NZ Truck & Driver July 2020

NZ TRUCK & DRIVER

FREE GIANT TRUCK POSTER LIFTOUT

| July 2020

July 2020 $8.50 incl. GST

BIG TEST No smoke, no mirrors | FLEET FOCUS In the footsteps of Wally and Podge | FEATURE Bert’s seven-decade trucking odyssey

FEATURE Bert’s seven-decade trucking odyssey

FLEET FOCUS In the footsteps of Wally and Podge

The Official Magazine of the

ISSN 1174-7935

Issue 236

CONTENTS Issue 236 – July 2020 2 Aeolus News

The latest in the world of transport, including….Government’s RUC increase “a kick in the guts” for the road transport industry; electric truck startup Nikola has sensational stock market launch; Cummins explores promising new emissions control technology

22 Giti Tyres Big Test

Gardner Transport’s new truck is a magic Merc….with a difference: Rather than the good old “all smoke and mirrors,” the new MirrorCam Actros is exactly the opposite: No smoke, no mirrors”

Latest news from the Road Transport Forum NZ, including…..Government’s pro-rail, anti-truck actions are “borderline irresponsible;” RTF supports law change to stop unfair trading practices; cannabis referendum a risk for road transport

46 Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus

One hundred years since the beginnings of Pinfolds Transport, the third and fourth generations of the Pinfold family are following in the footsteps of Wally and Podge

Publisher

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

Advertising

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

EDITORIAL Editor

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

Editorial office Phone

PO Box 48 074 AUCKLAND 09 826 0494

Associate Editor

Brian Cowan

63 Bert’s seven-decade trucking odyssey Bert Watchorn started driving a Chev logtruck at 17 (without a licence). Seventytwo years later, when he died during the COVID-19 lockdown, he still owned a handful of trucks….his favourites of the hundreds he’d owned

80/ PPG Transport Imaging 81 Awards

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

87 Recently Registered

New truck and trailer registrations for May

COLUMNS

71 Castrol Truck Driver Hero

Temuka Transport driver Worrick Norton is a different kind of truck driving hero

81 National Road Carriers Association

Moving Ports of Auckland to Northport is impractical…staying with Auckland for now, then relocating to the Firth of Thames makes much more sense

74 A COVID-19 Kenworth

39 Transport Forum

MANAGEMENT

FEATURE

CONTRIBUTORS

ART DEPARTMENT Design & Production

In a bizarre spinoff of the global coronavirus emergency, PACCAR Australia pulled off the “virtual” launch of a new Kenworth T410 SAR

85 Road Transport Association NZ Better roads can help rebuild the economy and improve people’s lives

REGULARS 79 Truck Shop

New products and services for the road transport industry

Gerald Shacklock Dave McLeod Terry Wreford Hann Rod Simmonds Ross Hyde Tim Bird Olivia Beauchamp Luca Bempensante Zarko Mihic

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

027 233 0090

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

027 448 8768

hayden@trucker.co.nz

Dion Rout

027 491 1110

dion@trucker.co.nz

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

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NZ Truck & Driver Magazine

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Truck & Driver | 1

NEWS

Thanks…here’s a “kick in the guts” Transport operators “seriously aggrieved” Both Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett (left) and National Road Carriers Association CEO David Aitken have slammed the RUC increase A “KICK IN THE GUTS” – THAT’S THE TRUCKING industry’s reward for keeping the country moving during the COVID-19 lockdown.

That’s how National Road Carriers Association CEO David Aitken saw the Government’s refusal to drop its 5.3% July 1 road user charges increase.

Aitken was throwing NRC’s weight behind lobbying by Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett to drop the planned RUC increase, because it will negatively effect the post COVID-19 economic recovery – for transport operators and all NZers.

Leggett made the RTF’s case: “Road freight transport has played a critical role in keeping NZ moving through the various stages of lockdown.

Trucking will be equally important through the economic recovery, as NZ will be heavily reliant on export goods making their way to markets around the world.

“Like all businesses, trucking companies want to get back to full operations as soon as possible, recover their losses as quickly as they can, and keep good people employed.

“The challenge ahead for trucking operators that already work with tight margins will be the ability to absorb, or pass on, increasing costs when all businesses are tightening their belts.”

Thus the Forum was back asking the Government to drop the RUC increase. It was a call that had already been refused in April, but as Leggett pointed out, “the business environment is now even worse.

“I am aware that trucking companies with customer agreements that allow them to negotiate increases on Government-imposed charges are finding, in spite of contractual obligations, those customers are saying no to adding the RUC increase into costs.

“If trucking companies cannot pass on this cost, they will have to absorb it.

For some that will be impossible in this environment.”

And that, said David Aitken, is “unacceptable. Throughout the lockdown the road freight industry kept the country moving, delivering essential supplies including medicine and food.”

2 | Truck & Driver

Aitken said operators were “seriously aggrieved” by the planned RUC increase: “Transport runs on low margins at the best of times and most of those operating during lockdown ran at zero or negative margins, due to limited goods and volumes that could be moved.

“The industry also put their own health and safety on the line to deliver these goods. Transport operators worked through all pandemic alert levels, often at a cost to them, their families and their companies.”

He said RUC increases will result in some transport companies failing – and consumers paying more for goods and services, “as some costs will have to be passed on.”

Aitken said that “instead of recognition of the industry’s efforts (during the COVID-19 lockdown), this Government wants to punish it – when freight companies are struggling.”

Adding to the negative impact on the trucking industry, Aitken said, the Government was “increasing the RUC to pay for rail, cycleways and public transport….which are not capable of delivering essential supplies to stores.”

Aitken and Leggett both pointed out that the road transport industry had witnessed the Government “rewarding” many other sectors – including the arts and music, racing and tourism – with big COVID-19 payouts….a “lolly scramble,” as Leggett termed it.

On the other hand, said Aitken, the Government’s RUC stance would see road transport – an essential service – “being punished for its efforts.”

Said Aitken: Transport sees itself as an easy target for Governments to pass taxes onto – it is “seen as a cash cow…..and it’s had enough.”

The industry is willing to continue paying RUC at the current level, he said – but that money needs to go into the road network, which is currently badly maintained, and into building new infrastructure to allow the efficient flow of freight: “The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how essential road freight is – as did the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes.”

But, Leggett said, the “Government’s spending on works that relate to road wear and tear caused by heavy vehicles is less than the growth in revenue generated from those vehicles. They are taking more, but spending less!” T&D

NEWS

A Nikola Two hydrogen fuel cell electric prototype has been undergoing trials with American brewer Anheuser-Busch

Nikola goes public…. and goes HUUUUGE IN A SENSATIONAL LAUNCH ON THE STOCK exchange, electric truck startup Nikola last month instantly became a giant of the automotive industry – worth more than Ford or Fiat Chrysler!

It’s first day listed on the Nasdaq stock market saw Nikola’s worth balloon out to around $US12billion – making founder Trevor Milton an instant billionaire. He’s the biggest shareholder, with a stake worth $US3.7bn.

By day three of its Nasdaq listing, Nikola’s market valuation was up to $US26.3bn, and Milton’s fortune stood at $9bn.

All of this without the company having put anything other than preproduction prototypes of its futuristic battery-electric or fuel cell electric trucks on the road. It says it has truck orders worth $US10bn...but hasn’t actually sold any yet.

The launch brought conflicting reactions from market commentators, some predicting that its true potential had been over-hyped – a charge that’s often been levelled at electric truck arch-rival Elon Musk and his planned Tesla Semi etruck.

Some pointed out bluntly that at least Musk does have a track record of having sold electric vehicles – Tesla falling short of making a profit last year, but still generating $US24bn.

Tesla announced the Semi in 2017, but has missed its proposed 2020 start of production. US reports last month said Musk has been telling Tesla staff to gear-up for a start to production next year.

And on the same week that Nikola went public on the stock market, Tesla’s shares went past $US1000 – seeing it overtake Toyota as the world’s most highly-valued carmaker.

Nikola has said that it will begin to generate revenue next year, as it starts to produce the Nikola Tre heavy-duty battery-electric truck. Its Nikola Two HD hydrogen fuel cell electric truck is scheduled for a production startup in 2023.

Sceptics have pointed out that Nikola has the huge task of building a network of hydrogen fuelling stations in the US, in order to make the Nikola Two commercially viable.

That is a process it has begun, Nikola announcing the day before its Nasdaq launch that it has placed a $US30million order with Norwegian supplier Nel for alkaline electrolysers to equip its first five US hydrogen fuelling stations – together capable of producing over 40,000 kilograms of hydrogen daily.

“We are building the largest hydrogen network in the world and I couldn’t be prouder to have Nel part of it,” said Nikola boss Milton.

The five stations, he said, will cover multiple states and trucking routes: “The future of clean transportation is here, and fleets are lining up to be part of the transition with Nikola.”

Nikola also seems well-positioned to achieve its 2021 electric truck launch in Europe, given its partnership in that venture with commercial vehicle giant CNH, Iveco’s parent company. Iveco will build the battery electric trucks.

And in terms of matching Tesla and expanding its vehicle range beyond heavy trucks, Nikola announced in February that it will build an electric pickup truck – the Badger using either battery electric or fuel cell electric power.

The light truck, which will have an estimated 1000-kilometre range, will be manufactured with a yet-to-be-revealed OEM partner, it said.

“Nikola has billions worth of technology in our semi-truck programme, so why not build it into a pickup truck?” reasoned Milton.

Nikola president Mark Russell added: “The Nikola Badger is a game changer. The programme will help drive down the cost of the fuel-cell components on our semi-truck, while accelerating the hydrogen station rollout. Giving customers the option to order a fuel-cell or battery electric version will ensure we drive the cost down for everyone across our lineup.” T&D Truck & Driver | 3

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NEWS

The cylinder deactivation control software has been developed using a Cummins X15 Efficiency engine, which the enginemaker says is already “class-leading” in its fuel economy

New tech promises reduced emissions and diesel use TRUCK ENGINE MANUFACTURER CUMMINS HAS linked with an American technology company to successfully cut diesel engine exhaust emissions and fuel consumption – using cylinder deactivation control software.

Cummins and Tula Technology say that they have used diesel Dynamic Skip Fire (dDSF) to achieve “significant reductions in emissions and fuel consumption.”

The project started early last year, with the goal of optimising the Dynamic Skip Fire (DSF) technology that has made Tula “a tech leader in improving propulsion efficiency and reducing emissions in passenger cars” – aiming to achieve the same result for trucks and buses.

The joint development team modified the engine system to integrate and leverage Tula’s DSF control algorithms to command combustion or deactivation on a cylinder event basis.

The two companies say that continuing development of the programme is expected to help address future, more stringent NOx (oxides of nitrogen) diesel engine exhaust emissions regulations.

The technology achieves the NOx reduction primarily by optimised exhaust temperature control, resulting in dramatically improved conversion efficiency of the aftertreatment system. The technology achieves CO2 reductions through improvements in combustion and reductions in pumping work.

Cummins’ director, advanced system integration, Lisa Farrell, says: “At Cummins, it’s our mission to power a more prosperous world. We do this

by helping customers succeed through innovative and dependable products that are good for the customer and the environment.

“We will continue to innovate the diesel engine system to make it lighter, more reliable, powerful and fuel-efficient, and we are encouraged by the progress demonstrated in this collaboration and what it could mean for future diesel technology.”

The collaboration work was carried out on a Cummins X15 Efficiency Series 6-cylinder diesel engine, which Cummins says already offers classleading fuel economy.

It was operated using the “challenging” low-load test cycle currently being proposed by the California Air Resources Board – whereby emissions are tested during sustained low-load engine operation, which CARB says “constitutes a large fraction of how trucks actually operate in urban areas.”

Modelling of dDSF technology predicted reductions in NOx emissions while simultaneously reducing CO2.

Tula Technology president and CEO R. Scott Bailey says that the partnership with Cummins “has given us the opportunity to expand our DSF technology beyond its success in gasoline engines.

“Demonstrating the capability to improve fuel efficiency while also achieving very effective emissions control is extremely important for all diesel engine applications in the future.”

The collaboration plans to explore future system optimisation and viability to control noise, vibration and harshness in commercial vehicle applications. T&D Truck & Driver | 5

NEWS

New owner Robert Wood (left) shakes hands with retiring CDL Autoparts founder Wayne Butler

CDL Autoparts has a new owner HEAV Y TR ANSPORT LIGHTING SPECIALIST CDL Autoparts has a new owner, with founder Wayne Butler retiring after running the business for 53 years.

The Auckland-based company, which is the New Zealand distributor for American-made Peterson truck and trailer lights, has been bought by Robert Wood – formerly the general manager of construction, forestry and materials handling machinery supplier AB Equipment.

Before filling that role for over 10 years, the much-experienced Wood was Truckstops’ national parts manager – and that followed more than 20 years at a Ford dealership.

Wood says he’s excited about running CDL: “It’s a long-established business….and to be fair, these sorts of businesses don’t pop up every five minutes.

“CDL has done an absolutely marvellous job of getting the Peterson lights up and running in the transport industry.

“I obviously want to build on that – along with other opportunities that the product range has in the construction, forestry and materials-handling industries, which CDL to date hasn’t tapped into: That’s the initial area of focus for us.

“Going forward, there are more and more electric vehicles popping up.

What sort of opportunities they present for us in the future requires further exploration.”

Butler says the reason for the sale is simply that he’s now 75 – “and it’s time I retired.” He has been, he says, “looking for the right sort of person” to take over the business – and Wood is that person: “He has an extensive, similar background. We’re heavy-duty transportation and he’s been in industrial and earthmoving and heavy-duty general machinery, tractors…. that sort of thing.

6 | Truck & Driver

“He’s also been in the industry for years. He knows it well and I believe he’s going to add a fair bit to the business.”

Butler adds, appreciatively: “All the staff have been retained. Some of my staff have been with me for over 30 years and I was very conscious of that.”

Butler started CDL Autoparts in 1967 in a small workshop in Newmarket, Auckland – initially focused on the service and repair of vehicle fuel systems, carburettors and the like. But in the mid-1980s the emphasis of the business changed to the importation of automotive components and their nationwide distribution. The company moved to bigger premises in Manukau City to allow for future growth.

While the importation and distribution of Peterson heavy vehicle lighting is CDL Autoparts’ core business these days, it is also said to be NZ’s leading supplier of electronic fuel injection and carburettor components – including parts for out-of-production models. T&D Part of CDL Autoparts’ Manukau operation

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NEWS

NZ’s heavy transport wheel alignment sector worked with MITO to help develop the new apprenticeship – which is seen as critically important

Wheel alignment apprenticeship launched A NEW APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING PROGR AMME focusing on heavy vehicle and trailer wheel alignment has been launched

by MITO. The New Zealand Certificate in Heavy Wheel Alignment (Level 4) provides the necessary knowledge and skills required to carry out alignments – and offers a formal qualification for individuals working in this important sector of the industry.

The training programme has been developed in collaboration with the industry to ensure it meets its specific training requirements.

John Bates, founder of the NZ Heavy Transport Wheel Aligners Association, says: “It is critical that our sector has a training programme that specifies the exact procedures that should be adhered to and ensures that there is a gold standard we all work to.

“We’re delighted that MITO has developed a training programme that does just that. It provides learning outcomes responding to health, safety and technical issues to ensure we have productive and safe workplaces.

“Outcomes also, importantly, cover diagnostic procedures in steering, suspension, braking, driveline, hydraulics, electrical and electronic systems.”

MITO chief executive Janet Lane says: “It is really exciting that we can respond to the education and training needs of the industry sectors we represent through robust programme design and innovative delivery, as well as managing the ongoing pastoral care of each apprentice.

“Working together, we are equally committed to workforce development strategies that futureproof these individual sectors.”

The 20-month programme includes both practical training in the workplace and eLearning – the latter “a fantastic tool,” in Bates’ opinion.

“It provides technicians with the ability to complete theory elements in their own time using a mobile phone, tablet or computer. Combined with hands-on practical training in the workplace, this blended learning approach offers the best of both worlds.”

Bates says that the partnership between industry and MITO to develop this programme “reinforces MITO’s enduring commitment to support our sector. We now look forward to attracting the next generation of talent to our industry!”

Enrolment information for MITO’s Heavy Wheel Alignment training programme is available online at mito.nz/heavywheel T&D Truck & Driver | 9

NEWS A concept image of one of the new ferries.

Picture OSK Shiptech

New ferries a step closer THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW GENER ATION of Cook Strait ferries is a step nearer, with KiwiRail beginning the process of settling on a shipyard to build two new ships.

KiwiRail says that the $400million earmarked for new ferries in the Government’s Budget 2020 – part of its $1.2bn rail spendup (and on top of last year’s $1bn) – has allowed it to go out to international tender to have the ships built.

KiwiRail’s iReX Project will see the replacement of the existing threeferry fleet with two new, much larger ships – scheduled to go into service in 2024 and 2025.

The new ferries will be technologically advanced, have significantly lower CO2 emissions, a greater carrying capacity and will provide “an enhanced visitor experience,” KiwiRail group chief executive Greg Miller says.

They will each be 40 metres longer and five metres wider – and together the pair will be able to carry “almost double the number of trucks and

other vehicles,” 300% more rail wagons and twice as many passengers as the current three-ship fleet.

KiwiRail reckons they are projected to meet the expected freight and passenger growth over the next 30 years.

The high-tech ships will have the latest propulsion systems and will be capable of running on battery power at times, KiwiRail says. They will also be futureproofed so they could switch to alternative fuels.

The new ferries represent “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the Cook Strait crossing,” says Miller.

By the time they’re delivered, it will be more than 25 years since Interislander had a brand-new, purposebuilt ferry.

Currently, KiwiRail’s three ferries carry 800,000 passengers and up to $14bn worth of road and rail freight annually.

Miller says that the new ferries and associated port infrastructure upgrades “will provide greater resilience for this crucial link that unites our country and will serve NZ for the next generation and beyond.” T&D

Speed limit cuts criticised THE GOVERNMENT’S FOCUS ON reducing speed limits to cut the road toll will do more harm than good, Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett believes.

“The Government continues to lower speed limits around the country in a piecemeal fashion, with no consideration of the big picture for those who move freight from one end of New Zealand to the other,” says Leggett.

The speed limit cuts are, he says, “driven by the ideological imperative of taking cars and trucks off the road, to make way for cyclists and pedestrians…”

And adds: “Seldom does this decisionmaking 10 | Truck & Driver

consider economic impacts.”

Leggett reckons that a lot of Government research “focuses not on the cause of the accident, but why there was an impact severe enough to result in death.

“If you look at it that way, the law of physics suggests any speed of a moving vehicle will be a problem.

“We appreciate that, in some cases, lowering speed limits might well have an impact in reducing the road toll. But time and time again – in our submissions and meetings with those who have already decided to lower the speed limits before they go out for consultation –

we hit a brick wall when we talk about driver behaviour being the cause of death and injury on the roads: That’s drugs, alcohol, distraction and ability. “Commercial road users, who pay for their road use, feel the pain of reduced speeds on their bottom line. Time costs money. Slowing down freight on New Zealand roads costs everyone.”

And in this post-COVID-19 period, “to survive, NZ is going to have to be able to move exports and imports as quickly and costeffectively as possible. That will be by road – 93% of the total tonnes of freight moved in NZ goes by road.” T&D

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JV aims to grow Total lubricants offering A 50/50 JOINT VENTURE HAS BEEN FORMED by international oil and energy company Total and the longtime New Zealand importer and distributor of its lubricants, Oil Intel.

The JV, between Oil Intel and Total Marketing & Services, cements their strong 20-year partnership, they say – and is intended to expand Total’s lubricants offering here.

It also “signals strong confidence in the NZ market and represents a strategic drive to be close to our customers in industries such as mining, industrial, food production, agriculture, automotive, construction and transport.”

