sidelifter

the Bay of Plenty area the Bay of Plenty area

Priority positioning

Operation: Sales:

Container movements Bay of Plenty Peter Coulson

Beefing up safety Mellow Miles & Michelin Men DAF XF105 FAD 8x4 rigid

Renault Lander 460.32 8x4

Operator:

Onroad Transport Ltd – Pukekohe

Operator Ltd, Euro Mount Engine: Roadex logistics DAF MX13 6 Maunganui 396kW (530hp) Driver Frank Transmission: Richards ZF TraXon 12-speed AMT transmission Engine DAF 2 x 9 tonne Rear axles: 0Xi11, 460hp Transmission OptidriverDAF SR1360T air suspension Rear suspension: Rear axles Renault P2191 withEnterprises hub reduction Body/crate: Jackson deck and trailers/

Truck body Flat deck with front mounted PK12000 Nationwide crate Palfinger crane Features: Full safety suite as standard Features Disc brakes, Bluetooth, Domett Body/trailer:Dura-Bright

alloy wheels Operation: Carting roofing Stockmaterial cartagearound North Island Operation Driver: the Bay ofBlake PlentyRickaby area

Sales:

Mark Tucker

Superb Super Liner ‘Tu much’ Renault Lander 460.32 8x4 Volvo FM 540Roadex 6x4 rigid Operator logistics Ltd, Mount Maunganui Driver Frank Richards Operator: 0Xi11, 460hp Tumu Transport – Hastings Engine Engine: Volvo DC13 12.8-litre 397kW (540hp) Transmission Optidriver Transmission:

I-Shift Rear axles Renault P2191A2612F with hub12-speed reduction Rear axles: Volvo Truck body Flat deck withRTS2370B front mounted PK12000 Rear suspension: Volvo RADD-GR 8-bag air suspension Palfinger crane VolvoBluetooth, Features: 7.0 tonne front axle, 385/55 R22.5 Features Disc brakes, Michelin full safety pack Dura-Bright alloytyres, wheels Operation: Carting Timber, fertiliser,around and metal Operation roofing material Driver: the Bay‘Tomo’ of Plenty area Sales:

Scott Robinson

Carperton Argosy Plenty horses for various Renault Landerof 460.32 8x4 ‘coarses’ Operator Roadex logistics Ltd, Mount Maunganui Driver Richards Scania R620Frank Highline cab 8x4 rigid Engine 0Xi11, 460hp East Coast Bulk Haulage Operator: Optidriver Transmission Engine: Scaniawith 16-litre 463kW (620hp) Rear axles Renault P2191 hub V8 reduction Truck body Flat with front mounted PK12000Opticruise 14-speed GRS0905 Transmission: deckScania crane RBP662 Rear axles: PalfingerScania Features Bluetooth, Suspension: Disc brakes, Scania air front and rear alloyEngineering wheels Cowan Ltd Body/trailer: Dura-Bright Operation Carting roofing material around Extras: Premium interior, leather seats, driver’s fridge Plenty area Aggregate Operation: the Bay of and sand cartage Waikato

Sales:

Andrew Lane

Call the Butler!

Kenworth K200 2.3m Aerodyne 8x4 rigid Dew’s Jewel Operator: Butler Farming CHB – Central Hawke’s Bay Engine: Cummins X-15 Euro 5 448kW (600hp) Operator Roadex2779Nm logistics Ltd, Mount Maunganui (2050lb/ft) Driver Richards Transmission: Frank

Eaton Roadranger RTLO20918B manual Engine Meritor RT46-160 at 4.3:1 Rear axles: 0Xi11, 460hp Transmission Optidriver Rear suspension: Hendrickson PAX462 PRIMAAX air suspension Rear axles RenaultJackson P2191 with hub reduction crates Body/trailer: Enterprises/Delta Truck body Flat deck with front mounted PK12000 Features: Dual sleeper doors, fridge, hands-free phone Palfinger crane steel drop visor, stainless steel Extras: Stainless Features Disc brakes, Bluetooth, panelling, additional marker lights, polished Dura-Bright wheels alloy alloy wheels Operation Carting roofing material around Operation: Livestock lower North Island the Bay of Plenty area Driver: Mike Swinbanks Sales: Mark O’Hara Renault Lander 460.32 8x4

Making heavy vehicle fleet management easy for you www.trgroup.co.nz

0800 50 40 50

New Zealand Trucking August 2020 77 11 November 2015 NZ TRUCKING

new kiwi bodies & trailers New Zealand Trucking brings you New Kiwi Bodies & Trailers. Bodies and trailers are expected to last twice as long as trucks. What’s more, there’s new technology and advanced design features showing up almost every month.

New Zealand has a rich heritage of body and trailer building and we’re proud to showcase some recent examples of Kiwi craftsmanship every month. If you want a body or trailer included on these pages, send a photo, features and the manufacturer’s name to trailers@nztrucking.co.nz

Panel decision Thompson Precast Ltd from Washdyke chose TMC – as trusted and reliable as a concrete panel – to build its new semi-trailer. With its clean straight lines, and looking as crisp as a South Canterbury frost in white and blue, the 4-axle panel unit was delivered complete with panel support frames.

Features: ROR 17.5” drum brake axles and Hendrickson HT air suspension. Fullchamp polished alloy wheels.

TMC

BOP cattle cruiser No one’s blue at Tauranga Livestock with this new 10.36m beauty in tow. The Total Transport Engineers LP 5-axle trailer with Alcoa alloy wheels and Bridgestone tyres supports a Nationwide Stock Crates alloy stock crate.

Features: Hendrickson 19.5” disc brake axles, WABCO EBS brake system, eTASC and COLAS variable height control.

Total Transport Engineers LP

78 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

Roman, italic, bold, bold italic

Big job? Ask a Southern man C3 at Mount Maunganui has taken delivery of this magnificent build fresh from the workshop of TES (Transport Engineering Southland). The big triple discharge 3-axle bottom dump semi comes equipped with RAZOR side-to-side electric power

tarp, and wireless reverse camera.

Features: SAF 12 tonne axles and modular suspension with rear steering axle.

Transport Engineering Southland (TES)

Many more roads to metal If you were asked to come up with the most Kiwi transport company/trailer builder combo you could, then a Road Metals truck with Transport and General Transport Trailers kit would score you high marks with the judges for sure.

Road Metals’s latest 6x4 Mack Trident features a TT5HT7.7 alloy body setup with a 7.7m 5-axle trailer, elliptical cover system, and LED lighting courtesy of Peterson on the side, and Hella on the rear. Oh, and let’s not forget those stunning Alcoa Dura-Bright wheels.

Features: Edbro hoists. (Trailer) ROR SL9 disc brake axles and air suspension, WABCO brake system.

Transport and General Transport Trailers

Spec your trailer on KIWIs – the new tyre of choice for KIWIs KIWI 16

KIWI 17

KIWI 175

Wide grooves will not hold stones

The KIWI 16’s tougher twin

Multi use tread pattern

Heavy duty case

Super heavy duty case

Urban/highway/off road

Excellent mileage performance

Puncture resistant

Puncture resistant

17mm extra deep tread

17mm extra deep tread

17.5mm extra deep tread

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 79

LITTLE TRUCKERS’ CLUB

CONGRATS!

