NZ Truck & Driver July 2020

NZ TRUCK & DRIVER

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| August 2020

August 2020 $8.50 incl. GST

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BIG TEST X-Way answers the question | FLEET FOCUS Skux trucks | FEATURE Supercars super-combo

FEATURE

Supercars super-combo

The Official Magazine of the

ISSN 1174-7935 Issue 237

CONTENTS Issue 237 – August 2020 2 Aeolus News

The latest in the world of transport, including….plans to put hydrogen fuel cell trucks on the road in New Zealand; Kiwi investors buy an Aussie-held stake in TR Group; world’s first mass-produced fuel cell heavy trucks delivered

20 Giti Tyres Big Test

Compared to truckie Wayne Lawton’s last truck, his new Iveco X-Way initially didn’t feel anywhere near as lively as the Scania he’d just hopped out of. No surprise: The numbers don’t compare. The Scania had 620-horse and the Iveco 570. Then there’s the 3000Nm peak torque of the Scania, up against the X-Way’s 2500Nm. But then again, figures can sometimes be misleading

37 Transport Forum

Latest news from the Road Transport Forum NZ, including….a General Election special, to provide readers with a clear understanding of where the political parties stand on important transport issues. Each of the major parties was asked to answer eight questions to provide an insight.

Unfortunately, NZ First refused to take part

48 Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus

Kohan Wilson is a new-age transport operator: A young guy with tatts, who rides Harleys, drives a Rangie…brings some sort of mix of biker/skatie culture and Generation Y social media smarts. Seems to work: His TKO operation has put on 10 trucks in three years!

FEATURES

REGULARS 77 Truck Shop

New products and services for the road transport industry

80/ PPG Transport Imaging 81 Awards

Recognising NZ’s best-looking truck fleets….including a giant pullout poster of the 2019/2020 annual award winner

68 Southpac Trucks Legends

When it comes to the NZ trailer-building industry, the Mear family ranks right up there. Jeff is the second generation of the Mear family to make his mark

93 Recently Registered

New truck and trailer registrations for June

COLUMNS

70 Supercars super-combo

Ex-Timaru truckie Mick Shortus is “living the dream” – combining two of his loves: Motorsport and driving trucks. And getting paid for it!

81 National Road Carriers Association

The Association continues to fight to make sure the industry’s voice is heard – its petition to Government to scrap last month’s RUC increase supported by almost 16,000 signatories

85 Old Iron

In the decade from 1924, 900 North American Republic trucks were sold in New Zealand. Gavin Abbot tells the story of their distributor….and their operators

83 Road Transport Association NZ Better consultation between Waka Kotahi NZTA and the industry is needed than was the case in two recent instances

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

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

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PO Box 48 074 AUCKLAND 09 826 0494

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CONTRIBUTORS

Gerald Shacklock Dave McLeod Gavin Abbot Olivia Beauchamp Blair Shearer Vandi Photography Warren Aitken

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Truck & Driver | 1

NEWS NZ investors buy Aussie stake in TR Group

TR Group managing director Andrew Carpenter (inset) says the purchase of the stake by Kiwi investors is “perfect” A SIGNIFICANT STAKE IN TR GROUP – PREVIOUSLY held by an Australian private equity group – has now been bought by Kiwi investors.

The 31% holding in the giant New Zealand truck and trailer lease and rental operation had been owned by the Australian CHAMP Ventures since 2014.

The shareholding has now been bought from CHAMP by a leading local private equity firm, Direct Capital – in conjunction with the NZ Superannuation Fund and iwi direct investment entity Te Pūia Tāpapa.

The value of the deal has not been disclosed.

TR Group managing director Andrew Carpenter says the change in the stakeholders is a very positive move for the company: “While we had a very fruitful working relationship with CHAMP Ventures, there was always a predetermined limited timeframe to its involvement, so when we started looking for a new partner, Direct Capital was an excellent choice to pick up the stake.”

Negotiations between CHAMP Ventures and Direct Capital were comfortable, he says – while having the Super Fund and Te Pūia Tāpapa as co-investors added significantly to the deal: “It’s perfect from our point of view, because not only does it mean the holding is back in local hands, but the new investors have a long time horizon.

“That is especially true in the case of Te Pūia Tāpapa and why we are very happy that they are part of the mix – because they are committed to leaving things in better shape for the next generation.

“That is very much in line with our own philosophy, and brings something unique to the investment by way of core values.”

2 | Truck & Driver

TR Group was founded in 1992 by the Carpenter family and now serves over 1300 customers with a fleet of around 6500 vehicles. Its activities include truck and trailer rental, whole of fleet leasing and vehicle sales. Driver training is provided by subsidiaries Master Drive Services and online provider DT Driver Training, the latter acquired in late 2018.

TR Group entered the Australian market in July last year, with the 100% purchase of Melbourne-based trailer rental company, Semi Skel Hire – the largest operator of its type in Victoria, with nearly 1200 trailers on its books.

Direct Capital was established in 1994 and is NZ’s largest private equity firm, having raised $1.6billion in capital for investment into private companies.

It has partnered some of NZ’s best-known and most successful businesses, including the now-NZX-listed Ryman Healthcare, Scales Corporation, NZ King Salmon and the Hiway Group.

TR Group’s trans-Tasman position and successful history of growth were key features that attracted Direct Capital to the investment, says director Hugh Cotterill, who will be joining the TR board on behalf of the new investors: “We are impressed by TR Group’s track record of growth, the strength of its brand, market position, management team and company culture.”

Te Pūia Tāpapa was established in 2018, and is made up of 26 iwi and Māori organisations, from Nelson-Marlborough, lower and central North Island, Taranaki, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hauraki, Northland, Auckland and the Chatham Islands. The name “Te Pūia Tāpapa” is derived from the seed beds used to grow kūmara seedlings.

The TR Group deal is the fund’s biggest investment to date. T&D

NEWS The announcement of the homegrown NZ push towards hydrogen fuel cell trucks coincides with Hyundai delivering the world’s first mass-produced fuel cell-equipped heavy trucks

Hydrogen fuel cell trucks for NZ TRUCK AND TRAILER LEASING AND RENTAL GIANT TR Group and Taranaki-based Hiringa Energy plan to introduce hydrogen fuel cell electric heavy trucks in New Zealand.

An agreement between the two will combine Hiringa’s expertise in producing “green” hydrogen and plans to create a nationwide refuelling network….and TR’s dominance in the heavy transport hire market.

Together they will offer packages to transport operators seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of their activities.

No clear timeframe has been announced, but the first units are expected to be in service next year.

TR Group general manager Brendan King has been involved with the project from the outset, and sees it as an exciting prospect for the company: “Basically, it’s about doing what we can to help with the decarbonisation of the transport network, and staying up with the latest technology.

“We are keen to learn all we can about it – to trial the innovations. We have to show some leadership in the industry. We can learn on behalf of our customers, and find out what works and what doesn’t. That way we can pass the results on.

“Answers to questions about longevity, reliability and maintenance costs can only be found in practice.”

Hyundai is an obvious candidate as an OEM supplier for the vehicles, having just begun delivery of its XCIENT hydrogen fuel cell heavy truck in Europe. Currently the XCIENT has a 258 horsepower/192 kilowatts rating and an upper GVM limit of 36 tonnes, but Hyundai is understood to be working on bigger and more powerful 6x4 and 8x4 variants. See story on the Hyundai milestone on Page 6.

King says that TR will want trucks that will be able to operate up to 50t and adds: “We are in discussions with Hyundai and they are interested, but how it will pan out we can’t tell at the moment.

“There are also several smaller groups who are in the business of repowering diesel trucks with fuel cell drivetrains. We are investigating them as well, though I am not prepared to go into too many details at this stage.”

Hiringa Energy cofounders, CEO Andrew Clennett and CTO Dan Kahn, see the tieup with TR Group as a perfect way to introduce clean energy to the road transport sector.

As Clennett puts it: “Heavy transport is ideally suited for the early adoption of hydrogen fuel cells, so that’s what we are focusing on.

“Compared with battery electric, fuel cells offer a much better range per fill, weigh less, and have a refill time that is quicker even than conventional diesel.”

Hiringa Energy and Ballance Agri-Nutrients are already in a joint-venture partnership to create a renewable hydrogen hub in South Taranaki. The project plans to construct wind turbines to supply electricity directly to Ballance’s Kapuni site, where it will be used to produce hydrogen by electrolysis.

The hydrogen then becomes a feedstock for the production of urea for fertiliser, but can also be used in vehicle fuel cells.

Regional transportation of the hydrogen will be via custom tankers, Clennett adds: “We will own the tanks, but we have an agreement with TIL to cart them.

“However, Kapuni will not be our only production site. Our plan is also to set up electrolysis units at some of the refuelling locations, and use offpeak electricity to produce the hydrogen onsite.”

Kahn says Hiringa is building a relationship with the Waitomo Group, and plans to be using its existing sites as refuelling stations: “They are not the only distributor/retailers in the market, but we find them really positive to work with, and since they have an emphasis on servicing the heavy transport sector it makes for an ideal fit.”

The first of four filling stations is planned to be in operation by Q2 next year. After that the schedule calls for eight sites by 2022 at the latest, and 24 by 2025.

The original four sites will cover the North Island heartland – Te Rapa, Hamilton, Tauranga, Manawatu and Taranaki. They will be followed by facilities in South Auckland, Taupo, Wellington and Christchurch...ensuring near-nationwide coverage.

The partners in the venture agree that fuel cells have yet to match conventional diesel powertrains for price, but Andrew Clennett feels that cost parity for transport operators could be achieved within five years, especially if the technology is supported by Government intervention….such as subsidies or reduced road user charges.

Adds Dan Kahn: “It’s all about showing the international community what can be done with the introduction of new technologies. We have an almost unique situation in NZ, with a well-developed infrastructure and supportive government policies. Despite our size, we are ideally placed to be at the forefront of these innovations.” T&D Truck & Driver | 3

TRUSTED

BY SORENSEN TRANSPORT.

“You can really tell there’s more power and torque in this new engine. We have some hilly conditions to cover and there are several long climbs on some of the routes – this truck can maintain a higher speed going up these inclines. I’m also pleased with the safety features in the X-Way; the Lane Departure Warning System, provides a good reminder to check your position on the road, because it is a big truck.”

John Samuelson, Professional Driver – Sorensen Transport

IVECO’s new heavy duty, Euro6 X-Way is shaping up to be an ideal fit for demanding New Zealand applications.

Over the past few months, John from Sorensen Transport has been driving one of our IVECO Euro 6 X-Way for up to several hundred kilometres per day. Featuring a new Euro6 engine range that is still big on power and torque (up to 570hp and 2500Nm), consuming less fuel, creating fewer emissions and offering driver comfort features, the X-Way is available as both a prime mover and rigid variety of 6x4 and 8x4 configurations and with availability of PTO and retarder. Safety and technology in the range is also impressive as this includes a wide selection of active and passive safety equipment i.e active emergency braking, while the all-new 12-speed HiTronix Automated Manual Transmission delivers greater efficiency, longevity and significant noise reductions.

And hence the reason John is giving it the thumbs-up.

For more information visit your local IVECO dealer or phone 0800 FOR IVECO (0800 367 48326).

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NEWS

Hall of Fame set to go ahead

Last year’s Hall of Famers and their awards – (from left): Gavin Abbot, Murray Sowerby, Paul Currie, Mark McCarthy and the family of the late Bill Hargreaves IN A YEAR OF COVID-19-CAUSED LOCKDOWNS, cancellations and postponements, a premier event for the New Zealand trucking industry is set to go ahead.

The annual Mobil Delvac 1 NZ Road Transport Hall of Fame is scheduled to be held at the spectacular Bill Richardson Transport World in Invercargill on Friday October 2.

As the organisers say, “after months of global uncertainty, NZ is revving back into life – and the road transport industry has an opportunity to celebrate its own, in one of the few events dedicated to the industry in NZ.” They reckon that the black-tie event will be “the perfect opportunity to get back into the swing of things: Catch up with good friends, unite as a business community and celebrate those, past and present, who have made a significant contribution to the industry.”

The brainchild of Invercargill-based HWR directors Jocelyn and Scott O’Donnell, the event began in 2012.

Jocelyn O’Donnell says the Hall of Fame has a dual purpose – to honour the outstanding contributions many individuals have made to the NZ road transport industry, with four to six Hall of Famers inducted each year.

But the event also supports the safety of young Kiwis on our roads.

Proceeds are donated to the ProActive Youth Driver Education Trust.

So the Hall of Fame dinner and awards function “is a great opportunity to celebrate those within our industry who have contributed a significant amount of time, care and enthusiasm to forging the way for the future of road transport in NZ,” she says.

“At the same time, it is supporting a programme that equips young NZers with the skills they need to remain safe while driving.”

The Hall of Fame’s 500 tickets have sold out each year and TW Events & Incentives events manager Adam Reinsfield says this year’s tickets are selling fast.

“It’s testament to the national transport industry that it so willingly comes together to celebrate the success stories of its own,” he says.

“We’re really proud to have created an event that not only celebrates the tenacity and contribution of transport industry figures but looks towards the future and rattles the tin in support of ensuring young Kiwis remain safe on our roads.

“Now, more than ever, is a time to come together to celebrate. We’re thrilled to see so many people are looking forward to this year’s event as much as we are.” T&D

Appreciating our drivers NEW ZEALAND TRUCK & DRIVER magazine is once again honouring Kiwi drivers with the National Truck Driver Appreciation Week.

The aim of the event is to appreciate our drivers around the country, in any way we can, for all they do for us on a daily basis.

Without our drivers NZ wouldn’t get by and this was evident when we went into lockdown during the COVID-19 emergency: Our truck drivers kept moving the freight that everyone in

NZ needed at a critical time.

Allied Publication business development manager Olivia Beauchamp says: “Ideally we would like the wider public to get onboard and appreciate our drivers – so we will be doing a number of things in that week to try and achieve an external appreciation also.”

This year’s National Truck Driver Appreciation Week will be held from the November 9 to 15.

For more information of how you can get

involved, contact Olivia Beauchamp – mobile 027 685 5066 or olivia@trucker.co.nz T&D Truck & Driver | 5

NEWS The world’s first series production hydrogen fuel cell heavy truck, the Hyundai XCIENT Fuel Cell, will start work in Switzerland next month

Hydrogen fuel cell trucks to the fore H Y DROGEN FUEL CELL HEAV Y TRUCKS APPEAR TO have reached a watershed moment in Europe, spearheaded by Hyundai rolling out the first of a 1600-truck order.

Ten Hyundai XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks – the world’s first massproduced heavy duty FCVs – are due to start work in Switzerland next month.

The 4x2s are rated to work at up to 36 tonnes all-up, with a range of 400 kilometres – powered by electric motors running on power generated by two 95-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cell stacks.

Hyundai says it’s now developing a fuel cell truck with a 1000km range – squarely aimed at long-distance haulage in Europe, the United States and other parts of the world.

The landmark delivery is the very first batch of the huge order – which is to be completed over the next five years – in a joint-venture between Hyundai and Swiss company H2 Energy.

The JV will lease the trucks to Swiss transport operators on a pay6 | Truck & Driver

per-use basis, with no upfront cost for commercial fleets.

The project is part of Hyundai Motor Group’s longterm vision for a “hydrogen society.” In the next decade it plans to develop a 700,000unit annual build capacity of fuel cell systems for cars, trucks and buses, ships, trains, drones and power generators.

Hyundai Motor executive VP and commercial vehicle head In Cheol Lee says that the XCIENT Fuel Cell is delivered as “a present-day reality, not as a mere future drawing-board project.

“By putting this groundbreaking vehicle on the road now, Hyundai marks a significant milestone in the history of commercial vehicles and the development of hydrogen society.

“Building a comprehensive hydrogen ecosystem, where critical transportation needs are met by vehicles like XCIENT Fuel Cell, will lead to a paradigm shift that removes automobile emissions from the environmental equation.”

The 400km range is a balance, says Hyundai, between the Continues on page 10

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

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

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

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

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NEWS

Looking at legends NEW ZEALAND TRUCK & DRIVER MAGAZINE HAS IN the past featured legends from our industry.

“We now feel it’s time to make this a monthly feature. There are so many people in our industry who have changed our industry for the better over the years and we want to recognise who they are,” says publisher Trevor Woolston.

“We aim to profile some of our industry’s great characters and share their stories; we will discuss the good times and the bad, the battles of being involved in a transport business and just how much things have changed along the way.

“We will talk about obstacles to success, the sacrifices, the rewards and some of the other great people we’ve met along the way.

“We are pleased to announce that Southpac has come onboard as the major sponsor of this monthly feature.”

Says Maarten Durent, chief executive officer, Southpac Trucks: “We are excited to be a part of this initiative. It is good to recognise many people who have achieved great successes for our industry – those who take a wider industry view, which in turn benefits the industry…through innovation, employment mentoring and coaching, technology and ideas.”

The first Southpac Trucks Legend is Jeff Mear – a member of a prominent NZ trailer building family. His story is on Page 68. T&D

Jeff Mear won the VTNZ Supreme Contribution to NZ Road Transport Award last year

TRATON boss replaced

s.

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MAJOR EXECUTIVE CHANGES WITHIN THE Volkswagen Group have spilled over into its TRATON trucks division, with the surprise departure of its leader.

Andreas Renschler had headed VW’s heavy truck interests for the past five years – leading the 2018 establishment of the division, which has Scania, MAN, and the Brazilian VW trucks operation in its stable.

The former boss of Daimler Trucks was at the forefront of TRATON’s often-stated ambition to become “a global champion” among truckmakers – advancing its competitiveness with the Volvo Group and Daimler Trucks by brokering a deal to work closely with Hino and overseeing the purchase of a small shareholding in North American truckmaker Navistar.

He also led TRATON’s $US2.9billion offer in January to buy Navistar outright. Now industry commentators in Europe and the United States are speculating on whether his departure signals a change of heart on the No. 1 truckmaker aspirations by TRATON’s supervisory board.

Renschler has been replaced as CEO of TRATON and chairman of its board of management by the division’s CFO Matthias Gruendler.

TRATON management board member Joachim Drees, who led MAN Trucks, is also out – leaving, said the company, “by best mutual consent.”

Also gone is the division’s personnel chief Carsten Intra.

In announcing the departure of the key execs, supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch expressly thanked Renschler for the success he achieved in TRATON’s path towards becoming a global champion.

He has, he said, “made a significant contribution to the successful course taken by TRATON.” In Matthias Gruendler the company has a successor who is, he said, “one

of the most experienced experts in the industry. In addition, he knows the company from his years of experience and has also played a significant role in the company’s development.

“He will now continue this course on the front line with the entire TRATON team,” said Pötsch.

The changes were effective a week after the July announcement.

European media reports say there has been “internal tension” in the VW Group, which has arisen from the expensive programme to electrify VW’s automotive lineup, while coping with the industry slump brought on by COVID-19. Group CEO Herbert Diess was among the casualties before the TRATON changes. T&D Truck & Driver | 9

NEWS Hydrogen fuel cell trucks to the fore Continued from page 6 specific requirements of potential fleet customers and the refuelling infrastructure available in Switzerland. Each truck can be refuelled in eight to 20 minutes.

Switzerland is an attractive starting point for Hyundai’s FCEVs in part because it has a road tax exemption for zero-emission trucks, which almost equalises the costs per kilometre of a fuel cell truck compared to a regular diesel truck.

Also, says Hyundai, “to truly reduce carbon emissions, all of the trucks need to run on only green hydrogen” – and Switzerland has one of the world’s highest percentages of hydro power…and “can therefore deliver sufficient green energy for the production of hydrogen.”

