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BIG TEST A trucking Tetris | FLEET FOCUS Cowboys don’t cry | FEATURE A collectors’ collective
TETRIS
The Official Magazine of the
Issue 246
FLEET FOCUS Cowboys don’t cry
FEATURE A collectors’ collective
ISSN 1174-7935
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CONTENTS Issue 246 – June 2021 4
Aeolus News
The latest in the world of transport, including…. first batch of NZ’s FUSO eCanter electric trucks start work next month; Mercs that can help steer themselves set for trial here; new Kenworth Legend unveiled
22 Giti Tyres Big Test
Saiyaz (Sunny) Khan is a truckie alright – but his job calls for him to spend as much time (if not more) engaged in what looks like a giant game of Tetris, as he does actually driving his Isuzu CYJ530
65 They’ve built it….for you to get behind it
The Road Transport Forum has got Government support for its Te ara ki tua Road to success traineeship. It’s got formal qualifications, its got a licence progression, trainees….. All it needs now is operator buy-in
72 New words, new meanings, new directions
81 A collectors’ collective
Until about six years ago, South Canterbury classic truck collectors were just doing their own thing. In a dramatic turnaround, by joining forces with traction engine enthusiasts, they now have a growing museum to show off their treasures in
46 Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus
To the New Zealand road transport industry, the late Jim Barker was a legendary figure – an icon, a pioneer…and a larger-than-life character. To Main Road owner Daniel Mateni he was all of that….and much, much more
80/ NZ Transport Imaging Awards 81 Recognising NZ’s best-looking truck fleets….
including a giant pullout poster of this month’s finalist
93 CrediFlex Recently Registered New truck and trailer registrations for April
It’s not only the awful world of COVID-19 that’s spawned new word meanings (think “lockdown”) and new terms (like “travel bubble”). The trucking industry is coining new buzzwords and catchphrases too, as the annual Volvo Group Australia media conference confirms
37 Transport Forum
Latest news from the Road Transport Forum NZ, including…..reducing speed limits is not the answer to poor roads; RTF Conference registrations open; Forum takes roadside drug testing advocacy to Parliament
REGULARS
COLUMNS 89 National Road Carriers Association
The potential benefits of inner-city congestion charging look to be enormous – saving time for transport operators. But let’s just trial it first
91 Road Transport Association NZ Operators need to listen to what young people are saying if we want to attract them into our industry
FEATURES 62 Southpac Trucks Legends Aaron Headington heads a division of Southpac Trucks that could reasonably be said to be all about making people’s dreams come true
MANAGEMENT Publisher
Trevor Woolston 027 492 5600 trevor@trucker.co.nz
CONTRIBUTORS Gerald Shacklock Dave McLeod Olivia Beauchamp Kurt Matthews Photography
Advertising
Trevor Woolston 027 492 5600 trevor@trucker.co.nz
ART DEPARTMENT Design & Production Luca Bempensante Zarko Mihic
Hayden Woolston 027 448 8768 hayden@trucker.co.nz
EQUIPMENT GUIDE AUCKLAND, NORTHLAND, BOP, WAIKATO, CENTRAL NORTH ISLAND Advertising Trudy Woolston 027 233 0090 trudy@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
AUCKLAND, LOWER NORTH ISLAND, SOUTH ISLAND Advertising Hayden Woolston
027 448 8768 hayden@trucker.co.nz Dion Rout 027 491 1110 dion@trucker.co.nz
ADMINISTRATION Sue Woolston MANAGER accounts@trucker.co.nz SUBSCRIPTIONS NZ subscription price ADDRESS Phone Freephone Postal Address Street Address Web
Sue Woolston accounts@trucker.co.nz $80 incl. GST for one year (11 issues) Overseas rates on application +64 9 571 3544 0508 TRUCKER (878 2537) PO Box 112 062, Penrose, AUCKLAND 172B Marua Road, Ellerslie, AUCKLAND www.alliedpublications.co.nz
Contributions: Editorial contributions are welcomed for consideration, but no responsibility is accepted for lost or damaged materials (photographs, graphics, printed material etc). To mail, ensure return (if required), material must be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. It’s suggested that the editor is contacted by fax or email before submitting material. Copyright: Articles in New Zealand Truck & Driver are copyright and may not be reproduced in any form – in whole or part – without permission of the publisher. Opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by, the publisher.
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 | 3
NEWS
Getting new eCanters working in NZ has been a five-year process
Electric FUSOs finally here AUCKLAND’S ONE-YEAR CITY-CENTRE ELECTRIC truck trial is set to begin next month, following the long-awaited arrival in New Zealand of six FUSO eCanter battery-electric light trucks. Fuso NZ says their arrival is the culmination of five years of planning and prepares the way for the approved trial of electric trucks in Auckland City’s proposed zero emissions area (ZEA). Five of the electric FUSOs are going to work in the trial, making deliveries in the city centre for operators Mainfreight, Bidfood, Toll Group, Owens Transport and Vector OnGas. The trial – said to be NZ’s biggest working evaluation of electric trucks so far – sees Fuso NZ partnering with EROAD, with co-funding for the acquisition of the trucks through the Government’s Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund, administered by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA). The operators involved will work with Fuso NZ, their customers and drivers to optimise the potential of their trucks, develop insights into optimum scheduling and vehicle capacity, and to identify solutions to any unanticipated barriers to electric truck operation in the proposed ZEA. Fuso NZ GM of sales and customer experience Kathy Schluter says the company is proud to be collaborating with “such a wide variety of credible, future-thinking brands,” and is hopeful that the ZEA trial will be a benchmark for other businesses who may be considering a transition to sustainable vehicle fleets.” Describing the arrival of the eCanters as “a momentous and hugely significant milestone for NZ transport,” Schluter says FUSO’s commitment to bringing electric trucks to NZ “will amplify our country’s renewable electricity advantage.” It will also bring focus to “the need to decarbonise vehicle fleets to 4 | Truck & Driver
deliver on the Government’s climate change goals. “Nimble, quiet and environmentally friendly, the trucks are specifically made for the city environment. We are delighted to team up with our major clients to learn and lead together to deliver a sustainable future for our country,” says Schluter. EECA transport portfolio manager, Richard Briggs, says the “high-density urban environment the trucks will operate in will be a robust test ground. The trial will demonstrate how these trucks perform, and reveal associated lower costs – such as expected reduced maintenance and servicing. “Importantly, the project will give an insight into how participating businesses will operate their trucks considering the different work profiles for each vehicle, scheduling runs around the need to charge, and the behavioural aspects of going electric.” Auckland Transport chief executive Shane Ellison says he’s confident that the learnings obtained from operating eCanters in the area will help to fasttrack the Auckland City Centre Masterplan, which sets out to address the area’s air pollution problem by reducing internal combustion engine vehicles. “Auckland Transport has a vision of a low-emissions transport network and FUSO’s eCanter trial project has real potential to contribute to this goal.” The trial will provide evidence to support the AT and Waka Kotahi NZTA business cases, legislative change and policy implementation planning required for Auckland to successfully implement the ZEA – and “provide confidence to freight operators that they can, and should, continue their businesses with electric trucks”, says Ellison. The zero emissions eCanters also have, as standard, safety features including active emergency braking, lane departure warning system and electronic stability control. T&D
NEWS
Main picture: Twenty Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks with Active Drive Assist will take part in the Australasian trial Inset: With ADA engaged (it can be switched off ), the truck will actively help steer itself around corners
Self-steering Mercs for NZ trial IN A NEW ZEALAND FIRST, Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks that can help steer themselves are to go on the road here in a validation programme. Five Actros heavy-duty trucks with Active Drive Assist technology – giving them SAE Level 2 partially automated driving capability – will be run in customer fleets as part of an Australasian trial. Another 15 Mercs with Active Drive Assist will also be running in the validation programme. The trial trucks will go to work with “a wide range of customer fleets, clocking up substantial kilometres on various roads across both countries.” The Active Drive Assist system helps to steer the truck in corners – keeping it in the centre of its lane….with the driver still required to hold the steering wheel. It is a step ahead of other systems able to “push” a truck back into its lane if it begins to run wide or wander out. Mercedes-Benz Trucks Australia Pacific, which announced the trial at last month’s
Brisbane Truck Show, says its Active Drive Assist is proactive, rather than reactive – it “actually helps to steer the truck in the first place and aims to prevent it getting out to the edge of the lane. “It does this by using cameras to monitor the edge of the road and lane markings, and uses that data to help operate the electro-hydraulic steering system. The driver can overrule it at any time and is able to turn off the system.” The company revealed that it has already had “a handful” of Actros trucks with Active Drive Assist operating in customer fleets for a few months, with positive feedback. M-B Trucks Australia Pacific director Andrew Assimo says the Active Drive Assist technology is promising: “Mercedes-Benz is always looking for new technology to boost safety and reduce fuel consumption and emissions and we think Active Drive Assist could deliver genuine benefits to our customers. “Level 2 automation has the potential to deliver a major safety boost and make life easier for drivers by helping to reduce fatigue, so naturally we are very keen to validate how the
system operates on Australian and NZ roads.” Assimo says active safety aids such as the Active Brake Assist 5 advanced emergency braking system, active cruise control and lane departure warning – standard on the Actros – “have been embraced by operators. “More and more customers are placing increased importance on advanced active safety features that can help protect truck drivers and other road users. “Mercedes-Benz has been at the forefront with fully-integrated active safety systems and we intend to continue this leadership,” he adds. The company will decide whether Active Drive Assist will become an option in the Australasian market, based on operator feedback and data from the validation programme. Merc’s new Actros, launched in mid-2020, boasts new technology including multimedia tablet screens in the cab, optional MirrorCam to replace rear-vision mirrors and predictive powertrain control – using GPS and topographic information to “see” the road ahead and optimise gearshifting. T&D Truck & Driver | 5
FAMILY VALUES
Join the FUSO family and enjoy major benefits from extended warranties and service options.
At FUSO, we are committed to looking after our own – that means supporting our customers’ businesses through exceptional value, trusted service and advanced technology for better overall performance and enhanced driver safety. Our evolving range of new FUSO trucks and buses, and vital parts
and service network, continue to go from strength to strength, supporting a wide range of businesses from single-unit owner-operators to large multinationals. With extended five-year warranty cover and Cents Per Kilometre service contracts, we’ve got you and your assets well covered.
NEWS
New Kenworth Legend unveiled KENWORTH HAS REVEALED THE THIRD OF ITS special edition Legend models – unveiling the 50th Anniversary Edition Legend SAR at the Brisbane Truck Show. The Legend SAR is modelled on the iconic W900SAR – built for 10 years from 1975 and the first Kenworth designed, engineered and built in Australia, specifically for Australia (and New Zealand). The latest Legend, timed to coincide with celebrations of Kenworth’s halfcentury of truck manufacturing in Australia, follows sellout limited runs of a Legend 950 in 2015 and the Legend 900 in 2017. Kenworth reckons the Legend SAR “is in a league of its own, combining the latest technology for safer, cleaner and more productive operation, with features that embrace Kenworth’s unique heritage.” The heritage-style features that come with The Legend SAR include a twopiece (split) windscreen with chrome trim, topped by bullet-style cab marker lights and dual round air horns, old-style Kenworth and Cummins badges on the bonnet, an anniversary edition red and gold traditional Kenworth bug and a reproduction SAR grille. Round four-inch indicator lights and wraparound covers on the sidemounted exhausts (with exposed chrome elbows and seven-inch curved pipes) replicate the original SARs. The kick-plates on the door openings carry Legend SAR logos, traditional extruded aluminium tank steps run alongside round fuel tanks, with stainless rear guards and tail-light bars standard – along with black rubber mudflaps with the traditional Kenworth logo. Under the sloping bonnet is a Cummins X15 engine, specially painted in beige to commemorate Cummins’ heritage. The interior of the Legend SAR features diamond-pleat trim with Legend SAR 50th Anniversary Edition branding on the rear wall and door trims, Kenworth and Legend SAR embroidery on the leather seats, a wooden Eaton Fullerbranded gear knob, more Legend SAR branding on the gearstick surround and a wooden plaque on the glovebox lid carrying the Legend’s build number. It also has a traditional flat dash layout, with a full suite of handmade heritage-style chrome-bezelled and white-faced gauges, featuring the traditional Kenworth bug, toggle switches with backlit graphics and a four-spoke leather
steering wheel. PACCAR Australia sales and marketing director Brad May says the Legend SAR “not only commemorates 50 years of proudly manufacturing Kenworth trucks in Australia, it symbolises what was a turning point for local design and engineering and the custom-build philosophy that Kenworth is still renowned for today.” The W900SAR (SAR for Short-bonnet Australian right-hand drive) was an iconic fusion of the W900AR and S2 models – able, importantly, to take the high horsepower engines favoured by Australian transport operators and still carry the maximum legal payload within existing length limits. It was also lighter than the AR and Kenworth’s cabover model of the day, the K100. Southpac’s general sales manager Richard Smart says the NZ representative has all the information on the Legend SAR options and points out that the oneoff will be on sale for just one day – Thursday July 8. T&D Main picture: The new Legend model was unveiled at last month’s Brisbane Truck Show
Below: An old-school flat dash, custombuilt dials and special branding feature inside the cab
Truck & Driver | 7
NEWS The three 11-tonne battery-electric light-duty trucks will allow TR Group customers to trial EVs in their operations
Trio of TR etrucks NEW ZEALAND’S LARGEST COMMERCIAL VEHICLE leasing and rental company is adding electric vehicles (EVs) to its fleet. TR Group has taken delivery of three 11-tonne GVM SEA Electric 4x2 curtainsiders, suitable for metro pickup and delivery duties. The company purchased the etrucks with co-funding from the Government’s Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund, administered by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA). They were added to TR’s rental truck lineup last month – joining another 10 electric vehicles that are either in build for the company or already at work in its lease fleet, with customers such as The Warehouse, Noel Leeming, TOLL, and Civic Contractors. TR Group managing director Andrew Carpenter says the company is excited by the positive impact the vehicles will have on the transport sector and the environment: “There is no doubt that EV technology has advanced to the point where, in the not-too-distant future, it will become
an economically viable, operationally reliable option – certainly in shorthaul metro applications. “And it is also one that I know our customers will embrace, given their desire to minimise their carbon footprint and meet their sustainability goals. “As a business that supplies heavy commercial vehicles for rental and lease, we feel it’s important to be at the forefront of offering this technology to our customers, and we’re delighted to be working with EECA and our customers to make that happen,” adds Carpenter. EECA transport portfolio manager Richard Briggs says: “Around 20% of NZ’s greenhouse gas emissions come from road transport, and heavy vehicles have a disproportionate impact on that. “TR Group’s new heavy electric trucks give road transport operators the chance to prove electric can work for them, and we look forward to seeing more businesses incorporating electric trucks into their fleets.” T&D
Expansion of electronic road tax “essential” THE GOVERNMENT’S PLAN TO expand the use of electronic road tax – building on New Zealand’s well-established eRUC system – makes sense, EROAD believes. Expanding the use of GPS-technology “to simplify how roads are paid for is welcome news,” says EROAD chief executive Steven Newman. EROAD – “NZ’s homegrown world leader in GPS-based road tax technologies,” delivering 8 | Truck & Driver
services here and in North America – tracks over 87,000 Kiwi vehicles and collects almost half of all heavy vehicle road user charges for the Government. Says Newman: “Electronic RUC has proven its worth many times over, delivering savings both to the Government and to heavy vehicle and light vehicle fleet operators. It has opened the door for a wide range of safety benefits as well.
“With the uptake of electric and other alternative-fuelled vehicles increasing, finding a way to extend the benefits of GPS-based approaches to light passenger vehicles – family cars and the like – is essential. “Our experience here and abroad has demonstrated again and again that these changes take time. 2030 will be here before we know it, so there is no better time to start than now.” T&D
YOUR HAMMAR. YOUR WAY
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HAMMAR 130:
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NEWS
The 4x2 Shacman L3000 model has a 245hp Cummins engine, with an Allison automatic transmission
Shacman adds 12-tonner CHINESE TRUCK MAKE SHACMAN HAS ADDED A third model to its New Zealand lineup – a medium-duty 4x2 with a 12-tonne GVM. The addition of the Shacman L3000 comes just four months after the make was launched here, with heavy-duty 440-horsepower/328 kilowatt Cummins-engined X3000 6x4s and 8x4s. The L3000 has a 245hp/182kW Euro 5 Cummins engine, with 950 Newton metres/700 pound foot of peak torque.
It has an Allison T280R automatic transmission with a retarder, ECAS rear air suspension, EBS and ABS braking, disc brakes front and rear and Alcoa alloy wheels. Bobby Khan, general manager of Shacman importer Sinolink NZ, says that the L3000, with its 6.7-metre wheelbase, “is ideal for empty container work, flatdeck, car carrier or school bus use – or just about any application.” There is, he says, a three to four-month lead time for delivery. T&D
Access for Everyone...except trucks and vans! PROPOSED ROADING LAYOUT changes to Queen Street, in Auckland’s CBD, will make freight and courier deliveries to downtown retail and office businesses “more difficult and unsafe.” This is the belief of National Road Carriers Association (NRC) spokesman Chris Carr, who says that the proposed changes are part of Auckland Transport’s Access for Everyone plan…. “But they are actually significantly reducing access for freight! As key stakeholders in roading and transport, the freight industry was not properly consulted on these changes before they were proposed.” AT’s proposed changes include limiting delivery vehicles to the southbound lane of one stretch of Queen St during rush hours – with the northbound lane for buses only. It also plans to limit one section of Queen St to
buses only…at all times. And to create fulltime bus lanes and travel restrictions elsewhere in the heart of the CBD. Carr says making it so that delivery drivers are unable to park on the side of Queen St that they’re servicing would be “hazardous, as drivers will have to cross the busy street with their deliveries – sometimes with multiple trolley loads.” In one stretch of Queen St where two shopping plazas and a hotel are located, the proposed changes would leave just one loading zone available at peak courier delivery times. And the plan also has loading bays reshaped – cutting their capacity from three vans to two. Says Carr: “This will inevitably create delivery vehicle snarlups and delivery drivers will be forced to find alternatives like double parking or pavement parking….or stop servicing those businesses.”
