NZ Truck & Driver February 2023

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| February 2023

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BIG TEST Precious Metals | FLEET FOCUS Sooo high...sooo low | FEATURE: Roaring Forty

FLEET FOCUS Sooo high... sooo low

FEATURE

Roaring Forty

Issue 264

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CONTENTS Issue 264 – February 2023

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44

News

The latest from the world of road transport including…. Fuso retains its lead in the New Zealand new truck market; Fonterra teams with Volvo on an electric truck trial; new generation MAN models arrive; Hyundai launches an electric version of the light-duty Mighty and StraitNZ brings a new Bluebridge ferry to the Cook Strait crossing.

FEATURES:

REGULARS:

62

80

65

Giti Tyres Big Test

Precious Metals: The first battery electric truck to appear on the cover of New Zealand Truck & Driver is the XCMG E700. We take a look at the China-built 6x4 and how it fits the metro Auckland operations and decarbonisation goals of Phoenix Metalman Recyclers.

76

Transporting New Zealand

In the first 2023 update from Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand, CEO Nick Leggett talks about the challenges of driver recruitment and the need for better maintenance of the New Zealand roading network.

78

Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus

Sooo High, Sooo Low: East Coast businessman Ricky Kuru has lived a remarkable life. Ricky talks candidly to Wayne Munro about trucks, forestry, family and a life which has had its share of peaks and troughs.

MANAGEMENT

80

Southpac Trucks Legends

Many transport firms working on the Coromandel Peninsula have come and gone over the years.

Graeme Wright Transport based at Puriri has been a long-time survivor in the challenging region.

Trucking Industry Show

Full coverage from the first post-Covid TMC Trucking Industry Show including the return of the TR Group New Zealand Truck Driving Competition, the inaugural Palfinger NZ Crane Championship and results from the Show & Shine competition.

80 81

99

NRC CEO Justin Tighe-Umbers talks about the tools NRC offers to support its members, including the NRC Cost Model tool and Fuel Adjustment Factor calculator.

93

Roaring Forty

Almost 40 years and multi-million kilometres into its working life, the 1983 Mack Super-Liner of Canterbury’s Kevin Twiss has seen action across a wide range of transport applications.

CrediFlex Recently Registered

Full analysis of new truck and trailer registration data for 2022 as Fuso built on the market leadership it claimed in 2021. Plus, this month’s photo gallery of new trucks on the road.

COLUMNS 91 National Road Carriers Association

Wide Open In The Dunes

With the Russian KAMAZ-Master team absent, the truck category honours were up for grabs in the 2023 Dakar Rally. It was Iveco who stormed through with a 1-2-3-4 result in the Saudi Arabian dunes.

Double Coin Tyres NZ Transport Imaging Awards

Recognising NZ’s best-looking trucks… including a giant pull-out poster of this month’s finalist.

Moving to the Heavyweights

South Canterbury’s Brent Collins is a newcomer to the New Zealand Super Truck Championship. He brings success in multiple motorsport disciplines to the wheel of a Freightliner Century.

Truck Shop

New products and services for the road transport industry.

97

It’s Political

Each month NZ’s major political parties are given the opportunity to offer their opinions on issues affecting the road transport industry. ACT and National have responded with their views.

Heavy Haulage Association

NZ Heavy Haulage Association chief executive Jonathan Bhana-Thomson provides a guide to over height load compliance and permitting.

ADMINISTRATION MANAGER

Publisher

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

Sue Woolston

Advertising

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

Sue Woolston Phone

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

accounts@trucker.co.nz

SUBSCRIPTIONS accounts@trucker.co.nz 021 411 950

NZ subscription $95 incl. GST for one year (11 issues) price Overseas rates on applicationw ADDRESS

EDITORIAL Editor

Colin Smith 021 510319 colin@trucker.co.nz

Associate Editor

Brian Cowan

CONTRIBUTORS

Wayne Munro Olivia Beauchamp Gerald Shacklock

ART DEPARTMENT Design & Production Luca Bempensante Zarko Mihic EQUIPMENT GUIDE AUCKLAND, NORTHLAND, BOP, WAIKATO, CENTRAL NORTH ISLAND Advertising Trudy Woolston 027 233 0090 trudy@trucker.co.nz

AUCKLAND, LOWER NORTH ISLAND, SOUTH ISLAND Advertising Hayden Woolston 027 448 8768 hayden@trucker.co.nz

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www.nztruckanddriver.co.nz Truck & Driver | 3

NEWS The Fuso range was New Zealand’s top-selling truck brand again in 2022.

Fuso remains number one FUSO REMAINS AT THE TOP OF THE NEW ZEALAND truck market, recording another strong increase in sales during 2022.

Building on its 2021 sales performance when Fuso ended Isuzu’s run as the top-selling brand for 21 years, the 2023 highlights for Fuso included a large increase in sales of its Shogun heavy duty truck model.

Fuso posted 1249 sales across the 3.5-tonne and above segments last year to achieve a 20.7% market share, up from 1020 registrations and 19.7% share in 2021.

Those numbers were achieved in a total market in which sales reached a new record of 5987 units, bettering the previous high mark of 5314 set in 2019 and up from 5190 new trucks in 2021.

The Fuso Canter continues as the leader in the light-duty truck segment and the eCanter leads the way as New Zealand’s most popular EV light truck.

In the heavy-duty truck category, sales of the upgraded Fuso Shogun Euro 6 increased by 70% and Fuso moved up to third (from fourth) in the 23t-plus rankings behind Scania and Hino.

Since being awarded distribution rights by Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus A new Keith Andrews Hamilton facility will open in 2023.

4 | Truck & Driver

Company (MFTBC) in 2016, Fuso New Zealand (FNZ) has delivered a renewed focus for the brand across every aspect of customer experience.

Dealerships have been reinvigorated, vehicle and parts stock and supply has significantly increased, and a slew of new models have expanded options for Kiwi truck operators.

Reflecting on the result, Fuso NZ managing director Kurtis Andrews paid tribute to the loyalty and endeavour of Fuso customers and to the passion and commitment of the FNZ team and its dealerships across the country, despite significant global and local challenges.

“We are extremely grateful to our customers and humbled by the ongoing trust placed in our brand and our people,” said Andrews. “Every day, I see our fantastic teams at head office and in dealerships across the country working hard to deliver on that trust.”

“The past few years have presented challenges most of us have never seen before – and we’ve faced them together. With that in mind, it is hugely satisfying that Fuso’s results reflect the efforts and successes of our customers in helping to keep New Zealand moving through these challenges.”

During 2023 the Fuso dealer network will be further strengthened with the completion of a major workshop extension at Keith Andrews Hamilton.

The development will considerably scale up the Hamilton dealership’s sales, parts and service support for Mercedes-Benz Trucks, Freightliner Trucks, Fuso Truck & Bus, and Mercedes-Benz Vans.

Earthworks began on the 1,360sqm extension in late-September with a planned completion in the second quarter of 2023. The development will see an additional 14 vehicle bays added to provide a total of 22 and create roles for up to ten new employees.

Two of the new bays will be dedicated to Certificate of Fitness (COF) inspections, which will enable any issues identified during the inspection to be dealt with onsite, reducing customer downtime.

For an in-depth analysis of the 2022 new truck and trailer markets, turn to CrediFlex Recently Registered starting on page 99 of this issue. T&D

NEWS

With a bold green livery, the Fonterra Volvo FL Electric will work around the Auckland metro area.

Fonterra begins Auckland EV trial ONE OF LAST LOCAL TR ANSPORT INDUSTRY announcements of 2022 was the launch of an electric truck trial by NZ dairy giants Fonterra and Volvo NZ (and its parent company Sime Darby Motors NZ).

A new Volvo FL Electric is working for Fonterra in the Auckland metro region, carting pallet loads of general dry goods and non-refrigerated products. It’s part of an on-going ‘data gathering’ trial and is an addition to the fleet rather than a replacement.

Paul Illmer, Vice President Emerging Technology Business Development at Volvo Group Australia says Volvo has a battery electric or fuel cell electric alternative for every Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) model on the market, either currently in production or at trial stage.

However, Illmer says the truck itself is only part of the solution when it comes to New Zealand’s transition to sustainable transport.

“Tools, expertise and infrastructure are essential to deliver operational peace of mind for New Zealand transport companies as they make the shift to e-mobility,” says Ilmer.

“Selecting the right model and specification for both application and route is critical, as is driver training, specialist aftersales support, and charging infrastructure.”

Fonterra Brands New Zealand Managing Director Brett Henshaw says the truck is an important step for the Co-op, as it looks to reduce emissions across its supply chain.

“Our objective is to fulfil our Co-op’s long-term commitment to be a

leader in sustainability, while also upholding our customer commitments.

It’s great to partner with Volvo Trucks NZ, and one of the largest groups supporting the New Zealand transport industry, Sime Darby Motors NZ.” The Volvo Trucks NZ technical team has been preparing for electric trucks over the past year, flying to Volvo Global headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden for training. The team will train the Sime Darby Commercial aftersales network on processes required to prepare workshops to service electric trucks and become authorised EV repairers.

Scott Robinson, National Sales Manager Volvo Truck & Bus says the new FL Electric landed in NZ last year and spent a couple of months being evaluated at the Palmerston North support centre. It was then sent to Dometts to have its curtainside body fitted.

Robinson says Volvo has been fielding lots of enquiries about electric (and other alternative power sources) recently.

Based on the initial cost of purchase Volvo anticipates a four-to-five-year payback from diesel cost savings (better if more kms are travelled per year).

Volvo Truck’s target is to be carbon net zero by 2050 while the new FL truck is one part of Fonterra’s wider fleet decarbonisation journey. Last year Fonterra implemented a new policy that all light vehicles that can be electric to be transitioned when they are next replaced and aims to have more than 300 light electric vehicles by the end of 2023.

Volvo says no more electric Volvo’s are scheduled to arrive in the near future, but discussions are being held with a number of companies for similar EV trials. T&D Truck & Driver | 5

Driving and the brain.

Hosted by Nathan Wallis (Neuroscience Educator), Kelly McLuckie (Success Formula people coach) and Greg Murphy (Motor Racing Legend), you'll learn about the brain and how it works when driving, the impacts of fatigue, sleep and distraction and tips to help drivers with these issues.

TRAIN-THE-TRAINER TOOLBOX SESSION Development programme for managers in transport

$199

This is followed by an interactive train-thetrainer toolbox session which will equip you to go back to work and educate your team.

Tickets are limited. Get in quick!

EVENT DATES

+GST

includes:

Driving and the brain education session Train-the-trainer toolbox session Toolbox to take away – ready to train your team! #EYESUPNZ training certificate

Book now at eyesupnz.co.nz

Auckland - 14 March

Tauranga - 3 May

Palmerston North - 22 March

Dunedin - 11 May

Hamilton - 16 March

Invercargill - 9 May

New Plymouth - 23 March

Christchurch - 17 May

NEWS A new Freightliner eCascadia rolls off the production line in Portland, Oregon.

Can America go electric?

ELECTRIFYING LONG-HAUL TRUCKING ACROSS THE United States would require more than 10% of the electricity generated in the country today and require massive infrastructure investment.

Research by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has assessed the infrastructure requirements for converting the U.S. fleet to battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

ATRI’s Research Advisory Committee, focused on U.S. electricity supply and demand, electric vehicle production and charging requirements.

The study found that full electrification of the vehicle fleet would require a large percentage of present U.S. electricity generation.

Electrification of domestic long-haul trucking would consume 10.4% of electricity production and the figure rises to 14% when short haul freight is included. BEV vehicles replacing the entire US vehicle fleet (passenger and commercial) would use 40.3% of electricity generation capacity.

Regional analysis shows some individual states would need to generate as much as 60% more electricity than is presently produced. California, for example, would require 57.2% of its electric capacity to power an electric vehicle fleet.

ATRI’s analysis also quantified the tens of millions of tons of cobalt, graphite, lithium and nickel that will be needed to replace the existing U.S. vehicle fleet with BEVs, placing high demand on raw materials and with the mining and processing resulting in significant CO2 emissions.

Depending on the material, electrification of the U.S. vehicle fleet would require 6.3 to 34.9 years of current global production. This is the equivalent of 8.4% to 64.4% of global reserves for just the U.S. vehicle fleet.

It was also found that charging the nation’s long-haul truck fleet will

prove challenging, partially due to the ongoing truck parking crisis. Current technology will necessitate more chargers than there are truck parking spaces in the U.S., with hardware and installation costs of US$112,000 per unit, or more than US$35 billion system-wide.

As an example of the parking challenges involved with BEV charging, ATRI quantified the charging needs at a single rural rest area as being equivalent to the daily electricity needs of 5,000 households.

“Carbon emissions reduction is clearly a top priority of the U.S. trucking industry, and feasible alternatives to internal combustion engines must be identified,” says Srikanth Padmanabhan, President, Engine Business, Cummins Inc. “ATRI’s research demonstrates that vehicle electrification in the U.S. will be a daunting task that goes well beyond the trucking industry – utilities, truck parking facilities and the vehicle production supply chain are critical to addressing the challenges identified in this research. Thus, the market will require a variety of decarbonisation solutions and other powertrain technologies alongside battery electric.”

Beyond BEV automobiles, the report concludes that while there are certain applications for BEV trucks, a completely new charging infrastructure is critical to increasing BEV truck adoption by the trucking industry. Furthermore, the research documents that existing raw material mining for BEV batteries will likely need to be re-sourced with an emphasis on domestic mining and production.

ATRI is the trucking industry’s not-for-profit (501c3) research organisation. It is engaged in critical research relating to maintaining a safe, secure, and efficient freight transportation system. T&D Truck & Driver | 7

NEWS The focus will be on log transport at the Wood Transport & Logistics 2023 conference.

Spotlight on log transport BILLED AS THE FIRST DEDICATED LOG TRANSPORT industry event in five years, the Wood Transport & Logistics 2023 conference and trade show is set for Rotorua on May 24-25.

The event has been set up by the Forest Industry Engineering Association (FIEA) with support from key trucking associations as well as forestry and log transport companies.

New transport innovations around electric, hydrogen and diesel-hybrid powered vehicles, truck automation and platooning will be a focus of the conference along with trade exhibits and the pre-and post-conference workshops.

With new and alternative technologies rolling out, interest is expected to be high in Australasia’s first electric log truck using exchangeable batteries.

Other topics to be covered include operations of the first hydrogen powered log and timber haulage trucks, trial results from running dualfuel diesel-hydrogen transport fleets and rolling out scalable hydrogen refuelling networks across New Zealand.

The conference will also look at the development of off-road, in-forest log truck platooning, robotic and mobile log scaling measurements and new automated chain throwing and tensioning systems.

The Wood Transport & Logistics 2023 conference will be run in Rotorua on Wednesday May 24 and Thursday May 25 and will also be live-streamed for international delegates.

Programme details and registrations are available on the event website www.woodtransport.events. T&D

GET THE SUPER LOW DOWN! Shogun Super Low has the lowest factory-built 8x4 chassis on the market The Super Low 8x4 is specifically designed to maximise freight capacity and the ease and safety of loading of heavy equipment. It hauls low and steady with 8-litre 360hp or 11-litre 400hp engine options, full air suspension for a smooth ride, and FUSO’s most comprehensive suite of advanced safety features.

SCAN HERE TO LEARN MORE!

MITSUBISHI FUSO Authorised Distributor Fuso New Zealand Ltd www.fuso.co.nz

NEWS

Multi-brand used truck initiative THE THREE NEW TRUCK distributors that form Sime Darby Commercial, have joined forces to launch a new player in the New Zealand used truck market.

Motor Truck Distributors, Hino Distributors, and UD Truck Distributors have set up Used Trucks NZ to provide a nationwide used truck and trailer sales service.

Used Trucks NZ is led by Zane Ryan in the role of National Sales Manager. Zane has spent over 30 years associated with trucks and transport, first as a diesel mechanic before moving into truck sales and management. His career includes nine years as Regional Manager for Truckstops, New Zealand’s parts and service franchise holder for Hino, Mack, and Volvo trucks.

“By leveraging the combined Volvo, Mack, Hino, and UD Trucks sales teams, we aim to connect buyers with trade-in vehicles and to

support sellers to find homes for mechanically sound second tier units across New Zealand,” says Zane.

“Our national network of salespeople has access to a wide network of contacts across every segment of the industry from food, construction, and general transport to logging, cranes and tankers. We can take a lot of the time and hassle out of selling and buying a second-tier vehicle.”

