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BIG TEST Light ‘n’ low FUSO | FLEET FOCUS Looking after the locals | FEATURE Cheery towie is drug trial “superman”
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Issue 240
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CONTENTS Issue 240 – November 2020 2 Aeolus News
The latest in the world of transport, including….International make will continue in New Zealand….as Aussie pullout looms; Scania reclaims most powerful massproduction truck, with new 770hp flagship; Hyundai delivers on its hydrogen fuel cell promises – is now focused on biggest global markets
The new FUSO Super Low has the best of both worlds – an engine and AMT that’s part of Daimler’s global powertrain platform, ditto for its suite of safety features….and FUSO-engineered features like air suspension all around and 19.5-inch wheels, to suit it perfectly to operator Carr & Haslam’s purposes
41 Transport Forum
Latest news from the Road Transport Forum NZ, including…..the Government’s $3billion COVID recovery, shovel-ready projects fund is part of a trend that has made pork-barrel politics the new normal; investment in road maintenance is critical to NZ’s economic recovery
Publisher
Advertising
CONTRIBUTORS Trevor Woolston 027 492 5600 trevor@trucker.co.nz Trevor Woolston 027 492 5600 trevor@trucker.co.nz Hayden Woolston 027 448 8768 hayden@trucker.co.nz
EDITORIAL Editor
Wayne Munro 021 955 099 waynemunro@xtra.co.nz
Editorial office Phone
PO Box 48 074 AUCKLAND 09 826 0494
Associate Editor
Brian Cowan
When Toll took over Northland’s flagship United Carriers, longtime employee Doug Wilson soon bailed out from his management role – and started his own small business, to properly “look after the locals”
REGULARS 79 Truck Shop
New products and services for the road transport industry
80/ PPG Transport Imaging 81 Awards
FEATURES
Recognising NZ’s best-looking truck fleets…. including a giant pullout poster of this month’s finalist
64 Southpac Trucks Legends
26 Giti Tyres Big Test
MANAGEMENT
50 Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus
Philip Wareing sees himself as almost an accidental transport operator. But what was meant to be just a stepping stone towards his primary goal of becoming a farmer has turned into a significant Canterbury transport group
93 Vertex Lubricants Recently Registered New truck and trailer registrations for September
67 Castrol Truck Driver Hero
The head of the Auckland Cancer Trials Centre calls Brian Lineham his “superman.” No-one would argue: Eighteen months ago he was told he had six months to two years to live…. and here he is still driving a towtruck every day – cheerily doing the job he loves
81 The show must go on(line)
COVID-19 caused the cancellation of the greatest truck show on earth – the biennial IAA Commercial Vehicles, in Germany. So Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Trucks shifted their usual show reveals online
Gerald Shacklock Dave McLeod Olivia Beauchamp
ART DEPARTMENT Design & Production Luca Bempensante Zarko Mihic EQUIPMENT GUIDE AUCKLAND, NORTHLAND, BOP, WAIKATO, CENTRAL NORTH ISLAND Advertising Trudy Woolston 027 233 0090 trudy@trucker.co.nz AUCKLAND, LOWER NORTH ISLAND, SOUTH ISLAND Advertising Hayden Woolston 027 448 8768 hayden@trucker.co.nz Dion Rout 027 491 1110 dion@trucker.co.nz
COLUMNS 89 Road Transport Association NZ Industry needs to get behind the RTF’s Te Ara Ki Tua Road to Success driving traineeship
91 National Road Carriers Association
Our appalling roads are taking a physical and mental toll on drivers
ADMINISTRATION Sue Woolston MANAGER accounts@trucker.co.nz SUBSCRIPTIONS Sue Woolston accounts@trucker.co.nz NZ subscription $80 incl. GST for one year price (11 issues) Overseas rates on application ADDRESS Phone +64 9 571 3544 Freephone 0508 TRUCKER (878 2537) Postal Address PO Box 112 062, Penrose, AUCKLAND Street Address 172B Marua Road, Ellerslie, AUCKLAND Web www.alliedpublications.co.nz
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NZ Truck & Driver Magazine
PRINTING & DISTRIBUTION Printer Bluestar Retail Distribution Ovato Publication: New Zealand Truck & Driver is published monthly, except January, by Allied Publications Ltd PO Box 112 062, Penrose, Auckland
Net circulation – ended 31/03/2019
11,360
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Truck & Driver | 1
NEWS
Scania goes 770hp! The world’s new horsepower champion, Scania’s 770 S SCANIA HAS RETURNED TO THE NO. 1 SPOT IN THE world’s most powerful mass-produced truck honours – reclaiming the lead from Volvo with a new V8 that produces 770 horsepower and a whopping 3700 Newton metres of peak torque. Scania, now part of the Traton Group, used to hold the king of the road honours…..until Volvo launched its 750hp D16 engine in its FH, back in 2012. Eighteen months earlier, Scania’s 730hp V8 had similarly taken the glory from Volvo’s FH16 700. Scania has taken a lowkey approach in launching the new range-topping 770 S flagship – its press release refraining from headlining its worldbeating status….just mentioning that the four new V8s come in 530770hp ratings and terming it “a lineup of unsurpassed V8 power.” It then points out that the new V8s “not only offer record level power, but vastly improved fuel efficiency as well: The total savings can reach up to 6%, or even more, under the right conditions and when Scania’s also-new G33 gearbox is used. Scania exec VP and head of sales and marketing Alexander Vlaskamp is even quick to point out that the 770hp/574kilowatts V8, with its 2728 lb ft/3700Nm of peak torque, “is, of course, not for everyone – but we see a growing demand for trucks capable of handling gross train weights of 60 tonnes and above, especially for roadgoing combinations. “The fastest way to increase transport efficiency is with longer and heavier truck combinations. The added fuel for a heavier vehicle is compensated by the greater payload capacity. The CO2-per-tonne calculation is favourable, and in addition there is the opportunity to run your Scania V8 truck on renewable biofuels.” “We have a clear picture of where the first 770hp trucks will start making a difference,” says Vlaskamp, adding: “There is a strong rationale for ordering such a truck. These customers are looking for the best total operating economy, well aware of the fact that more payload means better efficiency, increased revenue and higher residual value.” 2 | Truck & Driver
Finally, he concedes: “But I know that some of our customers also will become extra heartened by the sheer joy and emotion of operating such a magnificent working tool.” Scania says that the fuel savings delivered by its new V8s are the result of “extensive fine-tuning and development by Scania’s engineers, involving technologies in the forefront of internal combustion engine development.” Among the improvements – made possible by more than 70 new parts – are reduced internal friction, higher compression ratios, improved aftertreatment systems and a powerful new engine management system. The new engines are announced alongside the introduction of the first model in a new range of gearboxes – replacements for the current Opticruise automated transmissions. Scania says it has invested more than 400 million Euros on the new range of automated gearboxes, which have been designed for drivability and sustainability – ensuring that “Scania’s successful, low-rev and fuelefficient powertrains maintain their lead this decade.” They deliver up to a 1% reduction in fuel consumption, quieter operation and improved shifting. They also have improved retarder capacity. The first of them is the G33CM AMT – for use with the new V8s and Scania’s high-output, 500hp and 540hp 13-litre engines. Vlaskamp says the introduction of the new transmission “adds yet another vital Scania component to remaining highly competitive in ICE (internal combustion engine)-based powertrains all the way up to 2030. “The new gearbox range is a prime example of Scania’s technological excellence, bringing increased fuel and transport efficiency to our customers in a sustainable way. “A core feature is the wider spread, making them better suited to meet our low-rev engines with extended economy-gearing and reduced fuel consumption.” The new V8 range won’t be available in New Zealand until late next year. T&D
NEWS Northland operator Aotearoa Haulage’s International ProStar R8HD was one of 27 Inters sold in New Zealand last year
Inter gone in Oz...still going strong here THE INTERNATIONAL BRAND IS to disappear from the Australian market (again)…..but New Zealand’s longtime Inter distributor (and local assembler) is emphatic that it’s business as usual here. A mid-September press release from International Trucks Australia broke the news that IVECO Trucks Australia – the Aussie distributor – “has been advised by Navistar Inc, manufacturer of International Trucks, that it will cease global production of the ProStar range, effective in December this year.” The announcement continued: “While left hand drive model replacements are in development, IVECO has been advised that the extensive validation and engineering investment necessary to make these vehicles available in right hand drive, for what is a limited number of lower volume markets, means that these replacement vehicles will not become available in Australia.” But Comer Board, MD of NZ International representative Intertruck Distributors, is adamant that nothing has changed in his company’s deal with Navistar to assemble Inter conventionals here. “To clarify (the Australian media release),” he says, “Navistar and IVECO Australia are ending their international sales distributor agreement.
This has no impact on our NZ business.” He confirms that the ProStar is being phased out in the US – to be replaced here with the near-identical RH model currently sold in the States. And, he says: “We have worked with Navistar in utilising our own manufacturing capability to continue right hand drive in conventional products, based on their current model range. IVECO (Australia) have chosen not to take this option.” It is, he adds, “unfortunate this important point and opportunity” was not made clear in the Australian press release. Adds Board: “The difference is, Intertruck has a longterm investment with International, driven by passionate staff, customers and our dealer network.” The model change will in fact, says Board, be good news for Kiwi Inter buyers – allowing the addition of a second engine to the current ProStar’s Cummins X15. The 12.4-litre A26 engine weighs around 350kg less than the X15, thus meaning “it will again dominate the tare weight space.” The A26 complies with the EPA 17 GHG (greenhouse gas) standard, which Board says, “is more stringent than the latest Euro emissions. It
also comes with “significant fuel mileage savings over earlier emission standards.” As for Intertruck’s International 9870 cabover – which the Kiwi company has continued to assemble long after Navistar quit producing the model – Board says the Kiwi company’s stockpile of essential components will meet demand for up to three more years. “And we’re in talks on a different cab to replace it. We know we need to continue on with a cabover product.” And yes, “absolutely” it will happen, he insists. Intertruck is now in its 24th year as the NZ Inter distributor, in an arrangement Board reckons results in “the best from International’s product range through local assembly. “Since COVID our market share has increased, the assembly lines are at full capacity – thanks to the support from all of our customers.” The ProStar hasn’t sold well in Australia – last year seeing just 54 sales….in a heavy-duty truck market five times bigger than NZ’s. In the first nine months of 2020, 22 Internationals were sold in NZ – about 12 of them ProStars. Board says he’s targeting sales of 20-25 ProStars next year – “and we’re aiming at getting up to around the 50 mark per year. That’s where we need to be.” T&D Truck & Driver | 3
NEW ZEALANDS ONLY LICENSED DISTRIBUTOR LOOKING FOR THE SAFEST AND BEST SEAT FOR YOUR TRUCK? MAKE SURE THAT IT’S AN ISRI FROM GEEMAC TRADING. Geemac Trading (NZ) Limitedhas been the only official Isringhausen (ISRI) distributor in New Zealand since 1995. ISRI are renowned as the best drivers seat in the world and are OEM in the majority of vehicles out of Europe, America and Asia. Including but not limited to - Kenworth, DAF/Foden, Isuzu, Mercedes, Mack, MAN, Hino, Freightliner and a large portion of off highway machinery brands. We carry the full range of ISRI seats for all vehicles, including OEM replacements, as well as any ISRI spare parts needed to get your vehicle back on the road safely.
GET IN TOUCH TODAY! BUYER CHECKLIST HAS THIS ISRI SEAT COME FROM GEEMAC TRADING?
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IF CONVERTING, IS THERE AN ISRI BRACKET CERTIFIED FOR YOUR SPECIFIC VEHICLE? IF SEAT IS A DIRECT OEM REPLACEMENT, WHAT IS THE SEATS’ PART NUMBER? DOES IT MATCH THE ORIGINAL OEM SPEC SHEET. AFTER THE DRIVER, THE SEAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF EQUIPMENT IN THE VEHICLE... BUY QUALITY AND LONG LASTING, RATHER THAN CHEAP ALTERNATIVES.
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NEWS
Hyundai delivers on hydrogen promises
Hyundai says it will have 50 XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks on the road in Switzerland by the end of this year
HYUNDAI DELIVERED ON ITS HYDROGEN FUEL CELL truck promises last month – handing over the world’s first mass-produced FC electric heavy-duty trucks to seven Swiss customers…as it said it would. And it announced plans to quickly also take the XCIENT Fuel Cell to the United States and China. Hyundai Motor says it will have 50 XCIENTs on the road in Switzerland this year – but the numbers will quickly ramp up spectacularly: Its production capacity will be up to 2000 trucks next year… And by 2030 it aims to have sold 27,000 fuel cell electric trucks, predicting that by then more than 12,000 fuel cell trucks will be working in the US – and pointing out that China plans to have a million HFC trucks on the road within a decade…and it plans to help that happen. “The delivery of XCIENT Fuel Cell starts a new chapter, not only for Hyundai’s hydrogen push, but also the global community’s use of hydrogen as a clean energy source,” said In Cheol Lee, Hyundai Motors’ executive VP and head of commercial vehicles. “Today’s delivery is just a beginning, as it opens endless possibilities for clean mobility.” The company is, he said, “already making great progress” in its plans to expand into the US and China. It is partnering with companies in the US to invest $US7.7billion on a hydrogen ecosystem, including production, charging stations, service and maintenance. In China, it is “currently discussing cooperative initiatives such as a joint venture with local partners” and will launch a medium-duty FCE truck there in 2022, to be followed by a HD truck within “a couple of years.” The Swiss XCIENTs are leased to transport operators, supported by a “robust” hydrogen ecosystem created in part by a JV between Hyundai and a Swiss energy company. Hyundai is working on similar arrangements around Europe. The XCIENT is powered by a 190kW hydrogen fuel cell system, with
seven large hydrogen tanks. The driving range per charge for a 4x2 XCIENT refrigerated truck and trailer unit, running at 34 tonnes all-up, is about 400 kilometres. It can be refuelled in eight to 20 minutes. Hyundai says it will introduce a new model XCIENT in the next few years, featuring an e-axle and two 200kW fuel cell systems. The range will include 4x2 and 6x2 rigids and 4x2 tractors – the latter with a 1000km range at 44t all-up. The current XCIENT is rated up to a 36t GCM as a truck and trailer, or 19t as a truck-only, with a tare weight of just under 10t. It has an Allison automatic transmission and a Siemens 350kW/3400Nm motor/inverter, giving the truck an 85km/h maximum speed. It has disc brakes, a four-stage retarder and a suite of electronic safety systems, plus smart cruise control. T&D
The first seven Hyundai FCETs in the colours of Swiss customers.... who are leasing the trucks from a JV between Hyundai and a Swiss energy company Truck & Driver | 5
NEWS
Hino and parent company Toyota have revealed they are developing a heavy-duty hydrogen fuel cell electric truck (above) for the North American market – building on their previously-announced Japanese FCET project (right)
Hino, Toyota team up on fuel cell trucks NOW THERE’S ANOTHER MAJOR player in the hydrogen fuel cell electric truck market – with Toyota Motor North America and Hino USA announcing that they are jointly developing a heavy-duty FCET for the North American market. The companies say they will use Hino’s bonneted XL Series chassis for North America, combined with Toyota’s proven fuel cell technology, to “deliver exceptional capability without harmful emissions.” It’s a collaboration that builds on their JV to develop a 25-tonne medium-duty FCET for the Japanese market, announced in March this year. The North American project will see a demo truck on the road in the first half of next year. Tak Yokoo, Toyota R&D senior executive
engineer says: “A fuel cell powered version of the Hino XL Series is a win-win for both customers and the community. It will be quiet, smooth and powerful – while emitting nothing but water. “Toyota’s twenty-plus years of fuel cell technology, combined with Hino’s heavy-duty truck experience will create an innovative and capable product.” “Expanding upon our proud heritage of the Hino powertrain, Toyota fuel cell technology offers our customers a commercially viable, extended range, zero emissions vehicle in the near term,” says Hino senior VP customer experience Glenn Ellis. “Hino shares a common focus with Toyota when it comes to durability, reliability, and innovation, with the customer at the centre of design – which
makes this collaboration a game changer.” Hino terms the JV Project Z – its path to zero emissions trucks, ranging from light-duty to heavy-duty. In a live online event launching Project Z, it showcased zero emissions vehicles with a range of power systems, including Australian SEA Electric drives, Toyota hydrogen fuel cells and Hino battery electric drives. Working with a variety of technology leaders will result in a sustainable, low-cost product lineup, it says. The schedule will see demo vehicles within the next eight months, customer trials in 2022 and production before 2024. Hino USA says there are more details to come on the technologies to be included in Project Z. T&D
Traton, Navistar agree on a buyout deal TRATON’S BID TO BECOME THE WORLD’S BIGGEST truckmaker appeared to move a step closer last month – with an agreement in principle to its takeover bid for Navistar International. In order to clinch the deal, which will give it a foothold on the lucrative North American truck market, Traton upped its offer to around $US3.7billion for the 83.2% of Navistar that it doesn’t already own. That’s $US44.50 a share – up from a $43 recent offer (worth around $US3.575bn)…and an initial $35 per share bid (about $2.9bn). If the deal goes through, Navistar will be valued at around $US4.4bn. Traton says the agreement in principle is for it acquire by merger all the 6 | Truck & Driver
remaining Navistar shares. While cautioning that the deal is not yet done, Traton CEO Matthias Grundler says: “We are pleased to have reached agreement in principle for a transaction after intensive negotiations with Navistar. We are looking forward to completing our due diligence and obtaining the necessary approvals in respect of this exciting deal in order to welcome the new Traton family member.” If the agreement is confirmed,Traton will wholly own Navistar International, Scania, MAN and Volkswagen Trucks, Brazil – as well as holding a JV with Sinotruk in China and a co-operation agreement with Hino in Japan. T&D
This is Japan’s most advanced truck.
The new FUSO Shogun sets new standards in efficiency, comfort and safety. — Efficiency The new 10.7 litre engine is available with 400 or 460 horsepower and, coupled with the new 12-speed ShiftPilot transmission, gives effortless power that is tailor-made for New Zealand conditions. The OM470 engine is more efficient, giving less fuel consumption and extended oil change intervals. — Comfort The new Daimler-inspired seat has an integrated seatbelt and improved ergonomic cushioning. Add to this easy-to-use steering wheel switches and a new Silent Cabin Package and you get unprecedented levels of driver comfort.
— Safety Shogun’s new advanced safety features are based on world-class Daimler technology and take trucking safety to a new level. Shogun is fitted with Active Attention Assist - a driver monitoring system using an infrared camera which monitors the driver’s face and eye closure. It also features Active Emergency Braking, Lane Departure Warning and Adaptive Cruise Control. — New 7” Touchscreen and Reversing Camera Featuring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for safe, hands-free communication and navigation via smartphone.
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NEWS
Accusations against founder Trevor Milton have included the claim that he stated at the 2016 launch of the Nikola One (pictured) that it was drivable....when it was inoperable
Nikola suffers a setback FOR MONTHS EVERYTHING SEEMED TO BE ON THE up and up for Nikola, the US electric truck startup that looked to be racing ahead of the much-more-famous Tesla. And then, suddenly, from June to September things took a spectacular turn for the worse. Nikola founder Trevor Milton – whose personal worth had reportedly rocketed to $US9billion in June – has now quit his role as executive chairman amidst allegations of fraudulent claims, and investigations launched by US financial regulators. The company’s rise saw both IVECO owner CNH Industrial and General Motors buy a stake in Nikola, alongside an impressive stockmarket launch that saw its market value hit $US26.3billion – more than that of the Ford Motor Company! The setbacks began when a stockmarket “short seller,” Hindenburg Research, went public with a sensational claim that the startup was “an intricate fraud built on dozens of lies.” A Nikola statement denied many of the claims, explained others...and dismissed the attack as a bid to “negatively manipulate the market to financially benefit short sellers” – including Hindenburg itself. Milton himself termed it “a hit job.” But the criticism revived earlier allegations that Milton had claimed at the 2016 unveiling of the Nikola One tractor unit that it was drivable…while insiders said it was inoperable and missed key components needed to power itself. Milton explained the claims away, saying that key parts had been removed from the prototype for safety reasons. The Hindenburg report also alleged that in a video of a 2017 Nikola One tractor unit moving along a desert road – apparently shot for another company’s tv commercial – the truck was not moving under its own power….. It was actually rolling down a stretch of Arizona highway thanks only to its almost imperceptible gentle downhill gradient….certainly so slight it’s not detectable in the video. Nikola didn’t deny it – responding only that: “It was never described as ‘under its own propulsion’ or ‘powertrain driven.’ ” Nikola’s share price plummeted by 30% in the wake of the controversial claims.
