NZ Truck & Driver October 2020

NZ TRUCK & DRIVER

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| October 2020

October 2020 $8.50 incl. GST

FLEET FOCUS Kev’s happy place

FEATURE Diamond Ts for Kiwis BIG TEST New tricks | FLEET FOCUS Kev’s happy place | FEATURE Diamond Ts for Kiwis

The Official Magazine of the

ISSN 2703-6278 Issue 239

KEEPING NEW ZEALAND ON THE ROAD WITH NATIONWIDE DELIVERY ON OVER 15,000 PARTS AND ACCESSORIES JUST ONE OF THE REASONS WE’VE BEEN #1 FOR 20 YEARS

CONTENTS Issue 239 – October 2020 2 Aeolus News

The latest in the world of transport, including….New Zealand trucking industry set to be among world’s first to put hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks to work; Hall of Fame postponed till next month; Truck Driver Appreciation Week delayed till February

22 Giti Tyres Big Test

Longtime truck driver Roger Cross reckons that someone once told him “that I’m a lazy person – meaning that I try to find the easiest and quickest way to do something.”

Now his new truck is helping him! It’s teaching him some new tricks

REGULARS

66 Southpac Trucks Legends

80/ PPG Transport Imaging 81 Awards

Paula Rogers’ 30 years in the trucking industry all began when a bright blue Kenworth W924 drove onto the farm she was working on. She decided then and there to become a truck driver

Latest news from the Road Transport Forum NZ, including…..questions need to be asked about COVID-19 comeback; long wait for roadside drug testing looks to be almost over; Wellington Golden Mile truck restrictions counter-productive

50 Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus

It was understandable – after 35 years behind the wheel, carting logs into the same sawmill every working day – when Kevin O’Brien moved into the office last year. Especially seeing as he’d been running the 10-truck business from behind the wheel. But now Kev’s back in his happy place – yep, driving a truck again

Associate Editor

Brian Cowan

89 National Road Carriers Association

Dealing with bureaucratic bungles during the latest COVID-19 lockdown

91 Road Transport Association NZ

COVID silver lining is renewed interest in the RTA from operators

ART DEPARTMENT Design & Production Luca Bempensante

Zarko Mihic

Gerald Shacklock Dave McLeod Gavin Abbot Peter Owens Olivia Beauchamp

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

027 233 0090

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

COLUMNS

Truck transmission specialist Allison has a new test facility that allows it to test trucks at home….while replicating the world’s most hostile working environments

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

PO Box 48 074 AUCKLAND 09 826 0494

New truck and trailer registrations for August

81 Truck testing globally….at home

Advertising

Editorial office Phone

93 Vertex Lubricants Recently Registered

A NZ health and safety researcher gets funding to explore carrying out a national survey of truck drivers

CONTRIBUTORS

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

New products and services for the road transport industry

For a 14-year period, from the mid-1930s, hundreds of American-built Diamond T trucks went on the road in NZ. Truck historian Gavin Abbot looks at some of the trucks and the fleets that ran them

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

EDITORIAL Editor

87 Truck Shop

68 Old Iron

Publisher

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

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

79 Truckie health risks targeted

39 Transport Forum

MANAGEMENT

FEATURES

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

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Truck & Driver | 1

NEWS

This picture & below: Artist’s impressions of HYZON-powered hydrogen fuel cell etrucks

Suddenly….everything’s coming up HYZON WHERE BEFORE THERE WAS MOSTLY HYUNDAI, Nikola and Daimler Trucks talking about hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric heavy-duty trucks, suddenly….there’s also now HYZON. The announcement that Kiwi energy company Hiringa has signed a heads of agreement with United States-based HYZON Motors to supply a fleet of hydrogen-fuelled trucks has come on the back of a flurry of announcements from the formerly unknown company.

Unknown….because it was only created in March this year, by Singapore-based Horizon Technology – a longtime pioneer of fuel cell commercialisation. It says it has developed the world’s most powerful fuel cell stack – a 500hp/372kW single module, well-suited to installation in heavy trucks, buses and logistics vehicles.

In March, it was announced that HYZON was starting business in the United States – taking over General Motors’ former fuel cell facility as its global HQ. It will, said HYZON, begin series production there of fuel cell powertrains and “support integration” of heavy-duty trucks and city buses – the first of them to be delivered early next year. It will be the first US States-based manufacturer of high-power PEM fuel cell modules for commercial vehicles.

The same month, a new partnership was announced, linking HYZON and United Kingdom hydrogen project developer Protium.

And in May, HYZON Motors announced that it was establishing a division in Australia to service NZ and Australia – and was “considering the options for locating our first fuel cell commercial vehicle integration facility.”

In July, it announced the opening of a new European HQ and manufacturing centre in the Netherlands – this achieved by teaming-up with Holthausen Clean Technology, a company that has been converting standard medium-duty and HD diesel trucks into fuel cell vehicles “for 2 | Truck & Driver

years.”

In August came an announcement that HYZON Motors had struck a deal with Australian mining giant Fortescue Metals, to build a fleet of 10 hydrogen fuel cell buses for one of its West Australian mines.

The $AU32million project will also see a hydrogen refuelling station established, using energy from a Fortescue solar-gas hybrid system.

Also in August, Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies chairman George Gu said that its plan is to “work with partners to decarbonise the transport industry, by starting from the heavy truck sector, without adding customer additional cost.

“Our goal is to bring both affordable trucks and affordable hydrogen to end users, starting from now – not in three or 10 years.”

Last September, Horizon showed off the first of a huge order of hydrogen fuel cell trucks built in a partnership with Chinese company JMC – a JV with Ford Turkey.

Horizon said that its delivery of 20 of the 42-tonne fuel cell trucks began a 2000-truck order, to be delivered over several years.

That makes it, said Horizon, “easily the largest fuel cell heavy duty truck fleet in the world.” T&D

NEWS

An artist’s impression of a HYZON-powered truck, carrying the branding of companies supporting the Kiwi hydrogen fuel cell trucks project

Hydrogen fuel cell etrucks here soon THE NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING industry is poised to become one of the world’s first to put hydrogen fuel cell electric heavy-duty trucks to work.

Taranaki-based Hiringa Energy has signed a heads of agreement with the newly-created, United States-based HYZON Motors hydrogen vehicle company – aiming to have hydrogen fuel cell etrucks on the road here early next year.

There will be “a widespread rollout” of the HYZON-supplied trucks – with 500 horsepower/372 kilowatts and able to drive 500 kilometres at 50 tonnes all-up – in 2022.

The truck purchase deal follows on from the announcement in July by Hiringa that it is joining forces with truck and trailer leasing and rental giant TR Group to introduce hydrogen fuel cell electric heavy trucks here.

That partnership aims to combine Hiringa’s expertise in producing hydrogen and its plans (with others) to create a nationwide hydrogen refuelling network…and TR’s dominance in NZ’s heavy transport hire market.

Together, they said, they will offer packages to trucking companies seeking to reduce their carbon footprint.

In announcing the deal with HYZON – a company that has suddenly sprung into the global zero emissions limelight this year – Hiringa reveals that the TIL Logistics Group, one of NZ’s largest homegrown freight and logistics companies, is also a partner in its hydrogen truck ambitions.

It says that the HYZON agreement “supports Hiringa and its partners’ strategy to roll out over 1500 FCEVs (fuel cell electric vehicles) by 2026, driving the cost of the technology down and unlocking widespread adoption of zero emission heavy transport.”

Hiringa CEO Andrew Clennett says that the agreement “helps bring a major piece of the puzzle together for zero emission supply chains – delivering an exciting solution for the high utilisation heavy trucking sector….

“And complements the partnerships we have been growing with trucking industry leaders such as TIL Group and TR Group. We are looking forward to working with these partners, their customers, and other key players in the heavy transport industry on this rollout.”

The HYZON trucks will be NZ-suited, in a variety of configurations, including 8x4 and 6x4 rigids and tractor units.

Hiringa chief technology officer Dan Kahn says the agreement is “an exciting milestone for Hiringa Energy and our partners. It comes on the back of over three years’ of detailed planning and analysis, working together with heavy fleet operators, government and leading technology vendors such as HYZON Motors.

“The FCEV truck market is growing rapidly, with enormous demand coming out of the US and Europe.

“So, for NZ to be able to secure this agreement with HYZON demonstrates NZ’s leadership

in how we are approaching the hydrogen FCEV opportunity.”

HYZON Motors co-founder Craig Knight says the partnership with Hiringa will be “accelerating the decarbonisation of commercial transport in NZ, which is highly fitting for a country known for its pristine environment.

“The Hiringa hydrogen infrastructure deployment will position NZ to become a global leader in the adoption of zero emission heavy vehicle technology…”

And Clennett says that NZ “is set to be one of the first countries in the world to be able to offer a zero-emission national supply chain.”

Hiringa and HYZON plan an initial validation phase that will see 20 trucks on the road next year – “moving to large-scale commercial deployment from 2022 onwards.”

The trucks will be fuelled by Hiringa’s nationwide hydrogen refuelling network, located on key partner sites such as Waitomo Group’s existing fuel stops. The network will commence refuelling operations next year, expanding to eight stations across the country by 2022 as part of a Phase 1 network plan – servicing 100% of the North Island and 82% of the South Island’s heavy freight routes.

The Phase 2 expansion will increase the network to at least 24 stations by 2025, providing coverage for 95% of all heavy vehicle routes throughout NZ. The refuelling network has earned $20million worth of provisional Government support. T&D Truck & Driver | 3

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I-Save could save you A NEW-GENERATION VOLVO FH WITH ITS LATEST I-Save fuel economy package can cut fuel costs by up to 10%, the truckmaker reckons.

The Volvo FH with I-Save is based on Volvo’s 13-litre turbo compound (D13TC) engine launched early last year – its “most fuel-effective engine to date.” It comes in 460 horsepower/343 kilowatts or 500hp/372kW ratings, with 2600 Newton metres/1917 lb ft or 2800Nm/2065 lb ft of peak torque, respectively.

Last year’s first generation of the FH with I-Save cut the cost of diesel and AdBue by up to 7%, Volvo says – this in comparison with an FH with a standard Euro 6 Step D 13-litre.

Now, Volvo says that’s been improved to 10% with the latest FH with I-Save, thanks to software updates based on user data analysis and refinement and optimisation of “the balance between fuel consumption

NEWS

The new Volvo FH also has more aerodynamic styling changes and an improved I-See predictive cruise control system and driveability….leading to a further reduction in fuel consumption when driving in Eco mode.”

Regardless of I-Save, the new FH – launched in Europe this month – has a more aerodynamic design and the I-See predictive cruise control system has a new function that detects when it’s efficient for the engine to rev up slightly….and then freewheel, even on roads that look flat.

The new Volvo FH with I-Save also delivers optimised torque within a wide rev range, which Volvo says “results in smooth driving and delivers the power needed to maintain a high and constant average speed, even in challenging topography.”

Says Jessica Sandström, Volvo’s senior VP product management: “We are making it easier and more comfortable to drive fuel efficiently, even on hilly roads. The new Volvo FH’s top-class driver environment also helps drivers perform optimally throughout their entire work shift.” T&D

Hall of Fame now set for next month NEW ZEALAND’S PREMIER TRUCKING INDUSTRY event, the annual Mobil 1 Delvac NZ Road Transport Hall of Fame has been postponed for six weeks.

The celebration of industry icons, which had been scheduled for October 2, will now be held at the Bill Richardson Transport World in Invercargill on Friday November 13.

TW Events & Incentives event manager Adam Reinsfield says that “trying to deliver an event so close to the Government’s expected announcement regarding COVID-19 levels…September 14, was the catalyst behind the decision to reschedule.

“We have so many attendees travelling to be at this event, and we didn’t want to have to change it just days beforehand, should a decision to remain at Level 2 be announced.

“We wanted to make the call early, to minimise the disruption to our guests,” he says.

The event, which is the brainchild of HWR directors Jocelyn and Scott O’Donnell, is normally attended by more than 500 guests. However, the constraints of COVID-19 mean that this year’s version will be “a slightly more intimate affair.”

Jocelyn O’Donnell says that despite the postponement, this year’s event “will retain its essence – celebrating the outstanding contributions made by

Kiwis to the national road transport industry.

“While it’s disappointing to have had to make this call, we think it’s the right one. We’re looking forward to coming together as an industry to honour those who have devoted considerable time and energy towards bettering our industry for generations to come.

“Challenging times like those we have experienced in 2020 highlight how important it is to have strong partnerships and friendships in life.” T&D

Truck & Driver | 5

NEWS

Volvo Group Australia had a big presence at the 2019 Brisbane Truck Show. Its decision to not take part in next year’s show removes the Volvo, Mack and UD makes from the show’s lineup

Brizzy loses a biggie NEXT YEAR’S BIENNIAL BRISBANE Truck Show has lost one of its major exhibitors – Volvo Group Australia announcing that it’s out.

Its withdrawal, which takes out Volvo, Mack and UD Trucks from the show’s usually comprehensive lineup of truckmakers involved in the Australian market, is due to COVID-19, it says.

In a statement VGA says that “the current climate of uncertainty regarding travelling across state borders – and the possible rapid implementation of social restrictions – has created a challenging environment for all businesses to operate within.

“This uncertainty, coupled with the associated risks, has affected events and exhibitions all around the world.

“These events require considerable resources and

forward visibility to plan and execute. The recurring impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our society continues to affect planned events and travel.”

As a result, VGA has “reluctantly” made the decision not to take part in next year’s show.

The company says that it is “totally committed to supporting the Australian economy and the road transport industry,” and adds: “We look forward to a time where we can showcase the best transport solutions and products our group has to offer – safely, and in person.

“In the meantime, we will continue to keep Australia moving.”

Todd Hacking, chief executive of the HVIA, the industry group that organises the Brisbane show, says: “Naturally it is disappointing when one of our

major exhibitors has to pull out of a show.

“However, it has happened before and we understand that COVID has impacted manufacturers to varying degrees. However, the show will go on.

“In fact, the show floor is like a bucket of water – you pull out and the spot is instantly filled, as it is in this instance. That’s how much demand there is for space – and the 2021 show is a sellout.

“We know how much our industry and its customers are looking forward to getting together in Brisbane in May 2021 and most see it as the opportunity to reconnect and kickstart the industry.

“For us it’s full steam ahead and we have exciting announcements about the show in the months ahead.” T&D

Truck Driver Appreciation Week postponed THE LATEST COVID-19 LOCKDOWN has prompted the decision to delay the annual National Truck Driver Appreciation Week until February.

The industry groups behind the week have decided that “the immediate task of our industry is to keep on trucking and keep New Zealand moving.”

Thus the decision to delay it until February 22-28.

6 | Truck & Driver

The aim of the week will remain the same – “appreciating our drivers out on the roads, doing the fundamental job of keeping our lives as normal as possible….but delievering every community in NZ everything and anything it needs.”

NZ Truck & Driver will keep everyone abreast of any further developments in this time of uncertainties. T&D

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NEWS

Hero truckie Sun Gang (right) gets a giant key to his new FAW J7 tractor unit, from FAW Jiefang chairman and Party Committee secretary Hu Hanjie A CHINESE TRUCKIE WHO DROVE HIS burning truck clear of a service station in Xinmin City, in northeast China, became an online sensation for his heroism.

But he also faced financial ruin, because his truck – his family’s most valuable asset – was totally destroyed in the fire.

Footage of the tractor unit, pulling a caged flatdeck semi-trailer, was run on Chinese television – showing the truck speeding through an urban area…its unknown load totally ablaze.

A tv news report ended with pictures of the driver, Sun Gang, sitting dejectedly on a rural road as his truck exploded in flames in the background.

But he shrugged off any hero tag, insisting: “I’m just an ordinary man. When an accident happened I had

no time to think about anything – but to drive the car away, out of instinct.

“I believe that no person involved would leave the danger to others.”

He said that the truck fire started when a welding repair job went wrong: Sensing the danger of the fire spreading to the neighbouring service station and triggering a huge explosion in the urban area, he jumped in the truck and drove several kilometres out of town, according to an official Chinese news agency report.

Flames leapt over two metres high before he finally abandoned the truck….which was very quickly engulfed in flames.

When the tv news coverage was posted online, it reportedly attracted over 100 million views and saw

Sun Gang hailed a hero.

And it prompted a happy ending: A few days after the fire, Sun Gang was contacted by a representative of Chinese truck manufacturer FAW Jiefang – and was told that the company was giving him a brand-new, 550-horsepower FAW tractor unit.

In front of assembled media, a delighted Sun Gang was duly presented with the new truck by FAW Jiefang chairman and Party Committee secretary Hu Hanjie.

FAW Jiefang said it was happy to assist in such situations – helping drivers “to set sail again…..” continuing to practice “the brand’s charitable values and beliefs.”

For his part, the appreciative driver said he would donate the profits from the first job in the new truck to charity. T&D

UDC Finance sold to Shinsei Bank ANZ BANK NEW ZEALAND HAS completed the sale of vehicle and asset finance business UDC Finance to Shinsei Bank, following Overseas Investment Office approval of the sale.

UDC Finance chief executive Wayne Percival says the $794million sale will position UDC to continue as NZ’s largest non-bank lending institution.

“Shinsei Bank’s strong funding, international experience and reach, coupled with its deep asset finance experience, will be a real advantage in accelerating the growth of UDC in NZ,” says Percival.

UDC Finance has around 82,000 active borrowers, with loans totalling over $3.3billion and employs 225 staff throughout NZ. Shinsei Bank Group is “a diversified financial group that operates asset financing and vehicle

lending businesses similar to those of UDC, within Japan and offshore.”

CEO Hideyuki Kudo says Shinsei Bank believes “UDC is a standout performer and will be a major asset” for the Group.

It will, he adds, “continue to operate as an independent finance company and we are taking a longterm approach to building and growing UDC in NZ.” The intention is “to retain all UDC staff, retain all operations in NZ and provide the capital needed to grow our funding to our customers.”

A partnership agreement will see “UDC continuing to be ANZ’s asset finance partner and we are jointly committed to supporting shared customers,” he says.

Percival says UDC will now have the support of “the global expertise and strength of Shinsei Bank, to deliver critical asset funding that will

help to fuel our economic recovery.

“Shinsei Bank will be growing the company in NZ, which is great. They like and understand the industries UDC operate in – construction, aviation, road freight, forestry and the automotive industry.” T&D UDC Finance chief executive Wayne Percival

Truck & Driver | 9

NEWS

Autonomous focus in US

A Waymo-equipped Peterbilt runs alongside a similarly-outfitted SUV during off-highway testing

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THERE’S A RENEWED FOCUS ON AUTONOMOUS trucks in the United States, with self-driving tech company Waymo and industry heavyweight Freightliner both launching new highway test programmes.

Waymo says that it’s putting a test fleet of Peterbilt 579 tractor units to work around Dallas and Houston – two of the biggest freight hubs in the US. On their first time on a route, they’ll be driven manually by their socalled driver “attendants” – who hold commercial driver licences.

But thereafter the Waymo Driver autonomous software – supported by an array of sensors and cameras fitted to the trucks – will take over.

Waymo says that by operating its systems on the heavily-trafficked Texas highways it will “further understand how other truck and passenger car drivers behave on these routes, and continue to refine the way our Waymo Driver reacts and responds in these busy driving regions.”

The Waymo Driver platform has, it says, already racked-up 32 million kilometres of driving on public roads in more than 25 cities, and the artificial intelligence technology has done another 24 billion kilometres in simulations.

Via its driver expertise partner Transdev, Waymo is currently hiring truck drivers for its test programme.

The company says its Waymo Driver system, “because it doesn’t get tired or distracted,” will improve safety on the road and will “at some point” also improve utilisation rates compared to human drivers, “who need to take breaks, eat and sleep.”

Meantime, Daimler Trucks’ Autonomous Technology Group, which formed a partnership a year ago with Torc Robotics – specifically to have “highly-automated” trucks in series production before 2030 – is entering a new phase of testing on public roads.

The highway testing, which restarted in Virginia in June with a new generation of automated driving software, is also backed-up by a new test centre in New Mexico, devoted to autonomous driving.