The XCIENT FC has a 661 V battery, a 350kW/3400Nm Siemens motor/inverter and an Allison six-speed automatic transmission. Disc brakes and a four-stage retarder are standard, with air suspension all around. It has a collision avoidance system, smart cruise control, electronic braking, vehicle dynamic control, ABS and lane departure warning.

Coinciding with the Hyundai FCEV delivery, Daimler Truck announced that it is “working intensively” to prepare for series production of fuel cells on a large industrial scale.

Chairman of the board Martin Daum declares the hydrogen fuel cell “a key technology of strategic importance” in “pursuing the vision of the CO2-neutral transportation of the future.”

The company is also consolidating all of its fuel cell activities under

the umbrella of Daimler Truck Fuel Cell, in preparation for producing fuel cells in its recently-announced joint-venture with the Volvo Group.

Meantime, a consortium led by the Port of Rotterdam and AirLiquide has launched a plan to develop a “hydrogen corridor” for fuel cell trucks through the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

They say it is “one of the largest projects in Europe for the development of hydrogen trucks and related infrastructure.”

Its aim is to have 1000 fuel cell trucks operating on the corridor within five years, with 25 high capacity hydrogen stations along the route. Among those already involved are Iveco and its electric and fuel cell truck joint-venture partner Nikola, which has plans to develop a network of hydrogen stations across the United States to refuel its fuel cell tractor units.

The Port of Rotterdam and AirLiquide are also involved in another project, which is investigating the development of a hydrogen corridor from Rotterdam to Genoa, in northwestern Italy…for road, water and rail transport (that’s 1200kms by road).

And the European Union-backed REVIVE – refuse vehicle innovation and validation in Europe – is helping fund two developments using hydrogen fuel cell electric refuse trucks.

One project will run 15 urban waste collection fuel cell electric trucks in Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy. The other will develop and operate one FCEV truck in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. T&D

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NEWS Like others in Europe, the United Statesbased hydrogen fuel cell truck startup Nikola, is planning a network of hydrogen refuelling stations like this

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NEWS

CablePrice opens new Timaru operation CablePrice’s new Timaru facility is a new truck sales, parts and service centre for FUSO trucks, as well as Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz NEWLY-APPOINTED SOUTH ISLAND FUSO, Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz dealer CablePrice has opened a new operation in Timaru.

The expansion means that the former Scania distributor now has four new truck sales, parts and service branches – in Christchurch, Greymouth, Invercargill and Timaru – representing the Daimler Trucks brands.

The company, which was confirmed in February as the South Island dealer for the three makes, says it’s committed to supporting customers “with the best possible products and service, through its own ever-increasing nationwide network.”

CablePrice New Zealand managing director Keisuke (Ken) Okuzumi says: “We see Timaru as an important hub and gateway to the South Island, with its large agricultural diversity, significant

manufacturing operations and increasing commercial traffic.

“It has been our intention for some time now to expand our offering and support to the regions. This latest branch strengthens our commitment to our South Island customers, while providing assurance for locally-based customers.

“Our new Timaru site will service the wider South Canterbury region and offer customers full workshop support, along with 24/7 mobile support, should the need arise.

“Over many years CablePrice has built a strong relationship with customers in the area and we are looking to taking this to the next level with this recent expansion”.

Fuso NZ CEO Kurtis Andrews says that Timaru is a key location in the FUSO dealer network, adding:

“We’re delighted that CablePrice has secured a new site, from which they will provide FUSO genuine parts and service, and now, also new truck sales.

“FUSO operators in South Canterbury, and those who operate up and down the South Island, can expect a high level of specialist service from this new Timaru dealership.”

Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific aftersales and network operations director, Greg Lovrich, says Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner customers will benefit from the addition of the Timaru site.

“The quality of the staff at this location is of the highest order and we know that our customers will appreciate their support,” he says.

“It is great to have the best products – but to have them backed by the best people is critically important.” T&D

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NEWS

Navistar is joining forces with autonomous technology startup TuSimple to put driverless Internationals into production in the next four years

Navistar speeds up on autonomous trucks NORTH AMERICAN TRUCKMAKER NAVISTAR PLANS to begin building autonomous trucks in the next four years, fast-tracking the move by forming a partnership with “driverless” trucks startup TuSimple.

It’s a deal seen by both partners as a “milestone” in the commercialisation of Level 4 autonomous trucks – which, essentially, do not need a driver.

The partnership is a marriage of the truck mass-production capabilities of Navistar and the autonomous technology developed by TuSimple.

Navistar has bought a minority stake in TuSimple, which already has a fleet of 40 autonomous trucks (with drivers on board – but only to meet state laws) carting freight between Arizona and Texas. It says it plans to demonstrate fully driverless trucks in operation next year.

The two companies revealed that they have been working together behind the scenes for two years – jointly developing pre-production units.

The autonomous trucks developed by the partnership will be built on a Navistar production line. They’ll be badged Internationals and sold by Navistar dealers in the US, Canada and Mexico.

New Navistar CEO and president Persio Lisboa says that “autonomous technology is entering our industry and will have a profound impact on our customers’ businesses.

“Navistar’s strategic partnership with TuSimple positions us to be a leader in developing solutions for our customers by leveraging our organisations’ collective expertise to integrate our vehicle design and systems integration capabilities with TuSimple’s innovative autonomous technology.

“This announcement marks a significant milestone in our development journey with TuSimple and we look forward to furthering our relationship in the months to come.”

TuSimple president Cheng Lu says that the partners are “kicking off a

full go-to-market production programme.

“With the combined expertise of Navistar and TuSimple, we have a clear path to commercialise selfdriving Class 8 trucks at scale.”

Until the disclosure of its partnership with Navistar, TuSimple appeared to be developing its autonomous technology with the capability of being installed in trucks built by any make.

But the deal to have it built into new Internationals ensures “a fully integrated engineering solution,” the partners point out.

As Cheng Lu told US media: “There is an OEM standing behind this truck, which is really important for the end-user.”

TuSimple is seen as a leader in developing autonomous trucks specifically targeted at linehaul applications in the US and China – offering operators dramatically reduced operating costs and increased efficiency and safety.

It recently announced an agreement with UPS, Penske Truck Leasing, trucking company US Xpress and US logistics company McLane to create what it says will be the first autonomous freight network.

The aim is to build a nationwide network of digitally-mapped routes connecting hundreds of freight terminals – enabling low-cost, long-haul autonomous freight operations…..starting in the southwestern US. In December it said that a Californian university study showed that TuSimple’s autonomous driving technology cut fuel use in heavy-duty trucks by 10%, compared to standard highway freight units.

It has already secured around $US300million worth of backing from investors including parcel freight giant UPS and is currently in the market for another $US250m.

TuSimple’s trucks operate at level 4 autonomy, meaning they can operate without any driver involvement. T&D Truck & Driver | 15

NEWS

Getting a new Freightliner Cascadia into Linfox colours is photo opportunity gold – and brings out (from left) Freightliner director Stephen Downes, Daimler Truck & Bus boss Daniel Whitehead, Linfox founder Lindsay Fox, chairman Peter Fox and fleet and procurement president Ray Gamble

Top execs turn out for this Cascadia delivery FREIGHTLINER H AS GOT A FOOT in the door at Australian transport giant Linfox with its new Cascadia – with a highlevel delivery of a 116 model for B-double fuel tanker operation.

Linfox founder Lindsay Fox, executive chairman Peter Fox, and fleet and procurement president Ray Gamble were all on hand to receive the keys to one of the first Cascadias in Australia from Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific president and CEO Daniel Whitehead and Freightliner Australia Pacific director Stephen Downes.

“There is no better endorsement for our trucks than having them go to work in those iconic colours,” said Whitehead.

Linfox, Australia’s largest private familyowned supply chain solutions company, “demands nothing less than the best safety and emission standards in the class when it comes to the trucks it selects – and the Cascadia certainly fits that bill,” he added.

“Mercedes-Benz and Fuso trucks are 16 | Truck & Driver

already serving the Linfox fleet well, and it is wonderful that Freightliner now has a conventional product that delivers the exceptional safety and efficiency that Linfox demands.”

Freightliner says that the Cascadia “raises the bar for conventional truck safety in Australia” and exceeds the Euro 6 emission standard.

It has fully-integrated safety features including a radar and camera-based autonomous emergency braking system that can automatically detect and fully brake for pedestrians.

It also has radar-based adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and fatigue alert and electronic stability control. There is also the option of sideguard assist, which uses radar and a camera to “look” down the left side of combination to detect pedestrians, cyclists or vehicles – to avoid collisions during left turns.

The Linfox Cascadia 116 has a 376

kilowatt/505 horsepower 13-litre six-cylinder DD13 engine, which generates 2508 Newton metres/1850 lb ft of torque. A 16-litre Detroit engine is also available with up to 447kW/600hp and 2779Nm/2050 lb ft. T&D

Combilift CEO and co-founder Martin McVicar with the Combi-CS stacker...and the award trophy

NEWS

The IVECO Eurocargo now has a more powerful engine rating, with the Tector 7 (below)...and an extra transmission choice

New Eurocargo engine, AMT options IVECO HAS ADDED A NEW ENGINE power rating and transmission option to its mediumduty Euro 6 Eurocargo range in New Zealand, extending its potential range of applications.

The new Tector 7 engine, available on ML160 and ML180 variants, now comes with 239 kilowatts/320 horsepower and 1100 Newton metres/811 pound foot of peak torque – a 29kW/40hp and 73 lb ft/100Nm output increase on the standard engine.

Like the other engines in the Euro 6 Eurocargo range, the new 6.7-litre six meets the E6 (Step D) exhaust emissions standard using IVECO’s innovative Hi-SCR – a single aftertreatment system using a passive diesel particulate filter.

IVECO says that the Hi-SCR system is simple, lightweight and efficient – with benefits over EGR and SCR systems including reduced fuel consumption and tare weight. It also uses fewer

components for increased simplicity and does not require driver regeneration, thus reducing vehicle downtime.

The new transmission option, available across the range (including ML120 models), is the proven ZF Eurotronic 12-speed automated manual. It’s the fourth gearbox option for the range, joining a ZF six-speed AMT, a nine-speed manual and a fivespeed Allison auto.

IVECO NZ dealer principal Jason Keddie says that the new engine option, combined with the 12-speed Eurotronic AMT, “provides a great package for operators wanting to tow a trailer” – with a 32-tonne GCM rating available, on approval.

The added output, plus the broader spread of gears, also delivers improved gradeability performance and makes the Eurocargo ideal for operators engaged in a range of metropolitan and regional work, he says.

“For general freight and more specialised applications, such as car carrying, container or construction – where operators may need to transport extra vehicles, cargo or small to medium machines – there’s now a Eurocargo to suit,” Keddie adds.

IVECO Australia trialled four Eurocargos over the past two years, covering more than 400,000 kilometres, before adding the new specifications here. T&D

Combi pedestrian stacker picks up an award COMBILIFT HAS WON THE WAREHOUSE LOWLIFTER honours at Europe’s International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year Awards.

It scooped the honours at the IFOY Awards 2020 with its Combi-CS – which it says is the only pedestrian counterbalance stacker that will operate in a conventional reach truck aisle. It thus delivers space saving and productive storage and handling.

It features Combilift’s internationally patented and award winning multiposition tiller arm, which can be turned to the left or right to position the rear drive wheel – allowing the operator to remain in the safest position, at the side of the machine…rather than at the rear as is the case with other pedestrian stackers.

Says Combilift: “This ensures optimum visibility of the load and

surroundings as well as guaranteeing maximum safety in areas where other personnel or members of the public may be present.”

COVID-19 emergency measures in Europe saw a virtual IFOY Awards ceremony.

Finalists’ products underwent stringent IFOY audit and innovation checks by industry experts, and logistics media journalists from 19 countries also tested and evaluated the equipment for qualities such as technology, design, ergonomics, safety, marketability, customer benefit and sustainability.

The jury said that the Combi-CS “is a really compact, smart, pedestrianoperated truck and a nice hands-on solution. It offers significant added value in terms of narrow aisle operation and safety in confined environments.

“It is a customer-focused solution with a very high level of market relevance.” T&D Truck & Driver | 17

NEWS

Photo Ports of Auckland The Sapere report says that Auckland’s current downtown location has enough capacity to keep operating for about 30 years

No rush on new Auckland port TRANSPORT INDUSTRY LEADERS ARE CALLING for a halt to the rush to move Auckland’s port.

Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett says it’s “time to take a breath” on where best to locate a future replacement for the Ports of Auckland.

And National Road Carriers Association chief executive David Aitken says that the Government-commissioned Sapere report supports NRC’s own study’s finding – “that Northport is not a good option and there is time to decide on alternatives.”

Aitken says that before the latest report (by economic consultancy Sapere), the decision to move the port from Auckland to Northport was being rushed: “We needed to stop, take stock and reassess. The Sapere report says ‘certainty rather than urgency is the main issue.’ ” The Sapere report found that a shared increase in capacity at Northport and Port of Tauranga could accommodate the freight task for up to 60 years, but would then have little or no room to expand.

It said new port options on the Firth of Thames or the Manukau Harbour would have sufficient capacity for the long term – well beyond 60 years.

And, as Aitken adds, the Sapere report also found that the Port of Auckland’s current downtown Auckland location has about 30 years’ capacity – and there is a 10-15 year window for making a final decision on relocation.

Leggett welcomes the Sapere findings as “a sensible and measured report that stopped the push to develop Northport in its tracks. The promises around Northport were only ever based on New Zealand First’s desire to 18 | Truck & Driver

secure the Northland electorate seat at this year’s election.

“RTF has spoken out against the move to Northport on many occasions because of the cost it would add to move freight further away from its end destination. That’s before you even get into logistics and environmental impacts.

“As a country facing severe economic hardship in the wake of COVID-19, the Government cannot afford to spend money on poorly thought-out projects that don’t stack up on costs versus benefits.”

Given the Sapere report’s timeframe for a decision, Leggett says: “Surely, in that time, there can be a sensible assessment of what the problem we are trying to solve is and how best to solve it, rather than trying to retro-fit a solution to meet the needs of politicians, or other vested interests.

NRC’s report, Moving the Ports of Auckland: Costs and Challenges for Road Freight – based on interviews with trucking companies and stakeholders – concluded that Ports of Auckland should continue in its current location until it can’t efficiently handle further growth.

It found that moving Auckland’s port to Northport would be logistically impractical, prohibitively expensive, would increase greenhouse gas emissions and add to traffic congestion.

On releasing the Sapere report, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said the location of a future port for the northern North Island had significant fiscal, economic, social and environmental implications.

Aitken agrees that the port location “should hinge on the ability to handle growth efficiently, and whether the port’s location helps achieve the Upper North Island’s full economic, social and environmental potential.” T&D

Penske says that the warranty being offered on its Penske Certified used trucks programme is a NZ first

Penske offers used trucks, with warranties MAN AND WESTERN STAR DISTRIBUTOR Penske New Zealand has launched a new used trucks programme, offering “the highest level of quality” and 12-month warranties.

The company says that its Penske Certified trucks will “undergo a rigorous mechanical check, ensuring customers are purchasing a premium product that delivers peace of mind.”

Each truck will come with a report containing the results of a 90-point mechanical inspection – “providing a clear summation of the truck’s condition.”

“Additionally,” says Penske NZ general manager Brent Warner, “in a first for NZ, Penske Certified used trucks are being offered with the backing of a comprehensive, 12-month, bumper-tobumper protection plan which covers both parts and labour, all with no claim excess.

“Penske Certified customers will be backed with parts and service support by our factory-accredited technicians across our three Penske NZ dealerships, and be further supported by our 13 authorised nationwide repair centres.”

The company says that it will continue to invest in customerfocused initiatives like Penske Certified and to deliver “practical solutions that support our customers and their business operations.”

Penske Certified customers will also have access “to a wide range of exclusive benefits including discounted parts and labour, preferential bookings, exclusive special offers and more.” T&D

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Story Brian Cowan Photos Gerald Shacklock

Heading north on SH7, the X-Way passes the well-known Frog Rock in the Weka Pass

20 | Truck & Driver

BIG TEST

Truck & Driver | 21

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The drivers report that the new Iveco’s onroad behaviour is exemplary, with well-weighted steering, great ride comfort and outstanding quietness

IGURES. YOU’VE SOMETIMES GOTTA BE A WEE BIT careful with them, because they can blindside you until you dig a little deeper. Take this simple power comparison – between a 620-horsepower (462 kilowatts) R-Series Scania and this month’s Giti Big Test truck, Iveco’s new X-Way – rated at 570hp (425kW).

Why the Scania comparison? Simple: An R Series was the truck replaced by the X-Way in the Lincoln-based WJ Baker fleet – delivering stock feed to a North Canterbury pig farming operation.

Straight off the stick, there’s that 50hp (37kW) advantage held by the Swedish truck. The gap becomes even more marked when you compare the 3000Nm (2213 lb ft) peak torque of the 15.6 litre Scania V8 with the 2500Nm (1844 lb ft) of the 12.9-litre Iveco Cursor 13 straight six.

And, by a seat of the pants measure, the difference is obvious, reckons Wayne Lawton – the driver who’s just come out of the Scania and into the new Iveco: “The V8 pulls really hard from low revs. It’s an obviously strong engine – one of the gruntiest around. So when I first got in the X-Way it didn’t feel anywhere as lively.

“Yet now I realise it’s working really effectively. Even though it might not have the first-up rush of the V8, when you ask it a question it just hangs on and hangs on.”

Drilling down a bit gives a clue as to why this might be so: Both engines have a flat band of maximum torque, beginning at 1000rpm for the Scania and 900rpm for the Iveco. But where Scania’s plateau extends only through to 1400rpm, the Iveco goes to 1525rpm. After which it drops more gradually, still producing 88% of its peak at 1800rpm, whereas the V8 has dropped to 80%

at the same revs.

Right across the range the V8 is still the stronger of the two, naturally, but the difference in power curves means it feels significantly more muscley at low revs, whereas the Cursor engine demonstrates a broader spread of effort.

And so to the figures that really count. Fleet owner Gary Baker has done a detailed analysis of the run times for the two trucks for Wayne’s standard loaded trip – averaging them out over several weeks – and has found them as close as makes no difference. He says there’s barely minutes in it: “No matter that one truck might feel stronger, you can’t argue with the GPS.” The bonus, he adds, lies in fuel economy. The newcomer – not yet 5000 kilometres old, so still far from loosened up – typically uses around 35 litres a day less than the Scania.

Iveco hasn’t yet achieved the sales success in our market that it probably deserves, but the new model might be the one to start tipping the balance, not least because it’s being built in Australia, at the Dandenong, Melbourne facility that already produces the Stralis, ACCO and Powerstar.

The company says the X-Way has been the subject of a threeyear development and local onroad testing programme specifically for the Australasian market, so it’s obviously keen to make a serious impact.

In Europe, Iveco seems to be pushing the model’s versatility (the X-Way moniker is apparently a suggestion that it spans the crossover between onroad and offroad). Accordingly, a good deal of the promotional material talks of applications in what Americans term the vocational segment.

In this part of the world, Iveco’s promotional emphasis seems Truck & Driver | 23

Main picture: Truck’s regular run includes some gravel roads, where overall comfort is appreciated

Right: Driver Wayne Lawton stepped out of a 620hp Scania V8, thought at first the Iveco might be a bit underpowered, but has since become a convert Far right: Unloading at Patoa Farms. A trailer-mounted auger carries the feed up into the silos. Conditions underfoot can become slippery in winter, so the transmission’s rocking function is a real plus, says Wayne

more on general freight work. The range offers three 6x4 prime movers, with the AD (Active Day) and AT (Active Time, lowroof sleeper) cab variants using 460hp Cursor 11 engines, while the AS (Active Space, high-roof sleeper) gets the Cursor 13, at 510hp but uprateable to 570hp.