Oil Intel managing director and co-shareholder Reuben Thickpenny says: “Achieving growth by being the best at what we do has always been my key focus. It is what the business was built around.”

And, he adds: “We always felt well-supported in this vision by Total.”

The companies say that both parties “are further united by a shared mission of conducting business responsibly: Over the years, we have taken industry-leading steps towards responsible trading, taking into consideration environmental impact.”

One example, they say, is the Lubricant Container Stewardship Programme, “whereby NZ oil companies collectively work towards a sustainable process of recycling lubricant containers. Oil Intel is one of the leading parties in pushing this project to successful completion.

“This is in line with Total’s ambition to be the responsible energy major, supported by initiatives such as programmes on used oils recycling partnerships or biodegradable lubricant ranges.”

Total Marketing & Services VP specialties and BtoB for the Asia Pacific and Middle Eastern region, Christine Richard, says the company is looking forward to the opportunities the JV brings.

“I am proud of our collective achievements over the last two decades. Our customers have come to rely on the consistency of quality services and we are fully committed to deliver innovative and responsible solutions to the NZ market.”

Hastings-based Oil Intel, founded in 1999, serves 12 NZ industry segments with over 50 product categories. T&D

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NEWS

NZ’s first heavy-duty all-electric highway truck was launched last December by linen, uniform, first-aid and hygiene supplies specialist Alsco. But its range is a problematic 200 kilometres

Looking to a green freight future A GOVERNMENT-FUNDED STUDY THAT EXPLORED transitioning New Zealand’s road freight to alternative green fuels, acknowledges that there’s a lot more work to do before green freight is viable, according to Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett.

He welcomed the opportunity for the Forum to have some involvement with the Ministry of Transport’s 2020 Green Freight Working Paper as it gathered information.

“It is always good to plan for the future and we can’t put our head in the sand and pretend we can run on diesel forever,” Leggett reasons.

“It’s not just the Government calling for greener solutions across all aspects of our lives: Many road freight transport operators will be finding customers wanting to deep dive into how they are running and measuring sustainable business practices.

“Alternative green fuels are a growing area of interest and investment globally, but the passenger vehicle market has developed more than truck manufacturing.

“So, choices that can be made in NZ will be constrained by what is available. There also has to be the appropriate infrastructure to support any alternative fuel options. Freight companies are unlikely to invest in vehicles that cannot be easily recharged/refuelled throughout the country.

“We are all aware of the current limitations, but we also need to look at the opportunities. Another thing COVID-19 has taught us is you simply don’t know what’s ahead and global shocks have a way of changing things.”

He believes that NZ’s COVID-19 lockdown brought “a greater understanding by Government of both the necessity and the many interconnected parts of moving freight.”

Adds Leggett: “Road freight transport presents a conundrum for this Government. They don’t like fossil-fuelled trucks on roads, but they need 12 | Truck & Driver

them.

“We have an economy based on exports and imports and 93% of the total tonnes of freight moved in NZ goes by road. This has possibly never been more important to the economy than it is now.

“To the uninitiated, trucks don’t fit with the climate change narrative.

But the Government can’t tax and regulate trucks off the road until there is some viable alternative to fuelling them – and the infrastructure to support that.

The MoT working paper “takes a first look at the fuels, vehicles and infrastructure challenges and opportunities.”

It looks at “the three existing options as alternative fuels – electricity, green hydrogen and biofuels – but acknowledges a lot more work needs to be done for any of these to be viable at scale. It also notes that there is no one-size-fits-all solution and other options could emerge.

“We’re pleased to see it notes there are sustainability concerns with batteries for electric vehicles – in particular their production and disposal.

We feel (that) in the rush to endorse electric vehicles, this has been somewhat overlooked.

“Transitioning road freight in NZ to alternative green fuels has to happen, but it isn’t going to be overnight. That means there is time to thoroughly analyse the options.

“The working paper says: ‘The Government should consider options that provide the freight industry with flexibility to transition to the alternative green fuels that are best suited to their organisations.’ We think that is sound advice.

“If the Government really wants to go big on green freight, the opportunity is there to back ourselves as a smart, clean, green country and come up with the solutions ourselves.” T&D

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NEWS Scania NZ MD Mattias Lundholm says the expansion of its service dealer network demonstrates the company’s commitment to providing a premium service

New Scania service dealer in Canterbury SCANIA HAS ADDED A NEW SERVICE dealer to its South Island representation – forming a partnership with ACL Smallbone to cover south Canterbury and mid-Canterbury.

The arrangement follows the merger last year between existing Scania service dealer Smallbone Timaru and Ashburton contracting business ACL – a get-together aimed at expansion, with a new Ashburton workshop just opened.

Scania says that ACL Smallbone – operating from two main locations, in Timaru and Ashburton – is “a perfect fit for our network.”

The partnership will establish “a mega site for commercial vehicles in the region.”

Scania New Zealand managing director Mattias Lundholm says the service dealer network expansion “demonstrates our commitment to provide a premium service offering for our customers.

“As our network of service dealers grows, Scania are well equipped to deliver customers more convenience than ever before.

“The scale of service offered by the ACL Smallbone merger represented an ideal acquisition to Scania’s network in a key growth region of the country.”

Scania NZ network director Colin Bowden says that the deal was cemented by ACL Smallbone’s “commitment to a customer-focused dealership.

“I know our customers will be impressed as they ramp up their new premises over the next few months.”

ACL Smallbone CEO Gary Casey says: “Scania’s standing within the NZ trucking industry, as well as its expanding customer base, will benefit all the parties involved in this exciting new venture – most of all the truckies within the south Canterbury and midCanterbury regions.” T&D

Higher threshold needed in fair trading law A CONTRACT THRESHOLD OF $500,000 SHOULD BE included in the Fair-Trading Act Amendment Bill, Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett has told Parliament’s Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee.

Leggett says that the RTF supports the overall intent of the Bill – “that is, to extend the current protections under the Act against unfair contract terms (UCT) to small trade contracts.

“A significant chunk of the road freight transport industry is small and mediumsized business operators. However, despite being small businesses themselves, they take on large contracts.

“This is why we are submitting that the definition of small trade contracts in the Bill should be increased to a threshold of $500,000.

“Too many contracts whose parties deserve protection from unfair contract terms will be worth more than $250,000. Many transport operators will have contracts with an annual threshold value well in excess of that amount.

“Unless the threshold is increased, a significant number of small businesses that

deserve protection under the Act will not get it.”

RTF also submitted that the Commerce Commission’s monopoly on enforcement of unfair contract terms (UCT) should be removed; the amendment should apply to all existing standard form small trade contracts, not just when they are varied; and extending the UCT provisions to small businesses is more important than the prohibition on unconscionable conduct.

Says Leggett: “Prohibiting unconscionable conduct is unlikely to be effective. We prefer the focus on protections against unfair contract terms to small trade contracts.

“This will have a profound impact on small transport companies that in some parts of the country are subject to unfair contract terms in the form of unilateral deferred payments (UDP).

“This is an insidious practice used by some large corporates seeking to extend payment times to their suppliers, beyond what is normally considered acceptable.

“Road freight is critical to New Zealand’s economy and will have a substantial role to play in COVID-19 recovery to ensure that supply chains remain connected.

Support for road freight transport must be prioritised at this critical period.” T&D Truck & Driver | 15

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NEWS

DGH founding director Bodhi Vette

Job-by-job driver hire to meet post COVID-19 uncertainties A COMPANY OFFERING TRUCK DRIVERS FOR HIRE on a job-by-job basis believes it can help transport operators facing uncertainties over staffing levels in the wake of New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdowns.

DGH, which says it has a pool of almost 1000 contract drivers available nationwide, believes that “many trucking and transport businesses are facing worrying workload uncertainty.

“Some have seen major decreases in demand – where others have seen increased workloads, putting extensive pressure on resources.

“Businesses are challenged with complicated and expensive staffing decisions – holding staff during unproductive periods or recruiting new staff to service uncertain demand.”

DGH founding director Bodhi Vette says that its solution lies in the fact that – “unlike hiring a permanent member of staff – all our drivers are available on request, for fixed terms, seasonal assignments or one-off jobs, to help businesses get back on the road to recovery quickly and efficiently.

“During such unpredictable times, DGH allows businesses to scale their additional driver needs up or down, dependent on workload and demand.”

Vette says that “the fallout COVID-19 has caused to the trucking and transport industry is evident.

“We are seeing heightened pressure on crucial supply chains, longterm operational disruptions, unforeseeable job losses and employment freezes.

“In this volatile economic climate, business owners and operation managers are experiencing extensive pressure to control operating expenses and still maintain service levels.

“During such unpredictable times, hiring permanent members of staff may

no longer be a viable. Our business offers companies the option to hire skilled drivers one job at a time, offering full flexibility and an alternative way to source drivers based on workload and demand.”

The eight-year-old company claims to have “the biggest pool of skilled drivers available for hire in the country and are experts in what we do.”

Vette says that DGH comprehensively vets each driver that’s registered with it “before putting them forward for a job – conducting background checks, interviews, health and safety onboarding, drug tests and previous employment checks.

“We then invest our time and resource into finding the right driver for each job, saving businesses time and money in advertising, recruitment and driver acquisition fees.”

Once a driver is selected, DGH helps organise necessary training requirements “to get the driver signed off and working as quickly and safely as possible.”

It quotes each job on an hourly rate, which includes the cost of driving, associated jobs, the HR management of DGH drivers, assignment management within DGH, legal agreements and a level of insurance.

Says Vette: “For years other industries have been embracing different outsourcing models and reaping the rewards. DGH is an outsourcing model for trucking and transport operators – providing a platform to connect with an experienced pool of flexible additional drivers, allowing our clients to operate more leanly and efficiently.”

Central Transport general manager Robbie Hislop says, in working with DGH for two years, he’s found it “to be reliable, resourceful – providing us with the right drivers for our diverse business.” T&D Truck & Driver | 17

NEWS

New owner extends Kiwitarp coverage NORTHLAND-BASED CPL GROUP HAS RECENTLY acquired Kiwitarp – and has begun expanding the heavy transport load covers business.

CPL, based in Kaiwaka, started life as Canvas Plus in 1975 – manufacturing canvas and leather goods, and over the years the family business has grown into an international supplier of asset and weather-protection covers to the aviation, mining and transport industries.

CPL Group director of marketing and business development Brentley Stewart says that until the purchase “a good portion” of Kiwitarp’s systems “were manufactured offshore due to the product’s technical aspect.

“CPL Group has established a good foundation in canvas manufacturing over the years and it was a timely decision to acquire the company and manufacture the system here in NZ. “We can now proudly say the Kiwitarps are 100% Kiwi-made, with all componentry manufactured by ourselves and partner companies all over NZ.” Kiwitarp was founded in 2012, developing a new ground-operated retractable truck tarping system for the transport industry.

It’s a practical and much safer tarping solution to the traditional throwover covers as its tarps can be fully retracted from the ground and in less than 10 seconds.

Stewart says that CPL’s purchase of Kiwitarp combines the strengths of both companies and, more importantly, increases service locations, product

k c u r T r You

quality and sales support for customers, while also reducing lead-times.

As part of Kiwitarp’s expansion, CPL has set up mobile installation and repair teams across NZ, keeping turnaround times at a minimum and allowed the tarp systems to be installed at customers’ premises.

All Kiwitarp staff have been retained – along with the product’s quality and pricing structure.

“Kiwitarp was already covering installs NZ wide, however, we have added additional customer service, sales support and install locations in Northland and the lower North Island,” says Stewart.

In addition, CPL is now replicating the business model in Australia, with the establishment of OzTarp.

Stewart says that Kiwitarp’s future with CPL “is to continue putting our customers first and to keep innovating new Kiwi-made products to better help and serve our great customers and supply chain across the country. The more we expand, the more benefits our customers receive and the more jobs are created in the process.”

CPL’s Duraflex distribution arm offers solutions to reduce noiseinduced hearing loss on construction sites and manufacturing plants that are recognised as world-leading. Duraflex also manufactures and supplies a wide range of innovative segregation screens and transparent dividers to the food manufacturing industries throughout Australasia and is assisting with bushfire rehabilitation projects in Australia by supplying environmental culvert flume products. T&D

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NEWS

CPL Group has purchased the well-established Kiwitarp business and has already begun expansion. CPL’s Brentley Stewart (inset) says it’s a good fit for the group

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NEWS

Patchell new CEO for Roadmaster COLIN PATCHELL, A MEMBER OF A LEADING FAMILY in New Zealand’s heavy trailer manufacturing industry, is now the CEO of Roadmaster.

Patchell, who worked at the Patchell Group for 11 years – rising to the position of group general manager – moved to Roadmaster as operations general manager after a 2011 restructure.

Two years later, a Roadmaster restructure saw him change roles to sales manager.

Now, under current owners the Modern Transport Group, he’s been appointed chief executive officer, a role previously held by Ross Bell.

Patchell, who has built 20 years’ experience in the industry since graduating from Otago University with a management degree, says “it’s really just a functional name change…

“At the end of the day it’s putting on the big boy’s pants and getting stuck into it.”

He believes that, given the market situation over the last 12-months, Roadmaster has probably been doing better than it might have, but says there is “a lot of low-hanging fruit to grab hold of ” to improve its position.

It is currently ranked fourth NZ trailermaker, in terms of 2020 trailer registrations – behind leader Patchell, Fruehauf and Modern Transport stablemate, MTE. His short-term objective is to “make sure COVID doesn’t beat us in the arse.”

He explains: “We suffered a bit of hardship over the COVID issue and I think nationally the trailer manufacturing numbers are going to be depressed

Colin Patchell a wee bit.

“So our short-term goal is to get as much market share in that as possible, through a number of innovations.”

His longterm aim is to have Roadmaster recover a lot of the lost share of the transport-related manufacturing that it used to have – this “through being innovative and a little more cost-effective.

“I’m currently meeting with managers as I want this to be a company vision – but we haven’t got to that stage yet.

“Roadmaster has been around for almost 30 years now and we’ve maintained a strong desire to be the best in the market in terms of product quality, performance and returns to the stakeholders. Watch this space.”

Patchell says he appreciates the opportunity to lead Roadmaster, and the support from the Modern Transport Group and is looking forward to working with the Group to grow the company. T&D

FUSO out of US new truck market MITSUBISHI FUSO, WHICH HAS BEEN ACTIVE in North America with its light-duty trucks, is pulling out of the new truck market in the United States and Canada.

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America says once current stock held by MFTA and its dealer is sold, it will discontinue new truck sales.

The move, it says, is the result of a re-evaluation of its “business situation” in North America by parent company, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation.

The company plans to shift to a service-focused operation in the US and Canada., MFTA says that North American customers will “remain supported through an authorised Fuso service network for warranty repairs, maintenance services, and replacement parts, until 2028.”

MFTA will also continue to support the eCanter electric trucks that are in operation in the US, under lease agreements with customers – who have been testing them in last-mile delivery fleets.

Earlier this year, MFTA celebrated its 35th anniversary in the US. T&D 20 | Truck & Driver

A FUSO eCanter in New York

NEWS

The innovative what3words navigation system provides more precise information

Three little words to speed up city deliveries AN INNOVATIVE ADDRESS APP THAT DIVIDES THE world into three-metre squares has been found to improve package delivery efficiency by 15%.

The what3words system, integrated into the onboard navigation system of a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter operated by global logistics giant DPD, was put on a city delivery run in Nagold, Germany…

For comparison with a near-identical DPD Sprinter, doing the same run, using a traditional street address-based navigation system.

The test, which covered a city-wide route and involved around 50 deliveries, showed that the what3words system delivered a substantial improvement, thanks to its ability to provide more precise information….. on possible parking, for instance, and simply by detailing which building entrance to use.

The what3words system gives each 3m square in its global mapping tools a simple and unique address, comprising three dictionary words. This includes places where no regular street addresses exist, such as large industrial estates.

Chris Sheldrick, co-founder and CEO of what3words explains: “Street addresses for large sites like factories or exhibition halls rarely point to

the delivery entrance, so drivers waste time looking for the right dropoff locations.

“This is frustrating for drivers and adds up to time and fuel inefficiencies for the company, as well as a poor experience for customers who might have late or missed deliveries. “what3words’ precise addressing system helps logistics drivers who are unfamiliar with their delivery area to reduce time spent looking for exact delivery points and, with this particular test, it also gave them the exact parking spot closest to the delivery entrance as well, which is really crucial for last-mile deliveries that are completed on foot.”

The driver of the van using what3words showed an efficiency gain of around 15% - completing the deliveries over 30 minutes ahead of the van with the traditional addresses in its navigation system.

Eighty percent of its efficiency gain resulted from providing the what3words address for the optimal parking spot – reducing driving time and time spent searching for the parking spot. The remaining 20% of the gain came from having a what3words address for the precise handover point, reducing the driver’s time on foot. T&D

Fieldays Online this month FIELDAYS WILL BE HELD – ONLINE ONLY – THIS month, the digital version of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest agricultural event running via the Web for two weeks, starting July 13.

With the New Zealand Fieldays Society deciding that the real thing simply couldn’t happen this year due to the COVID-19 emergency, the virtual Fieldays is on – and CEO Peter Nation reckons that there are some positives.

“In this new format Fieldays will now be truly global, providing another level of connectivity beyond borders. We have been blown away by exhibitor responses, with inquiries coming in from across the globe, including South

Africa, Italy, Sweden, China and Ireland…

“Having a digital event opens the door to an international audience of customers, exhibitors, industry players, importers and exporters.

“We recognise that some of the real-life aspects of the event are beyond a digital experience and we are constantly finding ways in which we can bring the most loved elements of the event online.” That will include showcasing this years’ Fieldays Innovations finalists.

A wide variety of exhibitors from dairy, machinery, motor vehicles and general ag and lifestyle have opted to promote their brand, product and services on the platform. T&D Truck & Driver | 21

Gerald s o t o d Ph McLeo e v a D Story

ck

lo Shack

The MirrorCam Actros’ streamlined winglets reduce the aerodynamic drag and the visual blindspots created by standard rear vision mirrors

22 | Truck & Driver

BIG TEST

Truck & Driver | 23

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Images from the MirrorCams are shown on screens mounted on the A-pillars inside the cab, replicating standard mirrors in offering a main view and a wide-angle view. In the middle shot, the top blue line is being adjusted (using the electric controls on the door and the person standing at the back of the semi-trailer), so the system “knows” where the rear of the trailer is – and thus can track it through corners

R

ATHER THAN THE OLD “ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS,” THIS new magic Merc is the exact opposite.

Yep, Aramex contractor Gardner Transport’s Mercedes-Benz Actros 1846 LS 4x2 is – literally AND figuratively – an example of no smoke, no mirrors.

A super-clean Euro 6 engine (ie no smoke, no soot – pretty much no nothing)…..

And Merc’s futuristic MirrorCam system – with the usual rear-vision mirrors replaced by mini-cameras mounted in aerodynamic, visionfriendly winglets, their pictures put up on monitors mounted on each A-pillar.

On top of that, this new MirrorCam Merc has so many tricks up its sleeve that happy driver Matthew Lovich reckons that, while it’s maybe “not magic – it’s extremely good engineering”…..

It is also, he confirms, “as close to magic as you can get.”

The spec sheet lifts the curtain on the magic that lies within. Damon Smith – Mercedes-Benz brand manager for North Island M-B and Freightliner dealer Trucks & Trailers – says that Matthew’s boss Robb Gardner “ticked most boxes for this truck.”

First and foremost, it’s one of the first MirrorCam-equipped Mercs on the road in New Zealand.

But that’s just the first of its bag of tricks: Robb Gardner has a 2016 Merc SUV as his daily driver, but happily reckons that his new Actros has far more high-tech stuff up its sleeve than the wagon.