And two weeks later Milton stepped back from his lead role in the company, saying in a statement: “Nikola is truly in my blood and always will be, and the focus should be on the company and its world-changing mission, not me. “So, I made the difficult decision to approach the board and step aside.” Nikola shares rose 20% in the wake of Milton’s resignation and a company statement reiterating its commitment to its original strategy and vision “to deliver innovative technology, energy and transportation solutions.” The statement says Nikola is “an innovator and integrator…..laser-focused on pursuing the quickest, least capital-intensive path to market, in combination with our own intellectual property. “If our partners have a less expensive, more efficient solution that works with and in our designs, we very intentionally want to go with that. This is in the best interest of our company and our shareholders – and, simply put, is the smart business decision. “In line with our strategy, Nikola will continue to partner with worldclass companies that will enable us to save billions of dollars and years in development.” It expects that the first batch of five Nikola Tre battery electric trucks for the European market will be completed within a few weeks and says it still aims to begin production of the tractor unit before the end of next year. And it expects to begin testing prototypes of its hydrogen fuel cell powered tractor units for the US market by the end of 2021. T&D
Trevor Milton Truck & Driver | 9
NEWS
Greg Pert the new Transport Forum TAURANGA TRANSPORT OPERATOR GREG PERT, who started out as a truck driver 38 years ago, has been appointed the new chair of the Road Transport Forum board of directors. Pert, who replaces Neil Reid, the board chair for the past six years, says it’s an honour to be chosen for the role and he’s “happy to accept this new challenge.” When his peers voted for him to take the chair of the board, “I felt the time was right – and that it was the right thing to do. And I value that support. “I don’t have all the answers and I still have a bit to learn, but I think that’s a good way to be. “My plan is to respect, listen to, help and appreciate all those in the road freight transport industry. “I believe that standards, culture, and core values remain integral in all aspects of business operations.” He pays tribute to predecessor Reid – who remains a board director – “for
his excellent work unifying our industry and for the leadership he has given us.” Pert is also a board member of the National Road Carriers Association, a member of the Petroleum Industry Transport Safety Forum and a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. He says: “I love being part of this industry and really enjoy working alongside great people who give their time to work on governance of important industry representative groups.” After starting work with Dale Freightways, he became an owner-operator with Freightways Bulk Services 35 years ago. In 2000 the family-owned company grew into a fleet operator with a contract with Gull Petroleum. Today, he and partner Jackie are co-directors of Tranzliquid Logistics – very much a family business, with son Gareth now the MD. The logistics and transport operation has a fleet of 42 tankers delivering fuel or fuel-related products, mainly in the North Island and servicing all oil companies.
Deane’s our Castrol Truck Driver Hero of the year WHEN WE TALK ABOUT OUR industry being full of good guys, Deane Rodgers is definitely one of them. It’d be hard to find someone more enthusiastic than he is about his job – driving for Cromwellbased Summerland Express Freight. As he puts it: “I’m up and excited every day to do what I do.” But it’s something far from everyday that has seen Deane voted our Castrol Truck Driver Hero of the year – namely, putting his own life at risk to avoid endangering people or property when his trailers caught fire. It happened as Deane was driving north through a tinder-dry South Canterbury en route to Christchurch, in his Iveco Stralis curtainsider B-train unit, in February last year. Taking account of the strong wind, the dry grass on the highway verges and the paddocks of wheat and hay all around, Deane decided that the fire would cause least harm if he could make it to the big open truck parking area at the Makikihi Country hotel – five kilometres up the road! Farmers and authorities praised his actions: He made it to the pub parking area and managed to save the tractor unit. The trailers and their load were lost to the flames….but 10 | Truck & Driver
the fire didn’t spread further, thus avoiding a potentially catastrophic wildfire. His actions have now been recognised by a judging panel, which voted Deane the Castrol Truck Driver Hero of the year – the award and a $3500 travel prize presented to him at last month’s Road Transport Association AGM in Cromwell. NZ Truck & Driver managing director and judge Trevor Woolston says: “Deane’s actions were significant due to the fact that he averted danger and his actions saved millions of dollars worth of damage to the local economy.”
Summerland Express Freight general manager Grant Lowe – who nominated Deane as a Castrol Truck Driver Hero – says the company is proud to have him in its team…and believes his award is “thoroughly deserved. “It’s fantastic to see an everyday humble guy like Deane get recognised. We are very proud.” Deane, who has been driving trucks for 33 years, says he’s “over the moon” to be recognised with the award – but was nervous about giving a speech on the night the award was presented: “I’ll probably drive a flaming truck again… (rather) than give another speech!” T&D
Deane Rodgers (holding the Castrol Truck Driver Hero trophy and citation) receives his award, with (from left): Summerland owners Ross (Smilie) and Barbara Millard, NZ Truck & Driver’s Olivia Beauchamp, Summerland GM Grant Lowe, Deane’s partner Karen Phillips and RTF CEO Nick Leggett
Road chair The Forum, he says, “provides the over-arching unified industry voice to government on the important matters that enable our success – and I fully support a collaborative approach by the other industry associations and their membership to enable that. “We are facing interesting times and it is vital that we explore all possibilities to reshape our future in road freight transport, to ensure good businesses survive and thrive. “Pretty much everything spends time on the back of a truck at some point of the supply chain, so we also need a viable operating environment to ensure New Zealanders can continue to enjoy their high standard of living. “There is some tension in achieving that, which is why the RTF is so important to advancing the industry’s needs and I will be 100% behind that. “We (the RTF) have a compelling vision and with great collaboration across all associations and its members I believe the RTF can move this industry forward.” T&D
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NEWS
An electric Volvo FM readymix truck is now on a customer trial
One of Scania’s serial-produced electric urban delivery trucks
Scania, Volvo power up their etrucks SWEDISH TRUCKMAKER RIVALS VOLVO AND SCANIA are powering into their electric truck programmes. Scania has just launched its first electric production trucks – both plugin hybrids and fully-electric models, targeting urban applications. The Scania etruck – offered with L-Series or P-Series cabs – has a 165300kWh battery pack and a 230kW electric motor, equal to around 310 horsepower. It packs five to nine batteries, the latter delivering a 250km range. The plug-in hybrid truck, available for the same cabs, provides opportunities to travel long distances in a combustion engine mode….and subsequently drive up to 60kms in fully-electric mode when required. Scania hails the development as a milestone – the precursor to annual additions that will lead to “electrified products for our entire range,” says Scania president and CEO Henrik Henriksson. “Of particular significance is that we will, in a few years’ time, also introduce long-distance electric trucks adapted for fast charging during drivers’ compulsory 45-minute rest periods.” Meanwhile, Volvo is launching customer tests of fully electric
construction trucks – an FM with a readymix concrete bowl and an FMX fitted with a hooklift, both going to work in urban environments. The vocational etrucks are intended to meet growing demands for reduced noise and emissions from trucks working in urban areas. The trial follows Volvo’s successful introduction of serial-produced electric trucks for urban distribution and refuse collection. “Trucks in the construction segment typically require more power and robustness than many other segments, and electric trucks are no exception,” says Volvo Trucks VP electromobility Jonas Odermalm. “Our commercial solutions need to meet the demands for high productivity and uptime, while delivering on the benefits of reduced emissions and less noise that comes with a full electric driveline. Field tests and customer collaborations are important to the development process.” The tests will give Volvo a better understanding of how electrification impacts the customers’ operations – “in terms of driving cycles, load capacity, uptime, range and other parameters…and with all the benefits of using quieter, cleaner transport,” says Ebba Bergbom Wallin, its electromobility business manager. T&D
Keith Andrews adds more dealerships KEITH ANDREWS TRUCKS WILL SOON EXTEND ITS Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner representation right across the North Island. The longtime FUSO representative – recently also appointed the New Zealand distributor of Daimler Trucks’ Japanese make – has been confirmed by Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific to open new Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner sales, service and parts dealerships in Wellington and Palmerston North. They will be opened in the next few months – the exact timing to be confirmed. KAT already represents the Daimler Trucks brands in the upper North Island, with dealerships in Whangarei, Auckland and Hamilton. Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific says that the move “further strengthens the dealership footprint, following the recent introduction of the latest generation Mercedes-Benz Actros and the impending arrival of 12 | Truck & Driver
the all-new Freightliner Cascadia.” President and CEO Daniel Whitehead says the KAT team will “provide the highest level of service to our customers in the lower North Island. “This is a critical region of NZ and we are thrilled our customers there will receive the kind of attention and support that the Keith Andrews Trucks team is known to provide to the rest of the North Island.” KAT managing director Aaron Smith says that the company is “delighted that Daimler Truck and Bus Australia has recognised our tenure, capability and desire to represent its brands beyond the upper North Island, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to do so. “I’d like to also acknowledge the hard work of the entire Keith Andrews team in achieving this goal. “We have strong Daimler relationships throughout the North Island and look forward to growing and continuing to provide the high standard of expertise and service customers expect of Daimler brands.” T&D
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The next-gen of tough
Western Star says that its new 49X was purposebuilt for vocational applications – with class-leading tare weight and safety features, plus a new Detroit DT12 Vocational AMT
WESTERN STAR HAS LAUNCHED A NEW MODEL IN North America – the 49X, built “from the ground up” for vocational applications. Terming it “the next generation of tough,” the 49X has a stronger, lighter chassis, a new X-series cab and debuts the Detroit DT12 Vocational automated manual transmission. Australasian Western Star distributor Penske Australia New Zealand, says a 49X local test programme will begin next year, with the new model released here in late 2022 or early 2023. The 49X can be mated to the Detroit DD15 Gen 5 engine, rated at up to 505 horsepower/376 kilowatts and 1750 lb ft/2372Nm of peak torque, or the DD16 – offering up to 600hp/447kW and 2050 lb ft/2779Nm. The DD15 Gen 5 comes with a 60 lb (27kg) powertrain weight reduction, contributing to the 49X’s lightweight status – over 350 lbs/158kgs lighter than a comparable current Western Star 4900. The cleansheet design of the new Western Star makes that possible primarily through its new, purposebuilt frame and the lightweight X series cab. Western Star says that the 49X brings together for the first time in a vocational truck “the cutting-edge technology, power and performance offered by the industry-leading Detroit Assurance suite of safety systems, the all-new Detroit DT12 Vocational Series of automated manual transmissions, and the enhanced Detroit DD15 Gen 5.” The latter delivers remote diagnostic services to increase uptime and productivity. “With the 49X, Western Star delivers on our promise of tough, while introducing segment-first safety features, an operator-focused experience and easier upfit solutions that will keep our customers’ businesses running smoothly,” says David Carson, senior VP, vocational segment, Daimler Trucks North America. Development work on the cab was the most extensive in Western Star history and included multiple cab crush tests to ensure cab integrity in a
rollover. Full-vehicle shaker tests replicated 1.35 million kilometres of use to test the innovative cab mounts system. It is the segment’s largest cab, with 1013% greater space than competitors. In all models, a wraparound dash puts the driver command centre and B-panel in easy line of sight of the operator. The DT12 Vocational AMT series, rated up to 330,000 lbs/149,685kgs, was validated in around 34million kms of testing, to prove its performance and durability. It includes side PTO capabilities and comes with unique work application modes and shift map strategies including rock-free, offroad, power launch and paver modes – the latter allowing the truck to shift from Neutral to Drive without touching the brake pedal when pulling away. Western Star says that the 49X has “the most advanced collision mitigation system in the vocational market.” It has sideguard assist, active braking assistance, tailgate warning, adaptive cruise control (down to a stop), lane departure warning, video capture, intelligent high-beam and automatic windscreen wipers and headlights. The safety features extend to ergonomic cab access, with a 70-degree door opening angle, five hand holds, and wider, staircase-style steps. The 49X’s best-in-class visibility comes from a sloped bonnet made possible by splayed frame rails, a lowered engine position and under-bonnet air filtration, a 28% larger single-piece windscreen and an optional rear window that’s 77% larger than on the 4900. The DD15 Gen 5 has a new aftertreatment system that has a single DPF, needs less space and extends service intervals. It also achieves high torque at lower revs. Penske Australia NZ president Randall Seymore says the company has worked very closely with Daimler Trucks for several years on the development of the 49X and will continue to do so in the leadup to its local launch. The local test programme is aimed at “ensuring the new trucks are a perfect fit for our local conditions and applications.” T&D Truck & Driver | 15
NEWS
Y L L A E R He r u o s e lik e n i z a g a m James’ creative efforts to get some more NZ Truck & Driver magazines paid off....when admin manager Sue Woolston recognised a passion that deserved to be fuelled
SIX-Y EAR-OLD JA MES M ARSH ALL M AY JUST BE New Zealand Truck & Driver publisher Allied Publications’ most fervent reader. After having a copy of NZ Truck & Driver handed on to him by his schoolteacher, the Ranfurly primary school pupil was so keen to get his hands on some more, he took action. First he made a sign – ‘Truck magazine.’ That went onto the Marshall family’s letterbox – even though Mum (Arlene) gently suggested that wasn’t going to work. When the rain ruined that, he got creative: He filled in the NZ Truck & Driver subscription form and sent it in – confidently ticking the Visa box….and improvising when it came to a cardholder name, an email address, security code and that technical stuff. Allied admin manager Sue Woolston loved his passion…and responded by sending James a “care package” of magazines, including some back issues….and a free subscription. His Mum reckons James “was a bit embarrassed and shy when he saw the parcel in the letterbox.” That was soon replaced by sheer delight: “Then he said: ‘Oh wow! They gave me three…and I only asked for two.’ ” According to his Mum, James has been into trucks, tractors and diggers for years: “Even before he was two, he could spot a tractor miles away across the paddocks.” It helped, she says, that his Uncle Steve has a trucking company – 16 | Truck & Driver
Cambridge’s Curin Contractors: “He’s another person who took James on his big loader. And he was just fascinated by it.” James takes up the story: “I like diggers and I like farm machinery – every single machine. One of my friends lives on a farm and I always go on a tractor with him. And I can drive a tractor as well. “And once, we lived in Tokoroa, and we had this man come with a digger to do some gravel…and he had this little digger – and he let me drive the digger by myself !” Mum confirms: “True story.” At home, James has “his door” – now covered with NZ Truck & Driver PPG Transport Imaging Awards posters, cut-out photos of trucks, dumptrucks, tractors, a low-loader, a chainsaw and a couple of handwritten lists….of machinery and equipment – “all the things I want to save up for when I’m older.” “I want to get a 10-tonne digger and a littler digger…and a wood chipper. And a winch and a tip-tray.” His lists are specific – the extras for the digger include a rock bucket, a wide bucket, rollover protection, a tandem trailer, a light on cab. Which truck? “Oh, probably a dumptruck.” The Macraes goldmine is not too far away, and that’s one of his choices of job when he grows up: “There’s probably too many to tell you all of them – but logging, working in forestry, umm working at Macraes and gem hunter. And maybe a jet fighter and like a little business….putting pipes in and stuff.” Here’s to your trucking, logging, digger-operating future James. T&D
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NEWS Sir John Kirwan’s working with NRC to promote truckies’ mental wellbeing
Knight comes to the aid of truckie mental health ALL BLACKS GREAT SIR JOHN KIRWAN’S HELP HAS been enlisted by National Road Carriers Association to help ease mental stress among truck drivers. NRC is partnering with Mentemia, co-founded by Sir JK, to make its mental health app available to everyone in the transport industry. “The industry’s health and wellbeing are important to everyone and should be talked about,” says NRC CEO David Aitken. “People in the road freight industry work tirelessly to ensure freight is being delivered on time, and COVID-19 is contributing to an increase in stress and anxiety levels.” NRC member companies operate 16,000 trucks throughout New Zealand and the association is encouraging them to get as many of their staff as possible to download and use the free app. Sir John says the app is packed with evidence-based ideas and tools to help people learn how to be well and stay well: “It helps users deal with the most common stressors we experience in the modern connected world today – poor sleep, anxiety and stress. “These stressors, if left unattended, can significantly impact quality of life at
home and work. Mentemia is the fence at the top of the cliff rather than being the ambulance at the bottom. “With Mentemia, you discover what things can help you feel more energised, more productive, and better equipped for whatever the world throws at you.” Aitken says NRC had been looking for a mental health tool for members when he heard about Mentemia: “Many of the NRC team have used it and embraced the tools available. We checked it out and we really liked what it had to offer.” He said the appalling state of many NZ roads takes a physical and mental toll on truck drivers and, while NRC is campaigning to improve this, meantime driving trucks on those roads “is a major health hazard that makes them ‘unsafe workplaces’ for all drivers that use them. “NRC is very concerned about the mental stress drivers are under trying to keep these heavy vehicles on substandard roads.” Last year truck and trailer rental company TR Group painted a Mack Superliner combination black and emblazoned the message “I am hope” on its bulk bodies – as “an expression of love and support for all of you who have experienced, or are experiencing, mental health struggles, either directly or via someone you love,” says TR Group Auckland general manager Brendan King. T&D
Standout award winner packs a surprise THE BLACK, SILVERY GREY AND RED COLOUR scheme of Auckland cleanfill removal and tipping service, Rock and Rubble, is spectacularly good – PPG Automotive Refinish New Zealand commercial transport manager Mark Brearley already knew that. So good, in fact, that it was voted the livery of the year for 2019/2020 in the PPG Transport Imaging Awards….by Brearley and three other judges. But he was still surprised when he got up close and personal with a Rock and Rubble truck, when he delivered the commemorative awards trophy to company MD Mark Geor. Brearley explains: “One thing I was surprised to learn was that the fleet is much smaller than I thought. “Mark said they had six trucks: I had assumed they had a much larger fleet. The reason for this is because they stand out so much, you’d think there’s more – just because you notice them more than other fleets! “That just shows you how important good fleet imaging is!” T&D
PPG’s Mark Brearley (left) presents the trophy to Rock and Rubble MD Mark Geor
Truck & Driver | 19
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Going the Extra Mile
Going the Extra Mile
NEWS Posing with the first Euro 6 FM off the Brisbane production line are (from left) Volvo Group Australia’s Martin Merrick, Linfox Logistics’ Peter Fox and Federal government minister Scott Buchholz
First Aussie-built Euro 6 Volvos THE FIRST EURO 6 VOLVO FMS BUILT IN AUSTRALIA rolled off Volvo Group Australia’s Brisbane assembly line in September – destined for duty with the giant Linfox Logistics. The tractor units were the first of 100-plus trucks ordered by Linfox, comprising 11-litre and 13-litre models, with horsepower ratings from 343 kilowatts/460 horsepower to 372kW/500hp. Linfox Logistics executive chairman Peter Fox was on hand to mark the occasion, along with VGA president and CEO Martin Merrick and Australian Federal Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport Scott Buchholz. “Here we have three iconic brands working together – Volvo Trucks, Linfox and Australian Made,” said Merrick. “We are working together to drive a safer, cleaner, more productive transport industry here in this country. Manufacturing our products in Australia makes us strong, while buying Australian Made promotes success in our community. “And now we are building our cleanest, safest trucks here in this country.” The Linfox trucks are fitted with a full complement of active and passive safety
equipment as well as meeting the criteria of the stringent Swedish BOF10 crash test. Fox said that “Volvo’s new Australian-made Euro 6 fleet combines local manufacturing expertise with our key commitments at Linfox – to act sustainably and lead in safety and compliance. “Our investment in sustainable vehicles has helped to significantly reduce our emissions over the past several years. Linfox and Volvo share a longstanding commitment to safe, efficient fleets that minimise our impact on the environment and the communities in which we operate.” Buchholz praised the VGA commitment to assembling trucks in Australia: “You’ll hear some people say manufacturing in Australia is dead. “I say you only need to ask the employees here at this Wacol site – who, I might add, are building these trucks of tomorrow – about that. “It is great to see the next generation of Euro 6 vehicles rolling out of the Volvo plant and we look forward to Volvo Group Australia’s continuing investment in heavy vehicle manufacturing in Australia.” T&D
Luke is top Kiwi Isuzu tech CABLEPRICE WELLINGTON technician Luke Heesterman has taken first place in the New Zealand round of Isuzu’s international tech skills contest, the Isuzu I-1 GP. He was one of four technicians from the Wellington branch who entered in the national competition – and claimed four of the top five spots. COVID-19 restrictions meant the competition had to be fought out remotely, at dealerships – under the supervision of service managers. The CablePrice Wellington team competed against seven technicians from CAL Isuzu, Hamilton. A theory exam saw each technician quizzed on 25 general mechanical knowledge questions, to be completed within 75 minutes. In the practical test, each contestant had to troubleshoot two breakdown situations encountered in New Zealand earlier this year. The first was a
diesel particulate diffuser (DPD) fault, the second a faulty component in an electrical system. The technicians had to identify the malfunctioning component, explain the mechanism of the failure and describe how the faulty part affected the operation of other systems in the truck. Heesterman top-scored in the practical section, while CAL Isuzu Hamilton’s Paul Everson was best in the theory exam. CablePrice Wellington branch manager Matthew Dittmer says that the branch has a strong record in the international comp – three technicians having attended the world finals over the past five years (including Heesterman competing in 2017). Now he and Everson will represent NZ in this month’s international final of the I-1 GP e-competition – competing against 86 participants from 43 countries.