Carter Brown, age 9, Timaru.

Harry Fowler, age 4, Huntly.

Fun Fact:

NZ Express is quite possibly New Zealand’s oldest transport company! Founded in 1867 in Dunedin, it’s now predominantly based in Christchurch.

SPOT THE 6 DIFFERENCES

80 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

Spot the difference answers: Missing light on truck, keyhole, truck steel rail on trailer, vent mesh on car door, truck wiper, truck window reflection.

Michael Wilkins, age 12, Murchison.

Hi Little Truckers, I hope you all had a fantastic two-week break. Don’t forget to share your adventures here with us all! You can email your stories, drawings or photos to me at rochelle@nztrucking.co.nz.

Thank you to all the little truckers who entered our June winter colouring competition – there are some awesome artists out there!

The winners of a New Zealand Trucking prize pack are Carter, Michael and Harry.

Congratulations! Keep an eye on your mailboxes kids, something cool is heading to you!

JOKE OFNTH: THE MO

ho’s Knock, knocuck.ksW go.

Tr there?

Trucks go whoba?rp!

Trucks go barp

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Just for fun

The nine letters in the 3x3 square spell the name of a truck, can you figure out what it is?

How many words with three letters or more can you make? Ask mum and dad to have a go too.

Have fun!

WHAT’S ON Mobil Delvac 1 New Zealand Road Transport Hall of Fame 2 October 2020 Bill Richardson Transport World Tickets $225 each, banquet seating 10 per table $2250.

Contact: Adam Reinsfield 0800 151 252 ext 5, or email adamr@twevents.nz

Horse Power Rally 3 and 4 October 2020 Levels Raceway Timaru Contact: 027 433 3814, or email gordon@ghe.co.nz http://www.sctetm.co.nz

Wings and Wheels Thames 30 January 2021 Contact: Mary Thompson 027 200 3433, 07 868 5699

All scheduled events may be subject to

Wheels at Wanaka

change depending on weather conditions

3 and 4 April 2021 Contact: Colleen Nisbet 021 780 674, www.wheelsatwanaka.co.nz

etc. It is suggested you check the websites

Brisbane Truck Show 13 to 16 May 2021 Brisbane Convention Centre Contact: 0061 7 3376 6266, or email admin@brisbanetruckshow.com.au www.brisbanetruckshow.com

above before setting out.

Show organisers – please send your event details at least eight weeks in advance to editor@nztrucking.co.nz for a free listing on this page.

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 81

“What Teletrac Navman provides outside of road transport – its innovation and functionality – is really what makes it stand apart. Gaining greater transparency has been a major win. Clients really value transparency and innovation.”

Dean Elder, General Manager Contracting, SouthRoads

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0820-14

TeletracNavman.co.nz

84 Moving Metrics 92 Product Update – More from MyTrucking 94 Business Profile – Auto Batteries 96 IRTENZ – Lockdown and the law 98 Truckers’ Health 99 Health and Safety 100 Legal Lines 102 NZ Trucking Association 104 Road Transport Forum 106 The Last Mile B R OUG HT TO YO U B Y

MOVING METRICS

THE SALES NUMBERS New Zealand Trucking shows you how the economy is travelling via key metrics from the road transport industry. From time to time we’ll be asking experts their opinion on what the numbers mean.

Summary of heavy trucks and trailers first registered in June

Note: vehicle classes are not the same as RUC vehicle types or driver licence classes.

This information is put together from information provided by the NZ Transport Agency statistical analysis team and through the Open Data Portal.

Vehicle class

NB (medium goodsFirst vehicle) A goods has for a gross vehicle registration of NBvehicle and NCthat classes mass exceeding June year on year 3.5 tonnes but not exceeding 12 tonnes 300

Vehicle type

Number of units registered

This summary includes data from two heavy truck classes and one heavy trailer class.

33

TD

YTD 2019

NB YTD 2020 NC

10

8

Supplier

Jun-19

Jun-20

9 2

7 8

10 2

Supplier

Comment: The impact of the reduction in activity due to Covid-19 is reflected across all data reported.

84 New Zealand Trucking 45

s

40

rs

vo

5 6 15 16

Jun-19

August 2020

First registration of TD class heavy trailers for June 2020 by major suppliers

41 42

Jun-20

5 6

rs

0

41 42

Ot he

5

2

14

TM C

Heavy vehicle class

12

10

10

TE S

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17 12

545

15 16

TM C

18

8

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1412

10

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Pa tc he l

13

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1009

10

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TE S

1000 19

20 800

33

NB NC

M .T .E .

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15

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1800

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1009

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First registration of TD class heavy trailers for YTD 2019 YTD 2020 June 2020 by major suppliers 41 42 First registration of TD class heavy trailers for June 2020 by major suppliers

45

Number of units

70

NB

4

Heavy vehicle class

Jun-20

First registration off NB and NC classes for June 2020 manufacturer First registration of by NB,major NC and TD classes year

18

1412

873

t

NC

ha uf

NB

Fr ue

0

1621

1817

13

1245

Ot he

o

o

50

19

Do m et

100

Jun-19

Number of units

Hi n

94

30 1800 1600 20 1400 10 1200 0 1000 800 600 400 200 0

Number of units

113

Heavy vehicle class

Number of units registered

13

10

57

Vo l

20

58

60

registration year 18 50First 17 of NB, 17 NC and TD classes 15 1412 39 12 12 to date 40 33 5 4

1817

Sc an ia Tr uc ks

19

UD

30

M .T .E .

150

50

dimensions-and-mass-2016-as-at-1-june-2019.pdf 39 70

40

177

113 A trailer that has a gross vehicle mass 94 exceeding 10 tonnes

100

Isu zu Number of units registered Number of units Ive co Ke DA nw F or th Fu soM M er AN ce de Hi no sB en z Isu zu Sc an UD ia Ive co Tr uc Ke ks nw or th Vo lvo M M er AN Ot ce he de rs sB en z

Number of units

50

Fu s

187

200

60

0

203

200

A goods vehicle that has a gross vehicle 17712 tonnes mass exceeding

First registration0 off NB and NC classes for A table of 2020 all vehicle classes NB can be found inNCTable A of the Land TD June by major manufacturer Heavy vehicle class Rule 41001/2016 Transport Rule VehicleFirst Dimensions and Mass 2016 registration off NB and NC classes for 58 57 https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/rules/docs/vehicleJun-20manufacturer June 2020 Jun-19 by major

70

246

250

203

187

150 TD (heavy trailer)

DA F

Number of units registered

300

246

250 vehicle) NC (heavy goods

A goods vehicle is a motor vehicle that: (a) is constructed primarily for the carriage of goods; and (b) either: (i) has at least four wheels; or (ii) has three wheels and a gross vehicle mass exceeding one tonne.

First registration of NB and NC classes for June year on year

Description

This information is put together from information provided by the NZ Transport Agency. New Zealand Trucking acknowledges the assistance of the media team at NZTA for providing this information to us.

ROAD USER CHARGES

RUC purchase for June 2020, all RUC types A description of RUC vehicle types is available at https://www.nzta.govt.nz/ vehicles/licensing-rego/road-user-charges/ruc-rates-and-transaction-fees/ Please note data may differ from that reported for the same period previously due to adjustments made to the base data supplied to us.