A new website, usedtrucks.nz is now live, making it simple for customers to find a used truck or trailer or put up a truck for sale.

“We take care of the whole process if you’re looking to sell, and that makes us a great option,” Zane says.

“Our sales teams are also more than happy to help customers find units that are not currently on the market. They are on the road, talking to customers across New Zealand every day.”

The three new truck distributors are part of

the wider Sime Darby Motors NZ group, and represent significant transport industry expertise.

MTD Trucks alone has over 50 years of experience dealing in used truck and trailers.

With the backing these established operators, the new venture has the reach and scale to provide high quality, mechanically-sound second tier units across New Zealand. T&D

Zane Brown

NEWS

Daimler on the move DAIMLER TRUCK GROUP IS REPORTING GLOBAL sales growth across all segments despite bottlenecks in the supply of components during 2022.

Group sales of trucks and buses in 2022 increased significantly by 14.2% to 520,291 vehicles, up from 455,445 units in 2021.

Daimler Truck divides its operation into four segments – Trucks North America, Mercedes-Benz, Trucks Asia and Daimler Buses.

The Trucks North America segment increased its unit sales by 15.2% to 186,779 units, driven by a high product demand. The segment Mercedes-Benz also recorded a strong growth in unit sales to 166,369 units (+17.7%).

Trucks Asia increased its unit sales by 8.8% compared to the previous

year to 155,967 units. Daimler Buses recorded a strong sales result of 24,041 units (+28.3%).

“We have concluded our first year as an independent company with an expected strong sales result underlining our strong market position,” says Martin Daum, CEO of Daimler Truck Holding AG. “Despite the challenging macro-economic situation in 2022, all our segments could increase the sales of trucks and buses. This is a joint success of the entire Daimler Truck team.”

At its virtual Annual Results Conference on March 10, Daimler Truck will report in detail on financial and non-financial key figures of the fiscal year 2022 at Group and segment level and present its forecast for the current fiscal year 2023. T&D

Hyzon makes key appointment HYZON MOTORS HAS APPOINTED JOHN organisation has been built and has successfully brought Edgley as President of International Operations. the Hyzon rigid truck platform forward in conjunction Edgely, who joined Hyzon in July 2021 will manage with Hyzon’s global engineering function, embodying the operation of the zero-emission heavy-duty fuel cell our mission for global collaboration across the electric vehicles (FCEVs) manufacturer in Europe, organisation,” says Hyzon President and interim CEO Australia, and New Zealand.

Parker Meeks.

In addition to commercial, operational, and financial Edgely says Hyzon will deliver innovative solutions responsibilities, Edgley will also be responsible for to decarbonize the transportation industry. leading Hyzon’s global cabover FCEV programme. The “I’m delighted and honoured to serve as Hyzon’s cabover truck configuration is preferred across Europe, President of International Operations and work closely John Edgely.

Australia, and New Zealand and Edgley’s appointment ensures with the European team to steer the business toward a the development of this market critical platform is integrated and standardized, delivery-focused future,” Edgely says. standardised across the global organisation.

“I firmly believe in Hyzon’s proprietary fuel cell technology, local As Managing Director of Hyzon Motors Australia since joining, engineering expertise, and R&D capabilities to accelerate the clean Edgley has also built and managed the regional business in Australia energy transition and am committed to advancing this momentum by and New Zealand. Under his leadership, the Melbourne-based team has adhering to our long-term growth strategy.” delivered Australia’s first domestic assembly facility for fuel cell electric Edgley previously worked as Chief Investment Officer for a trucks, secured Hyzon’s first ISO accreditations for safety, quality and the multinational industrial conglomerate with operations in water and environment, and led the design, engineering and development of the wastewater treatment, marine construction, infrastructure, and diversified Hyzon rigid vehicle platform. portfolio investment. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and a “Under John’s leadership, the Hyzon Australia and New Zealand bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the University of Melbourne. T&D 10 | Truck & Driver

New SH1 weighstation CONSTRUCTION HAS STARTED ON A NEW SPLIT site Commercial Vehicle Safety Centre (CVSC) on State Highway 1 at Rakaia in mid-Canterbury, The centre, just north of the Rakaia River, is being built with facilities on both sides of SH1 so truck drivers only need to turn left in and left out, says Waka Kotahi Director Regional Relationships James Caygill.

The northbound site is between Weavers Road and North Rakaia Road and the southbound site is on the opposite side of SH1 near North Rakaia Road.

Work will involve the construction of the centre’s buildings and site access, along with in-road scales and electronic Variable Message Board signage.

The southbound site works will start first, with the northbound site later in 2023. It is anticipated both sites will be complete and operational by the end of 2024, subject to consent, contractor availability and weather conditions.

James Caygill says the site chosen for the centre is a great location as it is on a busy transport route in a spot that is hard to avoid.

“The Rakaia site is one of a dozen being rolled out nationally. All of these sites are located on state highways where there are more than 1200 heavy motor vehicles per day,” he says.

“Given we already have a weigh station north of Christchurch at Glasnevin near Waipara, this southern site is a great step forward.”

The Rakaia CVSC will feature electronic scales and other scanning equipment which are built into the road. As a truck passes over the scales at normal speeds, software identifies if it is overloaded. Those truck drivers are directed into the safety centre while trucks within weight limits will mostly keep on travelling, uninterrupted.

Enforcing weight restrictions and other forms of non-compliance, safe driving practices and road-ready vehicles is an integral part of keeping all road users safe and protecting the road network from damage, says Mr Caygill.

The new CVSC will improve road safety by reducing the number of overweight vehicles travelling on the roads and increase heavy vehicle weight compliance without impacting upon productivity or imposing unnecessary cost on compliant vehicles.

Waka Kotahi aims to ensure that operators pay their fair share of road maintenance by targeting, and screening for, overweight vehicles.

SH1 at Rakaia in Mid-Canterbury will get a new split site CVSC.

“The Commercial Vehicle Safety Programme supports the Road to Zero strategy and our aim for a road system free of death and serious injury. It will help deliver a more level playing field for the heavy vehicle industry,” Mr Caygill says.

Waka Kotahi is currently planning other SH1 safety initiatives in the Canterbury area including new median barriers, rural roundabouts and turnaround facilities. More information will be available about these projects during 2023.

And as part of the Waka Kotahi interim speed management plan, SH1 between Weavers Road and Rakaia is proposed to reduce from 100 kph to 80 kph and speed in Rakaia township is proposed to reduce from 70 kph to 50 kph. T&D

Bluebridge updates A NEW STRAITNZ BLUEBRIDGE FERRY GOES INTO service across Cook Strait from the middle of February.

StraitNZ is introducing MV Connemara, a 187m long RORO (Roll on-Roll-off ) vessel to the Cook Strait crossing, initially running to the schedule of Strait Feronia which is headed to dry dock maintenance.

StraitNZ Bluebridge spokesperson Ed Menzies says the addition of the Connemara to the Bluebridge fleet is a direct response to demand from the freight sector.

“New Zealand’s freight task continues to grow, and the arrival of the Connemara will increase our freight carrying capacity by about 30%, helping us meet the immediate needs of our customers,” he says.

Mr Menzies says drivers will also enjoy the comfort of the ship’s cabins, which number more than any other vessel on Cook Strait.

Built in 2006 and launched in 2007, the Connemara is set to replace one of the two vessels in the Bluebridge fleet. It will be Bluebridge’s largest, fastest, and newest ship equipped with five vehicle decks.

Bluebridge says the Connemara will offer better access between vehicle and passenger decks as well as a café, free WiFi, movies and meals.

The Connemara has been operated most recently by Brittany Ferries between Rosslare (Ireland), Bilbao (Spain) and Cherbourg (France).

The Connemara is scheduled to arrive in New Zealand in late January and will begin service between Wellington and Picton soon after.

MV Connemara will begin sailing Cook Strait from mid-February.

Truck & Driver | 11

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I-Save proves its efficiency INDEPENDENT TESTING IN GERMANY has highlighted the ever-improving fuel efficiency of modern trucks.

In a test carried out by the German magazine Trucker, a 32 tonne Volvo FH 460 with I-Save was taken on a 343km long route of public roads, including a variety of motorways, hilly terrains, and tighter roads.

When compared with the same test done in 2018 with a Volvo FH 460 – before Volvo introduced the I-Save fuel saving package – the latest FH 460 with I-Save achieved an impressive 18% combined reduction in diesel and AdBlue consumption, using an average of only 21.48 L/100km.

The 2018 test featured a 32-tonne Volvo FH 460 (Euro 6) on the same route and achieved an overall consumption figure of 26.15L/100km. For both tests the cruise control was set at 85kph and the average speed on the 2022 test was 79.9kph compared to 79.8kph on the earlier test.

“The effects of the I-Save package, using advanced improvements in the turbo compound engine, smarter

new software and refined aerodynamics, add up to give very efficient fuel use,” says Helena Alsiö, Vice President Powertrain Product Management at Volvo Trucks.

“This independent test is further solid proof of the large and positive impact I-Save has on the fuel consumption.”

Historically, the cost of AdBlue has received little attention. This has changed dramatically as prices for this additive have increased by over 100% in many markets. In the new test, Volvo has succeeded to also keep the AdBlue consumption on a low 6.2% of the diesel consumption.

“The total fuel economy, which includes both diesel and AdBlue, has become increasingly important for the total cost of ownership. We always focus on keeping the total fuel cost as low as possible,” says Helena Alsiö.

Volvo Trucks’ goal is that electric trucks will account for half of its global truck sales in 2030, however the diesel engine will continue to play an important role in

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lowering CO2emissions.

Improved efficiency coming from these new I-Save advances in the driveline is one important way to contribute to lower the CO2emissions. The Turbo Compound engine is also certified to run on HVO100, a renewable diesel in the form of hydrogenated vegetable oils, that cuts CO2emissions dramatically.

The test was performed by Jan Burgdorf, from the magazines Trucker and Verkehrs Rundschauin Germany. The 343km route is used for testing different manufacturers’ trucks in a wide range of conditions.

I-Save was introduced in 2019 on Volvo’s 13-litre engine with Turbo Compound technology, designed to drive with low engine revs and high gears for longer periods of time.

The new I-Torque function manages gear selection, engine torque and braking when I-Cruise is activated.

The function uses I-See to look at the road ahead and evaluate how much torque the engine needs to run as energy and fuel efficiently as possible, based on the truck’s total weight. T&D

NEWS Caterpillar is developing a battery electric version of its 793 model mine haul truck.

On the road to greener mining CATERPILLAR HAS DEVELOPED A BATTERY ELECTRIC version of its 793 large mining haul truck.

The first battery electric 793 prototype was completed with support from key mining customers participating in Caterpillar’s Early Learner programme, including BHP, Freeport-McMoRan, Newmont Corporation, Rio Tinto and Teck Resources.

“Our global team came together to develop this battery truck at an accelerated pace to help our customers meet their sustainability commitments,” says Resource Industries Group President Denise Johnson.

“We are excited for these trucks to get to work at customers’ sites around the world in the near future.”

The Early Learner programme was launched in 2021 to accelerate the development and validation of Caterpillar’s battery electric trucks at participating customers’ sites. This approach supports the individual commitments each Early Learner participant has made to reduce and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from their operations. A primary objective is for Caterpillar to collaborate more closely with its customers as the industry undergoes transformational change through the energy A solar field is being installed at the Tucson Proving Ground.

14 | Truck & Driver

transition.

Early Learner customers came together recently to witness a live demonstration of the prototype 793 battery truck on a 7km course.

During the event, Caterpillar monitored over 1,100 data channels, gathering 110,000 data points per second, to validate simulation and engineering modelling capabilities.

Fully loaded to its rated capacity, the truck achieved a top speed of 60km/h and travelled one kilometre up a 10% grade at 12km/h.

The truck also performed a one kilometre run on a 10% downhill grade, capturing the energy that would normally be lost to heat and regenerating that energy to the battery. Upon completing the entire run, the truck maintained enough battery energy to perform additional complete cycles.

The prototype was built at Caterpillar’s Tucson Proving Ground, located in Green Valley, Arizona. In support of the energy transition, Caterpillar is investing to transform the proving ground into a working, sustainable “mine site of the future” by installing a variety of renewable energy sources. The objective is to implement the same sustainable solutions mining companies will use at their own operations to learn first-hand what it takes to run an electrified mine site and effectively support customers through the changes.

“The transformation of the Tucson Proving Ground allows Caterpillar to demonstrate our energy transition commitments and serve as a stronger advisor to customers as we navigate the changes together. We know it will take an integrated, site-level solution for miners to achieve their carbon-reduction goals, and we’re here to help as they redefine the way they mine for generations to come,” says Johnson.

As part of the site transformation, the company will install the latest advancements in sustainability technology, including green hydrogen production, natural gas and 100% hydrogen reciprocating engine power generation, fuel cell power generation and expanded energy storage systems. The site will also leverage a variety of renewable power sources, including wind, solar and hydrogen, capable of powering the facility and its products as they become electrified. T&D

NEWS

Kodiak stays under control

Kodiak Robotics is developing autonomous technology for long haul trucking.

KODIAK ROBOTICS HAS DEMONSTRATED THAT ITS autonomous technology, the Kodiak Driver, can maintain complete control of an autonomous truck if it suffers a catastrophic front tyre blowout.

One of the major risks that can occur on the road, a front tyre blowout instantly causes trucks to behave erratically and unpredictably, potentially resulting in a loss of control, jack knifing, or other extremely dangerous situations.

One of the safety benefits of Kodiak’s self-driving trucks is the ability to instantly react to the change in vehicle dynamics. In the case of the blown tyre, the truck compensates for the failed tyre by applying an entirely different steering angle. This exercise has been repeated multiple times and Kodiak truck’s consistent ability to maintain its lane positioning illustrates the adaptability and control of the Kodiak Driver.

“People ask us all the time ‘what happens if you blow a tyre,’ and we wanted to showcase how the Kodiak Driver can maintain control more precisely than a traditional truck, even with a completely destroyed tyre,” said Don Burnette, Founder and CEO, Kodiak Robotics.

“We can’t control the hazards trucks will face on the open road, but we can control how the trucks behave when a critical situation occurs. By demonstrating that the Kodiak Driver can maintain complete control under such duress, we’re

showing the world just how safe this technology is designed to be.”

This blown tyre demonstration relies on Kodiak’s fallback technology that guides Kodiak’s self-driving trucks to a safe stop in the event of a critical system failure.

In the event of a blowout, the autonomous system can immediately detect the tyre fault, identify and adapt to the new vehicle dynamics, initiate the fallback protocol, trigger the hazard lights to turn on, and bring the truck to a stop within the lane.The speed of detection and level of control is critical for ensuring the safety of all motorists.

In order to clearly demonstrate the Kodiak Driver’s ability to maintain precise control in such a volatile situation, Kodiak chose to execute an in-lane fallback at a proving grounds in Texas.

Even after the tyre is destroyed, the Kodiak Driver stays in control and brings the truck to a safe and complete stop while maintaining its lane.

If a tyre were to blow in a real-world setting, the truck would automatically execute its fallback plan, typically pulling it to a safe stop on the side of the road.

This demonstration comes on the heels of partnership announcements with IKEA, Werner and Pilot Company. Kodiak delivers freight daily for its customers along four routes in Texas and Oklahoma, operating autonomously on the highway portions of the routes. T&D

Truck & Driver | 15

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NEWS Hyundai New Zealand is preparing to launch the battery electric version of its Mighty light-duty truck.

Hyundai Mighty goes electric HYUNDAI NEW ZEALAND WAS BUSY IN THE CLOSING weeks of last year with a launch programme for the electric version of its Mighty light-duty truck range which goes on sale during 2023.

An early production example of the electric powered Mighty made its New Zealand debut at the TMC Trucking Industry Show in Christchurch, and very soon after was on display at the National Fieldays near Hamilton.

The Mighty electric is the latest in Hyundai New Zealand’s fleet of carbonneutral commercial vehicles. A year ago, Hyundai launched New Zealand’s first hydrogen powered heavy truck, the XCIENT Fuel Cell.

While the XCIENT fuel cell heavy truck is ideal technology for heavier loads and longer distances, Hyundai says the Mighty electric is the perfect complement for metro and last mile, zero emission delivery.

CEO Andy Sinclair says customers will have an opportunity to see how the Mighty electric can help decarbonise their business while getting the grunt work done.

“This early production model allows us to showcase the new all-electric technology to our commercial customers, and to test the truck in local conditions and applications.