The rigid lineup is virtually the same, apart from an 8x4 axle configuration across the three models, plus the addition of a 360hp 6x4 using the smaller Cursor 9 engine.

The greater number of 8x4 models has boosted the model’s attractiveness, believes Iveco NZ general manager Jason Keddie: “From our perspective it’s exciting, because we’ve never had an eight-wheeler

24 | Truck & Driver

with a full sleeper cab before. It’s an opportunity to break into a wider section of the market.

“Though there are many updates and improvements to the interior and the cab, overall it’s very similar to the Stralis in those areas, but the real story lies in the technology under the skin, where nearly everything is new – the engine, transmission, drivetrain and chassis.

“As just one example, the new engine brake is now so powerful that the only time you’d need to fit the optional retarder would be if the truck was working on extreme slopes.

“User feedback on the X-Ways that are in service has been very positive. Among

Truck & Driver | 25

From the outside it might look very similar, but the Euro 6 Cursor 13 engine is bristling with internal changes. Fuel system, turbocharger, pistons and rods are all new, while the unit meets the tough exhaust emissions standard with SCR only

the main comments have been how quiet the truck is, and how comfortable the ride.”

Our test subject is a top-of-the line 570hp AS 8x4 rigid, fitted with a bulk tipper body and towing a five-axle tipping trailer. The range-topping power output isn’t for show, either – the unit is H-rated for 58 tonnes, and generally runs at close to that mark.

The test truck actually isn’t Aussie built: It comes from Iveco’s facility in Spain that’s home to the Stralis range. However, that’s only because at the time it came into the country, Dandenong hadn’t yet started production of the 8x4 variants.

Iveco NZ’s South Island sales consultant, Straun Syme, says it has the full local spec, and the only difference between this truck and the Aussie X-Ways will be an air front suspension option offered in the Melbourne builds to aid load sharing between the axles.

Regardless of what applications this new Iveco is put to work in, one thing is for certain – the X-Way is jammed with technology, and nowhere more so than the drivetrain. The Cursor 13 meets Euro 6 emissions standards, and does so with SCR only, an accomplishment in which Iveco led the world and is rightly proud of.

The patented system, dubbed Hi-SCR by the company, places a passive DPF (diesel particulate filter) and an oxidation catalyst upstream of the main SCR catalyser. Exhaust treatment designs that use exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to lower peak combustion temperatures (thereby reducing the formation of NOx) have the downside of also producing a higher level of partially-burnt fuel, or particulate matter (PM).

26 | Truck & Driver

As a result, the DPFs intermittently have to be regenerated by way of introducing excess fuel into the exhaust to raise localised temperatures and burn off the accumulated PM. In many cases this requires the vehicle to be briefly stopped and the process triggered manually.

Because Hi-SCR produces a low level of PM, the DPF can go for up to 600,000km before needing cleaning or replacing, Iveco says, while the extra fuel burn and thermal stresses of regeneration are eliminated.

The Euro 6 Cursor engines have been substantially upgraded, with new piston rings and revised piston crown profiles, plus a strengthened block, cylinder head, pistons and conrods to handle the higher peak cylinder pressures.

The latest generation Bosch common rail fuel system works at pressures of up to 2200 bar, allowing multiple injections per cycle for more efficient combustion.

A new Garrett variable geometry turbo provides a quicker response at lower revs and also ensures optimal exhaust backpressure when engine braking is called for.

Partnering the engine is a 12-speed direct drive AMT the company calls Hi-TroniX, which is based on ZF’s acclaimed TraXon modular transmission – but with shifting software developed by Iveco.

Compared with the Eurotronic II (ZF AS-Tronic) transmission in the current Stralis, Hi-TroniX is lighter and offers quicker shift speeds and reduced noise (by up to 6dB). Iveco also claims it is exceptionally durable, having tested it for up to 1.6million kilometres, or 80% greater than the limits of some competitor

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Design includes: • High-tensile chassis offering reduced tare weight & increased strength.

• Structurflex curtains standard option on curtainsiders, mezzanine floor ready. Excludes mezzanine floors, hooks, trees, floor poles & load binders.

• Nationwide support from TMC’s Auckland & Christchurch workshops & authorised service agents.

Prices are for standard TMC build spec and are valid for one month from magazine publication date. Trailer images above are sample only and may include some non-standard options. Finance available, subject to approval. TMC’s standard t&c’s apply. Delivery dates quoted while stock lasts.

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

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AMTs. The transmission offers four reverse ratios, plus a couple of extra benefits in the form of creeping and rocking modes. With the first of these set up, simply releasing the service brake sees the vehicle inching along for precise close-quarter manoeuvring. When it’s in rocking mode, lifting off the accelerator automatically disengages the clutch and lets the vehicle roll back, after which another dab on the go pedal will have it rocking forward again...without building up so much torque it loses traction.

The test truck is fitted with a whole suite of safety-related and fuel economy-related applications. There’s nothing too groundbreaking about them – all premium Euro models have a similar lineup – but the X-Way does offer a couple of intriguing and useful wrinkles. For instance, the adaptive cruise control has a gap setting feature whereby the speed is allowed to deviate from the set figure by up to plus or minus 10km/h (driver selected) to take advantage of the vehicle’s momentum.

In other words, it isn’t continuously accelerating or braking to stay right on the set speed, to the detriment of fuel economy.

The stopping system integrates the main service brakes, engine brake and transmission retarder (if fitted), apportioning each element’s involvement for the most efficient result during normal slowing. And when the brake pedal is applied quickly enough for the software to understand there’s an emergency – yet not hard enough to trigger the ABS – a function called BAS (Brake Assistance System) takes over automatically and goes to full-on anchors out.

In its basic setting the cruise control uses a forward-facing radar to maintain a safe separation to objects or vehicles ahead. The radar is also a key element of the X-Way’s AEBS (Advanced Emergency Braking System).

When the software interprets a sudden lessening of distance as evidence

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

Both pictures: Instrument panel and fascia will be largely familiar to Stralis users. Wayne Lawton has found the system can be a little uninformative when it comes to detailing the background to error notifications

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28 | Truck & Driver

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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Clockwise from top left: Test model’s AS sleeper is 200mm wider than AS/AT versions, has space to burn; double side lockers swallow tools and wet weather gear; full rollout fridge lives under bottom bunk; overhead lockers offer massive volume

of a potential collision the AEBS comes into play, initially with an audible warning. If the driver doesn’t respond immediately, a short brake application is then followed by full application.

For less frantic scenarios, there are a couple more acronyms: LDW stands for Lane Departure Warning. It uses a windscreenmounted camera that recognises road markings and sounds an audible warning (a rumble strip sound) if the vehicle is moving from its lane without indicators engaged. DAS, or Driver Assistance System, analyses steering wheel movements. If their pattern indicates the driver is getting drowsy, a message appears on the instrument panel display screen and a warning is sounded.

While the drivetrain has a lot of you-beaut aids to safety and fuel economy, the cab is less novel, being a virtual copy of the Stralis. Nothing wrong there, of course, particularly in the case of the test truck’s AS accommodation, which is 200mm wider than the AD/AT designs, and a monster 2080mm from the centre floor hump to the roof. Some NBL players might have to duck a little, but they certainly wouldn’t if standing in the footwell, for then it’s 2310mm to the roof.

Sleeping arrangements too are more than generously proportioned. The fixed lower bunk is 2060mm long and 750mm wide, while the fold-down upper unit is marginally shorter at 1940mm, but 20mm wider.

The dashboard layout is also a pickup from the Stralis, which means a quite low-set top, a centre console angled sharply to the driver, and an array of buttons to handle the various transmission and cruise control functions. Some months ago the company announced a new model in Europe called the S-Way, effectively a replacement for the Stralis. This features an all-new cab that boasts outstanding aerodynamics. In time, the S-Way cab will likely find its way onto the local lineup. But when – and in what model or configuration – is not being talked about….just yet.

The S-way dash looks to be more intuitive than the X-Way, and features a larger multifunction display and several more controls mounted on the steering wheel, but its general layout is similar.

The primary job carried out by the test truck is a simple one – a 150km round distance shuttle run – and it’s substantially on

State Highway 1 and SH7, with no monster hills to tackle...but the combination’s permitted weight ups the ante significantly, as does the need to handle the commuter traffic from Christchurch’s northern satellite towns.

The run carries pelletised pig food to Patoa Farms, a sprawling operation that’s situated on the south bank of the Hurunui River near Hawarden in North Canterbury. It hosts a porcine population of often more than 40,000 and is fully free range. The sows roam at will, and when they’re ready to farrow they’re transferred to individual sheds in the paddocks. The piglets stay with their mothers in the open until they’re weaned, after which they’re housed in big open barns.

Feeding such numbers calls for upwards of 700t of stockfood every week, the majority of it supplied by Weston Milling in Rangiora and delivered by WJ Baker, which specialises in bulk haulage transport and pneumatic conveying.

The fleet is effectively a second incarnation of the WJ Baker name, having been set up in the post-World War 2 period by Gary’s father, as a general transport business in Tai Tapu, near Christchurch. However, he sold up in 1973 to pursue a career in farming and the name disappeared for six years until a 19-year-old Gary resurrected it for his own freight operation, starting off with an International ACCO. After his major contract was absorbed by Mainfreight, Gary continued to work with the company, running linehaul throughout the South Island and helping set up bulk silo deliveries for Ravensdown.

In the 1990s, when Mainfreight set up its company-branded owner-driver system, Gary elected to continue operating independently, gaining contracts with Champion Flour Mills and Weston Milling. In the time since, WJ Baker has specialised in bulk haulage and pneumatic conveying (blower trailers) – set up to handle a wide range of products including feed granules, wheat and barley, fertiliser, and wood and plastic pellets.

Wayne has been with Bakers for around five years, but his association with Gary goes back around 25 years – to Mainfreight where, he says, Gary taught him to drive.

Truck & Driver | 31

Above, left to right: Mirrors have big casings, but still allow good vision at intersections; high-set cab means quite a climb to enter; Cowan Trailers tipper bins have delivery chutes to aid unloading onto feed auger Opposite page: The Baker X-Way heads out from Weston Milling with another load of feed. In a typical week the unit delivers around 700t

A typical day for Wayne starts before 3am, after which he’ll fit in three or four round trips to Patoa Farms. The early start is primarily to allow him to fit in his driving hours and the requisite number of trips….before the onset of the post-school and afternoon rush-hour traffic.

The predawn kickoff is not a problem at the farm end, as he can do the unloading himself, using a tractor-towed auger trailer to transfer the feed to the silos.

He’s running a little late for our meetup at Rangiora this morning as a result of having to go hunt down the tractor for his first load, the machine having been inadvertently left at the far side of the farm.

As the Iveco is running on a 58t permit, our route from Rangiora to Patoa Farms is tightly defined, linking up with SH1 at Woodend and staying on that and SH7 until well past the Hawarden turnoff, before heading cross-country to our destination. Wayne explains that if the route is blocked for any reason – an accident, for example – and a detour has been put in place, he’s not able to deviate until express permission has been given by the relevant authorities.

He laughs: “That sort of thing could really play havoc with our schedule! We’ve been lucky so far – but I guess it’s going to happen one day.”

Because he’s running empty on the return trip, he has more freedom, and occasionally travels back through Hawarden.

Apart from accidents and stop/go roadworks – and for the past few years the stretch of SH1 north of Christchurch has had more than its share of the latter – a round trip typically takes a little over three hours.

Like Wayne, our initial impressions of the Cursor’s power output are in the realm of: “Hmm. Does the job OK, but it doesn’t feel like 570hp.” But it doesn’t take long to realise how deceptively 32 | Truck & Driver

strong the engine is, and we have to keep reminding ourselves that it is lugging a big weight...and showing no signs of strain.

The twists and turns and sharp little climbs of the Weka Pass (exacerbated by stop/go roadworks) put it under some pressure, and Wayne confirms that the Scania got through this section quicker.

But immediately after that comes the long, steady pull up from Waikari – and that demonstrates perfectly the nature of the Cursor 13’s power and torque band and the shifting protocol employed by the Hi-TroniX gearbox. The climb is a deceptive one, looking much flatter than it actually is, and with its hefty all-up weight, the unit has to work hard at it.

However, the transmission maintains a higher ratio than you might expect, letting the engine lug down into the mid-1000s.

The shift software is obviously responsive to variations in torque loading, and because this is pretty consistent on this stretch of road, it sees no need to drop a ratio or two. When the grade eases, it lets the revs climb steadily to around 1600rpm before effecting a quick upshift.

Ride comfort from the airbag-suspended cab gets an especially high rating from Wayne, an evaluation that’s borne out as we cover the bumpy section of SH1 to the south of Amberley.

Its assured control also impresses him: “It doesn’t sway as much. The Scania cab would roll, then come back through centre and take a bit to settle down. This one moves as far in the first instance but then settles down very quickly. It must have really good damping control.”

Another tick is given to the overall quietness of the cab. Not only is wind noise restrained (even with a window lowered slightly)….the Cursor 13 engine is a lot less obvious than the lusty Scania V8, Wayne says.

Both NZ Truck & Driver test driver Hayden Woolston and Wayne

mention the mirrors. The top (optical) one has quite a large housing, and the pair are also set fractionally lower than normal.

Hayden reckons that his eyes seem to stray to that one rather than the main flat one. However, both agree that the generous gap between the vertical A-pillar and the mirrors adds significantly to safety at intersections or when checking for close-by traffic in adjoining lanes.

The cab is quite high-set, with three large steps to get up to it.

However, good grabhandles either side of the openings make this less of a challenge than it might be.

With the dash top lower than in many trucks, forward vision out is excellent, while the AS interior offers space to burn and a full lineup of storage, including a pullout fridge under the lower bunk.

The two storage lockers for tools and wet weather gear each side of the cab (one accessible directly, the other covered by the door when closed) are especially useful, says Wayne.

He admits he’s still learning his way round the X-Way’s main instrument display, but comments on its relatively uninformative nature: “It might put up a warning light, but there is little explanation as to what it’s about. In the Scania you get a lot more backup information in this sort of situation.”

One thing the Stralis is renowned for is direct and well-weighted steering, and the X-Way proves no different in this regard, threading its way through the Weka Pass with aplomb. The fiveaxle Cowan trailer is a useful ally in this regard, tracking steadily at all times. The trailer sits on Hendrickson ZMD air-suspended axles and runs 265/70 19.5 tyres.

Standard tyre size for the X-Way 8x4 is 275/70 R22.5 but Gary Baker has plunked for the optional 295/80 R22.5 Michelins. As Wayne Lawton explains: “It can get pretty claggy on the farm in winter, and the low-profile tyres tend to get a huge amount of buildup under the guards.

“These ones are much better in that regard, and they also seem to give a more comfortable ride on the gravel access road to the facility.”

He’s also looking forward to using the X-Way transmission’s rocking function when winter bites and conditions underfoot become slippery...and he’s already found another benefit, in the form of the truck’s side-exit exhaust: “The auger has remote controls, so you’re not standing closer to the dust and whatnot, so on really cold mornings I can stay near the exhaust. Trust me, it regularly gets to minus-8 degrees at the farm, and any extra warmth is appreciated.”

Both truck and trailer are fitted with Cowan Trailers-built alloy bins, tipped by Penta underbody hoists. In place of conventional tailgates, they feature funnelled chutes – their bottoms level with the bin floors, meaning delivery to the hopper for the lifting auger is precise and there’s no residue stuck in the bins after delivery.

Side-rolling covers are kept in place pretty well all the time except when loading at Weston, or very occasionally on a hot, dry summer’s day, explains Wayne: “The feed has a milk powder component in it, and if it gets wet it can become a devil to shift.”

The X-Way joins three other Ivecos in the WJ Baker lineup, which would indicate Gary is a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the brand. But not necessarily so, he says: “They’re great trucks, no doubt, but then there’s no such thing as a bad truck from any maker these days.

“However, what makes all the difference is a brand’s service support, and in that respect New Zealand Trucks (Iveco’s central South Island servicing agent) is without compare. The people are so organised and obliging – nothing seems a problem for them.”

So, in the Canterbury area at least, Iveco is doing it right from the bottom up. And from a top-down perspective, the company also looks to be ticking a lot of important boxes with the X-Way. T&D Truck & Driver | 33

Trevor Test

Hayden Woolston

W

E’RE DOWN IN THE SOUTH Island, in Rangiora, just north of Christchurch, to catch up with Gary Baker’s new Iveco X-Way – the new Euro 6 model for the Italian truck brand.

We’ve been waiting a long time to test this truck – with holdups due to COVID-19 and other things. We even took it off our list and checked out testing North Island X-Ways instead….but they would not stack up to be as good a test as this.

This Iveco is on its regular run, carting pig food north on a 58-tonne sticker.

Regular driver Wayne Lawton has loaded out of the feed supplier in Rangiora and takes the truck and trailer unit, loaded to 56 tonnes all up, to Waipara….where I take over the driving. Wayne and Gary say that it’s usually loaded to 57.5t.

The climb up into the cab is via three well-placed, deep and wide steps, with good grabhandles on both sides and a wide-opening door.

Once in, the cab has a familiar Iveco

34 | Truck & Driver

layout as the upgrades to this model are more about the driveline.

There’s a heated, air-suspended leather seat for the driver, plus plenty of legroom. A foot-controlled button in the middle of the floor unlocks full steering column adjustment, making it easy for any driver to find a comfortable driving position. This cab is a high-rise sleeper, giving it a very spacious feel.

The dash layout is a wraparound setup with your AMT mode selection buttons (eg Drive, Reverse, Neutral) on the dash – to the left, behind the steering wheel.

The manual gear selection controls are on the right-hand steering column stalk.

To the left on the main wraparound dash there’s a stereo system screen that can be controlled from the steering wheel. Below this are the aircon vents – and then further down the dash you have the park brake and the aircon controls.

On the steering wheel itself are buttons for the hands-free phone functions and

one to change the main dash display and the adaptive cruise control settings while in cruise control mode.

On the left-hand stalk are the wiper, indicator lights and headlight controls, and on the right stalk are the controls for the two-stage engine brake, manual gear selection and the cruise control – plus a toggle on the end of it to increase or reduce the speed in cruise control.

The main dash layout is very traditional with the tachometer and speedo, plus temp and fuel gauges and a centre digital display showing oil temperatures, cruise control settings and gears.

I have to say that the various function controls in this cab are not as logical and as easy to settle in with as they are on some other European trucks I’ve tested lately. This maybe comes down partly to the fact that this is not the new Euro 6 cab that Iveco has introduced in Europe…. which Iveco NZ says will be launched here in the future.

• SPECIFICATIONS • IVECO X-WAY 8x4 AS

Engine: Iveco Cursor 13 Capacity: 12.9 litres Maximum power: 419kW (570hp) @ 1900rpm Maximum torque: 2500Nm (1844 lb ft) @ 900-1525rpm Engine revs: 1440rpm @ 90km/h in 12th gear Fuel capacity: 480 litres Transmission: 12-speed Hi-TroniX 12TX2620 TD AMT Ratios: 1st – 16.69 2nd – 12.92 3rd – 9.93 4th – 7.67 5th – 5.90 6th – 4.57 7th – 3.66 8th – 2.83 As I head off, the Iveco 12-speed Hi-TroniX gearbox and the 570hp 13-litre Cursor engine work seamlessly together. The ride’s smooth and it’s very quiet in the cab.

As we head through Weka Pass the truck does its thing nicely, with well-timed shifts up and down through the gears.

It makes it a relaxing drive through the Pass, making the 56t weight seem nonexistent.