There’s Active Brake Assist 5 – a radar and camera-based autonomous emergency braking system that can now automatically carry out full emergency braking (to a standstill) to avoid vehicles and pedestrians alike.

The truck’s adaptive cruise control system includes Proximity Control Assist that autonomously manages the gap to the vehicle ahead… right down to a stop and a restart. It’s also capable of recognising and autonomously complying with traffic signs, will alert the driver if the

truck drifts out of its lane without the indicator on, if there’s anything in the lane that the truck’s moving into…or if he or she is beginning to drive in a fatigue-affected manner.

“I did go overboard,” Robb sums up: “Pretty much the only thing I probably didn’t put on it was the tyre (pressure) monitoring. It wouldn’t go through to the trailer as well, so the cost wasn’t worth it.”

And actually, there was also the option of Predictive Powertrain Control (PPC), which uses what Mercedes-Benz terms “anticipation technology” – making the most of topographic 3D GPS data (which now includes data for many NZ roads) to “see” the road ahead and control the engine and automated transmission accordingly, to optimise fuel economy.

Thus, with PPC there should be no more of those AMT miscues – such as downshifts just before a summit, or shifting up a gear when the truck’s about start up the steepest pinch of a hill. It also flicks into neutral, so the truck can coast whenever possible.

The biggie (certainly the most exciting) is the MirrorCam technology, which Robb definitely wanted in his new truck: “I thought if that’s what’s available I might as well have it.”

He doesn’t know exactly how much extra it cost (and Trucks & Trailers says it’s complicated, because it depends on what else is specced in the safety suite), but does know that “it’s comparable to conventional mirror assembly to replace them. They actually fold, both ways, before they break and it’s only got a small camera inside.

That was one of their (Merc’s) concerns. They didn’t want that to be a feature where everyone says ‘it’s too expensive to replace them.’ ” And he is pretty convinced about their benefits: “They reckon they save 1.5% on fuel. They probably do – but I wouldn’t notice that with what we cart.”

Also, he suggests, they produce “less wind noise maybe.” And, he adds: “It certainly takes the blind spot out. You’re gonna get a little loss of view on the A-pillar behind the screen, but not much. The clarity Truck & Driver | 25

26 | Truck & Driver

Clockwise, from far left: Owner Robb Gardner (left) with relief driver Dave Still (middle) and fulltimer Matthew Lovich....We meet up with the MirrorCam Merc in the pre-dawn dark in Auckland.... The second digital info screen, in the centre of the dash, brings up a range of menus, including interior and exterior lighting, climate air and stereo controls....sculpted aerodynamic side skirts add to the 4x2’s slick looks....the illuminated M-B star badge is a nice touch.....the Actros runs down the Brynderwyn Hills. Robb Gardner reckons the 455hp 4x2 is well-suited to the run. Loads are light, but there are plenty of hills to warrant the power on tap

is better – night and day – and they move to get the back of the trailer in…and they don’t seem to get dirty either.”

Like Robb, many other Actros buyers are speccing their new trucks with the MirrorCam option, according to Damon Smith: Around 75% of the new Actros trucks he’s selling right now are fitted with the technology.

Mercedes-Benz says that MirrorCam brings safety and fuel economy advantages. Removing the traditional side mirrors and replacing them with the small wings with their integral cameras brings “a substantial aerodynamic advantage” and helps save fuel.

Says Merc: “There is also a dramatic improvement in visibility. This comes, firstly, from the removal of the traditional mirror and its housing from the driver’s view. This improvement is especially evident at intersections. The camera is also able to deliver improved rear vision at night and also in the rain.”

The 15-inch screens on the A-pillars are close to the position of your standard mirrors.

The MirrorCam wings don’t protrude out as far as traditional mirrors and are higher up on the cab, making them less prone to impact. And if they do get hit, they can flex in order to limit damage. If that still doesn’t prevent one getting damaged, the replacement cost is “no more than replacing a traditional side mirror.”

As for the other part of the no smoke, no mirrors magic of this Merc, this 1846 LS 4x2 Actros 5 tractor unit is one of a growing number of trucks on NZ roads that meet the stringent Euro 6 exhaust emissions standard – way ahead of its introduction here. In this case the superclean powerplant is a 335 kilowatt/455 horsepower OM470, with 2200 Newton metres/1622 pound foot of torque.

Finally the new Actros package also includes a futuristic multimedia dashboard that includes two large, customisable tablet screens that present information “in super-crisp detail, giving the driver more control and information in a clear and stylish manner.”

So it’s quite appropriate that, even standing still at the Aramex Auckland depot as its three-axle Domett semi-trailer is being loaded, the Actros presents itself as a star – the illuminated Merc three-pointed star shining out like a beacon in the pre-dawn darkness.

Robb’s Actros carts general freight under contract for Aramex (formerly Fastway Couriers), between Whangarei and Auckland – a contract that Gardner Transport has held since 1996. He did the run himself initially but now has a management job in the Bay of Plenty, so has the truck being run by Matthew and another fulltime driver, plus relief driver Dave Still…who also handles truck maintenance and cleaning.

Robb reckons it’s an easy run – and is easily done within logbook hours: “The cops leave us alone – they know we have two drivers, they know we don’t drive heavy. We’ll be struggling to push 30 tonnes allTruck & Driver | 27

up. They’ll stop us maybe once a year.”

Robb concedes he hasn’t yet had the chance to try out the Actros’ technology, but reckons it’s not that difficult to get to grips with: “I haven’t really driven it that much – a bit around Auckland and maybe half a run. But I’m used to things like active cruise control.

“The plan was to send their driver trainer up for these guys, but with this (COVID-19) lockdown it hasn’t happened yet. I mean, we’re still not using anywhere near what we should be using in it (in terms of its high-tech features) – there’s just so much. Dave (the relief driver) struggles a bit with it, but he’s coping. He leaves a lot of the stuff alone.”

Up until February this year, the Gardner Transport team was running a Renault Lander cabover, which Robb rated “a pretty nice truck.”

Since replacing it with the 455hp Actros, “people ask: ‘Do you need all this horsepower?’ And I say ‘well no, you don’t – but it is pretty good on fuel, it’s easy on the truck.’

“I mean, I had a little 280 four-wheeler MAN and they said ‘that’s too much power in a four-wheeler.’

“But you’ve got a couple of hills and you’ve got to drive this road – it’s not like Auckland to Hamilton or Auckland to Taupo (especially now, with the Huntly bypass). It makes it easy if you’re not chasing the hills.”

Also, there’s its economy and its environmental credentials: “It’s using half the AdBlue (compared to the Renault) and the Euro 6 runs so clean. There’s no soot in the exhaust.

“It’s frustrating: The Government doesn’t give you any incentive or any payback for putting on a Euro 6. I mean, it’s pretty much one step away from electric.”

Other considerations that swayed Robb’s speccing of the Actros included the cab size (he chose the 2.3 metre wide StreamSpace L cab

With a Bigfoot onboard With a you’ll Bigfoot monster any onboard you’ll surface

over 2.5m wide options) and driver comfort: “The reason I got that cab and not the bigger one is that it’s one step lower. If I was towing a B-train I would have gone for a bigger cab but I think it’s the ideal size for what we’re doing. You don’t need that extra step and wider cab.

“I reckon you want the best seats you can get. The roads ain’t getting any smoother. I went for the TrendLine interior.”

Another thing he was very particular about is the rubber his unit runs on – bigger than the standard spec for the tractor unit (with Michelin X Multi 385/ 65R 22.5s on the steer axle and 295/80R 22.5s on the driver): “I always ran 295s, for the last six years. Softer ride and better fuel. We got 225,000km out of the last set of drive tyres on the Renault. And I used to run Chinese tyres for scuffing on the trailer but now, with Michelins, I get about 900,000kms on the centre axle. I don’t run any retreads.”

He ticked so many boxes on the spec sheet “to look after the drivers.

And why not! I mean, you can do this run with a Nissan or a Mitsi….. but would you retain your drivers? I mean, I don’t have a big turnover of drivers.”

Robb reckons that he made it so good, “once I drove it I thought ‘Jesus! I should be driving this myself.’ It’s the best truck I’ve ever owned.”

“The Renault was a good truck – but this is better. It’s also about $80,000 more expensive though, so you’re not really comparing apples with apples. At the end of the day….this is overkill. It’s over-specced as far as inside and that.”

This run, Robb reckons, is easy – a real “retirement run. That’s why I’ve kept it – I can do this when I can’t do anything else…. And with this truck, it drives itself.”

When he reflects on that and says that, actually, “we’re pretty settled

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The brain behind the Bigfoot system is the Bigfoot OptiTraction control module. and makes monitoring and adjusting tyre pressures simple. The display also provides visual and audible alarms.

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The Merc’s MirrorCam is backed-up by a state-of-the art digital dash, with two multi-media displays. Driver comfort is second to none

Truck & Driver | 29

Left: The 4x2 Actros has Merc’s 10.7-litre OM470 inline six

Right, top: Good grabhandles both sides of the door opening combine with good steps to make it easy getting in and out Right, bottom: The side skirts include built-in steps. Fuel tank holds 390 litres where we are,” driver Matthew looks relieved.

Allied Publishing director Hayden Woolston gets behind the wheel for the drive out of Auckland. On a dark and wet morning, conditions are perfect for checking out the MirrorCam tech.

Read his full thoughts on the technology on Page 36. Suffice to say for now that he’s impressed: The rear view, he says, is “crisp and clear.

You can just see every car – it’s not just one big haze coming at you, like with mirrors.

“The lines on the mirror extend outwards when it picks up vehicles.

And you don’t have to crane your head when going around sharp lefthand corners to see the rear of the trailer and make sure you’ve gone wide enough.

“I thought I’d be looking out my window for the mirror, but I’m not. The screens are right there in front of me. No blind spots, so no excuses.”

Matthew Lovich, who’s been driving for Robb for about a year, gets back behind the wheel at Wellsford.

He’s been driving loggers, tippers and general freight trucks – as well as a tourist coach running up and down 90 Mile Beach in Northland – for around six years.

But it’s the Kawakawa-based Matthew’s experience as a volunteer firefighter that mostly informs his feelings about the Actros and its impressive suite of safety features.

“All these little features that come into play make the job easier as well as safer....if something like this will help a distracted or tired truck driver from crashing into someone then that’s a good thing.

“Because I’ve scraped too many people off the roads, I think the more things in place (safety-wise) the better.

“It’s not making heaps of noises (beeps) at me all the time...it’s just the small, little things that make it that much safer for everybody.”

We take off with the 12-speed Mercedes PowerShift 3 automated manual transmission in third gear and it shifts up effortlessly, changing gears at 1400rpm.

Matthew’s working days start in Whangarei, with the Merc’s first of two runs for the day down to Auckland. After unloading and reloading freight, he heads north again. Before signing-off for the day he unloads the unit and reloads whatever freight’s ready to go for the later run.

The Actros tares at 6850kg and the trailer weighs-in at 5940kg.

Matthew reckons we’re only at around 27 tonnes all-up – way short of the unit’s 44t permitted gross combination weight.

After the Renault, Matthew rates the Merc a big step up: “Oh yeah –

just how much interesting electronic stuff there is to play with. All the different systems that are built into the touchpad screens – and how you can control everything from that system. It just makes life so much easier, not having to hunt for anything in the dark. It’s all right there.

And the wireless phone charger’s a plus.”

He’s pretty happy with the virtual mirrors: “They’re quite good,” he offers initially. Then he smiles and adds: “Okay….very good.

“They didn’t take long to get used to. I play a lot of computer games in my spare time, so I’m used to them. I was actually saying to some of the guys in the fire brigade that we should get them because it’d be much easier in terms of backing the truck into the station.”

Now he has more praise for them: “You don’t really get any water on them as such, so you’re not getting that blurred vision. And you’re not looking through a couple of different layers to see the mirror – on a rainy day like today, (normally) you’ve got the rain on the surface of the mirror, plus the layer on the window. These screens make it so much clearer.

“And you’ve always got the back of the trailer in your sight as they tilt to go with the back of the trailer. As soon as you go around a decent corner, the MirrorCam will actually adjust to keep the back of the trailer in sight.

“The screens themselves have digital markings to assist you too: There’s a blue line to indicate the rear of the trailer – something that you set up to suit each driver. Plus three yellow lines indicate 50, 80 and 100 metres to the rear, allowing for safe overtaking and lane return.

It’s quite cool how, when you’re overtaking, the lines extend out to show safe zones. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of it.”

Matthew believes that does make him a safer driver.

“And you’ve got very limited blind spots as compared to a conventional mirror. The only one drawback I’d say is that the screens do block out a little bit of visibility behind the A-pillar.”

Matthew doesn’t use everything in the Actros’ safety arsenal: “It’s got everything I need – does everything I want it to…. And more.”

It’s a statement underlined by the fact that he’s turned off the lane keeping assistance system, to silence its beeping alert: “I typically turn it off when out of the city.”

But he is a fan of the Active Brake Assist 5: “A van pulled into my lane and must have just about missed its turn, at the last minute….and slammed on the brakes.

“I had started to brake but the system locked up everything for me.

It was good, but it was a ‘clean my underwear’ moment….plus a bit of

30 | Truck & Driver

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Clockwise, from top: Robb Gardner reckons people ask why he specced a 455hp truck for courier freight, but it has to deal with some big hills – and the power helps the Actros breeze past the likes of this loaded logtruck..... The StreamSpace L cab, at 2300mm wide and with 1970mm headroom between the seats, is 200mm narrower than the two biggest cab options.... The Gardner truck has the TrendLine interior, which includes woodgrain-look elements

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TD30631

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swearing and a couple of hand gestures.”

The cab itself is definitely Mercedes-Benz premium. The layout is roomy and there’s a lot of storage space including some that stretches the width of the cab, above the windscreen.

Visibility via the windscreen and side windows is good. Combined with MirrorCam you’ve almost got 360-degree vision.

At night the cab’s ambient lighting can be set to a choice of two colours. Matthew has used the bed but only to rest, not to sleep. The cab’s also nice and quiet.

“That’s one thing I couldn’t get over when I first got this – just how quiet the cab was compared to the Renault. This thing is just silent.

You know it’s a good vehicle when you jump on your Bluetooth and have a conversation without yelling.”

He’s impressed with the seats too: “They are very comfortable – leather…and heated, with a variety of lumbar control adjustments. The steering wheel is tilt and telescopic. The screens are easy to get to – no stretch at all.

“You can change the mode of the dash….to a different version, like expert mode – where it displays just one big dial and you can adjust it to suit what you want displayed.”

Steering wise, Matthew is very relaxed at the wheel. He’s not craning his neck to look at the mirrors to see the back of the trailer. There are no big blind spots and the tech is easy to navigate around.

Admittedly, he’s of a generation that’s comfortable with technology, but he’s also convinced that the older generation will find it easy to get along with.

“Our relief driver Dave is a little bit older – and he’s picked it up very well. You only use what you need to use and then introduce things as you go. In saying that, when I first got this, I spent a lot of my time when parked, going through the menus – seeing what’s there, playing with the lights, figuring all that out.”

With a truck like this, on a run like this, Matthew seems rather content: “Oh yeah – too easy. Leave home at midnight, get home before lunchtime. It benefits the family, and the firefighting stuff as well.”

The COVID-19 Level 4 lockdown meant that Matthew had “an extended holiday.” He was actually booked to go on a real holiday at the time – to Fiji.

When he resumed work during the last week of Level 4, the freight demand between Auckland and Whangarei took off – prompting the company to put the Actros onto three runs a day.

The toughest part of the run north is up the Brynderwyn Hills, which the Actros starts into in ninth gear, at 48 km/h, with the revs sitting at 1200, holding it at that as we get onto the slow vehicle bay.

Matthew commentates our progress: “Absolutely no drama at all and there’s a lot more power if I need it – I’m only at about a quarter in on the throttle. I’m only feathering it.

“The power is good enough for what we do. The loads are always quite light. You wouldn’t want to be towing a fully-loaded B-Train with this, but for what we do, this is perfect.”

You have to watch your speed, he says, “because the thing is so smooth… It’s a fantastic machine. It’s so effortless.”

Truck & Driver | 33

The Merc’s Domett semi-trailer is unloaded at the Aramex depot in Whangarei. The freight just happens to include a live turtle!

Eventually the PowerShift drops a gear – the downshift so smooth and quick it’s barely noticeable. We settle at 36km/h and 1400rpm.

That’s as low as it gets – the revs rising to 1900 near the crest of the hill, prompting the PowerShift to upshift two gears….only to correct that, and go back to 10th, at 1500rpm. It is an extra shift than what was actually needed….but it’s seamless, with no apparent loss of forward motion.

Starting down the hill, Matthew has the three-stage retarder on Stage 2, touching the brake pedal lightly to keep his distance from the slower moving traffic ahead. We’re doing 60k, in ninth, at 1600rpm.

Approaching the scenic lookout, he accelerates slightly and the PowerShift goes up to 12th. A slower vehicle in front then forces us briefly down to 10th.

The PowerShift clearly loves keeping the revs as low as possible and it almost imperceptibly shifts up again to top.

Clear of the hill, Matthew engages the adaptive cruise, set to 88km/h, and relaxes. A green light appears on the dash display to let him know that the radar has locked onto the car in front and mimics its speed.

“The adaptive cruise control is great – really works well. But I don’t typically use it around the hills – just on the flat and motorways. I prefer to have control of the truck in the bends.

“If I know I’m coming up to a real tight corner, I’ll turn it off and manually take myself around the corner and as soon as I’m sweet again I’ll turn it back on. The last thing I want is to have it set on 80km/h, go hot into a corner and have someone wipe out on the other side of the corner.

“I’d rather slow down myself. At the moment anyway, while I’m still getting used to it – and especially with freight on board. You never know what you’ve got on there. We could be carrying anything and everything...”

Even though Matthew obviously knows the route from Penrose to Whangarei, he still likes to have the navigation up on the screen. He’s still coming to grips with the live traffic feature – so far feeling that it’s more relevant to city traffic. There is even an option on the system to add or remove speed cameras to the display.

On the flat, we’re in 12th gear, at 84km/h and 1100 rpm. Adaptive cruise control is set at 88km/h but a slower vehicle in front is dictating our speed.

34 | Truck & Driver

Matthew’s not bothered: “No need to go fast. It’s only going to make a 10-minute difference – if that.”

There is plenty of roadworks going on along the route and he confirms that the stopping and starting is “a pain in the arse.

“Over the last week of lockdown there was none but now….. they’re back with a vengeance. Hopefully when it’s done life will be a bit easier – not that it needs to be. It’s already easy enough as it is. It will be nice not to go through some of the little pocky areas, like the Puhoi Valley and the Warkworth traffic lights.”

The two-leaf spring front suspension (7.5t rated) and air suspension on the drive axle really absorbs the uneven road surface: “It’s fantastic. I don’t really pay too much attention to the suspension as such but it’s a comfortable ride, even through the roadworks.”

As we look out over the ocean to Bream Head, the MirrorCam Actros cruises along and Matthew confirms: “I’ve found that driving this, bad days are few and far between, compared to the Renault.

The Renault was okay to drive – it was a nice truck. But it was having too many issues towards the end.

“But this is something else. I think I drove this when it only had 400kms on the clock. It’s now up near 40,000kms. You definitely get used to this one: I wouldn’t want to go back to anything else.”

In Whangarei, as we turn into the back entrance of the Aramex depot in Herekino Street, the MirrorCam really comes to the fore.

It’s a tight turn off the street into an alley lined by cars, to access the depot’s yard. It definitely requires extra vigilance….aided by the reference lines on the MirrorCam monitors, plus its ability to move the camera view with the turn.

Despite the challenges, it allows Matthew to get the unit in with relative ease: “I don’t think I’d get in here with normal mirrors to be honest with you. Not without having to get out and check.”

Okay, everything we’ve seen today indicates that with this MirrorCam Actros, Merc has conjured up something pretty magical.