They’ll compete at the Isuzu NZ training centre in Auckland – with their performance livestreamed to Japan. T&D
CablePrice’s team in the NZ Isuzu I-1 GP (from left): Marty Leigh, Wengyee Chan, NZ No. 1 Luke Heesterman and Luke Nicholson Truck & Driver | 21
NEWS
Training – the road to success EVEN THOUGH COVID-19 LEAVES us facing “the worst economic headwinds in many people’s lifetime,” Road Transport Forum CEO Nick Leggett believes it is also a moment of opportunity. It is, he reckons, “a good time for businesses to think about their future workforce – and for workers to consider what they really want to do.” It’s also the time for workers “who have always liked the idea of driving a big piece of finelytuned machinery and experiencing the freedom of the road – versus the restrictions of an office or working from home – to give truck driving a go. “School leavers are looking at an uncertain future of work, and many of those who were in work have seen the industries they worked in disappear and their jobs go with it. Those in work also face uncertainty and might be thinking about training and gaining qualifications to secure their place.” An RTF workforce survey during the
COVID-19 full lockdown unsurprisingly saw the global pandemic and/or the resulting economic downturn as the biggest threat to their business. “But the survey also showed 37% of industry operators reported a shortage of drivers. Against a backdrop of about 25% of drivers over 60, it’s estimated that within five years about 20% of our current driving workforce will need to be replaced,” Leggett says. Thus the RTF is launching Te ara ki tua Road to Success, “a truck driving traineeship founded on support and qualifications, that takes a new approach to training and employment in the industry.” It is working with government agencies, the industry training organisation MITO, iwi and labour supply groups. The traineeship will, Leggett says, mesh on-the-job practical training with theoretical components, leading to a range of stackable
Nick Leggett qualifications and employment in the industry: “We aim to provide operators with the support to take on new, inexperienced staff to train – and trainees with a guarantee they will have paid work while they train to gain formal qualifications.” The traineeship will cater for new entrants, career changers and existing personnel – with each part of the programme specifically designed to meet the needs of the employer and employee. T&D
CDS adds engineering boss MOUNT MAUNGANUI TRANSPORT ENGINEERING, service and parts operation, Central Diesel Services, has appointed Nigel Monk its engineering manager. The much-experienced Monk, who originally trained as a mechanical technician, has spent 13 years in truck sales – selling FUSOs for Roadlife Trucks and then Keith Andrews Trucks for five years…. Before selling Mercedes-Benz trucks for eight years with Trucks and Trailers. He is thus is very well-suited for the newly-created role, “with CDS having the service and parts dealership in Tauranga for MercedesBenz, Freightliner and FUSO....along with Detroit and Cummins engines, as well as BPW and JOST transport parts.” Through his truck sales career he has had extensive experience in the trucking industry in the central North Island and in CDS’ home area. After learning his trade working on specialist custombuilt vehicles in Great Britain, Monk went on to manage the manufacturing and sales divisions of the business and has run his own businesses, there and in New Zealand. CDS recently relocated its engineering department to a purposedesigned facility in Mount Maunganui “to meet the increasing demand for transport-related engineering work.” It has large drive-through workshop bays, an overhead gantry and plenty of yard space, with easy access for trucks. CDS says that Monk brings great experience and skills to an alreadystrong engineering team, which includes engineering supervisor Greg Heaslip and Craig Singleton looking after admin, “plus a very experienced group of qualified engineers and trades apprentices.” 22 | Truck & Driver
Monk says he is “very excited about the potential to grow the engineering department….building upon CDS’ strong track record servicing the needs of the transport industry in the Bay of Plenty. “We have a great team, excellent location and facilities, along with the necessary skills and experience to meet the demands of a wide range of engineering work – whether that’s truck and trailer chassis repairs or modifications, new truck fitouts, trailer refurbishment, CoF requirements, damage or accident repair.” The department’s engineers are experienced with steel, aluminium and stainless steel. T&D Nigel Monk
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BIG TEST
Dawn is breaking over a calm sea as the test truck heads south on SH1 towards Shag Point. The unit covers around 2500km a week
Truck & Driver | 27
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Transport operator Chris Carr ran the Super Low in FUSO’s Kiwi pre-launch testing...and liked it so much he bought it
HEN GLOBAL TRUCKING GIANT DAIMLER TOOK OVER the majority ownership of longtime Japanese make FUSO 15 years ago, you could easily have imagined that the longtime brand might soon lose its autonomy….and, thus, its individual identity. That it could soon become a rebadged Merc, without all the fancy bits….with no trace of FUSO DNA. But, on the evidence of the latest Shogun to reach our market, that is emphatically not so. The 8x4 FS2536 Super Low that’s this month’s Giti Big Test subject bristles with a full suite of the same technology as current MercedesBenz models – from its 7.7-litre OM936 Daimler “global” engine and G211-12 automated manual transmission….. Through to a raft of safety and convenience features, including not only EBS and ESC, but more advanced elements like active brake assist, adaptive cruise control, and driver fatigue and lane departure warning systems. And yet this newcomer is still a long way from a rebadged Mercedes Atego or Arocs. Instead, it is the result of an extensive development programme in both Japan and New Zealand that uses full air suspension and 19.5-inch wheels to produce a model that should prove attractive to both low-height and general transport operators. The test truck is run by Carr & Haslam on a loop around the lower South Island servicing the LPG bottle swap business for Vector’s OnGas division. The operator has been very much involved with the development of the model, running two of the units on inter-island linehaul while the design was being evaluated. Carr & Haslam director Chris Carr is very impressed with the way the project was handled: “The development team from FUSO was absolutely thorough with the whole exercise. We had engineers out here from Japan on several occasions, monitoring every aspect. “All up, the process covered around 50,000km of running. And we didn’t just follow our normal schedule – for much of the time we ran to factory-developed journey templates that included a range of road and engine speeds and various loads. “The trucks were fitted with cameras and data loggers and the drivers were surveyed for their comments and feedback on every aspect. FUSO NZ was also involved at every step, and was given a free rein by both Daimler and FUSO in Japan to set the model up for our
market. We were seriously impressed at how the project was handled, and it has definitely delivered a truck that’s ideal for local conditions.” And that’s not mere talk. Despite having no obligation to buy the trucks at the end of the test period, Carr & Haslam bought both. The OM936 is the latest of the Daimler Group’s truck engines to be developed under the company’s Blue Efficiency Power design stream. In common with the 10.7-litre OM470 fitted to the sister FS2540 model, it boasts variable timing for the exhaust camshaft. This is activated by a vane-type hydraulic actuator – the first time such a mechanism has been incorporated in a heavy-duty diesel engine. The primary function of the design is to intermittently elevate the exhaust temperature when the DPF (diesel particulate filter) needs regeneration, achieving this by advancing the valve timing. Daimler says this closed-loop technology makes regeneration of the particulate filter possible under practically any operating conditions and at outdoor temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius, and also significantly extends the intervals for filter replacement. Also shared with the OM470 is the Group’s X-Pulse fuel injection, which uses a common rail for primary delivery. However, unlike more conventional systems, the pressure in the rail is a comparatively modest 900 bar, which is boosted to around 2400 bar by the multiplenozzle injectors themselves, leading to very accurate control over all aspects of combustion. The engine in the test truck is rated at 354 horsepower/260 kilowatts and meets the JP17 standard – an almost exact equivalent to Euro 6. It’s the highest-power variant of the OM936, and achieves this via dual turbochargers. Lesser-powered models use a single turbo. When exhaust flow rates are modest (at low revs, or under light loads), everything is routed through the smaller, high-pressure turbo. Under medium-load conditions the larger, low-pressure unit has a proportion of the exhaust sent through it, while it handles the whole job in the upper rev range. The exhaust standards are met via a combination of SCR and EGR. Even before the aftertreatment systems are brought into play the sophisticated injection protocols ensure that the combustion is remarkably clean. A complex heat exchanger brings the temperature of the EGR gases right down so they can have an optimal effect on combustion temperatures, and so reduce oxides of nitrogen in the exhaust. Truck & Driver | 29
The effectiveness of the new design can be seen in the lower AdBlue dosing rates, which Daimler claims have dropped by nearly half compared with earlier Euro 5 engines – to between 2.0% and 2.5%. Considering that AdBlue’s cost per litre is a measurable proportion of diesel, this will be a definite boost to operators’ bottom lines. Paired with the engine is the third generation of Mercedes-Benz’s intermediate 12-speed AMT, a direct-drive unit that offers a skip-shift function under light loads, as well as crawler and rock-free modes. Handling the Shogun Super Low on its weekly tour of the lower South Island is Steve Davidson, who we catch up with in Timaru preparatory to a crack of dawn start the next morning. Steve started driving relatively late, in his mid-30s. His working life actually began on the water, working on crayfishing boats out of his hometown of Riverton in western Southland. At the time, he says, it was a way to make a steady living, “but not as much any more, sadly.
30 | Truck & Driver
The costs have gone up a lot and it’s much more difficult now.” It was a good life, if a hard one, he recalls. The boats regularly ventured around the Fiordland coast, and the weather conditions in the south Tasman Sea could occasionally get really rough, forcing the boats to run for the shelter of the Sounds. The cool upsides, he says, included being flown by floatplane over spectacular country to Te Anau for spells of R&R. From crayfishing he went into forestry – tree felling and doing a range of skidsite work that included operating skidders, loaders and excavators. This was still in Southland. Then after two or three years he shifted to Christchurch, where he has extended family, and gained his Class 5. This was the signal for Steve to come up against the common Catch 22 conundrum facing someone with a new Class 5. Without experience he could find no job...without a job, he could gain no experience.
Main picture: The ground-hugging nature of the Super Low Shogun is clearly evident. Careful attention to details, like the matching of the top of the body to the aerofoil, contribute even more to the truck’s impressive fuel economy Above, left: Steve Davidson came relatively late to driving, but brings carries great enthusiasm to the job
Above, right: Even empty, gas swap bottle aren’t light. Steve appreciates the low deck height offered by the Shogun’s 19.5-inch wheels and the thoughtful body design
Truck & Driver | 31
Clockwise from top: The cab offers generous space around the driver, and handy minor storage on the centre console….layout is typical of Japanese models, with narrow day bunk and big fluoro interior light…..main instruments are simple and easy to read, though Steve finds the Navman display on the windscreen directly in front very handy for keeping an eye on road speed The impasse was broken when he was picked up by Wilder Transport, starting in an International T-Line and four-axle trailer carting wool bales and, occasionally, containers. This was in the mid-1990s, and Wilders had grown explosively on the back of super-aggressive rate pricing. At the company’s peak, recalls one of its former staff, around four trucks an hour left the Christchurch depot, headed either north or south. The cut-price approach, however, left little over for maintenance. As Steve remembers, slotting into another truck was very much a lottery: “A huge number had ‘mystery’ gearboxes...you never knew what ratio you were going to get until the lever went through. And legend had it that serviceable assemblies like brakes were swapped from truck to truck at CoF time, because they wouldn’t have passed with the gear 32 | Truck & Driver
they were normally fitted with.” Despite the company’s shall-we-say “casual” approach to maintenance, pricing and business in general, Steve says he quite enjoyed his time with Wilders, and was still on the payroll in 2001 when it was shut down by an earlier incarnation of the NZTA for repeated safety violations. Relatively soon afterwards he landed a job with Halls, driving a Volvo FH12 8x4 on metro deliveries. That was followed by a switch to metro meat cartage, delivering out of the Sockburn freezing works. From there Steve progressed to longer-distance work – at first travelling south with a B-train set up for meat, and subsequently handling a Western Star on a Christchurch-Picton grocery goods run. His next shift was to Feilding, where wife Rosemary’s family hailed
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from, and a job with Road Freighters, carting steel out of Wellington, and later beer into Hawke’s Bay from Tui. But that company too folded: “I was beginning to feel I was a jinx!” Steve laughs. So it was on to Fulton Hogan for six years, doing roadside mowing. The jinx still seemed to be holding when Fulton Hogan lost its contract with the local council. But then came salvation when Carr & Haslam advertised for a job delivering swap gas bottles out of Palmerston North. An Australian company had previously been handling nationwide distribution, with OnGas contracted for the filling duties. The Aussies decided to withdraw from Kiwi market, and offered OnGas the local distribution, which it bought, and subsequently appointed Carr & Haslam as delivery contractors. That was 11 years ago. After six years in Palmerston North, Steve was offered an opportunity in Christchurch and he and Rosemary grabbed it – and have been there since. Rosemary also works with Carr & Haslam, and on the day of our test is training a new driver on a metro delivery run. The company currently has two big trucks operating out of Christchurch, with Steve handling the lower part of the South Island and the other unit looking after Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast. Another five cover the North Island. Steve’s standard route follows a roughly anti-clockwise loop. Leaving Christchurch on Monday, he heads through Fairlie, Wanaka and Queenstown to an overnight rest stop in Lumsden. Tuesday is spent covering Te Anau, rural Southland, Invercargill and Gore before Steve heads to an another overnight halt in Dunedin, by which time the truck is generally empty. The next day it’s up SH1 to Christchurch for an unload/reload.
Depending on the timing, he will spend the night in Timaru or Oamaru on the return journey south, before servicing the balance of the Dunedin/Mosgiel sites, then leaving SH1 at Milton to follow the Clutha Valley through Roxburgh, Alexandra and Cromwell. Queenstown has its second visit of the week on Friday morning, before a return to base. The weekly route totals around 2500 kilometres, and at the time of our test the truck has covered over 114,000kms. All the nine kilogram swap bottle filling and refurbishment is now done at the OnGas facility at Papakura, with two dedicated Carr & Haslam linehaul units servicing the Christchurch depot. It’s still fully dark when we leave Timaru just after six on a Thursday morning. NZ Truck & Driver test steerer Hayden Woolston has taken over the driving at Oamaru, and a pearly dawn is breaking over a dead calm sea as we follow the coast towards Shag Point. Ahead lie a couple of the country’s benchmark climbs – the run over the Kilmog and the Dunedin motorway. The FUSO is running close to its 25-tonne maximum GVM. By the standards of H-rated combinations that’s pretty piddly, but with just 7.7 litres up-front it’ll still have do some heavy breathing. Already, it has left us really impressed with the quality of its ride. Air front suspension can sometimes be a little problematic in terms of its effect on steering, or sometimes shunting between the axles on an 8x4, but this setup is a beauty – smoothing out the imperfections of what can be a pretty bumpy highway. In the rolling country south of Oamaru and through Maheno and Herbert, Hayden takes it out of cruise control and leaves the box in normal auto mode. It’s a good opportunity to check the truck’s ability to handle a succession of bends and minor hills. The cab suspension and the front axle airbags introduce a minor
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Top left & above: The 7.7-litre engine is packed with the latest in Daimler Group technology, and combines free-revving power with outstanding economy Left: When you’re in and out of the cab as often as this job demands, the low height is appreciated. The doors open wide, but also offer a useful intermediate stop
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All pictures: Having to share access to the swap bottle cages with the traffic (and pedestrians) at service stations and DIY stores is one of the challenges of Steve’s run. The clearance to overhead canopies is always carefully monitored
initial sway in bends, but it doesn’t affect the steering, which still proves to be accurate and nicely weighted. Starting the Kilmog he again engages cruise control, leaving the system to make its own mind up. Which it does, with a will. Downshifting is triggered early – well before a human driver would make the call. In the steeper sections it’s shifting is back at 1700rpm, the tacho needle bouncing up to 2200rpm. Overall the impression is that it’s busy….but still effective. With the revs consistently in the peak power range, our speed never drops below 43km/h, and we easily haul away from laden combinations. Basically, the whole system is more proactive with the cruise control engaged. But because the ratio shifts, both up and down, are super quick it doesn’t become intrusive. The cruise control really struts its sophistication at the crest of climbs, triggering an upshift as soon as the slope lessens, to ensure the speed does not rise more than 1-2km/h above the set value. A consequence of this rapid intervention via the transmission means that the throttle is not being continuously adjusted up and down, which must have a positive flow-on effect for fuel economy. On the downhill run from the top of the Kilmog to Evansdale and Blueskin Bay, Hayden has the Shogun in eighth gear at 2300rpm and – with the engine brake on its second setting – travelling at a cruisy 53km/h. It has been in ninth at the top of the steepest section, but a tap on the service brake sees a quick ratio drop, to hold the speed. Typically for a Euro truck, the engine brake performs most strongly at a high 2500rpm. For the slog up the Dunedin motorway he puts the AMT into Auto mode and keeps the accelerator away from the kickdown position. Now, the engine lugs back to around 1300rpm before backshifting – quite a departure from the early intervention from the cruise control. However, it also proves responsive to changes in the accelerator position, almost allowing the driver to play with the accelerator to dictate the ratios. As drivetrain systems become more sophisticated, this level of fine control via the right foot is likely to become the norm. The smoothness and quietness of the new powerplant is very impressive. Its specific output of 46hp/litre puts it up with the heavy 36 | Truck & Driver
hitters of the diesel world: If it was a 16-litre, it would be making close to 740hp. Given its under-eight-litre capacity, it’s no surprise to find that it’s a free revver. Peak torque output extends to 1600rpm, and peak power is achieved at 2200rpm. What is surprising though is the fuss-free manner in which it makes these revs...it is so smooth and quiet in the maximum power range that you can easily begin to doubt the accuracy of the tacho… while the 1900-2000rpm at which it typically upshifts feels more like 200rpm lower. Steve is back at the wheel for the Dunedin metro deliveries. There are half a dozen stops – to three BP stations, a Caltex, and Mitre 10 and Bunnings DIY stores. One of the three swap cage sites at Bunnings is quite a challenge, because it’s close to the traffic lanes in and out of the parking area. Steve says that people are generally very good, but once in a while you get a punter with something else on their mind who has no idea that they’re in the way. We agree that it’s a challenge faced by any delivery driver: You’re so much part of the regular background, people tend not to realise the impact they might be having on you. Another challenge in Dunedin is the one-way street system, which calls for a good level of local knowledge and an acceptance that a certain amount of backtracking will be called for. By the time we’ve serviced the Dunedin sites and another couple at Mosgiel, the day’s tally of bottles swapped is up over 120. On a typical day, says Steve, he’ll handle around 200, which is about half a truckload. When you consider that the weight of an empty bottle is around 8kg (and the ones returned are very seldom totally empty), this means he’s humping close to three tonnes for the distance between the truck and the swap cage. And depending on the site that can sometimes be quite a few metres. All of this makes the low chassis height of the new Shoguns critically important...and deeply appreciated by drivers. The test truck goes even further. Integrated runners for the Kingsford Motor Bodies body mean that the deck has been lowered yet further, so that the metal stillage cages for the bottles now sit barely above the top of the small-diameter tyres. The feet of the stillages themselves nestle into metal cross channels whose bottom profiles are gently curved to aid positive location when
Despite the you-beaut kit inherited from its Daimler Group parent, the newcomer is still very much a FUSO, both in exterior style and interior layout loading, without compromising stability. As Steve says, the system is so good that the tiedowns used to secure the stillages are almost redundant. The thoughtfulness of the overall design extends through to the top of the body matching the level of the aero spoiler, for minimum air resistance. This contributes to excellent fuel economy. With around 114,000km up at the time of our test, the truck is averaging 2.8km/l, reports Chris Carr: “And remember, because all that’s being unloaded is the weight of the gas, the difference between a completely full load and a completely empty one is less than four tonnes.” Despite the you-beaut kit inherited from its Daimler Group parent, the newcomer is still very much a FUSO, both in exterior style and interior layout. The big centre console is wide and looms high, making the passenger section feel a bit claustrophobic. On the more spacious driver’s side the console has a useful selection of incidental cup and bottle holders and open storage trays, but when it comes to the lidded bins in the centre they’re quite shallow, so it doesn’t have the capacity that its overall size hints at. Nor is the storage above the big, deep windscreen all that special – limited to a glovebox ahead of the driver. A lowset dashboard top adds to the feeling of space. Upright A-pillars and useful gaps between the upper main mirrors and their asymmetric partners below ensure that blind spots at intersections are minimised. The middle section of the dash is curved back towards the driver – not as far as in some makes, but still enough to put all the controls in that section within very easy reach. That section is dominated by a large multi-display screen, while a vast array of functions are controlled – either primarily or secondarily – by buttons mounted on the steering wheel. As you’d expect given its low ride height, getting in and out of the Shogun Super Low is a breeze. However, the distance between each of the three steps isn’t exactly the same, and the second one is set back more in relation to the other two. The doors have a really positive intermediate hold at around 70 degrees, before opening fully beyond 90 degrees, while well-placed handles both sides of the door openings make the process uberconvenient.
The driver fatigue monitor which is now part of the standard kit is set on top of the dash above the main instrument cluster. By monitoring the driver’s eye movements, such as their blink rate and drooping eyelids, it can infer that tiredness is setting and will sound an alarm. Its location means that if a driver prefers to have the seat well back and the steering wheel quite high, the rim of the wheel will interrupt the direct line between the unit and the eyes. Sitting a little further forward and lowering the multi-adjustable wheel will fix that problem. The other standard safety alarm system monitors unintended lane departures. It is loud and quite annoying, so it’s possible that quite a few drivers might switch it off. Steve says that he finds it easier to monitor the truck’s speed from the Navman display unit in front of him than to keep glancing at the speedo. It’s ideally located, and its GPS-based readout is more accurate than a conventional speedo anyway. The side mirrors are very much in the European style – big and flat and offering a good rearward view. The subsidiary optical unit doesn’t look to be as convex as some others, but it still provides a wide field of view. The driver seat offers a full range of power adjustment. Steve finds that its surface is too firm for his tastes, so he’s adjusted it to be lower than normal and has added a cushion for comfort. At Milton, we leave the main road to follow SH8 inland, joining the Clutha River at Beaumont. Though it doesn’t have any climbs as dramatic as the Kilmog, the road offers plenty of ups and downs to keep the FUSO honest. The OM936 might be an enthusiastic revver, but it can also grunt when needed. On a steep little pitch not far short of Raes Junction, Steve eases over to let traffic past. We drop down to little more than a walking pace in third gear, yet the engine doesn’t feel fussed at all. And this easygoing ability to handle whatever’s thrown at it is the abiding memory of the FUSO after we finish the deliveries at Roxburgh and Steve carries on to Alexandra – leaving the NZ Truck & Driver team to return to Dunedin. The Super Low might do several things in an unexpected manner, but when you look at them closely you’d be hard pressed to find a more effective manner. T&D Truck & Driver | 37
Trevor Test
With 350hp on tap and an all-up weight of 25t, the new Shogun monsters even the steepest climbs. If engaged, the adaptive cruise control keeps the revs quite high at all times
I
T MIGHT NOT LOOK LIKE MUCH OF A TRUCK FOR ONE OF OUR Giti Big Tests: There’s no trailer and it’s only got small wheels…. but that’s the way this truck is meant to look. The FUSO Shogun FS2536 8x4 Super Low is set up for metro work – low horsepower, low height, not too many frills….that’s what makes it work. And what better example of this model to test than this Carr & Haslam unit – used for NZ product development as it worked around the lower South Island, delivering swap gas bottles. It perfectly shows off the model’s versatility in both open country and metro driving.