The ride is extremely comfortable with no road bounce coming up through the cab and the driver’s seat and certainly no load pushing from the five-axle Cowan trailer.

It has Hendrickson ZMD (zero maintenance damping) axles under it, making for extremely stable handling and very nice tracking.

I do find one issue with the mirror setup: The mirrors are a good size and there’s a good gap between them and the A-pillar to avoid blind spots at roundabouts…..but for some reason the smaller convex mirror is above the larger, flat mirror. I really struggle

with this – as I’m repeatedly looking first at the top mirror for my main view.

Wayne says it took him a while to get used to it as well.

Other than that, the vision from the driver’s seat is great. There are two large spotter mirrors on the left-hand side of the cab – one showing the offside front corner and the other to show down below the left side passenger door.

There’s a big windscreen and a sloping dash to give good vision directly in front.

With all this the truck is a breeze to position on the road, even in the tight stuff.

When I hand the truck back to Wayne to make the farm delivery, it’s another ride I don’t want to get out of.

The engine and gearbox pairing work really well together – and they’re topped off with a supreme ride. The X-Way is just let down a little bit by some cab functionality that could be better designed and implemented….which, as Iveco itself says, is on the way from Europe. T&D

9th – 2.17 10th – 1.68 11th – 1.29 12th – 1.00 Front axles: Iveco 5890/D, combined rating of 18,000kg Rear axles: Meritor MT23-150/D, combined rating of 23,000kg Auxiliary brakes: Iveco engine brake Front suspension: Parabolic springs, shock absorbers, stabiliser bars Rear suspension: Eight-bag Iveco air suspension, shock absorbers, stabiliser bars GVW: 30,000kg GCM: 60,000kg

Truck & Driver | 35

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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

The Wellington region has been let down by the uncertainty over Transmission Gully, meaning that future PPPs must be heavily scrutinised

RTF opposes tolling for public-private partnerships M

by Nick Leggett Chief Executive Road Transport Forum NZ

UCH OF THIS MONTH’S CONTENT from the Road Transport Forum is focused on providing New Zealand Truck & Driver readers with a clear understanding of the positions of the various political parties ahead of the 2020 General Election.

With COVID-19, the lockdown, border quarantine issues and considerable concern over the extent of the economic damage wrought, there hasn’t been a lot of focus on the election, yet for the road transport industry there’s a lot riding on it.

What plans do our political parties have for transport, the provision of transport infrastructure and funding over the next few years? How will they treat the safety issues around cannabis and what support can they give our industry to help us with our environmental challenges?

RTF takes our advocacy role extremely seriously and I hope that the answers to the eight questions we put to the parties will provide the information to help you make an informed decision on September 19. Unfortunately, NZ First refused to provide any responses to our questions.

RTF recently submitted on NZTA’s proposal to impose

tolls on the new Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway. We have a number of concerns over this proposal and as such do not consider tolling to be appropriate for the route’s development.

Firstly, we have no confidence that the proposed toll of $4.80 will remain at that level once construction of the project begins. If we look at other similar projects, such as Transmission Gully, it is difficult to believe that the project will run smoothly and that government will not be forced to step in to finish construction or micro-manage ongoing maintenance.

The complete mess that is the Transmission Gully project and the continual rehabilitation of the Kapiti Expressway clearly illustrate our concerns.

In announcing the tolling proposal, NZTA signalled its intention to have separate tolls for each section of motorway.

This is impractical for commercial transport operators and will result in unnecessary administration costs.

We believe NZTA must consider an alternative approach that has lower front-end administration costs and does not include multiple tolls for travelling relatively short distances.

RTF does not dismiss the idea of tolls on new roads, Truck & Driver | 37

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Cost comparison report available

T

HE LATEST OPERATOR COST comparison report is now available for purchase from RTF. The report presents the results of the cost survey of road transport businesses commissioned by the RTF from the New Zealand Institute for Business at the University of Waikato.

The survey results provided the evidence to recalibrate the RTF/Grant Thornton Cost Index, a schedule of cost movements that many operators use to demonstrate to their customers the movement in their fixed costs and overheads over time.

The report can be purchased for $250 plus GST for members of RTF associations and $400 plus GST for non-members.

To purchase your copy please send an email to forum@ rtf.nz or contact the RTF office at 04 472 3877. T&D

TD30845

especially where they can accelerate the start of important roading projects that would otherwise not get off the ground.

However, with the Government determined to fund marginal rail projects using road-user funds generated from Fuel Excise Duty and Road User Charges, we have no confidence that tolling will be used exclusively for roading infrastructure improvements.

The Government continues to argue the economic benefits of rail investment and is committed to developing the Northland rail route. Tolls on the new road could be seen as a cynical incentive for freight movers to shift their freight to rail.

The public-private partnership (PPP) approach must be heavily scrutinised.

When it all goes bad, road users end up footing the bill. As a resident and former Mayor of Porirua, I have watched the unravelling of the Transmission Gully PPP with utter dismay.

It is true that COVID-19 and the lockdown presented complications for the project and it was inevitable that there would be a delay, but to now hear that it may not open until 2022 – two years after the due date – is, frankly, completely unacceptable.

NZTA needs to start telling people what is going on. After all this is public money and nobody has any idea of what is actually happening behind the scenes.

Those who live in the lower North Island and all NZ road users have been expecting the completion of this project for well over a decade. Minister Twyford, who I am sure has made sorting the contract out with the private partner a priority, needs to communicate where things are at. I understand that there are commercial imperatives at the heart of the negotiation but NZers deserve some answers. T&D

CONTACT GARRY

Cell: 021 309 884 Phone: 03 313 1786 www.cowantrailers.co.nz Email: cowantrailers@xtra.co.nz 311 Flaxton Road Rangiora 7400

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

NZ will go to the polls on September 19 in the midst of an economic crisis

Our political parties’ plans for road transport T

HE 2020 ELECTION IS FAST approaching and, in the wake of the COV ID-19 lockdow n and ongoing economic crisis, could be one of the most inf luential in recent times.

RTF wrote to the transport spokespeople of the f ive pol itica l pa r ties cu r rent ly

represented in Parliament ask ing them a series of questions of interest to road transport operators.

We have presented the responses in their entirety and without any commentary. New Zealand Truck & Driver readers can judge for themselves the merits of each answer and

take those into account as they head to the polls on September 19.

T ha n k s to Labou r ’s Ph i l Tw y ford, National’s Chris Bishop, Julie Anne Genter of the Green Par t y and ACT’s Dav id Seymour for taking part. Unfortunately, NZ First declined the opportunity.

Truck & Driver | 39

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Road transpor t operators have faced multiple increases in Road User Charges (RUC) over t he last few yea rs, including on July 1, 2020.

These add significant fixed costs for operators on already extremely tight margins.

What plans does your party have with regard to further RUC i nc re a s e s a nd a re you willing to consider a reduction in RUC and fuel excise duty in the wake of COVID-19? If not, why not?

Our policy is there will be no increases to RUC or fuel excise duty for the next three years. We’ve made good gains with the increases this term and they will help fund increased road maintenance and crucial infrastructure projects across the country, like the Manawat ū Gorge replacement h ighw ay. We have to keep bu i ld i ng infrastructure and creating jobs and we need the revenue from this term’s increases to maintain our record infrastructure pipeline.

ACT believes in user pays. The problem is road users have been paying for non-road projects they do not use. Taking your money for one purpose and using it for another you didn’t choose is not only economically ineff icient, it is insulting. Slapping on a RUC increase while the Government was borrowing and hosing money and all sorts of other dubious projects to “stimulate the economy” just added insult to injury.

As David Seymour said to parliament at the beginning of the COV ID crisis, the Government should “ f irst do no harm” and that means holding back on revenue increases before going on a spending spree.

Mode neut ra lit y used to be an important principle in transport policy making. With a significant proportion of the National L a n d Tr a n s p o r t F u n d (NLTF) now being diverted to support rail and other transport modes that do not pay into it, what assurances c a n you g i v e t r a ns p or t operators that the NLTF will return to a “user-pays” model for the benefit of road users?

40 | Truck & Driver

A s a g e ne r a l pr i nc ipl e w e b e l ie v e t ra nspor t modes shou ld be f u nded by those who use them. We are concerned about the government’s move to allow rail to access even more of the NLTF than it already does, which will mean road users will end up subsidising a competing mode while investment in roads diminishes.

T he Gre en Pa r t y st rongly supp or t s mo de neut r a l it y a nd t h at is w hy w e have long advocated for a more balanced i nv e s t me nt b y t he G ov e r n me nt i n a mi x of road, ra i l, c yc l ing and wa l k ing infrastructure. The majority of congestion on ou r state highway is caused by sole occupants travelling in cars. By investing in faster, more frequent urban and inter regional public transport we’ ll have fewer people driving at peak times. This frees up more space on the road and improves travel time reliabilit y for high value trips like moving freight.

We opposed all of the recent RUC and fuel excise increases, alongside the Auckland Regional Fuel Ta x. We will repeal the Regional Fuel Tax when in off ice; and we have committed to not increasing fuel excise in our first term.

The Green Part y policy is to ensure that pricing of transpor t ser v ices and infrastructure promotes the development and use of susta inable transpor t. We do think that there could be merit in a review of the RUC system, but do support appropr iately pr icing the ex terna l ities involved in the road transport industry.

Mode neutra l it y under pins our transport policy and successive g ov e r n ment s h av e b e en u si n g N LT F funds for more than just roads for over a decade. We want the most eff icient way to carr y passengers or freight for any given task , a nd for t he f i rst t ime under ou r Government, all modes will be considered alongside each other. Road users benef it f rom ever y invest ment made f rom t he NLTF, for example from safet y upgrades, new roads, or investments that give people rea l t ra nspor t c hoices wh ic h f rees t he roads up for those that have to drive. We also plan to introduce track user chargers for ra i l users so they contribute to the fund as well.

Phil Twyford

As above, ACT is committed to user pays.

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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Now, more than ever, it is critical that NZ’s economy is focused on supporting our export sector, and a big part of that is getting goods to market as efficiently as we can.

Is your party committed to the necessary state highway upgrades and improvements to help make that happen, given that the roads will cont inue to ca r r y t he majority of NZ’s exports to port?

Yes, which is why we are funding the Manawat ū Gorge replacement highway, complet i ng t he Wa i k ato E x pre s s w ay and Christchurch motor ways, as well as investing $5.3billion on roads through the NZ Upgrade Programme. These include a new 22k m fou r-la ne cor r idor f rom Whangārei to Port Marsden, a four-lane corridor from Omokoroa to Tauranga, and improvements on SH76 to support a more reliable freight route to Ly ttelton Port.

We’re also look ing to make improv ing freight connections a key strategic priority for transport investments next term.

Absolutely. At time of writing our full plan is yet to be released but NZers can have conf idence in National’s track record of delivering the Roads of National Significance programme during the last government.

Projects like the Waikato Expressway, Waterview, and the Christchurch Motorway projects speak to our deep commitment to making it easier to move people and freight around our great country.

As Associate Minister of Transpor t with a delegation of road safet y, I have

been responsible for significant investment in upgrades to roads that had been neglected by the last National Government. We substantially increased the budget for local roads, and for maintenance and renewals of state highways and local roads in the Government Policy Statement on Transport.

This has already led to thousands of additional kilometres of roads being renewed than was able to be during the last National Government’s last term in office.

with lifesaving upgrades. We have already engineered up over 2500kms of roads so far with commonsense upgrades that make a real difference, like rumble strips and safety barriers. We are looking to go further and looking to invest $10billion in our strategy to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on the road by 40%.

Our country is spread out and mountainous.

As such we will continue to be overwhelmingly reliant on road transport. ACT’s Alternative Budget is a 5-point plan that includes putting the State Highway network into a new Infrastructure Commission that can enter into public private partnerships to get roads built, and is required to meet targets for minimum traffic speeds.

Large parts of NZ’s roading net work cr it ica l to ou r economy are, from a safety point of view, not suitable for heav y vehicles. W hat plans does your party have to improve the safety of our roads, pa r ticula rly r ura l roads?

There are two main ways we plan to bring our roads up to scratch. One is through properly funding road maintenance. Road maintenance expenditure f latlined under the last government, while the cost of labour and materials grew by 12% and traffic grew by 15%. With councils we have increased funding by around $500million this term and NZTA is on track to deliver 60% more state highway renewals compared to under the previous government – that’s around 350kms more a year. We are proposing to go further next term and up funding by another 11% to step up the pace of renewals. The other way we are bringing our roads up to scratch is by upgrading 3300kms of high risk roads

Chris Bishop

The safest roads in NZ are National’s Roads of National Significance. Just one person has died on a RON since they were opened. This government has cut state highway funding by $5billion, and diverted the funds into failed projects like light rail. Rural roads are hugely important in NZ and our policies around upgrades will reflect that.

As discussed in the answer above, the Green Party will continue to push for safety upgrades and improvements, and increased ma intenance of loca l roads and state highways.

Truck & Driver | 43

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Ru ra l roads a re la rgely a counci l responsibility. The critical issue for councils is funding, they simply cannot raise the necessary revenue or rates and have limited other sources of funds. A secondary issue is that their capability varies by council. ACT would pursue City and Regional Partnerships promoted

by Infrastructure NZ. These partnerships give longterm central Government funding in return for oversight and accountability of Council spending on infrastructure.

The upcoming recreational cannabis referendum is of major concern to the road transport industry. How will a government that your party is part of manage road and workplace safety, given that roadside saliva testing has yet to be proven and there will be inevitable consequences for health and safety in safetysensitive industries like road transport?

the government has not properly considered the impact on the road transport industry of legalisation, if it occurs.

If the referendum is successful, I would expect the Government to introduce random roadside drug testing before any changes to the laws are made. Driving while impaired will still remain a crime and the main purpose of the proposed rules is to reduce cannabis-related harm to individuals, families and communities. I’d expect also NZTA and Police to work with firms to ensure they have modern workplaces policies and take a zerotolerance approach to drug driving.

The number of people being killed by drug impaired drivers on NZ roads is higher than those killed by drivers above the legal alcohol limit. Ultimately everyone will get a say at the referendum, but we are concerned that

Julie Anne Genter

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

The decision at the referendum will be whether we want to continue the widespread use of illegal cannabis in NZ, or have a strongly regulated market. Having potency limits on cannabis products, which the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill would do, will help prevent issues in workplace health and safety and on our roads. Regardless though, of whether the proposed law is supported by a majority of NZers, this Government is taking action on drug driving laws. I have been leading work on a new drug driving law that is scheduled to be introduced to Parliament before the election. This will strengthen the rules on all impairing drugs so that we apply a similar standard to drug driving as we do to driving under the influence of alcohol.

use. No Government can control whether sa l iv a test ing t hat work s is invented.

ACT’s commitment is to the health and safet y of people going about their lawful business, so where t here is doubt, we believe employment law should favour the rights of the employer and other employees over anyone who may be using drugs.

Despite t he impact of C OV I D -19 t h e r o a d t r a n s p o r t i ndu s t r y s t i l l faces a longterm workforce shortage. W hat will you do to suppor t t he indust r y ’s initiatives to address this issue, incentiv ise the upt a k e of qu a l i f ic at ions and training and reduce the bu re auc r at ic d i f f ic u lt ie s t hat operators have in hiring drivers from overseas?

We acknowledge the problem, but we’d point out that it exists now with illegal

The road transport industry will be vital in our economic recovery and training up more workers is a priority. We know as a result of COVID-19, many NZers will be looking to retrain and employers in key sectors will need more skilled people. That’s why we’ve made courses and training in road transport and other essential areas free for the next twoand-a-half years. Our border restrictions are necessary to help keep out COVID-19 as much as possible. I expect these will be around for some time, and I’m keen to keep working with the RTF and others to get more fresh talent into the sector through a variety of means.

Freight is critical to our way of life and the next Nationa l-led government w ill

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work closely with industry to address our longterm workforce shortages.

T he Green Pa r t y suppor t t he Government’s investments in training and in the apprenticeship support programme.

In the foreseeable future it is NZ workers rather than overseas workers that will need to be supported into jobs, particularly given border closures.

The NZTA has massively stepped up its reg u lator y per for ma nce u nder ou r G over n ment. A n i ndep endent re v ie w found NZTA failed to properly regulate the transport sector under the prev ious government. I’ve refocused the Agenc y on safet y following that review, they are now properly resourcing their regulator y teams and the Board has been bolstered

by Catherine Taylor who is an experienced regulator. My expectation is that NZTA will treat f irms fairly and if the industr y has some proposals to help cut red tape, I’m happy to receive them.

Gover na nce of t he NZ TA has been a mess under the cu r rent government, w ith mu ltiple changes at senior levels a nd t he Boa rd being basica l ly sacked by the Minister. NZTA has been a high per for ming agenc y in t he past a nd it needs to be again for NZ’s future. Under National it will be. We are committed to reducing red tape in government and will look for ward to talk ing to the industr y about sensible changes we can make in this area.

David Seymour

ACT promotes low f lat ta xes, qualit y i n f r a s t r uc t u r e s p end i n g , a nd a f a i r regulatory regime.

W hat plans do you have to make sure that the NZ Transport Agency has the right experience to improve its regulatory performance and what plans do you have to reduce unnecessa r y compliance and associated costs to the industry?

46 | Truck & Driver

The road transport indust r y is f requent ly criticised as a signif icant c a r b o n e m it t e r d e s p it e m a j o r i mp r ov e me nt s i n environmental performance over the last 20 years. What does your party plan to do to support the development of new low-carbon heav y transport technologies and support transport operators i n t he upt a ke of t hose technologies?

Our Government initiated the Green Freight project to investigate the best ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from road freight in NZ. We’re looking at different fuels – electricity, green hydrogen and biofuels – and the role they could play in reducing emissions. But I know that a “one size f its all ” approach is unlikely to work and it will need a mix of Government intervention through things like building suppor ting infrastr uct ure and industr y collaboration to transition to a low-carbon sector. I’m committed to working with the RTF and others to decarbonise the f leet and making progress on this will be a priority over the next three years.

The Government only directly appoints the Board of NZTA, but we will continue to push for people to be on the Board who have a range of transport expertise.

A C T ’s R e g u l a t o r y C o n s t i t u t i o n i s de si g ne d to forc e p ol it ic i a n s a nd bureaucrats to ask the right questions when regulating. What problem are we trying to solve here? What are the costs and benef its of the proposed solution, to who? Too often, these questions are not even asked.

Improving the qualit y of people is more diff icult, but we believe in appointment on merit rather than political aff iliation as we’ve seen under the recent Governments.

We’re interested in exploring ways to partner with industr y to accelerate the development of low-carbon heavy transport technology. There’s no doubt electrification of our vehicle f leet is a good way to reduce our emissions – both for light vehicles, and in time, heavy vehicles.

U n f o r t u n a t e l y, i m p r o v e m e n t s i n environmental performance over the last 20 years have not reduced carbon emissions from transport (including heav y freight),

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.

“It’s not the job of Government to ‘support’ you running your business” and they will need to reduce in 10 years if we are going to meet our commitments under the Paris agreement, and contribute our fair share to a liveable climate (which is necessary for a functioning economy).

The Green Part y pushed for and got a $100million Green Investment Fund that aims to accelerate investment that reduces emissions. NZ Green Investment Finance Ltd, which oversees the fund, recently announced their f irst investment into Wellington’s port. We would encourage companies to work with this organisation to f inance low-carbon technologies. We are work ing on a Green Freight policy with the industry that will see new options for transitioning to cleaner fuel as well as supporting mode shift for long haul freight in order to enable goods to move around the country with less pollution.

It’s not the job of Government to “support” you running your business. ACT promotes low f lat ta xes, qua l it y in f rast r uct u re spending, and a fair regulator y regime.