Daimler Truck board of management chairman Martin Daum says it remains “fully committed to this collaboration and to focusing on the shared goal of bringing highly automated trucks to series production.”

Torc Robotics CEO Michael Fleming says that “Daimler’s commitment to safety, innovation leadership of truck technology and foundational knowledge of onroad scenarios that truckers encounter has moved our system faster than we could have done alone as a technology firm.

“By working with the inventor of the truck and number one truck OEM, we are convinced that Level 4 trucks can be commercialised safely, with a strong business case.”

Daimler Trucks North America president and CEO Roger Nielsen says of fully autonomous trucks becoming operational: “We know this will not happen overnight, but with our priority and vision for safer roads and efficiencies for our customers, we are committed to the journey.”

All of Freightliner’s automated test drives require the combination of a safety conductor, overseeing the system, “and a highly-trained safety driver.”

US autonomous tech company Ike Robotics says it is now working with three large trucking operators – and 1000 trucks – in a unique collaboration that pulls together its autonomous technology and their operational knowledge.

Ike says it’s working with operators that are known “early adopters of new technologies” – companies that have invested heavily in digital tools, electrification, and automation in many parts of their businesses.

Thus, says Ike: “We don’t need to build a big fleet or logistics network to get our product into the market – those networks already exist. And we’ve discovered that they have a lot to teach us.” T&D

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NEWS

NEWS

Swap batteries for etrucks

A plan to improve electric delivery trucks’ efficiency by swapping their batteries at logistics centres will be trialled in Japan next year THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT’S ENVIRONMENT Ministry has come up with a new twist in the push to get more electric trucks on the road, particularly for urban delivery work: Swappable batteries.

In co-operation with truckmakers, the Ministry is proposing to increase the uptake of electric delivery trucks by running trials next year using swap batteries at logistics centres – improving the efficiency of etrucks.

Also, to increase the green credentials of the electric trucks, the Ministry plans to recharge the etruck batteries using power generated locally – from renewable energy sources including solar and wind power.

It believes that battery electric trucks have been adopted on a limited scale

because of their short range and the time taken to recharge their batteries.

The Ministry says that logistics centres with battery recharging capabilities will also be invaluable during times of natural disasters or even power outages – with the etrucks still able to deliver food and other supplies.

Businesses taking part in the test will be asked to sign an agreement to use the logistics centres (and their battery charging capabilities) as distribution bases during civil emergencies.

There is a precedent for the swappable batteries concept: Japan Post and some food delivery companies in Japan are already using them to keep electric motorcycles running for long periods. T&D

Road spending call...gets rail spending response A MULTI-ORGANISATION CALL ON the Government to use some of its so-called “shovel-ready” COVID-19 recovery budget on urgently-needed road repairs, has apparently failed to impress Transport Minister Phil Twyford.

Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett says it was “interesting” to see the Government’s response – with Twyford switching the focus onto promoting rail for moving freight.

The RTF, Automobile Association, Association of Consultants and Engineers, Civil Contractors New Zealand, Employers and Manufacturers Association and Infrastructure NZ made the united call to address “the dire state of NZ roads.”

It generated plenty of media and public debate, but when Radio NZ asked Twyford about it, he said: “Our record investments in rail will help take pressure off our roads by moving more freight to rail. It’s going to take more than a few years to undo a decade of neglect.”

Leggett points out that early in this coalition 12 | Truck & Driver

Government’s term, Twyford said that there had been an over-investment in roads and motorways for decades…but he told RNZ the Government agreed there had been under-investment for a decade prior to 2017 – so it had increased highway maintenance spending on average by 36%. If reelected, he would increase that by 17%.

Hopefully, says Leggett, that means “he’s had a change of heart…..”

Twyford’s rail focus is contrary to the evidence that rail cannot compete with the “effectiveness, convenience and efficiency of road freight, Leggett says.

“In NZ, the National Freight Demand Study, commissioned by the Ministry of Transport and released in October 2019, showed that freight delivered by road was 93% of the freight task – up 16% since 2012 – while rail was 5.6% of the freight task…down 17% since 2012.”

MoT data also shows that the tonnage of dairy produce transported by rail has dropped from

about 3.9 million tonnes in 2013 to 2.3 million tonnes early this year, says Leggett.

At the same time, over $2billion in taxes is collected each year for the National Land Transport Fund to fund roads – but some of that is now being used to fund modes of transport that make no contribution. This cross-subsidisation is at the expense of roads and hits consumers in the back pocket.

Leggett says the country needs “a good balance” of spending on rail, public transport and roads.

“What we have an issue with is the defunding of roads for pet projects in rail that cannot provide a viable return on investment, or the efficiency, effectiveness, reliability and cost benefits of road freight.

“The Government is slowing down the economy by not spending on roads. Slowing down movement of goods – particularly essentials such as food and medicines – impacts on the cost of living for all NZers.” T&D

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NEWS Nikola seems to have scored a coup in securing the backing of its second major automotive corporate giant to help it get to market with its Nikola One and Nikola Two (pictured) North American tractor units

Nikola now buddies with GM ELECTRIC TRUCK STARTUP NIKOLA HAS SCORED another coup – pulling off a deal with General Motors that boosts its plans to build electric pickup trucks and fuel cell electric heavy trucks.

The deal, said to be valued at $US2billion, sees GM take an 11% stake in Nikola, in return for supplying it with hydrogen fuel cell technology for its heavy-duty etrucks.

It will also supply batteries, chassis architecture and fuel cell systems for the proposed Nikola Badger pickup – and the factory to build it in.

GM says it expects to realise $US4bn in value from the deal, including $700m for building the Badger.

GM’s own electric pickup truck, the GMC Hummer, is due to go into

production late next year – with the Badger scheduled to start manufacture a year later. The two pickups will share major components.

Nikola will buy GM’s hydrogen fuel cells for its North American market highway tractor units, in a deal set to run at least four years.

The deal excludes Nikola trucks for the European market, where the company already has a similar partnership with Iveco – the Italian make’s parent company, CNH Industrial, now holding a 7.11% stake in Nikola.

Iveco and Nikola will produce electric and hydrogen fuel cell trucks together.

Nikola says it expects that the GM deal will save it $US4bn in battery and powertrain costs over 10 years and over $US1bn in engineering and validation costs. T&D

EROAD bundles fleet maintenance TO BEAT INEFFICIENCIES IN TRUCK SERVICING AND maintenance – which can be “costly, complex and time-consuming” – EROAD has come up with a new solution.

It has bundled all of its services that reduce downtime and limit operating costs “into one easy-to-use solution” – MyEROAD Fleet Maintenance.

Says the company: “This comprehensive solution takes the hassle out of the complicated fleet maintenance process by centralising all vehicle service and maintenance information in one place, providing automated service scheduling based on time lapsed, distance travelled or engine hours – plus a full service-history archive.”

MyEROAD Fleet Maintenance includes in-cab service alerts – which sends information directly to drivers (via EROAD’s in-cab Ehubo2 device) to remind them of appointments.

Drivers can access the Inspect App from any IOS or Android device, easily completing pre-trip inspection checks to identify any issues – this information syncing directly to MyEROAD Fleet Maintenance “for backoffice visibility and repair progress.

“To avoid lost paperwork, other parties can be given access to update

the services they have performed – keeping supplier information, service details, invoice numbers and costs all in one place. Compliance becomes easier with automated notifications for WoF/CoF, and vehicle registrations.”

EROAD reckons that the system makes it easier for an organisation “to drive a more efficient and compliant vehicle fleet” – boosting profitability by reducing the risk of breakdowns, failed roadside inspections and lost productivity, by keeping vehicles on the road.

It also reduces operating costs, by avoiding unforeseen repairs with automated service scheduling – keeping vehicle maintenance up to date – and eliminates the time wastage involved in “wading through spreadsheets, with automated maintenance data available in a few simple clicks.”

It minimises risks, because “it’s easier to meet your health and safety requirements with a well-maintained fleet,” and improves driver safety – with in-cab driver messaging allowing operators to alert or inform drivers before they start their shifts.

The system also provides vehicle health insights, with “easy-to-access information that informs vehicle lifecycle decisions.” T&D Truck & Driver | 15

NEWS

Traton ups its bid for Navistar Owning Navistar outright would give Traton a foothold in the valuable North American truck market,via the long-established International brand

TRATON HAS UPPED ITS OFFER in its bid to buy Navistar outright – thus establishing its desired foothold in the huge North American truck market.

Volkswagen’s heavy truck business, which has ambitions to head off rivals Daimler and Volvo to become the world’s No. 1 truckmaker, is now offering $US3.6billion (around $NZ5.41bn) for 83% of Navistar.

It already owns a 17% stake in the truckmaker, which builds Internationals – having bought into the US company three or four years ago.

In January it offered $US2.9bn ($NZ4.4bn approximately) for the balance of the shareholding, but US financial media reported that negotiations with the biggest stakeholders in Navistar had then been suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Traton CEO Matthias Grundler now says: “We continue to believe in the compelling strategic benefits that a complete merger of Traton and Navistar would produce.

“This is why we are re-emphasising our interest in the transaction in spite of the COVID-19

pandemic.”

Navistar says that its board of directors and management team “are committed to exploring all avenues to maximise value.”

It will, it adds, carefully review the revised proposal from Traton in consultation with its advisers “to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of the company and its stakeholders.”

Navistar’s most recent financial report revealed that its truck sales were down almost 50% due to the impact of COVID-19 on the US economy. T&D

Groundspreaders’ annual awards THE NEW ZEALAND GROUNDSPREAD FERTILISERS Association’s prestigious Ballance Agri-Nutrients President’s Award has been awarded to Grant Anderson, of Transport Services Southland.

The award, announced at the association’s recent “virtual” AGM, recognised Anderson – a vice-president of the association – for “his leadership and mentoring skills, as well as his advocacy for the industry standard, Spreadmark.

“Grant’s commitment to growing the industry professionally, while augmenting health and safety practices, in particular, incident reporting,” was also recognised.

Marty Crafar, formerly of Safe Business Solutions, was the runner-up for the award and was acknowledged for “his commitment to guiding groundspreader operators through business challenges – providing ideas, hands-on advice and resources across human resources, health and safety, management and auditing.”

Ted Usmar, head of engineering at Waikato-based Wealleans, was awarded the Trucks & Trailers Innovation Award “for his longterm commitment to continuous improvement to technical efficiency and driver safety.”

16 | Truck & Driver

Nathan Callander, of Callander Groundspread – described as “an enthusiastic and talented ambassador for the industry” – was the runnerup for the award.

Phil Johnson, driver trainer at Canterbury Driver Training, took the Graymont Health & Safety Award – commended for “his diligence in developing thorough training programmes that create competent and qualified groundspreader operators, who are highly proficient in the area of health and safety.”

Runner-up Jessie Freer, of Taranaki’s Sandford Group, was praised for successfully updating old systems and implementing new H&S procedures across 10 sites, 140 staff and 100 trucks.

The Ravensdown Young Achiever’s Award, for aspiring under-35s, was won by 22-year-old Matthew Blomfield of Transport Services Southland.

He was recognised for his “respect of the environment, as well as his passion for farming and his profession…” Wealleans Groundspread operations manager Jared Usmar was the runner-up.

The online AGM saw John Schultz, of Mainland Groundspreading, reelected president, unchallenged. VPs Grant Anderson and Graeme Martin were also re-elected. T&D

NEWS

A German eHighway trial is now fully operational – with diesel/electric hybrid Scanias drawing all their power from the overhead lines while running on a 5km stretch of motorway

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A WORKING TRIAL, RUNNING DIESEL/ electric hybrid trucks equipped with trolley bus-style pantographs so they can connect with catenary overhead lines for their power, is now fully operational in Germany.

Five Scania R450s, each run by a different transport operator, are hauling freight on a route that includes a five-kilometre stretch of motorway near Frankfurt.

The Siemens-developed concept is the first of three German eHighways – the second also close to becoming fully operational and the third scheduled to be commissioned by the end of the year.

Proponents believe that such eHighways will be an essential measure to help meet tough exhaust emissions targets for trucks set by the European Parliament last year – demanding a 30% cut in carbon dioxide emissions from new trucks by 2030.

The diesel/electric hybrid trucks are able to connect their pantographs to the catenary power lines on the move, at any highway speed.

While on the eHighway they can run at up to 90km/h with zero emissions, running off the eHighway’s power.

When they turn off the eHighway, they run on their own diesel/electric powertrains.

Data from the trucks running on the eHighways in the trials will help determine the feasibility and real-world benefits of the concept.

Heinrich Kerstgens, co-MD of Contargo, one of the five companies participating in the trial, believes it is a worthwhile project: “If the feedback is positive, and if about one-third of the German motorway network is equipped with electrified catenary lines, in future approximately 80% of the heavy trucks registered in Germany will be able to operate in an electric mode using this technology.

“That will make a really significant contribution to reducing carbon emission.”

The Federation of German Industries recommends the construction of a 4000km network of eHighways “as a costeffective decarbonisation measure.”

Siemens says that investment could be recovered by just 11% of expected toll revenue from such eHighways – and believes that if the country’s busiest stretches of autobahns are electrified, operators would have the necessary economic incentive to switch 80% of Germany’s heavy trucks to the technology.

Siemens projects that a 30% takeup of Germany’s truck fleet with the necessary equipment to use the eHighways would result in seven million tonnes of CO2 savings a year.

The rumoured cost of the eHighway is an eyewatering one million Euros per kilometre of multi-lane motorway. T&D

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NEWS

This Rob Dahm billet unit won Real Steel’s Show Off Your Hardox Body photo contest for its builder, Mills-Tui

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MILLS-TUI’S DEAN PURVES HAS WON REAL STEEL’S inaugural Show Off Your Hardox Body photo contest.

“They don’t get much bigger and tougher than this!” Purves reckons of the winning unit – a Rob Dahm billet unit, with a Real Steel MillsTui body.

The contest was a celebration of the 4000th Hardox unit built in New

Zealand – “a huge milestone for Real Steel, which will take place in the next few months,” says Real Steel MD Luke Mathieson.

Mathieson says that Hardox “has seen phenomenal success since it first entered the NZ market in 2012” – with thousands of the Swedish steel bodies put to work, transporting heavy and sharp rocks, steel scrap, demolition materials and other abrasive loads. T&D

AI-powered predictive telematics launched AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCEbased predictive telematics platform that Teletrac Navman says will “revolutionise the mobile asset and fleet management market,” has been launched here.

Its next-generation TN360 solution “delivers telematics functionalities in real-time, providing businesses with simplified, smart, predictive and actionable insights.

“The digital transformation of the mobile asset and fleet management space has only just begun,” says Teletrac Navman president Jens Meggers.

“Artificial intelligence, scalable cloud technology, real-time computer vision sensors and easy-to-use smart data analysis are completely changing the telematics market. We are at a pivotal step in the industry – digitising vertical industries unlike any time before.”

Teletrac Navman explains that traditional telematics systems rely mostly on GPS and motion sensors as they collect a narrow set of data-points, centred on location, diagnostics and routing: “These systems process linear calculations and produce important but limited feedback.”

On the other hand, “TN360 uses a scalable

cloud ecosystem that connects data from sensors, cameras, mobile and third-party applications in real time and translates raw signals into context.”

It says that the ability to capture, connect, and process robust amounts of data with immediacy “will transform telematics from a two-dimensional map application to a powerful real-time sensor network producing insights for a three-dimensional world.

“While previous generations of telematics platforms aimed at eliminating paper-based reporting and processes, they required users to spend an excessive amount of time analysing digital reports to identify opportunities for improvement.

“Through AI, TN360 removes that analysis period for its users. It allows managers to take corrective action as soon as impactful outliers occur. The platform enables business operations to recognise patterns of efficiency in order to highlight opportunities in areas like route planning, logistic workflows, maintenance, driver behaviour, compliance and fuel management.”

Users can quickly receive business intelligence metrics simply by asking a question of TN360’s smart AI engine with voice-command technology, eliminating the challenge of

traditional data analytics.

“Our goal is – and always has been – to simplify mobile asset and fleet management for our customers,” says Andrew Rossington, Teletrac Navman’s VP of technology.

The AI technology in TN360 is used “to process the masses of data collected and turn this into real answers. The platform converts data into decisions.” T&D Andrew Rossington

Truck & Driver | 21

22 | Truck & Driver

BIG TEST

Story Dave McLeod Photos Gerald Shacklock

The new Scania R 620 bristles with new technology – best of all, according to driver Roger Cross, is its adaptive cruise control....which allows him to run between the Bay of Plenty and Auckland with minimal need for him to touch the brake or throttle pedals

Truck & Driver | 23

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Above: The driver-assisting tech on the Scania includes a scoring system to encourage the driver to use it all – the Opticruise automated gearshifting, the adaptive cruise control, the hill assist...and a light foot on the throttle Right: Roger’s been driving trucks for over 40 years, but fully embraces the high-tech aids, which include “some great little tricks”

OT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THIS, BUT I’M a big fan of mangled proverbs. Like: “What doesn’t kill you, will make you hope you’d never been born.” And how about: “You can lead a horse to water….but a pencil must be lead.”

They’re a couple of gems I’ve picked up along the way, but it’s the plain, straightout version of another old saying – that one about teaching an old dog new tricks – that comes to mind during our latest Giti Big Test….of a new Rotorua Forest Haulage Scania R 620 B8x4NA truck and trailer unit.

Now I’m not saying for one moment that this Scania’s driver, Roger Cross, is long in the tooth….even though he has been trucking for over 40 years.

It’s just that, apparently, this new Scania is teaching this veteran driver new eco-driving skills. And, better still, it’s keeping score of how well he’s going!

I catch up with Roger at Claymark Industries in Henderson, West Auckland, where his Scania and its Roadmaster five-axle curtainsider trailer are getting loaded with finger-jointed timber, destined for Rotorua.

According to Roger, this is one of 10 RFH trucks dedicated to carting timber for Claymark: “Different plants do different things, so I’ve carted filleted timber all over the Bay of Plenty, Whanganui, Levin, Napier areas” – first in a Kenworth K200 truck and trailer unit and, for the past few months, in the R 620.

The Scania wasn’t his choice (more on that later), but in a couple of months and 30,941 kilometres, it’s won him over: He reckons he couldn’t be happier with his new ride.

He explains: “I’m basically an efficient guy. Someone once said that I’m a lazy person – meaning that I try to find the easiest and quickest way to do something!

“And this truck suits me and this work perfectly: It’s the whole package – the power, the comfort and the electronics…and it’s got some great little tricks in it.”

The nine-axle curtainsider unit looks great in RFH’s green and ivory/ white colours and the eyecatching NZ Forest Owners Association

graphics on the curtains.

The new Scania comes with a Euro 5 Scania DC16 115 620 16-litre V8 that’s good for 620 horsepower/456 kilowatts at 1800rpm, while its 3000 Newton metres/2213 lb ft of peak torque is available between 1000 and 1400rpm.

It has a Scania GRS0905R 14-speed overdrive transmission, with an integrated retarder and with Opticruise automated gearshifting.

The power’s delivered to Scania AD400SA diffs on air suspension – with parabolic leaf springs on the AM420S front axles.

The run ahead of us is a 230km trip down to another Claymark branch, in Rotorua. It’s going to be mostly motorway driving – without any really tough terrain to challenge the V8 – but it will at least give us the chance to delve into the heaps of high-tech tricks that this Scania has in its armoury.

You know how I mentioned I like a good saying? Well, it soon turns out that Roger, who looks like an old-school truckie, has plenty up his sleeve – and is quick to dish out some good sayings/pieces of advice based on his years of driving. Like: “Never piss-off a dispatcher or a forklift driver.”

Speaking of forklifts….the truck and trailer unit is permitted to run at up to 54 tonnes-all-up, but today “for payload we’re at 25 tonnes, and we’re 45t all-up.”

The truck tares at 11,870kg and the Roadmaster trailer’s tare is 7400kg – with a deck that stretches out to 12.3 metres, accommodating two packets of 6.13m timber (the longest he carries).

“So we can load up to the maximum cube and maximum weight, which is not that common. The trailer I had before was an 11.8 and there were loads I couldn’t take.”