“We’re excited to show customers how the Mighty electric keeps what people love about the Mighty range, while using new technology to reduce emissions and improve safety and efficiency.

Sinclair says efficiency advancements mean customers will have more than just a zero-emission version of the Mighty truck range first introduced to New Zealand in 2017.

“The electric version of the Mighty is fitted out with the very latest in cab design, driving aids and safety features. It will also have a full air brake system with a wheel-activated parking brake.”

The Mighty electric is as much a workhorse as its diesel compatriots. The range is up to 240km (AER240), utilising ECO mode and the regenerative braking technology that can recover up to 33% of the vehicle’s energy.

It has a 120kW traction motor developing 1007Nm of torque and has a

502-V battery system The 114.5kWh battery can be rapid charged to 100% in 70 minutes.

“Just a 20-minute rapid charge, less than the time it would take to load cargo, grants 100km of all-electric range,” says Sinclair.

The Mighty electric has similar dimensions to the medium wheelbase version of the diesel powered Mighty EX6 model. It will be available in two model variants (5995kg and 7200kg GVM), both in 4x2 configuration with a 3300mm wheelbase.

The Mighty electric will operate in the light-duty truck segment with an approximate cargo capacity between 1,845kg and 3,500kg, depending on variant and body specification.

Standard features of the Mighty electric include a 7-inch central display, multi-function steering wheel and suspended driver’s seat.

The safety roster includes Forward Collision Avoidance Alert, Lane Departure Warning System, Vehicle Dynamics Control and Electronic Air Brake System.

Series production for the Hyundai Mighty electric is planned to commence in the first quarter of 2023, with final specifications and pricing still to be confirmed. T&D

Truck & Driver | 17

NEWS

New generation MAN arrives THE NEW ZEALAND PUBLIC DEBUT OF THE ALL-NEW MAN truck generation (TG) came on the Penske New Zealand stand at the TMC Trucking Industry Show held in Christchurch at the end of November.

On display in Christchurch were a TGX 26.640 6x4 tractor and a TGS 26.510 6x4 tipper to preview the introduction of the full line-up of Euro 6 TGL, TGM, TGS, and TGX models to the New Zealand market during 2023.

Billed as the first new MAN trucks designed from the ground up in 20 years, the all-new truck generation promises a significant upgrade in efficiency, comfort, safety and uptime.

Highlights include a modern cab design with intuitive dash layout, multi-function steering wheel, advanced infotainment system, and SmartSelect navigator.

MAN’s innovative driver assistance features, such as adaptive cruise control, steering wheel airbag, cabin safety cell, emergency brake assist, and lane departure warning will ensure drivers have all the systems they need at their fingertips. And the spacious rest and sleep area is fully furnished with plentiful storage, a fridge, and air conditioning.

An economical choice of Euro 6 engines ranges from the 220hp D08 four-cylinder engine powering the TGL to the 640hp D38 15.2-litre engine powering the TGX provide solutions for large number of applications.

Utilising software to determine the optimum moving off and gearshift strategy, the Tipmatic 12-speed gearbox has load and inclination detection, ‘SmartShifting’ and ‘idle speed driving’ functionalities. Efficiency is further improved with the most powerful engine brake on the New Zealand market at 840hp on the D38 engine.

These advanced features within the cabin and powertrain are complemented by highly reliable and fully integrated technology that delivers optimised uptime. Extended oil drain intervals and low tare weights yielding higher payload availability increase productivity and profits for customers.

All this is further backed by Penske New Zealand’s national MAN dealer footprint and MAN’s 24/365 support programme, customised repair and maintenance packages, and generous warranties.

“We are thrilled to welcome the all-new MAN truck generation to the New Zealand market and introduce our customers to this superior portfolio,” says Brent Warner, general manager of Penske New Zealand.

“We are offering eight different cabin configurations from the crew cab that seats up to seven to the super spacious GX cab, and the D08, D15, D26, and D38 engines are all Euro 6, delivering power that is reliable and highly efficient.

“Close attention has been paid to ensuring the specifications are ideally suited to our New Zealand conditions, including tyre and diff ratio selections to optimise performance and economy for our unique terrain.”

For the first time Penske will be able to supply a factory TGX 8x4 model specifically for the New Zealand market. T&D

Above: The new generation MAN TGS 26.510 tipper debuted at the Trucking Industry Show.

Left: A modern cab design features intuitive dash layout, multi-function steering wheel, and advanced infotainment system.

18 | Truck & Driver

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NEWS Rob Woods, General Manager for Mack NZ and Shane O’Grady, National Sales Manager for TR Group, hand over a good old fashioned giant novelty cheque to Mike King.

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Mack is delivering Hope THE MASSIVE 50 YEARS OF MACK IN New Zealand celebration held in the Manawatu over Labour Weekend 2022 provided plenty of entertainment and memories.

And funds raised during the event will have

a far-reaching and long-term impact through Mike King’s I Am Hope charity Raffles and auctions during the weekend raised $13,500 and Mack NZ partnered with long time I Am Hope supporter TR Group to hand over the donation

to Mike King.

Mike King says the donation will allow 100 Kiwi kids the opportunity to see a mental health professional before their problems get out of control. T&D

New boss at MOVE TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS VETERAN as we continue to strengthen the business’ foundation Craig Evans becomes Chief Executive Officer of and advance MOVE’s growth strategy into existing MOVE Logistics Group Limited from February 1. and new opportunities.”

He joins MOVE with an extensive career in the Following a transition period, executive director logistics sector, including 35 years at Mainfreight, Chris Dunphy will step back from day to day with the last six years as Mainfreight’s New management of the business but will remain an Zealand country manager. Prior to this, he was active member of the Board. with Freightways for four years.

“I’m really excited to be taking on the role of “Craig was a stand-out candidate for the CEO and to lead this 153-year old iconic New role. He has an in depth knowledge and a highly Zealand company into a new and dynamic growth successful track record in the logistics sector and is a phase,” Craig says.

Craig Evans. proven leader and team builder,” says Chair of MOVE, “MOVE is currently transforming into a more modern Lorraine Witten. and future focused business, with a fantastic team of talented “MOVE has undergone a transformation over the past year and people, a digital transformation underway and exciting new initiatives Craig’s energy and expertise is a welcome addition for the next phase, in shipping and sustainable transport.” T&D 20 | Truck & Driver

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Nathan Wallis, Kelly McLuckie and Greg Murphy will lead the Eyes Up NZ workshops staring in mid-March.

Fatigue dangers in the spotlight A NATIONAL ROADSHOW HEADING TO EIGHT CITIES from March to May will highlight the dangers of driver fatigue and distraction rates on our roads.

Hosted by motorsport champion Greg Murphy and neuroscientist Nathan Wallis, the Eyes Up NZ workshops to improve commercial vehicle driver safety in the transport sector will begin in Auckland on March 14.

The workshops are being delivered by vehicle safety and training provider AutoSense, who have analysed the data of 4,600 cameras installed in heavy and light vehicles on New Zealand roads and confirmed 125 verified fatigue sleep events occur while driving every day.

AutoSense CEO, Charles Dawson says the data is worrying not only for the frequency of sleep events but because they have significantly increased this year.

“Dangerously, New Zealand has more tired people in charge of light and heavy vehicles on our roads this year [2022],” he says.

“Our Guardian by Seeing Machines cameras detect 125 events daily where car and truck drivers are falling asleep at the wheel, meaning the driver’s eyes are closed for 1.5 seconds or more. These fatigue events were recorded from September to November this year. Alarmingly, they are up 32% on last year.

“The Guardian data is verified, which means someone has checked the camera footage. We are often told that you can’t measure fatigue and distraction – but that is exactly what this data is showing,” he says.

Dawson says the Guardian cameras are recording two peak daily fatigue times: 5am and 11am.

“Fatigue is one part of the safety issues we see on the cameras – the other is driver distraction. We know of the 4,600 light and heavy vehicles being monitored, there have been at least 134 verified mobile phone events per day. These drivers have been viewing or talking on their mobile phones for some time while driving and not on hands-free! These mobile distraction 22 | Truck & Driver

events increased by almost 20% from September to November this year.

“We are committed to working with the transport sector to help reduce these fatigue and distraction events before they eventuate in crashes and fatalities. Our 2023 driver safety workshops will provide expert advice and tips to enable drivers and anyone involved in transport to prioritise road safety and life over death.”

Facilitated by road safety expert Kelly McLuckie from Success Formula, the workshops will commence on March 14 in Auckland, and travel to Hamilton, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Tauranga, Invercargill, Dunedin and Christchurch.

“Customers tell us that fatigue and distraction are a cultural problem in the transport and logistics sector; we need to help transport managers coach their professional drivers to better identify risks like fatigue and distraction and then work to minimise or eliminate it. We’re going to help managers to get that message across to their teams and make a change,” McLuckie says.

“Solving this challenge will need a change from everyone; leaders, dispatch, customers and drivers. We need to disrupt the current system, which is still telling drivers to be safe - but hurry up. For example, why do drivers repeatedly tell us that most of the phone calls they get are from their own companies?”

The 3.5-hour Eyes Up NZ workshop will include a discussion with Nathan Wallis and Greg Murphy about the impacts of fatigue, sleep, and distraction, how the brain works and tips to help with driving safety problems in workplaces.

The North Island schedule is Auckland (March 14), Hamilton (March 16), Palmerston North (March 22), New Plymouth (March 23) and Tauranga (May 3). South Island dates are Invercargill (May 9), Dunedin (May 11) and Christchurch (May 17).

Each workshop runs from 8am to 12.30pm. Tickets are $199+GST from www.eyesupnz.co.nz T&D

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:35:42 pm

The XCMG works with a refurbished Morgan Engineering four-axle semi-trailer.

IT MAKES QUITE A LOT OF SENSE WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT. An industry embedded with the principles of recycling is a prime candidate for early adoption of a zero-emissions battery electric heavy truck and fast charging capability.

Nationwide recycler Phoenix Metalman Recycling NZ Ltd began operating a new XCMG E700 6x4 battery swap electric truck around Auckland city from its Takanini headquarters towards the end of 2022.

It’s primarily a data gathering exercise, with the truck and its supporting charger system being 50% co-funded with an Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority (EECA) Low Emission Transport Fund (LETF) grant of $274,500.

The trial looks into how an electric truck can perform the same work as a traditional diesel unit. And for Phoenix Metalman, it’s one part of a concerted push toward its own emissions and sustainability targets.

Chief Sustainability Officer and co-owner Hilary West-Reeve puts a compelling case for the trial. She explains the scrap metal industry is the original recycler, and because of the value of the metals it trades it has very accurate data on both the volumes of scrap it processes, and also its movements.

And she has a wider vision of the future. Scrap metal yards offer an incentive to visit (by paying money for scrap) so they can also play a part in delivering the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Part of the agreement for the LETF funding is that when a 180kW fast charger is installed, it will be made available to Phoenix Metalman’s heavy vehicle customers visiting the site.

“I was a commercial architect who has designed green buildings

and my husband [Eldon Reeve] owns the business. I evolved into the business about two years ago but brought a different set of eyes based around what I had seen in the construction industry,” Hilary says.

“The metal recycling industry has been doing the mahi for a very long time - but quietly in the background. We’ve needed to communicate what’s being done really well and how many tonnes we are actually moving to validate the circular economy.”

Encouraged by Ross Linton of New Zealand XCMG distributor Etrucks, Phoenix Metalman made an application to be part of the first round of LETF grants. Ten projects were approved in round one funding, including similar XCMG units for Fonterra, Mainfreight and Firth. An electric bus with solar roof panels as well as hydrogen and vehicle charging projects also received the early LETF grants.

“I think the 10 that got in there were fairly frontier-ish because there isn’t the commercial-industrial infrastructure charging network,” says Hilary.

“You can’t just rock up to New World and plug in at their EV charging station. They don’t have the capacity or the truck turning circles for us. So, we basically have to create an infrastructure of our own.

“I guess how we sold it to EECA was; `we are a growing business, and our brand is becoming more visible now. And we have over 9000 customers coming to us each month - all heavy industry users and typically trucks, utes, and trailers - all recycling.’

“Everyone who walks in this door is doing a really good thing environmentally, but the Catch 22 is we are all using diesel engines.”

A condition of the trial is that Phoenix Metalman produces data for EECA about the performance of the truck. That’s done with Truck & Driver | 27

EROAD data supported by the sophisticated systems which Phoenix Metalman already has in place.

“I’ve taken it on as a passion to help us lead the industry and what has opened doors for us is we are seen for leading with our data. What we do is all around accuracy. We photograph every load down to the gram and it all goes into our sales and purchase system,” Hilary says.

At Phoenix Metalman the processing of metals and transportation is fully interlinked in the company’s systems.

“I think the perception is the metal pile out there [in the yard] is a pile of scrap. But we know every inch of it within our system, so we are able to drive the accuracy around the data. It’s made a whole lot of sense to transfer that accuracy into the data around decarbonisation.

“A lot of people see it [recycling] as plastics and cardboard but metal recycling is a global circular economy that has been around since 400BC or something. It’s very established and commodities driven with the incentive to do it. The great thing about metals is they are infinitely recyclable.”

With the decision to trial the electric truck being made amid the disruption of Covid-19, Hilary says the company would probably not have chosen to go ahead without the EECA co-funding.

“It did soften the blow by only paying half,” says Hilary.

“Ross [Linton] highlighted the fund was coming up and he had a truck spec that would work for our business. We have previously been privately funded for everything we’ve done.

“The last two years has been very difficult for us to purchase new trucks. We’d been looking at options but the lead times for certain trucks and trailers can be up to a couple of years. So, the timing was good, and we thought it would be a good JV for us.

“We [the scrap metal industry] don’t usually get funding. The waste industry does, and while we might be perceived as waste, we’re not. We are commodity trading.

“We were really surprised to be honest to get support. But

28 | Truck & Driver

looking at it in hindsight it’s been a win for government to work with someone like us.

“The cool thing EECA liked about working with us is that we are moving recyclables. There is a double layer to it - there is no point recycling on one side if you’re polluting on the way through.”

It’s fair to say the truck side the trial has moved quickly with the XCMG going on the road before the intended charging solution is in place.

“We were lucky that the tractor unit was pretty much available.

What held us up was the charging,” says Hilary.

“Part of the funding was to install a 180kW fast charger unit on site here but to do that we need more power, and we are in a process with Vector at the moment about upgrading our transformer. That’s got a 48-week lead time plus design and install so it’s a couple of years away.

“What we have instead purchased is a 30kW mobile charger that runs out of the workshop and charges the truck overnight. In the meantime, while that was happening, we used Etrucks’ battery swap service.

“We organised within the day to go and swap it over. Once it’s in position [the truck] it’s about a five minute job.”

Initial plans were for the truck to work out of the Phoenix Metalman branch in Whangarei. But the infrastructure challenges required a change of plan and an Auckland base for the truck.

“We were probably a bit naïve thinking we could do it in Whangarei. We got approval from EECA to keep it in Auckland,” Hilary says.

“It’s a repeat route so the driver loses some of the anxiety he would have if we sent him to Waikato and if things didn’t pan out for that route on that day. And it means our first data set will be consistent runs over the same routes.

“You can buy the truck, but you’ve got to be able to charge it, so you have to look at the full package. For us it was the practicality around 20 tonne loads and how many trips we could get in a day.

By doing it in Auckland we’ve got a bit more back-up between Ross and us - being able to move our mobile charger around in the worst case.”

Hilary doesn’t shy away from saying there are more lessons to be learned and further changes to fine-tune the operation of the truck. But that’s what the trial is for, and to date the outcomes are positive.

“There have been some teething problems around charging and around the hydraulics on the bin,” she says.

“We have had two power surges in the area and the charger has automatically shut itself down, so we have arrived at work and the truck isn’t fully charged. A few random things like that.

“It’s not for everyone but we saw some huge benefit to get some funding. It’s quite a bit of capital investment compared to us buying an equivalent diesel.”

The truck is being trialled on scrap metal movements around Auckland city. The tractor unit replaces a Hino 700 that had been doing the same work and is paired with a 2008 build Morgan Engineering four-axle tipper that received a refurb and new livery before going to work with the XCMG. “The trailer is being re-used. We had to change the hydraulic connection in our own workshop. The work was a combination of our team and Ross’ team,” says Hilary.

“The old trailer was looking pretty average, so it’s had a paint job as well. And it’s a good message for us that we are re-using it rather than going all-new.”