Total value and distance of all road user charges purchased between 1 January 2018 and 30 June 2020 Purchase Period

Distance Purchased (km)

Value of Purchases

Monthly Average (km)

1 Jan 2018 – 31 Dec 2018

15,736,558,458

$1,875,364,397

1,311,379,872

1 Jan 2019 – 31 Dec 2019

16,166,434,103

$2,041,939,272

1,094,452,842

1 Jan 2020 – 30 Jun 2020

7,360,436,176

$957,724,147

1,226,739,363

RUC distance purchased for RUC Type 1 vehicles RUC Type 1 vehicles are powered vehicles with two axles (except type 2 or type 299 vehicles.

Type 299 are mobile cranes). Cars, vans, and light trucks that use fuel not taxed at source, i.e. diesel fuel, are generally in this RUC type.

Purchase Period

Distance Purchased (km)

Monthly Average (km)

1 Jan 2019 – 30 Jun 2019

3,844,683,599

768,936,720

1 Jan 2020 – 30 Jun 2020

5,284,828,593

880,804,766

Rolling trend month-on-month purchase of RUC during 2019 – 2020

Rolling trend month-on-month purchase of RUC during 2019 – 2020

$200,000,000 $150,000,000 $100,000,000 $50,000,000

Purchase value ($)

$250,000,000

2,000,000,000 1,800,000,000 1,600,000,000 1,400,000,000 1,200,000,000 1,000,000,000 800,000,000 600,000,000 400,000,000 200,000,000 -

RUC Distance Purchased (km)

Jun-20

May-20

Apr-20

Mar-20

Feb-20

Jan-20

Dec-19

Nov-19

Oct-19

Sep-19

Aug-19

Jul-19

$0 Jun-19

Distance purchased (Km)

RUC purchases all RUC types

RUC Value ($) New Zealand Trucking

RUC purchases for the top eight RUC types

August 2020 85

The top eight RUC type purchases, other than type 1 in descending order RUC Type Description 2

Powered vehicles with one single-tyred spaced axle and one twin-tyred spaced axle

6

Powered vehicles with three axles, (except type 308, 309, 311, 399 or 413 vehicles)

43

Unpowered vehicles with four axles

14

Powered vehicles with four axles (except type 408, 414 or type 499 vehicles)

951

Unpowered vehicles with five or more axles

H94

Towing vehicle that is part of an overweight combination vehicle consisting of a type 14 RUC vehicle towing a type 951 RUC vehicle with a permit weight of not more than 50,000kg

33

Unpowered vehicles with three twin-tyred, or single large-tyred, close axles (except vehicle type 939)

408

Towing vehicles with four axles that are part of a combination vehicle with a total of at least eight axles

RUC purchases year to date (end of June 2020) for selected RUC types

RUC class

RUC Value ($)

RUC Distance (km)

2

$79,760,279

530,876,279

6

$99,965,987

246,224,940

43

$45,078,688

199,057,588

RUC selected types 14 purchases June 2020 for$75,035,435 $27,761,303

H94

$36,310,586

33

$14,919,884

100,000,000 408

$19,224,837

120,000,000

Total Year to Date 80,000,000

$398,056,999

60,000,000 40,000,000 20,000,000 0

50,777,596 1,545,391,433

$25,000,000

The red dots represent 120,000,000 the cost of RUC 20,000,000 140,000,000 $25,000,000 $20,000,000 $20,000,000 purchased for that RUC 100,000,000 120,000,000 0 $0 type for the year to date $20,000,000 $15,000,000 2 6 $15,000,000 43 14 951 80,000,000 H94 33 408 June 2020 only, thus for 100,000,000 RUC type RUC type 6 vehicles, $15,000,000 60,000,000 80,000,000 $10,000,000 $10,000,000 powered vehicles with Total RUC distance (Km) Total RUC Value ($) 40,000,000 60,000,000 three axles, (except type $10,000,000 $5,000,000 $5,000,000 308, 309, 311, 399 or 413 20,000,000 40,000,000 The red dots represent the cost of RUC purchased for that RUC type for the year to vehicles), date Junethe 2020 higher value $5,000,000 $0 0 $0 only, thus20,000,000 for RUC type 6 vehicles, powered vehicles with three axles, (except type 308, 309, 311, results from the high cost 2 6 43 14 951 H94 33 408 2 6 43 14 951 H94 33 408 399 or 413 vehicles), the higher value results from the high cost these type vehicles above 0 $0of RUC for RUC type RUC type of RUC for these type vehicles above 12 tonne.

12 tonne.

2 6 43 14 951 H94 33 408 Total RUC distance (Km) Total RUC Value ($) Total RUC distance (Km) Total RUC Value ($) RUC type $5,000,000

Total RUC distance (Km)

Purchase Value ($)

80,000,000

$15,000,000 $10,000,000

Distance Purchased (km)

100,000,000

84,523,062

88,652,175

RUC purchases June 2020 for selected types

Purchase Value ($)

120,000,000

$20,000,000

$25,000,000 RUC purchases June 2020140,000,000 for selected types 40,000,000

Distance Purchased (km)

Distance Purchased (km)

140,000,000

162,720,553

Purchase Value ($)

RUC purchases June 2020 for selected types 60,000,000

$25,000,000

Purchase Value ($)

Distance Purchased (km)

951 140,000,000

182,559,240

Total RUC Value ($)

Distance Purchased (km)

distance purchased date withtothe RUC distance purchased year400,000,000 to date (January to June) RUC distance purchased year to year dateto(January June) same period for the for selected 300,000,000 RUC types for selected RUC types previous year, any RUC distance purchased year to date (January to June) 700,000,000 700,000,000 200,000,000 trends in changes to for selected RUC types 600,000,000 600,000,000 activity will become 100,000,000 700,000,000 500,000,000 500,000,000 clear.

300,000,000 200,000,000 100,000,000 -

600,000,000 500,000,000 400,000,000 300,000,000

2

6

43

Distance Purchased (km)

400,000,000

500,000,000

Distance Purchased (km)

Distance Purchased (km)

he red dots represent the cost of RUC purchased for that RUC type for the year The red to date dotsJune represent 2020 the cost of RUC purchased for that RUC type for the year to date June 20 RUC distance purchased year tothus date (January June) powered vehicles with three axles, (except type 308, 309, 311 only, thus for RUC type 6 vehicles, powered vehicles with three axles, (except only, type 308, for 309, RUC 311, type 6tovehicles, The red dots represent the cost of RUC purchased for that RUC type forvalue the year to date 2020cost of RUC for these type vehicles a forRUC selected types 99 or 413 vehicles), the higher value results from the high cost of for these 399RUC or type 413 vehicles vehicles), above the higher results fromJune the high only, thus for RUC type 6 vehicles, powered vehicles with three axles, (except type 308, 309, 311, 2 tonne.

12 tonne.

700,000,000 399 or 413 vehicles), the higher value results from the high cost of RUC for these type vehicles above 600,000,000 By comparing 12 tonne.

14 400,000,000 951 H94

RUC type 300,000,000 YTD 2019

200,000,000

33

408

YTD 200,000,000 2020 100,000,000 -

100,000,000 86 New August 2020 2 6 Zealand 43 Trucking 14 951 H94 33 408 2 6 43 14 951 H94 RUC type RUCprevious type By comparing distance purchased year to date with the same period for the year, any 2 6 become 43 14 951 H94 33 408 in changes to activity will clear.