Carr suggests instead that private cars be banned from Queen St, so that it’s freed-up for buses, cyclists, pedestrians and delivery vehicles. The bus-only section of the street should be opened to delivery vehicles at night, when buses are not running or are less frequent. He also wants shared bus and freight lanes, retained – along with loading zones….in their number and their capacities. And he calls on AT to engage better with businesses “to understand their freight needs.” Summing-up the AT plan, Carr reckons: “AT says it wants to transform Auckland’s city centre into a world-class place, with thoughtful design. This is not well thought-through at all because it will create problems.” NRC will be making a submission to Auckland Council on the proposed Queen St layout changes. T&D Truck & Driver | 11
NEWS
Bombay show’s beneficiaries THE BOMBAY TRUCK SHOW – created specifically to showcase the industry AND give to deserving community organisations – has chosen the three beneficiaries for the next show. All the proceeds from the show, set for February 12 next year, will be donated to Leukaemia & Blood Cancer NZ, Franklin Hospice and the Bombay Rugby Club. The philosophy of the show’s committee is “to create a show where the transport industry gets showcased to its fullest at a not-for-profit event. “From this we can make a real difference by giving donations to charities that help all of us and to the community that supported us from the start. Our intention is that everyone benefits from – and thoroughly enjoys – the event!” The mix of next year’s beneficiaries means, says committee member Marieka Morcombe, “that locally and country-wide, our show profits get to help many people. “Leukaemia & Blood Cancer NZ, Franklin Hospice and the Bombay Rugby Club are very
deserving organisations, which help support some of the most in-need people in our society, as well as helping our local community.” An appreciative Leukaemia & Blood Cancer NZ business manager Annabel Lush says that “seven Kiwis every day – adults and children – will receive the devastating news that they have blood cancer. “The vital funds raised from the show will be invested in our wide range of support services throughout NZ, including emergency financial support, to ensure that no-one has to face their blood cancer journey alone.” Franklin Hospice CEO Ric Odom says: “Working in conjunction with other health professionals, Franklin Hospice provides free specialist palliative care support for those in our community living with a life-limiting illness, while also supporting the families and caregivers of our patients. “We in turn are heavily reliant on the support of our community and so we are thrilled (and humbled) to be chosen by the organisers of the Bombay Truck Show as one of the local
charities to benefit from the show. Building on the success of previous shows, the next Bombay Truck Show promises to be a wonderful family event. We will be there and look forward to engaging with all the visitors.” Bombay Rugby Club president Corby Brown says that the inaugural show was “a tremendous event” and was fully supported by the club, “which benefits greatly – along with other charities. “And, most importantly, the community as a whole benefits – as the organisers have done a great job of making the event friendly to everyone.” The money raised from the 48 exhibitors, the 300-plus show ‘n’ shine trucks and gate takings will be split evenly between the three beneficiaries – “giving everyone involved the knowledge that what’s raised is going to good causes,” says the committee. On show day, after the show ‘n’ shine prizegiving, each beneficiary will be presented with a cheque so all show participants can see exactly how much has been raised. T&D
■ Design & Certification Staff
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TD31607
Heavy Vehicle Engineering | In-House Heavy Vehicle Certification | General Engineering
NEWS
Just some of the trucks en route to the inaugural Bombay Truck Show
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Phone: 07 849 4839 Email: hiab@trt.co.nz Address: 48 Maui Street, Te Rapa, Hamilton
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NEWS
MAN checks out solar power Solar panels, like these on the roof of a MAN eTGE van will also be trialled on an eTGE combi and an urban delivery truck – to provide power to aircon and fridge units, or to simply provide extra power to battery electric or fuel cell electric systems
SOLAR POWER IS BEING INVESTIGATED AS A potential source of extra power for battery electric or fuel cell trucks – to either run the likes of aircon or fridge units, or to extend the etrucks’ range. MAN Truck & Bus and Sono Motors have agreed to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of integrating Sono’s mobile solar technology into a MAN eTGE urban and regional delivery truck. Three vehicles are to be equipped with Sono Solar technology and investigated by the companies – an MAN eTGE van, an eTGE combi with a powerful on-roof airconditioning system, and an eTGE urban and regional truck with a fridge unit. MAN senior VP and head of sales (truck and van) Dennis Affeld says: “We will pool our joint know-how and expertise to test various prototypes with vehicle-integrated photovoltaic technology. “The aim is to find out how much energy can be gained from PV technology over the year. Using this insight, we can then assess whether the technology pays off for our customers and at the same time helps to protect the environment.” Due to the larger surface of trucks, vans and buses compared to passenger cars, the Sono Solar panels are particularly well-suited to commercial applications, like last-mile deliveries. T&D
Keith Andrews represents Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner in the Bay A NEW MERCEDES-BENZ A ND Freightliner representation arrangement for Hawke’s Bay has seen Keith Andrews confirmed as a sales, parts and service dealer for the Daimler Truck makes…. While existing Merc and Freightliner parts and service rep, Jim Young Motors, will continue in that role….sharing the territory with Keth Andrews Napier. Keith Andrews, which bought Napier F USO dealer First Commercials in January, will be the exclusive truck sales representative for Freightliner and M-B. Keith Andrews Napier’s full operations began last month, with all three Daimler 14 | Truck & Driver
Truck brands represented on the same site, under the Keith Andrews name. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific (DTBA), which will see Keith Andrews providing sales, parts and service for the three Daimler truck brands across six North Island locations,” says Keith Andrews managing director Aaron Smith. “We look forward to working alongside Jim Young and his team to ensure MercedesBenz and Freightliner truck operators in Hawke’s Bay continue to receive the exceptional service they have come to expect.” T&D
Keith Andrews MD Aaron Smith
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NEWS The mini-mixer unit carries Mentemia messages on the doors and the bowl
Mixing in mental health and wellbeing HIGGINS CONCRETE IS PUTTING EMPLOY EE welfare at the front and centre of its business, partnering with Mentemia to incorporate mental health and wellbeing into its day-today operations – and publicising it through the livery of two blue Hino readymix trucks. “We tragically lost a staff member during the COVID-19 lockdown and that really underlined the importance of offering support to staff across both their work and home environments,” says Higgins Concrete central region manager Aaron Currie. “So we introduced the Mentemia programme into the business, giving all staff access to the full range of support it offers.”
In the two months since its introduction, the programme has made it okay to talk about mental health, Currie says – and he’s noticed a new openness between staff members as Mentemia is integrated into training and day-to-day operations. By branding a new Hino mini mixer unit Mentemia’s blue livery, with accompanying signage, Higgins Concrete has purposely chosen a truck that will pass through the hands of multiple drivers – as the driver typically changes every four to six months: “The small mixer requires a Class 2 licence – providing an entry point for young drivers to progress towards their Class 4. This helps to get new staff into our thinking and culture around mental health from the get-go,” says Currie. T&D
Wheel alignment biz changes hands LONGTIME HEAV Y VEHICLE business, Auckland Truck Wheel Alignment Specialists, has been sold to new father and son owners Rick and Grant Ranger. The Manukau business, now renamed Auckland Truck Alignment, was operated for more than 20 years by Neil Smith. Rick Ranger is a well-known figure in the trucking industry, having owned several trucking companies and has been part of the heavy haulage scene for many
years. Son Grant has also been around trucks his entire life, and has come from the forklift industry, as a qualified forklift technician. He has run a workshop for the past two years and is “keen to get stuck in with this new challenge in the trucking industry.” Grant says they have taken the business on with a clear vision of providing good customer service: “We want to be
contactable and approachable – to, in turn, keep our customers happy. “We have plans in place to expand on what we have bought – with new equipment and technology. We are excited for the years ahead and look forward to working with existing and new customers.” T&D
Father and son Rick and Grant Ranger have big plans for the business Truck & Driver | 17
NEWS
Bridgestone’s voted the most trusted...again BRIDGESTONE HAS RETAINED THE TITLE OF NEW Zealand’s Most Trusted Tyre Brand in the annual Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Brands survey….for the fifth year in a row. In Australia it outdid that – notching up its eighth consecutive victory, making it the only brand to have won the tyres category since it was introduced in 2014. Firestone recorded its fifth straight year as the highly commended brand in NZ – giving the two brands a clean-sweep of the awards here since the tyre category was introduced in 2015. Firestone won it the first two years. Bridgestone Australia & NZ MD Stephen Roche says that maintaining trust is key to Bridgestone’s future business direction. “To win this award eight times in Australia and five times in New Zealand highlights that Bridgestone understands the needs of motorists. By providing
safe, reliable and quality tyres they can depend on, it forms the platform for how we will continue to be the trusted source of tyres and automotive solutions into the future.” For NZ and Australia, this means an increased focus on Bridgestone’s network of stores and an ongoing commitment to understanding customers’ needs and providing solutions to meet the evolving needs of the industry. “Building on the trust we’ve earned with our customers is a key part of our future vision. We remain committed to identifying the needs of customers and delivering solutions that meet these needs and advance mobility,” says Roche. “Australians and NZers have an undeniable affinity with our brand and we’re committed to strengthening their trust in us into the future by continuing to provide tyres, services and solutions they can put their trust in, meeting customers’ needs and advancing our industry.” T&D
Drug testing specialist in strategic alliance WORKPLACE DRUG AND ALCOHOL testing specialist The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA) has entered a strategic partnership with New Zealand private healthcare provider Healthcare Holdings (HHL). The two companies say that the partnership enables TDDA to access assets, relationships, expertise and capital. They say that it will allow the company to grow its business, including new opportunities, while further developing its health and wellbeing portfolio and improve its Health Tick operations. Healthcare Holdings MD Andrew Wong says TDDA’s market leadership in drug and alcohol 18 | Truck & Driver
testing and education – operating nearly 100 mobile testing vans and 65 sterile locations across NZ and Australia – “is very appealing to us. “Its clients are broad, revenues secure and we see significant potential for growth by adding HHL’s healthcare capabilities to TDDA’s businesses. “HHL is an established medical provider, known for quality medical care, facilities and importantly, people,” says TDDA CEO Kirk Hardy. “While HHL’s diagnostic capabilities will improve what we do at TDDA, the company’s medical expertise, particularly around medical
screenings and health checkups are just what we need to grow the Health Tick business. Taking a holistic view of health and wellbeing, not just screening people for drugs and alcohol, is the future of this company.” TDDA’s management team will remain in their current roles, with Hardy, COO Glenn Dobson and group technical manager Rod Dale also remaining shareholders. Both TDDA and Health Tick will continue to trade under their existing brands. TDDA’s board has changed to support the new strategic direction of providing more holistic health and safety services and products. T&D
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Drivesure adds heavy truck testing DRIVESURE VEHICLE TESTING HAS OPENED ITS first heavy vehicle testing facility in West Auckland – and has quickly seen its Certificate of Fitness business grow to 70-80% capacity. The heavy vehicle testing facility, based at Drivesure’s Henderson “supersite” in Moselle Avenue, is a new milestone for the company. Drivesure has grown over the last 12 years from a single warrant of fitness testing station on Auckland’s North Shore to become a Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency key service delivery partner (KSDP), with operations across Auckland and in Hamilton. CEO Greg Ranson says: “Key to our growth and success has been our people and management systems. The establishment of this new heavy vehicle inspection operation has been driven by industry demand – along with our strong track record of quality inspection outcomes for both customers and NZTA. “The addition of heavy vehicle CoF inspection completes our services, alongside entry certification, light vehicle inspections such as WoF and CoFA, and vehicle registrations.” Ranson says that he’s happy with the level of business since the heavy vehicle testing facility began operating in mid-March: “We are running at 70-80% capacity, with customers travelling from Manukau, North Shore and Kumeu for CoFs. “What we’ve seen is that there is a definite demand for the service we
The Drivesure heavy vehicle testing facility has tapped a high demand for CoF testing provide – availability certainty to operators and heavy vehicle repairers.” Ranson says that although it held KSDP status “for a while,” it took several months for NZTA’s approval of the CoF inspection authority to be approved – possibly partly because the agency “is doing a revamp of the Heavy Vehicle Certification over the course of this year and they are very keen to ensure that new entrants into the inspection market are up to standard.” He says the Henderson location, which is open from 6am Monday to Saturday and can accommodate all classes of heavy vehicle, was based on the availability of a suitable inspection facility with adequate queuing space. Ranson says the company is looking at additional sites, to meet strong demand for vehicle inspection services of all types at present, including compliance and in-service inspections. T&D
Scania expands its sales team FOUR NEW SALES MANAGERS have been appointed by Scania New Zealand to its sales team. Garry Leitch takes on the role of national sales manager, having previously held senior management positions in the industry – most recently as dealer development manager for the lower North Island. And three new account managers have more than 60 years’ experience in the industry between them. Adam Corbett has been appointed account
manager in Auckland, while Callan Short is in the same role for Rotorua, Taupo, Hawke’s Bay and the Ruapehu district and Damon Smith has been appointed the account manager for South Auckland to Huntly and the Coromandel region. Scania NZ sales director Deon Stephens says “the sales team expansion is driven by Scania’s recent significant growth around the country. “These changes are also about adapting to ensure we continue to meet our valued customers’ needs as our first priority.” T&D
National sales manager Garry Leitch Truck & Driver | 21
It’s a very different kind of working life for this Isuzu CYJ530. The Auckland-based crane truck spends fully 70% of its time standing still – loading or unloading. In this case it’s taking on two houselots of roof trusses at Placemakers’ Wiri yard
22 | Truck & Driver
BIG TEST
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TETRIS Story Dave McLeod Photos Gerald Shacklock
Truck & Driver | 23
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On a small suburban street, near the water in Panmure, Sunny Khan goes about carefully unloading the prefabricated timber frames and placing them close to where they’ll be erected on the new house
EEING TOM RYAN CARTAGE DRIVER SAIYAZ KHAN at work is like watching someone playing a Tetris video game….on a giant scale. Or skilfully taking part in a super-sizeme variant of Jenga maybe. Because Saiyaz is as much a crane operator as he is a truck driver. Maybe even more so. You only have to see him here, in Placemakers’ yard in Wiri, as he operates the Palfinger PK65002-SH crane on his Isuzu CYJ530 8x4 tractor unit – loading two job lots of house trusses and frames – to understand that. Watching him deal with a bewildering pile of prefabricated building parts – a tricky mix of triangles, oblongs and squares, each of which needs to be positioned perfectly so as not to overhang, bow or shift on its coming journey – is both complex and, just quietly, pretty damn impressive. Saiyaz – better known as Sunny because, he reckons, “people find it hard to pronounce my real name” (although it could just as well be because he’s a happy chap, with a sunny disposition) – has been driving for around 14 years. For all but one of them he’s been with Tom Ryan Cartage, which these days runs 58 Palfinger truck crane units – the biggest of them a PK92002, which just happens to be the biggest truck-mounted crane in New Zealand. The specialist truck crane business is a world that Sunny’s been part of for the last six years. And it’s plain to see he’s comfortable at the Palfinger’s controls. He sums up his journey so far with the Auckland transport operator: “I started with Tom when I had a Class 2 and was with the airfreight division, on a curtainsider.
“I did airfreight and sea freight for a couple of years and then, about six years ago – when I got my Class 5 – they put me on the fish run….unloading commercial fishing boats with the crane.” That, he says, was interesting – unloading around 100 tonnes of fish a night: “You set the crane up to the hull of a four-storey boat, with the fish right down at the bottom. And then you winch all the fish up.” He did a couple of years on that before moving on to helping out on motorway upgrade construction jobs at night. As an example, he says: “About four years ago I did a bit of night-shift – standing poles along the (Southern) Motorway, from Mount Wellington Highway all the way to Greenlane. All the streetlights.” Today’s first job (he typically only squeezes in two or three loads a day) is picking up the prefab framework for the roof and upper level of two new houses from Placemakers and delivering them to a site in Panmure. Today he’ll end up doing just two jobs – this one seeing him spending 90 minutes or more loading up, then doing the short drive to the construction site, then spending another 90 minutes putting them up on the house frames, exactly where the builder wants them. Says Sunny: “It’s an easy run – just the loading and unloading takes the time. But since it’s a crane job we have to be careful of safety everywhere – not going over the load, securing the load, height restrictions and all that.” Despite his years of experience and evident ease with the Palfinger, Sunny reckons: “I’m still learning about the crane work. You learn as you go. This is a 30-metre reach crane, which Truck & Driver | 25
Main picture: Two steering axles on the Steelbro trailer’s quad set help with its manoeuvrability in turns
Top, this page – both pictures: Everything in its place...and a place for everything. The Isuzu bristles with storage spaces for the equipment needed in crane work Opposite page, both pictures: There’s a bewildering array of building trusses around here....and even once you know which bundles are your load, placing them in precisely the right place on the trailer is like playing a super-size-me version of Jenga
is one of the biggest and therefore needs extra attention.” He agrees that loading the trusses is like doing a puzzle: “You’ve got to set them up nicely in order to make sure they’re not sticking out of the trailer – or you’ll need a flag.” And if one is wider than the others, that’s alright…. but you need to put it in the right order so that “the trusses don’t break when the next one goes on top. It’s all done by experience – each and every day. I’ve been doing it for a while now.” The frames all look alike to me – but, thankfully, Sunny gets it right – with checks in place to ensure the loading is correct, he explains. “I go in the morning to dispatch and I get my work paper. I take that to the yard man and the yard guy will come with me
26 | Truck & Driver
and show me where they’re placed. He’ll tell me (for example) for one house there’s five bundles there….for the other house, six. “And he’ll show you what’s what. And while you’re loading he’ll come and check if you’re alright and that you are loading the right stuff.” The checks don’t stop there: “Then before I leave, they check it and take a picture of it. And then you leave.” There are numbers spraypainted on the frames too, “which is good because they all look the same! So you make sure that you have the right number, otherwise you have to take it back – and you have an angry builder.” This load only amounts to around five tonnes – not massive by any stretch of the imagination and well under the
“Then, before I leave, they check and take a picture of it. And then you leave.”
Truck & Driver | 27
Sunny really can’t fault the Isuzu – finding its cab interior comfortable and user friendly
combination’s 14,650kg legal maximum payload. That’s with the 8x4 tractor unit – including its 6800kg Palfinger, stabiliser legs and plates, chains and so on – tareing at a hefty 20,590kg, and the four-axle Steelbro SBSP 443T extendable semi-trailer’s 8760kg tare weight. So though it ain’t heavy, this is a complex, awkward-looking load that claims most of the space on the unextended quad. With it all secure we jump on board. Cab entry is simple, with three well-spaced and grated steps, and front and rear grabhandles. Sunny engages the AMT, clears the yard and we head off towards the Southern Motorway and its commuter traffic. Sunny says that the Isuzu itself was boss Tom Ryan’s choice and is similar to the one he was driving on the night shift. However, Sunny did have a free hand to have his say in the design of the truck in terms of its fitout. And he really went to town on storage: There are, quite literally, places for everything – inside and out. Tom Ryan says that “loyalty and passion” are the two main reasons for the Isuzu/Palfinger combo: “Isuzu are good to deal with – good service, good parts. Can’t complain. “Palfinger? Well, 42 years of history with Palfinger cranes: The combo works well. “They are Ryan-built trucks that we specify, but drivers get used to their own bits and pieces – and they’re the ones that have got to live in it and drive it. It’s no good if someone else says we’re doing it this way, when the driver knows that it can be done better. 28 | Truck & Driver
“We also get the drivers to go down and check on the build, so we know that when they do get on them, they’re happy. I believe that it’s the right driver, for the right truck, for the right job. It’s the drivers that make you.” And Sunny is clearly happy that this new Isuzu is just the way he wanted it – a lot different to the 24-metre reach Palfinger/ Isuzu combo that he had before: “The other Isuzu was already designed when I got on it. So I took the best of that and added what extra I wanted. “We’ve been using Gary Douglas Engineering in Palmerston North. They are very good – very understanding. Whatever you ask them to do, they will. And when they were building other trucks we went there to tell them what we wanted and where. You’ll be amazed with their design.” That means it’s been tailormade for both the job and Sunny himself: “I love my lights and my LED bar on the top of the cab. I said to them ‘wherever you find a place, put a light there.’ There are lights everywhere, front lights, foot lights, bottom bumper, sides…” But it’s not just lights that have been added: There are water tanks on both sides to wash his hands and boots, retractable side steps to climb up on the back. It has slide-out drawers for tools, chains and other gear. There are hangers in the toolboxes too so Sunny can hang his Swift Lift lifting clutches. There’s a place for everything and it’s all easily accessible. As he reasons: “If there was a space there why not fill it up.” And Sunny reckons that – despite the mix of a large numbers of accessories and cubbyholes, chain trays and stainless steel
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boxes – it didn’t take long to fill up all the storage. He says it’s a result of him twice visiting Gary Douglas Engineering to “tell them what I want.” Aside from the purposebuilt modifications, Sunny is also impressed with the CYJ530’s basic package, with its standard 29t GVM, 55t GCM and 8.8t tare. “I like it: The cabin is spacey and the truck is easy to get into and out of at sites.” The tractor unit is also manoeuvrable – importantly, when “you get some really tight and rough terrain sites, you can lift the airbags up at the back. The air suspension (four-bag) really helps.” The truck has Isuzu 6600kg F066 front axles and 21,000kg RT210 diffs, with inter-axle locks. The tractor unit’s 10-stud Alcoa alloys are fitted with Giti 275/70/R22.5 rubber. The cab is quiet, although to be fair, the 390 kilowatt/530 horsepower Isuzu 6WG1 - TCS Euro 5 15.6-litre – which produces 2255 Newton metres/1663 pound foot of peak torque at 9001300rpm – is barely breaking a sweat along the moderately congested SH1. It makes you think that the power and torque may be unnecessary for this kind of payload and these congested roads…. But then, as Sunny explains, they have gone for the 530hp due to the Palfinger crane’s 6800kg, plus its accompanying gear. According to Rod Coombs, regional sales manager Palfinger NZ, Sunny’s Isuzu is equipped with a serious truck crane – with a maximum 30.3 metre outreach on the fly jib, at 700kg. Its features include a hydraulic winch that’s foldable on the main boom, with rope tension control, synchronised rope control
(so the pulley head basically follows the crane) and Palfinger’s P-Fold system, which makes for the easy folding and unfolding of the crane. It also has a high-performance lifting system, overload protection and high-performance stability control. For its part, the Isuzu comes with an MJX16 automated manual transmission, which Sunny says is very good for Auckland’s traffic and doesn’t make him feel tired: “You’ll soon find out how bad the Auckland traffic is. There’s usually a bottleneck after Princess Street (in Penrose), but we’ll be taking the Mt Wellington exit.” In his opinion, the Isuzu doesn’t want for power at all and the AMT works fine: “It doesn’t surprise you – it goes with the flow. It does good mileage, it doesn’t hold up gears. Also, if you’ve got rough terrain or are going up a hill, I just put it in manual. And it’s also got a clutch…” A 15.5-inch twin-plate clutch to be exact, for low speed manoeuvring – and no wheel slip in the lowest forward gear. With the traffic moving slowly, there’s plenty of time to look around the cab. The molded plastic dash, complete with faux carbonfibre trim, envelops the driver and the conventional gauges on the instrument cluster are easy to read. Plus it has a 6.2-inch LCD multimedia system with additional controls on the steering wheel. The switchgear options may be a little limited in comparison to the Euros, but everything is within arm’s reach and Sunny doesn’t feel that it lacks much: “I am just missing a CB radio, but that’s coming in a few weeks. Makes it easier to communicate with other drivers.” It does have an EROAD fleet tracking system, which Sunny’s
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It takes about 90 minutes for Sunny, using the Palfinger remote control console, to unload the two house-lots – skilfully placing the trusses on top of the framework
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Top, left to right: After a drive-by of the construction site, Sunny turns the combination around.....narrow residential streets are part of the Isuzu’s habitat.....the Palfinger has to stretch out up to 28 metres to place a bundle of trusses on the framework of the rear house Right: Purposebuilt storage includes hooks for the crane’s lifting clutches Far right: Pads for the outriggers are important for ensuring a solid base
as-yet undecided about: “It is annoying sometimes, but it cuts the speed down and it tells you when it’s time for your five and a half hour break and the e-logbook on the phone tells you too.” There’s plenty of storage spaces and compartments, including shelves above the windows. It doesn’t have a fridge, but there is a chiller box in the centre console. Plus there’s a full-width bunk. To look after the driver, there’s an ISRI 6860 air-suspended seat, with pneumatic lumbar support and auto weight adjustment. And Sunny says that the aircon is really good – “nice and cold in the hot weather.” Visibility is great, courtesy of the expansive windscreen and 22-inch heated and electric main and convex mirrors: “I can pretty much see everywhere – front and sides. Turning in and out of sites it’s easy to smash the side bumper, but the side kerb and front under-view mirrors both really help.” Work sites can be full of hazards, with scaffolding, stacks of timber and so on, says Sunny: “But it only takes you an extra minute or two to get out and look, rather than just driving on and smashing the bumper – so I’d rather do that. “It’s not difficult – you just have to think. Some sites you’ll have to tell the builders to move things, like a fence maybe, to get the outriggers extended.” Having the Palfinger on the back also requires extra attention when driving: “The thing to watch is my height. I’m about four metres with the crane on top.” 32 | Truck & Driver
Pulling off the motorway and heading along Mt Wellington Highway, Sunny reports that the Isuzu’s steering is “always light, with a nice big steering wheel. It’s all pretty relaxed if you know what you’re doing.” There are three stages of braking enabled by the Giga X-Tard exhaust brake/driveline retarder combination, but Sunny says he usually only uses level one or two – “but in slow traffic I don’t use any, just the footbrake. Or if you’re going down a hill sometimes I push into three.” Overall he’s happy with the Isuzu: “They are powerful and more spacey. I jumped on the bunk bed just yesterday and it’s nice and soft – like my bed.” Better still, it’s easy to manoeuvre on building sites – importantly, he points out, since “nowadays the houses are getting built close to each other, making it difficult to get in and out of sites.” Really, he’s struggling to find any faults: “I’ve been using Isuzu for maybe three years now and I only got this one about a month ago. So I can’t really complain eh. I’ve done 6000kms – and most of that stuck in traffic!” Sunny reckons that most of his worktime sees the Isuzu stationary – while he’s loading or unloading it: “Seventy percent is crane work and 30% driving, but with not much downtime. Much of it is pretty local – anywhere between Orewa and Pokeno is the area we cover most days. But we do go to Wellington, Tauranga or Whangarei sometimes.