But there is still another trick to be revealed: During the unloading, from out of the trailer comes a bizarre piece of freight – a cage containing a live turtle!

It’s as near as dammit to a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. T&D

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Trevor Test

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I

T’S THE FIRST DAY OF LEVEL 2 OF THE COVID-19 emergency and it’s time to break loose with our first post-lockdown Giti Big Test….and the team is raring to go.

It works for me as the truck is in Whangarei and I’ve spent Level 4 and Level 3 in our Bay of Islands home.

Here’s son Hayden’s report on his experience with this new, high-tech Mercedes-Benz – starting at the Aramex yard in Penrose.

It’s 5.45am and still dark – so a good time to test these mirrors…. Sorry, I mean cameras and screens.

When we’re loading there’s not much lighting in the yard and it’s very dark walking around the truck. But inside the cab, the monitor screens show more light than any mirror could.

I get myself set and, like any new driver with the MirrorCam system, you need to set a flashing blue horizontal line on the righthand screen, to where the rear of the trailer is on the screen.

Once set, using controls on the door that are just like electric mirror controls, the system displays a blue line showing where the back of your combination is at all times.

Once out on the motorway, as we head north through the city and over the Harbour Bridge, the headlights from following cars are very clear in the monitors, with no glare.

I can easily identify each car across two

36 | Truck & Driver

Hayden Woolston other lanes of traffic – and the cars coming up my right-hand side are in the camera view the whole time. So, no blind spots.

I don’t get to try the left-side one in the same way, as no-one comes past on the inside.

I’m surprised at how quickly I adjust to not looking for a normal mirror. The screens are not hard to miss at all.

Once over the bridge I put the truck in cruise control….after realising that it won’t activate until I disengage the engine brakes.

A quick flick up on the right-hand steering column stalk and brakes are off and cruise is on.

It’s time to sit back and enjoy the ride – not that I wasn’t already. With the adaptive cruise and comfy double armrests on the seat, driver comfort is amazing.

I run on cruise control all the way to the Northern Gateway tunnel. From here there are patches of roadworks, rough roads and some hills.

The ride is smooth, the gearbox and engine work seamlessly together – the combination showing its abilities as we pass another truck heading up Windy Ridge.

Before I know it we’re in Wellsford and I grudgingly give Matt his truck back.

This mirrorless technology is something I’ve seen Mercedes marketing internationally for some time now and it’s good to finally experience it and put some concerns I had

It quickly becomes quite natural to use MirrorCam for reversing

about it to bed. I can’t fault it to be honest.

Trevor here again: I meet up with the test truck after it’s been unloaded and is ready for me to give it the once-over. It’s no big deal that it’s empty, as the thing of most interest to me is the MirrorCam system and the other high-tech safety features on this truck.

I can’t remember the last time we tested a 4x2. Talking to owner Robb Gardner there are some very good reasons for the singledrive setup and it works very well for him in this application – running courier freight between Whangarei and Auckland.

Cab entry is by way of three very good steps – some of the best in the industry, with good, wide, deep and evenly-spaced treads and grabhandles both front and back of the door.

Once inside it’s easy to get comfortable, with plenty of seat and steering adjustment to suit any size of driver. The seat itself is great, with excellent lumbar support and plenty of length in the seat base.

Visibility is excellent, with a good deep and wide screen, with nothing to block the view outfront and with the camera screens on the A-pillars, there are no mirror blindspots out the side at intersections.

The main displays on the dash are two digital screens – one immediately in front of the driver, with the usual speedo and tachometer, plus major engine function

• SPECIFICATIONS •

Mercedes-Benz Actros 5 1846LS MirrorCam 4x2 Engine: Mercedes-Benz OM470 Euro 6 inline-six Capacity: 10.7 litres Maximum power: 335kW (455hp) @ 1600rpm Maximum torque: 2200Nm (1623 lb ft) @ 1100rpm Fuel capacity: 390 litres Transmission: Mercedes PowerShift 3 G 211-12 automated manual Ratios: 1st – 14.93 2nd – 11.67 gauges….

And then a centre-dash touchscreen for a wide range of features such as climate control, entertainment system and other functions.

The steering wheel itself has touchpads for both screens and on the right of the steering column is a stalk with the AMT selector and the engine brake control. On the left stalk are the indicators and headlight dip control.

As well as MirrorCam all the safety feature boxes have been ticked for this truck and it’s an impressive list, headed by Active Brake Assist 5 and Proximity Control Assist.

But MirrorCam is our main focus and so we leave the yard and head out the Port Road to do some reversing testing with the system.

The first thing I notice is that you tend to look out the window for the mirror – not surprising after over 45 years of driving trucks with external mirrors. It doesn’t take long however to get used to looking at the A-pillars and finding the “mirror” screens.

This is all new technology and it’s great that the cameras offer up both a natural view and a magnified view. Also, on the screen is an adjustable line showing the exact positioning of the rear of the trailer and three markers for the area immediately behind the trailer – 50m, 80m and 100m.

Where the traffic is a bit lighter, I put the unit through its paces with both onside and blind side backing into a side street.

It takes a couple of goes to get used to the

cameras, but once you get the positioning right, they’re great – with the magnified mirror following the rear of the trailer right throughout the whole manoeuvre.

After a few trials for both Hayden and I it’s time to head out onto the open road and get a feel for its driveability.

Highway driving is extremely comfortable, with no bumping at all coming up through the cab and seat and no external noise. With the windows up it’s almost silent in the cab.

The OM470 engine, with its 455hp and 2200Nm of torque, moves the truck along easily and Hayden assures me that even loaded it’s a lively engine.

The Mercedes PowerShift 3 AMT is so smooth you don’t even notice the gearshifts, other than the rev changes.

Robb has set the truck up on Michelin 385/65 R22.5 front tyres and 295/80 R22.5 rear tyres – having recorded some outstanding tyre life figures with this setup on his previous trucks. I’m not sure how much they effect the ride, but it certainly feels stable and although the roads are a bit wet I don’t feel any traction issues with the larger tyre size.

As I’ve said before, Mercedes trucks give the impression of being an old man’s truck – because driving them is so effortless and comfortable, with never the need to rush anything, as the truck seems to read the road ahead so well and the safety features take so much stress out of the job. T&D

3rd – 9.02 4th – 7.06 5th – 5.63 6th – 4.40 7th – 3.39 8th – 2.65 9th – 2.05 10th – 1.60 11th – 1.28 12th – 1.00 Front axles: Mercedes, offset, rated at 7500kg/16,535 lb Rear axles: Mercedes, rated at 13,000kg/28,660 lb Auxiliary brakes: Three-stage High Performance Engine Brake Front suspension: Two-leaf parabolic springs Rear suspension: Air suspension GVW: 11,990kg GCM: 44,000kg

Truck & Driver | 37

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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Government transport policy not fit for new reality

Facilitating the success of our primary sector will be critical to New Zealand’s economic recovery

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by Nick Leggett Chief Executive Road Transport Forum NZ

UDGET 2020 SAW FINANCE MINISTER Grant Robertson deliver a swathe of Government spending and borrowing – unlike anything we have seen in this country.

Billions of dollars are being borrowed to maintain a workforce teetering on the edge of unemployment, support industries like tourism that have been decimated by COVID19 and boost critical public services like health.

Much of it is necessary….and yet the predictions from economists are that we will still be left with one of the deepest recessions in our history.

Nobody was surprised by the Budget and probably because of that (as well as the public acceptance of the Government’s

lockdown decisions), it didn’t receive the public scrutiny that such borrowing deserves.

New Zealand taxpayers will be saddled with this debt and face having to pay it back for generations to come. That alone should mean that Government decisions that dedicate billions of dollars to financial black holes like regional rail deserve the stiffest possible examination.

In the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown the Road Transport Forum made our own examination to the draft 2021 Government Policy Statement on Transport. To be fair, this was a document written pre-COVID-19, however, we have no option but to consider it in the context of a far weaker economic

Continued on page 40 Truck & Driver | 39

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

SUPPORT FOR LAW CHANGE TO DEAL TO UNFAIR COMMERCIAL PRACTICES Government transport policy not fit for new reality Continued from page 39 environment and the simple fact is that it doesn’t stack up.

Again, vast portions of the National Land Transport Fund, collected from road users via excise taxes and road user charges, will be pillaged to prop up rail, cycling and walking. Within the GPS is a very obvious and disappointing pro-rail, anti-road bias that frames trucks as dangerous and environmentally unfriendly.

The agenda when it comes to the movement of freight is no surprise.

It is based around the much-publicised policy of the three governing parties that seek to artificially support inefficient and uneconomic rail freight. This would be bad enough during good times, but in the wake of COVID-19 it is borderline irresponsible.

The commercial road transport industry is the good oil that lubricates our economy; an economy shorn of international tourism.

For the foreseeable future we will lean heavily on our primary industry and getting products to international markets as efficiently as possible.

This requires timely, adaptable and responsive domestic transport – and there is only one freight mode that can do that, and that is road freight.

To have the 2021 GPS institute public policy that restricts the efficiency of road freight in order to boost other modes just doesn’t make sense and will only serve to slow down our economic recovery.

In some good news for operators I note that the GPS recommends no RUC or fuel excise duty increases for the next three years. I was, however, disappointed that the Government decided against deferring 40 | Truck & Driver

or cancelling the RUC increases set for July 1.

I wrote to Transport Minister Phil Twyford just as the lockdown began, advocating for RUC relief as operators were facing a very uncertain future and a major drop in freight demand.

Unfortunately, the request was declined, with the Minister reasoning that the funding was necessary to deliver the Government’s transport priorities, many of which, as I have discussed, are not in the broader interests of road freight.

Finally, I just want to voice my concerns over the problems that have beset the Transmission Gully project north of Wellington. With the project due to be completed in November, a five-week delay in work due to the Level 4 lockdown has mysteriously morphed into major staffing issues, possible technical problems and a possible delay of more than a year in its opening.

This is pretty awful news, not only for those who live, work and transport freight around the Wellington region, but also for the Government’s ability to manage future large-scale roading projects.

If we are to build the infrastructure necessary to support future economic growth, road users and taxpayers need to have confidence that government, through the use of public-private partnerships or by other means, can deliver that on-time and to budget.

Let’s hope a swift resolution can be found to Transmission Gully’s problems and it can begin to contribute to the economic activity of the Wellington region sooner rather than later. T&D

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

SMEs, including transport companies, require greater legislative protection against unfair commercial practices

T

HE ROAD TRANSPORT FORUM HAS FOR A number of years led the charge in pushing the Government to deal with unfair commercial practices – particularly unilateral deferred payments – that have had an adverse effect on the ability of SMEs, including trucking companies, to do business.

Late last year the Government introduced legislation to deal with the issue, which RTF recently discussed in an appearance before a Parliamentary select committee.

“Ever since this Government took office, we have been in their ear to do something to protect small businesses from unfair commercial practices and specifically unilateral deferred payment terms (UDP),” says RTF’s Nick Leggett.

The use of UDP by large customers, sometimes for as long as 90 days after invoicing, can make it very difficult for transport operators in various parts of New Zealand to operate.

“The issue hit the headlines in our industry a few years ago and, while public pressure resolved some instances of UDP, it is important that SMEs receive legislative protection to prevent the practice from re-establishing itself,” says Leggett.

Nearly half of businesses surveyed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in 2018 indicated that, in the previous year, they had been offered what they considered to be unfair contract terms, or otherwise treated in a way they considered to be unfair.

“Without a doubt, unfair commercial practices are a significant issue and in the uncertain business environment that has been left behind

by COVID-19, it is even more important that business-to-business contracts are fair to both sides,” says Leggett.

RTF’s submission is focused on a number of key recommendations to further strengthen the Bill and increase protections for small businesses.

“Firstly, we want to see the annual value threshold of contracts the legislation applies to increase from $250,000 to $500,000,” says Leggett.

“We believe $250,000 is just too low, will exclude too many transport businesses, who despite being small businesses themselves,

take on large contracts.

“We are also disappointed that the draft legislation retains the Commerce Commission as having the exclusive right to seek a court declaration that a contract term is unfair. The effect of this is that any legal process to determine an unfair contract term would be long, slow and at the sole discretion of the Commission.”

Right from the start RTF advocated that this power be extended so that any party could have the opportunity to establish unfair contract terms in court. This would provide far greater protection to SMEs and would mean that large companies know that overbearing contract terms are susceptible to challenge.

RTF has also submitted that the Bill should apply to all existing contracts, not just if and when they are varied. Many SMEs are already on longterm contracts subject to UDP and other unfair contract terms and under the legislation as drafted, would remain unprotected. RTF does not consider that to be fair.

Finally, RTF has reservations about the protections to SMEs from the use of ‘unconscionable conduct’ provisions in the Bill. We consider that the definition of ‘unconscionable behaviour’ or ‘unconscionability’ is so poorly defined that it will be unusable for SMEs without the significant legal resources that would take to pursue it.

This will prevent small businesses from asserting that a contract term is prohibited and will have a significant impact on the intent of the legislation to protect SMEs. “Even MBIE officials voiced preference for the legislation to prohibit ‘oppressive conduct’ rather than ‘unconscionable conduct,’ says Leggett.

“Oppressive conduct already exists in NZ case law and would provide SMEs with far greater certainty when considering a contract term.

“It is our hope that the select committee will look favourably upon our submission. We believe the legislation has the right intention and with the tweaks we suggest could become an effective tool to protect SMEs from unfair commercial practices used by large commercial customers.” T&D

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Truck & Driver | 41

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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

The lack of a proven roadside testing regime for drug impairment is a major concern for RTF

Cannabis referendum a risk for industry L OST IN THE NOISE SURROUNDING THE COVID-19 pandemic, the response to it, and the upcoming election, is the fact that on September 19 voters will also be faced with two extremely important referendums.

The vote on voluntary euthanasia is not something that the Road Transport Forum has a position on. However, the other decision – on the legalisation of recreational cannabis use – most definitely is of concern to RTF. “There are two aspects to the referendum that should worry us all,” says RTF’s Nick Leggett.

“The first is the fact that New Zealand already has a high level of drug use. We know that cannabis and other illegal substances are widespread, and despite being underground, are relatively easy to get hold of.

“By further liberalising drug law, we risk having cannabis use accepted as a normal part of life and the consequences swept under the carpet.

“I am no wowser, and am not advocating the prohibition of alcohol,” says Leggett. “But we do need to acknowledge the considerable harm drink-driving causes on our roads.

“Legalising something does not magically make the harm go away, and a recent study by the AA revealed that more road deaths involved drivers with drugs in their system than were over the legal alcohol

limit. That, in the context of this referendum, is extremely concerning.”

While the Government is looking into roadside saliva-based drug testing, there is still no proven method to effectively test for drug impairment among drivers.

Says Leggett: “I would have thought a responsible government would want to establish a proven roadside testing regime before further legalising drug use.”

The second issue for RTF is around the health and safety implications of cannabis liberalisation: “We know that impairment is a significant contributor to workplace accidents and is, therefore, a major health and safety concern. The problem is that there is no practical way for employers to test drug impairment.

“As we now have some of the strictest health and safety laws in the world, responsibility and liability for having drug-impaired workers falls squarely on business owners and boards. The consequences of the referendum result on that should make all of us nervous.

“So, while it is easy to focus on the economic consequences of COVID-19 and how we can shepherd our businesses through what is a very difficult period, we must also consider the possible implications of this referendum,” says Leggett.

“Legalising recreational cannabis will have social consequences for all NZers, yet for a safety-sensitive, compliance-heavy industry like ours, it could make doing business significantly more dangerous.”

Truck & Driver | 43

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

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

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

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

The safety implications of cannabis liberalisation are potentially serious for the road transport industry

HOW WILL THE REFERENDUM ON CANNABIS WORK? The cannabis referendum wording has recently been confirmed as: • Do you suppor t the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill?

• Yes, I support the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill • No, I do not support the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill As stated at referendums.govt.nz, the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill sets out a way for the Government to control and regulate cannabis and covers how people can produce, supply, or consume cannabis. It would allow a person aged 20 years or over to: • buy up to 14 grams of dried cannabis (or its equivalent) per day from licensed outlets • enter licensed premises where cannabis is sold or consumed • consume cannabis on private property or at a licensed premise • grow up to 2 plants, with a maximum of 4 plants per household • share up to 14 grams of dried cannabis (or its equivalent) with another person aged 20 or over SO, WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE REFERENDUM?

• •

If more than 50% of people vote ‘No’, recreational cannabis would remain illegal, as is the current law.

If more than 50% of people vote ‘Yes’, recreational cannabis wouldn’t be legal straight away, as the incoming Government would be required to bring a Bill to Parliament that would legalise and set the rules around cannabis use. T&D

44 | Truck & Driver

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

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

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Wally Pinfold (on the right, holding the baby Podge) bought his first truck, this four-cylinder Leyland, in the early 1920s

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IRST THERE WAS WALTER (WALLY) PINFOLD – WHO PUT in 30-odd years running the show. Then came Podge – the boss for a standout 60-plus years! For the past 12 years (or more) there’s been Steve – the third-generation Pinfold to run the family business.

Now, as this Carterton trucking company works through the first few weeks of its second century (yep, it turned 100 in May), there’s a fourth-generation family member – Ethan (AKA Podge junior) – in the wings.

Like his Dad, his Grandad and Great-Grandfather before him, the 23-year-old loves trucks….and he’d seem the perfect candidate, sometime in the future, to carry on the Pinfold family tradition.

He’s currently driving an Isuzu stock truck for Pinfolds Transport – working towards his Class 5 licence. And like Mum Karen reckons: “He’s always got a smile on his face. You see him driving down the road and all you can see is his big grin!”

Steve, now 63 and feeling a little less love for the business than he used to – all thanks to the seemingly ever-increasing rules and regulations that livestock transporters are hammered with – tempers any expectation that Ethan will carry on the Pinfold’s Transport name.

Steve and Karen both make the point that, much as he loves driving, Ethan “sees how hard it is” to run a successful livestock transport operation.

“And how hard it is to make money,” adds Karen.

So there may be a potential progression plan to carry the Pinfold trucking dynasty into the future….but so far, it is just that – a possibility.

Steve and Karen, who have owned the 100-year-old company since Podge Pinfold died in 2008, at the age of 85, crack up laughing when you inquire, jokingly (yes, and provocatively), whether they bought the business to “get rich quick.”

Steve says that maybe “in the old days there was a bit of money in the industry. Like Dad….he bought farms.” And others, he adds, “bought property here and there. But as time goes by, it’s just got tougher and tougher.”

So no, says Steve – who’s only ever worked in the family business since leaving school at 18: Taking over the business was just a matter of continuing what had already been….ever since Walter Pinfold started out as a horse and cart carrier in 1920.

And continuing to do what Steve had been doing for years before his Dad died – running the business on a day to day basis.

Trucking, for him, is life: “It’s in your blood.

“And you just want to carry on the family history. And we were only so many years away from the 100 years, so we thought ‘yeah, we’ve gotta do it.’ ” Karen reckons that, before Podge died, Steve had never really thought about one day taking the company over: “He just thought his Dad was gonna be there forever!”

So there was certainly no grand plan as they took over the ninetruck operation – no dreams of returning it to its glory years, back in the 1960s and ‘70s, when the Pinfolds fleet ran to 22 or more trucks.

Being bigger and better didn’t enter into it, says Steve: “We just wanted to continue on with Pinfolds as it had been.”

And Karen chips in: “Yeah, you’ve got others around here who are young, and they’re eager, and they want to get out there….and they want to be big.

“We’re not into that. We would rather stay small, look after the drivers we’ve got…and provide a service. Service is our Number One thing: We won’t buy into any price wars or anything like that – we charge what the job is worth. We don’t go around doing cut-throat prices like some of them do….and we don’t want to be all over the country. We do lower North Island.”