YTD trends 2019 YTD 2020 YTD 2019 YTD 2020

RUC type

YTD 2019

YTD 2020

33

408

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DPD will test the Zero within London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone.

A NEW DIRECTION IN TRUCK DESIGN Heard of Volta Trucks? No? Well, this start-up manufacturer is on a mission to become the world’s most sustainable commercial vehicle manufacturer.

V

olta Trucks, a Swedish start-up full-electric goods vehicle manufacturer and services company, has launched the Volta Zero – what the company says is the first purpose-built, fullelectric 16-tonne commercial vehicle designed for inner city deliveries. With it, Volta Trucks has adopted a holistic

88 New Zealand Trucking

and comprehensive approach to sustainability, going far beyond just tailpipe emissions.

In developing the Zero, Volta Trucks has partnered with a number of industry-leading design and engineering companies, including Prodrive, Astheimer and Magtec. The first prototype Volta Zero is currently being built, and will be launched later in 2020,

August 2020

with the first pilot test vehicles due to start evaluation with customers early in 2021.

Among the companies trialling the Zero is DPD, the UK’s leading parcel delivery service, which will test it within London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone in quarter one of 2021.

“The Zero is an ideal fit for our Urban Logistics strategy; and the fact that it will be the

most sustainable commercial vehicle is a fantastic achievement too,” says Olly Craughan, CSR general manager of DPD Group UK. The Volta Zero was designed for electric propulsion from the outset, which facilitates a stepchange in vehicle and pedestrian safety, Volta says.

That’s because, thanks to the removal of the internal combustion engine, the operator of a Volta Zero sits in a central driving position with a much lower seat height than a conventional truck. This combination, plus a glasshouse-style cab design, gives the driver a wide 220° field of visibility, minimising dangerous blind spots. As well as being the most sustainable, Volta Trucks has the ambition of being the safest large commercial vehicle manufacturer.

Volta Trucks aims to mitigate the environmental impact of logistics and freight deliveries that forms the

The Volta Zero presents an entire new way of thinking when it comes to medium-duty truck design.

commercial lifeblood of large metropolitan cities. Thanks to its full-electric drivetrain and 160-200KWh of battery power, the Volta Zero will operate for 150 to 200km. The company says that by 2025 operators of Volta Trucks will eliminate around 180,000 tonnes of CO2 per year – the equivalent annual CO2 usage of 24,000 houses.

“Sustainability is at the very core of our business. Volta Trucks wants to spearhead the rapid change in large commercial vehicles, from outdated diesel to clean and safe technological solutions,” says Carl-Magnus Norden, founder of Volta Trucks.

In its quest for ultimate sustainability, Volta Trucks has designed the Volta Zero to be the first road vehicle to use a sustainably sourced natural flax material (a sustainably farmed crop where the entire plant is used) and biodegradable resins in the construction of its exterior body panels.

The cab’s dark body panels and many interior trim pieces will also be constructed from the natural material. The high-tech flax weave was developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency and is used in 16 of the world’s most competitive motor racing series.

Volta’s supplier, Bcomp of Switzerland, uses the harvested flax fibre to create its ampliTex technical fabric – a natural and fully sustainable technical fabric.

The flax fibre’s quality, yarn thickness and twist are all highly engineered, and the weave is reinforced

by Bcomp’s patented powerRibs grid technology, inspired by the principles of leaf veins. The result is a fully natural, extremely lightweight, high-performance fibre reinforcement that is almost CO2-neutral over its lifecycle. The panels made with powerRibs can match the stiffness and weight of carbon fibre but there is 75%

less CO2 in the production process.

The flax matting is then combined with a biodegradable resin by composites manufacturer BAMD in the UK to produce the body panels for the Volta Zero. The fully bio-based resin, derived from rapeseed oil, creates a naturally brown-coloured matting. A black natural pigment dye is added to complete its darker, technical appearance. BAMD’s revolutionary manufacturing processes aims for total recyclability of all tooling materials, including solventfree, water-based sealers and release agents.

The natural flax composite offers a number of benefits when compared with carbon fibre or other similar lightweight manmade materials. Unlike the conductive nature of carbon fibre, the flax composite is non-conductive, lessening any issues of a short circuit in the event of a vehicle accident. It

also offers up to three times better vibration damping.

Should an accident occur, the flax composite bends, reshapes and ultimately snaps (unlike carbon fibre, which shatters), offering a flexible fracture behaviour without sharp edges. This makes the powerRibs and ampliTex composite body panels particularly suited for urban mobility, reducing the risk of sharp debris that can injure people or cause further accidents through punctures.

At the end of their useful life, flax composite parts can be burnt within the standard waste management system and used for thermal energy recovery, unlike alternative composite materials that are usually sent to landfills.

“We will continue to strain every sinew to ensure we deliver on our mission of becoming the world’s most sustainable commercial vehicle manufacturer,” says Volta Trucks CEO Rob Fowler.

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 89

TR GROUP AND HIRINGA TO INTRODUCE HEAVY FUEL CELL ELECTRIC TRUCKS INTO NEW ZEALAND

90 New Zealand Trucking

Hiringa’s refuelling network is expected to begin operations in the first half of 2021 and will provide coverage of the major freight routes in both islands.

“TR Group’s truck and leasing expertise is critical in ensuring we can offer decarbonisation pathways for all heavy fleet operators across our refuelling network.

With Hiringa’s deep expertise in hydrogen mobility solutions and TR Group’s broad reach across New Zealand’s premier heavy freight and transport companies, the partnership will be a catalyst in accelerating the decarbonisation of New Zealand’s heavy fleet,” says Hiringa Energy CEO Andrew Clennett.

August 2020

The partnership builds on Hiringa’s technical expertise and relationships with international fuel cell manufacturers, integrators and OEMs. It also builds on Hiringa’s existing partnership with TIL, one of New Zealand’s leading transport and logistics companies. Hiringa and TR Group will jointly work to ensure New Zealand-suitable solutions are available to meet heavy vehicle operators’ needs and introduce the technology to New Zealand.

“TIL Logistics applauds the inclusion of organisations into the Hiringa partnership that have the values and capabilities that TR Group demonstrate,” says Alan

Pearson, CEO of TIL and both a partner of Hiringa and customer of TR Group.

“TR‘s inclusion strengthens our collective team synergies through the addition of truck funding options and many more benefits. Fulfilment of our shared vision and strategic objectives is enhanced by this move.”

When fuel cell vehicles are powered by green hydrogen, they provide a sustainable zero emission transport solution.

They can provide a viable alternative to diesel trucks and vehicles that have high uptime requirements, travel longer distances or carry heavy payloads.

TR Group and Hiringa have taken a big step in bringing heavy hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to New Zealand.

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H

iringa Energy and TR Group have signed a memorandum of understanding to offer heavy fuel cell electric trucks, powered by Hiringa’s nationwide hydrogen refuelling network and TR’s heavy fleet lease, rental, and maintenance management expertise.

The companies will offer flexible fuel-inclusive lease packages to heavy vehicle operators and companies looking to decarbonise their supply chain. The vehicles will be offered in several configurations and weight classes, including over 50t combined mass and 6x4 and 8x4 drivetrains. The first vehicles are expected to be available in 2021.