“We’re doing building work or things like lifting a spa pool over someone’s house. When there’s a fork-hoist on site and they’re happy to load you up it’s a bit easier, but mostly we have to do it – and hence the big crane.” We arrive at the delivery address – a narrow suburban street near the waterfront in Panmure. Sunny does a slow drive-by to work out the best way to approach it. He opts to drive down to the bottom of the road, turn around, return up the narrow street and pull the tractor unit up onto the footpath – to leave room for traffic to go by. “It’s got front and back steer axles on the trailer so it makes it easier to turn, and a steer lock too. Once you put the Isuzu into reverse it locks itself. I don’t have to get out and lock the axles,” he explains as he manoeuvres the combination into place. The obligatory orange road cones are unloaded from their storage clips and deployed around the unit, and after a quick conversation with the site manager, Sunny begins the setup routine. Ladders are put in place, the toolboxes, chain lockers and other storage boxes disgorge the tools of the trade. Sunny provides something of a summary: “You put your outrigger legs out and your outrigger pads underneath, because you never know how hard the ground is – and these cranes are heavy. “If they sink in, the whole truck can tip over. You’ve also got to make sure that when you’re reaching out 30m, your
outrigger is fully extended – not short-legged. And, again, make sure that the ground is firm. You need to get the base right, because when you’re concentrating on the load that is 30m out, you don’t want to worry about what’s happening below you.” Sunny puts on a toolbelt-style harness that holds the Palfinger controls. He looks like he’s about to operate a drone. It looks pretty complex and Sunny reckons that it’s clever too – it even has an inbuilt safety feature that halts operations if you lean over, for instance: “It thinks that maybe you’ve fallen off or something. So if you lean to start putting on your chains, it’ll go off. You can also turn the motor off remotely – it’s a feature on the remote. So if you want to hear the builder say something, you turn it off.” In clear sight of the builders on top of the house framework, Sunny hooks up the first roofing truss, lifts it and extends out the Palfinger – slowly edging the load up and towards them. For the second house, it reaches out 28 metres. In 90 minutes of precision lifting and manoeuvring, Sunny’s job here is done: Six bundles, together containing around 40 large structural pieces – soon to be transformed into the framework for the roofs and top levels of two more new Auckland houses – are now positioned close to their eventual locations. Now it’s the builders’ turn to deal with these giant jigsaw puzzles. T&D Truck & Driver | 33
HT
Test
AYDEN REVOR
ISUZU HAS SPENT 21 CONSECUTIVE YEARS AS THE NO. 1 TRUCK brand in New Zealand. Let that sink in for a moment… 21 years! I was only 13 years old when it first got the top spot – and it hasn’t relinquished it since. So what is it that has helped Isuzu be so dominant? It isn’t the most high-tech truck on the market, it’s not the most powerful truck…and it hasn’t even had a new model for a number of years. And, unlike fellow Japanese brands FUSO and UD, it hasn’t had the European influence that they’ve had. So I catch up with Tom Ryan Cartage’s Isuzu CYJ 530 8x4 tractor unit – with a massive Palfinger PK 65002 SH crane on its back – to see what’s going on. Once its regular driver Saiyaz (Sunny) Khan has expertly loaded the quad semi-trailer with all sorts of different shapes and sizes of frames and trusses – like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle – I climb up into the cab to see if I can get some idea of what makes Isuzu so popular. Entry is easy, with three steps that start low to the ground – the climb aided by two good grabhandles on each side. Inside, it’s like a small step back in time compared to some of the latest European trucks. But it doesn’t take long to realise that everything you need is in here – just not in some of the more usual places. Like the mirror adjustments – to the left of the driver’s seat, on the centre console. And the cruise control – on the dash behind the right-hand side of the steering wheel. The rest of the layout is simple but practical, with the normal tachometer and speedo on the main dash in front of the driver. To the left is a wraparound centre console with aircon, infotainment head unit and auto gear selection controls. The console is bulky, giving you
34 | Truck & Driver
Hayden Woolston
the feeling of being cocooned in the driver’s seat. I like it. And it also gives you plenty of storage. The driver’s seat is one of the best in the game – an ISRI 6860 air suspended seat that has plenty of adjustment to keep any shape of driver comfortable. The steering wheel at first glance looks oldfashioned, but has most of the controls you should need on it – with hands-free phone and radio controls. The right-hand stalk has headlight and cruise control settings and the left stalk has the engine brake and windscreen wiper controls. Because the drive is going to be short and in busy traffic, I use some of the quiet back streets of Wiri to get a feel for how this truck performs. As I pull out of Placemakers’ yard, I’m expecting the ride to not be so good – with the big crane mounted high on the chassis. But it’s really not that bad at all as I take a hard right hand turn. The mirrors work well, with a no-frills mounting arm
and small shrouding, which leaves a good gap to minimise blind spots. Each side has an upper flat mirror and lower convex mirror that give good vision to the rear and you can see the back of the trailer through most of the turns. As we gain speed the crisp and fast gear changes feel nice. We don’t have much weight on, but it’s a smooth ride none the less, with the Isuzu MJX16 automated manual upshifting at 1500rpm and dropping back to 1200-1300. It’s quiet inside the cab, with just enough noise from the Isuzu 530hp engine to let you know that everything is working well. The fact that there is still a clutch in these AMTs is a surprise, but it’s only there for inching forward or back in low-speed manoeuvring. It’s kind of nice insurance – just in case you need it. I negotiate a few roundabouts and the twinsteer tractor and its quad semi take them with ease. The good vision front and rear and the combination’s good turning circle allows you to take a wider turn, avoiding having the trailer clipping kerbs. It’s not long at all and my drive is over, but I am impressed with how this Isuzu 530 engine and its 16-speed AMT work together: They have come a long way since my father Trevor first tested these trucks. So what is it that has kept Isuzu at No. 1 for so long? Well for me, after this test drive, I reckon it comes down to an old saying all my rugby coaches used to tell us: “Get the basics right.” I think Isuzu has managed to do that with this truck. It might not have the most bling, nor be full of the most advanced technology out there, but it does have all the technology you need in today’s world of trucking. T&D
• SPECIFICATIONS • ISUZU GIGA CYJ530 8x4
Engine: Isuzu 6WG1-TCS Euro 5 Capacity: 15.6 litres Maximum power: 390kW (530hp) @ 1800rpm Maximum torque: 2255Nm (1663 lb ft) @ 900-1300rpm Fuel capacity: 400 litres Transmission: Isuzu MJX16 16-speed automated manual Ratios: 1st – 14.01 2nd – 11.34 3rd – 9.93 4th – 8.03 5th – 6.84 6th – 5.53 7th – 4.58 8th – 3.71 9th – 3.05 10th – 2.47 11th – 2.16 12th – 1.75 13th – 1.49 14th – 1.20 15th – 1.00 16th – 0.81 Front axles: Isuzu FO66, rated at 6600kg Rear axles: Isuzu RT210, together rated at 21,000kg Auxiliary brakes: Isuzu Giga X-Tard driveshaft retarder and exhaust brake Front suspension: Isuzu tapered, parabolic leaf springs, shock absorbers, stabiliser bars Rear suspension: Isuzu four-bag air suspension, shock absorbers, stabiliser bars GVW: 29,000kg GCM: 55,000kg
Truck & Driver | 35
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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
Lowering the speed limit on State Highway 5 will not fix the fundamental issues with the road
Reducing speed limits not the answer to poor roads Y
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OU DON’T HAVE TO TRAVEL FAR ON our roads to feel like you’re on a dodgem track – having to take evasive action to avoid potholes and uneven road surfaces. Instead of making the necessary investment to maintain and repair these roads, Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency’s plan seems to be to simply reduce speed limits and blame speed for any crashes. The latest proposal is to lower the speed limit from 100km/h to 80km/h on an 83-kilometre section of the Napier-Taupo Road (State Highway 5). Because of historically poor design and engineering, the road surface on SH5 is in a terrible state. It has poor traction, making it like driving on ice. The surface has also been so frequently patched that it looks like a patchwork quilt. The unevenness this creates adds to the treacherous nature of the route as vehicles bounce around. The type of bitumen used is totally inadequate for the temperature variations the region experiences, with very
hot temperatures in summer and frequently heavy snowfall in winter. This contributes to flushing and the chip seal not sticking to the base layer. If all the issues with the road surface aren’t enough, when a vehicle comes into the path of an accident situation the lack of adequate runoff areas, poor shoulder designs, and steep shoulder gradients means taking evasive action is extremely difficult. At a time when our supply chain is struggling to keep up with demand and our economy needs goods to be flowing freely, slowing everyone down on the road slows the economy down: Everything takes more time and money, productivity drops and costs get passed on to householders. Waka Kotahi has said its aim in dropping the speed limit is to save lives and prevent serious injuries from crashes. Former V8 Supercars driver and road safety advocate Greg Murphy is based in Hawke’s Bay and drives the Truck & Driver | 37
THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
Let’s Get Wellington Moving must focus on making getting around the region easier for people and freight
Napier-Taupo regularly. In an article on Stuff, he said that lack of training and driving experience – along with poor decisionmaking – was behind the bulk of the crashes. He said the highway was in need of repair and the proposed speed limits were ignoring the real issues – and I fully agree with him. This Easter, eight people lost their lives on our roads – the highest number in a decade for that holiday period. The Government is fixated on speed and the roading system. But people use the roads – on foot, on bikes and scooters, and in cars and trucks, of all varieties. While our truck drivers have plenty to say about the roading system, it’s people’s behaviour on the roads and a lack of skills to get themselves out of trouble that causes so much harm. It’s time for the politicians and senior transport officials to get out in the regions and drive the roads so they can see firsthand what the real issues are. Wholesale lowering of speed limits or putting up countless “uneven surface” signs is like plastering over a crack: It does nothing to solve the problem – it just gives the impression something is being done. Truck drivers and motorists deserve better. As a Wellingtonian and former Mayor of Porirua I have followed Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) very closely – because I know improvements are desperately needed to help make life easier for all Wellington’s transport users, including freight operators. 38 | Truck & Driver
LGWM is a joint initiative between the Government, Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, and Waka Kotahi NZTA. However, a damning review of its current state found that it’s at risk of failing to deliver an integrated, cohesive, prioritised and outcomes-driven transport package for the region. The review found the programme was “at risk of failing to deliver,” and needed to be paused so major problems could be addressed. The review said the recommended pause would have implications for the timeframes, scope and cost of transport projects in Wellington. This is not the news Wellingtonians wanted to hear: We have been waiting far too long already for progress on unlocking the city’s potential. RTF believes LGWM needs to prioritise reliable mass transit routes, a second Mt Victoria tunnel and a solution to the other chokepoints, at the Terrace Tunnel and the Basin Reserve. As the number of people living and working in the central city increases, so too will the need for trucks to deliver the goods to keep the city operating. If we’re going to progress as a city or as a region, we need to be focused on the things that are going to make it an easy place to move people and critical freight around. We need effective leadership to make that happen and we need it to happen as soon as possible. T&D
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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
RTF Conference
With plenty of amazing places to visit, like Milford Sound, a trip to Southland for the RTF Conference can be turned into a fantastic holiday
Dom Kalasih joins RTF
T
HE ROAD TR ANSPORT FORUM IS PLEASED TO announce that Dom Kalasih has come on board as manager, policy and safety. Dom will focus on general and specific policy advice to the RTF membership, along with servicing sector groups, and will take an active interest in technical developments in the road transport industry. Dom has a mechanical engineering background, and his involvement in road transport started in 1996 at the Land Transport Safety Authority (LTSA), where he worked in vehicle dimension and mass and specialised in over-dimension transport. In 2005 he moved to the Ministry of Transport as a heavy vehicle safety adviser and continued policy development in high productivity vehicles, which resulted in the fuel sector beginning to move jet fuel on 52 tonne vehicle combinations between Lyttelton and Christchurch Airport – and so began HPMV. Dom moved to Shell (now Z Energy) in 2008 and worked in areas of business development and health and safety, and held management roles in transport and logistics. “I have long had a passion for heavy transport and believe the growing challenges facing the sector, particularly the emerging pressure on climate change and continuing desire for improved safety, make it a great time to join the RTF,” says Dom. “Having completed heavy transport roles in government agencies and the private sector, joining the RTF is the perfect way to continue contributing to the road transport sector.” Dom is a born and bred Wellingtonian and his personal interests include motor racing (he won the 1992/’93 Formula Vee National Championship), sailing, college hockey and working around home. He is married and has a daughter at Tawa College. He will be known to many through his voluntary work, including his role as president of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers New Zealand, 40 | Truck & Driver
treasurer for the International Forum for Road Transport and Technology, and head of circuit safety for Motorsport NZ. Dom officially began his role with the RTF on April 6 and the Forum looks forward to industry operators having the opportunity to engage with him in the near future. T&D
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96-9 PO PHO
Dom Kalasih is RTF’s new manager, policy and safety
*TR EM
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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
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F TER A TU MULTUOUS 2020 TH AT TESTED our resilience and once again illustrated the strength and adaptability of New Zealand’s road transport sector, the Road Transport Forum looks forward to gathering the industry together to reflect on its recent challenges and discuss the opportunities it has to shape NZ’s transport future. Registrations are open now for The Road Ahead – 2021 Transporting NZ Conference that will take place on September 25 and 26 at Invercargill’s Ascot Park Hotel. The Conference immediately follows the NZ Road Transport Hall of Fame (on the evening of September 24) and will provide delegates with the opportunity to attend both industry events in the one trip. New Transport Minister Michael Wood will address the Conference. Minister Wood was given the transport portfolio after the 2020 election, so this will be the first time that many in our industry will have had the opportunity to engage with him. He is also the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, an area that remains of significant concern to our industry. As usual, the RTF is working to have a diverse lineup of speakers to provide thought-provoking information and entertainment across a range of subjects important to the sector. Already confirmed are National Party leader Judith Collins, Waka
Kotahi NZTA chief executive Nicole Rosie, former V8 Supercars driver Greg Murphy and economist Cameron Bagrie. There will be dinners and social events to mix and mingle with your industry peers and an interesting partners’ programme for those who want to experience what Southland has to offer. Also returning are the NZ Road Transport Industry Awards. The awards were established a number of years ago to recognise best practice and achievement in the industry. They are a way of honouring individuals, organisations and companies that have gone above and beyond industry requirements in raising skills, safety practices, knowledge, training, industry awareness, innovation and expertise. As well as the Supreme Contribution to the Road Transport Industry Award, there will also be awards for health and safety, the Young Driver of the Year, and the Outstanding Contribution by a Woman in the Road Transport Industry. Make your conference booking by July 31 to take advantage of the earlybird registration discount of $675 for both days. Special rates are also available for accommodation at the Ascot Park Hotel and other accommodation providers in the city. You can register and get more information about the conference on the T&D dedicated website, https://www.rtfconference.co.nz
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THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
RTF’s Nick Leggett and Josie Vidal present the case for a strong roadside drug testing regime to MPs
RTF takes roadside drug testing advocacy to Parliament T
HE ROAD TRANSPORT FORUM recently appeared before a Parliamentary Select Committee to speak about RTF’s support for roadside drug testing as part of proposed new legislation. The Transport and Infrastructure Select Committee heard that RTF has a desire to improve road safety for all road users – and that it believes a more sophisticated testing regime to identify and deal with impaired drivers is necessary to do that. “As professional drivers, truck drivers have to meet a number of laws, rules and regulations – but other road users don’t come under that scrutiny,”
RTF supports a comprehensive roadside testing regime for drug impairment, whether that impairment arises from recreational drug use or prescription pharmaceuticals.