The rest is up to you. If you would like to be bribed with your own money, there are many other parties who can help. T&D

Road Transport Forum NZ PO Box 1778, Wellington 04 472 3877 forum@rtf.nz www.rtfnz.co.nz Nick Leggett, Chief Executive 04 472 3877 021 248 2175 nick@rtf.nz National Road Carriers (NRC) PO Box 12-100, Penrose, Auckland 0800 686 777 09 622 2529 (Fax) enquiries@natroad.nz www.natroad.co.nz David Aitken, Chief Executive 09 636 2951 021 771 911 david.aitken@natroad.nz Paula Rogers, Commercial Transport Specialist 09 636 2957 021 771 951 paula.rogers@natroad.nz Jason Heather, Commercial Transport Specialist 09 636 2950 021 771 946 jason.heather@natroad.nz Richie Arber, Commercial Transport Specialist 021 193 3555 richie.arber@natroad.nz Road Transport Association of NZ (RTANZ) National Office, PO Box 7392, Christchurch 8240 0800 367 782 03 366 9853 (Fax) admin@rtanz.co.nz www.rtanz.co.nz Simon Carson, Chief Operating Officer scarson@rtanz.co.nz Area Executives Northland/Auckland/Waikato/ Thames-Coromandel/Bay of Plenty/ North Taupo/King Country Scott Asplet 0800 367 782 (Option 2) 027 445 5785 sasplet@rtanz.co.nz

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

Truck & Driver | 47

SKUX TRUCKS Story Dave McLeod & Wayne Munro Photos Gerald Shacklock

Two new Scania R620s are the latest additions to the fast-growing TKO fleet. They’re seen here in their typical environment – picking up loads of soil from a new housing development in Mount Roskill

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One of the seven Isuzu CYZ truck and trailer units on the fleet – all bought within the space of two and a half years!

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HEN KOHAN WILSON ADDED A NEW TRUCK AND trailer unit to his Auckland tipper fleet recently, he revealed it with a series of posts on his TKO Contracting Facebook

page…..

Including one that says: “In loving memory of Johnny danger…. #HELLFARKINYEEHAAAW.” It carries a photo of the taildoors on the Mills Tui bins on a new Scania truck and trailer unit, both bearing larger-than-life tributes to one of Kohan’s best mates – Kiwi social media sensation Johnny (Danger) Bennett, who died in a motorcycle crash in 2018.

The post attracted 931 Likes, 42 Shares and 32 comments, including the following: “That’s brilliant bro what a nice thing to do…..

Thats mean as Kohan. Respect…..Now that’s tuffff brother….Oooosh now thats cool ……That’s And another post – this one with a night-time shot of one of two new TKO Scania R620s, with lights ablaze, asking: “Do you like the lights on our new Scanias?”

Hell yeah, seems to be the consensus FB opinion, given that 366 people “Like” the post: “Looking sick bro.. showing the big boys how …..Fuu that’s sick ko….” it’s done And another photo of the Scania, posted back in June, with the advice: “With all that’s going on in the media! Just remember to “Stay calm & keep on trucking” That post elicited the response: “I saw one of your trucks today at Z Manix opposite KFC, looked pretty skux g.”

Wait…..what? Skux….sick….gangsta….tufffff?? A young guy with tatts, who rides Harleys, drives a Rangie….puts on 10 trucks in three years. Brings some sort of unprecedented mix of biker/skatie culture and Generation Y social media smarts and makes an immediate impact in the world of contract trucking. I mean, WTF is going on here!

Kohan Wilson is, quite clearly, anything but your typical, traditional, old-school next-generation truckie.

In fact, this 34-year-old Aucklander is not your typical anything.

He’s atypical AF. Unconventional AF. Non-traditional AF. And here he is – a young guy who, just 20 years ago, was a mid-teens high school dropout….who somehow then developed and honed an entrepreneurial streak through a succession of jobs and life experiences…

Who’s now making himself noticed on the busy Auckland contract bulk tipper scene. And not just because of the eyecatching black and silver zebra-like stripes on his fast-growing fleet.

Oh…and, clearly, making himself noticed too on social media. His is a trucking life….lived through Facebook.

TKO uses FB to advertise for drivers, to advertise for work….to sell boulders, sell a stockpile of retaining wall posts, advertise parking space in its yard – even to show off a little with a new Range Rover.

When he bought that a year or so ago, he proudly posted a photo and the heartfelt message: “You don’t just inherit success, you pray, dream and work your arse off to get it.”

And another from last year – also showing a bit of pride: “3 years ago today we added our first 6W Tipper truck to our Arsenal of excavators, drain layers & builders, adding this truck catapulted TKO into a trajectory which would develope into the fleet of trucks it has today! We simply love trucking! #TKOconstruction #TKOholdings #TKOcontracting.”

The life story that Kohan has to tell is as different and as spectacular as him…and his trucks.

It starts with Kohan and his little brother Torion being brought up by their Mum in a house that had no power or running water – in tiny Lake Ohia, Doubtless Bay, in the Far North.

When Kohan was five, they moved to Auckland – where he dropped out of the education system early: “I left school at 14 – it didn’t really agree with me. I didn’t have Dad around much and didn’t really do anything until I was about 17.”

But then, then after a couple of years of “just fooling around” (he was, he says, “a bit of a ruffian”), he got offered a panelbeating and car painting apprenticeship in 2002.

Truck & Driver | 51

He credits the boss at Ellerslie’s Apex Autopainters, Bruce Orr, with becoming a bit of a father figure: “He embedded a lot of those old-school morals into me about turning up to work on time, doing a good job and being honest. When I eventually left Bruce I daresay that he had become part of my family.”

A couple more jobs on from there, Kohan found himself in another important moment in his development – refinishing motorcycles with custom paintjobs. It was a job he loved.

A couple of good-earning years as a hydraulic hose “doctor” unlocked a new world – as a self-employed contractor. For starters there was the thrill of being sent to Aussie for training, “which I thought was very cool: Coming from humble beginnings I’d never really been overseas.”

But, better still, the part-commission arrangement saw him go to work hard-out, cold-calling potential clients – and landing some major civil construction contractors: “I was really earning some good money.”

But when the company pressed him to invest in a franchise, he bailed – opting instead (at 23) to take up a mate’s offer to join him for a few well-paid months, helping refurbish a Rupert Murdochowned luxury superyacht in the United States.

That San Diego experience was a game-changer, he reckons:

52 | Truck & Driver

“What a dream for a kid from Lake Ohia! Growing up we had nothing.

We didn’t have power until I was five and we had a long-drop. Mum (Samantha Barrington) used to get water from the river and shit like that. So for me, I was ticking boxes in the US.” It lit a bit of a fire inside of him, he reckons – to the degree that on returning home he started uni studies to become a civil engineer: “As crazy as it seems – since I left school at 14 – I did really well. I passed everything!”

But there were big drawbacks: “A year into it – living on a student

Main picture: One of Kohan’s many previous careers – as a panelbeater and car painter - gave him the skills to design TKO’s eyecatching livery.

Top, left to right: Kohan’s Harley and both of the new Scanias carry tributes to his best mate, Johnny Danger....Kohan’s life lived on Facebook includes moments of pride, like the purchase of his Rangie....much-experienced truckie Ross Maulder (the Dad of good friend Adam) is a “father figure” to Kohan

Truck & Driver | 53

Last year alone, TKO put on four trucks – two brand-new Isuzus and two secondhand units

loan and living with my partner – I was $35,000 in a hole….not really getting anywhere. I thought: ‘I can’t do this for another three years.’”

He “threw in the towel at uni” and got a job in a surf, skate and snow shop, giving it a Facebook presence and doing some online marketing.

Through that, in 2012, he became truly self-employed for the first time – distributing GoPro mini-cameras: “For about a year I did really well.”

It was around that same time that Kohan and longtime partner Kelsey got married and had a daughter, Ivy. The marriage only lasted about six months: “I probably put that down to maturity. I always wanted to do what I wanted to do. I have an amazing friendship with my ex-wife and daughter now.”

After time out to “refocus” – helping out friends and travelling – he came up with a new career direction: “I thought ‘man, my entire life I should have been a builder. I’m technically minded, I love doing puzzles and models.’ So that was my next step in life.”

He started helping a friend, building fences and decks: “Then I thought ‘no, I’m gonna amp this up – I want to build houses.”

He started a building apprenticeship, but soon found “I just wasn’t earning enough.” So he started advertising on Trademe to build decks and fences on his own account….at weekends.

Repeat jobs triggered the formation of TKO Contracting in early 2012. It was going to be just KO….his nickname and with obvious promo possibilities, such as: “We do a knockout job.” Brother Torion, whose nickname is T, suggested TKO instead: “I really liked it. It’s always been me and my little brother – it was definitely fitting.”

Of course, Kohan laughs, the name conjures up potentially good and bad associations: While “we do knockout projects” is nice and positive…a few people countered with “yeah, and then you knock us out with the price!”

He laughs and says: “But take it whichever way you want – it’s easily remembered.”

While Kohan continued his apprenticeship, Torion and a mate carried on the fence and deck-building business during the week.

But, says Kohan, “brothers being brothers we clashed – bigtime.”

The result: “He walked off the job, halfway through a $25,000 retaining wall job – and this while I’m on an apprenticeship. So I made the call – throwing in the towel on the apprenticeship. I 54 | Truck & Driver

finished that job and we got another job. And so on.”

To clarify, Kohan points out that the “fences,” were actually major retaining walls – up to three metres high and 100m long – many of them built for major residential subdivisions.

Kohan reckons they were doing such a good job, one major home builder inquired whether he knew any good licensed builders who could build houses.

Why yes he did: He had a builder mate….and through him, says Kohan, he picked up his first contract to build a house, employing three licensed builders and telling them “you guys are gonna teach me how to be a builder!

“We built that house and we got another one. And another. I worked really hard – through holidays and weekends – and in four years I became a qualified licensed builder.” He graduated with a National Certificate in Carpentry in mid-2018.

But, remarkably, while he was learning the trade, early on in those four years TKO had grown dramatically. At one point, says Kohan, “I had a team of 33 guys – five crews of us – doing work for top-tier housing companies. We did houses, retaining walls, decks…and even excavation.”

He reckons TKO would have built dozens of houses in that period.

A pivotal moment came in the midst of an $800,000 contract to build 400m of retaining wall and large underground stormwater tanks.

It was a job that demanded a lot of metal delivered to the site and Kohan reckons he couldn’t help noticing that many of “the trucks that turned up just shouldn’t be on the road! And the drivers were some ‘special’ guys.

“I had just bought a new 14-tonne digger and I remember thinking at the time, ‘I need to get a truck.’ So after about a year of pondering, I bought one – a little Isuzu.”

He reckons though that, on analysis, his business didn’t really stack up: He had a lot of people working for him, “but they really weren’t making a lot of money.”

When he found himself spending his weekends fixing up jobs that he’d already paid his guys to do, he decided it had “just got out of control.” So he downsized. Quickly.

He also switched TKO’s focus – now onto civil projects, adding a couple of drainlayers and increasing the machinery fleet to three

diggers and the 4x2 truck.

But again, he soon decided “we’d got too big too fast – so over the next eight months I wound that down too.

“We still had the 14-tonner and the truck, so I went back to basics – just me and my brother and a couple of guys and we built one house at a time. We did that for about a year.”

And then he came up with a new business idea – one based on what he’d seen with the contract tippers servicing his retaining wall jobs. He’d start running trucks.

Once he thought about it, it was an idea that appealed on a deep-down personal level too, he explains: “When I was a kid, every school holidays Mum used to take us back up North to Dad’s – and we had to drive past the Neville Brothers’ place (at Silverdale).

“I used to see their trucks and go ‘f***, look at all those trucks.’ That shit was cool. Plus my great-grandmother owned a trucking company – Barrington Transport, in Tokoroa. So I asked friends about the industry and they said that ‘you need to make $1200 a day, pay this and you’ll make X amount.’

“Eventually I thought ‘right I’m gonna do it.’ I managed to get finance approved for a $50,000 Isuzu Giga tipper. It was nothing flash – it had done 1.3 million Ks, but it started hot or cold and it was a good truck.”

It was a move that introduced Kohan to another “father figure” – longtime truckie Ross Maulder, the father of an old mate from drifting.

Kohan talked to his mate Adam about his plan and “one thing led to another.

Ross, who’d owned a rubbish-truck company, came on board – became our driver and ultimately our transport manager.

“Ross is about 65….and he is a great guy. He just lights up your face. Very smart, very humble. It’s good to have a male figure to look up to.”

Ross explains how it happened: “I sold my business and had nothing to do.” But there’s much more to it than that as well.

He’s impressed with Kohan’s attitude: “I can see where he’s come from, but he’s

Above: Kohan’s looking forward to soon welcoming he and partner Jenny’s son Right: Kohan on his (now sold) Harley- Davidson Dyna Low Rider S. He’s had Harleys since he was 19

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Clockwise from top: In its earthmoving contracting days, TKO built fences, retaining walls, in-ground stormwater tanks and the like. This Northcote job was one of the biggest....4x2 Isuzu was the very first TKO truck – back in its drainlaying days....with up to 33 carpenters in five crews, TKO built dozens of houses during its construction era, including this one taken the lessons along the way. He’s taken a risk and it’s worked out for him. He’s got massive cojones and I really admire him for that.

“And he’s humble. He knows where he’s going now – he’s got it right. It’s all very well having the good gear – which he’s got now – but you’ve got to have the good people as well.

“He’s got a good buy-in from the team. He’s always open to listening – but if he doesn’t think it’s a good idea he’ll let you know as well.”

Ross wasn’t so impressed with the original Isuzu, but like he says: “It’s like anything – you’ve got to start somewhere. And it sort of blossomed from there.”

So initially Ross drove the old tipper, while Kohan carried on running the three diggers – the 14-tonner, plus a 5t and a 1.7t machine – doing “small retaining walls….anything and everything.

“We were doing odd-jobs of our own and then I started coldcalling, saying: ‘Hey, we’ve got a truck, do you need a truck? Need any dirt? Need any loads taken away?’ ” And the truck was sub-contracted out to other operators as well – and so they got through the first six months with the old truck, even though “it was very impractical. Man, did we spend some money on

it! It cost us a fortune in R&M.” The answer was clear. In late 2017 Kohan bought a brand-new 6x4 tipper. Satisfied that, despite the old truck having cost him plenty to keep it going, “it would’ve gone on forever,” he settled on an Isuzu CYZ 400.

Kohan reckons he was constantly being asked “have you got another truck?” – so he’d say yes, and hire in subcontractors. But many weren’t up to his expectations: “We’d get these trucks in with subbies and they wouldn’t have covers – they were just shocking.

“It was a big thing for me that if we were going to do it, we were going to do it right. We were going to roll off the back of that Fulton Hogan benchmark – of running the trucks with handbrake alarms and flashing lights and wheel nut indicators. Run them on EROAD, do pre-employment drug tests for drivers….and retest them every three months.

“We wanted to make sure that if you ordered a truck it’d be there from start to finish. Too many times you’d have a subby and by three in the afternoon they’d be gone – just disappeared without explanation. Or they’d break down….or pop tyres.”

By late 2018, Kohan reckons that TKO was running 20 units a day, Truck & Driver | 59

Clockwise, from top: TKO’s main yard, at Manurewa has a two-truck wash bay....the start of the TKO trucking operation came in 2017 with this secondhand Isuzu, which had already clocked-up 1.3 million Ks.....the new Scanias carry a revised TKO logo and striping on the cabs every day, so he decided to add not one….but THREE (!) new CYZ Isuzus.

Like the first one, they were each put on the road with a Mills Tui bulk body and a new trailer. Kohan reckons he can’t remember how he got introduced to Mills Tui, but when he and new owner Dean Purvis first met they got on really well.

“They were great to deal with – very helpful.” As a result, all of the truck bodies and trailers since have also come from Mills Tui: “I believe that relationships are what get us where we want to be in life – we’re not going to do it on our own.

“Building that strong relationship means that if I’m not happy with something, Dean changes it – without a lot of fuss.” Even down to tiny details like matching the tail-lights on all of the units…and exactly how the mudflaps hang. Says Kohan appreciatively: “As a team, look what we’ve produced.”

Last year he added four more trucks – two new CYZs and two secondhand ones (a 2017 model and a 2001 veteran).

This year, he’s put on two more new truck and trailer units – Scania R620 6x4s, with five-axle Mills Tui trailers.

So here he is, at 34, with a fleet of 10 trucks (nine of them truck and trailer units), with an insured worth of $3.3million. In addition to his own trucks, he’s leased four more (through ETL Hire) for much of the past couple of years.

The flatroof Scanias have alloy bins and are all about getting a bigger payload of bulk metal or dirt. Their arrival doesn’t signal any dissatisfaction with the Isuzus, Kohan is quick to point out: “They’re brilliant trucks that will do a millon Ks without having to take the sump off. They’re a well-priced truck that will go on forever.”

He has, by the way, also ordered two new Kenworth K200 truck and trailer units, scheduled to go on the road next year.

He explains: “If you’re a trucking company it’s good to have a little versatility in the gear that you’ve got.” He says he “loves” the design of the cabover Kenworths and is confident that 600hp Cumminsengined KWs will eventually have a good resale value as well. They are, he says, “a push in the same direction as the Scanias: Alloy bins 60 | Truck & Driver

and specced towards that TKO bulk (work).

“As well as doing the construction-style work, I’d like to be able to move into agricultural-style work if that was ever to come available.

It’s about not having all your eggs in one basket.”

The trucks’ eyecatching livery, with its zebra-like tyre tread striping (black on the silver bins, silver on the white cabs) has been on the TKO trucks almost from the outset – certainly from the first new Isuzu.

Calling on his panelbeating and spraypainting early days, Kohan designed the colour scheme – and has added to it in the last couple of years, with vivid orange truck ID tags and stripes along the bottom of the bins and the sides of the drawbars. On the new Scanias the striping on the cabs has been revised – dropping the diagonal tyre treads pattern in favour of a new TKO logo and swooping black and silver stripes. The orange stripes from the sides of the bin have been extended forward onto the cab.

He explains the rationale behind the additions: “You wear your orange PPE (personal protective equipment) and you’re seen, so our trucks should have it as well. It’s a little bit of PPE on the truck.”

As the business has evolved, the TKO logo itself has also changed….three times now: “There’s a nail border for construction, then the digger for when we were heavy in the earthworks and just recently, when we brought on the two new Scanias…that’s where we went to the new design.”

Both Scanias carry the tribute to Kohan’s friend, Facebook and Instagram star, comedian, and amateur stuntman Johnny Danger, who died in a motorcycle crash on a group charity ride they were both on in 2018.

“I’d known Johnny for many years and the last four months leading up to his accident, he was living with me. He had a Harley and I had two or three Harleys at the time. We just loved motorbikes, so when we weren’t in the house we were playing with our bikes in the shed.

“It was a very sad day to leave home, go to brunch – where he was talking about getting back with his partner – and a few hours later he was gone.”

Clockwise, from above: Kohan rates Isuzus as “well-priced trucks that will go on forever”...... the TKO fleet just over a year ago....Kohan says he’s grateful to a long list of trucking operators, construction, earthmoving and housing companies for their support over the years.....Kohan reckons that when friend Jo Maulder took over TKO’s admin duties he could finally get some sleep at nights In terms of cracking it as a social media star, “he was on his way: There were queues of people waiting to buy his beer. He had over a million followers on Snapchat…..he was going to be on a drink/driving ad for $30k.

“He was at the pinnacle of what he’d dreamt of achieving and I can just imagine what he’d be doing now. We had a bit of a running bet as to who was going to get to $1million in the bank first. We were just two young punks that dreamt really big.”