The E700 has the fast swap 282kWh battery giving an estimated range of 140km when 20% charge remains in reserve. Based on testing of XCMG trucks on New Zealand roads power is consumed at a rate of 1.5kWh per kilometre.

Phoenix Metalman is unlikely to use the battery swap capability as a fast charger gives the opportunity to charge other vehicles which visit the site.

The loads and destinations vary. Loaded with heavy gauge steel a

typical payload is 19-20 tonnes while aluminium for recycling might see loads as light as 8-tonne.

Mainly the truck is moving heavy steel, cut to what the industry calls “in-size” lengths of about 1-metre that is a suitable pre-melt size to be shipped offshore and fed into electric arc furnaces without further processing.

Phoenix Metalman processes all scrap steel to Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) global pre-melt specifications.

“We make sure we provide a product that fits those codes so there is no processing on the other side, and we get the best value,” says Hilary.

Phoenix Metalman had already had a couple of months of on-road experience with the EV when New Zealand Truck & Driver caught up with Hilary and driver Tony Broome.

Tony typically makes a 6.30am start from Takanini and has the truck plugged in again for overnight charging anywhere between 4pm and 5.30pm The XCMG is both the first new truck Tony has driven and also the first electric vehicle he’s driven. He started with the company just over a year ago after selling his wheel and tyre business. He drove trucks earlier in his working life, mainly two-axle tippers around Auckland construction sites and started on the Hino 700.

“Eldon approached me to see if I was interested. When he said about getting into a new truck, I thought he was pulling my leg,” says Tony.

“I’m lucky to be driving it. I drive trucks for a living, but I don’t consider I’m a truck driver because we’ve got other drivers in the company who have been driving their whole working lives.

“I’ve only been with this company for just on 12 months. I’m turning 60 soon and it’s taken me all of this time to realise that this is what I really enjoy doing. I enjoy the driving.”

It’s fair to say Tony climbed into the XCMG without many preconceptions.

He says he is enjoying its quietness and comfort and has steadily

Truck & Driver | 29

(Left): Hilary West-Reeve has applied some of her background as a commercial architect to Phoenix Metalman’s sustainability plans.

(Right): The 282kWh swappable battery sits directly behind the cab of the XCMG E700. refined his driving technique to make the most efficient use of the battery and to maximise regeneration under deceleration.

“I try to drive it with the least amount of throttle as I can to try and make the battery last. If you stood on it everywhere, I’m not sure you’d get a full day out of it,” says Tony.

“I’ve found that driving up to an intersection, I can get off the throttle and get the re-gen going. So, I find I’m looking a little bit further forward and if there’s a red light ahead, I’m off the throttle earlier and coasting.

“There are two stages of re-gen. We have re-gen when we are coasting and then again under light braking.

“I reckon I use less brakes. A normal truck has the engine braking, and this has the re-gen which is really good. I’m forever looking at what voltage I’m using and how much I’m gaining back.”

Tony says there are some “clicking, clunking and whirring” noises that took some getting used to, but the driving experience is a quiet one. Because there is no conventional engine noise the gentle whine of the transmission becomes the most obvious source of sound when the truck is on the move.

“I’ve got used to the noises it makes. When I first drove it, I thought `crikey is the gearbox falling apart? But that’s how it is.”

“I say to people, in this truck I have the radio volume set on about eight and on the old one it was like 16 or 17.”

“I like the quietness. Somehow, it’s just that little bit more pleasant.

So, what else is there to get used to?

“It’s got a starting sequence. Obviously when you turn the key it doesn’t fire up. It just says `Wait’ and then `Ready’ and you can move off.

“It took a bit to get used to turning a key and not hearing an engine cranking over.”

The XCMG has a six-speed automated transmission - all the ratios necessary thanks to the immediate torque from the electric motor.

“I started off using it in manual mode and call me lazy, but now I just use auto mode and don’t notice any difference in the performance or battery life. Battery life is the main thing I look at,” says Tony.

Using EROAD data and Tony’s log, the performance of the E700 is being continually monitored.

“The advice from Ross at Etrucks is not to let the battery fall below 20% charge,” says Tony.

“Right from the get-go, you’ve only got 80%. Depending on how quickly I get loaded and unloaded decides how many runs I can do in a day. Generally, its three or four run but it depends on the weight and the route I take.

“On the motorway you’re using more [power] to keep the speed up and there’s less re-gen opportunity. Whereas on Great South Rd you’re always stopping and starting and it’s re-genning. Mostly I go that way.

“The minimum I have got back with [at the end of a day] is 14%, or 34% understanding they say don’t go under 20%. I think it goes into a limp mode at about 16%.

30 | Truck & Driver

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Phoenix Metalman Transport Manager Donna Parker with driver Tony Broome.

The truck carries signage to highlight the partnerships involved in the EV trial.

“It depends on traffic and the loads we carry can vary so much.

If it’s light gauge or aluminium I might only have 8-tonne on the back.”

The E700 is rated at 360kW maximum power with a constant torque figure of 1000Nm and a peak of 2000Nm. Tony isn’t convinced the performance can be compared to a 500hp diesel truck.

“If I drive with my foot into it, I think it goes like the Hino used to.

It’s maybe a little slower on a hill but the more you put your foot into it the more battery you’re using.

“Off the mark, because of the torque it’s got, it’s quite impressive and really smooth. You’ll see when we go up onto the motorway and

the drag out of Takanini, I think it lacks a little up there. But once it’s rolling it’s quite happy to sit at 90kmh.

“But you’ve got to get rolling along and to preserve the battery life it’s not as easy as just throwing your foot into the throttle.”

On the first gentle climb heading north from Takanini the truck is in fifth gear and Tony says his energy display is showing 400 volts.

“I’ve got about half throttle and if I put my foot down it’s not going to make very much difference,” he says.

The gearchanges seem smooth and while the truck takes a little time building speed using Tony’s light throttle technique, there’s no suggesting of it labouring or being over-burdened.

Tony says there have been a wide range of reactions from people

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seeing the truck for the first time.

“It’s a change and it’s something different. Some people absolutely pooh-pooh it, and some people only want to look at the big dog Kenworth’s and Mack’s with 600 horsepower.

“One guy thought it must be like a spaceship inside with lots of buttons till I showed him the interior is just like a normal truck.

“It can be quite neat watching some people’s reactions. Near the end of the day, when it’s stop-start on the motorway, you’ll see them crawl up beside you and then you’ll see the window come down and they are listening to it.”

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sleeper that Tony uses as additional storage space.

“I find it pretty much the same as the equivalent diesel truck.

There’s a rev counter, but what that relates to I’m not exactly sure.

The main gauge I look at is the voltage. When I’m up and rolling along on the motorway I try to keep it under 200 volts and along Great South Rd about 100 or just under.

“There is an SOC (State of Charge) gauge, a gauge showing air for the brakes and a couple of temperature readouts.

“The park brake and trailer brake work like a normal truck. So does the air conditioning, the air suspension seat, the instrument panel and the controls.

“The main (upper) mirror is heated but I wish the lower one was as well.

“It rides comfortably like you’d expect of a new vehicle. Being comfortable and quieter I think you are more refreshed at the end of a day.”

The benefits of the E700s airbag rear suspension go beyond comfort.

“I find that extremely handy for taking the trailer on and off, which I have to do every day to charge it. We park the trailer in one spot and charge the truck somewhere else, so we have to separate them,” says Tony.

In terms of the day-to-day operation on Auckland metro routes there are few differences between the electric XCMG and the diesel Hino it has replaced.

“One thing is the bin tips off quite slowly, but that’s not a bad thing if you’ve got 20 tonnes sitting up high,” says Tony.

Hilary West-Reeve says the XCMG is part of a bigger decarbonisation plan for Phoenix Metalman.

“What we are starting to get out of our EROAD data is idling time, rush hour traffic time, load time, number of loads a day and different routes. We are going to see how that performance pans out and share that with EECA,” she says.

The E700 cab is conventional in its cab and control layout while the recharging points (lower right) are located near the bottom of the battery and on the kerbside.

Truck & Driver | 35

Loads vary from about 20-tonnes of heavy gauge scrap steel to lighter loads of light gauge steel and aluminium.

Hilary would like to see sharing of information with the other electric vehicle trials.

“We don’t necessarily need 10 large bulk trucks, but we could make use of some of the smaller EV models in the future.

“As we look to expand our fleet, it would be good to know what the learnings from the others have been. It would be beneficial for us to all meet at some stage.”

The XCMG is an early step on a longer journey of sustainability for Phoenix Metalman.

“As technology becomes available, we would like to lead and become the engager with our customers about transitioning [to electric]. We could become a charging hub for some of those users where they can drop off recyclables and get a bump for 10 minutes.

“We are always going to be a destination because we will always be giving money back. We see that [charging] as a potential thing for us to get into – as a five to 10-year thing.”

Electrification brings other decarbonisation opportunities for the business.

“There is some low-hanging fruit like [electric] forklifts that is quite easy to do. There’s actually a lot of stuff you can buy for inyard, it’s the on-road that is more difficult.

“Most of our bailers are electric and we’ve got three or four forklifts in the business. And we are looking at some material handlers as well.”

Hilary hopes the electric truck trial will also help inform more people about metal recycling.

“Our industry is always seen as being in this reactive territory.

It’s end of life.

“But you can see how metals are being used today – in additive 36 | Truck & Driver

manufacturing, magnetic dust, in biomechanics and in healthcare.

It’s things like Rocketlab making metallic objects by 3D printing.

“The metals space has evolved from melting an ingot into hightech, very precision engineering.

“And it’s a data critical industry so I think it’s a natural progression for us to do it. And I think it’s fun.

“For us, we are all about the data. We are all about verifying what is being circulated and what’s being re-melted in the circular economy, so it makes sense for us to also be providing transparent data on new tech.”

Any further moves are subject to electricity supply.

“Based on the feed we have now, we need four times the power to future- proof ourselves assuming we’ve got all our forklifts and everything else [electrically] powered. Right now, we have to run hybrids of things because it’s the demands of switching everything on in the morning.

“We’ve been looking at solar and some other options to see how we might blend the power. We are waiting for the cap-ex to come down on some of those things and we don’t have enough roof space here to run it all on solar.”

To those who criticise electric vehicles, Hilary has this answer.

“There can be negative publicity in anything you do but one of our strengths is we are people who `walk the talk’. You can have people talk all day long and criticise but are you actually the one actually moving these metals around?

“We are not faking it. It’s going to be `can’t beat `em, join `em’ eventually.

“It’s worth us looking ahead and going `what if? The impact with one truck on the road is not going to make a big difference, but you’ve got to start somewhere.” T&D

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N THE 24-YEAR HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND electric truck to grace our cover. Is it a sign of the times and a look into the future? Or is it a fad?

And what is driving companies to take the leap and become early adopters of fully electric trucks?

This XCMG E700 6x4 battery swap electric truck is being used by Phoenix Metalman Recycling to move loads of up to 20-tonnes of processed scrap metal around the Auckland metro region.

XCMG is another Chinese brand emerging in global markets with a major focus on EV technology. The E700 has the “fast swap” 282kWh battery behind the cab which can be swapped in about five minutes using a dedicated gantry system.

The battery capacity allows an estimated range of about 140km without the battery dropping below 20% of charge. So that immediately tells me it’s not going to be

38 | Truck & Driver

able to do a lot of the freight tasks we have in New Zealand. But there are certain, mainly metro runs, which it does suit.

Today we are carting scrap metal from the Phoenix Metalman yard in Takanini to a yard in Otahuhu. It’s a short run up the Southern Motorway and through Great South Rd to our destination. A round trip is about 40km and this truck typically does it and some similar runs three times a day.

The first impression you get when you climb into the cab is the XCMG isn’t a jump into the space age. It’s like climbing into any of the other Chinese brands on the market.

Everything is familiar with modern steering wheel switchgear for radio and cruise control functions and dash switches which all make sense.

And the gear selector for the six-speed auto transmission isn’t anything out of the norm either.

The primary difference is the digital

Hayden Woolston dash display - where you would have a fuel level display this truck has State of Charge, voltage, range and re-generation information.

My biggest hurdle turns out to be trying to start the truck. You have to press the ignition and wait until the truck confirms it’s ready to start moving. A few failed attempts at this left both regular driver Tony and I scratching our heads until we realise the truck has been left in gear. Once the ignition sequence is sorted, we are off.

With an electric truck you don’t have any internal combustion engine noised and it’s a strange sensation. There is a void to be filled with all the other sounds going on and there seems to be quite a lot of noise coming through the cab, mostly from the gearbox.

The electric motor can develop up to 360kW maximum power while producing a constant torque figure of 1000Nm and a peak of 2000Nm. The immediate torque is definitely noticeable when moving away from stationary with the motor and gearbox getting up to road speed with no issues at all. The around town driving experience in this truck isn’t greatly different to a conventional diesel other than the lack of engine noise.

With the short trip done through the busy streets of Otahuhu we hit the motorway and the biggest impression I get from this part of my test is that with the extra speed and road noise from the tyres you forget it’s an electric truck. It feels just like it would in a diesel.

Driving the XCMG prompts a lot of thoughts about what the future is going to look like. And wondering how fast this future is going to come at us?

My thoughts quickly turned to considering the many pros and cons of going electric.

On the plus side is the opportunity for some early adopters to receive a government subsidy of 50% of the truck purchase price and the cost of charging equipment.

For some unforeseeable amount of time EV operators won’t have to pay RUC tax and diesel costs are eliminated. And for many companies there is the opportunity to be seen to be doing the right thing by the planet and to gain early knowledge about operating EVs. The biggest of the cons is the limited range and the time that recharging can take when fast chargers aren’t available. That means these trucks are only able to perform a small percentage of the freight tasks.

And there are the grey areas and unknowns of EVs. How clean is the generation of the electricity you are using? And what about questions around battery life and their disposal or recycling?

It will be interesting to see if and when these trucks can stand on their own merits and not require government funding to be viable. There are a lot of hurdles to jump before this can happen, but technology is advancing quickly.

If you look at many of the biggest vehicle manufacturers, they are spending almost all of their R&D money on providing EV solutions T&D

• SPECIFICATIONS • XCMG E700 ULT 6x4 Engine: Permanent magnet synchronisation electric motor Capacity: n/a Maximum Power: 240kW (rated)/360kW (maximum) Maximum Torque: 1000Nm (rated), 2000Nm (maximum) Engine Revs: n/a Battery capacity: CATL 282kWh, recharge at 120kWmax Transmission: Electronic control 6-speed automated manual with tiptronic function Final Drive ratio: 4.11:1 Final Drive ratio: 4.11:1 Front axle: 7000kg max Rear axles: 18,000kg max Brakes: Full disc brakes with electronic brake system package Auxiliary brakes: Electronic via battery regeneration Front suspension: Parabolic leaf springs Rear suspension: Airbag rear suspension GVM: 25,000kg max GCM: 50,000kg max

Truck & Driver | 39

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Driving the economy

Investing in bring new people into the industry is the long-term solution to our driver shortage.

Light at the end of the tunnel on driver shortages

“

by Nick Leggett Chief Executive Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand

ALMOST ALL OECD COUNTRIES AND ALL industries are experiencing labour force shortages; they will get worse and immigration won’t fix the problem.”

This was the blunt message delivered to the road transport industry at last year’s Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand Conference by Director of Predictive Performance and recruitment expert, Andy Foy. Every transport business that has had to recruit drivers in recent times knows how true Andy’s statement is, which is why we, as an industry, need to invest more to grow our own drivers and solve our long-term workforce issues.

It is widely acknowledged that the Government’s reluctance to loosen immigration settings and open up migrant worker pathways has been a contributor to the driver shortage.

Transporting New Zealand persistently pointed out the impact of this on our industry and while we’re delighted to see some short-term relief for transport companies in the form of the temporary residence pathway, there is still a lot of work to do domestically to alleviate the estimated 2,400 skilled driver shortage.

The good news is that we can do a lot more than just helping to change the Government’s immigration policy. Instead, we can grow our own drivers by tapping into parts of the labour

market that are not traditional for road transport. Women, those looking at a career transition, and young people from diverse and ethnic communities are the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the long-term solution to our driver shortage.

The Te ara ki tua Road to Success traineeship that we launched in 2021 in agreement with the NZ Trucking Association and National Road Carriers is tasked with helping the industry reach into these long-neglected parts of the workforce and assist them to take a chance at a career in road transport. The traineeship has been set up to provide career pathways by upskilling trainees through both practical learning on the job and the achievement of NZQA qualifications. This, we believe, will help make our industry more attractive and make us less-reliant on the government of the day and their attitude on immigration.