RTF chief executive Nick Leggett told MPs. “Best industry practice is that truck drivers have three forms of drug testing – pre-employment, random during their employment, and post any kind of incident on the road or in the workplace – and we believe it’s time for a minimum regime to cover all drivers.” RTF supports a comprehensive roadside testing regime for drug impairment, whether that impairment arises from recreational drug use or prescription pharmaceuticals. Data from Waka Kotahi NZTA’s Crash Analysis System shows the number of fatalities from crashes Truck & Driver | 43
THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
“And we know of roadside stops of vehicles where drivers were showing erratic behaviour, but where there has been no testing beyond a breath test for alcohol.” where a driver was found to have used drugs before driving now outnumbers the fatalities involving drivers who exceeded the drink-driving limits. In 2019, this represented 30% of all road deaths. “While drug drivers already face serious criminal penalties if they are caught, the current law makes it hard for police to carry out tests that detect drug use – and which, to an extent, could deter drug-driving,” said Leggett. Leggett pointed to Ministry of Transport research that shows only 26% of drivers expect to be caught drug-driving, compared with 60% who expect to get caught drink-driving. “We have spoken to members of the public who have lost family members, as well as law enforcement officers who have had involvement at fatal accidents where drug testing of the driver has not occurred
“And we know of roadside stops of vehicles where drivers were showing erratic behaviour, but where there has been no testing beyond a breath test for alcohol. “We support the proposed legislation as it adds roadside drug testing to the everyday menu of options the police have – when responding to incidents or accidents, and also at routine stops and checkpoints. All drivers involved in crashes should be tested for drugs, whether they are injured or not, and if they are deceased, as part of the autopsy process.” Leggett said part of the change required is to have better measurement tools so the extent of the problem can be fully understood, as well as monitoring any strengthening of testing to see if reductions are made or if interventions reduce accidents, injuries and deaths. The RTF questioned the Government’s
proposal that drivers would need to submit to two consecutive oral f luid tests before there would be any infringement penalties, suggesting instead this should be one test – consistent with the drink-driving testing regime. Leggett asked the committee members to take drug offences seriously, to move quickly on making roadside drug testing law and, alongside that, to ensure adequate information is provided and education undertaken with a view to harm minimisation. “There needs to be a balance in the way all drivers are tested for drugs. We support the tight testing for professional drivers already in place in many workplaces as best practice. But we also want a regime that protects these workers from anyone else on the road who presents a serious risk, which should be the intent of this legislation.” 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 03 366 9854 admin@rtanz.co.nz www.rtanz.co.nz Simon Carson, Chief Operating Officer 027 556 6099 scarson@rtanz.co.nz Northland/Auckland/Waikato/ Thames-Coromandel/Bay of Plenty/North Taupo/King Country Simon Vincent, Senior Industry Advisor 027 445 5785 svincent@rtanz.co.nz South Taupo/Turangi/Gisborne/Taranaki/ Manawatu/Horowhenua/Wellington Sandy Walker, Senior Industry Advisor 027 485 6038 swalker@rtanz.co.nz Northern West Coast/Nelson/ Marlborough/North Canterbury/West Coast John Bond, Senior Industry Advisor 027 444 8136 jbond@rtanz.co.nz
Otago Southland, South Canterbury , Mid Canterbury Lisa Shaw, Senior Industry Advisor 027 261 0953 lshaw@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
44 | Truck & Driver
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Truck & Driver | 47
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.
1
Daniel’s love of trucks and trucking was inspired at a young age by his Grandad Jim – a legend of the New Zealand trucking industry
TO THE NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING INDUSTRY, Jim Barker was an icon, a legend, pioneer, a visionary…and a larger-than-life character. To truckie Daniel Mateni he was all of that….and much, much more. He was his beloved Grandad Jim. The founder and inspirational leader of Freight Lines, Bulk Lines, Stock Lines, plus Strait Shipping and Bluebridge Ferries, was Daniel’s role model, hero, mentor and confidant. And when Big Jim died back in 2016, Daniel – encouraged and supported by his grandfather – had just achieved the dream of buying his first truck. He was devastated: “Jim’s death was a big hit for me. I’d only just started going….but I was ready to give up right then and there. “In so many ways, the confidence in going out on my own was knowing that he would be there. Then (when he died) it was ‘what am I going to do?’ ” That the grieving Daniel didn’t quit on his newly-created Main Road transport business was also down to Big Jim. His Grandad, Daniel says, had heaps of colourful sayings: “The biggest one for me was ‘cowboys don’t cry.’ “You’d be busy and stressed out – yelling and screaming about things – and Jim would say: ‘Cowboys don’t cry – just get on with it. Crying ain’t gonna get you nowhere.’ ” So, af ter his death, his grandson got his act together – and just got on with it. His feelings showed with the picture of his Grandad airbrushed onto the back of the cab on his Kenworth
K104 – that first truck – along with those words: “Cowboys don’t cry.” You might think that being Jim Barker’s grandson would, for sure, mean that Daniel was always going to be involved in the “family business.” And that was certainly how he started out in his working life. But for the past handful of years he’s been intent on stepping outside that seemingly comfortable possibility….and creating something of his own. Not that the 40-year-old, whose Main Road Limited company is now six years old, is claiming to have done it all by himself. Far from it. “I’m definitely under no illusion that I’ve done this on my own – it’s been the people around me, with me and sometimes against me that has kept me going and got me to where I want to be essentially.” He’s done it with the help of the huge business that Jim Barker created and many people in it – running his own small business alongside it....and with its help. It has gone beyond close family – like Grandad Jim and Nana Bev, his Mum Sheryl (Ellison) and Uncle Peter (Barker) – to individual drivers like David (Stretch) O’Sullivan, Lance Crosland and Mathew Cribb, to good mates who have come to his aid…. Thanks even to the help he’s had from other transport operators, like the Porter Group, Barry Satherley and PTS owner Scott Miers. And he’s done it mostly because of Grandad Jim’s huge Truck & Driver | 49
Main picture: K200 tractor unit, Koro, was Main Road’s first brand-new truck, bought in 2017
Top, from left to right: Daniel’s grandparents, Jim and Bev Barker...latest addition to the fleet is this old International 7600 tractor unit, used for local work around the southern Waikato, particularly on curtainsiders.... Daniels’ tribute to his Grandad, on the back of his first truck, a K104 Kenworth
influence on his life – as far back as he can remember...back to when he was a little boy. He reckons his childhood was spent “all over the place” – he and his Mum and Dad (Sheryl and Timmy Mateni) moving around a lot. “And they didn’t have anything to do with trucking or transport. Dad was an aerial installer and a lawnmowing contractor, while Mum was a schoolteacher.” (Sheryl would though, go on to become the managing director of Strait Shipping, af ter Jim’s frustration with dealing with the Railways’ unreliability and uncaring attitude led to him starting up his own Cook Strait ferry service).
50 | Truck & Driver
There was though a constant – his grandparents, Jim and Bev, in Otorohanga – and Jim’s world of trucks and trucking. It was where Jim and Bev, his sister Cynthia and brother-in-law Dennis Dow had started out – forming Otorohanga Transport, in 1963. Daniel reckons “I always spent a lot of time with them: School holidays – and I stayed with them on and off.” And it soon evolved that trucks and trucking “was all I wanted to do and where I wanted to be. To me Otorohanga (with Bev and Jim) was home. “I think Grandad Jim was the motivation: I always wanted to be around him and see what he was doing. But I liked being
around all the truck drivers too: Sale day was Wednesday in Otorohanga so I’d be hanging out there.” He’d entertain himself “washing trucks or basically kicking stones around. They taught me how to grease trucks when I was about 10 years old and that was me. Uncle Pete (Peter Barker) drove, so I went with him and Cribby (Mathew Cribb).” This went on for years: “Even as a teenager – right through. I’d be living with them (Bev and Jim) and annoying all the truck drivers to take me for a ride. Cribby was a hero for me growing up, but he was a bit naughty so I wasn’t allowed to go with him all the time – and so I had to go with Arlo (Mark Dew).”
There are many special memories – like for instance: “Grandad actually pulled me out of school for two weeks when I was about nine, to take me down to the South Island. We took forever to get down there, on a tiki tour – and I got to watch him on the brick phone talking to people along the way.” At the Clyde Dam he watched as a couple of big silos Jim had bought for lime storage at calcium carbonate producer Omya’s Te Kuiti plant, were broken down and loaded onto transporters. Then he rode home in one of the trucks, travelling in a convoy with pilot escorts: “It was really cool.” On leaving school Daniel worked in the Christchurch yard of
Truck & Driver | 51
Above left: The late Jim Barker, at his desk back in 2001
Above right: Main Road’s K104 and one of its K200s turned heads and won the People’s Choice award at the Mangatainoka truck show
Freight Lines as a forklif t operator for about a year – and then moved to Auckland and worked at the company’s depot there until he turned 18, when he moved down to Otorohanga, and got his heavy traffic (HT) licence. “I’d like to say that was self-driven (rather than an opportunity offered and organised by his Grandad): I wanted to be a bigtime trucker for as long as I can remember.” Of course, Freight Lines made it possible – and gave him a job straight off – driving a little four-wheeler Nissan Diesel (“the Datsun,” he calls it), doing local runaround work. For the next 15 years or so he drove for Freight Lines (or Bulk Lines): “Once I got my trailer licence I was off to Wellington.” He progressed through the likes of a 113 Scania, a Volvo 460 FH12….eventually getting a brand-new Kenworth K104. Around 2014, he had a change of direction – turning to heavy-haulage pilot duties, working for both Freight Lines and the Porter Group. In return he helped out with the dispatching of the Porters trucks… And then, with the support of his Grandad and Uncle Peter, he got into driver training. That, he says, was another notch in his belt: “It’s all been notches,” he adds, summing-up his working life: “I wanted to get into training because I wanted to learn more about that aspect of it – how they were getting licences, how they were training people. Piloting I just liked doing and because I wanted to learn about heavy haulage.” The biggest notches in his belt – the biggest learnings – had always come via Jim: “If I’d done something wrong, he’d ring up and say ‘we’re going for a drive’ – and everyone knew what that meant! “Grandad was always out and about, travelling around. So sometimes he’d ring out of the blue and say ‘get out of bed – we’re going to the sales.’ If it was a close one I’d get to go and watch what’s going on. “Grandad was like my idol in every facet: As a father, grandfather, a boss….drinking legend. The biggest thing for 52 | Truck & Driver
me was his interaction with people, in every situation – his ability to talk people down. You’d get a truck driver spinning out, all red…and Grandad was just calm and collected and able to resolve situations. He could just get on with people everywhere we went.” And Daniel reckons with a laugh: “Sometimes I think the only thing I got off him is that my hair’s falling out and I have a beer gut! But I have got his calm composure. Well, about 90% of the time – I haven’t quite reached 100. If you’d have asked me that yesterday, you’d have got a different answer.” However, Daniel does say that Jim didn’t always get it right with his advice: “He used to always say: ‘Take the job on and work out how you’re gonna do it later.’ But, oh my God, that’s bitten me in the arse many times! “I look back now and I wish I’d asked him more questions. Even now, every decision I go to make I think: ‘What would he have done?’ Or, ‘I just wish he’d give me a little bit of guidance here.’ But in saying that, I still go to my grandmother, ‘cos she clearly knows everything that’s going on.” The decision to stand a little bit apart from the family business is also down to Jim, he reckons: “When I was growing up – and even in Grandad’s latter years – he was always big on standing on your own two feet. “I would bitch and moan about certain things within the company and he’d say ‘well you’re not in the position to do anything about it until you go out on your own’. I don’t know if it was me wanting things my way, but I wanted to take control of my own destiny as such.” So Daniel could “upskill – put another notch in the belt” – in 2015 he signed-up with the Bay of Plenty Polytech to become a commercial driver training tutor, running an 18-week course in Otorohanga. The followup to that was the creation of Main Road Training – owned by Jim, Peter Barker and Daniel – under the Freight Lines umbrella: “The driver shortage was the reason we
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“I’d ummed and aahed but he just said to ‘stand on your own two feet.’ ” started Main Road Training – to sort of educate us on how we were going to get more drivers through.” Then, as Daniel recounts, “that grew. Then I got a truck (the K104 Kenworth) – and that grew. And I came to a decision that I needed to focus 100% on one side or the other – because I was only doing 50 and 50. “The trucks have always been my passion….so that’s the direction I decided to take.” It was Jim, says Daniel, who encouraged him to go into business, “I’d ummed and aahed but he just said to ‘stand on your own two feet. If you want something to change you’ve got to do something about it.’ “He told me: ‘Look, I’ll help you into this truck – but you’ll have to go out and buy a trailer. Because if you owe money on the trailer you’re gonna keep that truck working, ‘cos I’m
not gonna help you out.’ ” He duly bought the 2006 Kenworth 8x4 flatdeck off Freight Lines, “thanks to Grandad – and luckily I got the driver (Stretch) with it. I called Freight Lines’ dispatcher/manager Simon (Coyle) and said: ‘I can’t steal the driver with that truck can I?’ And he was like: ‘I think he’ll go with it anyway.’ ” He and the Kenworth – nicknamed Cribb, in honour of Mathew Cribb (who these days drives for Bulk Lines), who he’d done so many trips with as a kid – initially went to work mostly for the Porter Group, moving machinery around: “Like I say, there are people that have helped me along the way. The Porter family are just amazing to be around and work with. They helped me to get on my feet to start off with. I was running my truck and all the Porters’ trucks.” Af ter Grandad Jim’s death in late 2016 – and Daniel
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Truck & Driver | 55
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Volvo FH 750 was added to the fleet last year – the choice of a Volvo rather than a Kenworth only made because it was longtime driver Terry White’s preference. It has, Daniel concedes, proven to be a good choice
eventually coming to terms with it, via his “cowboys don’t cry” resolution, he settled down into doing what his Grandad would have wanted him to do. He counts himself blessed to have had a really good driver, in the form of Stretch, to help him get through it: “Stretch was absolutely amazing.” With his support, in 2017 Daniel took another big step – buying a new Kenworth K200 when an opportunity arose: “I was a bit reluctant at first – I knew I had enough work for one and a half trucks! And the accountant said I’d be really pushing it. But I could just picture Grandad saying: ‘If you build it, they will come.’ “He actually said to me that it’s good to owe money because it keeps you going to work – and I definitely succeeded in owing money!” By the time the K200, named Koro in honour of his father, was ready to go on the road “I was running out of work…. there was a bit of panic stations. It was a huge step. “That’s when the Porter Group and B.R. Satherley offered work and advice – so both trucks were delivering machinery. “I was running their trucks and mine. I remember at one point I was driving my cousin’s stock trucks too…..from the driver’s seat.” In 2020, a decision to buy a second (near-new) K200 was made, when Main Road’s core business started growing. But Madax (named af ter his children Madison and Jax),
really “started out from just helping out a mate.” Fellow Waikato operator Troy Slater had bought it, Daniel explains, then fell short of work for it – “so I said ‘I’ll run your truck for you so we can keep the payments up.’ In the end I said ‘look, I’m just gonna have to buy this off you because it’s a f***ing good truck.’ So we did that. “That was one of the best decisions I’ve made so far ‘cos from there the dropsider work has just taken off. It does bulk fert and timber – that thing can do everything.” Since then the Main Road business has continued to grow – prompting the purchase of a new Volvo FH 750 last year and the order for a new Kenworth T610, due on the road in the next month or so. The Volvo (named Odin simply because, says Daniel, he’d been watching “too many Viking shows on Netflix,” has joined Madax on bulk linehaul work. The decision to buy a Volvo rather than a Kenworth was, he says, “really out of lef t field. I talked to my longterm driver Terry (White) and asked him what he wanted. He said he quite liked the Volvos. I wasn’t keen at first, but the price was right.” It has, he adds, “been an amazing truck.” On a personal level there have recently been more testing times for Daniel: His father and a best friend both died in the same week. But, true to Jim’s “Cowboys don’t cry” credo, Daniel has carried on, and Main Road has continued to grow – the Truck & Driver | 57
Above left: When Daniel was about nine, his grandparents ( Jim on the left, with Bev partially obscured behind him, and Jim’s mother Hannah Barker beside Daniel) took him out of school for a couple of weeks for a South Island “tiki tour.” Here they are crossing the Cook Strait – a couple of years before Jim started Strait Shipping to break the Railways’ Strait monopoly
Above right: Daniel’s somewhere in the crowd gathered around Jim Barker to celebrate 50 years of Otorohanga Transport/ Freight Lines, in 2013 Left: After driving for the family business for many years, Daniel worked as an over-dimension load pilot for a time
modest fleet now up to five trucks, with the recent purchase of an old CAT C12-engined International 7600 6x4 tractor unit he bought off Bulk Lines. “We added little Ngeru – which is Maori for cat… It was one of the first B-trains I ever drove and now, 12 years later, I’ve bought it. It’s a curtainsider B-train for local work…does timber deliveries around here. I call it our Uber, because it sits out the back and does last-minute work.” Carting timber is an important part of Main Road’s business – along with bulk tipper work: “We work closely with Bulk Lines here. At the moment it’s fert season so most of the time the sides (on the dropsiders) stay up – but I’m able to fill the gaps with timber loads from the likes of (logistics solutions provider) Netlogix and Max Birt Sawmills. “The beauty of Otorohanga is that everything is right here – it’s quite a hub when you look at what goes in and out for us. It’s all growing at the moment. It’s good when everything gels together.” And now he’s impatiently awaiting the arrival of what he reckons will be his last new truck – a sleeper cab Kenworth T610 6x4 tractor unit: “It was going to be here in four weeks….six weeks ago! If it’s not the stainless guy it’s the signwriter. If not the signwriter….it’s shipping. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt it is to not think about it – just carry on and it’ll eventually turn up.” He explains the need for the truck – and specifically a sleeper cab: “Af ter jumping into Koro I came to the realisation that every truck needs a bed and a fridge.” It’s a curtainsider, despite Daniel’s former feelings: “Something I said I’d never do is buy a curtainsider! But the volumes are there – too much for the Uber.” As for the colour scheme chosen for Main Road, Daniel says that having grown up with the green of Freight Lines and Bulk Lines all around, his trucks “had to be green. “But I wanted a different shade – and sparkly. The lines on the Cribb when we got it were to match Sugar Shack , 58 | Truck & Driver
which was Cribby’s truck. They are all there or thereabouts in design. “Over time I got talking to Cliff y at Truck Signs and he came up with a few new designs, but they’re all based on the same theme.” Looking ahead to Main Road’s future, Daniel says there are no plans to make his operation part of Bulk Lines, despite his close family connections. And despite the fact his company works out of the Bulk Lines office. He explains: “I see us as part of the family – not the Group as such. I like to think that everyone has gone their separate ways: Mum and Pete are the directors in Bulk Lines; Abby and Aunty Maree are in Stock Lines….while cousins Rodney and Carolyn are at Otorohanga Transport. “I just want to stay in my own little corner. Once that new truck is here, that’s how I want to keep it – that’s as big as I’m wanting to go. I feel like I’m where I want to be and I’m too tight to pay for a transport manager!” He does admit that he was going to stop at three trucks and then four – and now it’s at five and soon to be six. But at that level, he feels it’s manageable. “I’d like to keep the same staff I’ve got and keep the wheels turning. The size we’ve got it at now, we’ve still got the personal touch – we’re all one big family.” He believes that a business the size that Freight Lines became inevitably loses some of that personal touch and culture. “I look at the old days of Otorohanga Transport – where everyone was together, we were really close-knit. I think where we’re at now we can still maintain a good culture and a good family atmosphere.” His role model in this regard is his Grandad: “I’m still thinking about the old days down here and what he was able to do. The way everyone got on. That’s where they wanted to be – everyone was happy in their job. That’s what it looked like to me.” The personal touches like Jim suggesting “going for a ride,”
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Clockwise, from top left: Daniel with Big Jim – the Volvo FH 750 bought to mark Jim’s 50 years in trucking.....four-fifths of the current Main Road fleet....one of Daniel’s favourite things to do as a kid was to ride in this Otorohanga Transport Kenworth K144 with hero Mathew Cribb. No, that’s not Daniel in the passenger seat – it’s another young guy getting hooked on trucking: Darren Rennie became a driver, is now a dispatcher with Bulk Lines.....some of the extended Barker clan surround Bev and Jim at the 50th anniversary celebrations. Daniel is second from the left....Koro was named for Daniel’s late father, Timmy....Cribb initially went to work shifting machinery and equipment
when he wanted to have a talk about something you’d done. Now, he reveals, “I do that with my staff: I say ‘I’ll pick you up and we’re going for a ride.’ But it’s more about that positive communication – I’m not into letter writing or written warnings, I usually find a good conversation will clear the air. And that’s what I’m saying about small businesses opposed to big businesses….the personal touch.” He is at pains to also point out that he does lean on family – and the family business: “Bulk Lines are amazing. They can hear me in here sometimes, pulling my hair out – and they offer up drivers to help out. And Brooke (Walters), who does the office stuff, she also works for Stock Lines. “With the last truck purchase, I was ringing Pete (Barker) up and asking him his opinion… And then I’ll get a phone call from Jon Kyle, CEO of Bulk Lines, and he’ll have his input too. “And that goes back to me having no illusions that I’ve done this on my own: There’s just so many people that I can call upon.” He says that since he started Main Road, his help has come from many and varied (and sometimes unexpected) directions: Back in the early days – “at an ‘oh what am I going to do’ point” – a chance encounter with PTS owner Scott Miers at a NZ Heavy Haulage Association conference, led to Miers giving him work. “Also, there was a gap when my driver Stretch lef t and a big group of my mates jumped in for a week at a time. “That’s why I’m happy where I am now….The personal touch fills my cup – everyone looks af ter everyone is how it feels.” He says that his Grandad Jim’s legacy includes that firsthand involvement, plus a strong sense of family and helping the community – all things he aspires to copy: “I always admired the way his staff would talk about him. Even to this 60 | Truck & Driver