The Roadmaster bodies are fitted with StrapNGo load restraint systems, which Roger reckons were adopted by RFH because some drivers were having trouble with sore shoulders from throwing chains over loads every day. Just quietly, he doesn’t think it’s necessary.

“I’ve never really had a problem with chains, and if I did I’d throw a strap over and drag a chain.”

He concedes that the StrapNGo is a good idea, but thinks it’s slower to use: “I could chain-up a lot faster, just using chains. Health and Truck & Driver | 25

Main photo: Spectacular NZ Forest Owners Association graphics on the curtains help turn the Scania into a real eyecatcher on the highway Top, from left to right: The driver care in the Scania extends to a fridge drawer under the rear rest bench/bunk......light switches join the window and mirror controls on the driver’s door....a seven-inch infotainment screen controls functions including Apple CarPlay and “an awesome stereo”.....Scania has squeezed even more fingertip controls onto the steering wheel than most

safety is what it all comes down to – and health and safety means time,” he reckons.

However the ratchets on the system are something he’s really keen on, since they tension downwards: “It’s a huge benefit, especially with a bad lower back like mine. The ones that push up take all your strength and they push down on your body. But with these ones you just lock down, drop your knees and away you go.”

With everything loaded and secure, we head south – Roger revealing a bit about his trucking life so far: Now 64, he’s been with RFH for over four years, but has been driving on and off all his life – holding his Class 5 licence for over 30 years.

He drove loggers for about 15 years, but was on tankers – carting flour, oil and milk – for a long period before starting this job….making the move because he’d had it with shiftwork: “I was never at home.”

Whereas the RFH job, initially driving a Kenworth K200 curtainsider unit, saw the truck based at Katikati – quite close to his home, just outside Tauranga.

He didn’t chase the drive in the new Scania – and, in fact, got no advance notice he was getting it. Not that he’s complaining: “I arrived

26 | Truck & Driver

at work on a Tuesday afternoon and the K200 I was driving was getting a service/CoF. “He (the boss) walks up to me and says ‘get your personal stuff out of there – I’m going to give you the new Scania.’ That’s the first that anyone knew who was getting it. It was a big surprise.”

He says that comparing the K200 and the R 620 is “like Venus and Mars in every way. The cockpit, the quiet, convenience, electronics – everything. It’s just a different class.

“It’s like comparing a top-class Mercedes to a Holden: They do the same job, they get to the same place just as quick – but the K200 is a young man’s truck. Climbing up the ladder and walking sideways (to get in and out of the Kenworth) is a challenge….and it’s rough as hell to drive.”

Running empty, he adds, “you’d stand up at certain points when you’re on roads that you know, because otherwise it would throw you against the roof and then smash you down on the floor.”

But the sad state of New Zealand’s highways is largely to blame for all of that, he stresses. And, happy as he is with the Scania’s ride, which includes air suspension under the CR17N (normal headroom)

day rest cab and Bridgestone 275/70R 22.5s all around (mounted on Alcoa Dura-Bright alloy wheels), roads do still have an impact: “For something that rides so well, it still kicks you around a little bit – especially that second steer axle.

“It’s not the truck’s fault though. It wouldn’t matter what you’re in. But it is 100 times better than the Kenworth. In saying that, the Kenworth loaded wasn’t really that bad…. Empty though it was horrible.”

“I haven’t got a particularly good back and I was going in probably every two or three months having an epidural steroid injection…..and I haven’t had one since I’ve been in this. I don’t have any back pain whatsoever now so it’s obviously a lot better for me.”

Access to the cab is easy, with three wide, grated steps and grabhandles both sides.

Once inside, you find a steering column that’s “the usual” tilt and slide adjustable and a premium air suspension seat (in black velour) that Roger says “never bottoms out. I’m not sure how they do it.

I know with Mercedes – and I assume it’s quite similar – they are electronically-controlled seats, so when it’s moving too fast it pumps

the air into it to stop it going down too far.”

The Scania has an expansive windscreen and visibility looks good.

The A-pillar is narrow and there’s a good gap between it and the mirrors.

Roger confirms it: “I don’t have any problems at places like roundabouts. It’s a conventional setup on both sides (both electrically adjusted) but with the passenger side, there’s a third close-proximity mirror pointing downwards.”

The LED headlights are “excellent” on high beam – plus this truck has spotlights just below the windscreen “and there’s a couple up high, that light up the side of the road. It’s just like daylight – it really is.”

He says that even the ambient interior lighting is great, helping the driver’s eyes cope better with the headlights of oncoming traffic. By day, the roof skylight lets in extra daylight too.

There’s heaps of storage in the cab, including two overhead lockers, trays in the centre console, a couple of cup holders, a pullout drawer and fridge under the rear rest bench/bunk. And there’s plenty of USB ports.

Truck & Driver | 27

The driver-friendly environment in the R 620 cab puts everything the driver needs close to hand On the move it’s a quiet environment, with no squeaks or rattles. In fact, about the loudest noise you can hear is the turbo whistle from the engine. That’s about it.

Roger agrees: “This is noticeably quieter than the Kenworth. The only thing that could be better is that the Scania V8 has been rated as the nicest-sounding V8 in the world, so it would be great to hear that….just a little bit. In saying that, it may be a bit tiresome after a while.”

The lack of annoying noise in the cab is “indicative of the brand,” he reckons – his judgment based on this truck and a Scania 470 he drove years ago, “when I came back from my back injury. It had done 1.4 million kilometres and it didn’t have a rattle in it.”

The R 620’s cab finish is “really good” and ergonomically everything looks to be within arm’s reach of the driver. That includes a seveninch infotainment screen next to the park brake and trailer brake.

It incorporates a sound system that has Apple CarPlay and is “an awesome stereo – it just blows you away.”

There are fingertip controls on the steering wheel for the stereo, adaptive cruise control, hill hold and the digital dash display.

Roger reckons that the instrument cluster is very user friendly and can be set up exactly how you want it, by way of four zones to display whatever info you prefer.

He explains: “I’ve got live fuel use on one, which says that it’s done 48.1 litres per 100kms, ‘whole of life.’ And that’s 80% (of the time) carrying around 50-tonnes, so I think that’s actually pretty good – certainly better than the Kenworth. The AdBlue use is a hell of a lot less too.

“I’ve got air tank levels on the second slot, radio on the third and the weight of the trailer on the last (which says it’s 25.7 tonnes). If I go into it a little bit further it tells me I’ve got 10.25 (tonnes) on the drivers.”

28 | Truck & Driver

As we cruise along State Highway 1 in top gear, the V8 at 1200rpm, the speedo at 90km/h, it’s a great time to get back to some of those functions controlled by the buttons on the steering wheel. First of all, adaptive cruise control.

Volunteers Roger: “I find it better than cruise control. It’s awesome.

When I drove up this morning, I basically drove all the way from Tauranga to Auckland, aside from the (Karangahake) Gorge, without touching the brake or accelerator – and maintained a good speed.

“If you get behind the right truck, he just tows you the whole way.

He’ll slow down for the corners as you would anyway, and pick up out of them too.”

He reckons that in reasonably open highway traffic he sets the following distance to about half of the maximum, but if he’s following a truck he sits reasonably close – say 50 metres. When cruising on the open road, with no-one around, he has it set on maximum distance.

“I’m a steerer,” he reckons, adding: “It used to be a derogatory term if you called a driver a steerer, but nowadays, with this technology, if you use it all you’re just a steerer.”

But, of course, “you are still in control though. When you’re in adaptive cruise control the brake pedal doesn’t fold up out of the way – it’s still there. So is the accelerator. You still have control if you need it. If you don’t need to, why do it yourself, that’s my thinking. It’s more relaxed like this.”

Then he happily points out that we’ve been in adaptive cruise mode since we came out of the Waterview Tunnel (on Auckland’s Southwestern Motorway) – and we’re now on the climb up the northern side of the Bombay Hills – 45k along the way.

At the top of the Bombays, Roger stops to top up the Scania’s 400-litre fuel tank and 70-litre AdBlue tank. Starting off again, the GRS0905R 14-speed overdrive transmission is in third.

Roger reckons that in Eco mode the Opticruise automated shifting

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system will change up about 1200 revs. In Normal mode, that increases to about 1400 – and in Power mode it changes up at about 1700 to 1800rpm. Overall, he prefers to leave it in the Normal setting, reasoning that if he’s going up a hill the throttle pedal kickdown function puts it into Power mode anyway.

Starting down the southern side of the Bombays he shows off another neat feature – Scania’s hill hold function: “You put your foot on the brake pedal just enough to activate the brake light and when you take your foot off the pedal, whatever speed you’re going it’ll hold that speed all the way down the hill – even if it needs to change down a gear. Or you can do it (select it) through the steering wheel – same thing.”

He uses the steering wheel selector button, setting it to 70km/h…. and then, essentially, relaxes. The Scania holds itself back at 71km/h in top gear, with the revs at 1000, thanks to the gearbox retarder.

“If the hill was to steepen up, it would engage more of the retarder and maybe change down a gear or two,” Roger says.

With that, the hill does steepen and the system prompts the Opticruise to downshift to ninth gear – the revs jumping up to 1800rpm, as we hold 70km/h.

Roger reckons that “the only thing with the Scania is that when you switch on the retarder the brake lights come on – so the truck behind me is thinking ‘what’s this useless bastard using his brakes down this hill for!’ ” We hold 70k all the way down the hill, completely unstressed – just like Roger. Even on the long descents either side of the Kaimai Ranges it’s the same, he says: “For example, going down the western side of the Kaimais at 50-tonne, I’ll set the speed to 40km/h at the top and that’s it – I’ll touch nothing with my feet. And I’ll get good driving

points.”

Driving points? Roger happily explains: “On the dash is an eco driving score that rates your driving in areas such as braking and acceleration – coming into effect when you use the technology.

“For example, if you use hill assist through the steering wheel it’ll give you five points for exemplary driving. However, if you use the brake pedal to activate it, you’ll get nothing.

“So it’s basically telling you – ‘use me not yourself.’ It often comes up with tips on the dash like ‘next time, ease off the accelerator before the top of the hill’ – which is a pain in the arse because you actually lose quite a lot of speed.

“But I think that it bases its fuel economy (performance) by using gravity and momentum. So if you ease off the accelerator, momentum will take you across the top of the hill, and then you use gravity on the other side to pick the speed up before you use the accelerator again. If you do that exactly right it’ll rate you well.”

He says that the difference between a good score and a bad score can be choosing to get on the throttle in a slightly different spot: “On a road that you know, if you’re 10 feet further up the road you’ll get the ‘next time’ message – and you lose six points. But you might gain two points if you’re further back. It’s encouraging you to be more efficient.”

And, Roger adds, it’s the same thing with the entire braking system: “Their (Scania’s) interpretation of slowing down and braking is for the first response to be changing down gears – using the engine to brake.

“Once you’ve changed down enough gears that the engine has reached such a level that the auxiliary brakes are going to be efficient – sort of up in the 2000 revs mark –then you use the auxiliary brake.

“And at the very, very, very last resort you use the footbrake. If you use the footbrake before anything else it deducts points.”

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30 | Truck & Driver

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The curtainsider bodies on the Roadmaster trailer and the truck are equipped with StrapNGo load restraint systems, which takes away the need for the driver to throw chains over loads every day.

Roger reckons it’s not really necessary.....but he does like the fact that the ratchets tension downwards, which is much easier

Being a veteran truckie I had expected that Roger might have been reluctant to use the new technology – but it turns out that’s completely wrong: “I just like it. It was a bit of a challenge to start with, but it’s the way the truck’s designed to work – so I work it that way to get the best out of it.

“I sort of embrace it to a certain extent. You could call me a truck geek. It’s a little bit different yeah, but having been an owner-driver before, efficiency is a good thing to have. When you’re paying for the fuel and brakes, the longer you make everything last the better it is.”

He says that the eco score system has become a personal challenge: “You want the highest score you can possibly get don’t you? You want to be the best driver you can be. If you’re scoring high in it, the truck should be running as efficiently as it possibly can. And you’re extending the life of the truck as well ‘cause you’re not using things you don’t need to.”

At the bottom of the Bombays, Roger puts his foot on the throttle pedal…and that disengages the hill hold. He immediately swaps this

for adaptive cruise control, again relaxing back in his seat. The Scania is in top gear and just cruising.

He’s impressed with the truck’s steering and the feel it gives you for the road: It is, he says, very direct – “not super-light, but it’s got just enough feel so you know that the road is below you…without struggling with it.”

And, he adds, it tracks beautifully. And, even with the length of the unit, it’s really easy to turn while reversing – this aided by the “little button you push that actually takes the drive off the rear axle, so when you’re turning it’s pivoting on the front axle instead of between the two axles. So the back of the truck kicks out a little bit more which will take the trailer around a little bit more. To have that facility sometimes is an absolute godsend.”

Roger says that he’s basically driven a heap of different gearboxes – from nine-speed to 18-speed Roadrangers, a 16-speed Spicer…and this GRSO905R with its Opticruise automated shifting is the best.

“It’s great. I’ve tried it in manual, but I find I can’t do any better.

Truck & Driver | 33

“I’d be happy to do a million kilometres in this Scania.”

Above, left: Roger reckons that the Scania suits him perfectly because he’s a person who likes to find the easiest and quickest way to do something

Above, right & opposite page: Roger reckons he’s learning new tricks every day in getting the best out of the Scania’s driver aids – and is still working on achieving top marks on the eco driving scoring system

There’s the odd time where, when slowing down to use the braking, I’ll use it manually and there’s a couple of times that it hasn’t seen the hill and the revs will start climbing – so I’ll flick up on the wand and that’s it….it’ll pick up the next gear.”

In saying that, he admits he is a convert for automated manuals in general and reckons he wouldn’t give you tuppence for a manual now: “I hate the things. For the last seven or so years I’ve been driving autos, but the odd time when my truck’s in getting serviced, I hate it when I’m given a manual. It’s purgatory.

“If you drive a manual for a day your shoulder starts aching, your arms get sore. If you’re stuck in traffic with a heavy clutch you’ve got to hold your hand on your knee. You don’t need that sort of shit nowadays – there are better ways to do things.”

He also believes that when you’re changing gear manually a lot of your concentration on the road and the rest of the driving task is lost – especially through the windy stuff. Whereas with autos you can concentrate on what’s in front of you, what’s coming up.

“I think it’s a lot safer, because your focus is more on driving than what gear you’re in.”

Likewise, he’s happy to let the Scania do the braking most of the time too: “The Scania has five stages of retarder but I don’t use it much manually. I’d use the full stage of the retarder if I’m coming up to a stop sign (or a roundabout, or Give Way sign), especially on the open road….

“You use the gears to slow down and use the retarder when you get close: Put it on full noise until you just about stop then, if you need to stop, use the brake pedal.

The only time I switch it all off is when I’m empty in the rain ‘cause these retarders will lock you up – they’re that strong. If you turn it off, you’ve got nine axles that are braking and it’s all ABS right through, so it’s no drama.”

On the climb along the new Huntly bypass the Scania’s 16-litre is at 1100rpm, with the Opticruise in top gear and 82km/h showing on the 34 | Truck & Driver

clock. On the descent the retarder holds us at 90k in 12th gear, at a mere 1200rpm.

The power, torque and retardation is more than sufficient – so much so, in fact, that Roger reckons running at 50 tonnes is so easy that he has to keep reminding himself that he’s loaded.

“You sort of lose all concept of weight. I had this discussion with someone a few years ago about logging trailers that were rolling over.

I said if you analysed it, it comes down to experience and horsepower: We’ve gone from 350hp being big to now 500-600hp.

“And if you look at the guys driving – how many years’ experience have they had? They’ve got huge horsepower and no concept of weight – so they go too fast. The only way a trailer can roll is going too fast into a corner.”

It’s clear that Roger is very pleased with the Scania – and he reckons he struggles to find fault with it so far: “If you wanted to really nitpick, it would be getting out with just one hand and having it slide down the (grabhandle) rail, it gives you rope burn so to speak.

“And the other thing would be the distance to the sunvisor – the passenger side one. The first Mercedes I had, had electric ones. That was really good. The driver’s-side door blind is good though.”

However, there is something that really “pisses me off” – and that’s the lack of a driver’s manual: “I know that with the first Actros I got, there was a delay between ordering it and picking it up. They gave me the manual and I read it cover to cover. I knew everything – every switch.

“Whereas with this, I’m learning as I go. There’s nobody that will really teach you what everything does. I have picked it up, but that’s only through sheer perseverance and noting what happens when you do things. I think most people wouldn’t bother, which is a shame.

When they build in features like they do, why not use them.”

And use them he does – reckoning that there’s not much he doesn’t know about the truck. He’s pretty much pushed every button: “There’s a couple here on the suspension settings that I don’t really know

what they’re all about but it all works alright so…” He shrugs his shoulders.

So….pushing buttons and steering: That’s a lot of what truck driving is about these days, he reckons: “I think it is nowadays – you’ve got to embrace and use this new technology or else you’ll get left behind.

“When I first started driving I was in a D1000 Ford and I learnt to drive in a B Model Mack with two gearsticks. And I’ve been through everything – Internationals, Macks, Kenworths over the years.

“It’s just so easy nowadays. New drivers just don’t know how lucky they are. Things have improved that much…..especially since the Europeans have been involved.”

Tuned-in as he is to the new technology, he also relies on his own instincts – learned through the years of driving experience. An example is not trusting indicated corner speed signs, finding some of them dangerously deceptive: “I know corners that are marked at 85km/h that your arse is stuck to the seat doing 70km/h!

“It’s a case of reading the road – feeling it. I guess it’s experience over the years too. Pick the road, pick the corner and you know how fast you can take it.

“You can also pick the sharpness of the corner if you read the marker posts. The tighter the corner, the closer the marker posts are together. The yellow and black arrows are designed so you can always see three. If you see three close together, it’s a tight corner – and vice versa.”

His old-school habits include keeping his truck very clean by regularly putting it through the eco truckwash: “Half an hour, it’s all done – cab, chassis and wheels.” And he also makes time at the weekends to lubricate all the curtain tracks and ratchets plus he has a tyre lever in his toolbox for tweaking the track in case it gets hit by a forklift and won’t close easily.

“It’s the little stuff that makes the job easier for the week – the fiddlesome stuff that you don’t get time to do during the week and

is too menial for the workshop to do. Some drivers don’t do it and their shit gets hard to use. There’s nothing worse when you’ve got trucks waiting behind you and you’re struggling and hunting around for gear – holding them up.”

He thinks that being an owner-operator in the past makes a big difference to the way he works now – “because you realise the cost of stuff. It’s a hell of a lot easier to grease or oil something regularly than replace it.

“If your curtains slide easy, life is easy. But if you’re struggling all the time to do something in the rain then it makes the job seem worse. I keep the deck tidy, I keep everything in its place and there’s a place for everything.”

The approach includes being very methodical in dealing with the loads: “My way works for me. Like with my ratchets, I do them a different way to others. When I put them in I pull the strap down.

The reason I do that is because when you come to undo them, all you do is pull the tail of the strap out and it’s undone.”

All of this, he reckons, comes back to him being “basically lazy” – someone looking for the path of least resistance.

“I’m 64 now, I’ve worked out that I’ve done about six million kilometres and I’ve got about another million kilometres left in me – and that’s in this. I’d be happy to do a million kilometres in this Scania.

“Even if, in a couple of years’ time, the boss comes to me and says ‘there’s a new truck – do you want it?’ I’d probably say no, because you become quite tuned into something that you’ve been driving for a long time.”

For the record, the R 620’s eco driving score system has awarded Roger’s driving skills with a couple of 100% scores for braking and acceleration – but the best he’s managed for fuel economy so far is 94%, dropping points in hillclimbing and fuel saving.

He’ll keep striving for top marks. And he is learning new tricks every day. T&D Truck & Driver | 35

Trevor Test

I

T HAS BEEN SOME TIME SINCE I LAST drove a Scania – so long, in fact, that the last one had three footpedals.

We catch up with Rotorua Forest Haulage’s R 620 nine-axle curtainsider unit in Auckland, after it’s delivered a load of timber from the Bay of Plenty.