At the end of 2022 Road to Success had 60 trainees from a whole variety of backgrounds enrolled in industry microcredentials while also working in transport companies around New Zealand. Our ambitious target is to have 1000 trainees either having completed or actively enrolled in the programme by the end of 2023. This will take many more enthusiastic employers to get on board and a willingness across the industry Truck & Driver | 41

Driving the economy

Poor road surfaces are a major cost to transport operators.

to invest in new people.

So, if you are an operator interested in taking on a trainee or you wish to upskill one of your existing drivers, we can help support you through the process. Please go to www.roadtosuccess.nz to find out more. The programme is open to members of Transporting New Zealand, National Road Carriers and NZ Trucking, as well as to those who are not affiliated with any association.

Poor road surfaces require investment in maintenance Seeing footage of drivers literally scraping tar-seal off their cars due to the road surface falling apart on State Highway One in the Dome Valley north of Auckland prior to Christmas was the perfect illustration for me of the parlous state of our roading network and just how poorly road maintenance is both funded and procured in this country.

Our industry has been putting up with increased vehicle repair bills due to badly maintained roads and poor surface quality for a while now and while these extra costs are one thing, it is the impact that these road surfaces have on the safety of all road users that we are most concerned about.

The fact is that the seal on almost a third of New Zealand’s roads is thought to be past its lifespan and even where resealing and patch jobs are

taking place, in many cases, the work is of poor quality and deteriorates quickly.

While it is easy to simply point the finger at Waka Kotahi, and withouta-doubt a certain amount of responsibility does sit with the Transport Agency, the fact is that multiple governments have overseen a chronic underfunding of our roads for many years. Roads of National Significance (RONS), which the last Government prioritised, siphoned money out of maintenance budgets and road quality across the existing network suffered.

While Transporting New Zealand is a big supporter of the RONS and sees a case for more highly-engineered expressways, projects such as RONS should sit alongside adequate maintenance, not instead of it.

Unfortunately, this chronic underfunding combined with the increased costs of undertaking maintenance has been mixed with reduced expertise within Waka Kotahi to oversee procurement properly.

I believe that the Government needs to make a commitment to at least a 10 percent year-on-year increase in roading maintenance to get back to the position, in real terms, where we were 15 to 20 years ago. Even if that is done and sufficient technical expertise is brought in to oversee it, the likelihood is that we will still be dealing with poor road quality for many years to come. T&D

Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand’s Regional and Sector Advisors are available to assist members right around New Zealand.

Ia Ara Aotearoa – Transporting New Zealand PO Box 1778, Wellington 04 472 3877 info@transporting.nz

Nick Leggett, Chief Executive 04 472 3877 • 021 248 2175 nick@transporting.nz Mike McRandle, Regional & Sector Manager 027 556 6099

www.transporting.nz 42 | Truck & Driver

Keith McGuire, Region 2 027 445 5785 Sandy Walker, Region 3 027 485 6038 John Bond, Region 4 027 444 8136 Jim Crouchley, Region 5 027 261 0953

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The extraordinary life o Story Wayne Munro Photos Gerald Shacklock

Kuru Contracting Ltd’s flagship, a Kenworth T610 SAR transporter, poses at home in Tolaga Bay. The mythical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow has sometimes reflected KCL’s fortunes….sometimes not

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Operating logging logs on the remote East Coast can be “brutal” with rugged forest roads and many of the region’s main roads in such a bad state.

VERYBODY HAS THEIR UPS AND DOWNS IN life. You know – the usual highs and lows.

But in his 50 years so far, East Coast log truck and forestry operator Ricky Kuru’s lows have been devastatingly, destructively deep. And the highs? Extraordinarily, spectacularly high.

The trend started early: The kid who doted on Dad Jack and lived for the hours they spent together in truck and machinery cabs, turned into a teenager who fell out with his family over his rebellious ways….

Which saw him kicked out of school and fathering a child before he was 15, ending up behind bars….and sleeping on the streets.

Then the rebound: He found his partner for life (wife Leanne), got back close to his Dad…and then became Jack’s partner in a small business building forestry roads…..that became a hugelysuccessful log harvesting and forestry roading operation.

After a decade or so of booming growth, Jack and Ricky’s Kuru Contracting Ltd boasted seven log harvesting crews, equipped with about $30million worth of machinery…..

Only to have to sell off gear and shrink the business by a devastating 85%, when a 2011 log trade slump smashed the demand for Kiwi pine logs. Ricky and Jack worked for nothing for three years – just to keep the business alive.

Then, starting in 2017, KCL – with Ricky now the sole owner, having bought Jack out (albeit with the elder Kuru still working alongside his boy every day) – again grew into a major East Coast forestry force. To the point where it’s now back up to five harvesting crews…again with probably $30m or more worth of

machinery.

Plus there’s a fleet of eight log trucks, a heavy-haulage transporter, a crane truck and four bulk tippers – the latter doing forestry roading and civil construction work.

And a Tolaga Bay base that includes a service station, shop and café, as well as the company’s workshop and offices. KCL now employs “around 97” people.

Ricky also has other projects on the go: Modular houses built in China; five quarries and metal crushers in a partnership with KCL general manager Ma Parata; a residential subdivision and a handful of houses (so far) in Tolaga Bay – built to attract staff…. and plans for a state-of-the-art sawmill in town as well.

It all looks and sounds sweet…another huge high in the Ricky Kuru life story. And it is….

Or, at least, it was: But there have been shadows over the Kuru/KCL world for two or three years now: Sadly, Ricky’s beloved Dad (and mentor) died in mid-2020 – having bravely carried on driving his bulldozer every day, as he battled cancer.

Extraordinarily, in the Ricky Kuru story, the extreme highs and lows apply to his physical state just as much as they do his business status: After Jack’s death, Ricky discovered that he has the same gene suspected of causing his Dad’s terminal cancer.

Pro-actively, in true Ricky Kuru/take-things-head-on style, he’s now had surgery to remove almost all of his stomach in a bid to avoid stomach cancer himself. In less than half a year, physically he’s become just half the man he used to be – his weight falling radically….from 158 kilograms, to just 79!

As for KCL, once again the business empire that Jack and Ricky built….then rebuilt, is under threat – and Ricky’s again Truck & Driver | 47

in a fight to protect it as the log trade slows and shrinks alarmingly, ‘specially on the East Coast.

Where this up-then-down, like-father-like-son story began is 70-odd years ago in Porangahau, Hawke’s Bay – where Jack grew up…learning to drive trucks and machinery on the family farm and its working quarry. As “a kid” he polished his truck driving skills by regularly joining an uncle in his livestock truck – taking the wheel “while uncle had a sleep!”

He moved to Palmerston North as a teenager, starting work driving trucks and machinery – eventually landing with JB Ware & Sons, where he’d drive “off and on” for three decades.

Jack’s self-taught skills extended beyond driving trucks and machines, to doing engineering work – building trailers and tankers for Wares – as well as painting their trucks.

During one break from the company, he and his wife Susan went to live in Papua New Guinea as missionary workers. Ricky was born there in 1972, early on in their four-year stay.

Jack taught locals how to drive trucks and machinery. He was, as Ricky says, “a true Christian: He gave all his wealth away. His whole life, he was involved with the Pentecostal Church.”

When Ricky was eight, the family moved to Turangi for three or four years – Jack managing a fleet of 14 bulldozers doing gravity rolling around the central North Island.

Each bulldozer worked with a large, studded steel roller, Ricky explains: “You’d lower it down a hill and smash all the scrub over. Then they’d burn it and plant it with pine trees.”

Ricky – one of five kids (three boys, two girls) remembers a childhood in which he spent all his spare time with his Dad – “school holidays, weekends, wagged school – driving rollers, little diggers. My Dad was my best mate…”

But his teenage years were far from idyllic. School, for instance, wasn’t for Ricky: “I was expelled in the third form…. umm I just wanted to be my Dad.” Ricky summarises what happened next: “Yeah well I was a dad at 14, to a 21-year-old. And that didn’t go down too well in the family – so I rebelled against all of that….and ended up in jail.

“Went over to Aussie…ended up in jail there as well. I lived 48 | Truck & Driver

Clockwise, from top left: Extraordinarily, the extremes in Ricky Kuru’s life have recently been repeated in his physical presence: After learning that he has the same gene suspected of causing his Dad’s terminal cancer, Ricky’s had surgery to remove most of his stomach...the 14-truck KCL fleet includes eight Kenworth K200 loggers (with two new T659s on the way)...Ricky’s Dad Jack worked for Manawatu’s JB Ware & Sons for many years – with Ricky often riding with him...Jack at work on one of his bulldozers, building a forestry road. on the streets of Melbourne for a year eh. Under a bridge. Yeah, just had a chip on my shoulder.”

Things took an upward turn when he returned to Palmy and “met my wife in the pub….. That was it.” They’ve been together ever since.

Ricky did get to do a job he loved when, way before he was 18, he regularly drove (unlicensed) an R Model Mack to Auckland and back.

And later on, he got his heavy transport pilot’s qualifications – and piloted for his Dad. He also operated machines for Wares.

In 1992, he joined Jack on the East Coast, where his Dad got a job doing gravity rolling in the bush for a contractor mate.

In truth, Ricky reckons: “I actually came to the East Coast to get away from gangs and (from) being an idiot. I didn’t know anyone here. I was 20, just married, one kid on the way. Big move.”

The father and son team worked on that job for about eight months – Jack on a bulldozer, Ricky on a digger. Then they shifted to road-lining – building forestry roads and logging along the route – for the same contractor.

In time Ricky reckons he became disillusioned with making “a lot of money” for Jack’s friend, while promises to help them get started in their own business “never ever happened.”

Finally, in 1997 – after years of Jack staying loyal to his friend – father and son went road-lining on their own account: “Me and Dad got together – didn’t know what we were doing business-wise. I got $14,000 off my mortgage, Dad got $18,000 off his and we went 50/50 and started Kuru Contracting.”

A friend of Jack’s helped them buy an old digger/loader, a D8 bulldozer, a ute and a near-new skidder whose owner had gone bust. In a helluva deal, they got the skidder simply by signingup to carry on the repayments: “That was the break he gave us.

He was a big part of us getting started.”

While Jack drove the bulldozer building the roads, Ricky’s machine alternated between a grapple and a bucket loader: “In the early days it was a struggle, because I had to do both – build the roads for the crew, as well as the skids, as well as do all the logging….with one machine. Mmm – so that same job

now gets done by four. But that’s what made us.

“After the first year in business the accountant said ‘we need a meeting. I’ve got some news for you.’ I didn’t even know what an accountant did really…

“On the way there from the forest Dad said to me ‘ah, she’s all over boy. We’ve made no money – we’re going under.’

“So we get to the accountant and we’re sweating and the accountant says: ‘I’ve got good news AND bad news.’ ” A worried, impatient Ricky demanded: “ ‘So tell us!’ The accountant says: ‘Well, the good news is your profit is $1.3million.’

“I’m like ‘whattt! Yeah well, what’s the bad news?’ He says: ‘Well, you’re gonna have to spend it because you’re gonna have a HUGE tax bill.’

“So we splashed out and bought all brand-new gear, bought a brand-new ute each and vehicles for the boys.

“What happened the second year? We made $3million! And it just started growing from there.”

Their success was driven in part by “the fear of failure: Everyone was telling us, ‘you’re not gonna make it…..you can’t do it this way….blah, blah blah.’ ” Ricky explains how KCL’s father/son dynamic worked: “I was a young go-getter…..and Dad would pull me back every now and then. And that’s why it worked so well.

“He was a go-getter too, but he was a lot wiser…. ‘Nah, not yet boy.’ And I was ‘nah, let’s do it!’ But he was right.

“What he taught all of us kids, was just to work hard eh…and you’ll always do well. And he was right.

“Oh I guess you have got some sort of clue (about what you need to be doing). But I guess the word is winging it: You just do the best that you know with what you’ve been brought up on…”

One contract they won was a beauty: “We stayed with that company (Hikurangi Forest Farms) for 20 years.”

For the first three and a half years “we didn’t make any money – we survived. But the carrot was to get the shit forest out of the way…and then the rest of your future is just mean. And it was.”

The initial work was in the Mangatu Forest, in the Coast’s back-blocks. They worked “stupid” hours – living on-site in a Truck & Driver | 49

Top: KCL bought two log trucks in 2018 – and has added two a year since.

Below: A move to diversify has seen KCL build a small fleet of tippers – servicing civil contracting jobs as well as its forestry roading work.

The Kenworth is one of two K200 bulk units.

caravan or shearers’ quarters much of the time…. “so we’d get more done.”

Then again, they also had fun – hunting expeditions at night, for instance….

Tragically though, they also lost a key member of their tightknit crew in a fatal work accident in their first year.

Around 2003, Kuru Contracting started to diversify away from purely doing road-lining logging, into a full range of log

50 | Truck & Driver

harvesting.

One problem they’d been working around was an inefficiency in getting bulk trucks to service their road-lining operation when they needed them.

The company was, says Ricky, “ticked-up quite a bit – we had quite a few crews then (seven, in fact) and we couldn’t afford to buy trucks…”

So he and Leanne re-mortgaged their home, started L&R Kuru

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Ltd and bought an International T-Line tipper that had done only tarseal running in Auckland, so “was like brand-new.” They also bought a grader and a roller to work with it.

Sadly, around then, things took a serious turn for the worse: “My Dad got sick….had some brain aneurisms. So I went to Mum and Dad and said ‘oh look, it’s time for me to buy you out (it was always the plan) – so you can enjoy your money while you’re still alive.’

“So I went in and got a big, massive loan on the company and paid them out. And away we went.”

By that he means, he and his Dad continued on exactly as they had been: “Jack never stopped working. Nah, nah – so noone knew, not even the family.

“Well, I didn’t want anybody to know, because I didn’t want anything to change for him. So he still just came to work – every single day.”

Nothing changed in the way KCL operated either, simply because, Ricky explains, “my mission was Dad’s mission – to do well and enjoy what you’re doing. That was really about it.”

And that, he says exactly what they did – albeit not without having the occasional disagreement: “Oh of course we did….

All gone five minutes later.” Jack was a quiet man, says Ricky, but he also “kicked my arse….. He spoke when he had to speak.

Yep, yep.”

Jack did eventually take about a year off from working for KCL…..but only so he could help Ricky’s brother Arana get established in his log-harvesting business.

L&R Kuru was absorbed into KCL, now wholly owned by Ricky and Leanne – and they added a couple more bulk tippers

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(Fusos) to the operation.

When the log export industry crashed in 2011, the forestry company KCL was working for “went under. We were owed $950,000…..”

The next three years were all about survival: “So we worked… for free…and paid everything – you know, all our bills. We shrunk – back to more or less how we’d started: One crew…from seven.”

It’s the sort of stuff that breaks people – and businesses. So how did Ricky survive? “Ah, just a battler. ‘Nah, nah – no-one’s beating me!’ ” When “you’re poked in a corner…it’s your upbringing I guess: ‘We’re gonna win this.’ And you just keep going.”

In summary: “So what happened – it crashed…and we crashed with it. But we survived. And then, obviously, it started ramping up again.”

As it did, KCL just kind of ticked over….until, in 2017, Ricky was chatting to Ma, who’d quickly advanced from truck driver to his 2IC: “I said ‘look, I want to have one more crack at this going big again. Are you with me?’ And he says ‘yeah, nah nah – let’s f***in’ do it.’

“Because it got boring – and that’s the truth. That’s why I did it: You’ve just got one crew – 10-15 guys. Just printing money.

Nah – not enough challenge.

“So the last four or five years I’ve spent or borrowed over 30 million bucks and just grown it.” One harvesting crew increased again to four…and, just lately, to five.

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Ma Parata started at KCL as a truck driver, is now Ricky’s trusted 2IC…and they’re partners in an allied quarrying business (which supplies rock and gravel for KCL’s road-building work).

Above: Ricky and wife Leanne have reluctantly moved to Hawke’s Bay from their adopted hometown, Tolaga Bay – so Ricky can be close to KCL’s new work.

Right, top: The late Jack Kuru with his much-loved Komatsu 375A bulldozer. He learnt to drive trucks and operate earthmoving machinery as a kid….and never stopped, earning a reputation as a forestry “legend”.