Kohan too has built a strong online presence – for himself and for TKO. Among other things, it helps in finding drivers: “I’ve never had to use anything other than Facebook for finding drivers – I’ve never had to place a job advert anywhere.”

The current driver lineup covers a broad range of ages. Ross Faulder is the oldest, and is Kohan’s go-to guy for ensuring the others are up to scratch.

After Ross, “we’ve got a lot of guys in their 50s, two or three in their late 40s, one mid to late 30s.” A 23-year-old recently left TKO, “chasing his own dream,” but was back after a week, says Kohan, happy to have him back.

The issue is, he adds, not finding drivers…but finding “the right drivers.” And so far he’s still searching for more of the kind of young drivers that “he’d like to have.”

Others that he’s had, he reckons, “all seem to want to party. They want to work because they have to – not because they want to. I’ve always worked because I loved it.”

Ross’ demands of TKO’s drivers are simple, straightforward: “Turn up and look after your gear,” he says. Bu, he reckons, with many young guys these days, “their mindsets are totally different, their work ethic is totally different to anything that I’ve come across.

“It’s like I’m bashing my head against a wall. You just can’t get through to them. They want everything now – but they don’t want to do anything for it. Some of them are, ‘nah this is not me. I’ll go find 62 | Truck & Driver

something else.’ ” Kohan reckons that as a relatively young guy himself, sometimes he’s got to be a bit tough, to get respect: “Guys will take you for granted and a couple of times I’ve got into a verbal argument… But it works, now they all look out for each other. They tell each other ‘you better put your cover on, ‘cos you never know if Kohan is watching.’ ” He says he, in turn, respects them – and pays them well: “I’ve got guys that have come from all walks of life and I say to them, ‘if you guys just buckle down and you do the hours you have the opportunity to make some good money.’ I’ve got drivers that make over $100,000 per year. You can’t turn your nose up at that.”

In terms of pay rates, “I don’t want guys to feel that ‘he earns more than me – but I do a better job than him.’

“So we have a benchmark and that’s it: For six-wheelers you start on $26 an hour and after 90-days you get a $1 (an hour) pay rise, because I want guys to stay. Then after a year, we do the same…. All truck and trailer drivers start at $28 an hour and (after a year) go up to $30.

“Ross is the king ding-a-ling. If Ross tells you to leave, you leave.

You piss Ross off, you piss me off. But we do it all by the book – you get a verbal, you get three writtens. But I’ve only stood two people down and both were failed drug tests.”

Part of the deal is that TKO drivers get paid for three hours a week set aside for cleaning their trucks – plus a couple more hours, on request, for units with alloy wheels.

“We have set the yard (at Manurewa) up as best we can. We have a 24m x12m wash bay where they can wash two truck and trailers at the same time. It’s got automated soap disposal, waterblasters, washing, scrubbing, polish….there’s everything. They need to use those three hours a week.”

Costs-wise, Kohan keeps a watchful eye on fuel economy – idling time, in particular. He taps into EROAD’s onboard monitoring to

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Adding the bright orange striping and ID tags to the TKO units is like “a little bit of PPE”....for trucks, not just people check driving time compliance, speeding and idling times – the latter triggering visual alerts in the cabs, with “a little truck icon that goes from green to orange…and over 10-minutes it goes from orange to red.

“I penalise the guys if they spend too long idling. It’s to stop guys just burning fuel. We geofence all our sites too, so we can tell when our drivers are there and when they leave.”

He reckons that the drivers are ok with these rules “because they all know where they stand.” And he’s pretty confident that currently he’s got “a good dozen guys” who he believes will retire with TKO. The concept of set rates carries over from driver pay to TKO’s cartage rates: “We’re $105 an hour for a six-wheeler and $165 an hour for a truck and trailer. And we pay our subbies accordingly.” That’s as in a six-wheeler operator getting $95 an hour.

“So there’s no Tom talking to Harry, saying ‘I’m getting $100’ and Harry saying ‘I’m getting $95.’ ” Fleet Tyres takes care of the TKO fleet 24/7 and Kohan says he gets “great service” from CAL Isuzu and Total Diesel Services.

Although it has depots in northwest and southern Auckland – at Whenuapai and Manurewa – the business is largely run from the dining table at Kohan’s rented Riverhead home.

Friend Jo Maulder (wife of good mate Adam, and Ross Maulder’s daughter-in-law) handles all the back-office stuff – the invoicing, the wages, the payments to subbies and the payment of the bills.

She started when TKO had six trucks on the road – and Kohan was doing all the admin as well as running the show. He reckons that her arrival meant that he could sleep at night.

Kohan says that the TKO trucking operation has grown largely through referrals, cold-calling and by “putting ourselves in front of small earthmoving businesses that we’d worked alongside for the last four-five years” – letting it be known that it had tippers ready to work.

Kohan is very much a believer in the power of social media: “I’ve had TKO on Facebook since day dot – since I built my first fence. It’s all up there: If you want to know TKO, go onto our Facebook page and troll through five years of photos.

“You’ll get the full story. You’ll see us transition from building

fences, to doing retaining walls, to building houses, to owning diggers, to buying trucks….to what we are right now.

“I love going on there. And just recently I’ve started to share some old photos because our Facebook profile has grown so much – 4200 to 4400 followers. They see what we are now, but to get a bigger picture of what your company does Facebook helps.”

And yes, it does actually generate work: “If someone messages me through Facebook, the first thing I do is check them out…..see if we have common friends. Because if you’ve got a friend in common, you can ring them up and see if they can put in a good word.

“Facebook has been great and just recently I’ve been getting a few little jobs out of it. Nothing very big, but jobs nonetheless.”

Even a quick look makes it pretty obvious that a lot of young guys follow TKO on Facebook and Kohan thinks that’s “great. It’s breeding into kids that trucks are cool…that this could be a career for them. A lot of young guys wouldn’t think that truck driving could be a career out of school because they have no real idea.

“But could you imagine getting your Class 4 around 18. You’re driving a six-wheeler. You pick up a trailer – do a year of that. You’re 19-20 and boom! You’re on $28 an hour – and, within a year, $30.

“If you knuckle down and do some driving for five years you’re gonna be a house owner.”

While young drivers are, of course, the future of trucking, they need the guidance of older drivers: “We’re the next guys coming through, but we’ve got to learn from them. I’m lucky to have Ross there for guidance and to rein me in, because I need it sometimes.”

Even with Ross’ experienced advice, Kohan has grown TKO at a dramatic rate – and he says it hasn’t been universally welcomed….. although he actually can’t understand “why would anyone get pissed off.

“The only way we’re all going to get there is together. I wouldn’t be where I am now without help from other trucking companies. We run a lot of trucks: Last Wednesday we had 27 units out on runs all day – and I only own 10 of them.

“So you can see how closely we work with other trucking companies. We need them just as much as they need us. We’re not here to compete with them, we’re here to work together.

Truck & Driver | 65

Left to right: Kohan runs the business from his smartphone.....family is important to Kohan and he schedules time with daughter Ivy.....getting to where he is today has involved a lot of hard graft – getting down and dirty, as on this retaining wall job

“That’s how I’ve grown to where I am – by building strong relationships with other trucking companies so that we can cater to a market where, if someone wants 20 trucks, we can give them 20 trucks….even if I had none.

“I don’t even have to own a truck to run this business. But to run this business the way I WANT to run it – efficiently, with good safe drivers and safe gear – I need to own trucks.”

He acknowledges that some competitors are cut-throat in undercutting rates to win work but he doesn’t “entertain” the approach: “If you want to go out and offer a six-wheeler at $85 an hour, good for you.

“A lot of them can. But try and compare a truck that’s worth $200,000 with a driver in it on $28 an hour, versus a six-wheeler that’s falling apart and the driver’s being paid $19 an hour.

“We separate ourselves by having things like EROAD and extra bits and pieces that make us more efficient. Nicer trucks, covers – all those types of things.”

So is there a risk that he’s growing TKO’s trucking business too fast – just as he did with the contracting and building operations? “When there were 33 guys there was 33 lots of crazy. Right now we have 12.

“We won’t see much more than 10-12 units in the next year, which I believe is a long time in the grand scheme of things. I have a couple of top-tier guys (drivers) coming back off ACC and I have to get units for them.”

Besides, he’s not scared of TKO’s rapid growth: “I guess with Johnny passing away it lit a fire up under me – that thought that it could all just end anyway. So it led me into taking some bigger risks, without fear.

“I probably fear getting sick more than the investment. I’ve never had nothing. I grew up with nothing – I’ve really had to bite and chew.

I’ve never had anyone go guarantor for me.

“I started with one little thing and I’ve worked on it. If the economy fell over tomorrow and I lost everything, I’d just be like: ‘Man that was cool!’ I’d just pick up a hammer and go back to building.”

He is “100% proud” of what he’s been able to achieve: “I just think it’s amazing. My Grandad, Michael Barrington, is very proud too. After all, when he was a kid, his mother had a trucking company….and now he’s got a grandson with one.

66 | Truck & Driver

“It’s just a testament to the fact that if you focus on something and you give it your all, morning to night – and I really mean give it your all – you can do it.

“Some days I have to pinch myself. I remember in the beginning seeing my trucks on the road and thinking ‘f***!’ It’s just so cool when you pass one of your own units.”

Where to from here? Is he about to reinvent himself yet again?

“I see more diversity. I don’t want to get much bigger than we are now in relation to the trucking. But…I’d like to re-explore some of the civil work that was the foundation of TKO. “Right now we are, first and foremost, a trucking company – but that’s not to forget where we came from. Maybe focus on health and safety and quality of workmanship – the same image that we have in trucking.”

He says that one of his biggest goals in life is to pay off his Mum’s mortgage: “That’s a big thing for me – I just want to be able to look after her. I saw how hard it was for her and the sacrifices that she made. She scrubbed toilets, she did God knows what to make sure my brother and I were fed.

“And I want to be the grandad or great-great grandad that my great-great grandkids say to: ‘Thank you for putting in that work to make our lives just that little bit easier.’ ” Even given his devotion to developing TKO, having a work/life/ family balance is important too – to the degree that he schedules his work so he can take daughter Ivy to and from school twice a week.

“Before Jenny (his partner) came along, it was just Ivy and me. I didn’t go out with my friends – didn’t go partying or drinking – I just ran my business and looked after my little girl.

“It’s very important to me to have the family connection, because otherwise, what are we doing it for? I’m just so excited to meet my son (due soon) and for Jenny and I to raise a family, while the business keeps growing.”

If it seems like Kohan Wilson and TKO’s rapid development borders on the unbelievable, here’s what he reckons: “I’m just getting started.

I feel like I’m at about 10% of where I’ll be in the next five to 10.

“If you just dream big, there’s nothing stopping you. Believe in yourself, take those risks and give it all you’ve got – the sky’s the limit.” T&D

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LEGENDS

In safe hands - Jeff Mear W

HEN IT COMES TO THE NEW ZEALAND Trailer-building industry, the Mear family name ranks up there as one of the best. However, ‘second-generation’ Jeff Mear is not only proud to be carrying on the family tradition but he is also continually seeking to advance and assist the industry in areas such as safety, understanding and productivity. And that’s why he’s been selected as our first in the series of Southpac Trucks - Legends Industry veteran, Jeff Mear is the Co-owner, Sales Manager and Director of Trailer Manufacturer Fruehauf NZ. Based in the head office in Wiri, his experience spans well over three decades but you could say that his passion for the industry extends back to when his father Pat Mear first began driving trucks in Rotorua.

Jeff says “My father started out driving trucks back in the hard days, doing livestock and metal cartage. But he first got into engineering working for a company called NZ Arc Welders (now Mills Tui) and then he was the second employee of Roadrunner when that was formed back in the early ‘70s.”

In 1987, having already gained procurement experience at Metal Imports, Jeff himself was brought into Roadrunner by owner Neil Peterkin to work in the inventory department and specifically on cost management.

“My skill sets were in operations and my expertise was looking at and understanding drawings,” Mear says. “The business was later sold to Fruehauf Pacific as it was known back then and my father started out on his own (with partners) forming Roadmaster.” Jeff subsequently went to join his father in the new business.

For nigh-on the next seventeen years Jeff worked at Roadmaster, but things were changing in the business environment and his father ‘got quite sick’, resulting in his father Pat wanting to sell up. There was an opportunity for Jeff to purchase his father’s shares, however,

68 | Truck & Driver

this eroded away as the direction of the business wasn’t where Jeff wanted to go. At the same time, an opportunity arose for Jeff (and partner Phil Watchorn) to take over the Fruehauf business.

Jeff says, “I approached my father and said this [Fruehauf] offer is on the table, he said you can’t turn it away, do it, take the opportunity.”

So in August 2009, with Pat’s blessing, Jeff effectively moved into competition with his father and according to him, ‘accelerated his father’s exit out of the business’.

Jeff says “When I was doing a bit of soul searching into my direction moving forward, I had a couple of customers approach me and say that the trailer building industry in NZ is made up of five families. They named the five families and we, Mear, was one of them. I took that conversation away with pride. So, for me, getting into Fruehauf, meant carrying on the Mear tradition and how the industry has grown around the Mear family. My father was tickled pink and that’s what he took with him when he died, his eulogy was about what he did for the industry. So, I’m the second generation, carrying on the tradition, building on what he started.”

It’s evident that Jeff is not simply riding on the coattails of his family name though, he has become an ambassador for the industry in his own right. Aside from running Fruehauf, for the past twenty years, he’s been an executive member of the TTMF (New Zealand Truck-Trailer Manufacturers Federation) board, something he is encouraging the entire industry to centre on, he also advises and coaches young operators, travels the globe building associations, sharing ideas and viewpoints with some of the world’s biggest Trailer Builders and works closely with the RTF and NZTA, being influential with both the TTMF and NZTA in the proven vehicle designs that the industry is using today.

Above left: Father and son, Pat and Jeff, at a truck show during their time together at Roadmaster Above centre: Jeff Mear accepting his VTNZ Supreme Contribution to NZ Road Transport Award Above right: Jeff with son Josh at the Wiri workshop

Jeff says, “It’s a bloody good industry. They say ‘once you get diesel into your blood, you can’t get rid of it’ effectively, that’s how I see it. It’s got good people in it. It’s still got personal relationships, it’s not a corporate. And it’s wide and it’s ranging, you’ve got different sectors.”

He reckons he’s seen a lot of changes from the ‘80s to now. “From what my father worked on in the beginning to what I’m working on now, we’ve shifted to a new generation with new ideas. And the input that I’ve been putting into the industry is, looking at the vehicles, how they’re operated, understanding the industry as a whole and designing vehicles around them to increase their safety and productivity.”

Mear says that the biggest driver at the moment is Safety. “What I say to my staff here is that the vehicles we’re working on must have the view on safety first and worry about our productivity second. Our vision is to build safe vehicles on the road, we’ve got to focus on that and then increase the productivity of the thing.”

Despite his hard work both in his own business and for the industry in general, Jeff Mear was unaware of how much his involvement had helped change the industry. He says, “It only dawned on me when I won the award last year.”

Jeff won the VTNZ ‘Supreme Contribution to the Road Transport Industry’ essentially in recognition of what he’s done for the industry as a whole, taking time out of his own business to assist, educate and benefit the industry. Even so, he downplays the award.

“My business has always been about working with the client rather than worrying about the sale. They’ve [RTF] acknowledged the work I’ve done to guide the industry in terms of helping the younger operators understand what we call the VDAM rule, which is the Vehicles, Dimensions and Mass rule, getting them to fully understand how it works. I find it quite amazing that most operators don’t know that axle distances are a very important part of the operation in terms of weight management.”

It’s some of this lack of understanding that has made Fruehauf themselves move to what they call ‘shared services’. They are looking at what their business can do for the client and in doing so have introduced a number of changes such as taking guys off the shop

floor and putting them into sales roles, using engineers to sell their solutions.

“You need someone with expertise that understands the industry, how the vehicle is built, how it’s designed. Does it suit the application? does it suit the roads?” says Mear According to Mears he’s seen too many instances where guys buy trucks that are not suitable then try and make it work, ‘they think they can go and get a permit just like that’. He say’s “Getting a trailer through us eases the pain of permits because if we manage the project we can understand what their fleet is and we have a department that applies and manages permits for them.”

He reckons that there’s a whole raft of rules surrounding the client that they have to conform to, in order to safely operate the vehicle on the road, so Fruehauf is developing a set of tools around that.

“The trailer is the profit part of the truck, it carries the load, so you’ve got to make sure that the vehicle stays on the road. I say to customers that your first cost should be your last cost, the trailer is the most important vehicle that you need to have. Because you’re going to be changing your truck, you won’t be changing your trailer.

So pay the extra and make that the right vehicle.”

The Mear name and the Trailer Building industry are things that Jeff holds very dearly, he lives and breathes them both. He says that the customers he has are very good friends and that there’s a lot of trust there for him to design their fleet for them. But Jeff also has a keen eye on the future.

His son Josh is working on the tools at Fruehauf where he is in the enviable position of expediting his industry ‘apprenticeship’ plus as a business, Fruehauf has invested heavily in people and passing on their ethics.

“We always have between 5-7 apprentices on,” says Jeff. “The industry is changing, it’s become more demanding, so we’re looking at ourselves as to how we can shift with it. We need to develop the skill set. In our industry it’s quite challenging because it’s specialised, we’re dealing with a big bit of steel that is going down the roads under all kinds of conditions.”

Whether it’s carrying freight or carrying on the Mear family name and tradition it appears that they’re in safe hands with Jeff. T&D

Truck & Driver | 69

SUPERCARS S U Story Wayne Munro Photos Warren Aitken, Supercars.com, Team Sydney/TEKNO

Ex-Timaru truckie Mick Shortus (inset) has spent 14 years so far getting paid for two of his passions – trucks and motorsport. He’s currently driving this MAN TGX 26.580 for longtime employer Team Sydney (formerly TEKNO) to and from each Aussie Supercars round. Photo Warren Aitken 70 | Truck & Driver

FEATURE

S UPER-COMBO

Truck & Driver | 71

Photo Supercars.com

W

HEN MICK SHORTUS WAS A YOUNG BLOKE IN TIMARU all his mates were into motorsport. Some of them drove race cars, some went rallying…..others did karting.

From the age of 18, Mick drove too – but all of his rides were trucks. And not for fun – for a living. Not that he was complaining: “I was just into trucks,” he explains.

And he still managed to combine the two loves – helping his mates out at racetracks or rallies at the weekends (including driving their support trucks to and from events)….while driving trucks on nightshift linehaul runs around the South Island.

Then, after 14 years as a truckie, based in Timaru or Queenstown, something magical happened: Mick chanced on a deal that delivered him a combo of both of his loves – trucks and motorsport….. And paid him for the pleasure!

He landed “the dream job” – driving a transporter around Australia for a V8 Supercars team. It amounted to a Supercars super-combo!

Now, in the midst of a COVID-disrupted Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, Mick’s into his 15th straight season, with his second team….and the same B-double trailers he started out with in 2006.

And he still sounds like he can’t believe his luck: “To combine the two (loves) in one job was perfect – a perfect scenario really.”

The 47-year-old has had the thrill of being part of a winning team at the Bathurst 1000 (with Will Davison and Jonathon Webb) and a 72 | Truck & Driver

member of a champion team (when James Courtney won the title with Dick Johnson Racing in 2010).

And he’s worked alongside other Supercars stars including Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin, plus international drivers including Sebastian Bourdais, Gil de Ferran, Marc Lieb, Lucas di Grassi, Richard Lyons and Jeroen Bleekmolen.