First impressions are that it is a good looker: The Roadmaster body and trailer pop with some awesome livery on the curtains, tied into the RFH fleet colours on the cab and its Peterson lights gleaming as the sun rises.

A short ride with regular driver Roger Cross behind the wheel is valuable: He has owned and driven his own trucks and has been driving trucks for many years… and he also likes to use the technology

Woolston closes in on Rotorua at the wheel of the high-tech truck

36 | Truck & Driver

Hayden Woolston

that trucks like this have in them….which a lot of drivers seem to shy away from.

Even without any specific driver training on the technology, he clearly has got his head around it all and lets the truck “drive itself ” through the Auckland morning rush-hour traffic, using the Scania’s adaptive cruise control.

My drive starts at Lake Karapiro, on the run to Rotorua.

Entry up into the cab is very typical European with three well-spaced, wide and deep steps – further helped by long grabhandles down each side. Once in, the driver’s position setup is a breeze, with plenty of room to move and get comfortable in the air suspension seat.

The dash layout looks a little daunting at first glance – more like an aircraft control panel with lots of buttons/switches. But it doesn’t take long to familiarise yourself with the functionalities of it all.

The driving position and the controls are, once again, very European – with everything at your fingertips. If anything the Scania seems to have more buttons on the steering wheel than other makes – with a row of them along the bottom of the centre of the wheel, for cruise control, adaptive cruise following distances and the downhill speed-setting controls.

On the left you have your entertainment controls and on the right are the digital dash display controls – with the AMT, engine brake and retarder controls on the right-hand stalk.

As usual, on the left stalk are the windscreen wiper and turn indicator controls, with the headlight switches on the door – along with the rear-vision mirror and window controls.

The dash is in the usual wraparound style, while still leaving plenty of room to move around the cab from the driver’s seat The main dash display right in front of the driver is the now common mix of traditional gauges and a central digital display, which Roger has set on the driver performance scores – so he can see how his driving is being judged, live.

The central dash section has the entertainment screen and controls at the top, the airconditioning controls below – and, further down, more controls for the likes of the diff crossslocks and the interior lights.

Under all of this is a well-designed storage unit for coffee cups, keys, phones, wallets, paperwork and so on, plus two storage draws. Under the rest bench/bunk there’s a

fridge and more storage.

As I pull out of the Mobil at Karapiro the truck and trailer track well, with the mirrors showing very clearly what’s happening.

They’re good mirrors….but there is one problem on the driver’s side: The upper, convex mirror is partly obscured by a tinted monsoon shield – rendering it mostly useless, as you can’t see much. There are no blind spots though.

Getting up to the open road speed limit is a breeze, with the gearbox and engine working well together. The 620hp engine actually seems non-existent, given the lack of noise in the cab.

It’s a nice run along the flats to the end of the lake, and up over the hill into Tirau the 620 barely notices it.

Heading up the Mamakus I decide to use the adaptive cruise control as this is said to be the best way to drive the truck – and not get marked down on the driver performance scoring system. As we head up the passing lane I have the truck set at 90km/h…and another truck goes past. The adaptive cruise locks onto the back of it for the rest of the journey to the top, with the Scania doing all the driving and me, the steering. I figure that the Scania will be delivering better fuel efficiency than the guy I’m following.

Heading down the Mamakus into Rotorua I use the hill assist tech – which can be set by tapping the service brake at the start of the descent and the truck will hold you at the speed you’re doing all the rest of the way down.

Be aware though that by selecting it this way, you’ll get marked down by the driver performance score system: It prefers that you select the downhill control system using the controls on the steering wheel.

I have it set at 80km/h and it doesn’t go above 83 – given its 3k overrun allowance.

Very impressive.

Heading through Rotorua to the south side we negotiate small roundabouts and roadworks with ease, the Roadmaster trailer tracking well.

All in all, when it’s time to hand the truck back to Roger we’re both very happy with his Scania R 620: It’s got so much horsepower you don’t need to worry about any geographical challenges….and so much technology onboard that you virtually don’t need to worry about driving it! Just set it in cruise control, steer it – and let it do its thing. T&D

• SPECIFICATIONS • Scania R 620 B8x4NA

Engine: Scania DC16 115 V8, Euro 5 SCR Capacity: 16 litres Maximum power: 456kW (620hp) @ 1800rpm Maximum torque: 3000Nm (2213 lb ft) @ 1000-1400rpm Fuel capacity: 400 litres Transmission: Scania GRSO905R overdrive 14-speed, with Opticruise automated gearshifting Ratios: 1st – 13.28 (crawler-low) 2nd – 10.63 (crawler-high) 3rd – 9.16 4th – 7.33 5th – 5.82 6th – 4.66 7th – 3.75 8th – 3.00 9th – 2.44 10th – 1.96 11th – 1.55 12th – 1.24 13th – 1.0 14th – 0.80 Front axles: Scania AM420S, each rated at 6700kg Rear axles: Scania AD400SA, with diff locks. Each rated at 9500kg Auxiliary brakes: Scania retarder Front suspension: Parabolic springs Rear suspension: Scania air suspension GVW: 32,400kg GCM: 70,000kg

Truck & Driver | 37

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10/09/20 2:21 PM

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Getting to the bottom of our border management issues is critical to keeping COVID-19 at bay

Questions must be asked in COVID-19 comeback A

by Nick Leggett Chief Executive Road Transport Forum NZ

WORRYING TREND HAS DEVELOPED in New Zealand during this pandemic, where any opposition to what the Government does is treated as some sort of seditious act. Even the simple task of asking questions about what government officials knew – and when – is being characterised by many as pandering to conspiracy theorists or whipping up dissent. That is not just unfair, it is counterproductive.

At times like this, the role of our political opposition and commentators must not only be to encourage compliance with the rules, but also to ask questions as to how and why we got here. Testing what ministers and government officials knew and when is how a democratic society identifies failures and

works towards making improvements.

We are not advocating for people not to follow the rules; but we do believe there should be space to test and question what is happening and why.

With the return of COVID-19 to the community after three months without it, probing the effectiveness of the Government’s response and the systems it had in place to prevent community transmission should be considered an absolute necessity, yet we have seen a worrying trend to suppress such inquiries.

To hear that nearly two-thirds of border and quarantine workers were not tested was an obvious example of where the Government’s processes failed. It was well-known that the Truck & Driver | 39

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

border was our biggest risk.

COVID-19 can’t just materialise from thin air, so must enter our community through an external vector. It is only due to the persistent questioning of a couple of senior journalists and academics that failings were properly identified and the Government ultimately was forced to put in place measures to address them.

Once the Auckland lockdown was imposed, the Road Transport Forum sought to shine a light on the debacle around border checkpoints.

The checkpoints, as designed, worked fine for non-commercial traffic, but did not adequately allow the free movement of freight, or workers needing to get to work for trucking operators. This meant trucks loaded with goods were stuck for many hours trying to get in or out of Auckland.

It took a lot of work from RTF and other sectors of the industry to ensure freight operators were provided with a dedicated slip-lane and the right documentation to pass freely. While things ultimately did improve, it took far longer than it should have.

It was also disappointing to have to push back against a Government health order that all those who undertook work at the ports of Tauranga and Auckland were required to take a COVID-19 test.

The Government had spent weeks telling us they couldn’t test border workers, couldn’t test airline staff working on international flights….and yet, all of a sudden, it announced via a health order that 10,000-15,000 truck drivers and contractors who service the two ports were to be tested within 48 hours.

Such a directive was not only unreasonable, but totally impractical and RTF had no hesitation in calling the Government out on it.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for our industry doing its bit to help with contact tracing, but to think you could carry out such a testing programme

without major consequences for the supply chain shows just how out of touch Wellington bureaucrats are at times like this.

Eventually, pragmatism prevailed and only drivers with COVID-19 symptoms were asked to be tested. The whole episode caused a lot of needless stress, however, and could have been avoided if health officials had proactively asked for advice from industry about what actually happens at our ports and what contact drivers have with the goods they are carrying.

While we should be critical of certain aspects of the Government’s response, we also need to be critical of ourselves when that is warranted.

Within hours of the Level 3 lockdown announcement, Police advised me that a number of truck drivers were on social media offering to take people in and out of Auckland in order to avoid the checkpoints.

I know this was only a small proportion of the industry but such behaviour is totally unacceptable. People may have their own views on the Government’s actions, but knowingly and deliberately breaking the rules is very damaging to the reputation of our industry.

Such behaviour totally undermines our efforts to work with Police, health officials and other agencies to make sure the rules and procedures are as flexible as they can be for freight movement.

Finally, I want to thank the drivers, freight handlers, store workers and dispatchers who have again stepped up to keep the country moving during lockdown 2.0.

RTF understands just how stressful times like this can be on essential workers – and especially for drivers desperately trying to maintain compliance with work time rules and health guidelines. We are greatly appreciative of your efforts and you can be sure that RTF and our associations will continue to support you and advocate on your behalf. T&D

Road to Success traineeship roadshow – register now

T

H E ROA D T R A N S P OR T I N D U S T RY H A S partnered with the Government to assist employers to attract staff and alleviate the workforce issues currently experienced by the road transport industry.

RTF, with the backing of an industry governance group, has created a training programme, Te ara ki tua Road to Success, that meshes together on-the-job practical training with theoretical components, leading to qualifications and employment in the industry.

“We believe this will assist people to get into our industry, stay in our industry and provide operators with the support to take on new, inexperienced staff,” the Forum says.

The Government is currently offering a fees-free scheme for road transport qualifications and that aligns with the goals of Road to Success.

Adds the RTF: “Qualifications are important to provide those already in the industry with a sustainable career pathway, and to make the industry more appealing to those who want a change in career, or are just starting out.

“Microcredentials, which are NZQA endorsed, are being developed to further enhance employee prospects, provide a bridge to existing industry qualifications and create transferable skills.”

Road to Success also seeks to leverage off the accelerated licensing 40 | Truck & Driver

principles so drivers may move through licence classes more quickly.

This month, Road to Success representative Graham Sheldrake and RTF’s Mark Ngatuere are conducting a roadshow to present and get feedback on the design of the programme from road transport operators.

A schedule of these workshops, including venues, dates and times is available at https://www.rtfnz.co.nz/road-to-success-roadshow/. Each workshop will last for around one hour with Q&A time after. Please register your interest at success@rtf.nz with Road to Success roadshow in the subject line.

With the constantly evolving COVID-19 situation, arrangements are subject to change so continue to check this page for the most up-to-date information. For more information please contact Mark at mark@rtf.nz. T&D

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Peter Hornell, Proprietor – P&S Hornell Transport

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

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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Long wait for roadside drug testing almost over I

T IS COM MONLY SA ID TH AT good news comes to those who wait.

Well, when it comes to waiting for the introduction of roadside saliva-based drug testing, surely the road transport industry deserves something very good indeed.

RTF chief executive Nick Leggett points out that “ it was way back in 2004 that delegates at the Road Transport Forum Conference passed a resolution calling for roadside drug testing – and I bet that nobody at that event could have envisaged that 16 years on, we would still be waiting for it.

“The good news is that f inally we can see the f inish line, with the Government

introducing legislation that should, within the next year or so, provide Police with the powers necessary to conduct random roadside saliva-based testing of drivers they suspect are under the inf luence of drugs.

“For the road transport industry, which has been concerned about the issue of drug use for decades, it can’t come soon enough.

“RTF has had a zero-tolerance policy on illegal drug use in our industry ever since we were formed and it is great that the majority of operators have adopted this policy – with many carrying out random drug testing of staff at their own expense,” says Leggett.

“The amount of drug use in the industry is

low and it is important we keep it that way.

However, the danger for our drivers is that they are more likely to be the victim not the cause of a drugs-related accident.

“Most accidents involving a truck and another vehicle are caused by the other vehicle, and with substance abuse prevalent in our community, a significant number of truck drivers are being caught up in accidents caused by those under the inf luence of drugs.”

Recent crash data from the Ministry of Transport backs this up. In fact, when it comes to those involved in serious accidents, more people are likely to be under the

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inf luence of illegal or clinical drugs than alcohol, says Leggett.

“Up until now, successive governments have obfuscated when it came to the efficacy of roadside saliva testing. But with more and more evidence for why it was needed, even notoriously cautious government off icials haven’t been able to put it off any longer.

“Ministers Stuart Nash and Julie Anne Genter deserve a lot of credit for pushing ahead with the testing policy, as I can imagine there is still some considerable nervousness within Wellington over exactly how it will work,” he adds.

“For that very reason we cannot count our chickens too early, as the Bill still has to go through the Parliamentary process where the on-the-ground practicalities will be thrashed out. However, the industry can be assured that RTF will work very hard through the select committee stage to support it.”

“We will also work to ensure that if a ‘yes’ vote on the upcoming cannabis referendum is successful, that it doesn’t result in a relaxation of attitudes towards the impact that cannabis has on road and workplace

Alcohol and drug testing is now commonplace in the road transport industry

safety. It is critical that a zero-tolerance approach rema ins in sit uations where someone’s impairment can endanger other non-users,” says Leggett.

“Our industry cannot afford a situation where safety is improved through roadside test ing, yet is comprom ised t h rough complacency in other areas.” T&D

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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Restricting freight another own-goal for Wellington

“Lambton Quay, Wellington” by nzlifenet is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I

N ANOTHER OWN-GOAL FOR OUR CAPITAL CITY, the Let’s Get Wellington Moving consortium (LGWM) has proposed a plan to heavily restrict trucks and delivery vehicles from the so-called Golden Mile inner city retail district.

The Golden Mile is the area formed by Lambton Quay, Willis Street, Manners Street and Courtenay Place, and is the very heart of what makes Wellington a vibrant city.

“Unfortunately, as with many initiatives that seek to improve the amenity value of the city, Let’s Get Wellington Moving is proposing a restriction on delivery vehicles that will have a negative impact on commercial activity in the central city,” says RTF’s Nick Leggett.

“Forcing delivery vehicles to operate only during certain hours and from certain locations will have significant cost impacts on both transporters and central city business owners.”

For retailers and hospitality operators already dealing with the city’s transport problems, the impacts of COVID-19 and high leases, the consequences of this proposal could force many to move out of the central city altogether, Leggett warns.

“It’s easy for Wellington’s great and good to want to cast such unsightly inconveniences as freight delivery to times and places where they can’t be seen, but such activities are a core aspect of the economy of the inner city and should be facilitated to assist with the ongoing commercial development of the city.

“Wellington has some serious problems when it comes to transport,” Leggett adds: “The anti-road brigade that has so successfully infiltrated the politics of the city has done everything in its power to resist the roading infrastructure necessary to free up traffic to the southern suburbs, airport and port.

“LGWM has not come up with solutions to these issues. It has failed in 44 | Truck & Driver

Restricting delivery vehicles on Lambton Quay and the Golden Mile will have negative impact on commercial activity in Wellington’s central city, says RTF expanding State Highway 1 at both The Terrace and Mt Victoria tunnels, and the Basin Reserve roundabout remains a major problem. Unfortunately, rather than putting greater effort into sorting out these routes, LGWM has turned its muddled thinking on the city’s retail district instead.

“The concept of the Golden Mile initiative is fine in theory – enhance public spaces by promoting greater foot and cycling traffic – but it totally ignores the freight demands of the retailers, cafés and restaurants that make the city what it is.”

By suggesting that freight delivery vehicles will have to be parked some distance away from the receiving site, drivers and delivery people will be expected to move goods lengthy distances along pavements….while being mindful not only of their own health and safety, but also of the pedestrians using the same space.

“That is impractical. The Golden Mile is narrow and the side streets LGWM has earmarked for delivery vehicles are totally unsuitable even for small trucks,” says Leggett.

“Many of the premises on the Golden Mile also have front access only, which means that delivery vehicles will have to unload further away – increasing the security risk and potential for goods to get damaged in bad weather.

“It also speaks to the unrealistic nature of the proposal that small electric vans and pedal-powered delivery cargo cycles are being suggested as a substitute for vans, trucks and other freight delivery vehicles.

“Let’s Get Wellington Moving has long been an oxymoron and if it’s latest proposal gets off the ground you can be sure that the Golden Mile won’t be golden for much longer.”

RTF has submitted against LGWM’s proposal and is awaiting the outcome. T&D

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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

Napier-Taupō is an important freight route, yet is extremely dangerous for trucks.

Nick Leggett (left) sees it first-hand, in company with truck driver Antony Alexander

RTF joins local anguish over Napier-Taupō road T

R AV E L L I NG A L ONG S TAT E H IGH WAY 5 between Napier and Taupō is a case of taking your life into your hands – and it is a situation that the Road Transport Forum finds totally unacceptable, according to chief executive Nick Leggett.

“Just before the most recent COVID-19 outbreak I went and visited SH5 with Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst, Deputy Mayor Tania Kerr and truck driver Antony Alexander,” says Leggett.

“With eight deaths (on the road) in the previous 12 months, I knew what I would see would be bad – but it was even worse than I feared.

The road is a complete mess.

“The road surface is a patchwork of potholes and patches. There is so much loose chip and gravel on it, due to the inadequate bitumen, that it actually moves under your feet as you walk across it.

“Then you get to the sides of the road: If a vehicle has to take evasive action, needs to avoid something in an emergency situation, or simply drops a wheel over the white line, it is extremely unforgiving.

“In many cases there is very little shoulder at all, very few runoff areas, and steep shoulder gradients that provide little margin for error.”

Given the deaths in the past year on this piece of road, the locals and those from our industry who travel on it regularly have had enough.

“Talking with truck driver Antony really made me aware how the issues with the road combine to make it absolutely treacherous for trucks – so much so that many drivers are frankly frightened of the route.

Having seen it for myself, I don’t blame them.”

Local councils have pleaded with central government and Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency for years to do something about the road, yet there just doesn’t seem to be the will to make it happen, Leggett says.

When asked by media to comment, NZTA recently stated: “We recognise that the recent crashes on the SH5 corridor are a concern for residents and we are undertaking further analysis of the factors involved to determine whether there are specific issues or areas on the road that require our immediate attention.

“While there are no current plans for major capital works on SH5, we continue to explore possible options to improve the highway in the future and remain open to feedback or ideas. These possible options would be for safety improvements to the current highway – there are no Truck & Driver | 47

THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING

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

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

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

Nick Leggett with an illustration of the grim reality of State Highway 5

plans to construct more lanes or passing lanes.”

Says Leggett: “NZTA’s position is something of a scandal in my opinion. It surely doesn’t take a whole lot more people to die to find out just how bad the road is and what the problems are. It’s blindingly obvious to anyone who drives along it.”

He wonders whether the Napier-Taupō situation suggests that the Government doesn’t have its priorities right when it comes to safety: “They came in committing to ideals such as Vision Zero and, to be fair, they have designated a lot of spending on road safety improvements.

“However, one has to question whether they are prioritising the right routes if a busy and critical highway like Napier-Taupo that has such an appalling safety record does not meet the requirements for an upgrade.

“I suspect the issue is that Napier-Taupō will take more than a bit of retro-fitting to sort out,” says Leggett: “It requires significant investment in resurfacing, shoulder widening and barriers, as well as realignment in some places.

“Still, there is no excuse for inaction. Phil Twyford and Julie Anne Genter need to visit the road, meet with the locals and truck drivers and experience how bad it is for themselves. I would welcome the opportunity to facilitate that, as they can be sure that RTF will keep the pressure on when it comes to this highly dangerous yet vital piece of our state highway network.” T&D 48 | Truck & Driver

National Road Carriers (NRC) PO Box 12-100, Penrose, Auckland 0800 686 777 09 622 2529 (Fax) enquiries@natroad.nz www.natroad.co.nz David Aitken, Chief Executive 09 636 2951 021 771 911 david.aitken@natroad.nz Paula Rogers, Commercial Transport Specialist 09 636 2957 021 771 951 paula.rogers@natroad.nz Jason Heather, Commercial Transport Specialist 09 636 2950 021 771 946 jason.heather@natroad.nz Richie Arber, Commercial Transport Specialist 021 193 3555 richie.arber@natroad.nz Road Transport Association of NZ (RTANZ) National Office, PO Box 7392, Christchurch 8240 0800 367 782 03 366 9853 (Fax) admin@rtanz.co.nz www.rtanz.co.nz 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

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This 6x4 Volvo FH 600 is the odd one out in a Hautapu Haulage fleet of 8x4s. Pictured here in Apiti Forest, in the Manawatu, it was bought for a specific run....with a 44-tonne-rated bridge on the route

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The face of a happy man: Kev O’Brien doing what he reckons he does best – and loves most – working in one of his log trucks

I

T SEEMS PERFECTLY UNDERSTANDABLE THAT, AFTER 35 years behind the wheel, career truckie Kevin O’Brien last year took the opportunity to get out of a truck…and into the office.