Right, bottom: International S-Line transporter unit was one of Jack’s longtime drives with JB Ware & Sons, before he and Ricky started KCL. first as a buffer against the next logging boom/bust cycle, the second designed to drive efficiencies in the operation.

In 2018, Ricky and Ma duly secured a five-year contract to provide a forest owner with all of its log cartage, harvesting and road-building needs.

That prompted a substantial renewal of KCL’s machinery…. and a big upscaling of its modest trucking operation, which until then comprised just a handful of tippers.

Now it began adding Kenworth K200 8x4 loggers – at the rate of two a year, each with Patchell five-axle trailers…until there were eight of ‘em. Another two K200s – both 6x4 tippers – were also added, along with a Kenworth T610 SAR heavy haulage tractor unit and a Modern Transport Engineers transporter…and a second-hand 700 Series Hino 8x4 crane truck.

Ricky reckons that the key to the log-truck operation’s success was getting the right guy to run it for him, from the outset: “I got one top man (Jesse Ngerengere) and I said to him ‘just run it….get your own men: I don’t wanna interview nobody.’

Trust the man that’s gonna be running it for you and it’ll fly.”

The rationale for KCL establishing its own log-truck fleet was simple: “I just wanted them when I needed them – carting my wood. They were a necessity.”

The transporter unit, the crane truck and the new Kenworth tippers were also about meeting both the desire to diversify and for KCL to offer a complete package, without having to rely on 54 | Truck & Driver

sub-contractors.

The tippers have formed the basis for a new push into civil construction work – roading, in particular.

Ricky and Ma’s diversification into quarrying was similarly triggered by KCL’s road-lining operation being frustrated by delays getting metal when they needed it. As Ma told the forest owner in a pitch to take over the operation of its quarry, as well as the road-lining and log-harvesting it was already doing: “We can build roads, but we can’t metal them – so we can’t truck wood out.”

Initially the operation ran a leased mobile crusher, a new front-end loader, repurposed forestry machine. Ricky reckons that, as usual, there was an element of “winging it.”

But Ma points out that Ricky has his ways of de-risking things: “One thing this fulla’s good at is ensuring that people are committed and determined.”

They could easily have leased a wheel loader, says Ma: Instead, “old big-balls over there sits down and says ‘nah, f*** off – we’re gonna buy this wheel-loader.’ Why? So that he knows then I HAVE to make it work…”

And he has: Their PK Crushing partnership now owns five quarries and three mobile crushers….

Around this time, Jack’s health worsened….grimly: “He knew he was crook eh, but he never went to the doctor: ‘Oh my puku’s sore…… Go to the doctor man!.... Nah, bugger that.’ I don’t

Just as Ricky spent lots of time with his Dad in machinery or trucks as a kid, Leanne and Ricky’s daughter Jasmine/Jazz (at right with her son Ricky Junior) started going to work with Ricky when she was a baby! Now 27, she’s worked in the forest for years…and already owns (and operates) a $1m harvesting machine.

remember him once going to the doctor…. until it was too late.”

Eventually he was diagnosed with cancer: “They gave him 12 bouts of chemo – they did one and he said ‘nuh, that’s not a quality of life. F*** it! I’m not gonna do any more.’

“He hung in…. the main reason, I believe – and he would say this – is because of the Lord. He believed in Christ.

“Well, they gave him three months to live and he lasted three years. And I’m telling you now it was just purely the brain saying ‘I ain’t going now – I’m working,’ you know. But if he didn’t go to work he would’ve died.

“The hardest thing for me with Dad was when he was going through the cancer. You know, you’re building a landing and the dozer’s stopped. ‘Oh what are you doing – and you walk around there and he’s sitting on the side crying….with his hair falling out, you know.’ And yeah, that just blew me away.”

After Jack’s death, an Eastland Wood Council tribute referred to him as a “road-building legend” – who pioneered using a 70-tonne excavator rather than a bulldozer to cut roads in the East Coast’s steep papa rock terrain. It became standard practice.

Around the time Jack died, KCL’s work began its current slowdown. Unhappily, just two years into its five-year contract, its client company had been sold…. And within a year the new owners shut the forest down.

Since then, Ricky and Ma say, factors including the Gisborne Truck & Driver | 55

Above left: Jesse Ngerengere is Ricky’s “top man” in running the log truck operations for Kuru Contracting.

Above right: Like the log trucks and the tippers, the T610 SAR transporter helps make KCL largely self-reliant for its transport needs. port’s enforced COVID lockdown (which left over a dozen log ships waiting to load – incurring hefty daily charges), fuel price hikes, weakening Chinese demand and the East Coast’s horrendously bad roads, have combined to leave the region’s logging industry “right at the bottom at the moment. Or it’s flatlined anyway…”

The past year has seen three of KCL’s four log harvesting crews move out of the Coast – down to Hawke’s Bay. It was a matter of survival, says Ricky: “They’ve had to go there. Just to look for work.” Because, on the Coast, “the log prices had just tanked.”

Ricky reckons KCL was actually fortunate to have even one crew still in work in its home region during 2022: “We know of 25-odd crews that have gone….” That, says Ma, is out of about 50 that were in business at the end of 2021.

He says too that contractors like KCL ended up footing the bill for the costs of the August 2021 log ship backlog – with lower at-wharf-gate prices being paid for each tonne of logs.

Throw in high R&M costs for the truck fleet and the distance from forest to market, and Ma reckons “the cost of doing business here, I would argue, is the highest of anywhere in NZ.” One of KCL’s current jobs, for instance – at Waitohaia, deep in the East Coast hinterland – involves 100kms of off-highway running…on a 280km, 8 hours 15 minutes round trip.

The infrastructure “doesn’t support efficient trucking,” says Ma. And since the trucks are running on “some of the shittiest, harshest roads,” maintenance costs are high – even with relatively new trucks.

“We’re averaging in maintenance costs….somewhere around 56 | Truck & Driver

$80,000 a month… We had one (truck) that failed a CoF in its first four months because of chassis cracks.”

Ricky reckons in fact that East Coast logging is, “THE most brutal industry you could be in! And the costs! So, for each one of those (harvesting) crews it’s around $16,500 a day you’ve gotta generate, which is big money.

“You’ve only gotta go a week or two with bad weather, coast road closed and – unless you’re the size that we are now – you’d never sustain it, you know. You’d never sustain it.”

It gets him riled-up just thinking about how bad the roads are, considering how much the industry is paying in RUCs: “Our roads should be gold-plated, with what we spend on them!”

Happily, the enforced move south – where KCL harvesting crews are working in forests near Porangahau and the Esk Valley – is proving a success…to the extent that the company has had to put on a fifth crew.

It has also needed to divert some of its trucks down to the Bay for up to a month to meet specific needs.

It gives Ma confidence that he’s going to find work for two new Kenworth T659 loggers, ordered before the severity of the downturn was obvious.

Also paying off is KCL’s diversification into civil contracting work and quarrying. Says Ma: “We’ve been growing the civil part of our business for the past three and a half years. We’ve obviously always had roading, but that was inside the forest gates. Now we’ve moved outside of the gates…

“We’ve had to be in that to survive….it’s what’s carried this business this year.”

So does his level of investment give Ricky sleepless nights

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Truck & Driver | 57

Above: KCL has pursued a philosophy of offering a complete package to forest owners – building forest roads and skid-sites (using metal it supplies), harvesting logs…and carting them out. Here one of its loggers picks up a load from a KCL harvesting crew in the Waiau Forest.

worr ying about another logging industr y meltdown?

He shrugs off any potential disaster: “If you owe the bank a million dollars, what’s the difference in owing them 100 million? To me there’s no difference – you still owe. So I guess the motto there was, if you go under tomorrow, you go under – and you deal with it then.”

Ricky sees a likely tough year ahead, but points out that “in the last two years we’ve already been in a recession eh.”

Sooner or later, of course, that means demand builds again: “And once they let the floodgates open, the prices will go up again and ever ybody will run around like mad things tr ying to gear up again.

“Our focus is going to be ‘let’s batten down the hatches, let’s get there and make money when the time is good’ – but not go around just tr ying to sell $5m worth of logging gear…”

Ma’s confident: “Ricky’s had 20 years of experience of dealing with and understanding the cyclic nature of our business.

“We’ve weathered a lot more, we understand a lot more – the management here are far more experienced in how to deal with a downturn. That makes a huge difference.”

He feels that “ever ybody’s waiting for us (KCL) to go through that same cycle….” And that makes him even more determined to avoid it suffering another bust.

Ricky says he and Ma share a stubborn determination: “Noone likes losing. We’re ver y much the same nature there: ‘Nah we ain’t giving up.’ ” Ricky clearly loves a challenge – even better, that he has the means of being able to take on new challenges – “not all of 58 | Truck & Driver

them successful. Oh yeah, risks pay off…and sometimes don’t pay off! Just in the last two years I’ve probably lost a million dollars….f***ing around (with) different things. Well you see a glimmer in somebody that’s got passion….”

So, longterm, what’s in the future for KCL? Ricky: “Succession. Definitely.” With him stepping aside from the lead role.

Okay – who’s in the pipeline to take over? “That one over there (gesturing towards 32-year-old Ma), my daughter Jazz ( Jasmine), and there’s probably a couple of others in the team.”

Jazz, now 27, not only runs one of the har vesting crews operating in Hawke’s Bay, she’s also bought a million-dollar logging machine, which she operates.

He’s happy that he and Leanne have given their kids “a bloody good upbringing. The only thing they didn’t have was me being there really – I was always at work.”

But Jasmine – “she wanted part of me, so she used to come to work as a baby.” Just like Ricky did with Jack.

Proud as he is of her, he says: “I don’t really want for her to have what I’ve got now….Nah – not this big.” It is, he says, too much pressure.

Whereas Ma: “He’s definitely up to the task. We’ve come close to punching each other in the face. To me, that’s a good relationship. He’s ver y ambitious, got a huge ego, he’s young…. Sometimes I wish I had what he’s got when I was that age: ‘Nah – go get ‘em.’ ” Realistically, says Ricky: “No-one’s just gonna come along and give us 30, 40 million bucks and buy this off us. Until

Jack and Ricky Kuru worked side by side in KCL for almost three decades – building East Coast forest roads and skid-sites with excavators and bulldozers, and harvesting logs

someone like a Ma buys the whole place out…. So that’s a progression thing….”

But actually, he adds: “It’s never been about wealth for me. I mean, how much do you need – or want?”

Sure, he concedes, if he could sell the business he’d be rich: “F***in’ oath! I’d walk away with 20 (million dollars) easy.

“If the market was booming and the industry was flying, you could shut it down and sell the gear off. But I don’t wanna ever do that – I don’t want to get rid of something we’ve created and made a good thing of….that feeds a lot of families.”

Ricky reckons this attitude harks back to the time he spent living under a bridge in Melbourne: “Yeah well, when you start from nothing…come from nothing, well you wish someone had done that for you!”

So, is he proud of what he’s achieved: “Nah, not really.

Done it to survive…and do well. Dad brought us up to not be indecisive – like just: Bang! Make the call…. Or else you just lose sleep and don’t do anything. Sometimes it’s wrong. But at least you made the call.”

Ricky’s heart – along with the company’s base and his and Leanne’s family home – is in Tolaga Bay, even though they’ve now got a place in Bayview, near Napier (so Ricky can be close to where the bulk of KCL’s logging work is currently).

“When you build something for 25 years and all of a sudden you’re plucked away from it….it hurts! All your toys are here – my weekend work playing around on the subdivision, helping someone in the community. I haven’t got a community down there because I don’t know anyone.”

His community is Tolaga Bay – where he’s helped the surf lifesaving club with a four-wheeler and a life raft and – because “the missus felt sorry for the community…” where he re-opened the closed-down gas station and shop that he bought as KCL’s HQ 15 years ago.

Where he gave a house “to a lady down the road who didn’t have anywhere to live” and created a 14-section housing subdivision that started out being “all about houses for the Coast.”

Even after a few hours exploring Ricky’s extraordinary life (so far), you just know there’s heaps more we haven’t even touched on.

Like when we talk about his succession plan – and what he’ll do when that comes to pass.

He has, for instance, got a passion project – bringing new life to the closed-down sawmill he bought in Tolaga Bay. There’s also the subdivision to complete.

And, he casually adds: “Oh well, this New Guinea thing – I’m well-invested in it now, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be flying out there in January…”

Say what! What is this “New Guinea thing?” He hasn’t mentioned it till now.

Ricky: “Well I didn’t really want to talk about it…” But anyway: “Yeah, so I’ve got an uncle who’s been there 25-plus years. And he’s into sawmilling and logging over there…”

And “he keeps ringing me, ringing me, ringing me. He’s currently got 600,000 hectares of rainforest signed up with the locals: We’re gonna put that into carbon credits, but 30% of it’s allowed to be logged. So he’s got quite a big export of hardwoods into the US. “He’s 74 or something and I guess I’ve always wanted to go back to where I was born and have a look. So I’m only going over for a week just to see what it is. I’ve invested a couple of hundred grand in it, umm….see what comes of it.”

Like he says: “I don’t know – New Guinea might not even come off.”

It’s a matter of “trying to set us up for the future….while making sure that this (KCL) doesn’t fail. Mmm.” T&D Truck & Driver | 59

LEGENDS

‘Gunner’ survive and flourish - Graeme Wright Transport Limited

H

AVING SPENT OVER HALF A CENTURY CARTING ON AND around the notorious roads that cover NZ’s Coromandel Peninsula, ‘simply surviving’ is arguably justification enough for being a Southpac Legend. However, when you add to this an earnest desire to inspire young minds, a keenness to expand NZ’s driver network, and a heartfelt love of trucks, the true picture of Puriri based trucker Graeme ‘Gunner’ Wright of Graeme Wright Transport Limited, really begins to emerge.

Graeme says that it was his father that gave him the ‘Gunner’ nickname due to the fact that he was always ‘gonna do this and gonna do that’, and although he says that it was a moniker that he found initially troublesome (kids used to tease him with it at school), it’s a name that stuck. However, bearing in mind what Graeme has achieved, ‘Gunner’ should be changed to ‘Did’ - but that probably doesn’t have the same ring to it.

In fairness to say that Gunner’s school life wasn’t one he looks back at fondly, as not only was he teased for his nickname, but his thick glasses which made him quite the target of ridicule. ‘Why do kids have to pick on kids with glasses?’ he asks.

Needless to say, the moment school was in his rear-view mirror Gunner headed out to work, and that meant truck driving.

“I was always going to be a truck driver,” he says, “my father was

60 | Truck & Driver

a truckie but was never really into it, but my uncle [Bernie Wright] had Puriri Transport (located between Thames and Paeroa), and I was fortunate enough to get the break to drive there, that was straight out of school.”

Gunner worked at Puriri for a while and in many ways, it cemented his love of the job.

“Our day’s work would start at 5 or 6 in the morning. We’d go down and cart cheese from the dairy factory and then cart chooks back. Then later on the train would come in and we’d go and shovel 40 to 50 tonnes of coal out of the railway wagon and take that down to the factory. We loved it, we always laughed and joked.”

From there, Gunner’s aspirations of running his own business grew and that meant that the appeal of a necessary greater wage packet had him crossing the ditch to Aus. “I went to Australia not long after I was 18 and worked for Mount Tom Price, an iron ore mine in West Australia. And then I went up to Dampier Salt where they were making the salt levies. [After 18 months] I made enough to come home and buy the cream run from Thames to the dairy, which included an old 1960 Commer diesel truck.”

Gunner started doing the run in 1969 but says that the run itself wasn’t his primary focus, he wanted the truck and for that he had to

have a Vehicle Authority licence.

“When I started you had to have vehicle authorities, you had to have one for your truck and one for your trailer. They were hard to come by so it was a lot better to buy one with a little bit of business,” he says, adding that as soon as he could he took a step up to a D-series Ford Gunner says that he ran the cream run until the tankers took over and during that time, not only was he given the Thames to Paeroa run for NZ Dairy, but he also started up a freight run too, often pushing (and exceeding) the 40-mile boundary limit.

“I had a go at carting everything. In those days I had a Ford D1000, and I pulled two 2-axle trailers. I’d slide the bolsters on the deck and do the logs, then slide them off and cart metal.”

“For me the two trailers really worked well, because I’d come up to the fertiliser works and sleep in the Ford and be first in the queue, so I could do two loads of fert into the Coromandel. I’d drop the centre trailer to a farmer with 12-tonne of fert on it and he’d shovel it off while I’d take my back 2-axle Walker trailer and cart metal over Tapu hill.”