day it’s always positive things that you hear.” He’s happy with the core customer base that Main Road has now – and, like his Grandfather, sees looking af ter them as his main business focus. “Grandad was always travelling around. Even when I was driving he’d just turn up in places like Feilding. He’d ring my dispatcher up and say I’m going with him and that was it. He’d grab my bag and hop in the car and we’d go and visit customers. “He’d say ‘it’s the personal touch. Make the effort – go and see them. Don’t just talk to them on the phone.’ “And that’s something I do now. It’s a really big thing for me – taking the time to go and see people face to face.” Much as he loves driving trucks, keeping the business going and family take priority: That changed 13 years ago, when daughter Madison was born: “I was inter-island a lot and I wasn’t home. But I said I don’t want to be THAT truck driver – I want to be part of their life. And that’s another Nana and Grandad influence: Family, family, family. “I came off the road and into the office but I was like ‘oh, I don’t like this!’ – so I went back on the road again. “The forever battle for me is that I want my cake and eat it too!: I’ve got the kids there and I want to spend the time with them – but then, if I don’t go to work, we don’t have any money.” He says that his plan is to be able to spend more time at home and going to school camps while he can: “I’ve got two children and my partner Kate has two kids too, so we have a household of six one week and two the other. He says that son Jax, 10, “was asked at school ‘what do you want to be?’ – and ‘he put down truck driver or a policeman’: I told him ‘you’re going in two different directions there boy.’ “But that got me thinking of when I used to hang around at
the yard as a kid and people used to say ‘are you gonna be a truck driver?’ and I used to say ‘yeah, yeah I’m keen as….’ “And they’d say ‘ah no, you wanna do something better with your life.’ But now I look at the young fellas wanting to be a truck driver and it is truly a profession: The days of ‘only’ being a truck driver have hopefully been flushed away.” Partner Kate’s daughter Skyler is in the same class as Jax, and Daniel says she loves being around the business: “She gets out of bed early and comes to work with me first – before school. She’s right into it. “She’s happy to clean the trucks (but wants money for it) and wants to drive the forklift too…but, of course, isn’t allowed. I think back to when I was around 12 and driving trucks in the yard: How times have changed.” The nice balance he has now between family life and work is why Daniel likes the space he’s in these days – or will do, once he “fills up all the seats” again: “Finding staff is easy – I probably shouldn’t say that too loud. I think part of that is the gear that we’re running – people want to drive big shiny trucks. It’s never been a problem. “But the thing with being such a small business is that it’s not just about being able to steer a truck. Each driver has to fit
into our culture and our family, ‘cos we’re all pretty close within our group. You have to be able to work together.” Daniel feels that in many ways Grandad Jim is still around and says that his Nana still rings him up and checks on him: “She says ‘I hope you’re not overworking yourself – your Grandfather used to do that.’ ” Nana Bev also told him that his Grandfather never used to drink at the weekends “because weekends were for family.” However, Daniel reckons he’s since found out “the real reason” for the abstinence: “I was talking to Uncle Pete about that and he said that it was because he drank enough piss during the week that he needed the weekends to recover! There’s a few things like that that make you laugh.” Daniel says that to this day he often looks back and thinks “what would Jim do?” For example: “I struggled to get a boat booking this week and my big epiphany the other night – after a couple of big bottles – was to go to Europe and hire a boat for back here!” Yep, that is exactly what a frustrated, fed-up Jim did 30 years back, when Railways scheduled the servicing of a ferry right at the peak season for shifting livestock across Cook Strait. Clearly Daniel is a chip off the Jim Barker block! T&D Truck & Driver | 61
LEGENDS
Dream maker - Aaron Headington
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ITH A CAREER THAT’S (SO FAR) SPANNED THREE decades, Aaron Headington has moved from being a handson engineer to creating a specialised division of Southpac Trucks that could be best described as ‘bringing customers dreams to life’. He’s got an eye for detail and a passion for detailing and it’s for this reason he’s a Southpac Truck Legend. Born in Auckland but travelled extensively due to his father being in the Army, Aaron left school looking for an apprenticeship in cars but to no avail. “To be honest, I wasn’t into trucks, for as long as I can remember I wanted to be a car mechanic. I couldn’t get a car apprenticeship anywhere, so off a whim, I called in here [when it was Specialist Transport Equipment] and asked the Service Manager if they were looking for any apprentices and it turned out that they were. That’s how it all started.” Aaron began work as an apprentice truck mechanic in February 1990 and then in July STE changed to South Pacific Trucks and became Kenworth and Foden distributors. Aaron says “I was there until late 1993 and that’s when Carter-Holt wanted to get out of trucks and we all got made redundant.” For a short break, he took a role at Nissan Diesel, then when newly formed Southpac started up in January 1994, Mike Carliss and Maarten Durent asked me if I’d come back (did he actually leave?) “I started in February and haven’t looked back since.” Aaron says that he never really gave his car apprenticeship dream a second thought after that, “because I found trucks a lot more interesting than cars. Everything was the same, engines, transmissions, diffs all that stuff but a lot bigger and I really liked the whole truck aspect, everything is urgent.” Aaron preferred the engineering side of the work, the fitting and the welding but as the ‘noughties’ came around, Aaron ‘reluctantly’ moved into the office. “About the year 2000, the service writer/receptionist left and Dave Tennant the service manager said ‘why don’t I apply for the position?’ I said why me? Why would I want to be a service receptionist?” Apparently Dave explained that the role was going to evolve and that Aaron would be ideal. “So I came off the floor and started as a service writer and with me coming in with mechanical experience it helped to sort out a lot of operational issues.” He says that the position evolved into the Assistant Workshop
62 | Truck & Driver
Manager’s job, which came with more challenges and responsibility including looking after the technicians. “In 2002, the DAF Product Manager left and they asked if I wanted to apply for the role. I said “why me?” Why would I want to work in truck sales?” Aaron recalls that Southpac was then very new to DAF. The guys really wanted to focus on after sales and provide the best technical support available, and also work with the factory to engineer the trucks for New Zealand conditions. My background was ideal for that so I said sure, why not and took on the DAF Product Manager’s job.” With all three brands humming, Kenworth, Foden and now DAF, the expanded volume created an internal bottle neck; we needed to get smarter and more specialised in how the company got trucks on the road to our customers. “Having come from a workshop background and now working in truck sales, I could see that there was an opportunity for the company to become more specialised and fill this gap. Both Mike and Maarten said, “yep great,” but who do you think is going to run it? “I said” I don’t know, that’s up to you guys.” ‘It needs to be you’ came the answer and this time Aaron didn’t ask “why me?’ “I said yep, I’ll happily do it and it just happened to coincide with us moving into the McLaughlin’s Road building while we redeveloped the head office Wiri Station Road site, so everything just fell into place, it was a no brainer.” Aaron recalls that it was a bit of a rough start. The entire truck market fell into a hole, just as we were expanding our new truck delivery capacity. “Truck sales were just enough to keep us busy. However, we were starting fresh, no-one had done this before, this was a foreign concept to everybody and we just wrote the rules as we went. We created this whole new workshop out of nothing. Whether it is for basic compliance work and then off to a body builder, or a full truck fit-out. The whole idea was to take the customer’s request and make it reality.” They called it ‘New Truck Preparation’ – basically every single new truck that Southpac imports and delivers comes to him. Aaron says the department kept morphing into something different and bigger. “We expanded it further. We invested in sheet metal machinery and started doing our own in-house fabrication to improve the quality and timeframes the transport industry demands. And the
Left: After 9 years helping out in the pits Aaron decided to give Superstocks a go himself and then spent the next 15 years collecting trophy’s. Below: Times from the past.
department just kept growing, to full turn key set ups, tractor units, customising exhaust air intakes, cab interiors, TV’s and whatever an owner wanted.” Aaron says that when they started there was four of them and now they’re running at about eighteen specialist new truck technicians and still looking for more. “We’ve gone from fifty/eighty trucks a year to hundreds and we have a vision of getting even bigger than what we are today” He says, “nowadays we know exactly what the truck means to a driver and an owner and we learnt that along the way.” “For a lot of owner/drivers, this truck is their life. Their life savings it’s everything to them and it has to be treated as such. When we started I was really focused to change our teams mindset from working on dirty old trucks to working on brand new vehicles, the fit, finish, looking at the details. It’s an on-going thing, I ask them ‘would you accept that?’ If they say it could be better then I say make it better, because if you’re not going to accept it, why would our customers.” He says that communication is the key to making the whole thing work. “Trying to take what the customer has ordered with the salesman, the salesman then trying to convert that into what he thinks the customer wants and me trying to get my head around how the salesman has put it on the option sheet. Sometimes I have to go back to the customer and ask what they actually mean by this, because the last thing I want to do is build something and have the customer turn up and go ‘it’s not what I wanted’ or ‘yes that’s what I asked for but it’s not what I want.’ Neither works for me, it needs to be perfect the first time.” He says that some customers have a specific look in mind and when we’re trying to achieve that and getting that information out of their heads can be difficult, but we always get there in the end. “Much of what we do is aesthetic and very bespoke, but we do carry out development work too, we come up with concepts. In this age of media and social media, we see things everywhere, a lot are on Australian trucks. They send me photos and say, ‘this is what I want’ then I’ve got to copy that without copying it.” He says that this is making the job both harder AND a whole lot more interesting. “I enjoy the challenge of change, we don’t like doing the same thing over and over. But with change, comes time, development, investment and all that stuff.”
‘Engineer’ Aaron is very happy in his role. “I like the company and I actually enjoy getting out amongst the trucks, talking to my guys, developing new things, coming up with engineering solutions to issues with fixes, improving durability, and making everything work to suit the customer’s requirements.” The fact that Aaron cares about the customer’s expectations that makes him so good at his job. “We make a lot of cool products, but if a customer isn’t happy with what I’ve done, I’m not happy, because then I haven’t done my job properly. I do take it very personally.” Sure, Aaron does say he prefers trucks over cars, but when he’s not making new truck owners dreams a reality, he’s tinkering with his own ‘98 Corvette project car. This dark horse has also been a successful race driver... “When I started here, Dave Tennant raced Superstocks and I helped him as his pit crew for about 9-years. Then I decided that I wanted to do it for myself, so I bought a car and went racing. For 15 years I raced speedway, that was a big part of my life, I got lots of trophies, too. I was the Waikato Champ and won all the points in Auckland a couple of years in a row. I could hold my own.” Aaron turns fifty this year and thirty one years of his life has been spent at SPT (in one way or another). He says that some days, when the office work is getting too much, he misses being ‘hands on’ but says ‘I don’t think I could go back to the tools’. So what of the future? Aaron replies “I consider this my own department, I created it, I brought it from nothing to what it is today… so for me there is no next, it’s here. It’s a great company to work for, we’re not short of work and there’s always something different to do. In other words, more dreams to be made.” T&D
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FEATURE
Te ara ki tua Road to success trainees (from left) Liana Manu, Shaun Tomai and Betty Heremaia Sola
They’ve built it...for you to get behind it Story Wayne Munro
I
T’S A BIT LIKE THAT LINE FROM THAT KEVIN COSTNER movie Field of Dreams – mangled a bit over the years to: “Build it and they will come.” (In truth, the actual line was: “Build it and he will come,” but never mind: Popular misuse rules). In this case, it’s a matter of “Create it – and they will get behind it.” Well that’s the critical, much-hoped-for response to the Road Transport Forum’s development of a truck driver traineeship. And at the late April launch of Te ara ki tua Road to success – held, appropriately enough, in “a little tin shed” at longtime Auckland road transport operator Carr & Haslam’s Mt Wellington base – it looks like a matter of so far, so good. There’s Government acknowledgment that this is a good idea in the form of Cabinet ministers Michael Wood (Minister of Transport and Workplace Relations and Safety) and Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni, both attending. There’s a pretty good turnout of transport operators who’ve turned up to show their support, joined by reps from industry associations and plenty of the organisations that have actively helped get the traineeship up and running – as Michael Wood puts it an “alphabet soup list of groups” that includes MITO, MSD
(Ministry of Social Development), Waka Kotahi NZTA, MSD’s Kiwi Can Do training programme, the Tertiary Education Commission… and more. But most of important of all, as everyone – including the two Cabinet Ministers – acknowledges, there are three of New Zealand’s first 11 trainees present: Betty Heremaia Sola – a 21-year-old who’s chosen trucking over teaching… Plus Liana Manu, a 24-year-old mother of two who just “loves driving.” And Shaun Tomai, 19, who decided he wanted to be a truck driver “because you get to work by yourself – you don’t have to rely on a team.” Wood tells this trio they are “really the stars of the show…..this day is all about you. And it’s about celebrating the steps that you have taken both for yourselves and also in terms of playing a really critical role in what is an exciting and important industry for our country.” The reason it’s appropriate that the launch is held here is because these three trainees have all gone to work for Carr & Haslam. And because, as RTF CEO Nick Leggett puts it, the company’s boss, Chris Carr, “is an industry champion like no other.” Truck & Driver | 65
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Leggett explains that Te ara ki tua Road to success is the industry’s response to the driver shortage: “We believe in industry solving its own problems where possible, so we decided the time was right for a dedicated truck driver traineeship, run by the RTF for the industry we represent. “Trucking has an ageing workforce and we want to bring a new and diverse range of people into the road freight transport industry. We want trainees to be clear on a career path and to be rewarded for their successes. “We believe that over time, this training will ensure a higherskilled and safer workforce, leading to safer roads.” The training mixes the practical and the theory and is designed to lead directly to three new NZQA-approved micro-credential qualifications relevant to the industry – completed online and delivered through MITO. The big thing is that, as Leggett adds, “this traineeship allows people to work and earn money while they go about their training.” It primarily aims to produce more drivers, but also provides a career path for those who prefer other skilled roles in the industry. And, yes, it is different to anything that has gone before it, as Leggett explains: “I think there’s often a view that younger people need to change to fit into something – to fit into the workforce, to fit into training. “And I think what’s different about this programme is we’re taking the opposite view: We recognise that the industry has to change to fit the desires of the modern workforce. And that means qualifications, structure, on-the-job training, licence progression, as we are short of willing Class 5 drivers in this country. “And the challenge for our industry is that many only have Class 5 vehicles, and so it’s harder to train. But it’s not impossible if we work together. “So I want to emphasise that this is very much about the
industry taking the lead in finding solutions to its own challenges.” The traineeship has been developed up by the RTF over the past year, with big assistance from Government: The Tertiary Education Commission and MITO “have come to the party in getting the microcredentials available” – and have waived the usual fees until the end of this year. MSD is placing registered job seekers and others out of work as the result of COVID-19, into the trainee programme, with trucking companies. In fact the three trainees here all came via the MSD’s Kiwi Can Do programme. Carmel Sepuloni tells the launch that “without this industry and its dedicated workforce, we simply would not have been able to deal with COVID-19 as well as we have. Your workforce deserves a huge thankyou for your efforts. “But we also know you are a workforce struggling with a shortage of labour. The Road Transport Forum conducted research in 2020 directly with road freight transport operators and 35% of respondents identified a shortage of drivers being a problem for their business. At that time 53% had a shortage of drivers in the past three years. “This partnership won’t immediately fix this issue, but if it is successful – which I have no doubt it will be – it will provide a blueprint for us to follow. It will also provide another pathway for people who are on a Job Seeker support benefit to move into a longterm and fulfilling career.” The traineeship sees an industry partnership between road transport and MSD – with the industry “able to provide a job opportunity for that young person who is now work ready,” she says. “And that’s what we want to see more of…..making sure that there are pathways for our young people.” Leggett agrees that “this is about developing careers…. The truth Truck & Driver | 67
“We’re solving multiple problems.” is that 96% of drivers are men. The median age of truck drivers is 54. And 40% of drivers have no formal qualifications. And those are things that over time we can overcome.” Wood too focuses on the industry’s “ongoing challenge of making sure that we do have a workforce that is fit to meet our needs, not just now, but in the future. “The work that RTF and others have done has revealed that we’re going to have to do some work and get innovative if we want to meet that need. And also if we want to have a workforce that looks and feels more like the NZers that we serve…” He reaffirms something Sepuloni has said – that the collaboration between Government departments and industry to address problems is, “one of the things that we love in Government and we’re constantly trying to do better… “And the reason that you’ve got two of us from Cabinet here today is because that’s what we’re seeing happening, in a very real and very impactful way, through this project. “We’re solving multiple problems. We’re dealing with those longterm workforce needs. We’re dealing with our shared ambition to diversify the workforce. We’re dealing with the fact that we know
in NZ that we do have too many of our young people who fall out of the system and who don’t get into careers that can take them places, give them stable incomes, a sense of wellbeing and purpose. “And through bringing together our organisations – through having a shared strategy and a common purpose here – we’re solving multiple problems there. So I think this is a real breakthrough…” Wood acknowledges Carr & Haslam “for stepping forward, bringing trainees into your organisation. No doubt there is some cost involved at the outset, but I’m absolutely confident that this going to be a great longterm investment for you.” And he lays down the challenge “to others, to come forward as well. Because when we work together, we can get really great outcomes, both for the sector and for the young people of our country. “When we get an initiative like this set up, and we get a structure and a framework in place, we need people to come forward and take it up.” Carr confirms that “yes, there is some cost” in taking on the trainees, and adds: “But how much would the cost be if we didn’t do it?”
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The presence of the two Cabinet Ministers at the launch of Te ara ki tua Road to success is a reflection of the Government’s appreciation in seeing a successful Government/industry collaboration. From left to right are: Traineeship early adopter Chris Carr, Transport Minister Michael Wood, trainee Betty Heremaia Sola, Minister of Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni, trainees Shaun Tomai and Liana Manu, RTF CEO Nick Leggett and RTF chair Greg Pert In Carr & Haslam’s 159 years in business, it has progressed from horse and cart, to petrol engines, to diesel engines…and will soon have an electric truck. But there’s always been one constant: “Every one of those bits of equipment we’ve had has had a driver in the front of it. That’s going to remain for a long time. And anyone who tells you that autonomous trucks will replace drivers are actually talking through a hole in their what’s-it!” “The Road to success for us has been great – even in these very, very early days.” The three drivers arrived “well-prepared to do the job. Not to the standard that we will be asking them to (achieve), but certainly to a standard that any educational facility could prepare them for. So we were dealing with people who knew what they were doing to start with. So that was absolutely great.” Better still, he says, they came with “a great attitude. You can train people, but you can’t train attitude… The thing with this
programme is the mentoring and support that will follow it up. So we can all help them maintain that attitude, while we increase their knowledge in what we do.” He stresses the importance of the programme’s qualifications: “They will earn and take qualifications away from us that they can take to another job…overseas if they need to. These are qualifications that will remain with them permanently.” Carr closes with this: “Just remember – a moving truck is a moving economy.” He thanks the RTF and MSD “for getting this programme established….and I challenge my fellow operators to get off their arses!” and support it. Liana Manu had worked at CourierPost as a freight handler, before becoming a Mum. Now, with her son four and her daughter three, she wanted to get back to work – and, since she “loves” driving, was encouraged by her Dad to try truck-driving.