38 | Truck & Driver
I take over the steering wheel for my test drive in Oamaru, to drive to Dunedin. The climb up into the cab is good, with three well-spaced, wide and deep-enough steps – starting low to the ground, as this is a low height spec truck. The climb is assisted by grabhandles running up both sides of the doors. The driver’s position has an air suspended seat that I notice regular driver Steve has added some extra cushioning to, due to it being too hard for his liking. From the driver’s position the cab layout is simple yet on point – everything is at your fingertips or less than an arm’s reach away. The main dash has revs, speedo, engine temp and AdBlue level
• SPECIFICATIONS • gauges, with a digital display in the centre with various settings. The steering wheel and stalk setup is very similar to a Mercedes-Benz – a sign of the Daimler influence in these new FUSOs. The left side of the wheel has buttons to control the heads-up display settings including adaptive cruise control distances and music. The right-hand side has cruise control on and off and hands-free phone functions. The right-hand stalk controls window wipers, indicators and high beam. The left stalk has drive, neutral and reverse, engine brake and manual shifting controls. The main dash layout is not your full wraparound setup but everything is nicely placed and not looking too busy or confusing. On the left is a seven-inch touchscreen media unit, with Apple CarPlay. The centre console can only be described as boxy, giving the feeling of cocooning the driver, but it does provide plenty of space for driver’s personal bits and pieces. There’s plenty of adjustment in the seat and the steering wheel. But I do have to settle for a position that feels a bit unnatural – in order for the Active Attention Assist monitor to be able to see my eyes…necessary if it’s to do its job and keep an eye on me for any signs of fatigue. If I set up exactly as I’d like, the top of the steering wheel blocks the camera’s view. We did note this in our first test of a new Shogun. As I get rolling through Oamaru I find the mirrors to be great. They’re not in a big shroud and have a good gap between the A-pillars and the mirrors in order to minimise blind spots at intersections and roundabouts. I test the cruise control in a metro environment and it works well, with very quick shifting and on the steep hill heading south out of town it barely drops from my set speed and at the top of the hill the overrun is only a few Ks. Very impressive. I don’t get any opportunity to test the adaptive cruise on this test but I have in other drives in the new Shogun and it works well. Out on the open highway it’s a nice drive. With air suspension on both steer axles, I do find a little side to side sway when the road camber changes, but it is minor: The axle loadings on this setup are as close to even as you could ever want – helping with the ride. It’s a nice quiet truck, with a smooth ride. My final test for the Shogun is the Kilmog hill heading into Dunedin: The 360hp engine and 12-speed auto box have worked well
Hayden Woolston
FUSO FS2536 Super Low 8x4
Engine: Daimler Group OM936 Capacity: 7.7 litres Maximum power: 260kW (354hp) @ 2200rpm Maximum torque: 1400Nm (1934 lb ft) @ 1200-1600rpm Engine revs: 1430rpm @ 90km/h in 12th gear Fuel capacity: 300 litres Transmission: 12-speed G211-12 ShiftPilot Generation 3 AMT Ratios: 1st – 14.93 2nd – 11.67 together up till now and I trust it to continue – keeping it in non eco mode to start with. The AMT is very conservative, taking probably one more gear than I would have in manual. Still, I’m happy with that: It doesn’t like to get caught out like some oldergeneration auto boxes. The lowest/slowest we get to is 40km/h in seventh, at the steepest point of the first climb. The box does seem to like to keep the revs high, with downshifts at 1400rpm and revving out to 2200rpm before upshifting. That sounds high but it really doesn’t sound that way in the cab. On the very steep run down the other side, the three-stage engine brake works very well – revving out to 2500rpm with only light taps on the service brake needed. The engine and gearbox seem to handle all this with ease even when, at the last minute, I try to trick it by putting the AMT into manual mode and letting it lug down to 1100rpm…but, quick enough, it actually takes over and grabs a gear. Before the last drop down into Dunedin I pull over to give Steve his truck back. It’s been a memorable drive – more so than I expected. Seems that these new AMTs can’t be caught out by NZ hills any more. I’m about to hop out and walk around and check the mileage on the Teletrac Navman head unit in the left side of the windscreen when I notice that it has the kilometres displayed down the side – so they’re clearly read from the driver’s seat. Easy. T&D
3rd – 9.02 4th – 7.06 5th – 5.63 6th – 4.40 7th – 3.39 8th – 2.65 9th – 2.05 10th – 1.60 11th – 1.28 12th – 1.00 Front axles: FUSO F700T, combined rating of 21,800kg Rear axles: FUSO D05, combined rating of 17,200kg Auxiliary brakes: Three-stage engine brake Front suspension: Air springs, shock absorbers, stabiliser bars Rear suspension: Eight-bag FUSO air suspension, shock absorbers, stabiliser bars GVW: 25,000kg
Truck & Driver | 39
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! The Provincial Growth Fund has seen $24million of taxpayers’ money allocated to KiwiRail’s tourism projects “TranzAlpine pushing through the fog” by david_gubler is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Pork barrel politics the new normal
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by Nick Leggett Chief Executive Road Transport Forum NZ
EW ZEALAND TRUCK & DRIVER READERS may recall the furore around the approval of nearly $12million of Government money to a ‘green’ school in Taranaki that threatened to envelop the Green Party’s election campaign. As shabby and embarrassing as that was for the Greens and in particular co-leader James Shaw (whose stated policy had been to remove state funding from private schools), it was actually the insight it gave us into how public money is currently being allocated that should be of far greater concern to taxpayers. The $12m green school grant is just one small scheme to acquire Government money as part of the $3bn ‘shovel-
ready’ projects fund, set up in the wake of the initial COVID-19 lockdown. What I find so worrying is that if it wasn’t for the political theatre that went with the green school grant, there would have been little to no attention given to this funding at all. The reality is that the green school is just the tip of a very large iceberg. Billions of dollars of government spending have gone to a list of projects that have undergone no greater scrutiny than being championed by Government ministers, and that should make us all very nervous. I’m naturally sceptical of the value of stimulus programmes at the best of times. In the short-term they can result in a quick fizz to the economy, by putting money Truck & Driver | 41
THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
Collectively we have become extremely complacent over how our Government operates and spends our money into people’s pockets….but the longer-term impact can be extremely distortionary. As well as artificially propping up businesses within industries that are unsustainable without Government support, it disproportionately advantages the already well-off who are in a position to take advantage of free capital. Poorer NZers, who are the ones that will suffer most from an economic downturn, are just left with the negative consequences on their pay packets of increased Government debt and quantitative easing. The green school saga has also highlighted the fact that public money is being spent on the pet projects of ministers and political parties. This used to be called ‘pork-barrel politics’ and was something that was quite a serious accusation against any Government minister or MP. What has also been revealed is the kind of horse-trading that has been going on behind the scenes with these projects. As a representative of an industry with a wish list of state highway projects, road safety and road maintenance initiatives as long as your arm, it is deeply concerning to hear that ministerial scrutiny goes little further than to withhold signoff on hundreds of millions of dollars of spending until their own pet projects are approved. This is the kind of politics that we would normally associate with countries that have far lower expectations of their democracy than ours. So, how did it get this bad? The understandable sense of panic instilled by the economic and social impacts of COVID-19 saw us become quickly enamoured with the idea of economic stimulus. The national conversation was really just around how quickly ministers could get the money out the door and into our pockets and as such, there was very little concern about the lack of scrutiny as to how the money should be distributed. I also think that NZers have become so conditioned to discretionary spending by Shane Jones and other Government ministers through the operation of the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF), that the ‘shovelready’ projects programme was nothing out of the ordinary. Interestingly, Parliament’s financial watchdog, the Auditor-General, earlier this year slammed the PGF for a lack of transparency and a focus on political ‘deliverables,’ yet this news barely created a ripple within the media – and therefore didn’t concern the public at large. The fact is, NZ has accepted this kind of practice as the new normal, and despite the obvious risks from having politicians so intimately involved in individual funding decisions, many of us are perfectly happy to let it continue. NZ Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Jordan Williams summed it up nicely in a recent public statement, saying: “The spectacle of politicians horse-trading individual funding decisions is something we expect to see in smoke-filled rooms of yesteryear, not a modern-day NZ with a reputation of being corruption-free. “The Provincial Growth Find, and now the COVID ‘shovel ready’ fund, are normalising a process of decisionmaking that rewards 42 | Truck & Driver
Acceptance of Shane Jones’ discretionary spending via the Provincial Growth Fund has got Kiwis used to politically motivated funding decisions “Shane Jones 2018 5.jpg” by Stuartyeates is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
companies which are politically connected. It is a dangerous path.” If there is one thing that we should take away from the rather lacklustre 2020 General Election campaign it is that the standards of public scrutiny in this country have changed and we need to consider just how we address that. Collectively we have become extremely complacent over how our Government operates and spends our money. We seem to be more worried about the inconsequential, inane, or personal lives of our politicians than we are in upholding the principles of public accountability and transparency. I believe it is critical that we return to a situation where individual funding decisions are not made by ministers but are instead considered by neutral public officials, using objective and transparent criteria. Perhaps there is even the opportunity to set up a development fund somewhere within Government that could be tasked with administering this kind of discretionary spending? Cabinet could still control the scale and parameters of the funding and work with the Reserve Bank on the monetary policy to support it, but it would be left to officials to ultimately allocate the cash. The National Party dipped their toes into this water with their pre-election policy of a National Infrastructure Bank to look after infrastructure spending. However, true to form, the idea never really resonated with the public. Still, it is the right thing to do and, for that reason alone, I hope it is a policy that parties right across the political spectrum can one day agree to. T&D
THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
Celebrating long s e to our industry T
H E H I S T O R Y O F ROA D transport in New Zealand is one of continuous change and adaptability. W hether it be changing technolog y, changing markets, regulation, deregulation, increased health and safety, or the everevolving state of our roads….over the decades the only real constant has been the dedication of the men and women who make our vast logistics network work. And Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett believes: “Historically we haven’t done enough to acknowledge success and loyalty in our industry – and those who work in road transport are very often humble sort of people who just get on with the job.
“However, the Road Transport Forum and our associations have a set of awards intended to acknowledge long service in our industry and celebrate the experienced men and women who keep our country moving. “We all know just how focused the industry is on bringing through the next generation, but all operators know just how precious it is to have good, experienced drivers and staff who know their customers, know the routes, know how the supply chain works and can pass on their experience to younger colleagues. These awards are intended to recognise that.” The Outstanding Contribution to the Truck Driving Profession Award is for drivers who have driven heavy vehicles for 30, 40 or 50
years of accumulated time in the industry. It doesn’t matter if, as is likely, they have driven for a range of different companies during their career, as this award is to recognise their contribution to the industry as a whole. The second category of award is the Outstanding Contribution to the Road Transport Industry. Personnel who have been working in the road freight transport industry for 30, 40 or 50 years, but not necessarily in driving positions, are eligible for this award. It is intended to cover a broad range of occupations in the industry – for example (but not limited to) warehousing, forklift operating, clerical, management, marketing and health and safety. Says Leggett: “We know a lot of our
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s ervice people are shy at coming for ward or talking about their careers, so if you know a colleague or a friend who is nearing or has just passed a 30, 40 or 50-year career milestone, please get in touch with your employer, the Road Transport Forum, or your local association and we will sort out the certificate and suitable arrangements for a formal presentation.” Employers can make nominations by emailing forum@rtf.nz. Just put ‘Long Service Recognition’ in the subject line, then state the name of the recipient, their length of service to the industry and which award they are being nominated for. ” T&D
Fonterra driver Barry Sumner receiving a 50-year Outstanding Contribution to the Truck Driving Profession Award from former RTF CEO Ken Shirley, in 2016.
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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
Trucking fleets are suffering increased maintenance costs due to the deteriorating standards of our state highway network
Investment in road maintenance critical to economic recovery T
HE ROAD TR ANSPORT FORUM RECENTLY JOINED with the Association of Consultants and Engineers, the Automobile Association, Civil Contractors New Zealand, the Employers and Manufacturers Association and Infrastructure NZ to demand urgent action be taken over the state of our roads and for increased investment in the maintenance of road surfaces. The scale of the problem was starkly illustrated by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s (NZTA) recently published National Pavement Condition Report. Between 2008-‘09 and 2018-‘19, the volume of resurfacing work completed was 33% below NZTA’s own targets for the maintenance of a safe network. Over the same period, the volume of foundation replacement work was a whopping 50% below NZTA targets. Since 2015 the proportion of the road network not meeting the minimum standard for skid resistance has more than doubled to over 500 lane kilometres; the average seal life remaining has reduced by 50%; and four out of five measures of roughness and rutting are worse by an average of 14%.
“Even for those who don’t fully understand the science behind road engineering – and I count myself in that category – these are extremely concerning figures,” says RTF chief executive Nick Leggett. “This isn’t just a numbers game either. I’ve heard stories of truck drivers ending up with all the rims of their wheels dented. Another one took the axle out of a trailer after it hit a pothole in the road and we’ve got people falling off the roads because the skid resistance is going and the surface is uneven. “To hear experienced operators like John Hickman describe roads like State Highway 3, from Waverley to New Plymouth, as ‘a shocker’ really puts things in perspective,” says Leggett. “It’s just the roughness of the ride – the potholes, the digouts,” Hickman told Radio NZ: “You create a judder bar at every repair, if you like. Just affects all the steering joints, tears the shock absorbers off our trailers. You’ve got to see it to believe it.” RTF and its associations are also concerned at the mental stress that driving heavy combination vehicles on substandard roads is having on drivers. It’s not just truckies who are suffering either. Truck & Driver | 47
THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
Investment in road surface improvements are cost-effective and contribute to economic efficiencies and better road safety outcomes for all road users
As the AA’s Mike Noon pointed out: “Our state highways and local roads are becoming more difficult and more dangerous to drive on – anyone driving around the country over the last few years has noticed it. It’s bad news for road safety, it makes for an unpleasant driving experience, and it’s unfair.” All this statistical and anecdotal evidence suggests that NZ roads are fast approaching a crisis point. The good news is that included in the recently released f inal Government Policy Statement on Land Transport 2021, there is a $510million funding increase for state highway maintenance. Says Leggett: “This equates to an additional $100m per year and while it is extremely welcome it is a lot less than the $300m per year that the six organisations are asking for and does not include local roads. “When you consider the state of roads like State Highway 3 from Napier to Taupo and the number of serious accidents that have taken place on it over the last few years, it is difficult to understand how a resurfacing programme did not make the cut for the billions of dollars allocated as part of the COVID-19 recovery. “Unlike many of the ‘shovel-ready’ projects that need to go through drawn-out resource consent processes and await the necessary labour to build them, road resurfacing can begin pretty much straight away. We know that road surface improvement projects also deliver excellent value for money, make a big difference to road safety and deliver benef its to motorists and road users right across the community.” 48 | Truck & Driver
RTF also considers it unfortunate that the Government’s increased funding was expressed alongside statements that moving freight off roads to rail and ships will make roads safer and be better for the environment. “This conveniently f its the political narrative of the anti-road, pro-rail brigade who constantly claim that poor road quality is also the fault of the road transport sector.” Leggett says that the fact is that over the past 10 years NZ has experienced signif icant economic growth, which has led to a corresponding increase in the amount of work done by heavy vehicles. In 2010, there were around 1.6 billion heavy vehicle kilometres travelled, yet by 2020 this had risen to 2.5 billion. In that time NZ also saw the introduction and uptake of HPMVs. It is also implied that trucks don’t pay their way, yet road user charges (RUCs) are calculated based on weight and the impact the vehicle has on road wear. Most operators will be well aware that as recently as July, RUCs were increased by around 5%. “It must also be noted that billions of dollars are being taken from the National Land Transport Fund that comes from the pockets of road users, including those who pay RUCs, to support rail and other transport modes,” says Leggett. “With an economy on its knees due to COVID-19, I just do not see how it makes sense to use money taxed from a sector that is responsible for around 93% of the freight task to attempt to artif icially re-engineer the transport system based on a simplistic ideology that rail and shipping are preferable to the road.
THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
“RTF’s view is that the only way we are going to turn that around is to invest in the things that facilitate future economic growth and make the waka go faster. “Further increasing the budget for road surface rehabilitation and prioritising road maintenance as a ‘shovel ready’ project would be a good place to start,” says Leggett. “The whole concept f lies in the face of economic reality at a critical time for the NZ economy. Using market manipulation, it attempts to engineer out choices for businesses that need to move freight as cheaply and efficiently as possible in order to survive in a highly competitive global market. “Now, more than ever, we need to be playing to our strengths. The market has long-since decided that the road is by far the best mode for transporting goods: Road transport offers door-to-door delivery, even in the remotest parts of the country; is more resilient in weather events and natural disasters; and is reliable and f lexible for time-sensitive and perishable products. “Trucking operators up and down the country will tell you that NZ has a looming crisis on our hands with the state of our roads. These roads are the arteries of our economy – an economy that is currently hooked up to the life support machine of government stimulus and debt. “RTF ’s view is that the only way we are going to turn that around is to invest in the things that facilitate future economic growth and make the waka go faster. “Further increasing the budget for road surface rehabilitation and prioritising road maintenance as a ‘shovel ready’ project would be a good place to start,” says Leggett. T&D
Road Transport Forum was established in 1997 to represent the combined interests of all members as a single organisation at a national level. Members of Road Transport Forum’s regionally focused member associations are automatically affiliated to the Forum.