Understandable….particularly since he’d been driving for the same company all that time – and he’d been carting logs into the same sawmill every working day.

Understandable….even more so because, for the past 14 years, he’d been the co-owner of the company. And the Hautapu Haulage fleet had grown to 10 trucks – a big number to be organising every day from behind the wheel of one of them.

So here we are now….and Kev’s in his happy place. Yep, back behind the wheel of one of the company’s Scanias – and loving it.

Because – logical, sensible, understandable though it may have been – the move into the office was never what Kev WANTED to be doing. Just what needed to happen….in the best interests of the business and its customers.

He explains: “We’re not such a huge company that we need all this staff – but we do need someone who’s available for the drivers and the customers all the time.

“You need to be able to dedicate your time to them when they need you. So me driving and running it – and I had run it all these years with me behind the wheel….”

He tails off, then resumes: “I could still run it, but it became…. well, you had to be available for the drivers if they had issues – anytime from three o’clock in the morning until they knocked off at five or six at night.

“Some days, you’d be doing nothing because everything runs sweet. But when something went wrong – when there was a breakdown, a flat tyre, whatever – you had to be available.

“And it was no good being in and out of phone service when you were trying to help them or something like that. So I realised that someone had to be on the end of a phone when someone rang.

Otherwise it starts to snowball and everyone gets frustrated.

“It wasn’t just that: It was health and safety compliance too.”

Kev’s wife Katrina was doing that as well as all the admin side of running the company – but, as he says: “That’s such a growing piece of work – the paperwork….it just doesn’t stop. So we had to be up on that.

“It was a combination of things – why I thought I had to get off (the truck) and help try and run it better.

“So I had to make the choice. So I tried it: After 35 years or more of driving every day…. I tried it.”

His stint in the office lasted….“well, it must have been close to six months. It wouldn’t have been more than six months, because I’d had enough of it. Well, not enough of it, but it just wasn’t me.”

He and Katrina came up with a plan: Younger son Tipene (nicknamed George) had never wanted to work for them when he left school – following his own dream and joining the Army at 18.

But funnily enough, he still ended up in trucks – first as a driver, then a transport superviser…and, finally, as a transport company sergeant, in charge of a fleet of the Army’s Rheinmetall MAN AWDs and a bunch of other trucks.

As Kev sums up: “He was right up on all that compliance stuff – he was a driver trainer, he did all of that health and safety and all of that…”

So Kev and good friend/senior Hautapu driver Greg Johnson called in to see Tipene at his Palmerston North home: “So we just made a noise to him about it. No pressure… A beer, you know, and ‘When are you gonna come and do this for us?’ sort of thing.

“Just sort of left the seed there and then we just got talking seriously and he made the call that it would work for him and his family.”

So it was that late last year Tipene started work as Hautapu Haulage’s compliance and operations manager – working out of his Truck & Driver | 53

Above: One of the two R 620 Scanias on the 10-truck Hautapu fleet heads out of Whanganui’s Rosedale Forest, ahead of one of its two Kenworth T659s. Both trucks went on the road this year Opposite page: The other Scania heading south with a load of logs from Kaingaroa Forest, destined for the Taihape mill home in Palmy.

Thus, says Kev happily, “I could go back to doing what I do best – driving. Being out there with the bush crews; knowing and feeling what’s happening out in the field.”

That, he reckons, is very important to his way of running the business: “When you’re out there, talking to the loader driver, seeing what’s happening out at the port – you know, with trucks waiting around or whatever – you actually get the feel of what’s going on.

“So you can anticipate things. The actual job is to anticipate, ease the pressure for your drivers – swap them around so they don’t get bored and all that sort of stuff.

“So all of that was probably more my strength than the health and safety compliance stuff and all that.”

Kev’s love of trucks and trucking dates back to when he was a kid in the tiny central North Island settlement of Utiku, where he was born and brought up (by his grandparents).

He guesses he picked up this love for trucks and trucking from his Granddad, Jim O’Brien, “who worked for the Rangitikei District Council on an old Bedford. I used to go with him when I was a kid – I think he used to babysit me…in the truck.”

Utiku, which is on State Highway 1, eight kilometres south of Taihape, was small…..and becoming smaller: The dairy factory had already closed before Kevin was born in 1966, but there was still a school and, most importantly to Kev, there was also a service station “just down the road.”

Best of all, Utiku Service Station also ran some of its own trucks.

From his grandparents’ home Kev could “just sit at the window and stare (at the service station) – and I’d be over there anytime I could.”

Especially anytime he saw a truck arrive.

Sometimes the drivers would let this truck-mad kid go for a ride with them – “you know, you’d go out all night picking up hay or 54 | Truck & Driver

loading wool bales, or stuff like that. Or helping them transport sheep for the sale.

“Just turning up when you should have been at school or something. Then go for a ride over to the Bay with a load of wool or something like that and be away all day.”

By the time he was in his early teens he was allowed to “back a truck up the back of the yard or something like that. Or just hook a trailer on.” Or drive a truck around the paddocks during haymaking.

Much as he lives by H&S these days and regards it as essential, he also reckons “it’s killed little kids’ dreams.”

“I always had a liking for trucks, but I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would own trucks. I wasn’t that good at school….and the moment I could go, I was gone. I just wanted to be out working or doing something.”

Kevin left school before he was 15, “because school and I didn’t get on! I went off picking up hay and driving hay trucks…”

Appropriately, seeing as he’d spent so much time there as a kid, his first job was with Utiku Service Station: “I used to hang around there and I got my licence through them.” He got a dispensation to get his HT at 16 – and started driving an old 305 FUSO. “I was meant to drive only for them till I was 18, but once I got my licence I was driving for everyone! Back in those days, no-one cared.”

One of the jobs was carting fence posts and poles out of T.J. Benson & Sons’ sawmill in Taihape – helping out the mill’s own truck.

But when Kevin was 17, mill owner Trevor Benson asked the service station boss if Kevin could temporarily stand in for his driver, who was going to be away on holiday: “That was Easter 1984. I was meant to fill in for him for two weeks….but I never left!”

So it is that the “History of trucks & Hautapu Haulage” posted

on the noticeboard of the Taihape mill (long since renamed Hautapu Pine Products) reckons that it’s the story “of two men (Trevor Benson and Kevin), many years and many trucks.”

Benson had started out in 1970 with an early ‘60s TK Bedford – replaced in 1981 with the 4x2 Dodge RG13 (aka a Commer Hi-Line) that Kevin initially drove. With a jinker pole trailer it could cart eight tonnes of logs.

Kev confirms “she was an old girl.” Not that it worried him: “I was 17 – I’d drive anything at that point. I didn’t care – I wanted to drive.”

The Dodge was, says the Hautapu history, “a rather slow truck.”

To the degree that, while servicing Benson’s harvesting crew on a job in Bulls, “it was a full day’s work just to get two loads of logs back to Taihape!”

Kevin points out that the Dodge had to be versatile – not only carting all of the harvesting crew’s log output, but also carting the mill’s own product out: “We could put bolsters on it and cart logs, we could put a bin on it and cart chip. We could cart posts…we could cart anything.”

Right from the beginning of their relationship – which continues still, 36 years later – Benson gave Kevin a lot of freedom (and responsibility) to look after the day to day running of the transport side of the business.

“Pretty much – yeah, from day one – he’d say ‘go do that…and if you see something else that needs doing, do it.’

“He was a very good guy to give you a bit of string and there you go…and the more you did, the more rope he gave you. And then, after a couple of years, I never ever saw him.”

In 1988 the old Dodge was replaced with a secondhand 305 FUSO – a dedicated log unit: “We could convert it from a longs unit, to cart 12-metre logs – because it was post wood you’d want it as long as

possible – and then put another set (of bolsters) on to cart just short logs, for pulp.”

Kev can’t pin down exactly when….or, for that matter, why….but sometime in the late ‘80s he remembers raising with Trevor Benson the possibility of one day buying into the business – becoming an owner/driver maybe.

He laughs about it having been a ridiculous, pointless question: “I don’t really know why I asked, because I had no money! I was only a kid. It was like saying could I climb Everest!

“At that stage, for me to save $10 was a battle! I had no money…”

It was, he says on reflection, “pretty much a dream. But other people were asking me to work for them as well so I just asked the question – I didn’t have any intention of leaving.”

He and Katrina had by then met, married and moved (from Taihape) to Utiku – back into the house he grew up in and where they live still (and where the Hautapu Haulage home yard is located).

“We had just started our family and that as well (Joshua was born in 1987 and Tipene in ’90). And I was still trying to play rugby as well.” He played for Taihape Pirates from the time he finished high school until he lost some toes in a forklift accident in 1985.

Anyway, Trevor Benson didn’t discourage him. “He just said: ‘Save up your pennies.’ ” In the late 1980s, the Benson harvesting crew’s work began to move away from predominantly woodlot felling, into forests – the FUSO, like the Dodge before it, carting all of the crew’s output…post logs to Taihape, sawlogs to other central North Island mills and pulp logs to Karioi.

Says Kev: “And so, to better service that, we had to get another truck.” The arrival of a secondhand 350 Mack R Model logging unit in 1989 coincided with the harvesting crew’s move to Rangipo Forest.

The Mack also started carting to Kinleith.

Truck & Driver | 55

Top: Swedish power rules! The Hautapu fleet in 2018 comprised eight Volvos and one Scania

Above: Trevor was 17 when he started driving for Trevor Benson – in this old Dodge. With a jinker pole trailer it could cart eight tonnes of logs....slowly!

In 1991, when the harvesting crew moved into the Karioi Forest, an existing contract meant that the Mack was only able to haul the logs the Taihape mill needed…..so other work had to be found for it. To make it easier to switch between carting long and short logs, and to stow the trailer for empty running (the mill’s loader wasn’t big enough to lift a trailer) Evans Engineering in Tokoroa was commissioned to build a self-folding Bailey Bridge trailer for the Mack.

“Fortunately, Hautapu Pine needed more logs than the harvesting crew was producing in Karioi.” So the truck stayed busy hauling logs to Taihape from Forest Managers’ forests around Taupo and from the Wairarapa.

In 1993, “when the R Model started to give us a few problems,” the Benson company (by then renamed Hautapu Pine) bought the first new truck for its haulage division – a 400hp CH Mack.

The independence Trevor Benson gave Kevin to run the trucking operation reached a new level: “He let me buy the first new one (new truck). He let me spec it up and do everything. He never questioned a thing. I was still a young fulla – very proud and happy.”

The new Mack’s arrival coincided nicely with a new job – Hautapu having secured a deal for thousands of hectares of pine in Wairarapa’s Ngaumu Forest, about 26kms southeast of Masterton.

So began a decade-long job for Kevin – doing one and a half loads a day from Ngaumu to the Taihape mill, a round-trip of 430kms: “I’d go down, do a load and then back – and then go down, load up

and stay in Masterton. And deliver the next morning – then do a full load.”

Sometimes the truck would also cart a load for Forest Managers from Taupo to Wellington – the first cartage work done for another company.

The Ngaumu job was great for business – not so good for family life, with Katrina largely left to bring up the boys…apart from the occasional times when “I used to take them with me.” For Kevin, because “I knew how many hours I put in (only because I enjoyed the job),” this job, more than any other, convinced him he should never push his boys to follow him and become truckies.

In 1997 the Mack was replaced with a new CH…which turned out to be “a real bloody lemon. It had diff problems – you name it, it had it! So we ditched it.” A brand-new FH 460 Volvo was bought instead, in 2001.

As the Wairarapa job neared its end, Hautapu Pine secured a supply of long logs off Matakana Island – just across the water from Mount Maunganui. It started off, in 2003, as two loads a week – with Kev carting a load of export logs to the port from the Taupo area for NZ Forest Managers, then taking the barge over to Matakana….and (eventually) returning to Taihape with a full load for the mill.

It ended up a load a day. And “yeah,” recalls Kevin, “it was a full day.” Tough too – demanding running back and forth over the Kaimai Ranges, loaded both ways.

It also meant that in 2004 a second truck was needed keep up

56 | Truck & Driver

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Main picture: Eight-axle Volvo FH16 600 unit heads for Hautapu Pine with a load from Kaingaroa Forest

Right: Trevor’s happy to be back behind the wheel of a new R 620 Scania, after a six-month spell in the office last year Opposite page, left: Kevin and the ‘97 CH that ended Hautapu’s Mack period, when it turned out to be “a real bloody lemon” – prompting the purchase of the company’s first Volvo

Opposite page, right: Kevin and Katrina started a trend when they began naming trucks after their grandkids. The Volvos bear the names of (from left) Lucian, Kiera and Beau. Now the drivers are continuing the practice

with the Taihape mill’s other requirements and “other little bits and pieces.”

Thus a new Volvo FH 500 multi-bolster convertible unit arrived – and, for the first time in 34 years, the Benson-owned trucking operation wasn’t just a single-truck deal.

But an even bigger development in the company’s history was in the offing. It eventuated in 2005, when Trevor Benson proposed separating off Hautapu Pine’s trucking operation as a standalone company…..inviting Kevin to buy into it.

So, after 21 years of effectively running the Hautapu transport operation, he became its co-owner.

Trevor Benson, he confirms, has been a special person in his life.

In 36 years of working together “we’ve never had a bad word in that whole time.”

Landmark moment that his switch from truckie to company coowner was, Kev explains that it was never a time of wild excitement: “I was running the truck virtually from day one anyway – so umm nothing really changed in terms of that….except that I was an owner.

So it wasn’t like an exciting new start.”

And for him, it was never about making money: “I didn’t care about the money – I just enjoyed what I was doing. The money just came (second).

58 | Truck & Driver

“And I knew what I was doing – I knew what I wanted to do…so nothing really changed. There was enough work to keep the truck going pretty steady – just to supply the mill. There was no ambition to be a mega-fleet owner or anything like that.”

Becoming partners in Hautapu Haulage did call for some big changes for Katrina: Apart from being a truckie’s wife – looking after the home and family while Kev worked 12-hour days, and spending “long days on my own” – she knew little about the trucking industry.

Also, she’d always worked in hospitality (and continues to still – working mornings as a Meals on Wheels cook for the area’s elderly) and knew nothing about office work or doing accounts.

Luckily, the then office lady at Hautapu Pine, Mary Morrison, came to her rescue – “because, you know, you’re having to do your payroll and GST and all of that kind of stuff and that was all new.

“I didn’t know anything about using a computer. She taught me how to do emails and had a little spreadsheet for me and we still pretty much use the same spreadsheet – just a bit more modernised.”

Of course, Hautapu Haulage has since grown – modestly at first… and then more quickly over the past five years.

Around 2007, says Kev, “everything really just took off. There was a surplus of logs, a lack of logging trucks – so we started doing a

little bit more, then a little bit more. And so then we needed another truck.”

Unhappily, the third truck – a secondhand 580 Scania, bought in 2007 – turned out to be “a real, real….bugger. It went through two gearboxes, a couple of diffs – I think it cost us about 60 grand in the first six months that we had it. Nice truck but it just...ugh.”

Remarkably, it didn’t put him off Scanias. In fact, it led to him buying a brand-new one just a year later – partly because then Scania dealer CablePrice agreed to a maintenance deal on the problem truck until the new 580 arrived.

The newcomer “did 1.2 million (Ks) before I got rid of it, and then I bought a 620.” That too had “a bit of a bad run” – wrecking four diffs in a year, thanks to a vibration eventually pinned down to its rear air suspension.

Explains Kev: “I’ve been a fan of airbag suspension since Adam was a cowboy.” He asked for it to be specced on the 620 – and, even though it wasn’t being offered in NZ, the factory agreed to fit an air suspension it had used in Scandinavian loggers.

“So I agreed to it. And when we got it out here and driving, it had a vibration in the bloody thing.”

Again CablePrice came through: “We got a whole new truck, right down to the signwriting….everything! And they put the old airbag

suspension that they used on stock trucks and the dairy tankers in it – and we did a million Ks with it.”

So he’s bought more Scanias since: “We bought two 620 Scanias last year….and we’ve got a 650 arriving at Christmas time.”

After a few lean years, work began to boom around 2012 – prompting the purchase in 2014 of a fourth truck (a secondhand 520 Volvo) to handle extra work triggered by harvesting at Hautapu’s own sustainable pine forest at Apiti, in the Manawatu.

Says Kevin: “There was a surplus of logs, there was lots of forestry work going on and the mill also started increasing its consumption of logs dramatically. It grew from 50t a day, to 100t a day, to 150t…. So to supply them we had to stretch out to keep it all ticking along. Currently we take in on average 250t a day.”

Nevertheless, by 2018, only about half of the work for Hautapu Haulage’s then seven-strong fleet was for the Taihape mill.

Kev reckons that in terms of truck purchases, “I start getting blurry on what we bought, when. I think since 2000 we’ve bought about 10 Volvos.”

But certainly 2019 was a big year: “Oh jeepers, in the last 18 months we’ve added on four.” To meet a spike in its workload Hautapu has bought two new Scania R 620s, a new Kenworth T659 and a secondhand T659 that was just seven months old. Only one

Truck & Driver | 59

Photo: Peter Rejcek, National Science Foundation, US Antarctic Programme

was a replacement – so the fleet, which was for a while up to 11 trucks, has settled at 10……for the moment.

Currently the lineup runs to the two Kenworths, two Scanias and six Volvos – two trucks based at Turangi and working exclusively for NZ Forest Managers, the rest based at Utiku.

Still, as always in the past, the trucks service Hautapu Logging’s three harvesting crews – carting all the logs produced by two of them. It also has cartage contracts with NZ Forest Managers and Whanganui’s Arbor Forestry.

It means that as well as supplying the Taihape mill, they regularly cart to the Mount Maunganui, New Plymouth and Napier ports. They also cart out of forests all around the central North Island.

Seven of the fleet are HPMV permitted to run at up to 54 tonnes, while two eight-axle units and a 6x4 Volvo – the odd one out, bought for a route with a 44t-rated bridge, only to have it uprated! – can run at 48t.

Unlike some logtruck operators, Kev was quick to embrace trucks with the latest technology – including automated manual transmissions: “All of our trucks now, except for the Kenworths (with 18-speed manuals, bought to suit driver preferences) are auto….and European.”

The oldest of them is a six-year-old Volvo, and the newest ones come with the likes of adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency braking. Says Kev approvingly: “Yeah, the cruise control on the new Scanias – that’s a really good feature, once you learn to trust it.”

Last year he was tempted to switch back from a Volvo preference, 60 | Truck & Driver

when Scania NZ “came along and offered a real good ScanPlan deal.”

The new Kenworth was bought specifically for nine-year Hautapu driver Greg Johnson: “He’s just turned 59 and he said that he wanted his retirement truck….a T659.” That was on order when Kev found the secondhand, near-new T659, to meet an immediate need.

Much as he loves trucks, Kev doesn’t claim each new arrival: “No, no, no. It goes to who’s next in line. Who deserves it. I try and give it to the guys that have been long serving and….good workers.”

He and Katrina (and now Tipene also) credit the drivers as a large part of the success of the company. Says Katrina: “We are very, very lucky because we’ve got an awesome team. We all get on really well – we know when to be serious and when it’s time to have fun. I think a lot of other people see that camaraderie as well.”

Saturday’s truckwash session at the Utiku yard, next door to the O’Briens’ home, is genuinely a fun event, she reckons: “It’s hard to get everyone to go home… They’re all there, washing and polishing and fixing and it’s a right little party. They’re a cool gang.”