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All pictures, from left to right: Michael Wood calls on more transport operators to become involved in the traineeships....Carmel Sepuloni says she “loves” seeing Government/industry collaborations like this....trainee Betty Heremaia Sola and her current truck
“I have had my full (car) licence for a while. And then when I found that you could do truck driving, I jumped on truck driving.” Through MSD’s Kiwi Can Do she was supported to successfully study for and gain her Class 2 truck licence – and soon after (in March) was directed into her traineeship at Carr & Haslam. She’s driving a Class 2 4x2, doing pallet deliveries around Auckland, overseen by a trainer. What’s the truck? “It is….I have no clue,” she giggles, and adds: “It’s a manual though – eight-speed. “I love it – love every moment of it. I love going to work. I think it’s about being able to be out and on the roads and that’s just….it’s amazing!” And yes, she eventually wants to do “long-distance driving. I’m aiming to go all the way up to Class 5 – drive trucks and trailers.” Under the Road to success traineeship, she should achieve that after one year. The people at Carr & Haslam, she says, are “really supportive. They’re not pushing me to do things that I can’t do.” And the theory part of the traineeship? “It’s alright. It’s good actually….really easy to manage. It’s not too hard.” Fellow-trainee Betty Heremaia Sola had tried a few different career possibilities before this. Initially she studied Te Reo Maori, “then I started a teaching degree, because I thought I wanted to be a teacher.” But after one semester “I said no, I don’t want to carry this on. Maybe later – I don’t know. I want to go out and explore the world first….explore the workforce, and what career paths are out there before I commit to that.” Last year she worked (in a paid internship) as a park ranger for Auckland City. But then, “I just….I don’t know: I wanted to upscale my licence and see what opportunities would arise through that.” It is, she says, “really good” that MSD’s Kiwi Can Do programme led to her getting her Class 2 licence…and then, in February this job. After about a month in the yard, she went to work as a driver – on the car transporting work which is one of Carr & Haslam’s specialties. She drives a small 4x2 single-car unit, picking up and delivering cars all around Auckland. “It’s been good….really enjoyable. It’s different to what I’ve done before. I didn’t really have a big interest in cars, but since working 70 | Truck & Driver
here, I don’t know….I’m like, ‘oh my gosh, that’s a BMW!” Not that handling expensive cars fazes her at all – nor does manoeuvring the truck in tricky spaces: “There are really tight places that I need to park in or turn around in. And a lot of like cars surrounding me too – but I just take my time usually.” Shaun Tomai came to Road to success after first working in the warehouse at Owens, picking and packing, then trying his hand as a house painter. That ended badly: “I left because the boss ripped us off.” He had an idea – “to do something along the lines of driving and deliveries.” So he joined the Kiwi Can Do programme, got his Class 2 licence through that…and this traineeship as well. Just two weeks into it, he’s in the yard and the store – learning about the tricks of driving the different cars: “Like there’s all brands of cars and some of them are hard to drive. Like you know, using the handbrakes and the mirrors. “Because when you get to pick up the cars, you need to know where everything is. You could be picking up cars like Porsches and McLarens or something. So you’ve got to be real careful about the things you do.” “So far,” he says, “the job is real good.” He appreciates the traineeship: “All these places around, like they don’t really offer you experience eh like what we’re doing here. “This is a real good foot in the door. See, like driving Class 2, Class 4, Class 5. Yeah, it’s really good, it helps people. Young people like me and all the other cadets around.” His family, he says, is right behind him: “They’re telling me that I should go for it, because in the future I want to try and become a contractor. Get my Class 5…have my own truck.” Seeing the country is one thing that attracted him to truck driving: “Well…I haven’t been out of Auckland. Or, like I only go up North – but that’s all. So, I’d like to maybe get to explore Auckland and NZ while driving trucks. “And plus I like working by myself, because you don’t have to rely on a team. Especially when you’ve got to pick up the slack for them.” Nick Leggett says that Road to success “is going to be measured by how sustainable it is. So is it still alive in five, 10 years’ time? “But the biggest, most important measure is: Are road transport businesses going to take the philosophy into their hiring, into their
investments in staff pay, welfare, qualifications, training. That’s going to be where the change is. “So we can stand here and place people into businesses and make it work, but it’s a reorientation of the industry – thinking, instead of just grabbing a Class 5 driver from somewhere, ‘we might have to create some of them. And we might have to work with our neighbour to create some of them.’ And that’s what this is about. “So it’s about a new philosophy and it’s about recognising that people who are looking to work today need a career path and they need a structure. And we’ve stood that up. And now we’ve got to see it lived through the industry. “We’ve had really good feedback. The point is that it is working. There are people in training in different parts of the country. And some of them employers have found themselves and they’ve just signed them on as trainees and they’re doing the qualifications and the programme. Some of them, (programme co-ordinator) Fiona (McDonagh) has placed.” Yes, some transport operators already “do really well in this space – but this could be an added advantage. And, of course, we’ve got the micro-credentials, which are really an important component.” McDonagh says that most of the 11 trainees so far placed around the country have started work fresh from getting their Class 2 licences. Won’t the fact that many operators don’t have Class 2 trucks pose a stumbling block for them? Well actually, Leggett says, “some operators have either purchased a smaller (Class 2) vehicle or are looking to do that… “It is amazing, the amount of operators that have gone... ‘Well, actually, we’ve got all these vehicle classes and we’re not graduating people through them.’ And this programme can assist
them to do that. “The message, I suppose, is that – well, trucking operators know – good Class 5 drivers don’t grow on trees. We’ve got to grow them.” The traineeship programme provides companies with the tools: “A lot of companies don’t have these tools because they’re small businesses, medium businesses. And so it’s the micro-credentials, it’s the licensing progression, it’s the support from Fiona… “And it’s the training structure and, of course, actually finding the recruits.” To which McDonagh agrees: “Finding the recruits. It’s the introduction to some new people, rather than using the same techniques and the same things.” Leggett and McDonagh believe that the launch of Road to success is the start of a movement, as he says: “Some people will join the movement. Some people have joined. Some people will join in the next year. Other people…won’t join at all. That’s fine. We need probably 5% of road transport operators to take part in this and we will make a tangible difference to the supply of Class 5 drivers.” And that, he and McDonagh believe, is “100%” a realistic target. This year, says Leggett: “Our target’s to get it up and running and get some people graduated. As I say, we could be target-driven fruitcakes and put all our efforts into signing people up to bolster the numbers. Or we can build something sustainable…. “We’re taking time. Fiona’s doing a great job at building the kind of business processes and assistance and fleshing out the structure. So operators have got some good, tangible resources. And that’s what we’re spending our time doing. “If in a year’s time, we could have 50 people going through, I think we’d say that’s a success.” McDonagh: “It’s being able to see Betty, Shaun and Liana at a graduation in 12 months’ time – still passionate, still engaged, still motivated and supported. That’s what we’re aiming for.” T&D Truck & Driver | 71
New words, new m new directions Story Wayne Munro
OVID, COVID, COVID….AND….COVID. THE NAME OF the pandemic that’s cruelled the world these past 18 months just has to be THE word of the times. Behind it….a bunch of new buzzwords and catchphrases that also capture something of the spirit of this point in our history – Jacinda’s “team of five million,” for one. Then there’s the likes of ordinary old words that have taken on a new meaning – like “lockdown.” And the creation of new word combos – “travel bubble,” for example. And then there’s “community transmission” and “contact tracing.” But outside of all that COVID stuff, the global trucking industry has come up with a few new trending terms and buzzwords of its own. So many people and organisations in our industry are now “on journeys” – a journey to decarbonisation, a journey to fossil-free transport…. to zero emissions, to sustainability, to electromobility, to “a hydrogen future.” Shrug off these words as “mere words” at your own risk: Sure, some people in the industry have been saying some of these words for a few years now…. But here in New Zealand we can still feel as far removed from all 72 | Truck & Driver
of this “future stuff” as we have been from the worst of COVID-19’s horrors. And yes, it is safe to say that the chances of NZ’s truck fleet suddenly going green – and ditching diesel combustion-engined trucks in great numbers in favour of battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell electric or even 100% bio-diesel alternatives – is about as likely as this Labour Government doing what they’re ‘sposed to and investing all of the trucking industry’s RUCs on the roads. LOL. So what’s the big deal? Well, in the global truckmaking industry it seems like, as the saying goes: “Shit’s getting real!” Where before there may have been “just words,” now there’s substance – substantive action even – piling in behind those words. And mate, they’re no longer talking timeframes that are far off in the distant future: The bosses of global giants Volvo Trucks and Daimler Truck are, for example, banking on a dramatic switch to hydrogen fuel cell heavy trucks beginning in Europe within the next six years! Their belief is such that it’s led to something that only recently would have seemed unthinkable: Two of the world’s Big Three truckmakers (the other one being Traton) getting together in a jointventure partnership to speed their development of hydrogen fuel cells for long-haul trucks.
w meanings,
FEATURE
Electromobility is now definitely “a thing” with Volvo globally. In Europe it is now taking orders for these electric FM, FH and FMX models
Within 10 years Volvo aims to have fully-electric models accounting for half of its European truck sales. And Volvo and Daimler are both saying they will achieve zero emissions by 2040….or 2050 at the outside. Even the Aussies, whose trucking industry sometimes seems as stoically old-school as they come, are getting on board. Well, some of them (in high places in the industry) are anyway – as this year’s annual Volvo Group Australia media conference makes clear. It’s a sign of the times that the conference sees a mix of some journos turning-up at VGA’s Brisbane HQ in person, while others (like me and a number of inter-state stay-at-homes) tune in online. (Which brings to mind another new term – Zoom call). In this media conference, sustainability, electromobility and decarbonisation are frequently to the fore – leaving no doubt that they are very much front-of-mind with the VGA management team. It begins with VGA president and CEO Martin Merrick opening the show, observing that trucking globally is “an industry in transition” – with the mother company not only managing things through the COVID-torn 2020 “in a very good way,” but also actually upping its game financially “to continue the execution of our transformation journey.
“Even with a sales decline of 22%, we delivered a margin of 8.4…. And, rather than COVID altering our strategy, we’ve accelerated the commercialisation of electric vehicles, whilst continuing to invest in our well-known technologies. “In addition, we’ve announced some exciting partnerships – the hydrogen fuel cell JV with Daimler; H2Accelerate with Daimler, Shell and others (including Iveco) – which is all about investing in the infrastructure and distribution to really accelerate the adoption of fuel cell technology. “And let’s not forget our partnerships with Samsung (to develop truck battery packs), NVIDIA (to develop artificial intelligence for autonomous trucking)…and not to forget our strategic alliance with Isuzu. “And on top of all this, creating a new business area: Volvo Energy – to lead our battery and infrastructure strategy to support the development of electromobility. “We have performed to transform and we will continue to do so – investing in where it really matters globally…and locally.” Talk of all these partnerships prompts another catchphrase from Merrick and a couple of his management team: “Partnership is the new leadership.” Truck & Driver | 73
Volvo Group Australia CEO and president Martin Merrick has reason to be happy – with new products galore this year, including entire model ranges of renewed/upgraded Macks and Volvos...and the launch of the all-new Mack Anthem VGA’s VP of sales, strategy and support Paul Illmer – whose whole presentation is entitled “Transformation” – explains a little of what this partnership business is all about: “What this amounts to – in really simple terms – is the company is just asking the question more and more: ‘Well, do we make it? Or do we buy it? Or do we partner?’ “I think ‘partnership is the new leadership’ is a very important phrase. And we’re also in the age of experimentation as well, when it comes to some of this new technology. “NVIDIA, for example: They take care of our…self-driving technology – both the processes and the software – when it comes to autonomous vehicles. “Our JV with Daimler – which will see us develop faster than if we did that on our own. “Samsung will take care of our next generation of batteries – and they are a fantastic company to partner with, which will give us a really good competitive advantage. “And H2Accelerate – the combination of some companies in Europe looking to bring hydrogen fuel networks to fruition faster. And I would think we’d probably end up doing the same thing here.” The partnership thing arises as well when Merrick takes the microphone as the stand-in head of the Mack brand (only until a new VP is appointed): He stresses the importance of partnerships as they effect the new Mack Anthem and the revision of the Mack range. Now, there is always a palpable pride with VGA’s Mack people about their “Strayan” versions of the North American Bulldogs. Merrick starts off mildly: “We build Mack trucks here at Wacol for Australia and NZ that you just don’t see anywhere else in the world.” And this, he says, is very much set to continue: “Further to the release of the Mack Anthem and the evolution of the Mack range we will continue to invest in the Mack product for Australia and NZ – to ensure we remain competitive with our hard product, safety
technology and emission standards.” That’s being enabled by cold, hard cash: A “compelling business case to our colleagues in North America” has earned a commitment from Mack HQ to invest around $100million in the Aussie product range over the next three years: “And that’s on top of what we see here today.” That is, the new Mack Anthem – a truck that Merrick says is “not an American Mack Anthem – it’s an Australian Mack Anthem.” Launched after years of VGA development and investment – the new Macks are, he says, “designed for the driver and built for our customers’ business.” Jeff Hammane, VP Group Trucks Technology (GTT) – “we’re the engineering people” – lets his pride shine through when he talks about just how much work has gone into Australianising the Anthem: “It looks the same – we intended that – but that is not an American truck. “We invested heavily for many years in this project and we made this truck better – and in the process of doing that, we even made the American truck better! Because what they learnt from our testing, from our evaluation, from the processes we went through. They actually put that into the US truck…” GTT started that process by showing Aussie Mack customers a mockup of the Anthem – and asking for their opinions: “The customers told us what they thought – so we went back to the drawing board and we changed a lot of things in that truck. What we’ve delivered now is what the customer asked for… “At the end of this we delivered an Anthem that looks like an American truck, it has the name…it’s not the same. It’s a better truck. It’s…yep, whether the Americans like it or not – it’s a better truck.” Martin Merrick details its attributes: There are fuel efficiency improvements courtesy of the MP8 engine and the mDrive AMT, plus Truck & Driver | 75
Above: For now, the focus is on optimising the fuel efficiency of the Volvo Group Australia’s trucks, across its brands....but electric trucks are coming Right: The Aussies say that this Mack Anthem is better than the American original
“The trucks are kind of the easiest part here...” improved aerodynamics and the all-Mack drivelines. The new electronic architecture that’s a key part of the new range enables “a host of new system updates – including the new mDrive HD and extreme HD transmissions, which add two new super-low gear ratios to the AMT for low-speed manoeuvrability. The improved technology onboard also allows the addition of predictive cruise control in the Anthem and Trident models. And safety, he says, “is our No. 1 priority. And safety is always important at Mack…we build our trucks for usability, comfort and safety. So we design our trucks with both inherent and active safety measures to give our customers peace of mind and prevent collisions. “We say ‘built like a Mack truck.’ But that doesn’t mean we shy away from partnerships. Partnerships are the new leadership, which is why we have partnered with Bendix – to bring our customers an advanced safety solution in the Bendix Wingman Fusion. “These features represent significant progress on our journey to prevent collisions.” There is one slightly jarring note at the end of Merrick’s Mack presentation – when one of the in-person media attendees politely asks: “Why don’t you have a driver’s airbag?” Merrick has to admit: “It’s a very good question. As I said earlier – safety’s our No. 1 priority. We will never be satisfied and we’re on a journey to ensure that we have zero accidents. So we’re focusing now that we will prevent collisions…and of course that airbag will come – but we’re on that journey… “What I have presented today is a major step forward and a significant step in preventing collisions.” Yes, but how far away might a driver’s airbag be? “We’re investing over $100m over the next few years and we have, of course, to look at emission standards and safety… We don’t share the product development at an early stage – but watch this space.” What the 2021 Macks – the all-new Anthem, plus the upgraded Metro-Liner, Super-Liner and Titan – all do have is an updated, 76 | Truck & Driver
improved cab….with a new dash, instrument panel, steering wheel, driver’s seat, trim, sleeper and storage. There’s a five-inch colour digital display as the centrepiece of the dash to provide info, key controls have been relocated from the dash to within easy reach, the “industry-first” flat-bottom steering wheel provides more clearance for the driver to slide in and out of the driver’s seat and there’s 35% more space (and more headroom). The new Anthem and the “evolution” Mack models have now been on tour in Australia, showing them off to customers, and NZ importer Motor Truck Distributors is running a similar roadshow here, Merrick says. The good news for NZ Mack buyers is that, he adds: “We’ve developed the Mack Anthem 8x4 rigid spec specifically for the NZ market – to meet NZ regulations.” With Volvo Trucks now taking orders in Europe for electric versions of its complete heavy-duty range – with volume production to start next year – VGA’s VP Gary Bone makes the point that as the Group continues “to invest heavily in more climate-friendly transport solutions….we will, of course, benefit from that investment here in Australia. “Whilst diesel will continue to play a big role in the Australian market – and we will be turning every stone to improve fuel efficiency within our range of diesel-powered trucks – we’re also exploring and investing in alternative fuels and electromobility. “Our primary task…is to ease the transition to electrified vehicles by offering holistic solutions that include route planning, correctly specified vehicles, making sure we have the most effective charging infrastructure, financing and services to go along with this amazing new product.” And, as he puts it, “In Australia our journey with electric trucks has already begun” – with a six-month trial involving two Volvo FL Electric 16-tonne 4x2s working in an urban delivery environment for Linfox. They have eight-pallet bodies and run a 600-volt power system, with
200 kilowatts of battery power. Paul Illmer says that the VGA “transformation journey” can be summarised with a few key messages: “We’re developing a decarbonisation roadmap here at VGA. Electromobility is a priority in certain segments… The internal combustion engine will be here to stay for quite some time. Electromobility slots into some segments perfectly – in some it makes no sense. “Sustainability is going to be the thread that runs through this company. Now that we have the launch of our electromobility journey and some of the other things that we’re doing globally that we can draw from, this is a really good opportunity for us to create a more carbon-neutral company – not only globally, but locally as well.” In the lifecycle of a truck – from its production to its disposal – “the majority of the carbon is emitted of course in use, from the tailpipe, So that’s where the Group is starting.” Following the CAST concept – that is, common architecture, shared technology – the Volvo’s electromobility push began in 2015 with electric buses: “So what happened was we developed batteries, electric motors, architecture, software, ECUs and created the Volvo bus.” CAST then applies the components, the architecture and so on across the Group’s brands and products – all “making their journey from internal combustion to electric.” Most recently, that transition has been applied to create what Volvo says is “the most complete commercial electric truck range in the industry,” with electric FH, FM and FMX models recently joining the already-launched FL and FE Electrics. And, says Illmer, “it’s not just battery-electric we’re talking about… there has been a bit of a tipping point towards hydrogen….so it’s hydrogen as well. “We’re also looking at bio-fuel – biodiesel: There’s been some good activity in NZ on that. And liquefied natural gas is still on offer… in Europe at the moment, and we’re looking to see if there’s an opportunity to deploy that locally.