Road Transport Forum NZ PO Box 1778, Wellington 04 472 3877 forum@rtf.nz www.rtfnz.co.nz Nick Leggett, Chief Executive 04 472 3877 021 248 2175 nick@rtf.nz National Road Carriers (NRC) PO Box 12-100, Penrose, Auckland 0800 686 777 09 622 2529 (Fax) enquiries@natroad.nz www.natroad.co.nz David Aitken, Chief Executive 09 636 2951 021 771 911 david.aitken@natroad.nz Paula Rogers, Commercial Transport Specialist 09 636 2957 021 771 951 paula.rogers@natroad.nz Jason Heather, Commercial Transport Specialist 09 636 2950 021 771 946 jason.heather@natroad.nz Richie Arber, Commercial Transport Specialist 021 193 3555 richie.arber@natroad.nz Road Transport Association of NZ (RTANZ) National Office, PO Box 7392, Christchurch 8240 0800 367 782 03 366 9853 (Fax) admin@rtanz.co.nz www.rtanz.co.nz Simon Carson, Chief Operating Officer scarson@rtanz.co.nz Area Executives Northland/Auckland/Waikato/ Thames-Coromandel/Bay of Plenty/ North Taupo/King Country Scott Asplet 0800 367 782 (Option 2) 027 445 5785 sasplet@rtanz.co.nz
South Taupo/Turangi/Gisborne/ Taranaki/Manawatu/Horowhenua/ Wellington Sandy Walker 0800 367 782 (Option 3) 027 485 6038 swalker@rtanz.co.nz Northern West Coast/Nelson/ Marlborough/North Canterbury John Bond 0800 367 782 (Option 4) 027 444 8136 jbond@rtanz.co.nz Southern West Coast/Christchurch/ Mid-Canterbury/South Canterbury Simon Carson 0800 367 782 (Option 5) 027 556 6099 scarson@rtanz.co.nz Otago/Southland Alan Cooper 0800 367 782 (Option 6) 027 315 5895 acooper@rtanz.co.nz NZ Trucking Association (NZTA) PO Box 16905, Hornby, Christchurch 8441 0800 338 338 03 349 0135 (Fax) info@nztruckingassn.co.nz www.nztruckingassn.co.nz David Boyce, Chief Executive 03 344 6257 021 754 137 dave.boyce@nztruckingassn.co.nz Carol McGeady, Executive Officer 03 349 8070 021 252 7252 carol.mcgeady@nztruckingassn.co.nz Women in Road Transport (WiRT) www.rtfnz.co.nz/ womeninroadtransport wirtnz@gmail.com
Truck & Driver | 49
e Munro Story Dave McLeod & Wayn & Northern Rural Haulage Photos Gerald Shacklock
The latest truck on the fleet – one of three DAF CF85s – goes about its business at Parakao, about 40 kilometres west of Whangarei
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Truck & Driver | 51
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Oldtimer Foden S108 is 24 years old, but is only used occasionally these days, primarily in front of a low-loader FTER 30 YEARS SPENT WORKING FOR NORTHLAND’S flagship trucking company, United Carriers – looking after its loyal local customers – Doug Wilson hated it when big, Aussie-based corporate Toll took over. He’d happily worked his way up from tyre fitter to dispatching and managing some divisions of the 220-strong fleet by the time the Toll Group bought the 65-year-old company outright, in 2008. He tried to adapt to working under the new corporate regime, but sums up: “When Toll took over I thought ‘nah – not for me.’ Toll were only interested in big customers and none of the small ones.” Within a year he quit – and established Northern Rural Haulage. It was a company founded on the basis of looking after the locals. Even better than that – it would be run by a local, who knew the Northland farming community, understood the way they liked to do business.….already knew what their transport needs were. It was, he says, “a gamble.” He was 50 years old, with heaps of trucking experience, plenty of contacts…plus four Toll ownerdrivers and one member of the admin staff who were just as disgruntled as he was: “They came with me.” He didn’t even actually own a truck of his own. But this was a bloke who’d grown up in a trucking family. His Dad had owned John Wilson Livestock, based in Kokopu, about 20 kilometres west of Whangarei. John had started the business with one truck back in 1960. He ran Commers, Bedfords and Dodges – up to five of them, each convertible units…carting wool, hay and metal as dropside flatdecks, then putting on crates to cart sheep and cattle. Doug and brother Don both followed in their Dad’s footsteps – Don now the co-owner and MD of Pukekohe-based OnRoad Transport and chairman of the National Road Carriers Association. Funnily enough though, Doug didn’t join his Dad’s business
when he left school at 15, as he recounts: “School and I didn’t get on, so I left as soon as I could – and started work for a company called Reidrubber Tyres. It’s now Beaurepaires/Carters.” He only worked there for about 18 months before joining United Carriers – the big trucking company that had been formed by a group of Northland transport operators 12 or 13 years earlier – as its in-house tyre fitter. He stayed in that role for almost two years – until he turned 18 and got his heavy traffic licence: “Then I started driving a town van for the company – started at the bottom….where everybody should start! “I drove that for a short period of time and then went on to working livestock, still at United. I did about 10 years on that – driving a whole heap of different trucks, from an old Mercedes and a G88 Volvo, to an F10 Volvo and a Mack.” Younger brother Don worked at United as well – “although we were never doing the same thing at the same time.” Doug had been working for the company for about 12 years when he was given the opportunity to become a United ownerdriver – with one truck delivering gas bottles around Whangarei for NZIG (now BOC). He jumped at the chance, he and then-wife Leanne buying a secondhand Ford D1000: “It was a good run that included a load a week to both Kaikohe and Dargaville. I did that for around a decade.” After a few years he was given the chance to add a second truck, a Mitsubishi, running to and from Auckland, taking empty bottles south and bringing full ones back north. That lasted 10 years, until BOC decided to do its own transport work. Doug sold the trucks and moved back onto driving for wages, doing bulk tipper work for United, mostly carting metal and fertiliser. Truck & Driver | 53
All pictures, clockwise from below: A DAF delivers a load of palm kernel – one of the main products carted by NRH....Doug’s father John Wilson started a rural trucking business at Kokopu, near Whangarei, in 1960....a John Wilson Livestock Commer in 1970.... Kyle Wilson has been working for his Dad for the past nine years
He’s philosophical about this change in fortunes: “Oh well, that’s what happens. It was probably a good time for a change.” He drove United tippers for six or seven years before going into the office: “I can’t remember if I wanted to do it or was told,” he reckons with a laugh. At first he was just dispatching trucks in the division then, very soon, moved into the management side of things as well – thus ending up doing a mix of both roles. He worked on with United through a 2003 management buyout, which saw managing director Ajit Balasingham, financial controller John Dykzeul and two of the group of partners who had owned the company for 40 years buy the company outright…with backing from ANZ Private Equity. “They kept on throwing more and more departments at me.” It got to the point where he was managing two or three divisions running about 40 trucks. That included all the tippers, the bulk wood chip fleet and the refrigerated trucks that serviced McDonalds fast food outlets: “I was probably managing around 60 people with all the drivers and admin.” But in 2008 a big change came for Northland’s flagship trucking company: Hard on the heels of selling TranzRail back to the NZ Government for $665million, the Toll Group (then
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Aussie owned, but now under Japanese ownership), bought the entire United business. It turned out that Toll’s way of doing business wasn’t Doug’s idea of how things should be done – particularly when it came to how some of his valued clients were treated. “In New Zealand and in this job here (Northern Rural Haulage), you might have a customer that only uses you three or four times a year – for fertiliser and a bit of metal. “With Toll, if you didn’t use the account every month, it was closed! You were considered not a customer! They weren’t interested at all in our small customer business. “It was seven day invoicing and seven day payment too. It didn’t work: Farmers don’t sit down and pay their bills every seven days – they pay around about the 20th. And if it’s fine and they’re out making hay or putting fertiliser on, they’re not worried about the date. They’ll pay you on the 23rd….when it’s raining. But Toll just didn’t want any of that.” Doug says that the only way he could keep his customers going was to have his own admin staff control invoicing for his department. “We were running two admin systems. All the businesses I managed for Toll were all on United’s old system and
managed by my admin team. We did our own monthly invoicing and I chased the debt if they didn’t pay.” Doug reckons that although it was a fractured way of doing things, it did get him through about 12 months under the new Aussie owners. “They were putting more and more pressure on me from above to change everything to their system. “But it wasn’t just that – I just couldn’t stay at Toll any longer: All the corporate bullshit, meetings after meetings. I’d spend four hours going to and from Auckland for a 10-minute meeting.” He resolved that if Toll wasn’t going to look after the locals, he would….or he’d give it a good go, at least. He leased a small yard in central Whangarei and, almost immediately, the phone began to ring. Doug’s job was to manage the business and dispatch the four O/D trucks: “We were supplying farms and the construction industry with the materials they needed – exactly when they needed it.” Many of the customers he’d dealt with at Toll followed him to Northern Rural Haulage, he says –
“some virtually the next day and others took a week or two.” He reckons that his longstanding working relationship with them was one of the reasons they moved. “There’s a sense of loyalty – I’d dealt with them all in my previous role. But some of it is farmers supporting the local man rather than a faceless international business too.” He adds with a laugh: “It was only a matter of them finding my phone number.” From day one (and it’s still the case today) NRH focused on bulk cartage, plus a bit of transporter work. Mostly it was carting metal, soil, fertiliser and stock feed. Most of the customers were farmers, but there were a few builders, drainlayers and the like thrown in for good measure. Most importantly, they were almost all smaller local businesses that Doug could work with. As he says: “Even now, on the whole we don’t get involved with big corporates – 99.9% of it (NRH’s work) is farmers, plus a few builders and drainlayers, Mostly fertiliser, metal, soil and palm kernel. “One of our bigger companies – and we’ve had them since day one – is Greenfingers Growing Mixes & Landscape Supplies. They didn’t want to stay with Toll because they didn’t know who was going to run it.” Greenfingers Whangarei managing director and
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Top: NRH’s 2005 Nissan Diesel and the Foden, on silage duty
Above: In the late 1980s, Doug became an O/D with United, delivering gas bottles for NZIG. This Mitsubishi was his second truck, joining his original Ford D1000 owner Murray Cole concurs: “It’s a local family business – they’re just down the road and give us good service. “I’d known Doug through Toll and whatnot and at that time (2009) we were starting to take a lot more product to Auckland. It was quite hard-case actually, because sometimes we would have to ring 10 different trucking companies to try and find enough bulk trucks and trailers up here to backload products to Auckland! “We’d spend pretty much all day on the phone, but when Doug came on the scene we made one phone call to him and it was sorted. And if he couldn’t do it – if he was stretched let’s say – he’d find someone that could. He’s a one-stop-shop.” Within two years of its startup NRH quickly evolved. For various reasons, says Doug – including retirement and career changes – the four owner-drivers moved on…so Doug began the process of building his own fleet of trucks. 56 | Truck & Driver
It happened, he says, “mainly because I couldn’t find any suitable owner-drivers at the time...” Thus he bought his own trucks – the first of them a secondhand 460-horsepower Hino 700 sold to him by one of the original owner-drivers: “It’s still part of the fleet and it was the truck that my son Kyle started with us on.” Kyle, now 30, reckons with a laugh that with two grandfathers and a Dad in the industry, becoming a truck driver was almost pre-ordained for him: “I had no option. I was always gonna be a truckie – I had no chance of being a doctor!” When Doug was an O/D with United, Kyle remembers “being excited about the truck coming home – so I could get in the back and sleep in it. And I used to get pretty upset if I couldn’t go with him – go for a ride.” Kyle was mostly home-schooled by his Mum: “I’m dyslexic and
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Top: Another load of palm kernel gets loaded
Right: Doug drove this Volvo F10 from new for United. He reckons it was the first factory-built Volvo twin-steer in the country Above: Doug at his desk
wasn’t doing very well at school, so Mum decided to sort that out her way – put me through proper schooling for dyslexic people.” His Mum Sue, who Doug married in 1989, is the daughter of Murray Darroch, one of the original owners of United Carriers. And being home-schooled carried a big bonus for Kyle – “that I spent a lot of time with my Gramps (Murray) too, who had a dairy farm. And he had a farm truck and machinery and all that sort of stuff. And he used to let me drive a few different things...where I did do some damage!” There was also an occasional opportunity to “tootoo around” on trucks on a neighbour’s farm and on Doug’s truck, around home. Kyle got his first official fulltime job at 15, joining a roadworks crew as a lollipop sign guy – a job he held down for a couple of years. At 18 he got his first truckie job – driving an Isuzu 6x4 tanker for the Bog Doc, emptying sewage tanks all around Northland. Never mind any jokes about it being a “shit” job: Kyle had made it behind the wheel and he was happy, staying with the job for a couple of years. He says, in fact, “it was actually an awesome job. Steve and Karla Tyler-Whiteman (the owners) were very great people to work
for. They gave me the chance to get my trailer licence and helped me through it.” After a six-month stint driving a digger in the forest, he did a couple of “awesome” years on a transporter with Northland’s Tracta Tranz, with a 460 Isuzu and a three-axle low-loader: “That was primo – and two very good bosses too.” Then he did a year driving a Kenworth K104 doing linehaul nationwide with Freight Lines. Then, when Doug bought his first truck in 2011, Kyle joined NRH to drive the Hino, bought from one of the four original ownerdrivers. It sounds logical, straightforward….but it only happened, says Kyle, “because I got pretty upset when Dad offered the job to someone else. So yeah, we had a chat and he gave me the job.” He explains that, “when I was younger, I’d always had the idea of growing up and driving for my Uncle Don….but Mum said ‘you’re never, ever going to work for family! It doesn’t work.’ It’s hard-case ‘cos I ended up working here!” Ask Doug about his reluctance and he says simply that “ah well, there’s always that concern isn’t there” (that family working together doesn’t work out well). Truck & Driver | 59
Clockwise, from top left: Mack CH was another of Doug’s drives at United....Hino, still in United colours, was one of the original four O/D trucks that NRH started with. It was later bought by Doug and is still in the company....Kyle Wilson has now moved into the office to help run the 15-truck fleet....Kyle’s Kenworth K100E and the Hino run by the only current NRH ownerdriver.....year-old DAF delivers a load of fert
But, he confirms: “Yip, yip – it’s worked out good.” Kyle stayed fulltime on the Hino for about four years, then switched to becoming more of a floater driver – filling-in as needed for other drivers, the O/Ds and his favourite, the 1987 K100E Kenworth that’s the oldest truck in the fleet. He also began doing bit of “helping out in the office when I could and a bit of workshop maintenance on the weekends.” In the nine years since Doug bought the Hino, the companyowned fleet has gradually grown…and grown. In 2013 NRH moved to new premises – Semco Transport’s old yard in Maungakaramea Rd, Otaika. Staff numbers have grown to 12 fulltimers plus one owner-driver – and the fleet is now out to 15 trucks….all bulk tippers or dropside flatdeck tippers, except for one dedicated transporter unit. It’s a real assorted lineup of makes, models and vintages – ranging from Kyle’s Kenworth and a 1996 Foden S108, to 2019 and 2020 DAF CF85s. There’s also another DAF, three 700 Series Hinos, an older Hino, a 2005 Nissan Diesel CG400, an older CW 380, one Isuzu, a Western Star, a 2014 Freightliner Columbia and a Nissan Condor four-wheeler. Plus a 13-tonne Kato digger. It is, Kyle admits, quite an unusual range of brands – primarily because most of the trucks were bought secondhand, as needed. “All the new gear we’ve bought has been DAF – but we have no idea what the next truck is going to be. DAF has changed models –
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the new ones are slightly heavier than the old ones.” It’s not a problem that has to be resolved just yet: “The last new truck we bought is only four months old so we won’t be looking until next year anyway.” The company colour scheme has been a little bit of a mixture, like the trucks themselves. Initially, Doug explains, they were simply white “because white is easy: Most of the trucks come out white. The green signwriting was always my idea, because farmers and green go together. “It’s only with the later models that we’ve started to put the green stripe on (as well).” Kyle explains that the secondhand trucks came in all sorts of colour schemes: “But once we started painting them (white) I said ‘why don’t we put a green stripe down them.’ So that’s where we are right now.” The fleet’s repairs and maintenance are handled by Commercial Diesel in Whangarei. As Kyle sums up: “They do all our servicing, CoFs, breakdowns, everything – it’s a one stop shop.” The basis of the business is, as it always has been, to specialise in carting for rural customers, offering “a reliable pickup and delivery service – transporting essential supplies,” says Doug. “Our customers count on us to be there when we say we will, and we pride ourselves on quick service.” From the outside, it might appear that NRH has sailed along –
untroubled as it grew its fleet to meet increasing demand from Northland farmers. But it actually hasn’t all been plain sailing for the business – and one of the main reasons for that is finding enough good drivers. The “old girl” Foden transporter, for instance, barely gets used these days, because Kyle’s too busy and there isn’t anyone else to drive it. Doug confirms: “Drivers have been the biggest obstacle over the years. My office girl, Nicky, has been with me for the past nine years – so not a problem. In fact, she’s been amazing and handles everything – really helps the company run. “But good drivers are hard to find. But we have got a good team right now.” Kyle says that “putting newer gear on helps” – plus “we pay reasonably well and our working environment is good: We throw a monthly breakfast meeting and do an annual fishing trip.” Most of the drivers on the current strength are locals, he says, and have come via personal referrals – although adverts do help. He explains: “We get new drivers by word of mouth and Trade Me. Nine times out of 10, we’ll put a job up on Trade Me and one of my mates will know someone – so we employ them outside of Trade Me, but that’s where they get to know we’re hiring.” When all else fails, Doug and Kyle have a close business relationship with Doug’s brother Don (who has one tipper on his
otherwise livestock fleet) and have called on him from time to time, when an extra truck has been needed. In a new phase for the company, Kyle has just recently moved into the office fulltime. The biggest challenge in that role, he reckons, is staying on top of compliance, with so many rules and regulations “that change so often.” Between him and Nicky, he says, they get it covered. The business is run by way of a mixture of modern means and old-school ways: They run the EROAD electronic distance and RUC management system and rate it highly and use MYOB for the accounts….but the dispatching is currently paper-based, “thanks to Doug,” Kyle reckons. But they are considering the electronic MyTrucking system. On bringing Kyle into the office, Doug says that with 15 trucks to look after, “it’s all too busy for me to handle everything.” Kyle reckons, laughing, that he needed to get involved in the running of the place because “Dad’s getting too old!” But seriously, he concedes: “Nah, the company’s getting a bit bigger now – it’s getting a little bit hard for one person to try and look after.” Just as Doug did at United, Kyle is starting out focusing on the dispatching, while Doug is still doing the pricing “and bits and pieces” – and handling the customer side of things. Says Kyle appreciatively: “It’s good doing it with him here, so he
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Clockwise, from right: Doug back in 2007, during his time in a management role at United Carriers.....company trucks head away from the Ravensdown fert store at Mata....Nissan Diesel dropside tipper totes a load of silage bales....Freightliner Columbia getting loaded with barley at Pukekohe, for a Kaitaia customer...an 18-year-old Kyle with the Isuzu sewage tanker that was his first fulltime drive....mother and daughter admin team Sheila Collins (left) and Nicky Currey. Nicky has worked for the company for nine years
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can help me. Every other time (he’s filled-in, in the office) I’ve just been in the shit for two weeks – waiting for him to come back off holiday! “What makes the dispatching tricky for me is that there’s two sides to the business: We’ve got our metal trucks…. and the palm kernel (bulk) trucks. “It’s sort of two separate things, but sometimes you’ve got to work them in together. The metal trucks may be flat-out busy, so you’ll have to use a palm kernel truck to move some metal – or vice versa.” Doug reckons though that having Kyle in this new role is the ideal way forward for NRH: “Kyle has been out meeting most of the customers during the past nine years anyway – so it’s not like having an outside dispatcher coming in that nobody knows. When the customers call, they know each other.” So essentially, it now comes down to Kyle taking up the reins and doing more, while Doug eases back a little, as he points out: “I come to work at 8am rather than six. I don’t set the alarm now.” But, says Kyle: “He’s still the arse kicker and is still doing the pricing. But, over the next few months, he’ll train me up to do the pricing side of things too.” Longtime NRH customer Murray Cole, boss of Greenfingers, reckons the father/son management is a good move: “Kyle’s stepping up to the mark. He’s taking over a lot more of it now. It’s a good thing.” He says that the company’s looking after the locals mantra is
even stronger now than when NRH started: “That localised persona is even better now that they’ve grown. They’ve got more units, more trucks and trailers to call on when we’re under the pump and need a lot of product moved.” Geographically Northern Rural Haulage trucks now regularly range all over Northland and as far south as the central Waikato and Tauranga – often carting maize out of the Waikato to the far North and running at least a load a day to Auckland for Greenfingers. According to Doug: “The growth has come from word of mouth – and from when we first started there’s a lot more stock feed being moved around. We probably open three or four new accounts a month for farmers and I haven’t gone and chased any of them.” It seems absolutely clear that Doug’s belief that locals looking after locals is best has found many who agree. As he says: “Look at Toll now – they’ve got nothing left. About two trucks a day come up from Auckland, I think. “All the old United business has gone from Toll – the work is now spread among a variety of Northland carriers. Stan Semenoff took over most of the logging and all the livestock – and most of the tipper work is with us here.” He’s clearly proud of what the company has achieved: “In 11 years we’ve grown quite a bit really – from nothing, to what we’ve got now fleet-wise….it really is something.” And Kyle’s vision of the future is for more of the same: “Well, he’s my father and he’s never run on a plan – we’ve just moved with the flow. Taking care of the locals is what we do best.” T&D
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LEGENDS
A long haul to farming
Main: Philip the farmer Insert: Bedfords were the workhorses for the first few years of the spraying business.
- BRIAN COWAN
P
HILIP WAREING SEES HIMSELF AS ALMOST AN accidental transport operator. He says it was just a stepping stone towards his primary goal of becoming a farmer, something he achieved around 30 years into his working life – but in the meantime that intermediate step has morphed into a significant player in the industry in Canterbury. The Philip Wareing Ltd group now comprises five whollyowned subsidiaries – the original PWL, based in the mid-Canterbury town of Methven, Wilson Bulk Transport in Tinwald, Rural Transport, which has headquarters in nearby Ashburton and branches in Fairlie, Kurow and Waimate, Greymouth’s Trans West Freighters, and container handling specialist NZ Express, which operates out of Christchurch. The group’s activities cover all aspects of road transport – bulk, logging, containers, stock and freight as well as fertiliser spreading and horticulture cartage. Three cool stores handle an average of 12,000t of seed potatoes every year. The ‘farmer’ goal was reached in 1997, when the Wareing family bought the 9000 hectare Mt Arrowsmith station, tucked between the Arrowsmith Range and Lake Heron beyond the Ashburton River gorge. At the time it supported 6000 stock units. This has more than doubled since. The farm runs merino sheep, Angus cattle and red deer. A previous shearers’ quarters has been expanded and redeveloped into a self-catering lodge, giving guests access to the mountain biking, walking, fishing and 4wd opportunities of the stunningly beautiful area. In 1999 another high country station, Big Ben, joined Mt Arrowsmith in the Wareing portfolio. However, it has since been sold. As Philip puts it: “Two high country stations and two droughts was one too many of each, so we sold Big Ben.” Covid-19 has put a dent in the farming operation’s profit, he adds: “Two years ago we were getting $35 a kg for the merino wool, whereas
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now it would probably be down as far as $13-14. In the world garment trade, everything high end has been affected for the time being.” That hasn’t dimmed his enthusiasm for the high country: “The farm takes up as much time as I can give it. Any excuse, and I’m up there like a shot. However, I’m not full-time at it, we have permanent staff running it on a day-to-day basis.” Given his love of farming, it comes as some surprise to find he wasn’t actually brought up on the land: “My father was the truck, tractor and car salesman for the Ford dealer in Rangiora, but through his contacts with local farmers I was able to get school holiday work with some of them and found I absolutely loved it. I knew it was what I wanted to do, and everything since has been aimed at that.” Philip had toyed with attempting an agriculture degree at Lincoln College, but decided against it. As he explains: “A lot of my mates had gone there who were brighter than me, and were failing, so I figured I would struggle as well. So I joined Pyne Gould Guinness and in time became a grain agent, operating for some years from Rakaia and in 1974 moving to Methven with my wife Wendy. However, it was not a matter a settling back into a safe career. He was always on the lookout for an opportunity, and one soon presented itself in the form of a small agricultural spraying business that was for sale locally. The business was based on a single truck, a Bedford J1, and Philip ran it alone (“Working daylight to dark every day,” he recalls) for a couple of years before buying another truck and employing a local man, Paul Connell, who had been working in an engineering shop but was looking for something different. Forty-three years on, Paul is still with Wareings, and still an integral member of the team. The next acquisition – a lime spreading business – was not long after,
Five trucking fleets make up the Wareing Group in 1981...with some prompting from the vendor. Four trucks, a Dodge, a Commer and a couple of J1 Bedfords came with the deal. Meanwhile, the original J1s from the spraying business had been replaced by a pair of new ones, but with their factory six-cylinder engines swapped for Holden 308 V8s by Smallbone Motors in Ashburton. “The V8s slotted in perfectly with very little modification,” recalls Philip. “We called them the fastest Bedfords in the West!” Grunty V8s were very much the vehicle of choice for a while, with the spraying fleet having been upgraded to Ford F250s. That came to an abrupt end with spiralling fuel costs, he says: “I remember we had a job quite a distance away, on a farm down near the coast. One day we used one of the petrol F250s, and the next day a little Isuzu diesel that had been added to the fleet. The difference in fuel costs was around $100!” During those early years Philip became friendly with, and was guided by, Tinwald transport operator Trevor Wilson. Wilson died of cancer in 1991, but had expressed a wish that his company carry on as a charitable trust. One was set up with Philip as chairman. Over the years the trust has disbursed $6 million to Presbyterian Support and St John’s Ambulance, Wilson’s nominated charities. In 2018 Wareings bought the operational assets of Wilson Bulk Transport, with the trust still owning the buildings. Wareings was a founding shareholder in Rural Transport, set up in 2004 after Owens closed its rural transport arm, and has subsequently bought out the other partners. NZ Express and Trans West were bought in 2006 and 2011 respectively. Since arriving in Methven 46 years ago, the Wareings have worked tirelessly for the community. Philip was chairman of the community board for two terms, and was awarded membership of the NZ Order of Merit for his services to the town.