Kevin says that most of the drivers are “older guys. I suppose our average would probably be 50, 49. But that’s just a reflection on the whole industry now – not just us.

“And we’re not big enough to try and put driver trainers in. Maybe, now that we’ve got our son on board, we can start bringing younger guys through and training them – but that’s easier said than done.”

Despite not having the option of running a truck-only unit in logging, two or three years ago “we took a young fella on and put him through MasterDrive (training) and all the rest of it because he

Clockwise from above: Greg Johnson drives his Hautapu Kenworth T659 out of Rosedale Forest, Whanganui, with a load of export logs for Arbor Forestry – headed for Port Taranaki....during his 12-year Army career Tipene O’Brien did two assignments in the Sinai Desert, driving trucks to supply peacekeeping forces.....Kevin and Hautapu’s ‘93 CH Mack, with its Evans foldup trailer....Tipene also did two trips to Antarctica – driving old American trucks to cart supplies from a ship to the NZ and US bases.....Tipene joined the company late last year as its compliance and operations manager was really keen.

“That’s worked really well. We had a 540 Volvo unit, running at 48t, and we started him on that. He did a 12-month training period with us on that.

“He’s 24 now…he’s had a full Class 5 (licence) for the last two years and he’s been driving for us fulltime on a 600 Volvo. Now he wants to progress on to a Kenworth… He’s really keen to try his hand at driving a manual….”

When it comes to trailers and logging gear for the trucks, Kevin has stayed true to Evans Engineering for over 30 years, for all but one of its units. The one-off Patchell unit was bought because the driver did his apprenticeship with the trailermaker – and, as Kevin says, “it’s good gear anyway.”

Evans, says Kev, is a good fit with Hautapu: “They do what we need. I know their stuff. I’m not saying it’s the best and it’s not the cheapest. But they’re a little company, we’re a little company. When we need something done they’re there to help.”

Fuel economy across the fleet is something that Kevin doesn’t really fuss about. Speed yes (all of Hautapu’s trucks are speed limited)….fuel no: “The majority of our work is 80% loaded, at 54t.

So you really can’t worry about fuel too much.

“Don’t get me wrong – fuel is a huge cost.” But he believes that it’s much more important to have a driver focus on driving safely, rather than economically – so “just drive the bloody truck. Drive the truck from A to B, getting there safely, in one piece. Do that first.”

Looking back on the O’Briens’ instinct to talk to Tipene about coming to work for Hautapu, Kev’s very happy with the outcome:

“I think it was the right move. He was obviously ready...I mean, he wouldn’t have moved, changed occupations if he wasn’t.

“I probably didn’t realise how much time I was spending organising and doing things – until I didn’t have to do it! Now I can go to golf on Sunday and it’s his problem.”

Golf, by the way, has been a passion outside of work for 20 years or more. Kevin plays at the Taihape Golf Club, but in addition he and Katrina have joined clubmates on numerous golfing holidays – around NZ and overseas.

Talking on mobile phones and on Facetime means that Tipene working from home in Palmerston North, Katrina working from home in Utiku and Kevin working from behind the wheel somewhere in the central North Island, isn’t a problem.

Says Katrina: “Kevin and I work really well together, but it’s nice to have Tipene to feed off as well for different ideas. Yeah, definitely: He and I get on really well as well, so it’s nice.”

Even better for Katrina, Tipene is applying his Army knowledge to “all the health and safety for the company, which is a big relief for me because all our contractors have totally different requirements for H&S, so that relieves me of the pressure of that.”

She continues to do what she’s done for the past 16 years – handling all the accounts, doing the payroll, the GST, the accounts and, in recent years, adding the responsibility for the HPMV permitting.

All of that and, as she says, just being “the silent party behind the doors that no one sees kind of thing.”

For her, that has long since meant doing whatever “is really Truck & Driver | 61

relevant, you know – whether that be at 3am running into town because someone’s lost their key to the gate….

“It could be anything: A driver’s broken down and they’re stranded in Palmerston North. If I can, I’m there to pick them up, bring them back to town so that they’re back with their families.”

By the way, having Kevin working from home for half of 2019 – “for me personally, it was great – because we haven’t really had a lot of one-on-one time together for 35 years.”

Ask Kevin how Tipene’s settling-in and he reckons: “Well, funnily enough, he still knew the basics of everything – because he’d lived in it….till he left home.

“So the smell of it all was still there. So it was like coming back to your old bedroom and it hadn’t changed after all that time, kind of thing.”

“No, it wasn’t a big issue at all. And then I just went straight back into doing what I do best – which is just getting behind the wheel.”

Tipene, now 30, says as kids he and brother Joshua enjoyed climbing all over their Dad’s CH Mack and its foldup trailer: “It had all these buttons and stuff. I suppose we got the first kind of (trucking) kick out of it there.”

But as far as working for his Dad: “No – didn’t think anything of it.” His dream was to join the Army. He couldn’t sign up till he was 18, so after leaving school at 16 he filled his time by working on a farm and for Hautapu – the sawmill, not the trucking operation.

In 2008 he duly enlisted as a driver with the Army’s 10 Transport Company at Linton, in the Manawatu. He was quickly put through his truck licences and was soon driving Unimogs and then MercedesBenz 2228s – moving onto an Actros 3248 transporter after a couple of years.

The Army, he says, suited him: “Well, it was pretty clichéd really.

I wanted a change and wanted a bit of challenge, which is what the Army motto is, or used to be anyway.”

In 2010 and again in 2011, Tipene was one of a team of NZ Army drivers posted to Antarctica for a month – to drive a motley collection of old American trucks (even dating back to old WW2-era GMCs!).

They worked around the clock, on shifts, shuttle running containers from a supply ship moored at a makeshift ice “wharf” to the United States’ McMurdo Station…and to NZ’s Scott Base, three kilometres away.

“I had a truck….that used to break down every, I don’t know, 24 to 48 hours!” The trucks “only had about five gears and they were rough as guts – but it was good fun.”

Then, also in 2011, Tipene was posted to Egypt for six months, to drive trucks supplying multinational peacekeeping forces on the Sinai Peninsula – there to maintain peace between Israel and Egypt.

It’s a mission that’s not been without its risks: Insurgents attacked a peacekeepers’ camp in 2012 and observer vehicles were damaged by improvised explosive devices in 2015. Still, he says, driving Macks into Israel and back every day – about 500kms through the desert – was “pretty fun.”

In 2013 he became a driving instructor. And, after three years as a trainer, he also became a driver licensing tester.

In 2018 he returned to the Sinai for four months – this time as the lead driving instructor for the multi-national forces: “My job was to create the training and conduct driver training for all the different countries, so that they had a basic understanding of what the Egyptian road rules were.”

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There were also exercises in New Caledonia and Australia, driving NZ Army trucks.

Last year, he completed a transport sergeant’s course – putting him in charge of running about 16 of the Army’s new Rheinmetall MAN HX58s. “And I had about a half a dozen Pinzgauers and three or four Mercs.”

So how come he decided to quit the Army and work for Hautapu?

He explains: “I got a text from the old man to say, ‘hey, what are you up to? Oh, me and Greg are on our way around.’ I was thinking: ‘Oh, here we go! What’s going on?’

“And then it was ‘do you want to run the business – but run it from home?’ It gave me the freedom to be able to spend more time at home and be there for the kids and support the wife – since she’d supported me for so long. And it became a no-brainer really.

“It took me about an hour after that…to go: ‘I think this is a good idea.’ And my wife was saying the same thing.”

So how has it been? “With the Army you can do a whole bunch of changes, as long as you stick within the rules of what they’ve asked for. And it doesn’t really affect anyone because you normally get young drivers who don’t know any better.

“Whereas with Dad and them, you can do subtle changes – but you can’t do big changes because these guys have been driving (some of them) for over 30 years! And you don’t want the young gun to come in and change it all up and then you have a shitfight…. and then you find out that the manager’s the problem. And you lose good drivers.”

Thus his approach has been to “get in, get your feet wet and figure out what’s going on – and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

“The hardest part is just understanding what and where everything goes – and trying to make everything more efficient.

64 | Truck & Driver

“The good thing is that when you don’t know something, Dad’s got years and years of experience and Greg and them have got heaps of experience – and it’s just a matter of asking the questions if you don’t know.”

Greg Johnson is Hautapu’s southern superviser and yard foreman, “because he’s pretty much the man to go to, to fix anything that breaks on the trucks. He’s worth his weight in gold that man.

“Dad’s had 30, 40 years of experience and it’s all in the top two inches and I’ve tried to download that information and ask the right questions.

“And the boys are generally pretty good. They’ll say, ‘hey, what about this and what about that?’ ” So, he sums up, “it is an enjoyable job. The biggest challenges are not from within the company itself – it’s the stuff that you have no control over. Such as, there’s a slip on the road or the ports are closed or something happens and you’re like: ‘Oh shit, I’ve got to make a plan’ – you’ve gotta make it work to keep the trucks making money. That can be the hardest problem.”

He reckons that driver-wise, he’s happy with Hautapu’s longtime concept – that “good trucks get good drivers. And Mum and Dad have done pretty well.

“Everyone you talk to – everyone – says that the trucks look awesome. And Mum and Dad are pretty modest and they don’t like to talk about themselves – they’ve just let their trucks do the talking, which is pretty cool. And I guess that’s where I fit in too: I’m not a big fan of talking about myself.”

So is he thinking about a longterm future with Hautapu? “My boy is – he’s truck mad,” he laughs: He loves his toy trucks and cars and stuff, so hopefully in the future it’s his problem.

“I suppose in the interim….in reality Mum and Dad aren’t going to

Clockwise, from above: Scania’s ScanPlan maintenance programme was attraction enough for Kevin to buy two new Scanias in the past year....the Evans-built foldup trailer overcame the problem, back in the early ‘90s, of the Hautapu mill’s loader being too small to reload a trailer.....in 2003 the company began a long-running job, carting logs off Matakana Island....company Volvo heads out of Apiti Forest.... another load is delivered to Hautapu Pine, in Taihape

be here forever to make those calls and I guess I’m in the position now that I’m in the thick of it. And sometimes I have to make those calls, and I guess whether it’s right or wrong, a decision was made.

“And that’s something that Dad has taught us throughout the years….is make a decision. Whether it’s the right or wrong one, go with it, and if it’s wrong, then you learn from it. If it’s right, well shot! Well done.”

Back to Kevin. Is this really all driven by a love of trucks? “I’ve got a passion…..for the job and the industry and the people around me.

I think it’s a combination. I do also have a passion for trucks and being a truckie – being behind the wheel, experiencing new trucks, new technology.

“I mean, I’m driving now one of the latest Scanias on the road. It’s only six months old and you just couldn’t beat it.”

It’s the same passion that convinced him that buying into the business was no risk whatsoever: “No, no – not even on the first day. Because I knew my heart and soul was in it – the same heart and soul and passion that’s still there.

“And that I try to surround myself with drivers of the same ilk – because I know the sacrifices families make for drivers. All of our drivers are home every night, they’re all local, still in Taihape – except for our two drivers in Turangi.”

He’s clearly proud that this is the way it is – and the fact that Hautapu’s growth hasn’t come on the back of some ruthless competitive urge – but from the organic growth of Trevor Benson’s mill, harvesting and forestry businesses.

“We haven’t taken other people’s work. Our own work has gotten bigger. We’ve just grown what we’ve already got.”

The very best bits of running the business all these years, he reckons, include being able to buy a new truck when you need to:

“That’s a bit of a buzz, because you can.”

And, even moreso, there’s “the satisfaction, on a day-to-day basis, when our plan that we made the day before works without too many hiccups. And that’s pretty satisfying – that everything worked well.”

It is, he adds, hard to achieve because “in this game, there’s always something goes wrong.”

So now, he reckons, from his perspective Hautapu Haulage is in a good situation “with a new plan…. new ideas. I guess the biggest thing for me is letting go and letting George (Tipene) bring his ideas through and kind of take over.

“The future? I mean, logging is always going to be around – it’s just what capacity we are going to be here. That might not be my decision – that may be someone else’s, who knows? It might be George’s decision or the industry itself.”

So…never mind the 3am starts every working day, for Kev, running Hautapu Haulage has never been a hardship: “It wasn’t hard. It had its moments…..but it was just like a hand in a glove.” It all just came naturally.

But there must have been tough times? Says Kev: “Well there definitely have been tough times and struggles, but I’ve never, ever felt like giving up on it. It’s given us a job – that we’ve enjoyed every day. So it’s not like work.

“I’ve always loved what I’ve done. And I’ve had such a supportive wife, like you would not believe. She’s looked after the kids, because I was working to get us ahead.

“I just love being out there on my own, driving and doing the job.

I still bounce out of bed at 2 o’clock in the morning now – as I did 20 years ago.”

Because, just like the 17-year-old Kevin at the wheel of Trevor Benson’s old, underpowered Dodge, he’s in his happy place. T&D Truck & Driver | 65

LEGENDS Paula and Warren but it’s Paula’s Taxi

w o d n i w n e h c t i k e h t h g u Thro - Paula Rogers

O

VER THIRTY YEARS AGO, ARDENT ROAD TRANSPORT industry advocate and NRC stalwart Paula Rogers was looking through the kitchen window of her family’s farmhouse when the image of a bright blue Kenworth changed her life’s direction forever.

“When I was about 17 I got into the farming sector and in my 20’s ended up sharemilking at a farm in Whenuapai . We had a lot of trucks coming onto the farm to tip off and I just happened to look out of the kitchen window at Mike Ross’s beautiful blue Kenworth W model (924), I’ll never forget that moment, I thought gosh that truck is stunning I’d really like to drive a truck. So, I decided then and there to go and get my HT.” Of course, Paula needed to first gain some experience, so a few friendly truck owners came to her rescue. One was Royce Mills from Mills Bobcat Services, he had a 1982 Dodge 4-wheeler 8-tonne tip truck with a 540 Perkins V8 and a 6-speed manual box, “I jumped in that and graunched the gearbox a number of times, but then got the hang of it,” Paula recalls.

Also Kevin Brashier of Brashier Earthmoving, he had a Ford N-Series 4-wheeler flat deck that he let Paula drive around Ponsonby. Paula says, “we went up roads full of BMW’s and Porsche’s, it was a great learning curve because I didn’t want to hit one of those. I actually got my HT in that N-Series.”

While still working on the farm, Paula’s first job was driving a mini tanker for Mini-Fuel, back in the day when the Gulf Harbour development was just starting.

She says, “I used to go fill up machinery and gear on the new bit of motorway on SH1 and even the ship generators for the Navy. I got to

66 | Truck & Driver

climb up on the compactors and scrapers it was great, at the Gulf Harbour job there was a digger on the barge that I used to refuel. I’d hop into the bucket and he’d swing me over the water and onto the barge. I was about twenty-six then, so that was a few years ago, you couldn’t do that nowadays, all the fun’s gone out of the industry.” she jokes.

When her mum passed, Paula took a bit of a breather from the industry before getting into aggregate trucking. She drove for Bob Turner Transport in their N-series 6-wheeler working primarily on the Westgate development ‘doing a lot of tipping’. She really enjoyed her time there but also got a real quick lesson about checking that her tailgate was correctly shut as she lost a load going up the hill beside the Bethells quarry. ‘I had to get the broom out and even the loader needed to come and help’.

According to Paula she felt like she was ‘Queen of the highway’ back then driving but also acknowledges that being a woman in a male dominated industry was pretty hard.

“I heard my nickname was ‘hotpants’ and there were a lot of comments about me driving but I couldn’t let it get to me.

Paula Rogers – Commercial I had to let a lot of it go over the top of Transport Specialist – NRC my head, because if I didn’t I wouldn’t

Above: Paula won two kegs of beer and a boat, which evidently came with 5 marriage proposals (left); Learning to drive in the Dodge had its moments, but Paula enjoyed this old timer (centre); Paula enjoys speaking to children about keeping safe around trucks (right) have survived, thankfully the industry has addressed diversity.

Paula believes that because she worked hard at gaining knowledge about trucks and how they worked, she gained industry respect pretty quickly. Also the fact that when she was growing up, her parents had a wrecking yard in Tauranga, “so cars have been a really big thing for me - I’m a bit of a petrolhead I suppose. I ‘walked the talk’ which I think helped”.

Following a marriage separation, an opportunity came up at TWL (Transport Wholesale) in Penrose. She says that she was one of the first female customer services in the Gough’s group. “It was a testing time for me because the owners would ring up and ask me for a doughnut to try to trip me up, they were surprised when I said do you have a 40 or 50mm ring feeder. I learnt very quickly about the parts and even used to climb under the trucks and trailers to identify the axles and suspensions”.

Evidently her time at TWL was an interesting one. Aside from getting to know a lot about parts and the members that she deals with now, in 2000 she won a boat and two kegs of beer from Radio Hauraki and subsequently received five marriage proposals. “That was quite a hard case.”

With aspirations of being a rep for TWL, but no openings available at that stage, an opportunity arose for Paula to join the Road Transport Association, which she took.

“My area was Auckland and I got to go around all the customers that I was dealing with at TWL. I managed to get most of them on board but also learnt the whole other side to the industry, the regulations and legislations.”

While at the RTA, Paula helped her then partner Lee Robinson set up Robinson Heavy Haulage and got to meet such ‘truckie legends’ as Lee’s dad Mick Robinson and Mate Franicevich. She says “I learnt so much off of those guys, they used to talk to me about the parts, the history of NZ trucking and what there was to know.”

Paula spent around five years at the RTA until her region became unviable and was disbanded. She was offered the chance to run some branches back at TWL, however, a job appeared at NRC - “So that’s where I went.”

Over the past twelve and a half years Paula has seen the industry change and experienced a lot at NRC. From the high’s of being involved with an industry that’s ‘like family’, to the lows of hearing how hard the industry is for some people and dealing with an unsympathetic government.

“I love going to schools, talking to students and promoting the industry. Telling them how to get into this great industry and that it’s a great way to see our country for free. Also, getting more women into road transport too. I’ve been in it for so long (about 26-years) so seeing more women out there driving I think is absolutely fantastic. Because we are better drivers at the end of the day. You can quote me on that. We’re easier on the gear.”

However Paula admits that it can be a hard industry. “I give 100% to the industry, it’s not just an 8-5 job, it’s 24/7. I hear about people’s personal, financial and business issues and its very gratifying when I can help them out from my training and experience. And I don’t think the government actually gives the road transport industry a lot of respect, they don’t realise that we keep the country moving, we’re targeted too easily with high RUC’s and given poor roads to drive on.”.

Paula is quick to point out the importance of the association, “we’ve got to have the support to have that voice and representation. I work with a really great team and the board are fabulous they contribute a lot to the industry and association.”

The Association has been important for her on a personal level too. “I met my husband through NRC and we’re coming up to our 9th wedding anniversary. Warren is with Fletcher Construction and was looking to get information about trucks, legislations and regulations and was told to give me a call. I met him, signed him up with the NRC and he got the bonus prize – me, he talks cranes, I trucks it’s a perfect match”. She does say laughingly that this is not a regular sign up deal.

Paula has got two sons, Shane who is a qualified butcher and Matthew who has a class 5 and is driving with Tally-ho Industries in Rotorua. “I’ve even helped the industry by providing one driver,” she jokes, “am proud of my sons and their achievements”.

When not being all-consumed by road transport, Paula was secretary for Women’s Refuge for 6-years and is an American car fanatic. She used to have a ‘65 Cadillac and now has a ‘72 Mustang Mach 1 in her garage.

“I love the old gear, cars and trucks too. Modern trucks are beautiful to drive, they’re like driving a car but I love the old gear, it’s like the industry icons, it’s the history. Just like that old Dodge, it was a dog to drive but a great truck”. Paula’s favourite truck is still a Kenworth W924.

Paula reckons that there are so many legends out there that have given so much to the industry, “they have worked their way up to what they’ve got today, it’s so gratifying” and the same can be said about her.

“It’s been a really interesting time looking back, road transport is my life”. T&D Paula’s 1972 Mach 1 Mustang

Truck & Driver | 67

68 | Truck & Driver

OLD IRON

W Story & Photos: Gavin Abbot

HEN THE REPUBLIC TRUCK COMPANY STOPPED BUILDING the popular North American chassis in 1934, Auckland truck importers Cavanagh & Company had a problem.