“It’s really different energy sources for different applications, for different customers – and where they’re located.” Illmer is at pains to point out that, “this isn’t just about the vehicles. To an extent, you know, the trucks are kind of the easiest part here – because they’re developed…and we put them in service. It’s everything around it – that then is our moment of truth: If we deliver on our promises to the customers…or we don’t.” The creation of the likes of Volvo Energy provides wraparound services that Illmer’s team can tap into from the global group. The current Linfox electric truck trial, for instance, was preceded by two years of preparation – into how the electric Volvos’ operation in Australia might differ from the European experience: “We knew what they were looking to do in Europe when it comes to electromobility, but of course we have unique applications for a unique market.” Extensive data was gathered from the diesel-fuelled Linfox trucks doing the same work, then used to simulate electric versus diesel performance. The current trial is, he says, “our introduction to then understand how we then commercialise this in a good way….so we keep our brand promise: To give customers the same support and experience as they get today with a diesel truck.” Plugging into the global Volvo Group experience and systems is a big help, Illmer reckons – accessing Volvo’s battery configuration tool, for instance: “We plug in a customer’s route, we look at their diminishing load….how many stops they’ll make….how long they’ll be stopped for. We look at topography, average speeds…and then that gives us an indication if the truck will make it from A to B. “So out of 10 routes, for example, we may end up with seven or eight that could be usable…. It’ll tell us the route in year one…and then in year 10. So it accounts for battery degradation year on year.” Then, of course, there’s the Group’s experience in training drivers how best to use electric trucks – “in a safe way, but also in an efficient way. What we know is that electric vehicles at this stage don’t like hills very much – and they don’t like sitting on constant Truck & Driver | 77
cruise speeds. So, electric vehicles are going to make great sense on FMCG urban deliveries, but in some applications they won’t make sense.” Again he stresses: “It’s not just about the truck – we’re building competence and abilities in different areas to the business that we never had before. We don’t have all the answers, but we’re learning every day.” Meantime though, back in the fossil-fuel-powered world, VGA also has a lot going on – like next month’s start of full-scale production in Brisbane of Volvo’s new heavy-duty range. Four new models, says Gary Bone, “designed with the driver in mind. “Drivers are our everyday heroes of the transport industry, which has shone through in recent times – showing how they are essential to keep our country moving through this pandemic. “It’s up to them to get the job done both safely and efficiently. And at the same time there is a shortage of highly-skilled drivers. With the help of our new truck range the driver is at the centre of our attention. Giving him or her the best possible working and resting environment. “And this puts our customers in a stronger position to attract the very best drivers in the industry. Our trucks are tailormade to support their operations and the truck drivers who have to get it done. “We have found ways to improve everything the driver does to interact with the product, the new and improved dashboard being the perfect example – right in front of you, the new digital instrument display with up to four different views. A brand-new side display mounted to the left-hand side of the instrument panel helping you with navigation and all ancillary applications. A new seat-mounted I-Shift gear selector, with all driving modes.” There’s a relocated passenger-side corner camera automatically activated when the left-turn indicator is engaged, or switched on manually to assist on narrow lanes or construction sites. Bone details the completely new cabs for the new FM and FMX models, with better ergonomic space, improved steering wheel adjustment and new controls for the traction control system – plus 78 | Truck & Driver
larger windows, narrower and straighter A-pillars, a lowered doorline on the side windows and an optional window in the passenger door. The FM is now equipped with the same mirrors as the FH, with improved vision and reduced blind-spots. For the FH and FH16, upgraded cabs include an XXL. And the downhill cruise control is improved, allowing the driver to use the foundation brakes without disengaging the system. And, says Bone: “We now have adaptive cruise control – but at the next level….so it works down to 0km/h. Previously on Volvo trucks this had been set at 15k.” The down to zero capability is, as he points out, “very, very helpful in dense traffic.” To restart it has “driver-initiated go” – the driver needing to either press a resume button or touch the throttle pedal. An autonomous restart when the vehicle ahead moved away would, he explains, be outside the Volvo safety philosophy: “In charge and in support.” The Australian offer of the fuel-saving I-Save uses the D13 turbocompound engine – “our most fuel-efficient engine ever and it has already exceeded our initial expectations.” The combination of the new engine technology and the GPS-based I-See predictive cruise control – standard with I-Save – delivers the fuel savings. Euro customers have, he says, reported higher fuel savings than Volvo promised – while also retaining “excellent driveability.” VGA’s UD Trucks VP, Lauren Downs, reckons that the team looking after Volvo’s Japanese brand in Australasia produced “a pretty tremendous effort” in 2020. “In Australia, in the heavy-duty segment, last year UD Trucks was one of only two brands to increase its volumes – up 3% in a market that declined by almost 17%. “Last year we delivered more than 100 units into the NZ market, for the third consecutive year – in a market that overall was down.” That’s all well and good, but the burning question for most media people attending this press conference is what happens next for the UD brand in these parts – in the wake of the global strategic alliance
Clockwise from opposite page, top left: Volvo’s electromobility journey has begun in Australia with a trial of two FL Electrics....UD VP Lauren Downs says the make’s sale to Isuzu doesn’t change a lot in Australia and NZ.....UD’s Quon and Croner models will be allowed to compete head to head with Isuzu competitors....Paul Illmer reckons it’s Volvo’s wraparound services that are important in electromobility....Gary Bone says the new Volvo range is designed to look after drivers
between Isuzu and the Volvo Group that was announced at the end of last year. The deal included the takeover last month of UD by Isuzu. So, what does the alliance and the sale of the UD brand mean for the make’s representation and its current and future customers in Australia and NZ. Okay, so Downs says that the deal is evidence that “partnerships truly are the new leadership… Technology is advancing at such a rapid rate….so in terms of A) – keeping up – but, more than that, staying ahead of the pack – often it’s partnerships that are required.” The deal, she says, is “not just a clearcut sale.” The over-arching Isuzu/Volvo alliance is in place for a minimum of 20 years….. and, says Downs, “what it means and how the alliance comes to life will be different in different markets. What makes sense in one market or one country….may not make sense in another.” The Japanese truck industry is, for instance, heading towards “some of the most stringent emissions standards in the world. So again, the joint technology development there makes sense. In other markets, UD will become the importer of the Volvo product. “Here in Australia, the changes will actually be very limited. And I say that because both brands are….actually very strong and quite successful in their own rights. “VGA will be the sole importer and the sole distributor of the UD product here in Australia, just as Motor Truck Distributors will be the same in the NZ market.” The sales and service networks will also, she says, “stay exactly the same. And when it comes to our products, there are currently no plans to change the UD product lineup or strategy here – for Australia and NZ. “A number of products recently were developed and designed specifically for our market and specifically for our customers. “At UD we genuinely believe that competition does bring innovation, which is a good thing. “And here – in Australia and NZ – Isuzu will remain a direct competitor. So again, that does not change.” Downs says that so far things haven’t changed in terms of the VGA’s relationship with UD Trucks HQ: “We’re actually dealing with the exact same team that we were in previous years – in engineering, the team we put in requests for product modification changes… “We were also really pleased that some projects already under way that were paused because of COVID….are now being restarted. So
we’re already getting the sense that the way of working, how we put in requests for product changes, requests for new products for example, it’s actually going to all work in the same way.” A question from the media: What will happen if Isuzu’s 8x4 market share gets severely impacted by the UD Quon 8x4 – what influence might Isuzu in Australia have on that? Says Downs: “It’s a very good question….Isuzu will remain a direct competitor and obviously our 8x4 product is targeting the Japanese sector. “So we are rivals – we are direct competitors. We’ve invested as UD in that product – and it was designed specifically for the Australian market. So in our minds it’s full steam ahead and there’s not so much we can do.” Downs points out “the other important thing….there will be a joint (Isuzu/Volvo) alliance office formed and there will be facilities of this office in both Sweden and Japan. And there will be a board that oversees this alliance office – including the presidents and key executives of both brands. “So they’ll be a part of key decisionmaking….on information sharing, technology sharing and when it makes sense to do joint developments on technologies. So you get the sense that neither brand is just going to have free range and do what they want. “As the sole importer of UD product, Volvo Group is fully committed to the success and the future of UD Trucks in Australia and we do see the future as being extremely bright.” Martin Merrick says that “the messaging on Volvo Group’s future is very clear: We are on a journey towards fossil-free transport solutions by 2040. And our journey has started in Australia. “That said, the internal combustion engine will be with us here in Australia for a very long time to come. We will continue to invest and innovate so that this engine will become cleaner and more efficient. And perhaps with the research that’s going on today in the innovation into alternative fuels, perhaps we’ll see an internal combustion engine that’s fossil-free.” The Scots-born Merrick, who has clocked-up 33 years in the Volvo Group, reckons what he’s involved with right now “is by far the most exciting period of my career and over this decade we will all be part of an incredible transformation – not just of the transport industry, but for the world we live in.” T&D Truck & Driver | 79
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FEATURE
Timaru truck collection founders Bob Mehrtens (left) and Bruce Anderson
collective
A collectors’
Story Brian Cowan Photos Gerald Shacklock
T MIGHT NOT YET BE A RIVAL FOR INVERCARGILL’S Bill Richardson Transport World, but the recent strides made by the South Canterbury Traction Engine & Transport Museum are nevertheless very impressive. Four years ago, the facility – located not far from the Timaru airport at Levels – added to its layout with a 900 square metre building designed to house more than 30 classic and historic trucks. Now, an even bigger project has just been completed – a 1400sq m building which will house both the growing truck collection and several tractors, and give breathing space in the other buildings to better display a big lineup of steam traction engines and historic farm machinery. The explosive growth of the complex has been driven in no small part by the involvement of what previously was a loose assembly of classic truck enthusiasts. With no central hub to indulge their passion, members worked independently on their restoration projects in a variety of locations scattered around South Canterbury. Enter Bruce Anderson and Bob Mehrtens. Anderson was at the time fleet manager for Hilton Haulage, while Mehrtens still runs
The oldest vehicle currently in the museum is a 1925 Ford Model T, a forerunner of modern pickups. Beside it is a 1930s-era Dodge, the wooden framing for the locally-built sheetmetal cab clearly visible. Also note the split-rim wheel construction Truck & Driver | 81
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Clockwise, from top: In the front is a late 1940s Austin K-Series, on loan from McNulty’s Transport of Cromwell. The Austins were widely used at
the time and competed for the favour of fleet owners with similar models from Ford and Bedford. The K-Series’ four-litre petrol engine produced around 90hp. Alongside it is the 1929 Dennis owned by Bob Mehrtens, one of four bought brand-new by the Waimate Milk Company and the only one of them still running. Trucks of the era were typically imported as an engine and chassis/running gear, with the bodywork limited to the guards, bonnet and firewall and cabs being built locally. This one retains its original cab...... This 1963 Leyland Comet was one of five run from new by the Mackenzie County Council in Fairlie. It’s owned by club member Jack Douglas (hence the fictitious “Douglas Motors” signage) and after service with the council was used for some time as a tractor unit by Smiths Earthmoving. Its working life over, it sat for many years under a cover in Timaru and was destined for the scrap-heap when Jack Douglas was alerted to its existence and bought it. A sister truck from the Mackenzie County days (the only other survivor from the original five) is in the Bill Richardson Transport World, in Invercargill...... Apparently different from the bulk of the collection because of its North Island signage, is this 1955 Ford Thames Trader 55, owned by Ryan Pullar. However, that reflects a family connection for the owner rather than the truck’s history: Ryan’s grandfather worked for Cambridge Transport back in the day, so it has been finished in his memory – while the truck itself was found in Ashburton. Power comes from a six-cylinder petrol engine, and the 55 model designation refers to the load rating of 5.5tons
the three-truck Mehrtens Bulk Transport, which services the South Canterbury rural sector. As an aside, Bob is a many-times national ploughing champion and has represented New Zealand in world championships 11 times – his major successes including second overall in Kenya in 2017. COVID permitting, he’ll be carrying the flag again in Russia next year. He explains the background to the truck enthusiasts’ involvement with the museum: “We had quite an array of people who were
working on various truck projects, but they were scattered all over – in a variety of sheds and workshops. “It had been a dream of mine for some time to have a facility where we could all be together. I’d mentioned it to Bruce over a beer and he was totally supportive and behind the idea all the way, where a lot of people might have thought it was an impossible target. “Anyway, we had looked all around but hadn’t landed anything suitable until one day about six years ago I happened to be Truck & Driver | 83
spreading fertiliser on a paddock adjoining the property of what was at the time called the South Canterbury Traction Engine & Vintage Steam Club. “On the way out I was passing a group of their guys leaning against the fence and passed the time of day – because I knew most of them – and I happened to mention we were looking for a shed we could lease or borrow to put the trucks in. “About two days later I got a call from the club offering land on which we could build a shed, the only stipulation being we’d have to join up with them. Well, that was no problem – it was a wonderful
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From left to right, both pages: This 1949 Commer Super Poise has been in the Barwood family since new and after a thorough professional restoration is presented in its original Barwood Motors fleet colours. When new, it was fitted with a wooden stock crate but this has been replaced by a flatdeck. The truck is regularly fired up for truck shows and classic runs and is a beautiful example of a model that was widely used in the transport industry during the 1950s..... No airbags or creature comforts here! The interior of the Commer offers the fundamentals and little more. Note the clip for the hinged windscreen..... The 1966 Canadian-built LW Kenworth was brought to NZ by Burnetts Motors as a heavy machinery transporter. Later it was fitted with a bulk body for grain cartage, and finished its working life in a lime works before being restored by the company. Burnetts’ rural transport division eventually became the basis for Rural Transport, now part of the Wareing’s Transport group, which has loaned the unit to the museum. The Burnetts 1961 Commer was, from new, fitted with a horse box and run by a Christchurch racehorse trainer, before moving on to similar work in Ashburton. Similar models were the mainstay of Burnetts Motors in Ashburton during the era, and the vehicle, still in good condition for its age, presented former Burnetts mechanic Gordon Burgess with a great opportunity to replace the horse box with a flatdeck and build a replica of the ones used by the company. The model is powered by the Rootes Group TS3 engine, a 3.5-litre two-stroke diesel which had three pairs of horizontally-opposed pistons, each pair sharing a common combustion space and connected to a central crankshaft by rocker arms
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Many of them are works in progress.... fundraiser for the club. The project was completed late in April and the trucks shifted into their new home over the next few weeks. The level of integration of the truck enthusiasts into the club was recognised a couple of years ago with the change in name, which also reflects an approach that now covers all transport-related interests. As Bob Mehrtens points out, the costs associated with running a vintage traction engine, or restoring a classic truck, can be considerable, but old farm tractors are much more accessible to newcomers, and activity in this area is growing. The emphasis with the museum is very firmly on celebrating the transport history of the region, says Bruce Anderson: “Many of the trucks are painted in the colours of firms from the region. Even if the truck itself might not have worked for a company in its lifetime, if it’s the same model as ones that were actually run by the company then it’s great to have it decked out in their colours.” Consequently, the display contains classic models from the earliest days of Temuka Transport, Ashburton’s Burnetts Motors, Fairlie’s Barwood Motors and Timaru’s Hilton Haulage. A completed restoration project dear to Bruce’s heart has been a 1972 Volvo
86 | Truck & Driver
G88, a replica of the one he ran with North Otago Road Metal at the beginning of his driving career. And while the overall theme is an association with transport companies in the South Canterbury region, in several cases the actual trucks have themselves had a varied and fascinating history. Several of the vehicles are not owned by club members, but have been loaned by other individuals and organisations. Among this group – and a departure from the general theme of heavy transport vehicles – is an ERF fire engine, the first snorkel unit to be used by the Fire Service in Timaru. At any given time, not all of the trucks on display are fully restored – many of them are works in progress or awaiting the start of the process. And even though the new shed is able to accommodate more than 50 units, that’s not the complete pool of those owned by club members – and the plan is to periodically rotate vehicles in and out, thus keeping the display fresh for visitors. There’s also been a hint that the future might include classic cars, while further down the track a tourist trail-type association with the Pleasant Point Museum & Railway has been mooted. T&D
Clockwise, from top left: This Mercedes Benz L1924 was the first of the model to be bought new by Hilton Haulage, in the mid-1980s (although
the company was already running several secondhand examples). During an eventful career it covered more than a million kilometres carting frozen fish around the South Island before rounding out its career on container work in Christchurch. It was bought back by Hilton Haulage and has been restored to immaculate condition, in period livery. The number plate might look like a modern addition, but dates back to NZ’s 1986 America’s Cup campaign sailed in the innovative fibreglass Kiwi Magic – sail number KZ7..... The 1968 Albion began life with Isaacs Construction in Christchurch, doing duty variously as a tipper and a water truck. It has been restored by club member Peter Hardie, a builder from Claremont, inland of Timaru – hence the fictitious “Claremont Contracting” fleet name. Albion was a longstanding Scottish company that had been swept up in the badgeengineering madness that characterised British Leyland during the 1960s, and the truck shares its “Ergomatic” cab with several other brands from the group, including Leyland and AEC..... Bruce Anderson was keen to set up an example of the mid-1980s Volvo F88 he drove early in his career for North Otago Road Metal, but few F88s survive, since they were prone to rust. This one began life as a 4x2 milktanker for the Tai Tapu Dairy Company in Christchurch before moving to Waitaki Transport, where it was fitted with the extra drive axle – ending up with a Volvo collector in North Canterbury, from whom Bruce bought it. In its Tai Tapu incarnation the truck had a day cab, but a sleeper was sourced from another unit to bring it into line with the Road Metal specs..... The late-1970s Cummins-engined snorkel ERF fire engine came from the factory to Timaru with a glass-fibre cab, but after a crash in a similar unit in Dunedin in which several occupants were seriously injured the Fire Service replaced the original with a steel body, built in Rotorua. It has run just 19,000 original miles..... This 1963 Thames Trader 75 was originally run by Atlantic Union Oil as a tanker unit, and later used by a Canterbury farmer to cart his tractor to ploughing contests. When he retired, he sold it to Bob Mehrtens, who has had it restored in the colours of Geraldine Transport, a company that in the 1960s was also the local agent for Ford Commercials, and consequently ran an all-Ford fleet..... In the 1970s the Rootes Group was taken over by Chrysler and the Commer name for its UK-produced trucks was replaced by Dodge. This model uses the ubiquitous Perkins 6.354 six-cylinder diesel engine instead of the Rootes TS3 two-stroke diesel that was fitted to many of the Commer-badged variants..... 1966 Leyland Albion is another example of its core cab designs being used across a number of models and brands
Truck & Driver | 87
When your business is stopping traffic, you want a truck that can take whatever’s thrown at it. That’s where Blackwells Isuzu comes in, with Isuzu N-Series trucks that keep Men at Work hard at work managing traffic safely and efficiently all over Canterbury.
With a partnership that first started back in 2012, it’s been all go ever since.
National Road Carriers
Congestion charging benefits potentially huge – but let’s check By David Aitken, CEO of National Road Carriers Association
R
EPORTS INDICATE CONGESTION WOULD REDUCE BY AROUND 8-12% if road charging is fully implemented and combined with improved public transport. The potential benefits look to be enormous, contributing significant time-cost savings to freight and other commercial traffic on Auckland’s roads. But NRC strongly recommends that before a “road pricing” scheme is formally adopted, a trial be undertaken to ensure the potential benefits emerge in practice. The objectives of the trial would be to: • Reduce peak-hour traffic demand on the selected corridor; • Encourage the use of public transport; and, • Provide for more efficient movement of freight and lower overall travel costs. Auckland now ranks 47th in the world in terms of traffic congestion. The cost of congestion in Auckland is more than a $1billion per annum. Congestion is spreading across the day, across the network… and is projected to worsen. If this trial is successful and is fully adopted, it may be something the Government will also look to do in other major transport hubs around the country: Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch all have congestion issues. Commuter cars cause the bulk of the congestion, while road freight and trades sectors carry a big proportion of the cost of delay. Operating one heavy truck is approximately $100/hr. A 15-minute delay for say, 4000 trucks a day, costs around $100,000. Of the five options considered in the Congestion Question report our preference is the Strategic Corridors scheme. This option can be targeted to generate meaningful, Auckland-wide network performance benefits and congestion relief. In NRC’s submission to Parliament’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee inquiry into congestion pricing in Auckland we recommend the trial be conducted in a corridor or corridors congested with a mix of traffic – single-driver commuters, freight and trades, with reasonable access to practical and convenient public transport and cycling alternatives. Our submission recommends: • The proposed peak congestion charge of $3.50 be re-examined, noting public transport costs are higher – a two-zone bus fare is $3.55, and freight vehicles are already paying RUC and/or RFT • A pricing structure of up to $5-$7 per peak-hour motorists’ trip, with a daily cap of $10-$12, coupled with reduced peak-hour fares on public transport, to say $2 per trip • A simple, universal congestion charge for all vehicles (similar to the 15% GST on all goods), because the scheme’s efficiency would be improved and compliance costs reduced if different cost structures for certain types of vehicles are avoided. • Freight, distribution and trades pay no fee or a flat rate, because
they have no option but to use the roads If the trial corridor scheme is a success, we recommend a phased delivery of a comprehensive strategic corridor scheme across the Auckland transport network, targeting the most congested routes and timed with improvements to public transport services. The David Aitken ultimate scheme must explicitly provide for efficient movement of freight and deliver lower overall travel costs. Lower congestion will not only help to reduce the economic costs of freight, it will also benefit the environment and climate change by substantially reducing carbon emissions from trucks stuck in single-occupancy, private, light-vehicle traffic – and by providing more carbon efficient freight movement. The amount of freight moving around Auckland is eye-opening: The New Zealand Transport Agency estimates 50 million tonnes of road freight currently originates in Auckland (which is growing by about 6% a year) – 80% of which remains within the Auckland region, 1% being moved north and the remaining 19% being moved south. Reducing road transport’s impact on climate change is a major focus for National Road Carriers and we engage with the Sustainable Business Council, which in April launched its Low Carbon Freight Pathway. The pathway is a collaboration by a group of leading businesses that sets out how NZ’s heavy transport sector can be decarbonised by 2050 through the uptake of a range of solutions over time. The overall pathway can be summarised into three horizons: • Fleet optimisation and modal shift. Ensuring the current fleet is operating efficiently. • Using biofuels in existing vehicle stock with biofuels to minimise emissions. • Electrification of transport, primarily through battery storage and hydrogen. The pathway drills down to specific pathways for road, rail and coastal shipping. The pathway has 15 specific road initiatives including driver training, route optimisation, widening delivery windows, anti-idling technology, weight reduction, improved aerodynamics, increased carrying capacity by using larger trucks… and more. Well-tested measures to reduce congestion will have positive effects all around for commuters, the transport industry, consumers of goods carried by trucks and for future generations, by improving air quality and limiting the impact of climate change. T&D Truck & Driver | 89
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Road Transport Association NZ
Young people’s concerns need to be heard By Simon Carson, RTANZ chief operating officer
LIVESTOCK EXPORTS In April, the Labour Government released a statement saying that all livestock exports from New Zealand by sea will stop by 2023. This announcement was met with mixed emotion, with livestock operators and farmers the ones being impacted the most. The decision to ban bulk live cattle exports was largely based on decisionmakers being influenced by the current scrutiny that animal welfare is under, as well as pressure from the public, whose opinion seemed to have been largely supportive of the decision…. And fuelled by media who tended to focus on poor conditions and export animal mortality rates. In 2019, the cattle export trade was worth $77million dollars to the economy. Since 2015, an average of 60,000 cattle have been exported each year, with 110,000 exported in 2020. In the same year, there were 19 large cattle export ocean freight shipments that departed our shores (excluding Gulf Livestock 1) – and from the 110,000 cattle exported, the mortality rate closed out at 0.12%, or 128 cattle. The Labour Government stopped the live sea exports of sheep in 2003 and NZ has not exported livestock for slaughter since 2008. The expensive, and limited availability option of moving livestock by air will continue. AGEING WORKFORCE Alarmingly, statistics still send industry a clear and urgent message: 37% of industry operators continue to report a shortage of drivers, and about 25% of drivers in the ageing workforce are over 60. A conservative estimate is that within five to six years about 20% of our current driving workforce will need to be replaced. April 29 saw the official launch in Auckland of the RTF initiative, Te ara ki tua Road to success. This traineeship is about
Simon Carson
recruiting into the transport industry, but at the same time it delivers a message for the transport industry to rethink its employment culture and look at how we are employing. ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS Young people are our nation’s future, and if nothing else we need to listen to what they are saying if transport is to have the attraction that we work so hard for it to have. As an industry we also need to give some serious thought to the impact that moving freight has on the national and global environment. For the past three years right across Aotearoa, people of school-leaving age have been gathering in their thousands to demand their voice is heard by government on environmental and climate change concerns. One topic the movement strongly demanded action on was investment in green infrastructure, alternative vehicles and fuels, while ensuring those previously working in unsustainable industries were retrained for sustainable jobs. There is a fear that if we don’t become proactive on climate change and the environment, our industry may be overlooked and left behind by the very people we are trying to attract. WATCH YOUR COSTS The more barriers that global trade builds to protect itself from COVID-19, the greater the cost of doing business. Is there a reset strategy after COVID, or does disruption and the global trade agitation from the past 18 months settle in as the new norm? As many transport operators look to assess their costs and implement general rate increases to their customer base, I urge you to clearly understand what your forecasted costs look like in the current and future market and adjust accordingly. Fuel prices are seeing increases from week to week, so please talk to us about protecting yourselves, using a fuel adjustment factor. Call Simon Carson on 027 55 66 099, or email scarson@rtanz.co.nz. T&D Truck & Driver | 91
Caltex Invercargill Oil Shop
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Auckland Oil Shop
John Keast Manager Caltex Invercargill Oil Shop is a locally owned and operated company and is proud to be the Caltex Distributor for Southland and South Otago, from south of the Clutha River to Stewart Island. We pride ourselves in being able to offer and supply the best product backed by the best service in the industry. Along with our oil shop network Caltex Lubricants are available in many areas. Just give John a call, who has over 50 years experience in the automotive industry, to discuss your requirements.