He has also been active for many years in trucking association affairs, and was chairman of the Ashburton branch of the RTA Region 4 until it was amalgamated with Christchurch. Though showing little signs of easing up on a multitude of business and farming interests, he has happily turned over executive control of the company to a new generation. Elder son Mark is general manager of Rural, his brother Simon manages Wareing’s Transport, while their sister Rachel is Group HR manager. Philip sees tight labour as the ongoing challenge facing the transport industry, but is still confident of its future: “I think it’s the same as it has always been, you sit around and have a few beers with your competitors, but the next day you’re out battling for the work that’s on offer. And that’s not such a bad thing.” Looking back, he has only a couple of (quite mild) regrets: “I always wanted to be an All Black, (I played on the wing for Canterbury Country through the age grades) and to learn to fly, but didn’t make either.” T&D Philip still doesn’t need a computer at his desk
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The cheery, helpful Brian Lineham is working on – 18 months after being told he had terminal cancer....and only had six months to two years to live
Story: Wayne Munro Photos: Gerald Shacklock & Brian Lineham
Cheery towie is drug trial “superman”
M
EET AUCKLAND TOWTRUCK DRIVER BRIAN LINEHAM ON the job and you’d never know. Wouldn’t have a clue that this cheery, helpful bloke is happily holding down his job fulltime….while undergoing cancer treatment. No idea that the 59-year-old has heard the chilling words advising that, unfortunately, his liver cancer was terminal – and that he had six months to two years to live.
That, by the way, was 18 months ago. So how come? What the **** is he doing, still driving? Okay, there are two answers to that. The first is simply because, when it comes to driving towtrucks, as he sums up: “I love it.” He’s just as happy now, at the wheel of a SuperCity Towing Mitsubishi Canter, as he was back in 1978, when he first became a towie – driving his own J1 Bedford. The second answer is a wonderful thing – nothing short of
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Above: Brian built the deck and ramps for this 400 small-block Chev-engined TK Bedford towtruck Opposite page: Brian has been behind the wheel of a towtruck for the best part of four decades
miraculous: Brian was lucky enough, just two days after his chilling terminal cancer prognosis, to be taken into a trial of new cancer drugs. And the drug cocktail he’s been on since March last year – a mix of established chemotherapy drugs and new drugs under trial – appears to be working. Remarkably well, in fact. So well that the cancer tumours scattered through his liver are shrinking, he says. Sitting with wife Debbie at home in Glen Eden, Brian sums up the positive results: “Basically, it was right from the word go wasn’t it Debbie? They were quite amazed at it. The first week it was treatment, scan, treatment, scan, treatment, scan. And by the time that they did the third scan, they were seeing a noticeable reduction in them.” Brian and Deb could scarcely believe it – and they weren’t alone, he reckons: “The nurses, the doctors were all amazed and said ‘that’s incredible!’ Especially that soon in.” When he became a patient at the Auckland Cancer Trials Centre (ACTC) – a place that at the very least offers some hope for terminal cancer patients – the tumours were around 32 millimetres in size… and there were lots of them. “They said ‘it’s like someone had put a shotgun in there and gone bam!’ – and the pellets had just gone in all directions. That’s why they couldn’t operate.” He clearly gets a kick out of telling a story about recently going for a scan of his liver – a regular means of keeping tabs on the effects of the trial: Some of the tumours that used to be “really clearly defined”
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– so much so that each one was numbered – were “just a shadow…” Down to around 12mm. Others had apparently disappeared! Working off an earlier scan, the doctor had selected which tumours he was going to take biopsies of….but he seemed to be slightly bewildered. Brian recounts what happened: “I said, ‘What’s the matter?’ He says: ‘I can’t find the tumour…’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s a good sign.’ And he says, ‘well, bad for me – but good for you!’ “Then he’s looking at it again, and says: ‘Well, it should be there… it should be there…. It’s not there! So okay, we’ll go for this one.’ So he went and got another one. Then of course, they put me through for another scan – and, sure enough, the one he was looking for….it had disappeared. It disappeared!” At this point Brian’s wife Debbie chips in to say: “I think he’s in remission now.” Brian tut-tuts that: “Debbie calls it remission, but they don’t. They don’t use that word.” Brian says simply: “I think, I’m surviving and I’m doing all right. Like I said, as long as I’m surviving, what they’re doing to me is working. I’m happy.” Brian Lineham’s health setbacks actually began about 20 years ago – when the sudden death of his father prompted him to go for a checkup. His Dad died from “a massive heart attack – just out of the blue.” Tests showed that Brian was a Type 2 diabetic. There’s a lesson here, he reckons now, for many truck drivers. The diabetes, he says,
“was my own fault: Sitting out there in the truck in the middle of the night, drinking Coke and eating chocolate….I freely admit that it was my own doing.” Around 10 years ago, he was offered a gastric bypass as a means to help deal with the diabetes: Essentially, he reckons, “they halved my stomach – made me lose weight. It meant I couldn’t eat (and I still can’t) a lot of stuff you’d normally eat. Like whacking into a hamburger: Can’t do it. Your body can’t take it.” Well, he revises that: “You could eat it….” but, “about half an hour or an hour later you’d have to go and be sick – just like the supermodels. “I was trying to get myself a better lifestyle and that’s what they said it was going to do – and there was a chance it was going to eliminate my diabetes. “And it did. I had four or five years – no diabetes. I was feeling really, really well. I’d lost weight dramatically.” But then, his brother Keith was diagnosed with colon cancer – prompting Brian to also get checked for it. Eventually, in 2018, he had a colonoscopy….which revealed that yes, he too had colon cancer. He had surgery immediately – and scans three months later showed that the colon was clear…but now there were tumours in his liver. The typically stoic and positive Brian’s response? “I said ‘oh well, that’s good (because the liver regenerates itself, so it can be operated on). Okay, when are we going for surgery?’ ” The doctor’s answer to that was far from positive, as Brian
recounts: “He said ‘Ah no – you can’t have surgery.’ Because it was like a shotgun blast in my liver – there were nine individual cancers (tumours). “And we sat down with the nurses in Auckland Hospital, didn’t we Deb, and one of them turned around and said: ‘Well, umm Mr Lineham, you’ve got six months to two years to live.’ “And I just looked at them and I thought ‘oh okay – yeah. Alright. Fine.’ And umm, I looked at my wife and said, ‘well what do we do now? I ‘spose we plan for what we want to do – and do it now.’ “And then one of the nurses…..said ‘just hold on a minute.’ ” She picked up a phone and made a call. Turns out she was talking to Dr Sanjeev Deva, medical director and chief investigator at the Auckland Cancer Trials Centre, located within Auckland City Hospital. He’s a medical oncologist who established the ACTC in 2017 – setting it up and running it for two years on funding from generous donors…and since then covering its running costs with income from large international drug companies who want their new cancer drugs tested. In 2015 Dr Sanjeev had returned to NZ from the United Kingdom, where he’d worked in early-phase cancer trials – hoping to run similar trials here. In its first two years, the ACTC brought hope to almost 200 people (mostly, but not all, from Auckland and Northland) with advanced or terminal cancer. Brian became one of those 200 soon after being told his life would likely end within 730 days. He explains how it went: “So we’d had
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Brian (left) and best mate, the late Craig Donald, with the stockcar they rebuilt together
two days of sitting there wondering what was going on and sort of fretting a little bit and wrestling with it.” Unsurprisingly, he had been feeling “a little bit, why me? “But I’m….well, semi-religious: I’m part of the Salvation Army in Glen Eden.” When Deb laughs at this “semi-religious” call, he says: “Yeah alright, okay – religious. Been with them (the Salvation Army) since Dad passed away in 2000. I’ve done summer school and I’ve led the men’s group up there as well – so I’ve got the faith. “I told the minister and told a couple of my good mates that were in Bible group with me and they all prayed for me.” “Then we went in to see Sanjeev and he sat down and explained the trial to us. And I asked him: ‘Okay, do you believe in the trial?’ “And he said ‘oh yes.’ He’d come back from the UK – brought his whole family back – to start the trial here in NZ for us. Well that pretty well impressed me straight away. You don’t do that on a whim. “And he handed me a whole file…quite a thick file. He said: ‘Here, take this away, read it, and if you have any questions ring me up. And, if you’re happy with it, sign on the back page.’ “So I looked at Debbie – and Debbie smiled – I winked….and I turned to the back page and signed it. He said: ‘You’re not going to read it?’ I said ‘No, I’m going to trust you – what you’re telling me. I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ve got everything to gain.’ Which I had.” He started treatment at the ACTC in March last year – three months after a close mate died…and with his best mate Craig Donald terminally ill with lung cancer. Brian joined the immediate family in spending a lot of time at Craig’s bedside, up to his death – just a few
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weeks after Brian’s drug trial treatment began. “And when he did pass away, his daughter – like another daughter to me – looked me straight in the face over his deathbed and says ‘don’t you pass away…don’t you go too.’ “And, of course, that was a big wakeup call for me. And from there on, I’ve been strong, haven’t I Deb.” That’s strong as in always staying positive….and having virtually no time off work: After the colon surgery in 2018 he had to take six months off during the chemotherapy followup phase, but since the drug trial began he’s only had a week away from his truck. He explains that, apart from the fact he loves driving, “when they tell you you’ve got two years to live….well, you’ve also got to look out for your family. “You can’t just pack up and say ‘oh, we’ll go and spend all this money….on this and this and this.’ ” So far as their home goes, “I’ve got insurance policies there that’ll cover Debbie – but I just want to be there to make sure.” Plus he and Debbie have two (adult) daughters – and a grandson, now four years old, who he reckons is “the light of my life – I love him. “He loves the trucks. He sometimes comes out with Granddad. He’s been a very, very lucky lad. He’s been to Whangarei with me, he’s been on the ferry over to Waiheke three or four times.” The treatment at the ACTC initially involved going into the hospital for one day, once a week for the first three weeks, then fortnightly – plus an extra half-day each time for blood tests. The treatment has seen him receive a “cocktail” of five drugs –
Brian’s third towtruck, a 350 Chev-engined JO Bedford, at one of his favourite places – the Waikaraka Park stockcar track
three chemo drugs already-established in NZ, two under trial. They’re given intravenously – a process that can involve sitting for up to 11 hours at the ACTC….or heading off from the hospital carrying a “chemo bag” containing the drugs, which are slowly released into his body over 48 hours, via a plug in his chest. He can sling the bag around his neck while he works. He’s lucky, Brian reckons, because – while he does experience tingling fingers and a hot, itchy skin rash – he hasn’t had terrible side-effects: “They gave me all these tablets to take for nausea and all that sort of carry-on – and so far I haven’t had any of that. “I haven’t needed the drugs. And they look at me in amazement and say ‘well, what’s going on?’ And I say well I don’t feel nauseous, I don’t feel dizzy.’ ” With the gastric bypass, colon cancer surgery and chemotherapy and the current liver cancer drug trial, this onetime big bloke has shrunk – down 45 kilograms to around 70kg: He was down to 65kg but just lately has been putting on weight, “which is good….it means things are working.” He reckons that at the ACTC he’s now “one of the old boys” and sometimes, when potential new patients turn up while he’s undergoing his treatment “you know they’re looking at you, so you start talking to them: ‘Well, what’s happening with you? Are you on the course or not?’ ‘So, I’m just thinking about it – whether I want to or not.’ “And I’m going, ‘well, what have you got to lose? You’ve got everything to gain.’ And I tell them my story.… and that sort of picks them up. “Next thing you know, we’re the best of friends – sitting opposite each other, getting the treatment done. “And one of the golden rules I told them….’Don’t stop moving. Keep walking. If you can work – work. Keep active and keep moving.’ ” When Bev mentions that he is sometimes “cranky,” he concedes: “You have your good days and your bad days: I’ve got tingling in my fingers (from one of the drugs)…. but it is manageable. “You’ve just got to keep moving. Because I think if you sit still – just stay there and do nothing…I’m one of these guys who can’t do that. And I know I’ll just go backwards.”
So working – especially doing the job he “loves” – fits the bill perfectly. Towtrucks have been a passion since boyhood. Contacts made with towies through his Dad Ross’ Blockhouse Bay garage and his stockcar racing, saw the teenage Brian and older brother Keith “hanging around” with local towtruck operators before they left school….. Spending a lot of time with towies as passengers. Brian initially started work as an apprentice panelbeater – but only stuck with it till he was 17…by which time he’d saved enough for the deposit on a $4500 J1 Bedford towtruck. “My father came to the party for me….he said: ‘It’s what you want? Okay, we’ll do it.’ And he loaned him the balance. Brother Keith had already bought a JO Bedford towtruck. Brian loved his first truck. The Bedford had a 265 Valiant Hemi engine, a four-speed gearbox and a 30,000 lb Garwood PTO-driven winch – with 350 metres of cable: “You could tow just about everything. Those trucks were brilliant.” He particularly loved salvage work – retrieving stolen cars pushed over cliffs in the Waitakere Ranges became a special favourite job. The quarry on the Bethells Road was a regular call: “They used to run stolen cars over the top there and we used to get to pull them out.” It was a time when towies survived by chasing crashes to get the work for their contracted panelbeaters and the profession had “a really bad name,” as he concedes. He responded with humour – nicknaming one of a succession of Bedfords The Vulture. Hand in hand with the bad rep came some pretty bad situations during his early years in the business: “Yeah we were getting threatened and argued with. Repos were the worst…we had shotguns pointed at our faces. “We had one guy…who pointed a handgun down (at me) as I was underneath chaining-up. Turned out it was a replica….but he still used it to threaten us.” Sometimes at crash scenes it was the cops or the ambulance officers getting threatened – by drunks or lawbreakers: “If the ambulance guys were getting grief we’d step in. Same with the traffic department – they used to run single officers back then, so the towies used to back the officers up. It’s what we used to do – look
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after one another.” What Brian in particular also used to do is what Deb reckons he’s also done throughout his health dramas: “Just stay cool and calm…..” Brian and brother Keith eventually started their own towtruck company, K&B Lineham: “At the height of it we had four trucks of our own” – the J1 and JO Bedfords, a TK Bedford (which Brian had built a transporter deck for, with two big ramps and a Worn electric winch) and an HQ Holden, which he’d converted from a standard ute. The TK, running a 400 small-block Chev engine, “used to be able to do everything we wanted with it.” That included shifting small diggers around Auckland for a trenching company. In 1992 Brian decided to sell up his share in the business – taking up offers to build a couple more towtrucks and do some relief truck driving for Auckland carrier Morrie Sanson. He explains: “We were in our second house and things were starting to get a bit tight. So it was easier to be on wages, rather than having the expenditure and having to worry about taxes and all that carry-on.” After three years on general freight, the call of towtrucks was too strong – and he went to work for current employer, SuperCity Towing. Brian reckons that, years earlier he’d taught owner Craig Burrows the basics of salvage work. He is, he says, like family: “He calls me Uncle Brian.” And he treated Brian well when he got sick – continuing to pay him during his enforced time off following the colon cancer surgery and chemo in 2018. Still, Brian was desperate to get back behind the wheel – “and I sat down with Craig and he said: ‘Well, what do you want to do?’ And I said ‘well, I want to continue driving.’ ” Eventually Brian successfully brokered a deal to start driving again….by suggesting that Deb go
with him in the truck, as a kind of minder, “for the first little bit of it. “Craig thought that was a brilliant idea and said ‘yeah, go for it.’ ” He took Brian off the truck he’d been on – because it had heavy ramps that needed to be lifted, involving a lot of “bending over, backwards and forwards.” He put him on a lowdeck unit instead – “and I haven’t looked back.” These days there’s no need for Deb to tag along, he says. SuperCity does a lot of recovery work for the Automobile Association – “and we do first assistance recovery as well, which is jump-starts, unlocks, tyre changes…which is right up my alley. “And we do a lot of insurance work, picking up insurance writeoffs and taking them out to the auction houses…” He still does occasional crash recovery work – “but they tend to send a lot of it to the cradle trucks.” A recent SuperCity job he was part of (yes, while wearing his chemo bag), was the removal of 130 water-damaged cars from the SkyCity carpark in Auckland – flooded by millions of litres of water used to douse last October’s huge fire in the under-construction convention centre. For three weeks a team of cradle towtrucks recovered the cars from the underground carpark and brought them up to street level, where Brian drove the forklift that loaded them onto car transporters. Brian hopes that talking about his own experience will prompt other truck drivers to get regular health checkups and tests. Cancer, he says, is “a silent killer.” Like him you might not even feel like there’s anything wrong with you. Before he had his colonoscopy he was on top of his diabetes and was “as fit as a fiddle. You just do not know – and that’s the scary part about it. “A lot of business owners out there, I think maybe it’s time they
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started looking and saying: ‘Well hey, hold on. When did you guys last have a medical? Alright fine – I’ll pay for you to go and have your medical…. “Because drivers are getting hard to find – good ones. If you’ve got a good crew, what’s it hurt to put them through a medical to find out (if there’s anything that needs treatment)? Better to know now, treat it and get it done – rather than them find out at the last minute….and it’s too late. “Especially with diabetes. Diabetes is rampant in the trucking industry – because of the lifestyle and the food we eat.” He also wishes that more drug trials, like the ACTC’s, could be run around the country. From what he’s seen and heard, it seems clear that “a lot of the trial drugs are actually working. But Pharmac and the NZ Government won’t fund those drugs.” Back to his own experience. What does Dr Sanjeev have to say about his progress? “He’s amazed. He calls me his Superman – one of his success stories… “He had an email from someone over in Chicago. ‘Please explain,’ was written across the top of the email.” It went on to say: “Please explain what is going on with patient number dah, dah, dah, dah…B. Lineham. We don’t understand.’ ” They didn’t understand, says Brian, the treatment – and how it’s
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going. When Dr Sanjeev told them that Brian is actually working…. “yeah well, they can’t believe it.” Not surprisingly, he brims with superlatives about the Trials Centre and its staff: “I think it’s absolutely fantastic. Absolutely brilliant. Like, I take my hat off to the guys and the nurses in the unit – because they are really professional in everything that they do, they really are. They are excellent….brilliant.” Until the dream turnaround in his health fortunes, Brian reckons, “I was prepared to die. I said to Debbie ‘I’m not scared to die. I know what’s going to happen. I know where I’m going to go.’ “We’re dying from the moment we’re born. People don’t seem to realise – they don’t seem to grasp that. Your cells are dying from the moment you’re born. “It’s just a stage. Some die quicker than others and some last and last and last…and be cranky old sods….” Debbie says that Brian “kind of takes things as they are….just goes with the flow. Nothing floors him.” Sometimes, she reckons he’s just too laid back for her liking – like the time they were sitting in Sanjeev’s office, waiting to hear the results of an early liver scan: “Sanjeev was just going on and on and on – and then Brian would just talk and talk and talk… “And all of a sudden Sanjeev said, ‘I suppose you would like the
Clockwise, from above: Brian on another job...J1 Bedford, nicknamed The Vulture, was Brian’s first truck....HQ towtruck was rebuilt from a rolled-over ute....Brian’s second towtruck, another J1 Bedford, working at Waikaraka Park
results of the scan?’ ” She laughs (perhaps a little hysterically) at how casual Sanjeev and Brian were about it. “And when he said it – that the treatment was working – I was shaking. Thank God for that!” She is, she adds, “flabbergasted” at the results of Brian’s ACTC treatment so far: “I really am.” Brian chips in: “I’ve had people turn around to me and say ‘we expected you to be dead last year.’ “And one of them…she just walked up and said: ‘I’m amazed… I can’t believe you’re still here – and you’re working and you’re lifting things and doing things.’ ” Clearly, he doesn’t feel like he’s on borrowed time – and it’s reassuring that the drug trial has no end date, according to Brian: “They’ll stop it if they feel it’s not doing me any good. Or I can opt out if I think the treatment’s really knocking me around and annoying me…we can stop by mutual agreement. “But other than that, they just want to keep it going to see what’s going to happen. We call ourselves guinea pigs.” When it comes to ambitions, Brian doesn’t get too far ahead of himself: “Just to keep going. As simple as that – just keep going, keep moving forward. Looking forward to doing things….getting my
life back on track. “I’m looking forward to speedway this year. And I’m looking forward to rallying. We already had to cancel two of the big rallying events.” For years he’s been a volunteer at rallies, including the NZ round of the World Rally Championship – usually working as a startline official. He and brothers Keith and Peter ran a stockcar at Auckland’s Waikaraka Park for almost 20 years – and he was a regular there with his towtruck as well. He has plans to be involved in both of these passions again this summer. And he’s looking forward to seeing grandson Michael start school. As for driving towtrucks, Deb is sure “Brian will work till he dies. Yeah, he won’t give up.” After all he’s been through these past two years, Brian says: “Yeah, I feel lucky now – very lucky. Very lucky. Very blessed. “Everyone’s put everything in position for me – made it easy for me to accept it, and made it easy for me to know what’s gonna happen. And, like I said, I’m just ready to keep going and move forward. Keep myself busy.” T&D
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The new Straitline tensioner reduces the effort needed to ease curtain tension
Here to relieve tension T
RUCK AND TRAILER CURTAINS manufacturer Straitline Canvas has launched a new easy-release tensioner. The Palmerston North-based company says it has been researching new tensioner designs “for the last few years.” Early last year it stepped up its design effort, aiming for “an easy to use, tough tensioner.” The new Straitline Tensioner, launched in September, has an easy-open design that “minimises the force needed to release curtain tension.” Its handle can be locked in the open position, leaving both hands free to open the curtain. The tensioner was designed, it says, “using
customer feedback from truckies and body builders across New Zealand – as well as our own curtain repair team.” The tensioner features a tough milled aluminium body and a steel handle with a kink design that “leaves plenty of clearance for your hand while opening or closing.” The tensioner comes with NZ standard threebolt or four-bolt mountings. Straitline Canvas says it has tested the cog and trigger mechanism on the tensioner with more than one million rotations, has run a prototype in everyday work since August last year and has had multiple production samples
in work since March this year. It has also tested a production sample under load, with its PTFE bushing removed: “It still worked!” Straitline makes a range of curtains in NZ – its designs “based on over two decades of experience manufacturing, recertifying and repairing sidecurtains for our customers.” Its curtains have been load-rated to NZTA standards since 1997 and its range comprises single skin curtains for standard freight, double skin – with a PVC inner skin – for chilled loads and insulated double skin curtains for chilled or frozen freight. T&D
A better portable fridge/freezer
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WEDISH-BASED MOBILE FRIDGE/FREEZER MANUFACTURER Dometic has launched a new-generation portable model range. The CFX3 models are, it says, “not only superior in design but also achieve impressive energy efficiency.” One of the new models includes what Dometic says is a world-first in a portable fridge – an icemaker. The company says it did extensive consumer research before developing the CFX3 models: “The study showed modern consumers want to keep everyday life rituals, even when they are far from home. “Active people on adventures still want fresh and healthy food without compromising or wasting the time they spend outside or off the grid.” Dometic says that CFX3's energy efficiency, combined with its capabilities in “consistently maintaining refrigerated or freezing temperature,” means that fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, and other food is safely stored – ensuring that “users are well-fed and healthy while living mobile. “ The company’s variable motor speed optimisation (VMSO3) technology delivers the CFX3's "optimal compressor speed and energy efficiency.” It also has many innovative features “for a better user experience, including an enhanced user interface, easy to open latches, heavy-duty yet lightweight construction, improved LED lights, and solid anchors to secure the unit in vehicles.”