“Customers are really interested in getting zeroemission trucks on the road,” says TR Group’s managing director Andrew Carpenter.

“At the same time, they are well aware of the many difficulties and risks involved in getting the vehicles and the supporting system set up and working well. Our aim with this partnership is to help make it easier for clients to get to their goal and reduce some of the risks for them along the way.”

Cash flow issues can bring business to its knees. With the New Zealand small business sector making up 97 per cent of our workforce and a strong economic driver, the potential repercussions are far-reaching. When small business productivity slows, the whole economy does too.

to bridge the gap so they could keep operating while they waited for their invoices to be paid.

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On average, New Zealand small businesses were paid 8.3 days late in June 2018, according to Xero.

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PRODUCT UPDATE

Customer Portal makes online booking simple Life is set to get even easier for MyTrucking users and their customers, with the release of the new Customer Portal.

A

n online booking system, the portal enables your customers to submit job requests to you – any time, anywhere – making it even easier for people to do business with you.

The latest add-on creates even greater efficiencies, saving time and money, further reducing mistakes and freeing you up to get on with what you do best – transporting.

Innovative transport management system company MyTrucking is the brainchild of Wairarapa couple Sam and Sara Orsborn. The software has brought a new level of simplicity, automation and mobility to an increasing number of small to medium-sized trucking businesses throughout Australasia.

MyTrucking is a simple and practical transport management programme that vastly improves the old-fashioned diary system by moving it online.

Now, the new Customer Portal brings a whole new level of efficiency to businesses. The MyTrucking user is still in complete control, and chooses who has access to the customer portal.

In true MyTrucking style the portal is quite simple. When customers submit a job request you receive a notification, and you can then choose to review, accept or decline jobs – all without leaving MyTrucking.

Once a job is accepted it will simply appear in your day sheet

92 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

just like any other job, waiting to be assigned a vehicle.

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

This enables you to better support your customers, offering a whole new level of service and making it even easier for them to do business with you. No need to pick up the phone, customers can submit jobs when it suits them and you can easily give them real-time updates on their jobs. The portal also makes it a breeze to share proof of delivery and dockets.

Pana Sharma, of Auckland-based VT Transport Ltd, says the Customer Portal has been a welcome addition.

“The next step all our customers were screaming for was the Customer Portal, which MyTrucking has delivered. It looks really good. I’ve got my two main customers on it, and they are loving it.

“Having photos and signed copies of POD available straight away after a job is done is fantastic. I also like the idea of being able to choose what you want the customer to see in the portal.”

There’s no additional charge for Customer Portal, it’s an added benefit for valued MyTrucking customers.

“The portal empowers your customers, while you still maintain control over your workflow. It will help you to retain existing customers, delivering excellent service, while enabling you to attract new customers and grow your business,” says Gabor Szikszai, general manager MyTrucking.

“The Customer Portal is up and running now; just another way MyTrucking can smooth the road to better business, creating efficiencies and saving you time and money. It’s a winwin for MyTrucking customers, and those they do business with.” 

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BUSINESS PROFILE

Auto Batteries stocks a wide range of batteries for all kinds of automotive needs.

All about batteries Auto Batteries is a Christchurchbased start-up that supplies high-quality batteries to the automotive industry at competitive prices.

T

he unmistakably sluggish crank of the starter, dimming lights and electronics on the fritz… A vehicle’s battery is a component you hardly think about until it begins to fail and needs replacing. However, this is the wrong way to go about keeping your vehicle’s electrons flowing; batteries need their fair amount of care and attention, and choosing the correct battery in the first place is paramount.

“The biggest causes of early failure, in my experience, are one or a combination of the following: batteries that are undersized (insufficient cold cranking amps – CCA); discharged excessively (lights or accessories left running too long); underused (vehicles parked up for long periods should have periodic charging by running the engine or connection to some form of trickle charger); incorrect chemistry (non-calcium in European, or not AGM in start/stop or modern vehicles where a deep cycle battery is specified); and failure to monitor electrolyte levels in flooded batteries,” explains Charlie Fox, owner of Auto Batteries.

Carrying forward his expertise in automotive repairs and technical development in the solar industry, the Christchurch resident noticed the need in New Zealand for a wide choice of affordable, quality batteries, as well as honest advice for customers.

Fox explains that Auto Batteries is a business he had been

94 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

thinking about for a few years. “It was the popularity of sales via Facebook Marketplace, and encouragement from my partner and sister, that made me decide to get it started.”

Auto Batteries started as a business to supply automotive, power sports, commercial, industrial (used in equipment such as electric fork hoists) and marine batteries, but ended up also encompassing all aspects of solar energy solutions and motorcycle batteries. In this regard the company’s focus is on DC systems for RVs, campervans and caravans, and can supply components for full household systems as well.

Auto Batteries currently supplies eight brands of battery that cover this wide range of applications, including Neutron Power, Katana, Solax, Crowen and Trojan. “While not the cheapest, Trojan batteries are absolutely the best,” Fox says.

“The batteries sold by Auto Batteries are made in Taiwan, Germany, Japan, or the USA. Quality batteries are backed by a warranty and produced in ISO certified factories, with care taken with transportation and storage,” he explains.

Despite being based in Christchurch with a focus on the Canterbury region, Auto Batteries serves customers nationwide.

“Local delivery is generally made within a few hours by ourselves or the excellent team at iDeliver. For the rest of the country we rely on Owens Transport,” Fox says.

In addition to supplying batteries, Auto Batteries also carries out battery recycling (locally) and installations when requested by customers, including free disposal and installation for SuperGold card holders. On that point, users on the autobatteries.co.nz website may qualify for discounts and can choose to enrol in the Auto Batteries loyalty programme, where repeat purchases are rewarded.

“Auto Batteries does its best to be competitive on pricing, provide discounts on bulk purchases, and if customers are in the wops or rural I don’t charge extra for delivery,” Fox says. 

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INFORMI NG DECI SI ON-MAKI NG I N TH E ROAD TRANSPORT I NDUSTRY h t t p : // i r t e n z . o r g . n z /a b o u t - i r t e n z

We are now coming out of a situation that none of us has ever seen before.

For some heavy vehicle operators it has been a feast (albeit without the sweetener of a return load), for many others a famine, with vehicles parked up and drivers, along with many of the rest of us, with next to nothing to do and limited funds to do it with.

LOCKDOWN AND THE LAW

T

his has been a very hard time for operators; those with work have been extremely busy delivering to supermarkets and other essential services, but often with reduced margins as they have been unable to supplement their ‘essential’ loads with goods considered ‘non-essential.’ Others without ‘essential’ customers have had to park up their vehicles.

In both these scenarios, combined with the NZ Transport Agency being less visible and the police concentrating on other

things, it will have been almost overwhelmingly tempting to do what shows up in the annual reports of many businesses and defer maintenance. While this can be a rational and reasoned approach, especially given that, in many cases, service providers have also been limited in their ability to manage their customers’ maintenance requirements, it is essential that possible consequences be considered.

• The law requires that you maintain your vehicles in a safe and compliant manner at all times, so noncompliance can be risky.