Wally Pinfold’s focus was, of necessity, much more localised than that when he started out in business in May 1920: After all, he only had horse and cart rigs – courtesy of the stables and carrying business he and brother-in-law Ted Follows had just bought in Carterton.

Walter had not long returned to the family farm, about 20 kilometres out of Carterton, with two legacies of his time away fighting in World War 1: On one hand he had a new bride – Molly, Truck & Driver | 49

“...I’d run behind, carrying a big block of wood to put behind the back wheel” the Irish lass he’d met in London while he was recovering from being wounded at the Battle of the Somme….

But then he also brought back a bad leg – the result of being shot not once, but twice.

Son Podge told New Zealand Truck & Driver back in 2003 that his Dad “carried his bad leg for years. He wouldn’t take a pension – said there were a lot worse off than him.”

With their four horse and cart rigs, and operating as Follows & Pinfold, Walter and Ted “serviced the rail and did all sorts of little work around the place.”

It didn’t get off to a good start: Within a few weeks Walter had a big accident with a horse and cart, re-injuring his bad leg and putting him into hospital for six months. He walked with a limp for the rest of his life.

In the early 1920s the business bought its first truck – as Podge described it, “a Leyland with solid tyres, four-cylinder motor, carbon lights.”

Podge, who was born in 1922, remembered the Leyland well – because it added some excitement to his little-boy life, accompanying his Dad on trips across the Maungaraki Ranges to

50 | Truck & Driver

the eastern Wairarapa: “Oh we used to go way out towards the coast – 20 to 30 miles – carting things over dirt tracks. Right over the hills.

“We’d leave at probably four or five in the morning and get back at seven at night. You know – that was just one load. The truck could do maybe eight miles an hour.”

“Going out over some of the hills, when she started to get hot I’d run behind, carrying a big block of wood to put behind the back wheel.” Father and son would wait till the engine cooled down, then “he’d take off again.”

Even years later, stock pickups from over on the coast were major exercises: Because “you couldn’t afford to go out there empty,” the trucks would leave Carterton with a load of fertiliser or whatever, carrying the sheep crates in broken-down form.

Recalled Podge: “It took six hours to get out there to the coast anyway, so you’d go out there in the afternoon, have a meal at the cookhouse and stay there the night. Then you built the crates – bolt them together. Two-deckers. Oh it wouldn’t take long.”

Around 24 hours after leaving town, maybe a bit longer, they’d be back, delivering the sheep to the Waingawa freezing works.

Photos, clockwise from above left: Karen and Steve Pinfold have owned the company since 2008....Podge Pinfold, at 81, was fit, healthy AND still up for driving occasionally....the fleet in 2013. Since then the Argosy, Scania and one 530 Isuzu have been sold and a Hino 700 added, with the fleet now at seven trucks

In 1928, Ted Follows sold his share of the business to Wally, and it became W. Pinfold, General Carrier.

The business grew…but slowly: Podge recalled that when he was a little boy there were three small trucks: “Dad did a lot of local work – hay and stuff like that. And, of course, the rail – everything went by rail because of the 30-mile limit. So it was all local. We couldn’t even go to Eketahuna.

“Mum ran the phones for the business – I remember our phone number was 22 Carterton. If my father was down the river shovelling metal by hand and there were a couple of jobs come in, she’d pushbike down there to let him know.”

Surprisingly, for someone already steeped in the transport

business, Podge didn’t go to work for the family operation when he left school: He went straight into “the Power Board” rather than into a truck – simply because, he recounted, “my Mum said no. In those days, when a job came up, you took it. Everyone was after work – everyone. And I was fortunate.”

He did become a registered electrician – but only after four years in the Navy during World War 2: He’d joined-up at 19 and spent a year in England, experiencing the Blitz first-hand – leaving him convinced that “if it wasn’t for the Americans coming in, we’d never have won it.” It left him with a lifelong “soft spot” for USA. He was then posted to a Ceylon on the brink of rebellion – was there until “the war finished with the A-bomb. That blew it apart –

Truck & Driver | 51

Top: A brick kiln in Carterton provided the company with lots of work in the 1960s and ‘70s. Pipes were, of course, loaded and unloaded by hand onto the OLB Bedford!

Lower left: Steve in the ‘90s, with his ‘83 R Model Mack. Karen’s son Troy is in the background

Lower right: Karen and Steve’s son Ethan has his grandfather’s love of rugby....and his nickname, Podge much to the displeasure of some of us.”

At the end of 1945 he returned to Carterton – initially working for the power board, while finishing his electrician qualifications at night school and devoting any spare time to helping his Dad. Within a year he joined his father fulltime – starting at the same time as his brother-in-law, Doug Drury (who would go on to help manage the place for over two decades).

As Podge explained in 2003: “Everything was a challenge in those days. We made our own trays and everything. We were running mostly OLB Bedfords…and then we had a 1947 Chev. Then

we had TS3 Commers – all with petrol engines.”

In those days Pinfolds only ever had four or five trucks “at the most: We had seven dairy factories around here and it really kept us busy. I mean we shovelled coal and we shovelled gravel out of the Waiohine river. The gasworks and all the dairy companies had coal so it was a big job back then.”

His Dad, despite the lingering after-effects of his war wounds, was a hard man when it came to work: “Dad stayed in the business about 15 years after I started – even though his legs were getting pretty sore.

52 | Truck & Driver

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“Even when he was getting on he’d still go and buy a Number 8 square-mouth shovel – then he’d go and put another four inches on the front of it again! His shovel used to be that bloody long!”

In 1954, Wally had to call time on running the place fulltime and Podge bought the business, renaming it Pinfolds Transport. His Dad continued to spend a lot of time at the yard, right up till his death in 1965.

Running trucks back then was hard, physical work, Podge told NZ Truck & Driver – but tough as it was, “we all enjoyed it though.” A keen rugby player (he was a Wairarapa rep and made a 1947 North Island team), Podge would get “all the football clubs” involved, to help out during the hay season: “The blokes would want to get fit – and they’d get into the hay. And we had a lot of fun. You know, the cups of tea would come out everywhere you’d go.

“As time went on, with the dairy companies, our work got more and more involved and we started to grow – starting doing sheep.”

There was no doubleshifting of trucks in those free and easy days: “I mean we’d get home at midnight….I really shouldn’t say it but at four o’clock we’d be off again out to the coast and carting lambs all day.”

Podge stressed that he was all for better safety – but he obviously still felt that some of the things done in the name of safety hadn’t achieved anything….or had taken away some of the good along with the bad.

He explained: “We used to do all sorts of stuff.” That included hay, silage cutting and carting, coal, metal and milk – first by can, then by tanker.

Steven started working in the business in 1974 – straight out of high school and into a TK Bedford (“no power steering…. Soon

muscled-up,” he reckons with a laugh).

He’d already regularly been driving trucks for two or three years – around the yard and in farm paddocks during haymaking.

Working for the business was not something that needed to be discussed – not even something he dreamt about….it was “just…. what we did, yeah. Never considered any other possibility.”

He thinks about it for a moment, then adds: “Nah…it’s in the bloodline. So that’s how it was, yeah.”

From his childhood he has happy memories – “I always remember the haymaking. Loading brick and tile pipes (there was a kiln in Carterton and the Pinfolds trucks delivered its products all around the lower North Island)….going to the sales and giving the old man a hand all the time.”

When he started driving, the Pinfolds fleet was “18 or 20-odd trucks.” They were, he says, “doing everything: Stock…..then take the crate off, do the hay. Carting bricks and tiles and wool bales… yeah. All sorts. All (loaded and unloaded) by hand.”

As he recalls there were a lot of Bedfords at that time, Podge having gone through phases in terms of the makes he bought – the list also including Leyland, Austin, Commer, Mercedes-Benz, International and Mack – and then, almost exclusively, Isuzu.

It was, Podge said, mostly a matter of “whatever was the best deal at the time.” In the early ‘80s the fleet included six International 3070s. There were also G88 Volvos and Mack Midliners.

Podge was proud of having the family’s third generation involved in his business – be that the trucking company or a local dairy farm he bought in the 1960s as a hedge against the transport business ever turning bad.

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Podge and wife June’s oldest child, Christine, worked in the business after school and went on to get her HT licence – driving not for the company, but for the RNZAF. Later on she’d return to work on a second family farm bought by Podge. Second child, Alison, worked on the farm and then, for years, ran the admin side of Pinfolds Transport – joined in the office by youngest child Maureen.

No wonder that, in 2003, Podge reckoned that family was what it was all about: “The family’s the secret. It’s nice to have the kids working with you. I think it’s pretty unique.”

He celebrated it with a new Pinfolds Transport logo: A capital P inside a triangle, which represented the three generations of the family to have worked in the business. Steve and Karen value it still – saying it now represents Steve being the Gen 3 owner.

What the full-on family involvement made possible was for the Pinfolds to live out Podge’s foremost philosophy – that to be successful, you’ve got to provide good service.

Maureen summed it up for NZ Truck & Driver back in 2003: “Over all the years, our customers have only ever had to deal with two or three people – Dad, Steve or Alison.”

For 25 years Podge and June never had a holiday: “Someone had to be home because of the phone.”

That service even used to extend to Pinfolds drivers who were heading off into outlying rural areas of the Wairarapa on jobs, often dropping off The Dominion newspaper to loyal customers along the way!

Steve drove for years – and thoroughly enjoyed the trucking life: “A good day would be like going out to Gladstone (about 17kms southeast of Carterton) – doing a full day, then stopping at a pub and having a beer and coming home…”

“And then back out the next morning, doing it all over again: That’s what it was all about. We all did it – that was our life, you know.” They were “long hours….but the boys still used to love it.”

56 | Truck & Driver

And like going to a two-day stock sale up in Gisborne – and “I think Wairarapa had all the tucker (good grass) and the guys I went up there with, well they bought about 10 unit loads of weaner calves…”

Three company truck and trailer units “were just going up, down, up, down….it was just massive. But that’s what it was like in those days.”

His working relationship with his Dad was good, Steve reckons: “He’d just give me a job and I’d bugger off and do it all day. If I made a mistake he might get grumpy!”

Eventually, after he’d done a few years and had a spell driving in Aussie, Steve started to take on some of the duties of running the show – having a few spells as dispatcher before becoming more dispatcher than driver around 20 years ago,.

Like father, like son – he too reckons that the company’s longterm survival is largely due to “just the friendly service – yep, that’s the main thing. We may not have the cleanest gear in the countryside, but the service is the thing.”

Steve was driving fulltime when he and second wife Karen got together in the early 1990s – at a time when his regular drive was a 1983 R Model Mack, which he had “for quite a few years.

“That was my punishment truck! I couldn’t have a flash truck. It was very, very awkward – yeah.”

Karen adds: “We used to take the kids in it – they used to sleep on the floor. I don’t know how they slept – it was as noisy as hell!”

At that stage – and through until the turn of the century – Pinfolds were still doing “everything. We had a lot of tippers….we were doing hay, fertiliser, a lot of wool.” And, more than anything else, livestock, which had gradually become the mainstay of its work.

Finally, in 2002, the last non-livestock job came to an end: A beer delivery contract, which the company had held for years, finished when, as Steve recounts, “an outsider came in and took it over.”

Clockwise, from opposite page, top left: All of the Pinfolds were actively involved in the family business – either the trucking company or or its farms – back in 2003. From left to right are: Podge, wife June, Steve, Maureen, Christine and Alison....mechanic Graham (Toddy) Todd retired last year after working for 32 years for Pinfolds....the company has focused only on livestock transport for almost 20 years now....1996 model Isuzu CXZ on a pickup out on the Wairarapa coast in 2003....Wally Pinfold got back behind the reins of a horse and cart team for a Carterton parade

It was the end of an era: The company had started doing the beer deliveries way, way back – when Wally Pinfold sometimes “had a bit of difficulty getting past the last delivery, eight miles out of town!” as Podge put it.

Steve now concedes “a little bit” of regret that the company didn’t keep on doing something else as well as the livestock: “Yeah, probably I should have kept on a couple of tippers…but I mean we just focused on providing that service.

“The upside of having diversity means you have work even when one part of the business isn’t doing well.

“On the other hand, having a variety of work pulls you in different directions. The worst part about it was like we could have a busy day planned with the livestock and all of a sudden you’d get a phone call at half past six (in the morning) – and it’d be the topdresser saying ‘oh, can you get that 50 tonnes out today?’

“Like hells-bells, you know! Suddenly we’d have to cancel all our stock work, just to get the fertiliser out…and then you start doing it…and all of a sudden, ‘oh no, it’s too windy – we can’t fly….and we don’t want it.’

“And that sort of thing happened all the time. So we decided ‘nah, we’ll just stick to the stock’ – and that was it, yeah.”

Back in 2003 Podge lamented the arrival of more and more (and tougher) regulations – which meant “we had to decide what we could and couldn’t do.”

The logbook, he said, delivered “the biggest knock” to the old style of business: “I mean, we looked after our chaps – they always had a cup of tea and we always spelled them after they’d been working late. And we didn’t work on Sundays.”

Tougher certification rules also sounded the death-knell for Pinfolds’ traditional can-do/DIY engineering approach – the kind of thing that had seen a teenage Podge, still learning engineering at college, helping to build stock crates.

And later, when NZ Transport Supplies built its first 16-footer trailers, using two Bedford axles, he designed and built one of the first combination crates to fit them.

Likewise, when he wasn’t impressed with the engines in the Commer TS3s, he replaced them with Detroits. When the early Isuzu gearboxes were judged to be a weak point, Pinfolds substituted Roadrangers.

As he recalled: “Oh no, we tackled anything. If we had to build something, we just did it ourselves.” At one stage Pinfolds built “all our own trailers – all our own crates.”

It was the kind of can-do attitude that won Kiwis respect in the War, he said: “NZers were snapped up just like that – it was a matter of us being able to get a bit of Number 8 wire and fixing something…using a bit of initiative.

“We’re losing that really fast. Kids today have no idea about getting a couple of sticks and being able to build something.”

He reckoned that the company’s DIY approach was strong “probably till the ‘60s. But now we’ve got people in Wellington making the regs and they’ve never been in the industry. It’s the same as everything else too,” he said dismissively of these heavilyregulated times.

“We’re getting to the stage now where it’s just gone too far. I ‘spose a lot of people out there spoilt it – didn’t do the right thing.”

He didn’t like the Static Roll Threshold regs either – suggesting Truck & Driver | 57

Clockwise, from above: Steve and Karen are happy to have the fleet now down to seven trucks....Pinfolds has been transporting stock for some of its farmer clients for over 40 years...Isuzus (like this ‘86 CXH 380) were favoured through the 1980s and ‘90s....1986 Midliner is from the fleet’s Mack phase...1947 Chev with a load of coal

the focus needed to be elsewhere: “It’s the driver who’s got to be taught the right way to get there safely – and to take the time to get home safely. It only takes half a second to get into trouble and a fortnight to clean up after it.”

All of the new rules and regulations essentially meant, he reckoned, that “every 10 years or so the industry has virtually had to adjust itself completely. It’s been very difficult: Everything keeps on changing.”

Nevertheless, some of the Pinfold DIY philosophy still held fast in 2003 – with longtime mechanic Graham Todd continuing to run a big workshop operation. As Podge said proudly: “We can do full overhauls or anything.”

At that stage, all but one of the 12 trucks in Pinfolds colours were Isuzus – running 370-380-horsepower engines: “They’ve given us a good run and they’re proving very economical. They also provide good backup,” said Podge.

He was content with the fleet size rationalised to a dozen: “We feel it’s about our optimum – so we can handle it all the time, without adding any people.” It meant that when drivers were off 58 | Truck & Driver

sick, Steve would have to get back behind the wheel….

And very occasionally, so too would Podge: In 2003 he conceded that in terms of driving “I haven’t done much for the last 20, 30 years.” But just a year earlier, at 80, he had gone to the rescue and brought a truck home when the driver twisted his ankle getting out.

That was nothing compared to what else he was doing: Like still playing rugby! He was one of just a handful of octagenarians among the thousands of players competing in the Golden Oldies international tournaments.

And like usually spending long days at work – mostly on the two family farms: “I put in 12-hour days, no problem,” he pointed out.

When asked why, one of his kids piped up with their explanation: “Mum doesn’t want him at home!”

Says Steve now: “He’d leave home at six in the morning, he’d see what the office was doing, then he’d go up to the farm. And he wouldn’t go home till five o’clock at night!

“He was there (at the Pinfolds yard) every morning – he’d come in and pester me. And then he’d come back late in the afternoon and ask questions….if anything was broken down, what are we

Pic Tim Bird gonna fix and all sorts, yeah.”

There was no question, he reckons, about who was the boss: “Dad was always in control. He was always playing with a pencil – always sketching something. Things would be always going through his mind – figures…always thinking: Better ways of doing things – on the farm and on the trucks.

“That’s why he liked to go up to the farm – because he could drive a harrow in a paddock all day…and think. He loved it.”

How about Steve? Is he the same? “I loved what I was doing, yeah.” Hold on – he said “loved” and “was.” What about now?

“Aaaahhh…” he stalls, then cracks up laughing.

In an echo of Podge from 17 years ago, he says: “Well, the regulations and the law is getting harder and harder.”

And, Karen chips in, “we’re carting for the same price today that we were six years ago.”

In terms of stock being shifted from any one property, Steve explains, “the big numbers are gone…..same as like the big stations that used to have 10 workers, probably only got two now.

“So, instead of doing 1000 lambs a day, they’ll probably only

Pic Rod Simmonds shift 300 a day, see. So we have to go back to that farm twice or three times in that week to make the same load up. So it involves a lot more work.”

Karen: “Then you combine urban sprawl, and the planting of trees. And bees…and grapevines – all taking good land.”

On top of that, says Steve: The meatworks require loads of stock to be delivered at specific times now: “So you’ve gotta arrive at like say…11 o’clock at night, you know.”

In terms of leeway on the specified time, “they’re pretty fussy.

You might get a half-hour each side and that’s it. Because we are the holding paddocks now see.

“Makes it very hard. If that driver’s already done a half-day, you get there and you’ve gotta park up – then you’ve gotta find a load home, or drive home empty….and then what are you gonna go and do after that? You can’t go and do a day’s work because you haven’t had the hours of rest…”

Podge remained active almost till he died, 12 years ago. Says Karen: “He was feeding out to cattle on the farm, in the snow, two weeks before he died.”

Truck & Driver | 59

They say that 800 people paid their respects at his funeral. They saw his coffin – secured with baling twine, one of Podge’s favourite standbys for improvised fixup jobs – carried to the Clareville Cemetery on a small Pinfolds truck. He is survived by his wife June, who is now 93.

While taking over the business was relatively straightforward for Steve, it was a huge change for Karen, who had little knowledge of trucking. Her work experience included running a fish and chip shop, marketing and sales repping for haircare products. She “quickly had to learn how to do office work.”

Helpfully, by then she had already learnt to turn out at all hours with midnight snacks for Steve and other drivers called out on allnight jobs, or picking up or dropping off swap drivers.

Steve reckons he never had any grand plan for taking over running the business and doing it his way: “No, we just took what came along – by supplying a service… We just did what we did. I didn’t go knocking on doors, looking for outside work… Nah, we just did it on demand.”

Adds Karen: “If things got busy we bought more trucks…which, as it declined, we got rid of.” Thus they bought a Scania and a Freightliner Argosy....then sold them when the work (and the availability of drivers) dried up.

Podge’s fleet of Isuzus unfortunately included a couple of the 530hp automated manual models, says Steve ruefully: “Umm the good old 460s were perfect, then Dad bought two of those and ummm…my worst nightmare. The engines blew up and then, later on, it was the gearboxes…the automatics.”

Adds Karen: “We also bought two in the first year…and all this trouble! We had four trucks off the road at the same time – all over the North Island!