The electronics in the models “have received an impressive upgrade,” with the CFX3 series now equipped with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi remote control functionality “for increased usability and lower power consumption.” It also has a more powerful USB charger output to power important devices faster. To better control the fridge/freezer from mobile devices, the CFX3 app has graphs to monitor temperature and power consumption, giving users control at their fingertips. The app will also give a warning signal if the temperature deviates from the set point. The CFX3 55IM single-zone fridge/ freezer model has a dedicated section for The CFX3-75 model an icemaker. T&D Truck & Driver | 79
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FEATURE
In a headline-grabbing online event, Daimler Trucks unveiled the Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck – a heavy-duty electric truck concept powered by hydrogen fuel cells
Story Wayne Munro
I
F 2020 HAD BEEN A NORMAL YEAR – NOT THE YEAR OF the COVID-19 global health emergency – September would have seen the 68th running of the greatest truck show on earth. But, inevitably, the IAA Commercial Vehicles show in Hanover couldn’t compete with the deadly, out-of-control coronavirus…and thus (along with normal life for much of the world’s population) the biennial German truckfest was cancelled. Europe’s major truckmakers would have been gearing-up for the event for months (probably ever since the last IAA show, in 2018, in fact). And Mercedes-Benz, for one, wasn’t about to let all of that effort and expense go to waste – repurposing its customary huge presence at Hanover into a big online presentation of its new products, from its Worth factory in southern Germany The Now & Next-themed event – heavily focused on a sustainable future – was, appropriately, staged on the week it would have been unveiled to world media at the IAA show. It announced a start to full-scale production next year of the eActros heavy-duty metro truck, two “worldwide innovations”
involving automated braking and emergency stop functions for Actros and Arocs models…. Plus two new Actros models – one seriously no-frills and functional, the other all fabulous and flash. Merc parent, Daimler Trucks, even did its customary pre-IAA headline-grabber – beating the gun with another big announcement a week earlier….this one revealing its longterm electric truck strategy. That included the unveil of a heavy-duty hydrogen fuel cell electric Mercedes-Benz truck, which it says will have a range of 1000 kilometres or more, and will begin customer trials in 2023. The online media event hosted at the Worth factory showed off the latest prototype of the heavy-duty battery-electric eActros metro and regional distribution truck – close to the truck that will soon go into series production at the plant. Mercedes-Benz says that the findings from more than two years of real-world tests with customers in Europe “are being fed directly into the further development of the prototype – ultimately making their way into the series-production vehicle. “So far they have shown that the fully battery-electric eActros is Truck & Driver | 81
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Main picture: Daimler Trucks boss Martin Daum says that the group has now settled on its chosen technologies for its electric truck future Other pictures: The appropriately futuristic M-B GenH2 is not scheduled for production until the latter half of this decade the ideal vehicle for sustainable heavy-duty distribution. When used in urban traffic, on freeways or in overland traffic, it is in no way inferior to a conventional diesel truck when it comes to availability and power delivery. “The prototype’s range of around 200 kilometres has proven to be perfectly realistic – regardless of load, route or topography. Drivers are visibly impressed by the continuous availability of the torque
across the entire speed range. They also mentioned in particular the pleasant and smooth driving experience.” M-B says that “if the truck is driven with foresight, electrical energy can be recovered through engine braking.” The eActros that will begin mass production next year “will be significantly superior to the existing prototype in a variety of areas, such as range, drive power and safety.” And Mercedes-Benz says its Truck & Driver | 83
The Mercedes-Benz eActros Longhaul, with a 500km range, is scheduled to go into production in 2024
payload capability will be “on a par” with a standard Actros. It will be launched in two-axle and three-axle models. Merc parent, Daimler Trucks, will integrate the eActros into an electric vehicle ecosystem, which will include consultancy services relating to electric mobility – route analysis, for example… plus “checking for possible subsidies, support with operational fleet integration and formulating suitable solutions for charging infrastructure.” The eActros will be built alongside diesel-engined Mercs – the Worth factory’s main assembly hall readied over the past year to deal with an electric truck, with a new assembly line specifically for all the electrical architecture…in particular the high-voltage components. The etrucks will then be fed back into the regular production line for finishing-off and final inspection. The Mercedes-Benz eEconic, a truck designed specifically for municipal use and based on the eActros, is also scheduled to go into series production….in 2022. Probably the most New Zealand-relevant news from the Now & Next virtual show is the announcement of enhancements to M-B’s partially automated driving system, Active Drive Assist (ADA) and to its Sideguard Assist – designed to avoid collisions between trucks turning at intersections and cyclists or pedestrians in the drivers’ blind spot. The current generation ADA system already actively supports the driver in the longitudinal and lateral guidance of the truck, and can automatically maintain the distance to the vehicle ahead – braking the truck to achieve the preset gap, then autonomously accelerating again if the vehicle ahead pulls away. It’s also capable of steering the truck around a corner if the system can recognise an obvious curve radius or clearly visible road markings. Now, from mid-2021, ADA 2 will also initiate an emergency stop if it recognises that the driver has not been actively involved in the driving 84 | Truck & Driver
process for a long period of time – due to a medical emergency, for example. It will first ask the driver, via optical and acoustic signals, to place his or her hands on the steering wheel. If there’s no response after 60 seconds – no braking, steering, accelerating or otherwise operating the vehicle systems – the system will brake the truck to a standstill within its lane…while warning following vehicles using the hazard lights. The emergency stop manoeuvre initiated by the system can be halted by the driver using a kickdown at any time. Cleverly, if the truck comes to a standstill, the system automatically engages the new electronic parking brake. And it unlocks the doors, so helpers can get to the driver to render assistance. Daimler Truck & Bus Australia Pacific says that it will begin local market testing of ADA (which is not currently available in Australia and NZ) early next year. “The local evaluation will test the effectiveness of the system in unique local conditions and on our often less-than-perfect roads, as well as measuring customer demand for the feature.” Meantime, no decision has been made whether to introduce ADA in this part of the world. In what M-B says is a world first, its blind spot detection system will see the introduction of Active Sideguard Assist (ASGA) from mid2021 – the potentially life-saving enhancement giving the system the ability to not only warn the driver of moving pedestrians or cyclists on the passenger side…. But to also autonomously brake to a standstill even while turning (at up to 20 km/h), if the driver doesn’t respond to the system’s warnings. Via the steering angle, the ASGA can recognise the necessity of such a braking intervention and, ideally, prevent a possible collision. So far, in this part of the world, only the Mercedes-Benz Econic can be equipped with Sideguard Assist.
The Mercedes-Benz eActros heavy duty electric truck – specifically designed for metro and regional distribution work – will begin series production next year
transport engineering
ENGINEERED TRANSPORT SOLUTIONS
32 Gumdigger Place Whangarei Ph 09 470 0850 | Email paul@ten4.co.nz
WWW.TEN4.CO.NZ
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But Daimler Truck & Bus Australia/Pacific says that “work is under way to develop the system for Actros rigid and select Actros 4x2 prime mover models, with an expected local introduction within two years. “Packaging challenges will need to be overcome before the system is available for the local specification 6x4 Actros. There is currently insufficient space on the chassis rail for the Sideguard Assist radar plate sensor, due to the large fuel tanks required to achieve the range expected in the Australia/ Pacific market. A solution is expected, but not within the next two years.” It’s been a habit at IAA shows for Mercedes-Benz to unveil a limited edition special – and the tradition continues with the virtual show: The Actros Edition 2 – a model Merc says has “a ‘wow’ effect” – is all about looks and luxury. The Edition 2, available from next January (but not under consideration for NZ or Australia), targets “innovation-loving professional drivers and self-driving hauliers whose truck is their home and who place great value on individual style and high comfort. “Actros Edition 2 drivers have a strong emotional bond with their vehicle, which is more than a working and driving machine to them. With the special model, hauliers enhance their company’s image while also holding a trump card against the current shortage of drivers.” So there it is – Merc is offering up to 40 additional interior and exterior options, plus design elements from Edition 1, for the run of 400 Edition 2 trucks. Inside, you can have a dash and door handles in nappa leather, panels with a carbonfibre look, a roof hatch with ambient lighting, polished and brushed aluminium elements and luxury bedding. Outside there are Edition 2 logos, extra LED lights,
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Above left (both pictures): Daimler’s heavy-duty long-distance trucks will be hydrogen fuel cell electric powered
Above right: Amidst a heavy future focus, the Actros F is for now....and is strictly no frills – designed to be, above all, functional and efficient
stainless steel steps and rear axle caps, an illuminated Merc star, dark chrome and headlight surrounds. The Edition 2 has equipment from half a dozen packages of features, including a suite of active driver assistance and/or safety systems, a comfort package that includes LED ambient lighting, a shaving mirror, fridge and other extra amenities and a driving package that includes a leather steering wheel and electric sun blind. A “sight package” includes bi-xenon headlights, a rain sensor and LED rear lamps, a media bundle includes a premium sound system, notebook holder and an extra 12V/15V socket, while there’s also extra LED lights in the MirrorCam and the indicators. Of the safety features, the latest generation of emergency brake assist is standard – as is MirrorCam, sideguard assist and predictive powertrain control. Partially automated driving is available via the optional ADA. On the other hand, the new Actros F targets “customers who mainly want the greatest possible functionality from a commercial vehicle with the three-pointed star.” Merc reckons that what it comes down to is that – International Truck of the Year 2020 award-winner that the new-generation Actros is – “there can’t and won’t be a standstill in the commercial vehicles sector, especially because haulage companies and truck manufacturers are facing major challenges in a highly competitive environment.” Merc says that the Actros has been setting high standards for heavy trucks for the past 24 years – and since 2018, has been “setting new milestones with a multitude of innovations.” But still, “in order to serve the most diverse customer requirements even better,” the Actros F (again not a goer for NZ nor Australia) is specifically designed for “pure functionality….a perfect fit for customers who, for example, are simply looking for a functional truck apart from all the complexities concerning the logistical and organisational processes of their fleet. “These customers are consciously opting for a commercial vehicle 86 | Truck & Driver
with the three-pointed star but don’t necessarily need all the innovations present in the most recent Actros generation. They want a truck with an attractive price-performance ratio and the authentic Mercedes-Benz Trucks DNA. “In other words: A vehicle that embodies the defining MercedesBenz values such as top quality, reliability, efficiency, functionality, safety and high utility value.” In creating the Actros F, “particular emphasis was placed on high comfort for the drivers, in addition to maximum functionality for fleet operators.” A newly-designed StreamSpace or BigSpace cab, offering a 2.5-metre width and 120mm engine tunnel height, “offers excellent spaciousness for its class and also allows the driver easy entry and exit with only three steps.” The Actros F comes with a Classic Cockpit, standard mirrors rather than the new MirrorCam system – with a navigation system and climate control standard, along with the 10-inch Multimedia Cockpit and multifunction steering wheel….but the likes of predictive cruise control optional. In addition, there are also safety features such as the latest Active Brake Assist, and Lane Keeping Assist. Sideguard Assist is optional. In its electric truck special event, Daimler Trucks presents its technology strategy for the electrification of its trucks – ranging from urban distribution to international long-haul operations. Getting its world premiere is a hydrogen fuel cell concept truck, the Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck, which it says will begin series production sometime between 2025 and 2030. Thanks to the use of liquid hydrogen, with higher energy density than gaseous hydrogen, the heavy-duty GenH2’s performance is planned to equal that of a comparable standard diesel truck. Also unveiled for the first time is a purely battery-powered longhaul truck, the eActros LongHaul, which will have a 500km range on one charge and which Daimler Trucks intends to put into series production in 2024.
Luxury, comfort and style are what the latest special edition Actros is all about. The Edition 2 is designed to achieve “a ‘wow’ effect”
The production version of the GenH2 will have a gross vehicle weight of 40 tonnes and a 25t payload – this made possible by two special liquid-hydrogen tanks and a particularly powerful fuel-cell system that will also enable its long range. In the production version of the GenH2, the fuel-cell system is to supply 2x150 kilowatts and the battery is to provide an additional 400kW temporarily. The relatively light battery, which allows a higher payload, is primarily to provide situational power support for the fuel cell – during peak loads while accelerating, for instance, or while driving uphill fully loaded. In production versions it will be recharged with braking energy and excess fuelcell energy. Daimler Trucks says that the comparatively short range of the battery electric Mercedes-Benz eActros LongHaul “is offset by its high energy efficiency.” This offers transport companies significant advantages in targeted applications, due to its low energy costs: Many long-haul applications don’t require more than the estimated 500km range that the eActros LongHaul will be able to cover on one charge. On longer journeys on plannable routes – given the appropriate distances involved and the necessary charging infrastructure – the battery could be recharged with enough power for the balance of journeys during legislated driver rest breaks. The event also features the battery electric eActros metro distribution truck, with a range that will “significantly exceed” the prototype’s 200km capability. That’s the truck that will begin series production next year in Europe. Daimler Trucks is pursuing a similar production schedule for the North American and Japanese markets: By 2022, the group will have battery electric trucks in series production for Europe, the USA and Japan. The company reveals that it also has the ambition to offer only new vehicles that are CO2-neutral in driving operation (“from tank to wheel”) in those three key markets by 2039.
A new worldwide modular platform architecture, a so-called ePowertrain, will be the technological basis of all Daimler’s medium-duty and heavy-duty CO2-neutral, all-electric seriesproduced trucks – whether they’re battery electric or powered by hydrogen-based fuel cells. The ePowertrain will not only deliver “high levels of performance, efficiency and durability,” it will also allow Daimler Trucks “to achieve synergies and economies of scale for all relevant vehicles and markets.” Martin Daum, chairman of the Daimler Truck board and board member of Daimler AG, says that the combination of CO2-neutral technologies – battery power and hydrogen-based fuel cells, “which have the potential to succeed in the market in the long term” – enables the group “to offer our customers the best vehicle options, depending on the application. “Battery power will be rather used for lower cargo weights and for shorter distances. Fuel-cell power will tend to be the preferred option for heavier loads and longer distances.” “Our customers make rational purchasing decisions and are unwilling to compromise on their trucks’ suitability for everyday use, tonnage and range. With our alternative drive concepts from Mercedes-Benz – the GenH2 Truck, the eActros LongHaul and the eActros – and our electric trucks of the Freightliner and FUSO brands, we have a clear focus on customer requirements and are creating genuine locally CO2-neutral alternatives for them. “We have now set out the key technological specifications of our electric trucks so that the requirements are known to everyone involved at an early stage. “It is now up to policymakers, other players and society as a whole to provide the right framework conditions. To make CO2neutral all-electric vehicles competitive, regulatory and government action is needed, including the necessary infrastructure for charging with green electricity and for the production, storage and transport of green liquid hydrogen.” T&D Truck & Driver | 87
McKeown Group Ltd
K & L Distributors BOP Ltd
Auckland Oil Shop
McKeown Group Ltd is proud to be the Caltex lubricant distributors for the South-Canterbury and Otago regions. For 50 years we have run our business from our Oamaru base, and we have oil shops here as well as in Dunedin. Our oil distributing network covers all areas from the Ashburton River all the way down to the Clutha River. Alongside our businesses of chemical distribution, delivering bulk fuel to farms and businesses throughout most of the South Island, and our 26 McKeown-branded 24/7 Card-Fuel sites, McKeown Group offer our customers a comprehensive range of services and quality products. We pride ourselves on having the expertise and resources to deliver quality Caltex product, service and technical support to meet our customers’ requirements throughout our region. For sales and technical support enquiries, call one of our expert Sales Managers: Michael McKeown - 021 221 8384 Cameron Miller - 021 509 297 Dave Honeyfield - 027 432 2770 Allan Crawford - 021 396 639 Or feel free to come visit us, or call one of our oil shops: McKeown Oil Shops OAMARU Waterfront Road Ph. 0800 800 908 or 03 433 1022
AND HAWKES BAY
Greymouth Equipment Centre 03-769 9060
McKeown Oil Shop SOUTH DUNEDIN 11 Broughton Street Ph. 03 455 4845
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For more information on McKeown Group and our sites, please go to www.mckeown.co.nz.