Southland Batteries 49 Bond Street Invercargill 03 218 8300
Westland Engineering Supplies 03-768 5720
Eastern Gas & Hire 6 Hyde Street Gore 03 208 5085 Balclutha Motors Cnr Elizabeth & James Street Balclutha 03 418 1070
TD31099
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AND HAWKES BAY
This is one of two new Freightliner Cascadia 6x4 tractor units that have gone to work for Foodstuffs contractor Blue Ice Logistics (along with a new Mercedes-Benz Actros). The Rotorua-based operation is running one to Auckland and Turangi six days a week, while the other runs Rotorua-Auckland-Opotiki-Rotorua. They haul three and four-axle refrigerated trailers.
A remarkable return
R
EMARKABLY, THE NEW ZEALAND NEW TRUCK market is returning to normality – with registrations in April falling just 4.5% short of the alltime record for the month. Following a March performance that was a new record, April’s registrations in the overall market (all trucks with a GVM over 4.5 tonnes) totalled 382, just 18 shy of 2019’s April benchmark. That was promising, particularly in comparison to the COVID-ravaged April 2020 market (when the industry saw just 89 new trucks registered). But to keep it in perspective – the 1501 year-to-date registrations at the end of April were still 199 down (that’s 11.7%) on the same period in the 2019 boom year, according to official NZ Transport Agency data. On the other hand, it is a huge improvement on the 1134 YTD figure at the end of April last year. The trailer market was also buoyant, with 118 registrations in April – eight less than in the same month in 2019. The YTD total trailer tally, at 455, was well down on the record 530, for the same period in 2018. It was, of course, well up on April 2020’s mere eight registrations for the month and 318 YTD. In the overall 4.5t to maximum GVM market, April saw Isuzu remain in the No. 1 spot – slightly improving its lead, with 70 registrations taking its YTD total to 290. But it has taken a market share hit compared to its 2019 domination, when it held 22.8% with 388 registrations. At the end of April it held a 19.3% 2021 YTD share. Second-placed FUSO, on the other hand, has improved its market share from 16.1% in 2019 to 18.5% at the end of April this year, with 277 YTD registrations and 67 for the month. There were no surprises in the crossover 3.5-4.5t GVM segment, with
Fiat (138/46) continuing to open up an already-dominant lead, with a 58.7% market share over Volkswagen (47/11) and Mercedes-Benz (17/4). In the 4.5-7.5t GVM class, FUSO (154/39) continued its lead – although Isuzu (108/39) did match it for the month. Mercedes-Benz (52/12) remained in third, followed by Hino (45/13) – while Iveco (37/14) improved to fifth. In the 7.5-15t GVM category, Isuzu (117/18) still easily led Hino (79/19), with FUSO third (53/11). Foton (21/7) and Iveco (13/5) remained fourth and fifth. In the 15-20.5t GVM division, Hino (26/7) was matched for the month by FUSO (19/7), but still remained clearly in the lead YTD, ahead of UD (9/4) – which jumped up four places, overtaking Scania and Isuzu (both 6/1), Mercedes-Benz and Iveco (both 5/0). In the tiny 20.5-23t segment, Hino (6/3) edged ahead of FUSO (4/1), while Freightliner (1/1) joined the segment. In the premium 23t to maximum GVM division, Volvo (96/30) jumped ahead of Kenworth (91/23) for the first time this year. Scania (78/21) remained in third ahead of Hino (60/15) which edged ahead of Isuzu (59/12). FUSO (47/9) and DAF (43/7) retained their positions, while UD (40/14) gained a place – moving up to eighth, ahead of Iveco (37/8) and MercedesBenz (23/6), which completed the top 10. In the trailer market, Patchell (62/14) extended its lead – achieving an improvement on its 60/12 performance in 2019. Fruehauf (45/10) was clearly second, with MTE (31/7) joined in third-equal by Domett (31/8). Roadmaster (29/9) was fifth, followed by TMC (25/8), Transport Trailers (23/7) and Freighter (19/7) – each retaining their positions. Completing the top 10, Transfleet (18/7) overtook TES (15/3) for ninth. T&D Truck & Driver | 93
Taru (T-Man) Rau is now at the wheel of this K200 2.3m Aerodyne 8x4 curtainsider – his first brand-new Kenworth – carting general freight around the North Island. The Tuakau-based Prime Haulage KW has a 600hp Cummins X15, an 18-speed manual Roadranger and Meritor RT46-160GP diffs
23,001kg-max GVM
4501kg-max GVM Brand ISUZU FUSO HINO VOLVO IVECO KENWORTH MERCEDES-BENZ SCANIA UD FOTON DAF HYUNDAI SINOTRUK MAN FREIGHTLINER FIAT INTERNATIONAL MACK VOLKSWAGEN WESTERN STAR SHACMAN Total
2021 Vol 290 277 216 96 92 91 84 84 55 48 45 28 17 17 17 14 7 7 7 6 3 1501
% 19.3 18.5 14.4 6.4 6.1 6.1 5.6 5.6 3.7 3.2 3.0 1.9 1.1 1.1 1.1 0.9 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.2 100.0
April Vol % 70 18.3 67 17.5 57 14.9 30 7.9 27 7.1 23 6.0 21 5.5 22 5.8 20 5.2 9 2.4 7 1.8 5 1.3 4 1.0 5 1.3 6 1.6 2 0.5 2 0.5 2 0.5 2 0.5 1 0.3 0 0.0 382 100.0
3501-4500kg GVM Brand FIAT VOLKSWAGEN MERCEDES-BENZ PEUGEOT FORD RENAULT LDV ISUZU Total
2021 Vol 138 47 17 12 10 7 3 1 235
% 58.7 20.0 7.2 5.1 4.3 3.0 1.3 0.4 100.0
April Vol % 46 70.8 11 16.9 4 6.2 1 1.5 1 1.5 1 1.5 1 1.5 0 0.0 65 100.0
4501-7500kg GVM Brand FUSO ISUZU MERCEDES-BENZ HINO IVECO FOTON HYUNDAI FIAT VOLKSWAGEN Total 94 | Truck & Driver
2021 Vol 154 108 52 45 37 27 24 14 7 468
% 32.9 23.1 11.1 9.6 7.9 5.8 5.1 3.0 1.5 100.0
April Vol % 39 30.7 39 30.7 12 9.4 13 10.2 14 11.0 2 1.6 4 3.1 2 1.6 2 1.6 127 100.0
“Volvo (96/30) jumped ahead of Kenworth (91/23) for the first time this year.” 7501-15,000kg GVM Brand ISUZU HINO FUSO FOTON IVECO UD HYUNDAI MERCEDES-BENZ DAF Total
2021 Vol 117 79 53 21 13 6 4 4 1 298
% 39.3 26.5 17.8 7.0 4.4 2.0 1.3 3.0 0.3 100.0
April Vol % 18 27.3 19 28.8 11 16.7 7 10.6 5 7.6 2 3.0 1 1.5 3 4.5 0 0.0 66 100.0
15,001-20,500kg GVM Brand HINO FUSO UD SCANIA ISUZU MERCEDES-BENZ IVECO MAN FREIGHTLINER DAF Total
2021 Vol 26 19 9 6 6 5 5 2 2 1 81
% 32.1 23.5 11.1 7.4 7.4 6.2 6.2 2.5 2.5 1.2 100.0
April Vol % 7 33.3 7 33.3 4 19.0 1 4.8 1 4.8 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 4.8 0 0.0 21 100.0
20,501-23,000kg GVM Brand HINO FUSO FREIGHTLINER Total
2021 Vol 6 4 1 11
% 54.5 36.4 9.1 100.0
April Vol % 3 60.0 1 20.0 1 20.0 5 100.0
Brand VOLVO KENWORTH SCANIA HINO ISUZU FUSO DAF UD IVECO MERCEDES-BENZ SINOTRUK MAN FREIGHTLINER INTERNATIONAL MACK WESTERN STAR SHACMAN Total
2021 Vol 96 91 78 60 59 47 43 40 37 23 17 15 14 7 7 6 3 643
% 14.9 14.2 12.1 9.3 9.2 7.3 6.7 6.2 5.8 3.6 2.6 2.3 2.2 1.1 1.1 0.9 0.5 100.0
April Vol % 30 18.4 23 14.1 21 12.9 15 9.2 12 7.4 9 5.5 7 4.3 14 8.6 8 4.9 6 3.7 4 2.5 5 3.1 4 2.5 2 1.2 2 1.2 1 0.6 0 0.0 163 100.0
Trailers 2021 Vol % Brand PATCHELL 62 13.6 FRUEHAUF 45 9.9 31 6.8 MTE DOMETT 31 6.8 ROADMASTER 29 6.4 TMC 25 5.5 TRANSPORT TRAILERS 23 5.1 FREIGHTER 19 4.2 18 4.0 TRANSFLEET TES 15 3.3 JACKSON 12 2.6 12 2.6 CWS EVANS 8 1.8 MILLS-TUI 7 1.5 7 1.5 MTC LUSK 6 1.3 HAMMAR 6 1.3 TIDD 5 1.1 LILLEY 5 1.1 FAIRFAX 5 1.1 MAXICUBE 5 1.1 KRAFT 5 1.1 MAKARANUI 4 0.9 COWAN 3 0.7 SDC 3 0.7 MD 3 0.7 WAIMEA 3 0.7 LOWES 3 0.7 ADAMS & CURRIE 3 0.7 SEC 2 0.4 OTHER 50 11.0 Total 455 100.0
April Vol % 14 11.9 10 8.5 7 5.9 8 6.8 9 7.6 8 6.8 7 5.9 7 5.9 7 5.9 3 2.5 3 2.5 3 2.5 4 3.4 2 1.7 3 2.5 0 0.0 2 1.7 0 0.0 1 0.8 1 0.8 1 0.8 2 1.7 1 0.8 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.8 1 0.8 1 0.8 0 0.0 12 10.2 118 100.0
Waharoa’s Murlicht Transport has put this new DAF FAD CF85 to work, carting fresh produce, concrete products, hay, maize silage and general freight around the North Island. Taylor (Greenie) Green drives the 8x4 Domett drop-sider, which has a matching four-axle trailer. The day cab model has a PACCAR MX510 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual and Meritor 46-160 diffs on air suspension
Auckland’s Pyramid Trucking has added another K200 to its large Kenworth lineup, the 6x4 2.3m flat roof tractor unit working on general freight nationwide. It has a 600hp Cummins X15, an Eaton UltraShift AMT, Meritor RT46-160GP diffs on Airglide 460 suspension and pulls a Fruehauf six-axle flatdeck B-train
Conroy Removals has added its first Euro 6 DAF to its Napier-based operation, the FT410 4x2 tractor unit working nationwide in front of a two-axle furniture semi-trailer. It has a 410hp MX11 engine, a TraXon AMT and a DAF drive axle. Its safety package includes lane departure warning and radarassisted active cruise control (with active braking)
Truck & Driver | 95
Wairarapa-based Keenan Forestry has just put this Kenworth K200 logger to work – its first logtruck, to support its own harvesting crews operating around the lower North Island. The daycab 8x4 has a 600hp Cummins X15 engine, an 18-speed Roadranger manual and Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Airglide suspension. Its logging gear and the five-axle trailer were built by Patchell
Canterbury logtruck operator Steve Murphy has put this new Kenworth T659 8x4 logger to work in front of a Patchell five-axle trailer. It has a 615hp Cummins X15, an 18-speed Roadranger manual gearbox, Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Airglide 460 suspension and Patchell logging gear fitted by SML
96 | Truck & Driver
This new Kenworth T610SAR is a longtime dream-come-true for Gameon 2 Contractors’ owners Troy and Davina Butcher. The earthmoving and heavy machinery transportation specialists, who have long wanted a KW in their operation, specced it with a 600hp Cummins X15, an 18-speed Roadranger manual trans and Meritor RT46160GP diffs on Airglide suspension
Cambridge’s Curin Contractors recently added this, its 10th DAF, to its fleet. The CF530 sleeper cab 6x4 tipper has a 530hp PACCAR MX13 engine, a TraXon AMT, DAF rear axles on air suspension, a full safety suite and a new Transport & General alloy body....with a matching five-axle trailer
Longtime RFH driver turned owner/operator Nigel Frost’s Tacoma Transport has this new Kenworth T610 logtruck now in work. It has a 600615hp Cummins X15, an 18-speed Roadranger manual, Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Hendrickson Primaax suspension and Patchell log gear and a refurbished Patchell four-axle trailer Truck & Driver | 97
Waipawa’s Twist Trucking has added this International ProStar R8A2 BT tipper to its 15-truck fleet, carting aggregate and fertiliser around the North Island. The 8x4 has a 600hp Cummins X15 engine, an Eaton UltraShift AMT and Meritor RT46-160GP diffs. It has a Transport & General alloy bin and pulls a matching five-axle trailer
Balclutha operator Scott Transport has put this new Kenworth K200 Aerodyne to work, with a Kraft Engineering flatdeck/log deck and a matching five-axle Kraft trailer. The 8x4 has a 615hp Cummins X15, an 18-speed Roadranger manual and Meritor RT46-160 diffs on Airglide suspension 98 | Truck & Driver
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JOST New Zealand Ltd | www.jostnz.co.nz | Ph 0800 567 869 | sales@jostnz.co.nz
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?
6860/880 NTS
6860/875 NTS PRO
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.
OFFICIAL ISRINGHAUSEN DISTRIBUTOR
Office: + 64 9 630 1856 Mobile: +64 21 577 542 Sales: callum@geemac.co.nz www.geemac.co.nz I www.isringhausen.co.nz
CLASSIFIED TRUCK & DRIVER
the auto accessory specialists Manufacturers & Distributors of: Truck Accessories:
Ute, Car & 4x4:
• Top Air Deflectors • Sunvisors • Stoneguards • Headlight covers • Door Weathershields • Bonnet Guards
?
• SteelTop Canopies • Tonneau Covers • Nudge Bars • Side Steps • Headlight Covers • Bonnet Guards • Bed-Liners • Tailgate Assist - Prolift
Purchase a Binder today! keeP your collection in toP condition For your binder simply fill in this form and return it to: New ZealaNd Truck & driver magaZiNe along with $32.00 (GST, P&P incl) Name: Address: Phone: Fax: Visa
Mastercard
Amex
Cheque (Make payable to Allied Publications Ltd)
Card No.
*TRUCK *CAR *4X4
Name of Card Holder: Expiry date: Signature:
21 Saleyards Road, Otahuhu, Auckland Phone +64 9 276 9826 Toll Free: NZ 0800AIRPLEX Fax +64 9 276 9836 Email: info@airplex.co.nz
www.airplex.co.nz
TD16969
TD30597
Airplex Industries Ltd
Security#:
Post to: New ZealaNd Truck & driver magaZiNe PO Box 112062, Penrose, Auckland or Fax: 09 571 3549 Order online: www.alliedpublications.co.nz
CHASSIC STRAIGHTENING SERVICE
BEFORE
AFTER
TSR BRANDING
Contact: JASON 021 148 7482 – LES 027 491 2933 – DANNY 027 518 7025 Ph 09 276 7206 • 09 276 7207 • Fax 09 276 7205 20 Kahu Street, Otahuhu, Auckland • tsrltd@xtra.co.nz TD30041
56 42 nz nz
Keep your magazines for future reference
www.trucksmashrepairs.co.nz Truck & Driver | 103
CLASSIFIED TRUCK & DRIVER
Mercedes parts specialists
0800 856 700 (09) 8186 287 sales@hoisthydraulics.net
EG30643
WHEN YOU NEED A REPLACEMENT HOIST it pays to ring Hoist Hydraulics
Offering: ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏
Heavy Commercial Vehicle Collision Repairs Sandblasting Fiberglass Repairs Plastic Welding Automotive Refinishing Industrial Painting & Protective Coatings Rust Repairs for COF
Three sites across the central North Island Waitara Rotorua Tauranga www.brokersunited.co.nz 104 | Truck & Driver
TD30926
Please contact our Sales Manager Anna on 027 369 9254, anna@brokersnz.co.nz
BLENHEIM Riverlands Roadhouse State Highway 1
24 HOUR BREAKDOWN & TOWING 03 578 9574 027 578 1005
www.transportrepairs.co.nz
Due to our ever growing business, we are looking for experienced professional Diesel Mechanics for our branches in:
BLENHEIM
CROMWELL
GORE
Looking for a sunny place to live for you and your family that offers fishing and outdoor activities all year around?
The gateway to Central Otago, with stunning mountains just minutes away.
A vibrant rural community with city living. Love the outdoors? It’s close to lakes, mountains, forests, rivers and the sea. A great place to live, work and play.
Email your interest to james.wood@transportrepairs.co.nz or call 0800 875 747 and ask for James.
TRUCK AND TRAILER PARTS FOR ALL MAKES AND MODELS
mills-tui.co.nz
INNOVATIVE
BUILT TO LAST MAXIMISE Your
BOTTOM LINE
If you’re moving wood, Mills-Tui are the experts for innovative design to maximise your productivity. On-highway or Offhighway, we can tailor a solution to suit your requirements.
Mills-Tui Limited 16–38 Pururu Street, Managakakahi, Rotorua 3015 P 07 348 8039 T 0800 MILLS -TUI (645 578)
Mills-Tui A4 Advert 2019-05.indd 1
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