Having sold around 800 Republics in New Zealand over the previous nine years it needed a replacement – and went on a mission to the United States to find one.

It was fortunate enough to secure the Diamond T truck franchise – and, with perfect timing, just as it was entering its so-called “golden” era.

It was a make that had been founded almost three decades earlier, when C.A. Tilt – the son of a shoe manufacturer – formed the Diamond T Motor Company in Chicago in 1905.

The name dated back another 25 years – to when the J.E. Tilt Shoe Company gave its top grade of shoes the Diamond T title.

Kaukapakapa operator J.S. King & Sons fleet lineup includes all four Diamond T series that came to New Zealand

Truck & Driver | 69

Clockwise, from above left: A page from a 1938 Diamond T sales brochure....ad for Auckland quarry operator Gordon Hunter shows Diamond Ts at work in the Three Kings Quarry.....Bryan Belcher’s 509 model – one of the American steel cab versions......Te Awamutu carrier A. Rowan’s fleet lineup shows the swing to Diamond Ts

70 | Truck & Driver

Charles Tilt, who worked for his father for a few years before branching out on his own, applied the Diamond T name to his motor company…..which initially built cars.

In 1911, he decided that there were better opportunities in building trucks rather than cars and built his first trucks.

During World War 1 the company built 1500 Class B trucks for the US Army.

After the War, Diamond T expanded its dealer network and with improvements to its models – such as closed coupe-style cabs, with flexible three-point rubber mountings – it continued

to secure sales through the early Depression years.

Tilt felt that the days of the slow, four-cylinder, solid-tyred trucks were numbered and directed his engineering staff to develop trucks with high-speed, six-cylinder engines, pneumatic tyres, redesigned suspension systems, hydraulic brakes, chrome grilles and more streamlined sheetmetal.

These new-era trucks arrived on the market in 1928 and the emphasis on styling and quality finish – backed by sound engineering – changed the Diamond T from just another truck to an industry leader.

Truck & Driver | 71

Tilt’s introduction, in 1933, of a V-form styling – with sweeping mudguards, V-style cabs with two-piece windscreens and a raked radiator shell – set the standard. The armoured dome cabs delivered improved ventilation (using cab vents and crank-out windscreen frames), carefully-planned seating and deluxe instrumentation (including, for instance, a clock and a cigarette lighter).

The Diamond T was always an assembled truck, comprising quality components including Hercules engines, Timken & Clark axles, Warner transmissions. A.O. Smith frames, Ross steering, Spicer universal joints, StewartWarner gauges and guide lights.

Sales charts showed the success of this combination: After a brief slump in 1932, during the Great Depression, sales increased steadily until Diamond T trailed only International Harvester and The Big Three. Competitors such as Autocar, Brockway, Federal, Mack, Reo, Stewart, Studebaker and White were behind it in sales.

Above: Farmers Trading Company used Diamond Ts at its branches in the 1930s

Right: The Northern Roller Milling Company fleet lineup mixes Diamond Ts with Reos, Macks and Studebakers. More Diamond Ts were added later

Grabasub

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Truck & Driver | 73

Clockwise, from above: Cavanaghs ad features a roadster the company built on a Diamond T chassis....W. Lovett Ltd in Auckland used this ex-US armed forces Diamond T as a mobile crane unit.....this 404 American steel cab model belongs to the Bill Richardson Transport World....the Te Kopuru-Dargaville Bus Company used these Diamond T trucks, as well as Diamond T buses

74 | Truck & Driver

(continued from page 72) Along with its rubber-bushed spring shackles and slipper end springs, Diamond T was also noted for its range of optional extras – including streamlined mudguard parking lights, oversize chrome hubcaps, bumper guards and a fancy steering wheel.

A diesel engine was also available in 1936 and in later years more options were added to heavy-duty models.

The first Diamond Ts arrived in NZ in 1935.

As Cavanaghs were engineers and body builders, they imported chassis and cowls and built their Colonial cabs, freight bodies and bus bodies on them. Later a Christchurch firm imported trucks with the American steel cabs.

During WW2, Diamond T built 31,245 6x6 four-ton trucks, 12,246 half-tracks and 6554 tanks for the US armed forces.

The Diamond Ts proved very popular in NZ and Cavanaghs sold many hundreds of them to clients who included many who had previously bought Republics from them.

Among major users of Diamond Ts were the Whangarei Dairy Company, Dave Hill, Farmers Trading, Wallace Supplies, Auckland quarry operator Gordon Hunter, Te Awamutu’s A. Rowan & Company, Sarjants Transport in Netherton, Kaukapakapa operator J.S. King, A.D. Hardie, Northern Roller Mills, H.S. Poole, V.A. Draper and Heatons Transport.

Cavanaghs sold their last Diamond T in 1949, before the Auckland company ceased trading.

In North America, a new line of Diamond T models was introduced in the 1950s and in 1958 the company was sold to the White Motor Company….which had bought the Reo Truck Company a year prior. Production continued in Chicago for a few years, before it was transferred to Lansing, Michigan.

White merged the Diamond T and Reo brands in 1967 and the very last truck badged a Diamond T was built – the company replacing them both with the Diamond Reo brand name. T&D

This page, top to bottom: Litchfield carrier G.G. Ranger switched from Republics to Diamond Ts........Waitakaruru Transport’s 509 model on the Auckland run....Sarjant Transport owner/driver Ivan Neill’s 509 was one of many Diamond Ts in the fleet.... one of Edwards Motors’ two-tone green Diamond T buses, with Cavanaghs coachwork Opposite page: Examples of the four series of Diamond Ts brought to NZ have been restored by the writer Gavin Abbot for a private collection, each with a Cavanagh Colonial cab. Clockwise from the top they are: A 1947 509, a ‘38 306, a ‘37 80 model and a 211 model from 1936

76 | Truck & Driver

Truck & Driver | 77

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FEATURE

Truckie health risks targeted Story Peter Owens

TD27875

P

OOR WORKING CONDITIONS ARE EXPOSING KIWI TRUCK drivers to serious health and safety problems, an Otago researcher believes.

And Dr Rebbecca Lilley, a senior research fellow at the University of Otago’s Injury Prevention Research Unit, is doing something about it.

She has secured a $245,000 research grant to explore the feasibility of carrying out a national survey of truck drivers.

She believes that serious health and safety risks faced by truck drivers are, in many cases, being ignored.

“I’d like to bring the problems out from the shadows,” Lilley told The Otago Daily Times.

“With the COVID-19 situation, it has become very clear how essential truck drivers are to a well-functioning society,” she said.

She says that truck drivers are a “neglected” occupational group – with an average of around 10 truckies a year dying in crashes in the 10 years from 2005 to 2014.

Lilley says that international evidence has shown that truck drivers are at higher levels of risk when it comes to health and injury events – arising in part from “unsatisfactory” working conditions.

Spending long periods of time away from home, the absence of nourishing meals and other commercial pressures on drivers arising from the highly competitive road transport industry are factors in that, she believes.

A preliminary NZ study “shows the rates of worker fatalities vary widely by age, sex, ethnicity, occupation and industry and are a very serious problem for particular groups,” Lilley says.

“Future efforts to address NZ’s high rates of work-related fatal injuries should use these findings to aid understanding (of ) where preventive actions should be prioritised.”

In order to identify the opportunities to provide a healthier and safer work environment for NZ truck drivers, one aim of a full national study would be to determine the patterns of exposure to suspected and known occupational health and safety risks.

It would also hopefully identify the prevalence of adverse health behaviours and health and safety outcomes among Kiwi truckies.

Lilley adds: “The longterm aim of a full study would be to develop evidence-based health and safety policy, intervention(s),

Researcher Dr Rebbecca Lilley and resources that address the specific health and safety issues of truck drivers.

“Our previous Health Research Council-funded Work-related Fatal Injury Study that utilised coronial records to review all injury deaths for work involvement, identified that truck drivers have a high rate of work-related fatal injury.

“Professional truck drivers are also involved in a disproportionately high number of fatal crashes involving the driving public. Truck driver impairment, including poor health, was a significant contributor to this burden. The Work-related Fatal Injury Study estimated that heavy trucks are involved in fatal crashes that contributed to 15% of the annual road toll.”

International evidence that highlights truckies’ higher risk of adverse health and injury outcomes due to poor health, detail their increased risk of sleep apnoea, fatigue, diabetes, heart disease, lung cancer and other cancers…in addition to an increased risk of traffic crashes.

Says Lilley: “Often these health and safety concerns are directly attributed to unsatisfactory working conditions, such as long working days.”

This was confirmed by a recent small qualitative study in New Zealand, carried out by AUT PhD student Claire TederstedtGeorge, which Lilley says clearly highlighted the “perilous and neglected” state of truck driver health and safety in NZ. “To date, there is little quantifiable national level knowledge about the nature and distribution of health and safety risks for truck drivers, or the likely impact of these risks on health and injury outcomes.”

The recently-announced funding will enable Health Research Council-funded investigation into the feasibility of using “an untested intercept method to survey NZ truck drivers and, as part of this, will test the acceptability of using a survey tool from the United States to obtain subjective and objective data on truck driver health and safety.”

To identify the opportunities to provide a healthier and safer work environment for NZ truck drivers, a full national study would aim to determine the patterns of exposure to suspected and known occupational health and safety risks….

And to identify the prevalence of adverse health behaviours and health and safety outcomes among truck drivers. T&D Truck & Driver | 79

FEATURE

A Peterbilt undergoes testing in one of the two chassis dyno-equipped environmental chambers in Allison Transmission’s new Vehicle Environmental Test Centre

Truck testing globally…. at home Story Wayne Munro

H

EAVY COMMERCIAL VEHICLE TRANSMISSION giant Allison is testing its new gearboxes – and the trucks of partners and customers – in some of the world’s most extreme conditions.

It’s putting them to work in the equivalent of places like Khardung La, an Indian/Tibetan region with one of the world’s highest roads (at 5600 metres).

And running them in the kind of temperatures only encountered in one of the 10 hottest places on earth –

namely 51 degrees Celsius or higher.

On the other hand, it’s also running trucks in icy cold temperatures endured in the likes of Oymiakon – a tiny village in Central Siberia – supposedly the world’s coldest town. There, as an Aussie 60 Minutes reporter recounted: “The locals say it’s truly cold when it dips below minus-50 (yep, that’s degrees Fahrenheit) – when blood stops flowing to exposed skin and frostbite sets in.”

To be honest, in true COVID-19 lockdown style, Allison’s Truck & Driver | 81

virtually going to the likes of these places….while staying right at home, at its global base in Indianapolis.

That’s possible thanks to its just-opened Vehicle Environmental Test Centre – a state-of-the-art, industryleading operation able to replicate the worst environments the world can throw at trucks…..along with virtually any gradient or load.

The 5574-square-metre facility houses a hot soak chamber, a cold soak chamber and two chassis dynoequipped environmental chambers.

It’s capable of simulating a broad range of duty cycles and environmental conditions from -47 degrees Celsius (-54 Fahrenheit) to 51C (125F). It can replicate operating 82 | Truck & Driver

at altitudes up to 5486 metres (18,000 feet)…and simulate grades and other onroad conditions.

The company says that VET will get rid of a bottleneck in the trucking industry’s ever-accelerating speed of innovation and product development – namely the time it takes to test vehicles and components in real-world situations.

The centre, it adds, allows immediate evaluation and responses to issues that arise – “under controlled conditions that ensure the desired operating environments can be isolated, tested and replicated real time.”

Or, as Allison’s MD of engineering services Jeanne Rues tells US website Heavy Duty Trucking: “We’re bringing the

Clockwise, from above: The VET centre can simulate a wide range of duty cycles, extreme cold or heat, gradients, altitude and other road conditions......the VET is a 5574-square-metre facility at Allison’s Indianapolis global HQ.....customers can monitor the testing in real time.... to reassure customers that their data is secure, the VET centre is operated by Allison Innovative Services – and even Allison Transmission itself is considered “an outside customer”

chaos of the real world into the laboratory – so we can generate reliable and repeatable test results.”

The transmission manufacturer’s VP sales for North America, Rohan Barua adds: “If you don’t have to wait for the summer and winter and high altitude, you can compress the seasons to a few months instead of 12.”

Says Allison: “Customers are now facing increasing system complexity, expanding regulatory requirements and higher demand for ever-faster time-to-market requirements.

“Allison has you covered: The VET’s one-stop chassis testing can shorten your product development cycles dramatically, facilitating efficiency and ultimately cutting down the costs of bringing your product to market.

“The VET provides vehicle system development and validation in repeatable, reliable and seasonally independent conditions to get the test results you require.”

Adds Rues: “We are excited to have this facility that will provide our customers and partners enhanced capabilities to conduct full-vehicle testing by replicating environments and duty cycles all in one centralised location – allowing them to bring new and innovative technology and vehicle systems to market faster and more efficiently.

“For players in our industry this translates into a competitive advantage, as innovation drives the industry forward.”

The facility, Allison senior VP of product engineering

and programme management Randy Kirk adds, “will facilitate rapid product development for conventional, alternative fuel and electric vehicles, providing Allison and our customers an efficient and effective tool for nextgeneration innovation and collaboration.”

The VET is capable of accommodating most commercial on-highway, off-highway and wheeled defence vehicle applications, Allison says.

And it can test a wide range of propulsion systems, including conventional diesel powertrains, alternative fuel, electric hybrid, fully electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

The centre is unique in that it is available for use by other companies – be they OEMs, body builders, component suppliers or end-users – “to satisfy their vehicle testing needs in a single, environment-controlled location.”

Apart from vehicle and system performance testing, development and validation, the centre can be used for product troubleshooting, ensuring regulatory compliance and measuring and improving fuel economy.

Allison director, president and CEO David S. Graziosi says that “Allison’s over-riding mission is to improve the way the world works” – and the new centre contributes to that.

The VET’s capability to test electric vehicles is clearly important to Allison, which is also a large-scale supplier Truck & Driver | 83

84 | Truck & Driver

All pictures: Allison says the centre aims to overcome a bottleneck in the industry’s ever-increasing speed of innovation and product development – namely the time-consuming testing of vehicles and components in real-world environments

of electric hybrid and fully electric commercial vehicle propulsion systems.

And, just days after it opened the test centre, it also launched its first offering under its new Allison eGen brand.

Its zero emission vehicle (ZEV)-capable electric hybrid system, the eGen Flex, is intended to allow buses to go fully electric in zero emission zones in cities and when approaching, leaving or standing at bus stops.

The eGen Flex and eGen Flex Max systems deliver full electric, engine-off propulsion and accessory power operation at those times.

The eGen Flex electric hybrid system includes an innovative new drive unit, inverter and rechargeable energy storage system. The drive unit includes a disconnect clutch that enables the engine-off capability.

The energy storage system incorporates the latest Lithium Titanate (LTO) technology, which significantly increases energy density, allows for faster charging and enables pure electric (engine off ) extended range capability.

The eGen Flex Max, for instance, is capable of powering a bus for up to 16 kilometres, depending on its duty cycle and accessory load requirements.

Allison MD of global marketing, Branden Harbin, says that the company sees “significant interest in electrification. We also understand that fleets are reluctant to go all-in on electrification at this early stage.

“That critical feedback from our customers is what inspired Allison to deliver this enhanced capability for coach and transit buses, effectively serving as a bridge solution between conventional fuel and full electric solutions. “eGen Flex will enable transit fleets to evaluate electric capability and their electric range needs, while still having the peace of mind of a diesel range extender, whether needed for longer routes, for route flexibility, unplanned congestion on routes, or an inability to recharge due to power grid challenges.”

The eGen product family will include Allison’s alreadyestablished portfolio of electric hybrid and full electric products, including a range of electric axles.

Allison says it has delivered more than 9000 electric hybrid propulsion systems globally in the past 17 years – accumulating nearly 4.1 billion kilometres, saving more than 1.2 billion litres of fuel and preventing three million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. T&D Truck & Driver | 85

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TRUCK SHOP

Benny Severne has been working with Central Transport during the past three years

Prison officer turns truckie F

IVE YEARS AGO CAREER PRISON OFFICER BENNY Severne decided he needed a change of job.

Although he’d been with the Department of Corrections for 30 years, the Taupo-based Severne had “always liked the idea of becoming a truck driver.”

Now 54, he’s become a “poster boy” for Kiwi job-based driver hire service, DGH – an example of how it can help truckies and operators alike, by supplying commercial drivers to businesses on a job-by-job basis….for fixed terms, seasonal or adhoc assignments.

Severne says the problem with his truck-driving aspirations was that he “never really knew how to go about becoming one – until I was introduced to DGH.” Through the company, he found out “exactly what was needed to become a driver and, soon after handing my notice in as a corrections officer, I went on to acquire my Class 2 licence and later my Class 4.

“Once qualified, DGH helped secure my first job – as a driver guide. I worked in tourism initially – for a range of different businesses, including Kiwi Experience, Mana Bus, Mt Ruapehu and G Adventure.

“I was able to meet all sorts of people – driving passenger buses and doubledeckers all over New Zealand, up and down snowy, icy mountain roads.

“After a couple of seasons working as a driver guide, I decided to go on to

complete my Class 5 licence, so I could drive trucks too.”

That done, “DGH again helped secure my first truck-driving role – at Central Transport. Three years on, I still work with them today.”

Severne credits DGH with helping him to “grow and develop. They’ve helped point me in the right direction as to what I need to get up and running – and set me up with the right types of businesses that I want to work for.

“They really do go that extra mile. For example, they help organise and facilitate each driver’s specific training requirements to match the client’s brief and needs.

“Working in the gig economy – on a job-by-job basis – is ideal for me. It means I have real flexibility and am able to hand-pick the types of jobs that I’m really passionate about.

“For example, pre COVID-19, I would work as a driver guide in the high tourism season and then, during winter, I would change things up and work in the trucking industry.

“Unfortunately, like many things, work opportunities have changed due to COVID-19 and with the NZ borders continuing to stay closed for the foreseeable future, driving work within the tourism sector is sparce.

“Pivoting my skills and increasing my truck-driving work has meant I can continue working in a slightly different sector that I’m equally as passionate about.” T&D

Kenworth history on its way

I

N THE EARLY 1960s, NEW ZEALAND Forest Products in Tokoroa was looking for suitable replacements for its iconic fleet of International logging trucks.

In 1964, two 848 model off-highway Kenworths were finally put to work hauling logs into the Kinleith mill, and so started New Zealand’s love affair with the legendary Kenworth brand.

Shortly thereafter, three L924 model Kenworths arrived in Wellington to work for Wilkins and Davies. And over the next 31 years, nearly 1000 Kenworths – of various models – arrived in NZ. Edwin Mansell, Grant Gadsby and Paul Livsey have been working on a book that captures the photographic history and the ownership of many of these Kiwi Kenworths over that 31-year period.

The book follows on from their pre-publication

sellout Mack 1000 book, which is to be published in 2022 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first Mack trucks being built in Palmerston North by Ron Carpenter’s Motor Truck Distributors.

It’s planned that the Kenworth history, which will be priced at approximately $150 (plus postage), will be published in 2023 to commemorate the Kenworth make’s centenary.

The authors say that 500 copies of the 500-page, coffee table-style book have already been sold.

Orders can be placed by emailing either one of them: mansell@orcon.net.nz grant.gadsby3@xtra.co.nz Paul.Livsey@trgroup.co.nz T&D Legendary Kenworths from the 1960s (above right) and '70s (right) will be among those featuring in the pictorial history Truck & Driver | 87

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National Road Carriers

Negotiating COVID-19 lockdown bureaucratic bungles

By David Aitken, CEO of National Road Carriers Associationn

L

ATE ON TUESDAY AUGUST 11 PRIME Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that Auckland would go into a COVID-19 Level 3 lockdown and the rest of the country would go into Level 2 from noon the following day.

The announcement was made after four cases of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus from the same family were confirmed.

The initial period was for just two and a half days, but I think we all knew the period would most likely be extended – as turned out to be the case when the conditions were extended to two weeks.