Road Transport Association NZ
Driver shortage still a pressing issue for industry
OP Ltd
By Simon Carson, RTANZ chief operating officer
It’s estimated that the industry is currently short of 4000 drivers – and, without a successful action plan, it’s only going to get much worse
AND S BAY
Simon Carson
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T HAS BEEN ENCOURAGING TO GET OUT INTO THE REGIONS over the past month and discuss matters important to members from different industry sectors. In early September I visited RTANZ members in Gisborne, Wairoa, Hastings, Napier, and Waipawa. I enjoyed the many discussions I had with members I met during this time. Trucks are an essential part of our daily lives; without heavy vehicles our economy would quickly come to a grinding halt. During the tight levels of lockdown, New Zealand’s truck drivers were hailed as heroes, the lifeblood of the economy. Sadly, only a few months on, that’s become a distant memory for many of us. Although lockdown has had some positive impact, a clear shortage of professional drivers still exists right across our nation. The statistics within our industry are not improving. A total of 37% of transport operators reported a shortage of drivers, and the ageing workforce figures clearly show that within five years 20% of the total number of professional drivers will need to be replaced. The shortfall may be around 4000 currently, but the road freight industry predicts 28,000-30,000 more drivers will be needed over the next 10 to 15 years, just to meet expected industry growth. The average age of the transport workforce is now approaching 60 years of age. Drivers pressured by tight deadlines and long hours have either left or are leaving the industry, and unfortunately, young people aren’t eyeing transport as a career option. NZ’s school leavers have much less interest now in getting their driver’s licence, with around 5% of 17-year-olds holding full Class 1 licences, 23% of 18-year-olds, and climbing to only one third of 19-year-olds having a full car licence. There is consensus that the length of training times through the licence classes may be a significant contributor to why industry
finds it difficult to attract young people. For years now the industry has simply not done a good enough job of guiding the next generation down a transport career path. To assist, the Road Transport Forum is launching Te Ara Ki Tua – Road to Success, which is a driving traineeship, taking a new focus on industry training and employment. The programme will combine practical job training with theory, leading to qualification and progress to placing people in industry jobs. From the survey conducted by RTF earlier in the year, more than half the businesses contacted indicated that they would be interested in exploring the options of taking on a trainee. Industry qualifications are often on top of the checklist for jobseekers looking for a sustainable and appealing career. The NZQA-endorsed micro-credentials being developed have been a focus of the recently launched roadshow to enhance employee qualification prospects and create skills that then become transferrable. Road to Success also explores options for trainees through accelerated licensing, enabling a faster transition through licence classes In early October, Graham Sheldrake and Mark Ngatuere hit the road on a quest to deliver this powerful workshop around the country. RTA staff arranged venues for members who had been encouraged to attend the workshops – where feedback would be welcomed, as well as the opportunity to sign up for a trainee. Talking to operators before the programme started, in the deep south, it was encouraging to see the number of transport business owners or managers who had registered. Times are changing and if we are to attract the right people into our industry, right now every opportunity needs to be explored. The RTF Road to Success roadshow is no exception. T&D Truck & Driver | 89
y l n o d n a s u l p 0 0 0 , 0 3 1 $ Earn r a e y e h t f o s k e e w 9 3 k wor WE HAUL MILLIONS OF TONNES OF MATERIALS ACROSS THE PILBARA IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA Jamieson Transport is looking for experienced Road Train Drivers who are interested in joining our Port Hedland operation. We provide FIFO rosters and accommodation while on site. We work with some of the leading mining and resources companies in Australia and our reputation for providing reliable and quality service to our customers is second to none. You will be operating quad side tippers carting bulk materials from the mine sites to the port.
y t u d y v a e h & s r e v Dri s c i n a h c e m diesel Please direct all enquiries about this position to darrell@jamiesontransport.com.au If you are shortlisted you will be sent an application form via email. You need to complete and return this as soon as possible to be considered for this role. Due to the high number of applications that we receive - only those applicants who are shortlisted will be contacted.
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National Road Carriers
Appalling roads take emotional toll on drivers
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By David Aitken, CEO of National Road Carriers Associationn
David Aitken
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HE APPALLING STATE OF MANY NEW ZEALAND’S ROADS IS taking a physical and mental toll on truck drivers. If our roads were a factory or a building site, the workplace safety inspectors would be down on the company directors like a ton of bricks. They are technically a place of work but seem to be exempt from those rules that other businesses must follow to provide a safe work environment. Navigating the country’s poorly maintained roads is a major health hazard that makes them “unsafe workplaces” for all the drivers who use them – not just truck drivers. NRC is part of the Road Transport Forum, one of five organisations with an interest in the state of NZ’s roads which, in September, wrote to Government ministers suggesting they add road maintenance projects to the “shovel ready” list. Our politicians on the left seem to be in denial that we need roads, and the politicians on the right are promising billions of dollars for new roads. What we urgently need right now is a road maintenance budget to make our existing roads safe for all users. Kerikeri-based Jaklines, which runs four trucks, has had two drivers leave because driving trucks on Northland roads was too hard on their bodies. Jaklines managing director Jakob Honing says the delays drivers experience at multiple roadworks also causes stress for drivers – not to mention the pressure it puts on logbook hours. NRC is also concerned about the mental stress that drivers are under in trying to keep vehicles on sub-standard roads. Drivers spend a long time in these vehicles and it’s a demanding enough job without having to constantly negotiate these safety hazards. It’s a mentally draining job and it shouldn’t have to be. Truck company owners are exhausted from their efforts to get roads improved. One respected provincial operator with a large fleet of trucks made comments that reflected the views of many: “I have run out of puff and frankly feel defeated with the condition of our roads. “A few years ago the industry was listened to and when a poor piece of road was identified it was fixed the next day. That does not happen now – just the poor excuse of no funding available. “The network needs a huge investment to bring the country’s roads back to a standard we should expect. Our industry feels the pressure of operating on such a poor network with maintenance costs increasing year on year and really no one’s listening. “I have lost the will to carry on the fight to have roads built and maintained to an acceptable standard. Our vehicles have to be up to CoF standard or we pay a fine. Roading contractors are exempt from standards and fines it would seem.” The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) is an umbrella
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programme for road assessment programmes worldwide. Its vision is for a world free of high-risk roads. iRAP’s CEO Rob McInerney has compared this country’s urgent response to COVID-19 and its approach to road safety: He asks what would road trauma levels be if we responded with the same bravery, courage, intellect, investment and co-ordination as has been applied to COVID-19? “What if the realisation that we will kill and injure thousands of people over the next 10 years in road crashes finally jolted us to say ‘No way!’ What if we brought together the incredible wealth of experts into a crisis response centre? What if we used 100% of our energy to find the solutions to act immediately, rather than 90% of our energy finding excuses? “The COVID-19 challenge has often been discussed as a tradeoff between protecting lives and protecting livelihoods. There is no tradeoff with investment to reduce road trauma. “It will save lives, save money and create jobs. It will protect lives and protect livelihoods.” T&D Truck & Driver | 91
The new Actros. A truck ahead of its time. The new Actros is a truck ahead of its time. Setting the standard in long-distance and heavy-distribution haulage, this ground-breaking new truck is more comfortable, economical and reliable than ever before1. Featuring new innovations like the Multimedia Cockpit, MirrorCam, Active Brake Assist 5 and Predictive Powertrain Control – it’s designed to reduce fuel consumption, boost vehicle use and offer the driver all the support they need. See the new Actros in action at actroslivedrive.com.au or contact your local authorised Mercedes-Benz Trucks Dealership to experience this outstanding new vehicle for yourself.
Compared to the previous model. Please note: changes may have been made to the product since this publication went to press (October 2020). The manufacturer reserves the right to make changes to the design, form, colour, and specification of the product. The images shown are to be considered examples only and do not necessarily reflect the actual state of the original vehicles. Please consult your authorised Mercedes-Benz Truck Dealer for further details. © Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific Pty Ltd (ACN 618 413 282). Printed in New Zealand.
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The Kenworth-oriented, Taupo-based Green Transport logtruck fleet has been joined by this new Mack SuperLiner, recently put on the road by Peter and Charlotte Hughes’ Putaruru Diesel Services. The 8x4 has a 685hp Mack MP10 engine, mDrive AMT and Meritor 46-160 diffs on Hendrickson Primaax suspension. It has Kraft logging gear and a matching four-axle trailer, and is dripping with extras including leather seats, a stainless drop visor, six-inch exhaust stacks and air intakes, offset front rims, Bigfoot central tyre inflation, SI Lodec scales, a King Bars Texan bumper and Hella LED driving lights.
COVID constriction continues C
OVID-19’S NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON NEW Zealand’s new truck market, unsurprisingly, continued in September. The 378 registrations for the month in the overall market (over 4.5 tonnes GVM) was similar to August’s tally (down 21, in fact) but, more tellingly, was a long way off the 514 registrations in September last year. And the 3024 registrations year-to-date after nine months amounted to a 26% fall from last year’s 4086 sales at the same point.
The trailer market for 2020 was (again unsurprisingly) down on last year – by 20% - in the year-to-date tally at the end of September (with 928 registrations YTD this year, compared to 1164 in 2019). There was some good news: The 133 September registrations total was up from 112 in August. In the overall truck market, longtime No. 1 Isuzu (730/79) ever so slightly improved its lead, albeit with 30 less registrations than in August. FUSO (443/77) and Hino remained second and third YTD respectively, while Scania Truck & Driver | 93
The growing Waiau Pa Bulk Haulage fleet now has this new Kenworth T610SAR tipper working out of Mangatawhiri, carting crushed rock and aggregate around Auckland and the Waikato. The 6x4 has a 600hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox and Meritor RT46-160GP diffs on Airglide 460 suspension. It has a Transport & General alloy bin and a matching five-axle trailer, Meritor disc brakes all around, super singles on the front axle and extra stainless steel trim.
23,001kg-max GVM
4501kg-max GVM Brand ISUZU FUSO HINO SCANIA VOLVO IVECO MERCEDES-BENZ KENWORTH DAF UD FOTON MAN SINOTRUK VOLKSWAGEN MACK FREIGHTLINER INTERNATIONAL HYUNDAI FIAT WESTERN STAR RAM PEUGEOT JAC OTHER Total
2020 Vol 730 443 393 225 207 206 166 126 122 100 60 44 43 33 31 22 22 21 16 5 4 3 1 1 3024
% 24.1 14.6 13.0 7.4 6.8 6.8 5.5 4.2 4.0 3.3 2.0 1.5 1.4 1.1 1.0 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 100.0
September Vol % 79 20.9 77 20.4 49 13.0 33 8.7 14 3.7 25 6.6 27 7.1 11 2.9 19 5.0 7 1.9 9 2.4 6 1.6 6 1.6 2 0.5 1 0.3 1 0.3 3 0.8 4 1.1 3 0.8 2 0.5 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 378 100.0
3501-4500kg GVM Brand FIAT MERCEDES-BENZ CHEVROLET RENAULT FORD PEUGEOT IVECO LDV VOLKSWAGEN Total
2020 Vol 205 70 29 23 19 19 6 4 2 377
% 54.4 18.6 7.7 6.1 5.0 5.0 1.6 1.1 0.5 100.0
September Vol % 36 66.7 10 18.5 2 3.7 2 3.7 0 0.0 3 5.6 1 1.9 0 0.0 0 0.0 54 100.0
4501-7500kg GVM Brand ISUZU FUSO IVECO HINO MERCEDES-BENZ FOTON VOLKSWAGEN HYUNDAI FIAT RAM PEUGEOT Total 94 | Truck & Driver
2020 Vol 210 208 111 83 47 44 33 17 16 4 3 776
% 27.1 26.8 14.3 10.7 6.1 5.7 4.3 2.2 2.1 0.5 0.4 100.0
September Vol % 22 19.8 39 35.1 14 12.6 14 12.6 9 8.1 5 4.5 2 1.8 3 2.7 3 2.7 0 0.0 0 0.0 111 100.0
In the premium 23t to maximum GVM division, Scania (212/33) had a big month.... 7501-15,000kg GVM Brand ISUZU HINO FUSO IVECO FOTON UD MAN MERCEDES-BENZ HYUNDAI JAC OTHER Total
2020 Vol 330 109 89 33 16 7 4 4 3 1 1 597
% 55.3 18.3 14.9 5.5 2.7 1.2 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.2 0.2 100.0
September Vol % 30 47.6 16 25.4 7 11.1 3 4.8 4 6.3 0 0.0 1 1.6 1 1.6 1 1.6 0 0.0 0 0.0 63 100.0
15,001-20,500kg GVM Brand HINO FUSO UD IVECO MERCEDES-BENZ SCANIA DAF ISUZU MAN SINOTRUK Total
2020 Vol 74 32 21 13 12 12 11 8 5 1 189
% 39.2 16.9 11.1 6.9 6.3 6.3 5.8 4.2 2.6 0.5 100.0
September Vol % 2 8.0 9 36.0 2 8.0 4 16.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 5 20.0 3 12.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 25 100.0
20,501-23,000kg GVM Brand ISUZU HINO FUSO FREIGHTLINER SCANIA DAF Total
2020 Vol 24 19 10 1 1 1 56
% 42.9 33.9 17.9 1.8 1.8 1.8 100.0
September Vol % 13 65.0 3 15.0 4 20.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 20 100.0
Brand SCANIA VOLVO ISUZU KENWORTH DAF HINO FUSO MERCEDES-BENZ UD IVECO SINOTRUK MAN MACK INTERNATIONAL FREIGHTLINER WESTERN STAR HYUNDAI Total
2020 Vol 212 207 158 126 110 108 104 103 72 49 42 35 31 22 21 5 1 1406
% 15.1 14.7 11.2 9.0 7.8 7.7 7.4 7.3 5.1 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.2 1.6 1.5 0.4 0.1 100.0
September Vol % 33 20.8 14 8.8 11 6.9 11 6.9 14 8.8 14 8.8 18 11.3 17 10.7 5 3.1 4 2.5 6 3.8 5 3.1 1 0.6 3 1.9 1 0.6 2 1.3 0 0.0 159 100.0
Trailers 2020 Vol % Brand PATCHELL 102 11.0 DOMETT 88 9.5 78 8.4 FRUEHAUF MTE 73 7.9 ROADMASTER 71 7.7 TRANSPORT TRAILERS 50 5.4 48 5.2 TMC FREIGHTER 39 4.2 37 4.0 TRANSFLEET TES 33 3.6 CWS 24 2.6 JACKSON 20 2.2 MAXICUBE 15 1.6 HAMMAR 14 1.5 12 1.3 KRAFT SDC 10 1.1 EVANS 10 1.1 10 1.1 MILLS-TUI MTC EQUIPMENT 10 1.1 TIDD 10 1.1 MAKARANUI 9 1.0 TANKER ENGINEERING 9 1.0 MD ENGINEERING 8 0.9 LUSK 8 0.9 PTE 7 0.8 LOWES 6 0.6 HTS 6 0.6 COWAN 6 0.6 FAIRFAX 5 0.5 SEC 5 0.5 FELDBINDER 5 0.5 WHITE 4 0.4 COX ENGINEERING 4 0.4 TOTAL TRANSPORT 3 0.3 KOROMIKO 3 0.3 TEO 3 0.3 OTHER 83 8.9 Total 928 100.0
September Vol % 14 10.5 16 12.0 12 9.0 13 9.8 7 5.3 9 6.8 5 3.8 2 1.5 6 4.5 6 4.5 3 2.3 3 2.3 1 0.8 3 2.3 2 1.5 0 0.0 1 0.8 2 1.5 2 1.5 2 1.5 0 0.0 3 2.3 0 0.0 1 0.8 1 0.8 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.8 0 0.0 2 1.5 2 1.5 1 0.8 1 0.8 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.8 11 8.3 133 100.0
Supermarket foodstuff deliveries are the stock in trade of this new Iveco X-Way AT tractor unit, which has recently gone to work for Auckland’s P&S Hornell Transport. The 6x4, which has a 510hp engine, a 12-speed AMT and a comprehensive electronic safety suite, hauls a 26-pallet refrigerated trailer on a metro delivery run and does an Auckland-Hamilton linehaul run six days a week. It continues Peter Hornell’s 10-year succession of Ivecos.
(225/33) overtook Volvo (207/14) to take fourth position. The order of the rest of the top 10 was unchanged, with Iveco (206/25) sixth, ahead of Mercedes-Benz (166/27), Kenworth (126/11), DAF (122/19) and UD (100/7). In the 3.5-4.5t GVM crossover segment – which is still ahead of last year’s YTD total registrations at the same point (377 to 362) – Fiat (205/36) extended its lead, while Mercedes-Benz (70/10) easily held onto second, ahead of Chevrolet (29/2), Renault (23/2) and Ford (19/0). In the 4.5-7.5t GVM division, Isuzu (210/22) had its lead margin cut by a closing FUSO (208/39) – the latter better than doubling its August registrations. Iveco (111/14) remained third, followed by Hino (83/14), while MercedesBenz (47/9) moved ahead of Foton (44/5) for fifth. In the 7.5-15t GVM class, Isuzu (330/30) continued to go away from its rivals. All of the rest held their YTD positions, with Hino (109/16) second and FUSO (89/7) third – well ahead of Iveco (33/3) and Foton (16/4). In the 15-20.5t GVM category, Hino (74/2) continued to hold a dominant lead, even though second-placed FUSO (32/9) did best in September registrations. UD (21/2) held third, while Iveco (13/4) jumped from sixth to fourth, at the expense of Mercedes-Benz and Scania (both 12/0).
In the tiny 20.5-23t GVM division Isuzu (24/13) better than doubled its YTD total registrations, to overtake Hino (19/3) for the lead. FUSO (10/4) remained third. In the premium 23t to maximum GVM division, Scania (212/33) had a big month to take the No. 1 spot YTD from Volvo (207/14). It rates as the make’s best performance in years. The order for the rest of the top six was unchanged, with Isuzu (158/11) third, ahead of Kenworth (126/11), DAF (110/14) and Hino (108/14). FUSO (104/18), previously tied with Mercedes-Benz (103/17) for seventh-equal, pipped its rival by one sale, thus Merc dropped to eighth. UD (72/5) and Iveco (49/4) completed the top 10. Trailer market leader Patchell (102/14) cracked a 2020 milestone in September – over one hundred new trailers registered so far this year. It was again edged for the month by Domett (88/16) – for the third consecutive month – while Fruehauf (78/12) remained third. MTE (73/13) moved up to fourth, narrowly demoting Roadmaster (71/7), while Transport Trailers (50/9) relegated TMC (48/5) from sixth to seventh. Freighter (39/2), Transfleet (37/6) and TES (33/6) completed the top 10. T&D Truck & Driver | 95
Fresh flowers and plants are delivered around the North Island by this new DAF CF recently put to work for Ramarama’s Rainbow Park Nurseries. The 6x2 sleeper cab curtainsider has a 410hp Euro 6 MX11 engine, a TraXon AMT and a DAF diff, plus a liftable tag axle, on DAF ECAS air suspension.
Timaru-based Hilton Haulage has put four new Kenworth K200 8x4 curtainsiders on the road, carting general freight nationwide. They each have 600hp Cummins X15 engines and Eaton MXP AMTs. Pic Andrew Geddes Napier’s Efficient Moving & Storage has put New Zealand’s first Euro 6 DAF CF 450 to work. Nick Todd drives the Space Cab 4x2 tractor unit, which has a TraXon AMT, a DAF diff on air suspension and disc brakes all around. It also has Alcoa Dura Bright alloys and a full suite of safety features.
96 | Truck & Driver
Above: Ngaruawahia-based Dave and Colleen Matich’s TSMS has put this spectacular new Kenworth K200 2.8 Aerodyne on the road, carting timber products, palletised and general freight North Island wide (and occasionally to the South Island). Dave drives the 8x4, which has a 600-615hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox and Meritor 46-160 diffs on Airglide 460 suspension. It has Alcoa Dura Bright alloy wheels, a Roadmaster curtainsider body and matching five-axle trailer, and home-away-from-home extras inside including two fridges, full cupboards and a table and double bunks.
Below: Napier’s ACM Metal Supplies & Cartage has put this new International ProStar T6 tipper to work, carting bulk aggregate nationwide. The 6x4, driven by Gavin Donaldson, has a 530hp Cummins X15 engine, an Eaton MXP Ultra Shift AMT and Meritor 46-160 diffs. The second Inter in the fleet, it has an Ali Arc bumper, a premium trim package, dual exhaust stacks and a Transport & General body and matching four-axle trailer.
Truck & Driver | 97
Morrinsville-based Bower Brothers Concrete has put its first Kenworth (which is also its first tipper) to work, primarily carting sand to its concrete and block plant. The T610 8x4 has a 550-578hp Cummins X15 engine, an Eaton UltraShift Plus AMT and Meritor 46-160 diffs. It also has Alcoa Dura Bright alloys and a Transport & General bulk body, with a matching five-axle trailer – both bearing spectacular murals.
George Matheson’s Hauraki Bulk has put this new DAF CF tipper on the road, carting aggregate out of Auckland quarries and picking up some bulk loads at the Port of Auckland. Jamie Emerson drives the 6x4, which has a 530hp MX13 engine and TraXon AMT, plus a suite of safety features and a Transfleet bulk bin, with a matching short five trailer.
98 | Truck & Driver
Waipukurau 72-year-old Noel Gallien reckons that retirement isn’t currently an option: “I’ve got to do something.,…not ready to stop yet.” Thus it is that he’s just bought his first new truck – a DAF CF85 6x4 bulk tipper to cart grain, metal and fertiliser for farms in his home area. It has a 510hp MX engine, a ZF AMT and Transfleet Hardox steel tipper body.
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31 YEARS IN NZ (1964-1995) In the early 1960’s, New Zealand Forest Products Ltd in Tokoroa were looking for suitable replacements for their iconic fleet of International logging trucks. In 1964, two 848 model off-highway Kenworth’s were finally put to work hauling logs in to the Kinleith mill, and so started New Zealand’s love affair with the legendary Kenworth brand. Over the next 31 years, nearly 1000 various model Kenworth trucks arrived to ply the nation’s highways & byways. Edwin Mansell, Grant Gadsby and Paul Livsey have embarked on their next literary endeavour to encapsulate the photographic history of the ownership of these trucks over that 31 year period.
This edition, follows on from the successful sell-out of the Mack 1000 book. With an approximate price of $150 + postage, it is envisaged that the Kenworth book will be published in 2023 to commemorate Kenworth’s centenary of manufacture. Now is the time to place your order for this 500 page coffee table styled book. It will be the perfect partner for the Mack book in your collection. Email Ed, Grant or Paul to advise your interest in this once in a lifetime Kenworth pictorial history.
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