•A s we come out of the various stages of lockdown the enforcement authorities (both the NZTA and police) are going back to focusing on the heavy transport sector for both compliance and safety, and some of those fines can really hurt.

• Delays caused by roadside stops of non-compliant vehicles can be hugely disruptive to your schedules (and those of your customers).

• As transport operators you depend on your TSL, and the easiest way to lose it is for the NZTA to conclude you are not a ‘fit and proper

Contribution for IRTENZ by Steve Bullôt (Life Member IRTENZ) New Zealand Trucking

July 2020

35

Reduced or deferred maintenacne due to lockdown could now come back to haunt operators. person’ to operate a heavy transport business. You can easily attain this status by having poorly maintained or non-compliant vehicles.

• Reduced or deferred maintenance, unless well reasoned and managed, is likely to result in unplanned, repeated, and expensive

repairs or breakdowns that can disrupt your business and annoy your customers.

• Some maintenance and compliance issues result in considerable additional operating costs and can even cause major accidents.

These include faulty brakes (rollovers and crashes),

binding brakes (overheating, leading to excess fuel use and even fires), wheel bearing failure (leading to overheating and failure, possible wheel loss or fire), electrical faults or frayed wiring (leading to loss of power and a breakdown, even fire). The list goes on.

There is are further considerations if you are taking advantage of the NZTA’s deferral of CoF expiries until October. The first is, whether or not your vehicle has a CoF, it is legally required to be safe and compliant on the road. The second is that if you wait to the last minute to present your vehicle for its CoF, you will be lining up with all the other people doing the same thing, so instead of a couple of hours you may as well cancel a whole day or even more.

To ensure you have a viable and sustainable business going into the

future, make sure you have a comprehensive fleet management programme that includes a formal, daily walkaround inspection, preferably at the start and end of every shift, and a programmed maintenance regime. This downtime must be scheduled and can justifiably be reflected in your contract rates.

Steve Bullôt is a member of the IRTENZ council and a heavy vehicle compliance specialist with extensive practical and regulatory experience. Steve was a senior engineer heavy vehicles with the NZTA for nine years and now operates Tohora Enterprises Ltd, a transport compliance consultancy that aims to ensure transport operators meet all their regulatory and compliance requirements at the lowest possible cost.

TRUCKERS’ HEALTH

BEFORE

AFTER

By the end of his 8-week challenge, Maurice had lost 4kg and 12cm.

Eight weeks to excellence

Y

ou may vaguely remember Maurice from Mainfreight.

In March, Maurice was about to embark on an 8-week health and fitness challenge run by yours truly. However, due to the sly dog Covid-19 and seven weeks enforced lockdown, it has now taken four months to complete an 8-week challenge. But you know what they say, good things take time. This is overwhelmingly true in Maurice’s case; he hasn’t been this fit, light, healthy, and strong in years, and has finally cracked the double digits. He shed an impressive 4kg and 12cm throughout the challenge.

Like a lot of you, Maurice works extremely long hours and also has to balance family life with the demands of the job. “It’s just a matter of making time, not excuses. Even if you do an hour or even half an hour three days a week, it will still make a huge difference.”

Leading a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to mean never eating the foods you enjoy and strapping yourself to a treadmill, it’s about making small changes and tweaks to your current lifestyle to improve your overall health. “The hardest part for me was sticking to the diet and keeping my portions under control, as a kiwi brought up on the ‘finish your whole plate, don’t waste it’ mentality.”

Maurice trained extremely hard over the eight weeks and would often be sweating it out at 3am at TCA Fitness Club along with other shift workers. The dedication he showed throughout the challenge shone through in his fitness test, where he achieved a 100% improvement from week one to week eight. The fitness test included burpees, press-ups, situps, squats and lunges to test overall fitness, strength and endurance. Fitness doesn’t lie – you’re either fitter or you’re not.

Maurice also received the award for the most dedicated

98 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

challenge participant throughout the eight weeks.

The 8-week challenge was about a lot more than the scales.

Stepping onto the scales is only one way to gauge health and progress. There is a truck load of other ways to monitor your progress along the way, including the way your clothes fit, how you look in photos, your skin/hair/nails, energy levels, how well you get through a workout – I could go on all day.

“I feel healthy, have more energy and feel a lot less fatigued.

It feels good to see the kilos going down and my fitness test results improving. I can notice a difference in my photos and I would definitely recommend a health and fitness challenge.”

If you want to make improvements to your health and fitness, literally start with one thing. Write down one thing that you feel is holding you back the most and make a small tweak. For example, I have a sausage roll every day. Try having a sausage roll every second day. If you keep taking small, baby steps towards your overall goal of being healthier, then it will feel like a smooth and gentle progression rather than an abrupt and drastic change.

Once again, massive congratulations to Maurice and a huge helping of good luck to all of you who are about to embark on your own personal challenges. 

Laura Peacock Personal trainer TCA Fitness Club

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Reviews and audits

I

organisation to improve and grow its health and safety culture. n the last month or so I have been through a lot of reviews Reviews should be undertaken regularly to support and audits of health and safety systems. Primarily, I was the management’s knowledge and practice of health and safety. auditor or the reviewer. However, I also supported two of They should be a standard part of the health and safety our clients as they underwent audit by another organisation. management system.

What’s the difference? A review is a more informal look at Audits are completed for several reasons. They provide what has been happening in the health and safety system of information for senior management, the organisation. Reviews tend to be they assess compliance standards, and done internally, often to reassure senior they allow organisations to benchmark management that the organisation themselves against similar businesses. is performing well. The criteria will Quite often, audits are undertaken to vary depending on what the reviewer satisfy client requirements. is looking for. Examples may include Regardless of the reason, all health how many safety meetings have been We work with and safety management systems run and who attended, how many organisations that should be assessed at regular intervals. site reviews were completed and how need more health and Knowing how well it is working, or many non-conformances were raised safety knowledge, not, can only be beneficial.  and addressed, or how many accidents, incidents and near misses have been or more time, than reported. they have in-house.

An audit is more structured against For more information, a specific standard. It is generally check the website undertaken by an expert in the field and offers a higher level of assurance about www.safewise.co.nz the health and safety performance of the organisation. Again, the auditor will review the processes that are relevant Tracey Murphy is the owner and to that audit. This may be a full system or aspects of it. The director of Safewise Limited, a health auditor will normally inspect the work in progress and talk to and safety consultancy. She has more workers to gain a full understanding of the organisation. than 11 years’ experience working Both can provide important information about what has with organisations from many different happened and what or how the organisation has responded. industries. Tracey holds a Diploma in They should be used as learning tools, enabling the

How can Safewise help?

Health and Safety Management and a Graduate Diploma in Occupational Safety and Health. She is a Graduate Member of New Zealand Institute of Safety Management and is on the HASANZ register.

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27/5/10

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Danielle L. Beston Barrister At Law Log Book & Driving Hours Transport Specialist Work Licences Nationwide Road User Charges Contributor to New Zealand Trucking ‘Legal Lines’ Column Telephone: 64 9 379 7658 mobile: 021 326 642 danielle.beston@hobsonchambers.co.nz Referral Through Solicitor Required and Arranged

New Zealand Trucking

August 2020 99

LEGAL LINES

Detecting phishing scams

I

was wading through my email inbox last month when I saw an email with the subject line ‘Your vehicle’s licence (rego) expires soon’. At first glance it appeared to be from the NZ Transport Agency, as the logo, colour scheme, layout and content were almost identical to the usual reminders I receive from the NZTA. However, I knew that my vehicle registration did not expire for several more months, and when I looked closer I noticed that email address was no.reply@nzta.org.nz rather than no.reply@nzta.govt.nz, and the link that you clicked said ‘License now (rego)’ rather than ‘Licence now (rego)’. It was fortunate that I had my wits about me because it would have been easy to overlook these subtle differences.