Just lately, he’s even had the spotlight turned on him – featuring on the Supercars.com website as a “stalwart” of Team Sydney, which is currently running two Holden Commodore ZBs, for Kiwi Chris Pither and veteran Alex Davison.

Shortus says he got his love of trucks from his uncle, Ken McCarthy – a professional fireman in Timaru, who drove on his days off for longtime Post Haste contractor Warren Good.

“When I was younger I used to cruise around with my uncle….” in one of Good’s Scanias.

“So that truck – that was a P92 I think, that’d done three and half million Ks! – I ended up driving.” Yep, Good not only gave Mick his first driving job – he taught him to drive as well!

Mick explains: “Warren used to have a trailer in Timaru, and I’d load the trailer and he’d pick me up on the way through. That’s when I first started: I got my licence and he was teaching me to drive.

“I pretty much walked out of the (MoT) office with my licence, he picked me up and chucked me in the driver’s seat.

Photo Supercars.com Clockwise, from above: Mick, on the grid at the Sydney second round of this year’s Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, reckons he’s living the dream....Mick loading tyres into the team’s transporter, during its Western Star prime mover days....at race meetings Mick’s job is managing tyre pressures....Alex Davison’s Holden leads a group that includes the Coca-Cola car of team-mate Chris Pither

“And then that truck ended up being based out of Timaru, while we waited for his new 500hp Scania.” Mick drove for Good for another three and half years – before moving on to other linehaul work with JPM, Hilton Haulage and Skyroad contractor Tim McBride.

Particularly in his youth, he and his mates had been heavily involved in motorsport – regularly attending race meetings at the nearby Levels Raceway.

As he told Supercars.com: “We would be out there on weekends and then, from high school, when they started racing and getting their own cars and go-karts and all that sort of stuff.

“I was doing night shift and driving trucks and they were doing their mechanicking and whatever else and weekends we would all head up and do the motorsport stuff. It was good.”

Mates like Mark Leonard and Chris West went on to make their mark in Kiwi motorsport – particularly in rallying, where “Westy” won the NZ championship in 2004.

Then, in late 2005, Mick’s own motorsport adventure began – with a phone call from Timaru schoolmate Hayden Morris, who was by then working for a race team owned by Ashburton-born Paul Cruickshank.

The team was moving up into Supercars in 2006 and Morris wanted to know if Mick might want to be the team’s transporter driver: “They flew me over to see if I was interested and see what it was all about. We did a ride day here and they showed me around the truck…”

There was no question in his mind about whether or not he was interested: “Oh, you couldn’t turn it down,” he laughs.

Less than two months later, he started work as the driver of a 420

horsepower Volvo FH prime mover, hauling a purposebuilt B-double: “I didn’t realise how big Australia was till I set off for Adelaide – for my first trip. But I haven’t looked back since really.”

Driving the B-double was not a big problem: “I was driving a standard 20-metre unit back home. It (the B-double) wasn’t that much different actually….just 6m longer really. But a lot easier to back because they’re a lot longer than a standard B-train back home, so they don’t whip around as quick. So pretty easy yeah.

“It’s just the distances to get around really. You’re talking days here… where most places in NZ you can get to your destination and get home by the end of the day.”

That first Adelaide drive, for instance, was 22-23 hours – oneway: “Western Australia – that’s four days for us to get there from Brisbane. And four days back. And then Darwin’s about the same.”

More than that though was the switch from driving fulltime, to just driving to race meetings: “It was interesting – just a totally different life change really for me, from doing 250,000 kilometres a year, to 50,000km a year.

“We run about 55 to 60 tonnes all-up, once we’ve got everything loaded in the B-double set.

“That’s with two race cars….and the rest of it’s toolboxes and data boxes and wheels and tyres (36 of each) and trolleys and setup boxes. And yeah, there’s a lot of stuff. A lot of heavy stuff too. But the trailers are actually heavy in their own right – there’s a lot of steel.”

He has other duties in the team apart from driving to and from events: “There’s always something to do – it’s not just truck driving.”

Truck & Driver | 73

Photo Supercars.com

Clockwise, from above: Mick on the grid with Alex Davison’s car in Sydney. Once the truck is set up at race meetings, he’s not a truckie, but one of the tyre guys.....before the current MAN prime mover, Mick was shifting the transporter with this Western Star 4800....snapshots from the life of a Supercars truckie

Like “most of the truckies (for the race teams) nowadays, I do the tyres – which is a job in itself, ‘specially at the race weekends.”

On events, he explains, “you forget about the truck: You set it all up on the Thursday normally – you know, clean it all down and make sure everything’s in the right place.”

“And then it’s just concentrate on the tyres right up till load time Sunday night.”

Initially he was part of the pit crew, on tyre-changing duties. But these days he’s been given the responsibility of looking after the tyre pressures during races – a matter of keeping the tyres as close to the minimum 17 PSI limit as possible without going under that mark.

Between events, he manages the tyres: “That’s pretty important too. Making sure you’re not throwing away good tyres and you’re not keeping crap tyres. And the rims are all straight – and not cracked.”

The responsibility for them “is between me and the engineer. He makes the final call obviously.”

He also, of course, looks after the maintenance of the transporter.

So one job between events is cleaning the rig: “Like, you can spend a day just polishing the truck.”

He’s currently driving an MAN TGX 26.580 tractor unit that arrived after Bathurst last year – replacing a 570-horsepower Western Star 4800 that he did 290,000kms in over six seasons. That, in turn, replaced another Western Star, in which he did 150Ks in three years.

After driving 18-speed Roadranger manual gearboxes for years, he reckons he’s still getting used to the new MAN and its automated manual: “The MAN is my first automatic and I’m struggling with it a little bit. Ahh, it’s just that they’ve got a mind of their own…so I’m just trying to tame it running off hills…”

74 | Truck & Driver

He says that after nine years driving the Western Stars the quietness of the MAN is an issue. The Western Stars, he reckons, “you know, you’ve got the noise and the rattles to go with it.

“These things just run off the hills and they’re that quiet. You just look down and you…well I won’t say you overspeed… No, but you’ve got to keep an eye on it.

“It’s totally different driving. I mean it’s nice…and comfortable.

Yeah…I’m getting used to it.”

The purposebuilt Pumper trailers he is well and truly used to: He’s been towing them around since he started in Supercars – the Cruickshank team adding a brand-new A-trailer just after he started, and it already owned the ’96-model B-trailer when he joined the team.

When that team was bought by Steve Webb and became part of Dick Johnson Racing in 2010, Mick and the trailers moved too.

Likewise when, in 2011 the Webb family launched TEKNO Autosports – running its own race operation, with Steve’s son Jonathon as lead driver.

And now, the race team (run these days by Jonathon Webb and his wife Kobe) has evolved into the brand-new Team Sydney and has relocated from Brisbane to Sydney….

And Mick and the B-double are still with the outfit (although he is continuing to live in Queensland and work out of TEKNO’s facility there).

He told Supercars.com: “I mean, everyone asks why I’m still here, but at the end of the day, the Webbs have always looked after me.

“The beauty of my job is that there is only one truck and there is only one truck driver so no one’s interfering or whatever.

“The Webbs know I’m going to do the job. They’re good people to

Photo Supercars.com

work for, they’re pretty stress-free and they let me do my job.”

Mick says “there’s never been a drama getting to a race on time or anything like that.” He concedes that yes, “you do put that in the back of your mind every trip – but we always leave enough time…. just to cover any problems on the way.”

Like the time one of the Western Stars broke down en route to Adelaide – “and we had to get a rental truck out to a little place called Cobar, northern New South Wales – eight hours north of Sydney.”

Luckily his regular two-up driver for long trips, Sydney-based truckie and sand quarry owner Trevor Kuhn (who’s become one of Mick’s best mates), was available and willing to drive the rental replacement from Sydney to Cobar. Luckily too “I’d left early enough to cover that and still get there on time.”

He relied heavily on Kuhn again in 2017, when then team driver Will Davison’s race car was badly damaged in a 12-car, $5million pileup at the Tasmanian round.

Mick and Kuhn “rushed home (to Brisbane) two-up, we worked all over Easter and threw it back in the truck and took it back to Phillip Island (south of Melbourne)” – all in the space of a fortnight: “That was a huge undertaking by the whole team.”

One of the undisputed highlights of his time in Supercars was meeting his wife, Dr Karyn Lun, at the Gold Coast meeting in 2009.

She’s a specialist dermatologist in a Brisbane practice, but “her break away from that is being a medic at the racetrack. So she’s

passionate about car racing as well.”

She works at as many Supercars events as possible and has joined Mick in the truck on the long hauls to Darwin and to Perth: “You know, everyone likes to do that trip across the paddock. It’s worth doing – but there’s a lot of straight roads….a lot of nothing out there.”

Mick confesses that “I still miss driving into Queenstown each day: You can’t beat that scenery down there.”

But in Aussie, “the Darwin trip’s my favourite – just scenerywise. So different than home. I mean, the Outback’s got its own distinctive characteristics….getting out there in the red dirt.”

His favourite race? “There’s three actually – Adelaide and umm Bathurst. I always love going to Bathurst – and I always love leaving on the Monday because it’s a huge week! So you’re just over it…

“And Darwin. That’s probably top of my list actually. Because it’s a good trip – people are always pleased to see you up there and there’s a huge truck parade we do through the town centre, and the whole route it’s just five-deep with people.

“The whole town comes out to support it, because they’re a long way from any civilisation, so they appreciate it. They’re mad for it – they love it, so it’s always a good weekend.”

And his single best Supercars trucking experience? “Oh mate… awwhh. Hard question that one. Just doing this job in itself is an honour – a lot of people want your job.” T&D Truck & Driver | 75

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The new electronic distance recorder for trailers can be easily installed by operators and will not interfere with the likes of "trailer ABS, EBS or other systems"

New electronic distance recorder for trailers A

NEW TELETRAC NAVMAN ELECTRONIC distance recorder custombuilt for trailers has secured New Zealand Transport Agency approval and is now being launched on the market.

The company says that the new device was designed with practical input from Kiwi transport operators, and uses groundbreaking new technology

developed in NZ. It’s part of Teletrac Navman’s electronic Road User Charges (RUC) system, and will automate RUC licence payment and display and calculate offroad rebates for heavy trailers, independently of prime movers.

It is self-contained and sealed and generates power directly from the wheel’s rotation – with no wires and “no interference with the trailer ABS, EBS or other systems.”

Operators can self-install the device and use it as part of their Teletrac Navman RUC management solution.

Teletrac Navman vice president and managing director Asia Pacific, Ian Daniel, says the company “spoke with our transport operator customers to get feedback on exactly what they needed – and this solution is a result.

“Automated RUC management is a very popular technology. Our customers wanted something they could easily install themselves, that was self-contained and self-powered and had a large clear screen. This device ticks all the boxes for a busy operator.

“Feedback from customers is that electronic RUC saves them hours of admin time and even brings in a steady flow of rebates for offroad travel. With the latest increases in Road User Charges, every kilometre left unclaimed represents even more lost value to a business. Staying on top of regular rebates also assists a business with its cashflow.”

The company says that its electronic distance recorder is “already hotly demanded by customers, to provide them with a simple, fast and costeffective way to manage Road User Charges for trailers.” T&D Truck & Driver | 77

TRUCK SHOP

The company says that "everyone refers to us as PowerTarps" – so its name change makes sense

Name change for PowerTarps distributor

N

EW ZEALAND TARPING SYSTEMS HAS CHANGED its name to match that of its popular PowerTarps product.

PowerTarps (NZ) managing director Gary Andrews says the new name better reflects the business: “We have been the NZ distributor of PowerTarps since 2009, when I was the first to introduce retractable tarps into the NZ market.

“The need was born from my observation of the Australian experience in looking after the safety needs of the operator, as well as increasing productivity through quicker turnaround times.

“Everyone refers to us as PowerTarps and it was time for a change.”

Along with the new name, PowerTarps (NZ) has also got a new website – powertarps.co.nz Says Andrews: “The website better showcases our product range of truck

and trailer retractable tarps along with bunker covers for agriculture and horticulture. We also manufacture covers for stock crates, containers, railway wagons and hook bins as well as carrying out service and repairs on all makes of retractable covers.

“Our service is fully mobile and we have expanded our distribution network to include Auckland, Rotorua, Christchurch and Ashburton. We are looking to expand our network further to better service our PowerTarps clients.”

PowerTarps are CAD drawn and cut for accuracy and utilise proprietary bearings and hardware in their components. The twin wire system alleviates injuries in transport and agriculture by introducing safe practices using the manual or electric PowerTarps retractable tarping systems, says the company.

The system actively reduces the need for the operator to climb up on the truck, trailer or bunker. T&D

New EROAD logbook to aid fatigue management

T

RANSPORT TECHNOLOGY company EROAD has launched a new app and cloud-based administrative platform to aid fatigue management by reducing admin time in managing driver compliance.

The company says its Day Logbook also makes it easier for commercial drivers to comply with logbook rules and regulations.

The EROAD app “supports drivers to keep on top of their work or rest hours through either Android or IoS devices. Record keeping is simplified through investigative tools that examine the driver's workday, providing accurate records that aid workflows and driver coaching.”

EROAD CEO Steven Newman CEO says: “We designed EROAD Day Logbook with the driver in mind because we wanted to make it really 78 | Truck & Driver

easy for them to use.

“Only a few clicks or swipes are needed for proactive time management, and this is supported by automated alerts."

Key features of the system are its ability to intuitively capture work and rest hours using a secure authenticated login; proactive alerts and traffic light indicators make complying with the logbook rules and regulations easy and it can display and email logbook data to support roadside inspections as required.

It also assists drivers in remaining on top of their responsibility for health and safety compliance, with a seamless link to EROAD Inspect. It is New Zealand Transport Agency-approved….and it is easily accessed – available for both IoS and Android, and viewable on smartphones or tablets.

In recognition that fatigue management is “more than just counting hours,” EROAD has also launched the EROAD Pit-Stop. Staffed by St John, this will tour selected truck stops and depots, providing free and confidential mini-health checks to drivers. T&D The new logbook system can be used on a variety of devices

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10/6/20 8:31 pm

National Road Carriers

NRC’s petition to postpone RUC increase presented with 15,849 signatures

By David Aitken, CEO of National Road Carriers Association

Road transport proved how important it is in keeping NZ moving during the COVID-19 emergency, when the daily morning rush-hour saw mostly truckies at work

O

UR PETITION TO POSTPONE THE Government’s 5.3% user charges (RUC) increase secured 15,859 signatures and was presented to Parliament by ACT Party leader David Seymour at the end of June.

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to sign the petition. We felt very strongly that, at a time when the Government was handing out money and support packages to almost every industry, hitting ours with an extra tax was an insult to the good work the road transport industry does to keep the country’s supply chain moving. The industry is sick of been a tax collection agent for the government.

Our thanks to Mr Seymour for his support on this important matter and we applaud his recognition of the importance of our industry before, during and after the lockdown By the time you read this we will know whether the petition has been successful.

At the time of writing it seems unlikely the Government will postpone the increase.

However, the petition has galvanised the industry, and will be noticed by Parliamentarians.

Such was the depth of feeling on this issue that the petition had gained more than 8000 signatures in the first 24 hours after it was launched, on June 9.

The petition also quickly gained huge

momentum on Facebook with 525 comments, 600 likes and 2300 shares in that first 24-hour period. By the time the petition closed on June 25 we had more than 1200 comments, 1700 likes and 3800 shares.

The petition’s signatures and social media response shows it’s something the road transport sector cares about and that the general public and consumers are behind us as well.

We issued a strongly-worded media release saying the RUC increase was a “kick in the guts” to the trucking industry that kept the country moving during lockdown.

On behalf of the industry, we said transport operators were seriously aggrieved by the planned RUC increase and we also made the point that from a public perspective this increase will affect everyone, because the cost of moving freight must ultimately be built into the price of goods.

The news release was picked up and broadcast by commercial radio stations and covered by industry magazines.

We witnessed the Government “rewarding” many other sectors such as arts and music, racing and tourism with big payouts. This is fine, but we see an essential service such as road transport instead being punished for its efforts. If it wasn’t for road freight none of these

David Aitken

other sectors would be possible, particularly racing and tourism.

In our communications, we said the industry was willing to continue paying RUC as it was, but this needs to go into the currently badlymaintained roading networks and to build new infrastructure that allows the efficient flow of freight. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how essential road freight is, as did the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes.

The Parliamentary petition and news release were part of a co-ordinated approach. The Road Transport Forum lobbied the Government that the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) is below budget, roading repairs have not kept pace with the growth of revenue generated from heavy vehicles, and an economic downturn will affect load sizes rather than distance travelled.

We may not have won the battle to have the RUC increase postponed but I’m proud to say we have listened to the industry’s concerns and responded quickly to make those concerns heard by the Government and New Zealanders.

It’s been really heartening that the actions we took have been so well supported by the industry and the public.

Winning Government recognition and support for the industry is a longterm undertaking and we will continue to fight hard to make sure the industry’s voice is heard. T&D Truck & Driver | 81

8:31 pm

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10/07/20 11:01 AM

Road Transport Association NZ

Better consultation with Waka Kotahi NZTA benefits industry NZTA initially announced a “no chains” policy for Arthur’s Pass and Porter’s Pass this winter....only reversing it after a public outcry

T

al t

HE CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH DICTIONARY DEFINES “consultation” as “the act of exchanging information and opinions about something in order to reach a better understanding of it or to make a decision, or a meeting for this purpose.”

There appear to be two big exceptions: One is where businesses restructure and have a “consultation” process, which often translates to them telling you what they have already decided. The other is Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, where discussion has sometimes been sadly lacking.

Several recent examples have concerned the Road Transport Association.

The first is a proposed weigh right station for Rakaia in MidCanterbury. The station is proposed to be constructed in a very short stretch of State Highway 1 between two bridges.

RTANZ chief operating officer Simon Carson warns that the site is an extremely dangerous place for trucks to stop: “After seeing the NZTA independent site audits, these clearly state that the proposed Rakaia Weigh Right site is deemed to be high risk, with the occurrence of a serious or fatal accident occurring now being considered ‘likely’ on this short stretch of road if the build goes as planned.”

Carson says RTANZ supports weigh right stations, but not this site. He says NZTA at first refused to consult and listen to the association’s concerns.

Carson, Dave Boyce (of the NZ Trucking Association), and David Aitken, of NRC then met in May (via Zoom) with NZTA managers Brett Aldridge and Dylan Hunt.

Says Carson: “The discussion was beneficial, and NZTA listened to the real risk identified by the three associations, working as one voice.

“Still, we cannot overlook that there has not been a consultation period opened for industry, and very little communication between NZTA and the associations on the Rakaia build, which NZTA claims to be ‘shovel ready.’ ” Another example is a roundabout proposed for the junction of SH6 and SH63 in Blenheim: “If this roundabout proceeds using the current plan it won’t be usable by industry,” says Carson.

By Road Transport Association NZ communications manager David Killick “Many Marlborough operators have now questioned the necessity of the proposed roundabout on what is a perfectly good part of the network. RTANZ was presented with the plan of works on a Tuesday and was given two days to respond.

“Much like Rakaia, these plans appeared to have been finalised once they reached us. It’s another NZTA shovel-ready project where communication could have been much better.”

A third example was the announcement by NZTA that it would update its winter highway management plan around the South Island, and there would be a “no chains” policy for SH73 Porter’s Pass and Arthur’s Pass this winter.

A petition with 20,000 signatures, supported by a public meeting held at Castle Hill on SH73, spelt out people’s opposition and demanded that Waka Kotahi NZTA reconsider the decision.

After intense discussion, the agency reversed its decision, from the “no chains” policy to “chains essential” policy, and will continue to manage SH73 as it has in the past.