Just about everyone in country agrees with the Government’s approach to “go hard and go early” to eliminate the virus – but the short notice of this move meant National Road Carriers once again had to leap into action to keep the road transport industry informed and to advocate with the authorities on behalf of the industry.

One of the biggest challenges has been the alert level difference between Auckland, at Level 3, and the rest of the country at Level 2 – which the Government decided would be enforced with roadblocks heading in and out of Auckland to Northland and Waikato.

We have no problem with the roadblocks because if you make a rule you have to be able to enforce it. We also realise the systems had to be set up PDQ and, because this was new territory, there were inevitably going to be some logistical problems. Sure enough it became quite a snarlup.

We anticipated the congestion at the borders before the lockdown was put in place, and spoke to the various agencies we usually deal with, who were all on board and agreed. We work closely with good

people in Auckland Transport (AT), the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and the NZ Police’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Team (CVST). Our contacts in these agencies listened to what we were saying.

However, the message clearly didn’t get through to the Police who were leading the roadblocks and took it out of the control of the agencies we deal with. As a result, the freight lanes were not put in place early enough or far enough back on the highway to give freight a smooth run.

Despite the industry having been told heavy vehicles would be allowed straight through, trucks got caught up in the congestion for several hours at a time. This was unacceptable, as we all needed to work together to ensure the smooth operation at these roadblocks.

We ended up with a situation at Bombay, heading both north and south, with heavy vehicles stopping and starting on hills for up to 3.5 hours....plus the issue of drivers exceeding their allowable hours.

This severely affected driver wellness and elevated stress levels. We strongly believe the authorities have a duty of care to provide a fit for purpose road network and this includes smooth transition through checkpoints.

Our role was to listen to our members, hear their gripes (there were plenty) and put the industry’s point of view across to the authorities. To get the changes we needed, we had to redouble our efforts, with more behind the scenes discussions with the authorities, together with public statements about the problems by Road Transport Forum CEO Nick Leggett, to bring the issues to the attention of the media, the public and politicians.

The other notable problem we struck was

David Aitken

mandatory COVID-19 testing of drivers at the Ports of Auckland and Ports of Tauranga when it seemed possible the virus may have come in through that route.

On behalf of the industry we were crystal clear in our advice to the authorities that drivers collecting and delivering containers from the ports don’t leave their cabs, so there was no need for testing. The ports were right behind us on this.

To start with it was fine, but suddenly the order came down from the Ministry of Health that everyone at the ports had to be tested. Once again we had to go into battle and we were able to make the authorities realise that drivers don’t need to be tested.

As a truck business owner or truck driver, you don’t have full visibility of the work that is going on behind the scenes on your behalf. I can fully understand why you would get pretty ratty with these bureaucratic bungles – and fair enough.

But trust me, the association and the RTF are working very hard to advocate for the industry and it does make a difference.

One great development that came out of the first COVID-19 lockdown is that we are using the driver database we compiled then and are collaborating with Talent Central to help people in the transport industry to connect with new employment opportunities or training. This initiative is being looked after by NRC commercial transport specialist Richie Arber.

What we have planned with Talent Central is a huge step in the right direction to help support our industry and those people in it who are now looking for work because of COVID-19, but also for people from other sectors who may now look at the transport industry as an opportunity for future employment. T&D Truck & Driver | 89

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Road Transport Association NZ

Cause for cautious optimism in industry

By Simon Carson, RTANZ chief operating officer

C

RISES AND DEADLOCKS, WHEN THEY OCCUR, HAVE AT least this advantage – that they force us to think. If COVID has done anything for us, it has served as a practice run for the significant focus on environmental change we face as an industry and a nation in decades to come.

It has been encouraging to see previously uninterested parts of industry once again take value in the work the association is doing, especially during the second round of COVID that New Zealanders are experiencing. Transport operators who once shunned the value proposition RTANZ has for industry have now put their hands up to become part of RTA and the one voice required to solve what can be complex concerns….only through collaboration.

I have visited many operators around the country in the past few months and this has identified what an adaptive bunch transport businesses can be – and when forced to think, many have identified opportunity.

The media will deliver dire statistics like 250 jobs being lost every day through Level 3 in Auckland alone, yet when you push this to one side and look at nationwide job seekers’ figures, they show a different story.

NZ has seen a 46% month-on-month increase in job advertisements as an average, and jobs advertised in the manufacturing, logistics and transport sector have increased by 65%. This is attributed to transport businesses and supply chains continuing to operate as essential services through the lockdown.

It is fair for people to feel cautiously optimistic as restrictions ease and consumers are encouraged to get out and spend in their communities. These employment figures are on the incline, yet are still down on the same period in 2019, as NZ recovers.

Simon Carson

Recruitment in the transport sector has changed to suit the market, with many more short term or seasonal contracts being awarded to serve peaks and troughs of nationwide businesses. Furthermore, the transport industry – for the first time in many years – has a wider candidate audience when attracting industry workers.

I attended a Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency meeting at the end of August with the new CEO, Nicole Rosie, and other stakeholders. The agency offered an assurance that transport projects currently in place will continue to be expedited to minimise the impact of COVID-19. Money from the COVID Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF) has been allocated to the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) due to the effect of the pandemic on the transport budget, as per the following key funding: • $425million borrowing available to Waka Kotahi NZTA for 2019/’20, repayable over seven years • $600m top-up from the CRRF to the NLTP • Up to $300m additional could be made available to Waka Kotahi NZTA for further support.

Transport Minister Phil Twyford said: “Waka Kotahi (NZTA) will have the funding needed to keep building infrastructure despite lower revenue being collected from petrol excise duty and road user charges due to COVID.” This year has been a year for change right across NZ, and RTANZ is no exception to this. One thing I am confident of is that the changes that have been made, and those still to come, have been made for the right reasons – and to make the association the best that it can be for our members.

I would encourage you to take a look at the AGM dates for your region and, if you can make it along, then please take the time to do so. T&D Truck & Driver | 91

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Napier-based Cuzzin Transport’s Jarvis Harrison threw all the extras at this new Kenworth T909 logger...including a timber floor, wood and chrome steering wheel, a Kentweld front bumper, dark black cherry paint and airbrushed Darren Caulfield artwork on the cab and bonnet. It also has a 620hp Cummins engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox and RT46-160 diffs on Airglide 460 suspension. It has Patchell logging gear and a matching four-axle trailer.

A slight improvement N

EW ZEALAND’S NEW TRUCK MARKET continued at what has become its “new normal” in August – but, at least, improved a little on the previous month’s registrations.

The comparison with last year’s pre-COVID monthly totals was slightly better – from 20% down in July, to 16% down in August.

The month saw 399 registrations in the overall truck market (over 4.5 tonnes GVM) – 19 more than July’s total, but shaded by the 476 registrations in August last year.

The 2646 registrations year-to-date after the first eight months of the year were 26% down on last year’s 3572 sales at the same point. The YTD figure at the end of July was 27% down.

The trailer market, with 112 registrations in August, was 16% down on July’s 133 total and the 795 registrations YTD at the end of August was almost 23% down on the 1035 last year.

In the overall truck market, longtime No. 1 Isuzu (651/109) again dramatically extended its lead, with another 100-plus sales tally. Its 109 for the month, which took its YTD total to 651 trucks, was remarkable in that it actually beat its August 2019 sales (103).

Volvo (193/26) too improved on its (22) August 2019 registrations – while both Scania (192/30) and Iveco (181/31) went one better: They were ahead of their August sales last year….AND YTD tallies – Scania up from 132 to 192 and Iveco improving from 178 to 181.

The top 10 positions in the overall market were unchanged in August, with FUSO (366/34) second, ahead of Hino (344/53) and Volvo (193/26) – with Scania (192/30) closing up. Iveco (181/31) was sixth, while Mercedes-Benz (139/30), Kenworth (115/22), DAF (103/16) and UD (93/13) completed the top 10.

In the 3.5-4.5t GVM crossover segment – which was

(continued on page 97) Truck & Driver | 93

Taupo’s Self Loader Logging has this day-cab Kenworth K200 now working, mostly in the Kaingaroa Forest. The 8x4 has a 600-615hp Cummins X15 engine, an Eaton UltraShift Plus AMT and Meritor 46-160 axles on Airglide 460 suspension. It’s fitted with Patchell logging gear and has a matching multi-bolster trailer.

23,001kg-max GVM

4501kg-max GVM

Brand ISUZU FUSO HINO VOLVO SCANIA IVECO MERCEDES-BENZ KENWORTH DAF UD FOTON MAN SINOTRUK VOLKSWAGEN MACK FREIGHTLINER INTERNATIONAL HYUNDAI FIAT RAM PEUGEOT WESTERN STAR JAC OTHER Total

2020 % 24.6 13.8 13.0 7.3 7.3 6.8 5.3 4.3 3.9 3.5 1.9 1.4 1.4 1.2 1.1 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 100.0

Vol 651 366 344 193 192 181 139 115 103 93 51 38 37 31 30 21 19 17 13 4 3 3 1 1 2646

August Vol % 109 27.3 34 8.5 53 13.3 26 6.5 30 7.5 31 7.8 30 7.5 22 5.5 16 4.0 13 3.3 8 2.0 4 1.0 2 0.5 5 1.3 1 0.3 5 1.3 2 0.5 7 1.8 1 0.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 399 100.0

3501-4500kg GVM

Brand FIAT MERCEDES-BENZ CHEVROLET RENAULT FORD PEUGEOT IVECO LDV VOLKSWAGEN Total

Vol 169 60 27 21 19 16 5 4 2 323

2020 % 52.3 18.6 8.4 6.5 5.9 5.0 1.5 1.2 0.6 100.0

August Vol % 20 62.5 5 15.6 1 3.1 1 3.1 3 9.4 2 6.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 32 100.0

4501-7500kg GVM

Brand ISUZU FUSO IVECO HINO FOTON MERCEDES-BENZ VOLKSWAGEN HYUNDAI FIAT RAM PEUGEOT Total 94 | Truck & Driver

Vol 188 169 97 69 39 38 31 14 13 4 3 665

2020 % 28.3 25.4 14.6 10.4 5.9 5.7 4.7 2.1 2.0 0.6 0.5 100.0

August Vol % 26 24.8 18 17.1 18 17.1 11 10.5 8 7.6 12 11.4 5 4.8 6 5.7 1 1.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 105 100.0

Trailer market leader Patchell (88/12) slightly extended its 2020 lead....

7501-15,000kg GVM

Brand ISUZU HINO FUSO IVECO FOTON UD MAN MERCEDES-BENZ HYUNDAI JAC OTHER Total

2020 Vol % 300 56.2 93 17.4 82 15.4 30 5.6 12 2.2 7 1.3 3 0.6 3 0.6 2 0.4 1 0.2 1 0.2 534 100.0

August Vol % 56 62.2 18 20.0 9 10.0 6 6.7 0 0.0 1 1.1 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 90 100.0

15,001-20,500kg GVM

Brand HINO FUSO UD MERCEDES-BENZ SCANIA IVECO DAF ISUZU MAN SINOTRUK Total

Vol 72 23 19 12 12 9 6 5 5 1 164

2020 % 43.9 14.0 11.6 7.3 7.3 5.5 3.7 3.0 3.0 0.6 100.0

August Vol % 10 52.6 0 0.0 2 10.5 0 0.0 2 10.5 3 15.8 1 5.3 0 0.0 1 5.3 0 0.0 19 100.0

20,501-23,000kg GVM

Brand HINO ISUZU FUSO FREIGHTLINER SCANIA DAF Total

Vol 16 11 6 1 1 1 36

2020 % 44.4 30.6 16.7 2.8 2.8 2.8 100.0

August Vol % 2 16.7 9 75.0 1 8.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 12 100.0

Brand VOLVO SCANIA ISUZU KENWORTH DAF HINO FUSO MERCEDES-BENZ UD IVECO SINOTRUK MACK MAN FREIGHTLINER INTERNATIONAL WESTERN STAR HYUNDAI Total

Vol 193 179 147 115 96 94 86 86 67 45 36 30 30 20 19 3 1 1247

2020 % 15.5 14.4 11.8 9.2 7.7 7.5 6.9 6.9 5.4 3.6 2.9 2.4 2.4 1.6 1.5 0.2 0.1 100.0

August Vol % 26 15.0 28 16.2 18 10.4 22 12.7 15 8.7 12 6.9 6 3.5 18 10.4 10 5.8 4 2.3 2 1.2 1 0.6 3 1.7 5 2.9 2 1.2 0 0.0 1 0.6 173 100.0

Trailers

2020 Vol % Brand PATCHELL 88 11.1 DOMETT 72 9.1 66 8.3 FRUEHAUF ROADMASTER 64 8.1 MTE 60 7.5 TMC 43 5.4 5.2 TRANSPORT TRAILERS 41 FREIGHTER 37 4.7 31 3.9 TRANSFLEET TES 27 3.4 CWS 21 2.6 JACKSON 17 2.1 MAXICUBE 14 1.8 HAMMAR 11 1.4 10 1.3 SDC KRAFT 10 1.3 MAKARANUI 9 1.1 9 1.1 EVANS MILLS-TUI 8 1.0 MTC EQUIPMENT 8 1.0 MD ENGINEERING 8 1.0 TIDD 8 1.0 LUSK 7 0.9 TANKER ENG. 6 0.8 PTE 6 0.8 LOWES 6 0.8 HTS 6 0.8 COWAN 5 0.6 FAIRFAX 5 0.6 TOTAL TRANSPORT 3 0.4 WHITE 3 0.4 SEC 3 0.4 COX ENG. 3 0.4 FELDBINDER 3 0.4 KOROMIKO 3 0.4 TEO 2 0.3 OTHER 72 9.1 Total 795 100.0

August Vol % 12 10.7 14 12.5 5 4.5 10 8.9 9 8.0 3 2.7 8 7.1 7 6.3 6 5.4 6 5.4 4 3.6 2 1.8 0 0.0 1 0.9 1 0.9 2 1.8 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 2 1.8 1 0.9 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.9 1 0.9 1 0.9 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.9 1 0.9 0 0.0 14 12.5 112 100.0

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Complete Concrete Pumping in Canterbury has this impressive new International 9870 10x4 in work around the South Island - its SERMAC 5RZ46 one of the largest truck-mounted concrete pumps in the country. It has a 525hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual transmission and Meritor 46-160 diffs. (continued from page 93)

TD31009

slightly ahead of last year’s YTD total registrations at the same point (323 to 319) – Fiat (169/20) extended its lead, while Mercedes-Benz (60/5) easily held onto second, ahead of Chevrolet (27/1), Renault (21/1) and Ford (19/3).

In the 4.5-7.5t GVM division, Isuzu (188/26) improved its lead on FUSO (169/18) and the rest – with Iveco (97/18) third, followed by Hino (69/11), Foton (39/8) and MercedesBenz (38/12)…the top-six positions unchanged from July.

In the 7.5-15t GVM class, Isuzu (300/56) continued to race ahead of its rivals – its domination of this class evident from its YTD total representing fully 56% of the division’s 534 sales.

Hino (93/18) and FUSO (82/9) retained their positions, well ahead of Iveco (30/6) and Foton (12/0).

In the 15-20.5t GVM category, Hino (72/10) increased its lead – its YTD total better than last year’s 60. The top six order was unchanged from July, with FUSO (23/0) second, ahead of UD (19/2), Mercedes-Benz (12/0), Scania (12/2) and Iveco (9/3).

The order was unchanged also in the tiny 20.5-23t GVM division, despite second-placed Isuzu (11/9) having a good month – claiming 75% of the August sales – to close up on leader Hino (16/2). FUSO (6/1) was third.

In the premier 23t to max GVM division, Volvo (193/26) held onto the No. 1 spot with an August performance that bettered its 22 sales in the same month last year.

While the YTD top four order was unchanged from July, second-placed Scania’s strong performance saw it improve on last year’s August and YTD tallies – 179 to 117 YTD and 28 to 19 for the month.

Isuzu (147/18) was third, ahead of Kenworth (115/22), while DAF (96/15) overtook Hino (94/12) for fifth and FUSO (86/6) was joined in seventh-equal by Mercedes-Benz (86/18).

UD (67/10) and Iveco (45/4) completed the top 10.

Trailer market leader Patchell (88/12) slightly extended its 2020 lead, but was topped for the month by Domett (72/14), for the second month in a row. In a performance that was better than its eight registrations (and 71 YTD) a year ago, Domett overtook Fruehauf (66/5) for second.

The rest of the top 10 held their positions, with Roadmaster (64/10) fourth, ahead of MTE (60/9),TMC (43/3), Transport Trailers (41/8), Freighter (37/7), Transfleet (31/6) and TES (27/6). Roadmaster, Transport Trailers and TES improved on their August 2019 regos, while Freighter was up on last year’s YTD and August figures (from 23 and 5 respectively). T&D Truck & Driver | 97

This new Mack Granite 6x4 tractor unit, rated at 90 tonnes, is now working for Mount Maunganui-based C3 - often working with a TES heavy bottom-dump bulk trailer at the port. Alternatively, it pulls skeletal semi-trailers, carting containers. It has a 500hp MP8 engine, an mDrive AMT and Mack 2370B diffs and has disc brakes and a suite of safety features.

Taupo’s Lakeland Transport has put this new Kenworth T610 logger to work around the central North Island. Allan Wheeler and Rick Robson doubleshift the 8x4, which has a 600-615hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox and Meritor diffs on Hendrickson Primaax suspension. It has Patchell logging gear and a matching five-axle trailer.

98 | Truck & Driver

Plants are transported nationwide by this new DAF CF75 FAS recently put to work by Auckland’s Zealandia Horticulture. The 6x2 has a 360hp PACCAR engine, a ZF gearbox, and DAF rear axles on air suspension. It has a Fruehauf curtainsider body.

Laurent Contractors in Matamata have put this new DAF CF85 8x4 sleeper cab tipper to work.

Brad Goldsbury drives the truck, which has a 510hp PACCAR MX13 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual transmission and Meritor 46-160 diffs. It has a 7m Jackson dropside deck.

Regal Haulage owner/operator, Alex Hayes Log Transport, has put this new Kenworth K200 2.3 Aerodyne 8x4 high cubic capacity bulk tipper unit to work in Napier. Scott Martin drives the 600hp Cummins-powered nine-axle unit, built inhouse by Regal’s design and engineering team.

100 | Truck & Driver

Pukekohe’s Waste Petroleum Combustion has put this new 8x4 DAF day cab FAD CF85 to work. It has a 510hp PACCAR engine, an AS-Tronic AMT and a Tanker Solutions tanker.

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Ph: 0800 501 133 www.tdm.co.nz

Specials valid while stocks last.

8 Prescott Street, Penrose, Auckland Email: ray@tdm.co.nz | john@tdm.co.nz

WE HAVE YOUR SEASON SORTED!

2020 Sinotruk Tipper & 5 Axle MTE Tipper

2020 MTE 5A Flat Top Low Loader Widener

2020 Noram 65E Grader

John Deer Earthworks Combination

540HP Air Suspension MTE Hardox Bins

GVM: 36,000kg, Length: 11,500mm, Deck Widths: 2,490mm-3,300mm

CAT C4.4. 142HP, 7,615kg Weight, 3,050mm Mouldboard

2015 John Deere 6170M & Joskin 17-50 Tipping Trailer,

Available for daily, weekly or monthly hire. Also available to buy.

Available for daily, weekly or monthly hire. Also available to buy.

Available for daily, weekly or monthly hire. Also available to buy.

Available for daily, weekly or monthly hire. Also available to buy.

EQUIPMENT & TRANSPORT LEASING

07 849 3007

etladmin@modtrans.co.nz

etlhire.co.nz

6624 Te Rapa Rd, Hamilton

HUGE RANGE OF EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE!

Graders

Excavators

Loaders

Bulldozers

Rollers

Compactors

Dump Trucks

Tractors

Tippers

Trucks

Trailers

Water Carts

BRYAN RATCLIFFE

027 509 4690 | bryanr@modtrans.co.nz

KURT SCOTT

027 266 69888 | kurts@modtrans.co.nz

THE MODERN TRANSPORT GROUP

PHIL RYAN

027 243 4440 | philr@modtrans.co.nz