This month I want to share with you some tips to help you spot a phishing email and avoid being tricked by the increasingly more sophisticated scams out there.

What is a phishing scam?

In a phishing scam, the scammer attempts to obtain private information from a victim by posing as a reputable entity in an email or other electronic communication. For example, the scammer may send you an email posing as a bank representative, courier company, or subscriber service, claiming that your account requires payment, fixing or verification.

The email then directs you to a fake site where you are asked to provide sensitive information: your username, password, and more. With this information, the scammer then has access to your account. Often people use the same password for everything, so once entered the scammer can then access multiple accounts belonging to you.

Why are scams hard to spot?

Scams are one of the hardest security threats to protect against because they rely on exploiting naivety rather than technical flaws. Previously, the best way to confirm if a scammer was sending a legitimate request was to make a call to the business.

However, these days a lot of business is carried out over WhatsApp, Zoom, Skype, and other services. The ability to easily obtain a virtual number is one of the reasons that the public is now easily sucked into a scam. Unfortunately, no country is exempt and no country can easily prevent scammers.

• •

•

•

the business to know. For example, in the phishing email that I received from the NZTA, it was missing my vehicle’s make, plate number, and the registration expiry date.

If there are spelling mistakes or the grammar is incorrect then this is highly suspicious.

Contact the police to see if they have received any information or complaints about scams from the email address used to make contact with you. If the scammer has already been reported, then this may confirm your suspicions.

Look at the details on the email. If there are statements of reliability and phrases like ‘we are not a scam’, then chances are it’s a scam!

When purchasing online, be wary of reports that there is only one item left. Scammers love to apply pressure for funds with excuses of low stock levels to fool you into making an impulse buy. Make them wait, or don’t buy, because creating a sense of urgency is a common ploy that scammers use.

What to do if you think it’s a scam

If you’re unsure whether you’ve received a legitimate email then you can hover over buttons or links in the email to view the website address they’ll take you to before clicking on it. Never give out your personal details or payment details and do not reply to the email.

In many cases, businesses will have an email address that you can send the email to and they can reply to you to let you know whether it’s a scam email. I sent my phishing email that purportedly came from the NZTA to reportscams@nzta.govt. nz to report it and then I deleted it. I would also recommend checking that your device is protected by anti-virus and antispyware software.

If you have mistakenly provided a scammer with your personal details, then contact your bank immediately and ask them to stop the suspicious payment. You may also need to request a new credit or debit card. It’s also a good idea to report the incident through your local police station and their cyber crime division. 

Identifying a scam

Here are some ways to conduct simple tests to confirm the legitimacy of an email: • Think about whether you’ve signed up to receive email notifications and reminders from the business that has contacted you. An unsolicited email should be a red flag.

• Take time to look at the email address that the message has been sent from. You can often distinguish a genuine email address from a fake one because it will be similar but not quite correct.

• The email might be missing specific details that you’d expect

Please note that this article is not a substitute for legal advice and if you have a particular matter that needs to be addressed, you should consult with a lawyer. Danielle Beston is a barrister who specialises in transport law and she can be contacted on (09) 377 1080 or 021 326 642.

Danielle Beston

100 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

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NZ TRUCKING ASSOCIATION

How to stay positive as an owner-operator

A

s 75% of New Zealand trucking companies are owner-operated, with five or fewer employees, it’s important to understand their challenges. Operators of heavy goods and large passenger transport services need to comply with a range of rules and regulations.

The rules have been designed to assist transport service licence holders to run successful and compliant businesses. If you are new to the business or thinking about joining, then you need to start strong.

Put things in place, because every action has an outcome.

Well-maintained fleets are more productive. There is less unscheduled maintenance and time off the road if you have good maintenance systems in place. Get ahead of the game and put a regular maintenance system in your business.

Well-maintained vehicles have lower fuel bills, which is a straight cost that affects your profitability.

A high emphasis on safe driving will result in fewer infringement or offence notices. Establishing a culture of safety and quality in your business right from the start reduces the risk of crashes, vehicle damage and personal injury or death. Being recognised as an operator who cares about doing the right thing and who is seen as a good employer will win contracts over employers who cut corners and don’t really care about their workers.

Infringement notice costs take money out of your pocket and do nothing to improve your business. During the lockdown the public learnt how important trucks are to their everyday life. But it can be hard dealing with sudden changes and that is one reason to belong to an association. During the pandemic and post-lockdown, the New Zealand Trucking Association has been commended by its members on the way it delivered information. In the first few days the team was flooded with updates and rule changes from several sources. A quick Zoom meeting with the team and a plan was developed on how the communication would go out. The team filtered the nonrelevant information and kept only what was important.

The association is a partner for your business and will help you every step of the way. It’s tough running a business; we save you time by not having to find information for yourself.

We are there to do it for you while you get on with running your business.

Staying positive as a small or medium business is vital. Here are some tips on things you can do.

Cash is king and always has been. Look at your cashflow often and not only when you notice things starting to get tight.

Saving money on purchases is one way to improve your bottom line. Debt collection is another. Do not let your debt get out

of the normal trading time frame. If you have an account that is difficult, talk to the company; there is more than one way to collect the debt. It may be that you have no choice but to ring-fence the debt and move them to a cash account, with a portion going to the debt. You do not have to be their banker, but you might have to help them out through a period. Do your homework and make sure you don’t expose yourself to further debt.

Work out what needs to change in your business now. Do not wait, put aside some time to think about what the effect would be if you made some changes.

Make sure you celebrate your success.

Reward your staff. It doesn’t have to be a huge reward; it can be morning tea or a pizza lunch. A $25 grocery voucher is a great way to show your appreciation.

A small operator’s staff are key people in their business, so if they are good people, reward them and include them in your growth plans for the business.

If they are not good, move them on to help them realise their future somewhere else.

Drivers’ health and wellbeing is of concern due to the average age of a truck driver and the fact they are sitting for many hours a day. Post-lockdown, the CVST expressed concerns around fatigue of the drivers. Fatigue is a major contributing factor in rollovers and truck crashes, but it is also identified in depression. Make sure your health and safety programmes support drivers when they need it. Especially when they return to work after a break or extended leave time.

Encourage regular exercise and movement during breaks.

Become that company that people want to work for because your company’s culture and safety record is the best. 

During the pandemic and post-lockdown, the New Zealand Trucking Association has been commended by its members on the way it delivered information.

102 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

If you are an owner-operator or thinking about starting your own business, talk to the New Zealand Trucking Association about what we can do to assist you.

Contact carol.mcgeady@nztruckingassn.co.nz or 021 252 7252.