“And they couldn’t get the parts from Japan because everyone was having the same problem. We had the CEO of Isuzu in our 60 | Truck & Driver

office I don’t know how many times – and he told us we were only a midget of his business….

“We were 100% Isuzu, but because we didn’t have 200 trucks he wasn’t interested. So when the fourth or fifth motor blew, Scott from Volvo happened to be in the office. Steve ordered the first of three Volvos.

“This was in 2012. Soon as we bought a Volvo (all FH 540s), we sold an Isuzu. We’ve still got one left to go – an older model.”

The trailers on the fleet are either Fruehauf or Jackson and all but one of the crates (which is built by Total) are made by Delta.

A spinoff of the new truck buying was an update of the Pinfolds Transport livery – applied to the first two new trucks added after Steve and Karen bought the business.

Podge had, early in his involvement, introduced a patriotic red, white and blue colour scheme – the same colours as the NZ flag.

However, the red was only on the chassis....and Steve wanted to bring it to the forefront. Karen, for her part, wanted better branding: “My thing was you needed to have your brand name on the side, because if a farmer’s in the paddock, he’s not gonna run out and have a look on the front of the truck….and get run over!”

A staff contest to come up with the new look, with a prize for the winner, resulted in them taking “a bit from each. So they all got a prize,” says Karen: “We got huge feedback from it – and also the drivers felt like they were part of the business.”

It also denoted the company’s new start – albeit with a lot of old faces, Steve for one, but also including 14-year Pinfolds driver Mark McPhee….who followed his father Hugh in driving for the company.

More impressively still, the now-retired Mike (Roscoe) Rzoska, still regularly drives part-time when needed – 39 years after he started with Pinfolds.

Remarkably, there are a few customers who’ve been with the

Clockwise, from opposite page top left: Podge, at 81, was still playing Golden Oldies rugby....the Pinfolds fleet around 1950, with an Austin leading two Bedfords and the ‘47 Chev...the Pinfolds don’t care to stray outside the lower North Island....in the early ‘90s the fleet was mostly Mack....the Pinfolds’ last non-livestock work saw these curtainsiders delivering beer around the region. The contract ended in 2002

company just as long: To mark the centenary, farmers Wayne and Margaret Fleming told the Wairarapa Times-Age that Pinfolds had supplied their transport needs for 41 years: “They have carried a hell of a lot of stock for us over the years!”

Mechanic Toddy was still going strong until he retired late last year – after 32 years in the business – when Pinfolds moved from its longtime depot (and big workshop) to lease part of Scott’s Ag Contracting’s base at Parkvale, just east of Carterton, as its new home.

Karen reckons that Scott’s Ag and Pinfolds are a good fit: It’s run by “another local farming family, with the same family values as us. They run harvesters, croppers, spreaders and tippers, so our businesses complement each other and we’re able to work together servicing the needs of local farmers.

“When we’re short of drivers, they help us out – and vice versa. They’ve got a stock truck, which they’re just upgrading – so they could do some of our surplus work.”

Pinfolds also works in “with most other companies….but our main ones are Garrity Brothers in Greytown and Murdoch Transport in Pahiatua.”

Steve still drives when necessary: “The boys might be up the line and if someone rings up, wants some sheep or cows shifted, well I can just go and do it see. I might drive once or twice a week – unless someone’s sick or goes on holiday.”

He enjoys it: “Yep, it gets you out. You can catch up with clients…have a yarn. It’s all good.”

Steve says that when he started with Pinfolds at 18 (that’s 45

years ago now), “there were a lot of older guys – all local family guys. And that’s what we’ve carried on – just being a familyoriented business. Many long-serving staff have almost become family…”

Says Karen: “We made a decision two years ago that if we couldn’t get a driver to replace one who left, we’d sell two trucks.

Yep, we did – we downsized…only got seven trucks now.”

Says Steve: “Compliance is getting to be a bit of a nightmare.

A lot of drivers do get sick of it, because they’ve gotta be meat inspectors, they’ve gotta be a vet, gotta be an office person – make sure the paperwork’s all correct and signed.

“And then you’ve got to wear all your safety gear. You can’t use electric prodders here, you can’t have a dog no more. It is very hard to get drivers.”

Adds Karen: “You could get a driver who’d never done stock.

But stock is our expertise – part of what we trade on is that our drivers are knowledgeable, experienced. That stock’s worth so much money….and you get someone who can’t handle stock and they go to the works with damaged stock, that’s not worth it.”

At its current level, says Steve, the business is “manageable.”

Karen does the admin from home, while Steve has an office at the leased yard.

So, starting into its 101 st year, Pinfolds is in a good place. As Steve says emphatically: “Don’t want to get any bigger – just run a couple of trucks and serve our loyal local customers.

“Yep, we’re happy. We’ll just carry on – doing what we’re doing. And see what happens….” T&D Truck & Driver | 61

FEATURE

Story: Wayne Munro Photos: The Watchorn family

Above: Bert Watchorn’s beloved International AA 164 in a convoy of trucks (heading home from the Feilding sale) from the companies that formed Te Puke Transport in the early 1960s Below, inset: Bert at the THE Expo in 2017

Below, main picture: What started with just one truck became Watchorns Motor Museum, at Awakeri

Truck & Driver | 63

A

N ICONIC FIGURE IN NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING DURING the second half of last century, Bert Watchorn, has died.

Bert passed away in early May, during the COVID-19 emergency, at the age of 89 – after a long illness.

Remarkably, he was actively involved in trucks and trucking for seven decades and owned scores of trucks, even though his working fleet was never bigger than 25 trucks.

He started driving (illegally) at the age of 17….and was still the owner of five or six trucks (the favourites of all those that he’d owned over the years) when he died.

In the last 25 or so years of his life Bert became as well known for his passion for vintage trucks as he had been for driving trucks and operating transport companies during his long working life.

His collection of vintage and classic trucks and cars grew to around 150 vehicles, shown off proudly in the Watchorn Motor Museum in Awakeri, in the Bay of Plenty – his home for many years.

He was honoured for his contribution to the industry in 2016 when he was inducted into the NZ Road Transport Hall of Fame.

He was made a life member of the Road Transport Association of NZ Bay of Plenty branch around the same time.

Son Phil says that when Bert found out about the Hall of Fame nomination, with typical modesty he protested: “ ‘Well, why! What have I done?’ ” He was, says Phil, “completely humbled by it.”

The Stratford-born Bert moved to the Waikato at the age of eight and finished school in tiny Pukeatua at the age of 13, with a Certificate of Proficiency.

Bert’s father’s “theory for life was that you needed to work to earn a living – as he felt this was more important than education,” explains Phil.

Bert started working on the family farm at Pukeatua, milking 50 cows a day…..on his own. When the family moved to a farm at Papamoa, in the Bay of Plenty, he continued in the same role.

Maybe unsurprisingly, he tired of his heavy-duty milking chores 64 | Truck & Driver

– and at 17 was able to indulge his love of trucks: Unlicensed and under-age, he started driving an ex-US Army six-wheel-drive GMC logger for his older brother Alf, hauling logs from the Kaimai Forest down to the Tauranga sawmill.

Says Phil: “No-one checked to see if Bert had a licence, or if he was old enough – and he drove for a year or two without one.”

One thing that was very clear was that he “absolutely loved trucks.”

Bert met future wife Joyce when he was just 20 – and the adventurous couple decided to go to Australia. Bert was soon behind the wheel of an International K in Katoomba – transporting drums of petrol to western New South Wales towns and backloading 10 tons of cement.

He then drove a K5 International, with curtains and a wooden cab, carting beer and coal from Sydney to Springwood, in the Blue Mountains, where he was based.

The couple married and moved to Orange, about 250kms west of Sydney, where Bert managed a truck tyre shop for about a year.

They returned to NZ in 1952 with a year-old daughter (Cynthia) and settled in Netherton, near Paeroa – Bert getting a job with Joyce’s Uncle Gilbert (Sarjant), owner of Sarjant’s Transport.

It was no easy job: Most days he’d do two runs to Auckland, carting boner cows and cattle to Westfield freezing works with an S Bedford tractor unit and semi-trailer.

After unloading, he’d scrub out the crate at the works, then pick up a load of general freight for Paeroa. That meant hand-loading much of the freight, which typically included 44-gallon drums of fuel, bags of flour and seed and a wide range of farming supplies.

Says Phil: “Bert, being a real entrepreneur, wanted to own a transport business and in 1953 he and Joyce purchased a one-truck business, Pongakawa Transport.” The Te Puke-based company came with a 1948 Chev Loadmaster four-wheeler.

Within a few months though, there were, says Phil, “two new additions to the Watchorn family….a son named Robert…..and a new T467 Commer five-ton truck, with a Humber Super-Snipe

Above: There was no doubting what Bert’s favourite make was! The S Lines were lined up for a fleet photo at Watchorns’ 1993 40th reunion

Opposite page: Inter AB180 tractor unit was one of Bert’s favourites – one of the handful he still owned when he died

petrol engine.

“This was Bert’s No. 1 and was painted in the original Watchorns Transport red and blue livery.”

The old Chev was soon sold off, but Bert added another new truck – an ASC International, with a six-cylinder petrol engine – in 1956. Sadly, reckons Phil, the advertised seven-tonner “could barely tow a trailer.” Bert reckoned it was good for 5t at best.

Phil observes: “It seemed that each time Bert bought another truck he needed another future driver – so another addition was born into the family.” Thus, in ’56, along came the ASC….and Phillip.

A new Thames Trader “was not a very good truck either – so Bert, being very fond of the International brand, purchased his fourth truck….a petrol AA164 International.” It turned out to be “by far the best truck Bert had owned.”

Hauling a two-axle trailer, it became “a major contributor” to the company’s success. Little surprise then that, after buying a cabover ACCO-182 International, Bert bought three AA164s in a row.

All of the company’s trucks towed trailers – ranging from a 16-footer, running single tyres, to a 27ft dual-tyre unit – which were all capable of carting sheep, cattle, pigs, bobby calves, horses or goats.

All the truck decks were dual purpose, fitted with hoists and tipper bodies with liftout sides. The long trailers were only flatdecks, but later a couple of bulk tipper trailers were added to the fleet – carting fertiliser and roading metal.

While the metal was loaded under a hopper, the fert was carted from railway sidings and so had to be manually shovelled from the rail wagons to the trucks.

But that wasn’t the only challenge: The fleet increased to five or six trucks and the company became a 24/7 job for Bert and Joyce – so much so that it was a struggle keeping it all ticking over.

For Bert, a typical day saw him organising the trucks and co-ordinating jobs, driving one of the trucks, working in the

workshop and doing repairs and maintenance….and helping Joyce in doing the accounts, so they could bill the jobs and get paid.

So in 1963 or ’64, the Watchorns decided to join forces with six other local trucking businesses – making “life a lot easier for all parties” by amalgamating to form Te Puke Transport.

Bert’s role was to set up the workshop and manage the maintenance of all the trucks. In the early ‘70s the Watchorns moved into Te Puke so Bert was closer to the heart of the operation.

He still found time to contribute some special talents, as Phil says: “Bert, being a great innovator and lateral thinker, designed an air-operated telescopic drawbar for the trailers” – reducing stress on the animals during loading, unloading or trans-shipping.

He also oversaw an increase in the length and load capacity of the vehicles in the fleet – “allowing the business to operate more efficiently by moving bigger loads with less units,” says Phil Watchorn.

“This change though, meant a need for more horsepower, so Bert repowered five Commers with high-horsepower Perkins V8s. It meant that each unit could reduce trip times by half an hour over a 450km run.”

Sadly, tragedy struck the Watchorn family in 1972: Joyce was killed in a car crash near Tauranga.

Business-wise, Te Puke Transport went through both rationalisation and expansion through the 1970s – this including, in ’74, the purchase of Holden’s Transport in Edgecumbe.

It came with two trucks (an International ACCO and a TK Bedford), but more importantly it gave Te Puke Transport a strategic foothold from which it could service the central Bay of Plenty, plus the many large Government-owned farm blocks further east.

Bert moved to Edgecumbe to build the business – experiencing a new beginning in his personal life as well, as he met second wife Leslie (who had two young girls, Michelle and Toni) around the same time as he was setting up the new trucking operation….

Truck & Driver | 65

Clockwise, from top left: Bert liked the petrol-engined AA164 Inter he bought in 1962 so much he bought three more...Bert and Leslie cut the Watchorn 40th anniversary cake....Bert (left) and old mate (and fellow classic truck enthusiast) Stan Williamson at their NZ Road Transport Hall of Fame induction in 2016....Bert in his “shed” with a 1947 K7 Inter.....Bert’s first new truck, a 1952 Commer T467.....Bert was unimpressed with the power of this ASC Inter, seen here with Cynthia and Rob posing in front....a rarity in the Inter and Mitsubishidominated fleet, this 1981 Kenworth K145 is pictured in the Waioeka Gorge in ‘87

at Awakeri, just west of Whakatane.

Soon after, when Bert was offered the opportunity to buy Whakatane Shingle Products, he decided to sell his Te Puke Transport shareholding to the only other remaining business partner.

The offer was rebuffed, but Bert went ahead and bought the Whakatane business as a separate company anyway – thus became involved in running not one but two transport operations!

He bought three truck and trailer units – two International V8 ACCOs and a Mitsubishi FUSO – for the new business, which soon 66 | Truck & Driver

became Watchorns Transport 1977. It was, says Phil – who was a shareholder in the company – “the start of a new era.”

It was also the start of the distinctive yellow, green and red company colour scheme – borrowing something from each of Bert’s earlier businesses.

Two years later Watchorns Transport bought the remaining shares of Te Puke Transport, which then had a fleet of 23 truck and trailer units, operating from depots at Te Puke, Pongakawa and Awakeri.

In 1980, the last ties with Te Puke Transport were cut: The

difficulty of finding management to run the bulk spreading division prompted its sale (including the Pongakawa depot) to Wealleans, while the Te Puke-based trucks and land were sold to Dawe & Sons.

On the other hand, in Watchorns Transport’s home area, Bert saw other opportunities. The company had already built strong relationships with farmers and livestock agents in the wider area, so he bought out the remnants of Central Bay Transport, which had gone into receivership.

That was absorbed into Watchorns Transport and, as Phil says, “the work escalated substantially. The fleet grew to around 15 units very quickly.

“But yet another opportunity came around the corner.” In the hills surrounding the region were pine forests nearing maturity.

Log trucks would soon be needed.

In ’83, Watchorns bought two log units from Stan Williamson Transport and began carting logs from the Omataroa Forest, near Whakatane. Logging was eventually to become the mainstay of

the business.

Phil reckons that there was one thing Bert disliked about the business – and that was “being stuck in the office. He enjoyed working on the trucks – fixing them. He was very hands-on.

“He was a great mentor – someone who would always lead from the front. He’d never ask you to do anything he wouldn’t do or hadn’t done himself.

“But he was quite a tough taskmaster, I tell you. He expected, if there was work there, you got on and did it.”

Even if that meant Phil repainting a Central Bay Transport truck one Christmas Day – “because it had livestock to cart the next day.”

Or like the day, during the East Coast drought of the 1980s – a time when all the Watchorns’ trucks were frantically doubleshifting to keep up with farmers’ needs – when Phil got back to the depot late on a Friday afternoon, at the end of an exhausting week.

“I’d booked a little bit of time off to take my wife out to dinner.

I could hardly stand up I was that tired – but there was a load of Truck & Driver | 67

posts to be done, so he (Bert) asked me if I’d go and do it. He always asked….he never told you.

“I said ‘aw, gee! You’re a bit tough aren’t yah!’ And he said to me: ‘What’s wrong with you? Aren’t you keen?’ ” Enough said: Phil did the posts. And no, he didn’t go to dinner.

Phil reckons that for all the “many ups and downs that the transport industry has endured” over the decades Bert put in, going through a natural disaster took things to another level.

At 1.42pm on March 2, 1987, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit Edgecumbe – proving to be NZ’s most destructive quake in almost two decades. It seriously damaged about 50% of the houses in Edgecumbe, along with the milk factory, roads and railway lines. And it tore the land apart, right through the middle of the Watchorns Transport yard – severely damaging Bert and Leslie’s home.

It was lucky that there were no human casualties, considering the quake’s violence. Recalls Phil: “One guy had just come to work and he was sitting in his truck with the door open – and he got flung out of his truck!”

But what shone through was “as usual, Bert’s determination to help.” It was, Phil says proudly, “never-ending – and he offered (free of charge) the Watchorn trucks to those who required them.”

That’s along with the units called-up by Civil Defence to help its efforts.

“He lent out tarpaulins to places all around the district. Got in his vehicle and went out and about to make sure people were okay – you know, around the farms and that.”

There were fears that the quake-damaged Matahina Dam might 68 | Truck & Driver

fail and the Army evacuated people living in the potential flood path – taking them to the Watchorns Transport yard, where 50 to 100 of them were made as comfortable as possible in a storage shed for a couple of nights. The Watchorns slept in the office.

“But that’s the sort of thing he did. He did that for the community.”

He also directed a huge effort on behalf of the region’s dairy farmers, who couldn’t milk their cows because there was no electric power – so the Watchorns stock trucks worked flat-out moving cows out and carting other stock to the works.

Phil reckons that it was around 1990 that Bert began devoting a lot of time to his passion for trucks and cars.

His collection of classics started, Phil believes, with “one of his red and blue AA164 Internationals (from the original Watchorns Transport) – he started doing that one up.”

From there, “it just kind of grew. He had one or two and then he decided he wanted to put a building up. So he put a building up….and then he added to it two or three times.”

By 1993, when he clocked-up 40 years as a road transport operator, the collection had ballooned into a vintage truck and car museum at Awakeri. Coinciding with its opening, Bert was also a driving force in staging the Northern Classic Commercials Club’s first truck rally.

Around 1997, he decided to sell Watchorns Transport – by then a fleet of 25 trucks (the biggest of Bert’s business career), around 90% of them loggers. The plan was to “stand back and take some well-earned time off from the day to day pressures of road transport.”

Clockwise from top left: A 20-truck Watchorns fleet lineup in ‘93 is dominated by Internationals....1981 Mitsi FV315 outside the Watchorns yard....a youthful Bert....ready for the 40th reunion parade is a Watchorn collection lineup led by a 1959 RDF195 Inter and the AB180....Bert repowered the Te Puke Transport TS3 Commer with a Perkins V8....the Inter AA164, Bert’s No. 4, looks brand-new....Bert and his children (from left) Rob, Cynthia, Andrew and Phil, about 10 years ago

At various stages, three of Bert’s children had an involvement in the business: Phil drove and later managed the day to day operations, his older brother Rob drove for the company and Cynthia’s husband Ian Dodds was an owner/driver with Watchorns.

Bert’s youngest son, Andrew, “was the smart one,” says Phil – and got into banking and then became a commercial avocado grower.

Phil says that Bert wasn’t one to talk much about the things he was most proud of, but he did get the impression Bert was “extremely proud” when Phil became the co-owner of trailermaker Fruehauf in 2009: “He kind of didn’t tell us….but he was going around telling everyone to buy Fruehauf trailers. He was almost a salesman for us – everywhere he went.”

He only stopped driving his vintage trucks when he was about 85. Then ill health cost him that pleasure – and also forced the closure of the museum and the sale of most of his collection of vintage trucks and cars. A hurtful process.

But he built a new shed at his home in Tauranga where he was going to house his favourite trucks and cars, which he’d refused to sell. Says Phil: “He said to me he wanted me to look after

them.” And so he is.

There are three cars (two Buicks and a Packard), plus a 1960 B Series Mack and five Internationals – an R180, an R190, a Fleetstar 2010…...and a 1962 AA164: “That (the 164 Inter) was the one he drove. That was his favourite.”