As work grew so did Gunner’s horsepower. He bought an old ERF logging truck with a 250 Cummins, preferring the bigger 250 horsepower over the Ford’s.

“With that Ford, I’d go out from Thames, and I’d still have my foot flat by Waitakaruru and still not be up to speed. but you get that 250 Cummins and it’s up cruising by the first corner.”

“I’ve always liked horsepower. If the drivers can’t handle it, I don’t think you should have them. He’s going to do as much damage with 400hp as he is with 700hp.”

The cream run ran for around 5 years (1975), and by the time it ended, Gunner had already built up his carting business to a point where he needed a second driver.

“Second driver, second truck. I couldn’t do everything,” he says, “it’s the same in the Coromandel area now, I’ve got 22 trucks and only about 12 permanent drivers. But I’ve got about 20 staff with mechanics and dispatchers and part time drivers. I can drive and so can the dispatchers.”

Gunner’s keenness to increase horsepower was matched by his desire to own a Mack and as soon as he got enough money and paid off enough of a truck, he’d go a step higher. But it wasn’t until 1983 when he got enough money to buy a brand-new FR Mack 8-wheeler.

The brand new 1983 Mack was my ambition, you maybe went for the prettiest girl, my ambition was the Mack,” he jokes.

With things going well on the ground, Gunner set his sights on the

sky, and he co-owned an aeroplane.

“Thames aerial top dressing. That was 1991,” he says, “Three of us (Paul Miller and Keith Hale) bought a 300 Fletcher.”

Over time both Paul and Keith dropped out and Gunner took it on his own, eventually selling out to Super Air. Gunner’s working life hasn’t been without dramas and setbacks either, issues with drivers and employees including a trailer rolling on the road out of Port Jackson where a number of sheep were lost.

“So, when my dispatcher calls me and says, ‘you don’t want to hear this’, it always ends with things like ‘a truck has broken down or got stuck’. I don’t go to church, but I believe, and I believe he looks after me,” he exclaims and looks skyward.

The business has had its fair share of financial woes along the way and Gunner reckons that he’s nearly gone broke several times.

“But my father always taught me, a rolling stone gathers no moss, so whatever happens stick with it. And I have stuck with it. Plenty of times I’ve thought I was finished, but I got up and went again.

The major thing I’ve got in my business is that 99% of my work is farmers and you won’t get anyone more loyal to you than a farmer.

They’re like family to me.”

“But our work is so seasonal, and it’s got real hard now. With fuel being the way it is, our fuel bill has doubled. They say if you’re paying GST, you’re in profit but I tell people I pay every bill every month, I owe the least money I have ever owed but I’ve got the least money I’ve ever had.”

Gunner is quick to point out the good parts too, saying that ‘surviving the coromandel roads’ has been a challenge that he’s enjoyed.

Truck & Driver | 61

“I could name you twenty carriers that have been and gone in the Coromandel, but I loved it. I loved getting up in the early hours of the morning. In the past, when two of us have done an early morning run, I slept in but still caught him before Wilson’s Bay.” “I know the roads. I’ve got rules. I say to my drivers that there’ll never be an accident on any corner if you can stop, so always treat every corner like something’s coming around it - and touch wood, I don’t think we’ve had a serious accident there.”

Gunner is always keen to get new drivers behind the wheel (including offering up ‘a small 4-wheeler plus a trailer to help anyone get a licence’) and supports the industry with the likes of driving competitions when he can. He’s also been invited along to his local school to inspire the kids.

“I felt that I had a shitty life as a kid, with big thick glasses I was the biggest joke out there. Just because you had glasses as a kid you copped it. People back then didn’t call it bullying, they called it teasing. They laughed at people’s misfortunes. I wanted to go back and tell those kids ‘never think you’re not as good as anyone else, because you are.”

He was also approached by Orongo Model Barn owner Jeremy

62 | Truck & Driver

Welsh who asked if they could do a limited (500 run) replica model of his 750 Volvo, Gunner was rapt.

“I said that’s a bloody privilege, it’ll be a great way to finish my years when I love trucks.”

Gunner jokes that the biggest thing he puts down to his ‘surviving’ is that he’s pretty good at grovelling, saying that like many other people, ‘If you want to do a good deal, you [often] can’t say what you really think.’

But this successful ‘gunner’ has evidently done much more than just survive and he’s quick to thank the ‘loyal’ farmers for his success, adding that there’s been a lot of people in the industry that have helped him along the way too, too many to mention in fact.

“I’m 76 now and last January I got my heavy goods licence until I’m 80, and they won’t want me on the road after that probably anyway. But I’ve loved what I’ve done, and I still love the trucks, there’s not many trucks that go past my house that I don’t look out to see.”

“It’s still good because I still love it. And if you can do that it’s pretty neat.”

Pretty neat indeed. T&D

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FEATURE

The Canterbury sunshine helped make the TMC Trucking Industry Show a popular attraction.

SHINING INDUSTRY SHOWCASE

By Colin Smith

THE LONG AWAITED RETURN OF THE TMC TRUCKING INDUSTRY Show held in Christchurch on November 25-26 provided a high profile showcase for the New Zealand road transport industry.

NZ Trucking Association general manager Carol McGeady says the show was a huge success and she estimates about 35,000 people attended over the two days at the Canterbury Agricultural Park.

“We thought it was awesome. The comments we’ve had back from exhibitors, truck drivers and the public that came along are that it was a fantastic day,” says Carol.

It was the fourth edition of the biennial show which was staged at Wigram in 2014 and 2016 before moving to the Canterbury Agricultural Park in 2018. The 2020 show was cancelled due to Covid-19 and this year’s event, postponed from March to November, turned out to be significantly larger than the previous shows.

“In many ways the stars aligned for us. The weather was great and there was definitely a feeling that an event like this had been long overdue [after the Covid disruptions].

“We also did a lot of work in the background getting television and radio along which made a huge difference,” Carol says.

“We all know that often the only time trucks are in the news is when there has been a crash. But the show is a fantastic way to celebrate our industry. It showcased that truck drivers are highly skilled, and they are proud of the essential work they do.

“We had over 35,000 people through the gates over the two days. We don’t have a final number but staff from the A&P Show have told us the numbers were very similar to a crowd of 36,000

they had,” Carol says.

“The kids zone was enormous with queues for the bouncy castle, mini golf and the Valvoline scooter rides. We were especially pleased to see so many families and children – they are our future.

“For me, the highlight was being at the gate at 5.30am as all those truck drivers started to roll in. It was unbelievable.”

About 1000 students registered for the Trucking Careers showcase as the industry attempts to attract much needed staff.

“I know there were a lot of good conversations on the day and that some have already progressed to job interviews,” says Carol.

The impressive Peterbilt of Johnny Burling was judged the People’s Choice in the UDC Show & Shine.

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This page above: Burnett’s Motors from Ashburton had their 1979 International 3070 on show.

Below: Road Metals was out in force with its classics (left) while a big line-up of modern DAFs was entered in the Show & Shine.

Facing Page, clockwise from top: Generations apart 1974 Kenworth, late-1950s Karrier and 2005 Peterbilt 378…. Brenics Kenworth K200 was judged Truck of the Show… Liebherr hosted the NZ All Terrain Crane Championship… Hyundai launched the full-electric version of the Mighty light-duty truck…. Steve Martin Contracting won the Best Western Star award.

Highlights of the show included several new truck debuts, the TR Group New Zealand Truck Driving Championship and other competitions for crane and forklift operators.

New trucks being shown for the first time included the MAN TGX26-640 and TGS 26-510 with 13-litre Euro 6 engine and the first new Scania Super models, G 560 6x4 models that preview the new Euro 6 engine being introduced across the Scania line-up.

Hyundai showed off its new Mighty battery electric model, Volvo had new Euro 6 FH16 models on display and SEA Electric had the first of its `own brand’ C300 8.5 tonne electric trucks on show.

Other debuts included the UD Trucks GW26-430 with upgraded 430hp engine and new driver support and safety technology.

Those with an eye to future technologies will have spotted a container on the Hiringa Energy site. It’s part of the hardware that will be installed at the four Waitomo Group hydrogen refuelling stations set to open in 2023.

The 20-foot container on show houses nine hydrogen storage cylinders, storing 350kg of hydrogen for refuelling vehicles.

It works in conjunction with the on-site electrolyser and a compressor/refueller units due to arrive in New Zealand soon.

Activity drew the crowds with the Palfinger New Zealand Crane

66 | Truck & Driver

Championship being a popular attraction.

For those with an eye for innovation saw the Waimea Engineering Chain Placer – a compressed air chain throwing mechanism for logging trucks – was being demonstrated and Hammar was busy with its new MegaReach trailer-mounted container side lifter showing off its stepover and stacking capabilities.

A highlight for the public was the quality and quantity of the 478 trucks entered in the UDC Show & Shine competition judged across more than 40 categories as well as the BP Classic Trucks Showcase.

The Top Truck award went to the Brenics 2013 model Kenworth K108 driven by Logan Mitchell while the People’s Choice award went to the impressive Peterbilt 388 of Johnny Burling.

The Top Classic Truck prize was won by Phil Cassidy with his Regan Carriers Cool Cat 1987 Kenworth K100E. Steve Murphy Ltd won the best Large Fleet prize with Small Fleet honours taken out

by Hiab & Transport Services.

Early planning is underway for the next Trucking Industry Show in just over a years’ time.

“We’re looking at moving back to our traditional March date for 2024. We should be able to confirm the exact date soon,” Carol McGready says. T&D

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Clockwise from top left: Remote control trucks proved to be a popular attraction… MAN debuted new TG models including this TGX 26.640…. New International RH Series 10x4… Waimea Engineering demonstrated its new Chain Placer system.

UDC Show & Shine Awards 1,000,000km plus - Northside Peterbilt

0-50,000km – Ecoblue Mercedes-Benz 50-500,000km – Hanes Scania (Mikey Ashby)

Furthest travelled to the show – Rhys Haulage Kenworth

50,0000-1,000,000km – Talley’s Freightliner (Craig Heywood)

Highest km travelled – K &T Trucking K104 Kenworth (Kerry Inns)

Best of makes International – Blue Diamond Haulage (Jesse)

Flat Deck – HTS Mack Superliner (Christian Cox)

Isuzu – Tyre General (Brett Flower)

Working Rig – Steve Martin Contracting Kenworth (Matt)

Fuso – Steve Murphy Ltd Volvo – CBL Contracting Mack – Trident (Daniel Warnock) Hino – Road Metals (Nathan Sayer) UD – Protanz (Adam) Mercedes-Benz – C.P.T (Jarrod Musson) Iveco – Steve Murphy Ltd (Willy) Freightliner – Hog Haulage (Dion McIvor) DAF – DGS Bulk Scania – Solly’s Contractors (Shiny) MAN – R&H Transport (Hayden) Western Star – Steve Martin Contracting Kenworth – Steve Murphy Ltd (Steve James)

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Curtainsider – Sharp As Linehaul Kenworth (Mason James) Chrome – Tyre General Isuzu (Brett Flower)

Stock Truck – Solly’s Scania (Shiny)

Tipper – Protranz Mack Granite

Mounted Crane – HTS Volvo

Best Owner Driver Truck – RT Southern Linehaul Kenworth

Transporter – BR Satherley Kenworth (Skud) Combination – Lott Contracting Scania Tanker – McEwan Kenworth (Zade Fahey) Container – NZ Express Freightliner (Dean Fraser) Under 10-tonne – Tyre General Isuzu (Brett Flower) Graphics – HTS Mack Superliner (Chris) Classic Truck – Regan’s KW, Phil Cassidy Logging – Steve Murphy Ltd Iveco (Graeme Dempsy)

Best Polish – K&T Trucking Kenworth (Kerry Inns) Best small fleet (1-4 trucks) – H.T.S Best large fleet (5+ trucks) – Steve Murphy Ltd NTA People’s Choice – Peterbilt 388 (Johnny Burling) NTA Driver’s Choice – Hilton Haulage DAF Woman in trucking award – McEwan T610 Kenworth (Jazz) Truck of the show – Brenics K200 Kenworth driven by Logan Mitchell

FEATURE

Above: Overall winner Corey Pettifer receives his trophy from Outback Truckers star Glenn `Yogi’ Kendall.

First timers finish first

By Colin Smith

A WEEKEND JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH ISLAND PROVED successful for Corey Pettifer who claimed the 2022 TR Group New Zealand Truck Driving Championship in Christchurch at the end of November.

The 29-year-old from Kerepehi in the Thames Valley, who drives for Graeme Wright Transport, won both the Class 5 Truck & Trailer and the overall honours in the national final staged as part of the TMC Trucking Industry Show.

Corey mainly drives a Kenworth truck and trailer bulk unit for Graeme “Gunner” Wright’s Puriri-based company.

The first national title held since 2019 brought together experienced veterans and new competitors to battle for championship honours.

Corey was a first-time entrant in a truck driving skills competition.

“I went to the heats in Auckland about six weeks earlier and won the truck and trailer section,” Corey says.

That put him into the final held at the Canterbury Agricultural Park.

“I didn’t really know what to expect and I just went out there and gave it everything I had. The judges didn’t really say much when I finished and I had no idea I had won until the results were announced,” Corey says.

Corey has been driving trucks for 11 years, the past six with Graeme Wright and previously with Kerepehi Transport Ltd.

“The event was bloody good and I’d definitely do it again. And I’d also encourage others to give it a go as well.

“I like the competition and how it shows what you can do. I’ve got some mates who have said they like to give it a go against me the next time.

“I’d like to say a big thanks to TR Group and NZ Trucking Association for putting on a really well done event.”

The success continued for Graeme Wright Transport with Braydon McMillan-Phillips taking out the Young Driver of the Year prize.

Semi-trailer honours went to Woodend, Canterbury driver Adam Goddard. A fulltime driver for the past 15 years, Adam works around the South Island driving a Volvo FM with a front-mounted Hiab for Christchurch company Hiab & Transport Solutions.

“It was my first competition and it was really good. I met a lot of like-minded people and gave myself a challenge,” says Adam.

“I’d absolutely recommend others to give it a go. It’s good for anybody, whether they are new to the industry or really experienced. It tests you and makes you think outside the box.”

Adam says preparation was important part of his success.

“The main thing I did was taking the time to read the all information from the organisers carefully. It was really important for the theory side of things.

“Make sure you double read all the questions and think about the wording. It’s like the old saying of `measure twice and cut once.’

“I think that’s the biggest thing about this industry. If you aren’t Truck & Driver | 69

Above: Class 2 winner Simeon East (left) and Class 5 winner Adam Goddard (right) receive their prizes.

sure then don’t ever be afraid to ask questions.”

The winners of the Class 2, Truck & Trailer and Tractor Semi categories each received a trophy, $2,500 cash, and a return trip for two to the 2023 Brisbane Truck Show. Runners up received $1,000 cash.

Samantha Fraser from Christchurch was competing in her fourth driving competition. She was a finalist in the Class 5 Semi category as well as winning the Woman Driver of the Year prize.

Samantha has been driving for eight years, usually in a swing lift unit for NZ Express but has recently moved to a new DAF B-train unit.

She had plenty of support from the side lines.

“That was my work colleagues and my family. It was pretty cool,” she says.

Samantha says she enjoys the driving competitions.

“I do it for the fun. It’s good to meet new drivers and it’s also a way to keep my skills up. I’d like to see more women entering the event,” Samantha says.

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The last time a national competition had been staged was in 2019 and TR Group says it pleased to continue its sponsorship of the title.

“This year was a case of let’s start it again and then look at ideas to develop it and make it bigger and better in the future,” says TR Group general manager Neil Bretherton.

“It’s a big commitment for TR Group - not only in the sponsorship but also because our Driver Training business is involved in running the event.

“The reason we do it is to celebrate the truck driving skills in New Zealand.

“What happened during Covid was a realisation among the general public that nothing moves without trucks and truck drivers.

They are essential to our way of life and our survival.

“So our support of the event is our way of giving something back and recognising the unsung heroes. It was great to see the diversity of our industry was represented with men and women and different cultures taking part in the event.” T&D

Below: Samantha Fraser checks in with the judges after her run in the finals (left) and Braydon McMillan-Phillips (right) won the Young Driver of the Year prize.