NZ Trucking Association, 23 Islington Avenue, Waterloo Business Park, Christchurch 0800 338 338 www.nztruckingassn.co.nz

By Carol McGeady, executive officer NZ Trucking Association

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ROAD TRANSPORT FORUM

New Zealand can’t afford Northport move right now

M

oving a major proportion of New Zealand’s freight activities from Auckland to Northland in the wake of one of the biggest economic shocks in our country’s history is just simply not affordable.

It makes no economic sense to add the extra $10 billion in upfront capital cost, required to get Northport and its road and rail supply lines up and running, to the government’s debt books. It is also hard to see why we would go through that just to increase the transport costs that will result from having to cart freight the extra 160km to and from the Far North.

The Moving the Ports of Auckland: Costs and challenges for road freight report commissioned

by RTF’s member association, NRC, estimated the proposed replacement of Ports of Auckland with Northport could provide at least a five-fold increase in business for their members.

Perhaps, you think, Northport should really be something we should strongly advocate for, but, despite the obvious self-interest, the project just does not stack up from a NZ Inc point of view.

Eighty percent of New Zealand’s freight is distributed to points south of the current Ports of Auckland. Around 340,000 heavy truck trips and 27,000 freight trains would be needed to carry those containers and goods from Northport to the proposed inland road-rail port at Swanson in West Auckland. The report also found that the annual cost of road and rail freighting those goods the extra 160km would be more than $1 billion per year.

These would be self-imposed costs to our economy that we just cannot afford.

Billions of dollars are already being borrowed to prop up our economy, keep people in work, and smooth off the harsher edges of the Covid-19 lockdown. We can’t keep on adding to that; a line in the sand must be drawn somewhere.

We also must start to see a plan from the government as to how we will begin to pay back the $50 billion that has been borrowed so far. An efficient and productive economy is critical, as is future government discipline over spending.

Neither of those things is achieved by moving the Ports of Auckland to Northport.

I was extremely disappointed to hear Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones dismiss NRC’s report and label it ‘Auckland snobbery’. That is, of course, pure electioneering and, as New Zealand First’s electoral hopes continue to look fairly marginal, Jones’s tilt at the Northland electorate seat may be their only realistic way back into Parliament.

The proposal should therefore be seen for what it is, the ultimate pork barrel project. As such it should be scrapped in favour of the status quo in the meantime, and serious consideration given for something more appropriate in and around the Firth of Thames or Manukau in the long term.

Meanwhile, I took some satisfaction recently from the news that KiwiRail chief executive Greg Miller had finally conceded that further government investment in the Gisborne to Napier Rail Line was unlikely. This hopefully will be the end of a long-running debate that threatened to see rational fiscal policymaking overcome by nostalgia and wishful thinking.

Gisborne to Napier, as many readers will be aware, has largely been out of action since floods washed it out in 2012, and has been a bit of a political football ever since.

Locals, egged on by Labour and New Zealand First-affiliated rail enthusiasts, have run a concerted campaign for reinstatement of the line despite its extremely dubious economic merits.

Nevertheless, the government threw $6.2 million at the Gisborne to Wairoa section. Since it opened, however, only three trains have actually ever run along it. That’s $2 million per train!

The full line has long been marketed in Wellington as a solution to the high number of logging trucks in the region, but the reality is that those logs are coming from north of Gisborne, and with the understandable reluctance for double handling, it means a working rail line would make no difference to this traffic.

It is now generally accepted – even by KiwiRail and within government – that a feasibility study undertaken by economic research company BERL, that costed the line’s full restoration a year or so ago to be around $30 million, was seriously undercooked. It is likely to be many more times that amount.

Thankfully Jones is also no longer pushing for the line to be restored, and with New Zealand First’s focus firmly on Northland, the political will seems to have finally evaporated, leaving common sense and good economics to prevail. 

Perhaps, you think, Northport should really be something we should strongly advocate for, but, despite the obvious selfinterest, the project just does not stack up from a NZ Inc point of view.

104 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

Nick Leggett Chief executive officer

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THE LAST MILE

It did not take long

I

n the May edition I suggested that one of the better things that had come out of the Covid crisis was that the ideologs, those who see our industry as a two-horned monster, had been less vocal, but I suggested they could be using the time for planning their next round of attacks on us. Well, it did not take long for some of them to emerge.

Early on we had the Associate Minister of Transport, Julie Anne Genter, proposing fast rail from the regions to the cities. Clearly her advisors did not tell her that one of the more serious constraints on our rail system is the New Zealand terrain, requiring numerous bridges, tunnels and tight curves and, importantly, the gauge, 1.067m in New Zealand compared with the standard gauge of 1.435m overseas. There are reasons why the builders of our railways opted for a narrower gauge; the terrain is one of them. If Julie Anne’s advisors did tell her, maybe it was simply a matter of ignoring the advice; it wouldn’t be the first time a minister has gone against the advice of officials to push a personal agenda, and anyway, why let facts get in the way of a good story?

Then we saw the pop-up of ‘temporary’ cycleways in some cities, apparently to allow cyclists to keep their social distance from each other as well as provide for a predicted increase in

cyclists because of the lower capacity of public transport. It does not take much imagination to work out that the councils that moved so quickly to put these into place have most likely already planned their next move, perhaps something like this: “the pop-up cycleways have been a great success, so in order to provide ongoing safety to the many cyclists who use them and to encourage more people to use bicycles in our city, we have decided to make them permanent. Providing a safe environment for cyclists and pedestrians is a high priority as we transition to a more sustainable transport system.”

Let us just ignore the increased traffic congestion and resultant emissions these temporary, now permanent, cycleways will cause, and the additional difficulties trucks will have doing deliveries; these truths do not figure in the equations, they ruin the spin. One council putting in these temporary cycleways acknowledged that it will take up the space of 130plus paying car parks; this at a time when all councils are screaming about their lower projected income.

In the Letters to the Editor in The Dominion Post (Friday 22 May 2020) under the heading ‘Electric rail’ the writer – signing himself as Aro Valley NZ Agent, Light Rail Transit Assn – writes: “A completely electrified main trunk would have the capability of handling all passenger and freight transport between Auckland and Wellington with zero emissions.”

Really? Having the capability to do something is one thing, but the ability to do it and willingness of others to use it are completely different. The writer seems to have conveniently overlooked the need for more rolling stock and engines and many more passing bays or greater double-tracking. Full electrification of the Main Trunk Line was first proposed in 1950 and I personally think it is a crime that when the centre section of line was electrified in 1984 this was not completed, but there must have been reasons for this, some of which are still likely to be around today. Maybe cost and overall return on investment were among these.

The remainder of 2020 and well into 2021 is going to be extremely hard for most of us, hardships that only our more senior people have experienced before, but, just as they did in the 1930s and 1940s, we will get through one way or another; this is the underlying spirit of New Zealand.

Perhaps the difference between then and now though is that back then the vast majority of New Zealanders were united behind a single cause. Unfortunately today this is not the case. There are too many lobby groups and individuals only too happy to push their own agendas and even more happy to undermine the veins that make our country work – the roads, and those who keep the country moving, our drivers.

It’s times like this when leadership is required. The leadership of our industry must unite behind a single voice, a voice that is not afraid to stand up and openly challenge those who seek to destabilise the very reason we exist, to provide the services that our customers want. 

Having the capability to do something is one thing, but the ability to do it and willingness of others to use it are completely different.

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106 New Zealand Trucking

August 2020

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