The Inters and the others are the tangible legacy of Bert Watchorn. The intangibles are much greater though than a handful of loved and appreciated vehicles – a tiny part of what he’s left, proud son Phil believes.

“Bert’s love and passion for trucks and cars and the road transport industry has been iconic and an inspiration to many – both within the industry and out….over many years.”

Bert leaves wife Leslie, children Cynthia, Phil, Rob, Andrew, Michelle and Toni, nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Bert had wanted to “take his last ride” on his 164 International, Phil says, but his death in Tauranga during the COVID-19 lockdown denied that wish – limiting his funeral to a small family group…. but Phil says there are plans afoot to hold a memorial gettogether. T&D Truck & Driver | 69

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Worrick Norton has gone above and beyond for his employer and the industry

A different kind of hero Story & photos: Brian Cowan

W

HILE IT’S NATURAL TO ASSUME THAT THE CASTROL Truck Driver Hero award recognises only deeds of courage and coolness when faced with trauma on the road, that ain’t necessarily so.

The specification for the award is unequivocal, explaining that it’s “an accolade that recognises drivers who have contributed significantly to the safety of others while working, or in some other way have gone beyond the call of duty for their employer or the industry as a whole.”

Worrick Norton, this month’s award winner, fits that criteria to the letter – working systematically to enhance the efficiency of his work…..and going above and beyond in helping newcomers to the business.

One such newcomer is Gary Burrowes, who nominated Worrick for the award. A semi-retired civil servant, Gary has for the past two milk seasons also been a casual relief driver with Temuka

Transport, mostly handling the night shift in Worrick’s Volvo FH16 on a Christchurch to Hokitika run.

Gary admits he was a total greenhorn to the trucking life when he first met Worrick at a golf tournament and was encouraged by him to get his Class 5 and do some relief driving.

It was very much a matter of in at the deep end – guiding an HPMV milk tanker combination over the challenging trans-alpine route is not for the fainthearted – but Worrick threw himself into the task of bringing the newbie up to scratch.

Detailed and patient tuition, much of it in his spare time, ensured that Gary was soon flying solo – something that previously he couldn’t have seen himself doing.

What impresses him is Worrick’s professionalism and dedication to doing the most efficient job he can: “His driving is faultless, always defensive and courteous. His fuel economy readings are outstanding, his truck is immaculately presented and maintained.

Truck & Driver | 71

Right: Worrick was a great mentor to truck driving newbie Gary Burrowes Opposite page: Worrick’s eye for efficiency includes eking out the best fuel economy possible out of his Temuka Transport Volvo FH16 750

“I called Worrick and he was there in a flash to help me out” “But that’s just for starters! I have often seen him in his own time going the extra mile to organise those around him to ensure the run goes smoothly.

“Early on in the piece, it was very reassuring for me to be able to ring him, often at an ungodly hour, to ask about an array of issues to avoid making possible mistakes.

“On one occasion at 4am on Worrick’s day off a truck in front of me was transporting a house which caught fire after snagging overhead wires. The road was blocked and I needed to reverse for quite a way to make a detour. At that stage my backing skills were poor – I called Worrick and he was there in a flash to help me out.

“That was just one example of his whole approach and mindset.

He’s invaluable as a role model, not only to newbies like me, but also to his contemporaries, as his energy and enthusiasm is infectious.”

The 62-year-old Worrick himself is matter-of-fact about his attitude to work: “Hey, I’m just like anybody else – I like to finish my day’s work as early as I can, get home feeling refreshed, and relax.

“So anything I can do to make the overall process smoother and more hassle-free, that’s what I’ll aim for.”

He cites his current job, during the milk offseason – carting out of Canterbury Coal’s opencast mine near Coalgate to Fonterra’s Darfield plant: “Two other Temuka trucks are also carting out of Coalgate to Fonterra Clandeboye. I confirm they’ll be at the mine when it opens at 7am, then I arrange to arrive at 7.30. There’s no point in sitting waiting for them to be loaded, so I give myself an extra half hour at home before picking up the truck at Darfield for the first loop.”

72 | Truck & Driver

For this short offseason period the 8x4 FH16 and its five-axle trailer are fitted with alloy tipper bins. In season, the bins are replaced by tanks – 11,000-litre capacity for the truck, 17,000 for the trailer. His day starts before 3am, when he picks up the Volvo from near his home and heads to Goodman Fielder subsidiary Meadow Fresh on Blenheim Road. There he loads up (normally with milk permeate) and heads to the Westland Milk Products plant in Hokitika.

The run over, with an all-up weight typically of 54t, takes under three and a half hours. At Hokitika the tanks are unloaded and hotwashed, the truck cleaned and Worrick has his break before hitting the road again. Most days he’s back home by 1.30pm.

The Meadow Fresh Westland run has been going around seven years. When the contract started, Worrick relocated from Temuka to Christchurch, since then being essentially a solo operator, arranging maintenance and CoFs for the truck locally.

Often in the season the Westland Milk Products plant at Rolleston, south of Christchurch, will have product for the nightshift driver to take to Hokitika. On the way to the Coast in the early morning Worrick liaises with them to see if they might prefer to give him the load on his way home instead of waiting for the scheduled 4pm pickup by the nightshift.

It makes sense….but it can have a cost, he admits: “I get rapped over the knuckles several times a year for breaking the strict schedule for the pickup times in the afternoon.”

But, he reasons: “Rolleston and Meadow Fresh are only small facilities, with very little silo capacity. So if they have a silo with maybe a trailer load’s worth in it, then we’ll arrange for me to swing by on my way back to town. It takes more than an hour to

wash a silo out, so this means they can have the job done well ahead of time – instead of waiting for our nightshift driver to do the scheduled pickup after 4pm.”

As far as Worrick’s concerned it makes sense – and delivers increased efficiency – for everyone….even if it isn’t exactly to a prescribed schedule. The benefits include the fact that “our night driver can get onto his run much earlier.”

The same concern for overall efficiency is evident from Worrick’s unvarying custom at Hokitika: “While the tanks are unloading I have time to wash both truck and trailer on one side and the truck on the other. Then, while the tanks are being hot-flushed I can finish the trailer. It’s time I’d otherwise be standing around chatting, and it means the gear is also clean all the time.”

Despite being able to do the round trip in significantly less time than other drivers, he keeps the Volvo speed-limited to 89km/h.

Going harder, he reckons, would gain maybe five to ten minutes on a one-way crossing....but at the cost of poorer fuel economy.

As it is, the 750hp FH16 consistently sits at or near the top of Temuka Transport’s economy ratings abstracted from the Volvo Dynafleet monitoring app – despite regularly running one of the country’s most challenging routes.

Born and raised on a mixed sheep, cattle and cropping farm not far from Clandeboye, Worrick has driven on and off for most of his life, but for around 20 years worked in a freezing works – supplementing that in the evenings during the hay season with contract hay work for Temuka Transport. In the winter, this was extended to occasional trips north to Culverden to pick up loads of milk.

The process of moving from the meatworks as his core job, with

driving as a fill-in, was a gradual one: “Every season the question would be: ‘Do I go back to the works or stay on driving?’ But Temuka boss Rowdy Aitken would say, ‘go back for another season at the works, and we’ll call on you when we need you.’

“That changed after the dairy work started to grow explosively, prompting a rapid expansion in the size of the fleet.”

The shift to fulltime driving came around 2001. Since then, Worrick has driven “maybe a dozen” new Volvos for Temuka Transport, beginning with 480hp tractor units on runs as far afield as Takaka in Golden Bay. He’s been in the FH16 for around three years: “I was on my way back from the West Coast when I got a call from company general manager Gutsy Aitken to come down to Temuka straight away.

When I arrived at the yard the 750 was sitting there and the loader was standing by ready to transfer the tanks from my 510hp FH12 to it. Forty minutes later I drove out with a new truck and 240hp more.”

From Gutsy’s perspective, Worrick fully deserves the topline truck: “He’s one of our best drivers. He takes ownership of his role and follows it right through, almost as if it was his own business. He coached Gary very well. He’s got a good balance of experience and vehicle skills, and he’s all about loyalty.

“His route is one of the toughest challenges in the country, and he’s regularly at the top of the fleet in terms of the readouts.

Dynafleet is probably one of the most important tools we’ve picked up and it’s great to see how enthusiastically the drivers of Worrick’s generation have embraced it. There’s a real pride across the fleet now in rating well, and it works: Fuel savings alone are more than $250,000 a year.” T&D

Truck & Driver | 73

A COVID-19 Kenworth Story: Wayne Munro

With no actual in-the-metal T410 SAR trucks built, the new model was given a “virtual” launch, with computer-generated images only. This one visualises a T410 SAR as a B-double tractor unit

T

HERE’S NOT MUCH GOOD THAT’S COME OUT OF THE global COVID-19 virus pandemic….but maybe, for the lovers of traditional-looking, light tare weight Kenworths, there is one, at least.

In a bizarre spinoff of the global health emergency, PACCAR Australia took the opportunity to pull off an unexpected “virtual” launch of a new T410 SAR – slap-bang in the middle of the lockdown.

The addition of a T410 SAR has been on the cards – a logical follow-on to the launch early last year of the more aero T410

74 | Truck & Driver

and T360…and, like them, using the 2.1-metre-wide, high-quality Kenworth cab first seen in 2016 in the T610.

You’d have to think that the T410 SAR’s May announcement was ahead of expectations – not only for customers, but also for the truckmaker itself…given that the launch happened without any actual in-the-flesh (or metal) T410 SARs in existence!

Hence the only PR pictures available for the launch were straight off the drawing board. Yep…computer-generated “virtual” Kenworths.

Richard Smart, general sales manager of New Zealand Kenworth distributor Southpac Trucks, confirms it: “During the COVID-19

FEATURE

lockdown, Kenworth Australia had a lot more engineering resource to bring the project forward – quicker than we were expecting.

“It has now been released for order. We can now spec it up and build it.”

And just as quickly as it was launched, the T410 SAR has rapidly picked up buyer interest, regardless of its “virtual” launch.

That interest, of course, comes on the back of the T410’s success over the past year. As Smart points out, “the T410 was at the lighter end of the scale – with the PACCAR drivetrain.

“It’s been exceptionally well-received, it’s very well priced and it’s

also a lot lighter than we ever thought it was going to be.”

So Southpac has already got a handful of orders in the system, “for some of our favourite Kenworth customers.” The newcomers are expected to start arriving in NZ in September or October.

Based on where the T410 has proven popular, Smart expects the T410 SAR to end up in urban tipper work, container cartage, fuel distribution and metro food delivery applications.

PACCAR Australia says the T410 SAR is “yet another example of the benefits of local Australian application-engineering for Australian road transport operators.”

Truck & Driver | 75

Above: The T410 SAR shows off its more traditional styling, alongside the already-released, more aerodynamic and modern-looking T410

Opposite page: The launch during the COVID-19 lockdown was for 6x4 versions of the T410 SAR only.....but 8x4s are expected before year’s end

“Driven by a continuous innovation and product development process, influenced heavily by customer and driver feedback, Kenworth has taken the features of the T410 and applied these and more to bring the all-new T410 SAR to its customers.”

What it amounts to, PACCAR reckons, is that “the best in the business just got better.”

The new truck brings, as PACCAR Australia sales and marketing director Brad May says, a combination of “classic Kenworth styling with modern enhancements.”

It also, PACCAR reckons, delivers “the best attributes of both a cabover and conventional truck, offering excellent manoeuvrability and visibility and, like a cabover, a minimal overall length…

“With the serviceability, ease of cab access and low tare weight of a bonneted truck.”

The new model, with its set-forward front axle offering better weight distribution, has a shorter bumper-to-back-of-cab (BBC) length of 2850mm and can be rated at up to 70 tonnes GCM for a variety of heavy-duty applications.

It comes with the PACCAR MX-13 engine – in 460 horsepower or 510hp ratings – Kenworth pushing the integrated offering of the MX-13 coupled with the PACCAR 12-speed AMT first offered last year in the T410.

Brad May acknowledges that “to develop a new product that meets the needs of our customers, consultation is paramount and is the foundation of its development.”

And feedback received from customers on the integrated PACCAR combo in the T410 “has been positive.”

76 | Truck & Driver

The PACCAR 12-speed has a maximum torque rating of 1850 lb ft and a 50 tonne GCM capability. And, says PACCAR, it is “smoother and ticks all the boxes in terms of class-leading weight, durability and serviceability.”

Alternatives include the Eaton 18-speed UltraShift Plus AMT…or even an 18-speed Roadranger manual.

Says PACCAR: The UltraShift Plus option “delivers the performance and reliability needed for years of trouble-free operation and is available with a torque capacity of 1850 lb ft or 2050 lb ft, and a rating of up to 70t GCM.” The transmission controller for both AMTs has been moved away from the dash to a more user-friendly stalk controller on the right-hand side of the steering column – close to the exhaust brake controls. As well as making for easier operation, the changed location of the controller provides more space in front of the dashboard to allow easier movement around the cab.

PACCAR says that since the MX-13 engine’s introduction to the Kenworth range in the T409, it has “gained popularity and earned the respect of drivers and fleets alike. Its performance and responsiveness has delivered fuel economy and operational benefits, making it a leading contender against other 13-litre options.”

It also “provides exceptional levels of refinement and service simplicity.” The truck’s electrical architecture, which no longer requires 24v-12v inverters, is “even more simple, durable and costeffective to service and maintain.”

PACCAR believes the new model will find a home as a rigid or in

What it amounts to, PACCAR reckons, is that “the best in the business just got better” single-trailer or multi-trailer combinations – so far only as a 6x4….. but with 8x4s “confirmed” for release later this year.

Buyers get a choice of premium traditional diamond pleat trim for the cab interior, in a range of contemporary colours, “or the smart new fleet-spec trim.” The T410 SAR also offers four sizes of sleeper cab – including a new 600mm flat-roof version for car-carrying applications, due for release early in 2021.

Says May: “Of paramount importance in delivering new product is the need to maintain the exceptional performance, quality, durability and productivity for which Kenworth is renowned. Our extensive testing and validation process supports this, as does our own research and development, further enhancing product as innovations come to hand.”

Given the four years since the 2.1m-wide cab was released in Australasia, there’s been plenty of opportunity to make some improvements, as May points out: “Further development of the platform has enabled us to refine and enhance many key elements in the T410 SAR.” And PACCAR Australia chief engineer Noelle Parlier adds: “This development has allowed us to bring a product to market with all the Kenworth hallmarks and more.”

Safety-wise, the T410 SAR carries the full EBSS safety suite and offers improved ingress and egress for the Kenworth driver, enhanced visibility within the cab, and improved ergonomics.

Says PACCAR: “A trademark of the 2.1m cab, enhanced visibility, has been achieved by the intelligent design of the windscreen, doors and mirrors and the driver is in complete command – easily

glancing at anything without having to turn or duck their head.

“The more expansive windscreen provides a panoramic view of the road and the large door windows allow for a first-class view to the side of the vehicle, giving a full 180-degree view from the driver’s seat.

“Large, adjustable, aerodynamic, power adjustable mirrors with high strength cast break-away brackets reduce mirror vibration and offer an optimal rear view of the vehicle. Intelligent mirror placement, sitting low on the cab, also allows for an effective forward line of sight, both over the mirrors and between the mirror and A-pillar – making for exceptional cross-traffic visibility.”

The T410 SAR is available with state-of-the art collision avoidance and mitigation technology including active cruise with braking and lane departure warning.

The 2.1m-wide cab was “designed with driver comfort and control in mind and offers more safety options, greater visibility, improved ergonomics and space than those before it.

“The instrument panel, switches and controls have been positioned intuitively with dashboard instrumentation visible at a glance. Everything has been situated to allow drivers to maintain concentration and reduce fatigue.”

An optional seven-inch display provides access to satellite navigation systems, radio and media functions and virtual gauges, unique to Kenworth. Cruise control and audio controls are on the steering wheel.

And driver comfort is enhanced by “an advanced heating and airconditioning system, with automatic climate control.” T&D Truck & Driver | 77

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The latest Delta stock crates, designed to reduce back rub – (from left to right): An internal view of the crate.....recessed cattle floor and reduced height of centre drain gains more depth and minimises back rub.....flip-over centre drain as an option, allowing the single decking of large animals, without rub

Clever crates T

HROUGH CUSTOM-MAKING new extrusions and creating a flip-over centre drain, Delta Stock Crates has developed a cattle crate that boasts more than 120 millimetres of extra internal height.

It can also convert from a two-deck into one deck to accommodate big or oversized cattle, all while maintaining crate strength and reducing tare weight – an obvious win/win for the industry.

Delta is New Zealand’s largest manufacturer of alloy stock crates and says it’s the only stock crate manufacturer with full manufacturing and servicing facilities in both the North Island (a purposebuilt workshop in Feilding)

and the South Island (Timaru).

Its research and development team continually looks to develop solutions to the industry’s everevolving problems such as the back-rub issue.

In this case, the result has it custom-making new extrusions to maximise heights throughout its crates – reducing the height of the centre drain to gain more depth and offering a flipover centre drain to make single-decking large animals possible. All these measures combine to minimise back-rub.

From full-size stock crates and truck decks to ute canopies and small crates, Delta has a huge “standard” product range to choose from.

But it’s also quick to point out that “every crate we make is custom-manufactured to meet your specifications.” And that “together we will work with you to meet your requirements.”

Delta has over two decades of experience in the business and says it focuses on delivering products that combine the best balance between tare weight, strength and durability….at a competitive price.

The Road Transport Forum member provides two-year manufacturer’s warranties on all its crates as a guarantee against product defects or faulty workmanship. And its new crates are AsureQuality certified. T&D

Tyre inflation system warns of wheel-end heat

A

N ALERT THAT WARNS OF heat buildup in railer wheel ends is now standard in the PSI automatic tyre inflation system.

PSI’s patented ThermALERT system helps avoid costly damage to the axle, suspension and trailer – potentially even the loss of a trailer to fire – by alerting a driver to any abnormally high wheel-end temperatures.

The PSI tyre inflation system is the only one that has the bearing temperature warning system as part of its standard package, says Aaron Burson, sales engineer at TATES, the New Zealand distributor for PSI.

The system works like a fire sprinkler system head – with the core of a thermal screw in a frost plug in the wheel end designed to melt at 160 degrees.

When that happens, pressurised air in the axle escapes out through a hub cap vent system, triggering a warning light on the truck’s dash…

And emitting a sound at the vent that PSI says is “kind of like a banshee scream.”

The driver can thus find a safe place to pull over, check the axle and call for repairs before any serious damage occurs as a result of the abnormal wheel-end operating temperatures.

The PSI automatic tyre inflation system, of course, also “keeps all of your tyres, on any type of trailer, at the same pressure all of the time,” says TATES – “giving you optimal tyre life and fuel economy…..and it will save you on recaps.” T&D Truck & Driver | 79

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20/12/18 10:46 AM

National Road Carriers

To cope with the road freight traffic, the route between Northport and Auckland would require a dramatic upgrade – to quality motorway standard

Northport impractical: Use Ports of Auckland for now, Firth of Thames later

By David Aitken, CEO of National Road Carriers Association

M

OVING AUCKLAND’S PORT TO Northport would be logistically impractical, prohibitively expensive, would increase greenhouse gas emissions, require new electricity generation and add to traffic congestion, according to a report commissioned by National Road Carriers Association (NRC).

The report, based on stakeholder interviews, concludes that Ports of Auckland should continue in its current location until it can’t efficiently handle further growth. A previous Auckland Council study and feedback from freight operators suggest the Firth of Thames could be a far better future option.

Auckland road freight operators interviewed for the report, Moving the Ports of Auckland: Costs and Challenges for Road Freight, estimated the proposed replacement of Ports of Auckland with Northport could provide at least a five-fold increase in business for

them….but they came out strongly against the idea because it does not make sense.