RTANZ area executive John Bond says he is pleased with the outcome, but concerned at how the process was managed: “Unfortunately, we are now realising that Waka Kotahi NZTA has been changing the rules to suit itself without consultation.”

In the North Island, speed reductions and reviews for state highways around around Rotorua and Paengaroa, as well as a tolling proposal for the Puhoi to Warkworth Highway, are prompting similar concerns.

Carson says he understands that the government wants to get on with “shovel-ready” projects – but it needs to get them right to begin with, and that means consulting with those who will be affected.

“Relationships are key, and these need to be built with the authorities if we are to see any improvement in communication and practical results with a suitable fit for industry.” T&D Truck & Driver | 83

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OLD IRON

A.W. Ruff & Sons, from Nukuhou North – 39kms southeast of Whakatane – had the cab and body of its Republic Model 85 built by Cavanaghs

The Republic(s) of NZ Story & Photos: Gavin Abbot

This restored 1930 F2R Republic – pictured at the Bill Richardson Transport World museum in Invercargill – was owned by the Tai Tapu Dairy Company in the Port Hills. It has a 309 cubic inch, six-cylinder Lycoming motor, a Fuller four-speed gearbox and a Timkin diff

Truck & Driver | 85

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Above: Wairoa livestock carrier W. Harvey’s Model 76-6 Republic

Below: F.W. Stembridge pictured around 1922 with the first trucks in his Pukekohe operation. From left are a Morris and two Republics

B

ACK IN 1924, AUCKLAND TRUCK IMPORTERS Cavanagh & Company sold 100 Republic trucks in New Zealand.

And by 1934, when the American company stopped building Republic chassis, Cavanaghs had sold over 900 of them here.

Big sales for the times.

Cavanaghs imported its first Republics in 1916 and the make sold well in both the North Island and South Island.

As the company was also a truck body builder and bus builder, in many Republic sales it secured this work as well.

Some well-known NZ trucking companies from that era used Republics – the list including JJ. Craig, Stonex, Grey & Menzies, Stembridges, G. Hunter, Dave Hill (Whangarei), Ross

(Cambridge), R&J Kanes of Dunedin, C.C. Franks (Shannon) and Monks (Gisborne).

They were also used by J.E. Frew in Canterbury, Verrans and Whites, from Thames, Hardies (Rotorua), A.W. Ruff & Sons (Nukuhou North, Bay of Plenty), Hall & Hewat (Whakatane) and Rangers in Putaruru.

Cavanagh & Co of Symonds Street in Auckland were truck importers, body builders and spring makers – first importing American Clydesdale chassis and then securing the agency for United States-built Republic trucks.

The Republic’s history dates back to 1913, when its precursor – the Alma Motor Truck Company, of Alma, Michigan – began

Truck & Driver | 87

Above: An early Republic Model 62, now fully restored and pictured at Pukekohe

Below: A 1929 US spec sheet and price list (in US dollars) for a 3-ton Republic 65 model

making light trucks.

In 1914, the Republic Motor Truck Company was set up to take over Alma – with the truck name also changing, from Hercules to Republic.

The Republic, assembled using components from established companies, added new and heavier models each year – increasing sales to the point where, in 1920, it was one of the largest truckmakers in the world.

With strong exports in addition to its sales in the United States, it built around 11,000 trucks a year.

But the depression that followed World War 1 had a severe impact on the car and truck industry – and Republic wasn’t exempt. The company was reduced to producing only about 50% of its capacity.

It survived by rationalising its range and by takeovers and mergers – taking over Linn Manufacturing, a producer of Linn halftrack trucks, in 1928….

And, a year later, merging with the commercial side of the American LaFrance Truck Company to form LaFrance-Republic Corporation.

But truck sales continued to dwindle – the company’s production falling to just 500 trucks by 1931.

That set the scene for the Sterling Motor Truck Company to buy the LaFrance-Republic Sales Corp. – transferring production of the make’s trucks to its plant. It continued to build Republic trucks until 1942.

In 1951, Sterling was sold to the Cleveland, Ohio-based White Motor Company.

After the demise of Republic trucks, Cavanaghs was fortunate to secure the agency for Diamond T trucks. That’s another story – one for next time. T&D 88 | Truck & Driver

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MADE FOR NEW ZEALAND

In 1920 Republic was one of the largest truckmakers in the world

90 | Truck & Driver

Above: Dunedin operator R&J Kanes’ 1927 Model 19 and ‘29 Model 15 Republics, both sold by Cavanaghs

Opposite page: This Republic Model 62 was run by J.E. Frew of Greendale – in the early days of the Frew family’s great involvement in Canterbury trucking Below: Shannon company C.C. Franks’ lineup of 1919 Model TX and 1922 and ‘23 Model 19 Republics

Truck & Driver | 91

Trimac Services

K & L Distributors BOP Ltd

Auckland Oil Shop

Trimac Services is owned and operated by Irene & Bruce McPherson. We have a long association with the supply of oil and lubricants to Northland with the majority of this time representing Caltex.

We pride ourselves in exceeding our customer’s expectation in terms of delivering product and service to our business partners.

Talk to us for quality Caltex lubricants to suit your specific requirements.

Westland Engineering Supplies 03-768 5720

Trimac Services Kioreroa Rd (behind Caltex Diesel Stop) Whangarei PH 09 4380 258 Email: office@trimacservices.co.nz

TD29407

Bruce McPherson 0274 932 914 Call Rhys McPherson 0274380258 Email: rhys@trimacservices.co.nz

OP Ltd

One of New Zealand’s first new Euro 6 DAF FAD XFs, this 8x4 livestock unit is now working around the North Island for Pukekohe’s OnRoad Transport. Blake Rickaby drives the nine-axle unit, which has a 530hp engine, a TraXon AMT, disc brakes all around, a full electronic safety suite, Nationwide stock crates and a Jackson truck deck and matching trailer.

Market steadies post-COVID

TD29407

N

EW ZEALAND’S NEW TRUCK market steadied in June as the country returned – on the home front at least – to something approaching normal in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown.

But that new normal is, so far, substantially down on the market at the same point in 2019.

The 361 June registrations for the overall market (trucks with a GVM of 4.5 tonnes or more) amounted to a 33% decrease on June last year. May’s 372 registrations were 28% down on the same month in

2019.

The trailer market also steadied at a similar level – the 116 June registrations one more than in May…but 32% down on June 2019.

In the overall truck market, longtime No. 1 Isuzu (441/103) led the way in June, with 103 registrations.

FUSO (284/57) followed in second place and Hino (236/40) retained third position.

The top 10 positions were unchanged from May, with Volvo (154/14) holding fourth ahead of Scania (128/19) – but fifth-placed Iveco (126/26) did close up on Scania.

Truck & Driver | 93

Toby Butler is the fourth generation to run the family farm at Tikokino, in Hawke’s Bay – and also continues a tradition of running its own Butler Farming livestock trucks. To retain a good driver, he has replaced a 700 Series Hino with this new Kenworth K200 2.3 Aerodyne. Mike Swinbanks drives the 8x4, which has a 600hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox and Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Hendrickson Primaax air suspension. It pulls a five-axle Jackson Enterprises 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 % 441 23.6 284 15.2 236 12.6 154 8.2 128 6.9 126 6.7 97 5.2 83 4.4 68 3.6 62 3.3 31 1.7 32 1.7 28 1.5 23 1.2 16 0.9 14 0.7 16 0.9 10 0.5 6 0.3 3 0.2 3 0.2 4 0.2 1 0.1 1 0.1 1867 100.00

June Vol % 103 28.5 57 15.8 40 11.1 14 3.9 19 5.3 26 7.2 20 5.5 18 5.0 7 1.9 20 5.5 2 0.6 5 1.4 6 1.7 6 1.7 1 0.3 4 1.1 7 1.9 3 0.8 2 0.6 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 361 100.00

3501-4500kg GVM

Brand FIAT MERCEDES-BENZ CHEVROLET RENAULT FORD PEUGEOT IVECO LDV VOLKSWAGEN Total

Vol 122 49 21 16 15 13 5 3 1 245

2020 % 49.8 20.0 8.6 6.5 6.1 5.3 2.0 1.2 0.4 100.00

June Vol % 27 47.4 11 19.3 9 15.8 4 7.0 3 5.3 2 3.5 1 1.8 0 0.0 0 0.0 57 100.00

4501-7500kg GVM

Brand FUSO ISUZU IVECO HINO MERCEDES-BENZ FOTON VOLKSWAGEN FIAT HYUNDAI RAM PEUGEOT Total 94 | Truck & Driver

Vol 138 127 63 48 24 22 16 10 4 4 3 459

2020 % 30.1 27.7 13.7 10.5 5.2 4.8 3.5 2.2 0.9 0.9 0.7 100.00

June Vol % 36 33.0 26 23.9 11 10.1 12 11.0 7 6.4 5 4.6 7 6.4 3 2.8 1 0.9 1 0.9 0 0.0 109 100.00

In the premium 23t to max GVM division, Volvo (154/14) retained its No. 1 status...

7501-15,000kg GVM

Brand ISUZU HINO FUSO IVECO UD FOTON MAN MERCEDES-BENZ HYUNDAI JAC OTHER Total

2020 Vol % 195 53.9 64 17.7 62 17.1 19 5.2 6 1.7 6 1.7 3 0.8 3 0.8 2 0.6 1 0.3 1 0.3 362 100.00

Vol 48 17 16 10 9 6 5 5 3 1 120

2020 % 40.0 14.2 13.3 8.3 7.5 5.0 4.2 4.2 2.5 0.8 100.00

June Vol % 11 61.1 3 16.7 0 0.0 2 11.1 0 0.0 1 5.6 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 5.6 0 0.0 18 100.00

20,501-23,000kg GVM

HINO FUSO FREIGHTLINER SCANIA DAF ISUZU Total

13 4 1 1 1 1 21

2020 61.9 19.0 4.8 4.8 4.8 4.8 100.00

Vol 154 118 113 83 63 63 60 56 46 38 30 26 23 15 14 3 905

2020 % 17.0 13.0 12.5 9.2 7.0 7.0 6.6 6.2 5.1 4.2 3.3 2.9 2.5 1.7 1.5 0.3 100.00

June Vol % 14 8.8 19 11.9 28 17.5 18 11.3 8 5.0 8 5.0 11 6.9 19 11.9 7 4.4 11 6.9 2 1.3 4 2.5 6 3.8 1 0.6 4 2.5 0 0.0 160 100.00

Trailers June Vol % 48 68.6 7 10.0 10 14.3 3 4.3 0 0.0 1 1.4 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 1.4 0 0.0 0 0.0 70 100.00

15,001-20,500kg GVM

Brand HINO FUSO UD MERCEDES-BENZ SCANIA IVECO ISUZU DAF MAN SINOTRUK Total

Brand VOLVO SCANIA ISUZU KENWORTH FUSO HINO MERCEDES-BENZ DAF UD IVECO SINOTRUK MAN MACK FREIGHTLINER INTERNATIONAL WESTERN STAR Total

June 2 50.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 25.0 1 25.0 4 100.00

2020 Vol % Brand PATCHELL 62 11.3 FRUEHAUF 51 9.3 MTE 46 8.4 ROADMASTER 43 7.8 DOMETT 41 7.5 TMC 33 6.0 4.9 TRANSPORT TRAILERS 27 FREIGHTER 27 4.9 22 4.0 TRANSFLEET TES 18 3.3 CWS 12 2.2 JACKSON 10 1.8 SDC 8 1.5 MAKARANUI 8 1.5 7 1.3 MAXICUBE MILLS-TUI 7 1.3 MTC EQUIPMENT 7 1.3 EVANS 7 1.3 MTC 7 1.3 HAMMAR 6 1.1 MD ENGINEERING 6 1.1 KRAFT 6 1.1 TIDD 5 0.9 TANKER ENGINEERING 5 0.9 PTE 5 0.9 LOWES 5 0.9 TOTAL TRANSPORT 3 0.5 COWAN 3 0.5 FAIRFAX 3 0.5 LUSK 3 0.5 HTS 3 0.5 WHITE 3 0.5 FELDBINDER 2 0.4 SEC 2 0.4 OTHER 47 8.5 Total 550 100.00

June Vol % 18 15.5 9 7.8 5 4.3 10 8.6 11 9.5 8 6.9 11 9.5 4 3.4 6 5.2 0 0.0 7 6.0 1 0.9 3 2.6 3 2.6 0 0.0 1 0.9 1 0.9 1 0.9 2 1.7 0 0.0 1 0.9 1 0.9 0 0.0 0 0.0 2 1.7 2 1.7 3 2.6 0 0.0 1 0.9 1 0.9 0 0.0 1 0.9 0 0.0 0 0.0 3 2.6 116 100.00

Bulk waste is carted in Auckland and the Waikato by this new International 9870 day cab unit, recently put to work by Auckland’s Union Waste Services. Vula Helu drives the 8x4, which has a 600hp Cummins X15 engine, an Eaton UltraShift AMT, Meritor 46-160GP diffs, a Transfleet bulk waste body and a matching five-axle trailer.

Mercedes-Benz (97/20), Kenworth (83/18), UD (68/7) and DAF (62/20) rounded out the top 10.

In the 3.5-4.5t GVM crossover segment, Fiat (122/27) further extended its lead, while MercedesBenz (49/11) easily held onto second, ahead of Chevrolet (21/9), Renault (16/4) and Ford (15/3).

In the 4.5-7.5t GVM division, FUSO (138/36) moved clear of Isuzu (127/26). Third-placed Iveco (63/11) held its position, as did Hino (48/12), fourth.

Mercedes-Benz (24/7) edged ahead of Foton (22/5) for fifth.

In the 7.5-15t GVM class, Isuzu (195/48) jumped further ahead of its rivals – claiming more than half of the year’s sales to date in the segment. Hino (64/7) and FUSO (62/10) continued to fight over second place, way ahead of Iveco (19/3), UD (6/0) and Foton (6/1).

In the 15-20.5t GVM category, Hino (48/11) increased its lead, while FUSO (17/3) overtook UD (16/0) for second place. Mercedes-Benz (10/2) overtook Scania (9/0) to take fourth.

In the tiny 20.5-23t GVM division, Hino (13/2) increased its lead on FUSO (4/0), Freightliner and Scania (both 1/0). DAF and Isuzu (both 1/1) joined

the category.

In the premium 23t to max GVM division, Volvo (154/14) retained its No. 1 status, ahead of secondplaced Scania (118/19). Third-placed Isuzu had a big month, with 28 registrations to carry its YTD total to 113, just five shy of Scania.

The order of the next four was unchanged from May: Kenworth (83/18) was fourth, ahead of FUSO and Hino (both 63/8), with Mercedes-Benz (60/11) remaining seventh.

DAF (56/19) moved ahead of UD (46/7) for eighth, while Iveco (38/11) displaced Sinotruk (30/2) for 10th.

Trailer market leader Patchell (62/18) extended its 2020 lead – bouncing back from May, when pursuers Fruehauf (51/9) and MTE (46/5) had closed in on its YTD total.

Roadmaster (43/10) held onto fourth, ahead of Domett (41/11) and TMC (33/8).

The order was shuffled in the second half of the top 10 in June though, with Transport Trailers (27/11) improving from ninth-equal to seventh-equal, alongside Freighter (27/4). Transfleet (22/6) remained ninth – as TES (18/0) dropped from eighth to 10th. T&D Truck & Driver | 95

One of two new Kenworth T610 8x4 bulk tippers recently put to work out of Auckland and Hamilton, this Emmerson Transport unit carts meat waste around the North Island. It has a 550hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual transmission, Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Airglide suspension, a Transfleet alloy tipping body and a matching five-axle trailer.

Greymouth’s MBD Contracting has put two new DAF FAT CF85 bulk tippers to work on its civil construction projects. They have 510hp engines, 18-speed Roadranger manual gearboxes and Meritor 46-160 diffs on Airglide 400 suspension. They have Guy Norris Engineering rock bodies and pull matching four-axle trailers.

FZ-N

Nelson’s Stuart Drummond Transport has added this new Kenworth K200 to its logtruck fleet, operating in the Nelson/Marlborough region. The 8x4 has a 615hp Cummins X15, an 18-speed Roadranger transmission, Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Airglide 460 suspension, Patchell logging gear and pulls a matching five-axle log trailer.

The Panasonic TOUGHBOOK® N1 is a powerful, slim and fully rugged handheld.

It’s the all-in-one tool you’ve been waiting for, and it’s ideal for where work takes you each day.

With an octa-core processor, angled rear-facing barcode reader, optional stylus pen and long lasting battery that is warm-swappable; you won’t miss a beat.

Ready to go where business takes you FZ-N1mk2

This new Kenworth C509 off-highway logger is now carting 38-metre stems in Kaingaroa Forest. Ricky Malcolm and Joe Green share the driving of the 6x4, which has a 600-615hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox and Sisu hub-reduction diffs on Kenworth six-rod suspension. It has a 9t front axle running super-singles and it pulls a four-axle Patchell trailer.

Dargaville’s Douglas Logging has this new Kenworth T659 working around Northland. Marston Nickerson drives the 8x4, which has a 600-615hp Cummins X15, an Eaton UltraShift AMT, Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Airglide 460 suspension and Patchell log gear and matching five-axle trailer.

98 | Truck & Driver

Taihape-based Hautapu Haulage has this new Kenworth T659 hauling logs around the North Island. The 8x4 has a 600hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual transmission, Meritor RT46-160GP diffs on Airglide 460 suspension, Evans logging gear and a matching five-axle multi-bolster trailer.

Northland bulk tipper operator Northern Rural Haulage has added this sleeper cab DAF FAT CF85 to its Maungakaramea-based fleet. It has a 510hp engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual transmission and Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Kenworth Airglide 400 suspension.

Insurance Solutions for the Transport and Logistics Industry As New Zealand’s oldest and largest business of its kind, we have a truckload of experience. We are a large team with our own specialist claims division.

Since our beginning in 1988, we have grown to be the transport industry’s first choice for specialist insurance packages.

For more information contact your local Marsh representative Hayley O’Connor, Transport Manager +64 (0)21 167 8509 hayley.oconnor@marsh.com

Copyright © 2020 Marsh Ltd. All rights reserved. S20-0170

CLASSIFIED TRUCK & DRIVER

EASTERN BAY STOCK Every rural community in New Zealand used to have their local and sometimes more than one local rural carrier. These fleets provided a full range of rural services from picking up hay delivering sand and metal and carrying live stock.

Through the many rural downturns one by one many of these companies disappeared and slowly the rural carrier became a thing of the past.

Today many of these fleets are gone for ever but once again Gavin Abbot has brought them back to life with yet another of his collector series of books compiled from his extensive photo library, order your copy now of this limited edition collectors series.

LIMITED EDITION

For just $45-00 plus $6-50 postage and handling $51-50

TD29487

Those that survived did so by diversifying and expanding into national operations.

For your copy contact: Postage: Gavin Abbot, 34 Elliott Street, Opotiki 3122 Or email: clamyhen@xtra.co.nz

OPOTIKI TRANSPORT CO. It all started with the Opotiki flood of 1918 when farmer S.S Brewster lost his farm and started suppling fire wood in Opotiki to provide an income for himself. Starting out with a horse and cart then as motor vehicles became available he purchased one and started the Opotiki Transport story.

For just $40-00 plus postage and handling $7-00

LIMITED EDITION

For your copy contact: Paper Plus Opotiki, PO Box 37, Opotiki Ph 07 315 6263 Fax 07 315 7133 Email opotiki@paperplus.co.nz 100 | Truck & Driver

TD28770

The full story of this pioneering company complimented by Gavin Abbots fine photo library, another collectors must have.

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102 | Truck & Driver

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TD30597

TD30849

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