Robust data on the cost of road freight for the upper North Island’s three ports reinforced that the best value for money is for Auckland’s port to continue in its current location until it cannot efficiently handle future growth – expected to be 2050 or later.

The report says that Ports of Auckland anchors New Zealand’s economic performance, handling: • A third of NZ’s container trade, with 65% moved by truck (370,000 truck trips), 15% by rail and 20% trans-shipped. Container freight is scheduled to double over the next 30 years.

• General cargo (175,000 truck trips), including two million tonnes of bulk goods (such as cement, fertiliser, grain, gypsum, coal and steel), 250,000 cars and light commercial vehicles; and “high and heavy”

David Aitken

cargo including trucks and buses, tractors, generators, plant and machinery.

About 70% by value of this trade is for or from Auckland. Ports of Auckland being just 35-40 kilometres from 70-80% of customers is a big factor in favour of the port staying in its current site as long as possible.

Truck & Driver | 81

10:46 AM

National Road Carriers

Servicing customers by road freight from Northport would be nearly seven times more expensive than from Ports of Auckland....

The flow-on effect of Northport servicing Auckland, via a west Auckland inland port at Swanson, would worsen the city’s traffic congestion....imposing more cost on the NZ economy In finding that Northport would be logistically impractical, the report calculates that about 27,000 freight trains a year – 5060 trains daily, each with 35-37 wagons – plus 340,000 heavy truck trips a year, would be needed to carry the one million containers and other goods from Northport to the proposed inland road-rail port at Swanson in west Auckland.

The report concludes that rail would not be able to handle the required freight volumes.

An Auckland to Northport motorway to the standard of the Waikato State Highway 1 upgrade would be needed for road freight operators to consider providing a road service.

A container truck that does five trips a day between Ports of Auckland and south Auckland will be able to make only one from Northport.

A truck carrying imported vehicles from Ports of Auckland to Penrose can complete up to seven trips a day – but will only be able to make one or maybe two trips (with two drivers) a day to Penrose from Northport. Based on 21,000 vehicle imports per month, the number of trucks on the Auckland-Northport route would be one every 2.5 minutes, 24/7.

Even if all the cargo was rail freighted between Northport and Swanson or south Auckland (extremely unlikely as it would require around 70 trains a day and a totally remodelled rail line), trucks always carry freight the last and first kilometres to and from factories, coolstores, warehouses, distribution centres and construction sites.

In finding the Northport proposal prohibitively expensive, the report says that the most cost-efficient and energy-efficient 82 | Truck & Driver

freight is delivered by sea, as close as possible to its market.

The annual cost of road and rail freighting Auckland’s imports the 160kms between Northport and the city would increase by more than $1billion.

Servicing customers by road freight from Northport would be nearly seven times more expensive than from Ports of Auckland – about $1080 versus $160 per heavy vehicle trip. Vehicle importers estimate the cost of transporting a car from Northport to south Auckland at $230, compared with $50 from Ports of Auckland.

The indicative annual cost of road freight between south Auckland and Ports of Auckland is around $85m. This contrasts with the indicative annual cost of road freight from Northport of $670m.

A freight company providing a regular road freight service to and from Northport for cargo currently shipped to and from Ports of Auckland would require five or six additional trucks, each costing $750,000 to $1m, plus drivers and additional warehouse and administration staff.

Shifting Ports of Auckland to Northport would seriously undermine NZ’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Transporting imported vehicles by truck would add 13,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

If NZ is to have a zero-emission transport fleet in 20-30 years’ time, with electric and/ or hydrogen-fuelled vehicles, we need to plot out energy demand to ensure we have a secure supply for a large truck fleet. All the more reason to build the shortest possible

supply lines to minimise the need for expensive new powerplants.

If Auckland’s port services came from Northport, via a west Auckland inland port at Swanson, heavy truck traffic across metropolitan Auckland would noticeably increase. It is likely truck traffic on roads around the Swanson road-rail inland port would increase in parallel with increases in Neilson and Church Streets, adjacent to the Southdown Rail Freight Centre.

Auckland’s business growth is moving south, with Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty dominating the upper North Island’s economic growth. Ports of Auckland and Tauranga have more than 70% of NZ’s shipping trade and serve more than 50% of the country’s population. The report says a super port on the Firth of Thames offers an ideal location, being relatively close to inland rail-road ports in south Auckland and Waikato.

Its advantages are: • There is a rail line to Paeroa and land to the coast is fairly flat • Capital cost would be lower than Northport.

Road and rail operating costs would be much lower.

• The port could be built to accommodate larger ships now being built to reduce costs.

The report says a wider study than just looking at Northport is required to look at 30, 50 and 100-year trends, including distance from customers, cost and scale. Port location should be based not only on capacity for growth but on the ability to achieve the upper North Island’s full economic, social and environmental potential. T&D

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Road Transport Association NZ

Impressive feats of engineering

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Chinese motorways have been dubbed the eighth wonder of the world.

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FRIEND SENT ME A VIDEO CLIP RECENTLY. IT’S CALLED The Grand Tour: China’s Road Network, and it’s presented

by British motoring madmen Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, formerly of Top Gear fame.

Clarkson lavishes praise on China’s highways as “the eighth wonder of the world.” The Chinese motorways, constructed only over the last two decades or so, are certainly an extraordinarily impressive engineering achievement.

There are 135,000 kilometres of motorway – more than any other country in the world – and include a bridge that is 54kms long (about the same distance as Wellington to Waikanae), according to the documentary.

Motorways, all multi-lane and super smooth, span rivers and gorges and alpine passes: “There’s no mountain high enough, no valley deep enough,” says Clarkson.

The documentary, which was produced at the beginning of 2019, well before the coronavirus outbreak, demonstrates China’s great push to become a world leader – and one of the ways it’s doing that, just as other countries have done in the past, is by building roads.

Yes, China also has high-speed rail, but motorways are still vital for moving freight and people across the country.

Two thousand years ago, the ancient Romans built roads to connect their empire – the largest on earth at that time. They built them so well that many remain to this day – in fact some were better built than more modern ones!

In the 1930s, Hitler built Germany’s autobahn network – partly to help solve unemployment. If only he had struck to infrastructure instead of launching World War 2! The autobahns – parts of which still have no speed restrictions for cars – were extended after the war and have played a vital role in creating Germany’s powerhouse economy.

I have lived in Germany and visited many times. One surprise is that not all big industries are located in major cities. You can visit a small town or village and find a major manufacturer (a bathroom factory, a glass factory, or a piano factory, for example) that exports its products around the world and supports jobs in the local community.

By Road Transport Association NZ communications manager David Killick Yes, you can get most places by rail, which is great, but good roads are essential in ensuring trucks reach main transport hubs.

Norway is another European country with outsize motorway plans. The $NZ78billion, 1100km Coastal Highway project envisages connecting Norway’s rugged west coast via a single highway, from Kristiansand in the far south, to Trondheim in the north – crossing fjords and mountains. The project aims to eliminate the need for ferries by building a series of bridges and tunnels.

New Zealand’s landscape is equally challenging. As the population has steadily grown, it has become clear that our roading network is woefully inadequate. Wellington’s Transmission Gully, when it is finally completed, will be a huge improvement.

Plans to invest more in roads, announced earlier this year, were welcomed, but unfortunately did not go far enough. The South Island largely missed out, with the lion’s share of funding going to Auckland. I believe that was a short-sighted plan.

More money for infrastructure and roads, announced in the Budget, is good news for the trucking industry. But, as is often the case, the devil will be in the detail. The Road Transport Association, together with the Road Transport Forum, can make a difference by listening to members and ensuring their voices are heard by the authorities and government ministers.

It is a fallacy to think that roading and the environment are mutually exclusive. Both Norway and Germany, for example, are big on sustainability, climate change, and renewable energy. Think about it: If you have fast and free-flowing motorways, then vehicles use less fuel, producing fewer emissions. They speed up transit times, easing stress levels and benefitting businesses – a win-win.

As in other countries, better roads can help rebuild the economy and improve people’s lives.

The views in this column are David Killick’s own and may not necessarily reflect those of the association. T&D Truck & Driver | 85

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Dunedin’s Titan Bulk Haulage has put this new Sinotruk C7H 8x4 logger and five-axle Patchell log trailer to work. It has a 540hp Sinotruk engine, a 16-speed ZF manual transmission, a Voith retarder and Sinotruk MCY13 diffs on air suspension.

A COVID-19 comeback F TD30669

RESH OUT OF THE COVID-19 Level 4 lockdown, New Zealand’s new truck market regained some normality in May – albeit still 28% down on the same month last year.

The 372 registrations in the overall market (all trucks with a GVM of 4.5 tonnes or more) were at least a big jump-up from the coronavirus-savaged April low….which saw just 89 registrations.

May’s activity brought the year-to-date truck sales tally to 1506 – a whopping 32% and 712 trucks down on the 2218 sold in the first five months of 2019.

The trailer market also bounced back, with 115

trailers registered in May – a spectacular improvement from the mere eight in April…but still 26% down on the same month in 2019. The trailer market’s YTD total stood at 434 – 219 (and 34%) down on the first five months of last year.

In the overall truck market (4.5t-maximum GVM), No. 1 Isuzu (338/68) led the way in May with 68 registrations – although it was run close by YTD third-ranked Hino (196/65). FUSO (227/46) however, still held onto second place for the year.

Volvo (140/31) remained fourth, ahead of Scania (109/27), Iveco (100/29), Mercedes-Benz (77/23) and Truck & Driver | 87

Riverhead earthmoving operator Burnetts Transport has this new Kenworth T659 truck and trailer tipper unit supporting its work around Auckland and Northland. Mark (Macka) McLachlan drives the unit, which has a 550hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox, Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Airglide suspension, a Transfleet alloy bin and matching five-axle trailer

23,001kg-max GVM

4501kg-max GVM

Brand ISUZU FUSO HINO VOLVO SCANIA IVECO MERCEDES-BENZ KENWORTH UD DAF SINOTRUK MAN FOTON MACK FREIGHTLINER INTERNATIONAL VOLKSWAGEN FIAT HYUNDAI PEUGEOT WESTERN STAR RAM JAC OTHER Total

2020 Vol % 338 22.4 227 15.1 196 13.0 140 9.3 109 7.2 100 6.6 77 5.1 65 4.3 61 4.1 42 2.8 29 1.9 27 1.8 22 1.5 17 1.1 15 1.0 10 0.7 9 0.6 7 0.5 4 0.3 3 0.2 3 0.2 3 0.2 1 0.1 1 0.1 1506 100.00

May Vol % 68 18.3 46 12.4 65 17.5 31 8.3 27 7.3 29 7.8 23 6.2 15 4.0 18 4.8 11 3.0 12 3.2 2 0.5 7 1.9 2 0.5 1 0.3 4 1.1 4 1.1 4 1.1 1 0.3 0 0.0 1 0.3 1 0.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 372 100.00

3501-4500kg GVM

Brand FIAT MERCEDES-BENZ FORD RENAULT CHEVROLET PEUGEOT IVECO LDV VOLKSWAGEN Total

Vol 95 38 12 12 12 11 4 3 1 188

2020 % 50.5 20.2 6.4 6.4 6.4 5.9 2.1 1.6 0.5 100.00

May Vol % 32 57.1 8 14.3 1 1.8 3 5.4 5 8.9 3 5.4 1 1.8 2 3.6 1 1.8 56 100.00

4501-7500kg GVM

Brand FUSO ISUZU IVECO HINO MERCEDES-BENZ FOTON VOLKSWAGEN FIAT PEUGEOT HYUNDAI RAM Total 88 | Truck & Driver

Vol 102 101 52 36 17 17 9 7 3 3 3 350

2020 % 29.1 28.9 14.9 10.3 4.9 4.9 2.6 2.0 0.9 0.9 0.9 100.00

May Vol % 28 27.5 28 27.5 16 15.7 14 13.7 3 2.9 4 3.9 4 3.9 4 3.9 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 1.0 102 100.00

“...Fruehauf (42/11) and MTE (41/13) closed in on 2020 market leader Patchell...”

7501-15,000kg GVM

Brand ISUZU HINO FUSO IVECO UD FOTON MAN MERCEDES-BENZ JAC HYUNDAI OTHER Total

Vol 147 57 52 16 6 5 3 3 1 1 1 292

2020 % 50.3 19.5 17.8 5.5 2.1 1.7 1.0 1.0 0.3 0.3 0.3 100.00

May Vol % 24 35.3 22 32.4 10 14.7 4 5.9 2 2.9 3 4.4 1 1.5 1 1.5 0 0.0 1 1.5 0 0.0 68 100.00

15,001-20,500kg GVM

Brand HINO UD FUSO SCANIA MERCEDES-BENZ ISUZU DAF IVECO MAN SINOTRUK Total

Vol 37 16 14 9 8 5 5 5 2 1 102

2020 % 36.3 15.7 13.7 8.8 7.8 4.9 4.9 4.9 2.0 1.0 100.00

May Vol % 13 52.0 4 16.0 1 4.0 2 8.0 2 8.0 0 0.0 1 4.0 2 8.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 25 100.00

20,501-23,000kg GVM

HINO FUSO SCANIA FREIGHTLINER Total

11 4 1 1 17

2020 64.7 23.5 5.9 5.9 100.00

May 3 75.0 0 0.0 1 25.0 0 0.0 4 100.00

Brand VOLVO SCANIA ISUZU KENWORTH FUSO HINO MERCEDES-BENZ UD DAF SINOTRUK IVECO MAN MACK FREIGHTLINER INTERNATIONAL WESTERN STAR Total

Vol 140 99 85 65 55 55 49 39 37 28 27 22 17 14 10 3 745

2020 % 18.8 13.3 11.4 8.7 7.4 7.4 6.6 5.2 5.0 3.8 3.6 3.0 2.3 1.9 1.3 0.4 100.00

May Vol % 31 17.9 24 13.9 16 9.2 15 8.7 7 4.0 13 7.5 17 9.8 12 6.9 10 5.8 12 6.9 7 4.0 1 0.6 2 1.2 1 0.6 4 2.3 1 0.6 173 100.00

Trailers

2020 Vol % Brand PATCHELL 44 10.1 FRUEHAUF 42 9.7 MTE 41 9.4 ROADMASTER 33 7.6 DOMETT 30 6.9 TMC 25 5.8 23 5.3 FREIGHTER TES 20 4.6 3.7 TRANSPORT TRAILERS 16 TRANSFLEET 16 3.7 JACKSON 10 2.3 MAXICUBE 9 2.1 TIDD 7 1.6 HAMMAR 7 1.6 6 1.4 MILLS-TUI MTC EQUIPMENT 6 1.4 EVANS 6 1.4 SDC 5 1.2 MDE 5 1.2 MAKARANUI 5 1.2 MTC 5 1.2 COWAN 5 1.2 CWS 5 1.2 HTS 3 0.7 KRAFT 3 0.7 PTE 3 0.7 LOWES 3 0.7 FELDBINDER 2 0.5 WHITE 2 0.5 SEC 2 0.5 KOROMIKO 1 0.2 OTHER 44 10.1 Total 434 100.00

May Vol % 6 5.2 11 9.6 13 11.3 6 5.2 8 7.0 5 4.3 9 7.8 9 7.8 4 3.5 5 4.3 7 6.1 1 0.9 0 0.0 2 1.7 1 0.9 2 1.7 2 1.7 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.9 4 3.5 1 0.9 3 2.6 0 0.0 1 0.9 1 0.9 1 0.9 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 12 10.4 115 100.00

Christchurch company Sorted Logistics has this new UD Trucks CG32-420AS Quon 36-pallet truck and trailer unit now in work in its home region. Pete Morris drives the 8x4 curtainsider, which has a 420hp engine, a UD AMT, rear air suspension and a Fruehauf deck, and matching fiveaxle trailer. Pic Janine Houmard

Kenworth (65/15). The only movement in the top 10 was UD (43/2) moving into ninth at the expense of DAF (31/2).

In the 3.5-4.5t GVM crossover segment, Fiat (95/32) further extended its lead, while MercedesBenz (38/8) held onto second, ahead of Ford (12/1), Renault (12/3) and Chevrolet (12/5) – all tied in third.

In the 4.5-7.5t GVM division, FUSO (102/28) held onto its lead – just! Isuzu (101/28) also sold 28 for the month, to remain just one registration behind YTD. Third-placed Iveco (52/16) held its spot, as did Hino (36/14), in fourth position. Mercedes-Benz (17/3) was joined in fifth-equal by Foton (17/4).

In the 7.5-15t GVM class, Isuzu (147/24) edged further ahead with the substantial lead it had already created in the first four months of the year. Hino (57/22) overtook FUSO (52/10) for second. Next came Iveco (16/4), UD (6/2), Foton (5/3), MAN (3/1) and Mercedes-Benz (3/1) – all holding their places.

In the 15-20.5t GVM category, Hino (37/13) stretched its lead, while second-placed UD (16/4)

edged clear of FUSO (14/1). Scania (9/2) held fourth – but only by one from Mercedes-Benz (8/2).

In the tiny 20.5-23t GVM division Hino (11/3) increased its lead on FUSO (4/0) and Freightliner (1/0). Scania (1/0) joined the category.

In the premium 23t to max GVM division, Volvo (140/31) went further ahead of second-placed Scania (99/24). Isuzu (85/16) was third, ahead of Kenworth (65/15). Hino (55/13) caught FUSO (55/7), leaving the two fifth-equal.

Mercedes-Benz (49/17), UD (39/12) and DAF (37/10) each held their places, while Sinotruk (28/12) moved up to 10th, past Iveco (27/7) and MAN (22/1).

In the trailer market, Fruehauf (42/11) and MTE (41/13) closed in on 2020 market leader Patchell (44/6).

Still, the YTD positions were unchanged throughout the top 10, with Roadmaster (33/6) holding onto fourth, ahead of Domett (30/8), TMC (25/5) and Freighter (23/9). TES (20/9) was eighth, while Transport Trailers (16/4) and Transfleet (16/5) were ninth-equal. T&D Truck & Driver | 89

Hamilton-based Les Harrison Transport has added another new Hino 700 Series to its operation – this one fitted with a Palfinger PK26002 EH truck crane, to handle containers, machinery, concrete pipes and other heavy loads. It has a 480hp engine, a Hino AMT and factory diffs and suspension, plus a Foremost Engineering deck. Pic – Larry Beesley

Longtime Panpac contractors Ian and Brenda Howatson have nicknamed this new Kenworth T659 8x4 logger, Final Encore. The H&H Log Haulage unit has a 600hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox, Meritor RT46160GP diffs on Airglide suspension and Patchell logging gear, plus a matching four-axle trailer

90 | Truck & Driver

Dunedin’s Clyne Transport has put this new Kenworth K200 to work, carting general freight around the lower South Island. The flat roof 6x4 tractor unit has a 600hp engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox and Meritor 46-160 diffs on Airglide suspension

Hunua’s Kaiaua Transport has put this new DAF CF85 6x4 tipper unit to work, carting earthmoving materials around Auckland and Waikato.

Roland Spencer drives the unit, which has a 510hp PACCAR MX13 engine, a ZF AS Tronic AMT, Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Airglide suspension and a Transfleet alloy bin, plus a matching four-axle trailer

Foodstuffs contractor Baillie Transport has put this new Kenworth T410 600mm aero sleeper to work, transporting chilled and frozen food in Auckland and the Waikato. The 6x4 has a 510hp MX13 engine, a 12-speed PACCAR transmission and Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Airglide suspension. It tows a Fairfax refrigerated trailer

Christchurch operator Earthworks & Paving has this new UD GW26-460 Quon tipper now working in the region.

It has a 460hp factory engine, 12-speed transmission and diffs, with disc brakes all around. It has an Engineering Repairs bulk body

Truck & Driver | 91

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EAST COAST STOCK The latest release in the Gavin Abbot series of historic photo feature books on the early New Zealand trucking industry.

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