2022 TR Group New Zealand Truck Driving Championships: EROAD Class 2 1st – Simeon East 2nd – Neil Matheson Spartan Finance Class 5 semi 1st – Adam Goddard (Hiab & Transport Solutions Ltd) 2nd – Jarrod Hepi (Coda Group) Hydraulink Class 5 Truck and Trailer 1st – Corey Pettifer (Graeme Wright General Carriers) 2nd – Karl Thompson (HWR)

TR Group Young driver of the year Braydon Mc Millan-Phillips (Graeme Wright General Carriers) EROAD Women driver of the year Samantha Fraser (NZ Express) TR Group Overall champion Corey Pettifer (Graeme Wright General Carriers)

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FEATURE

Reaching new heights Above: Palfinger NZ general manager Duncan Phillips (left) congratulates Lyndon Hills on his success.

Right: The Crane Championships provided an entertaining addition to the Trucking Industry Show.

TD33176

By: Colin Smith A POPULAR ADDITION TO THE TMC TRUCKING Industry Show for 2022 was the Palfinger New Zealand Crane Championships.

Operators were tested for precision control by negotiating a multi-facet obstacle course against the clock to determine New Zealand’s best truck-mounted crane operator.

It proved a crowd pleaser with the thousands of showgoers at the Canterbury Agricultural Park.

“We’ve done enough shows to know that activity draws a crowd,” says Palfinger NZ general manager Duncan Phillips.

He says the event created considerable interest and close competition.

“We had intended to do something like this for a few years and we’d been looking for the right opportunity,” says Duncan.

“I’d say it has gone very well. We were well supported by our customers with six customer owned cranes on display as well as showing off our latest TEC models.

“It was great to see lots of families watching the competition and kids asking questions about the cranes.

We’d definitely do it again.”

There were 23 entrants who were whittled down to eight finalists on the Saturday afternoon who competed using a Hilton Haulage Scania-mounted Palfinger PK 53002-SH crane.

The winner was Lyndon Hills from Wanaka-based Peak Truck & Driver | 73

Contracting who received a $1000 cash prize and trophy, a truck model, Pro-tech work helmet and a merchandise pack valued at over $500 for his winning effort.

Lyndon says he’s getting married in January and the $1000 will come in handy.

“Matt [Seyb], one of the guys I work with, saw it on Facebook and he said `what do you think about this?

“That’s the only encouragement I needed, and we both entered,” Lyndon says.

Lyndon says the first day of competition was the most stressful.

“It was quite challenging, and I had a lot of stress at the start on the qualifying day when I made a couple of mistakes. ``But the next day the nerves had worn off a bit and it was much better.

Doing a figure-eight through the barrels (200-litre drums) was probably the trickiest part.”

Lyndon says there has been plenty of recognition of his success.

“Quite a few people on work sites we go to have mentioned they saw it on Facebook, and I’ve had a few of my old work mates call and message me.

“The competition was all good and I’d definitely be keen to do it again.

It’s good to be able to show your skills.”

Runner-up honours and a $500 prize and merch pack went to Regan Dowdall of Crane and Cartage from Auckland.

The other finalists were Jamie Coles (Ocean Spray Transport), Karl Thomson (Purdues), Keegan Hewlett (Jesco), Matt Seyb (Peak Contracting), Russell Hockley (Hammond Crane and Cartage) and Jeremy Halkett (Hilton).

The format for the championship was devised by Palfinger NZ staff based on their own competition experience against European and Australian rivals at an international dealer event in Salzburg, Austria in May this year – which they won. T&D

Lyndon Hills is all concentration during his winning effort.

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FEATURE

The biggest success in Collins’ wide-ranging career was winning the inaugural Toyota Racing Series. He’s pictured on the podium at Timaru with James Cressey (left) and Brendon Hartley (right). Photo Geoff Ridder

Moving to the heavyweights IN THE 30-YEAR-PLUS HISTORY OF TRUCK RACING IN NEW Zealand a host of drivers from the mainstream racing categories have applied their skills to steering the big rigs.

The likes of 1967 Formula 1 world champ Denny Hulme along with Paul Radisich, Avon Hyde, speedway champ Noel Goodwin, rally ace Neil Allport and bike racer John Hepburn are just some of the motor racing names to race the heavy metal. And, of course there are those who share a transport industry business involvement with a racing pedigree such as Inky Tulloch and Calven Bonney.

Toyota Racing Series action for Collins in 2005.

Photo Geoff Ridder.

76 | Truck & Driver

By Colin Smith

The latest racer to upscale their skills into trucks is South Canterbury’s Brent Collins.

A front runner in every category he’s contested - and most notably the winner of the inaugural Toyota Racing Series in 2005 - Collins has been drafted into the Lower Hutt-based Boss Truck Racing squad as team-mate to reigning NAPA Auto Parts NZ Super Trucks champion Alex Little.

“Malcolm Little gave me a call last year to see if I’d be interested in helping to mentor his boy (Alex),” says Collins.

Collins was in winning form at this season’s championship opener at Manfeild.

“It would help Malcolm focus on the trucks, getting them prepared and set-up.”

Collins made his debut at the final round of the 2021-22 Series at Manfeild and returned for the opening round of the 2022-23 Championship. He emerged from the opening round in second place trailing Alex Little by five points.

More than a mentoring role, Collins has proven to be a benchmark for Alex.

“He’s really good so it’s mainly a case of, if I’m in front it gives him somebody to chase and if I’m close behind he can work on his race craft,” Collins says.

Comparing notes between the trucks isn’t easy as the two Freightliner Century racers are quite different in specification.

“We swapped trucks for the Flying Farewell at Manfeild and Alex’s truck is half a tonne lighter and Malcolm’s one has got about 400-horsepower more,” says Collins.

“I think it’s going to be hard to beat Alex at Timaru, but Teretonga and Pukekohe should be better suited to the big boy. If we can do that, I’m hopeful I can finish the championship on the podium.”

Collins says he’s been impressed by the way the truck drives.

“The only reason they feel a bit daggy is because you are sitting up so much higher. They are quite responsive and way they accelerate and handle actually isn’t too much different to a car.

“You have to be super smooth with the power. Malcolm’s truck is about 2000-horsepower with the turbos making 115psi of boost. With a little bit of turbo lag you have to be really smooth getting the power down to the back wheels.”

What has surprised Collins the most is the braking.

“For something that’s about five and half tonnes, the stopping ability is incredible. That’s been the biggest surprise for me, and Malcolm’s truck doesn’t even run a water cooling system.”

Collins lives at Pareora, just south of Timaru, running a familyowned farm where they winter milk 1300 cows, grow blackcurrants,

potatoes and have their own pellet feed mill for their cows and calf meal.

His competition career literally began with early “grass roots” success, winning the South Island grass kart championship in 1996 then getting asked to drive Jim Little’s V8 powered AP5 Valiant in Pre-65 racing. He then won two titles in the Mazda Pro 7 series and switched to Formula Ford winning the South Island title and battling a nagging engine issue to finish fourth in the New Zealand Championship.

A switch to hillclimbing landed him the 2004 Gold Star national title driving ex-Graham Coey/Simon Curry Subaru Vortex and a discussion with Barrie Thomlinson at the Motorsport awards dinner led to the move to the Toyota Racing Series. In the inaugural year of the singleseater series Collins had four wins and was crowned champion in a field that included the likes of Brendon Hartley, Ken Smith, Daniel Gaunt, Chris Pither and Andy Knight.

Since then, Collins has teamed up with inky Tulloch in a Subaru WRX at the Bathurst 12 Hour and raced in Australia’s Mini Cooper Challenge one-make series. There’s been a stint in NZV8s and even some dirt track time in a Sprint Car. Another challenge looms in the near future.

“The timing [of the truck campaign] is good for me as I am half-way through building a Smokey And The Bandit 1977 Pontiac TransAm for Central Muscle Cars and possibly some Touring Car Masters in Australia.

“I’m really enjoying the truck. The racing is close and fun, and Malcolm’s team has built excellent trucks which are very reliable. All of the truck racing teams are a lot of fun to be around and I’m really enjoying the whole thing.”

The Timaru round of the NAPA Auto Parts NZ Super Truck Championship was held on January 27-29 after NZ Truck & Driver went to print and the series then visits Teretonga on March 18-19 and Pukekohe for the final on March 25-26. T&D Truck & Driver | 77

FEATURE

The Dakar winning Iveco Powerstar of Janus van Kasteren powers through the Saudi Arabian dunes.

Wide open in the dunes THE FORM GUIDE FOR THE T5 TRUCK CATEGORY AT THE 45 TH running of the Dakar Rally was blown wide open only weeks after the 2022 event had raced through the dunes of Saudi Arabia.

As in many other international sports at present, the Russian military action in Ukraine has seen sporting organisations apply sanctions to Russian athletes. In order for the all-conquering KAMAZ-Master squad to compete, the Russian competitors were required to sign the Driver Commitment of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), which condemns the Russian `special operation’ in Ukraine.

The team issued a statement saying: “the content of this document is political and also violates the principles of equal conditions for athletes. We consider it impossible for us to sign such documents and participate in competitions under such conditions.”

A milestone 20th Dakar victory wasn’t going to happen in 2023 for KAMAZ-Master.

Instead, the 15-day, 8500km marathon through the dunes and mountains of Saudi Arabia became a battle between Czech and Dutch drivers at the wheel of 1000-horsepower T5 class Iveco, Tatra and Praga race trucks.

In the end Iveco prevailed, sweeping the top four places and achieving its third Dakar victory.

Overall victory was claimed by Dutch driver Janus van Kasteren 78 | Truck & Driver

Jr, driving an Iveco Power Star for the Boss Machinery De Rooy team.

It was a tactical drive from van Kasteren, who took suffered some early rally technical issues, losing nearly an hour on Stage 4 with transmission problems which dropped him to fifth.

His fightback saw him take the lead following the tenth of the 14 stages. It had been a changing leader board up till that point with a trio of Czech drivers - Martin Macik (MM Technology Iveco Powerstar), Ales Loprais (Praga V4S) and Jaroslav Valtr (Buggyra Tatra Phoenix) – each taking a turn in the rally lead.

Once at the head of the field van Kasteren built a commanding lead by winning stage 12 and controlled the rally over the final two stages to win by a margin of 1h 14m 34s over Macik.

Sharing the winning number 502 Iveco were navigator Marcel Snijders and mechanic Darik Rodewald. It was the first Dakar win for van Kasteren and Snijders while Rodewald had won the 2012 and 2016 with Gerard de Rooy, Martin van den Brink (Netherlands) was over an hour further back in another De Rooy Iveco and his son Mitchel van den Brink (Iveco Powerstar) finished fourth and also became the youngest special winner in the truck category in stage 6, The Buggyra team was always near the top of the leader board and completed the top-six in its Tatra racers, with fifth going to Jaroslav Valtr and sixth to Martin Soltys (Tatra 815).

Above: The Tatra Phoenix of Czech driver Jaroslav Valtr finished behind the Iveco teams in fifth place.

Right: Winner Janus van Kasteren (centre) with team-mates Mitchel (left) and Martin van den Brink.

Right bottom: The Parga of Ales Loprais led the rally but had to retire after an accident which claimed the life of a spectator.

Czech driver Ales Loprais driving for the Praga team had looked like a strong contender for victory.

But he had to retire ahead of stage 10 due to his involvement in an accident that claimed the life of an Italian spectator.

The truck category was remarkably competitive with the 14 stages producing eight different stage winners.

This years’ Dakar started from the shores of the Red Sea on December 31 and looped east and then south-east across Saudi Arabia. Early drama included heavy rainstorms which saw stages cancelled for motorcycle and quad competitors.

After a mid-rally rest day in Riyadh the final stages were held in the vast expanse of dunes in the Eastern Province, or Empty Quarter region, to finish along the beach in Dammam on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula on January 15.

54 trucks started the Dakar with 22 classified as finishers. Rally organisers again raised the level of difficulty for the fourth Dakar to run in Saudi Arabia. The route - of which an estimated 70% was new for 2023 - included close to 5,000 km of special stages packed into the 14 stages, ending with a four-day foray into the ocean of dunes of the Empty Quarter and a “Marathon” stage where the crews and rally trucks had to compete without assistance from support crews. T&D Truck & Driver | 79

TRUCK SHOP

VARTA GOES THE DISTANCE

F

ONTERRA SAYS FOUR YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WITH THE latest Varta battery technology is delivering bottom-line savings and benefitting the environment.

Fonterra’s 500-plus truck and trailer tanker units collect milk from almost 9500 farms each day. The trucks operate 24/7 and, at peak times are making 3000 journeys a day, clocking up about 96 million kilometres on the road annually.

Many of the trucks travel 250,000km a year, much of it on unsealed rural roads.

Like other fleet operators around the world, Fonterra has found the demands on truck batteries have increased as the amount of onboard electronic equipment continues to grow. Its tankers are equipped with sophisticated electronics which control everything from driver and engine management, the pickup schedule and mapping, through to onboard sampling and measuring of the milk collected at each site.

The batteries also need to be robust as the trucks often travel on unsealed roads, and are empty about 55% of the time – meaning there is no weight onboard to steady up the suspension and the vehicles are susceptible to a lot of movement. Sharp shocks under these conditions have been measured at up to 9G in the battery box.

Then there are environmental considerations. Fonterra’s end-oflife batteries are collected for recycling, but the co-op believes it is important they last as long as possible to minimize the number of units that are replaced each year.

Prior to 2010, Fonterra’s truck batteries typically only lasted 3-6 months. Over the past decade, VARTA owner Clarios has worked with the co-op and HCB on a series of trials that have seen average battery life across the fleet increase significantly.

In 2019 Fonterra became the first customer in Australasia – and one of the first in the world – to trial VARTA’s new top-of-the-line ProMotive AGM (A1) heavy commercial vehicle battery.

The ProMotive AGM was initially trialled in three Fonterra tankers.

One of the three battery pairs was removed and torn down after six months. It was found to be performing on par with a brand-new battery, with no degradation.

A second pair was pulled out and torn down in August 2020 after the truck had travelled 280,000km. While it was showing some signs of wear and tear, the degradation was less than expected and the batteries were still operating at 95% capacity.

The third pair was removed in February 2022, 31 months after being installed in a truck that had travelled about 800,000km

80 | Truck & Driver

during that time.

Following those impressive early results, Fonterra now has ProMotive AGMs installed in most its fleet of mainly Volvo trucks.

“The success of our relationship with HCB is demonstrated by the fact we’ve moved from consuming more than 1400 batteries in a season for a smaller fleet to only 507,” says Guy Cooper, Fonterra’s National Parts and Warranty Manager.

“We’ve gone from replacing batteries in a truck up to three times a year to now only needing to do it every second or third year. That’s amazing progress.”

Fonterra has now influenced Volvo to fit the AGM battery on new trucks.

“With the assistance of Clarios and our other partners, the trucks being delivered to us this year will have the AGM battery fitted by the Volvo Wacol plant in Brisbane, which is good news for us,” Guy says.

Fonterra will continue working with its partners to reduce the number of batteries the co-op uses as it strives for even better efficiencies and a smaller carbon footprint.

“We’re keen to work alongside HCB, Clarios and Varta to utilise whatever battery technology is going to come along. Because even when we move to alternative fuels, there’s still going to be a need for that type of battery in all vehicles.”

HCB has been New Zealand’s battery specialist for over 30 years and is part of the Bapcor group of companies, the sole distributor for Varta batteries in Australasia. T&D Varta’s ProMotive AGM (A1) heavy commercial vehicle battery is proving itself in Fonterra’s tanker fleet.

Still earning after all these years

FEATURE

Soon to turn 40 years old, the Mack Super Liner of Kevin Twiss is still hard at work around the Canterbury region.

y t r o F g n i r a Ro

Story: Brian Cowan Photos: Gerald Shacklock and Supplied

ASK CHRISTCHURCH OPERATOR KEVIN TWISS HOW MANY kilometres his 1983 R-Model Mack Super-Liner has behind it and he shrugs.

“It’s nowhere as busy as it used to be...but nor am I. I’d hate to think the distance it has done since I bought it, much less what it has covered overall,” says Kevin.

“A dozen experts could work it out and make an estimate, but I don’t think anybody would ever know for certain. Twenty years ago, somebody guessed at over three million, so it has to be up there in the four to five million range.”

What isn’t in question is the fact the near 40-year-old Mack is still in regular work, and the 16-litre E9 V8 engine still has the original block...though, unexpectedly, has had a couple of new piston and sleeve sets fitted. But the crankshaft is original and has never been ground.

“We put crank bearing shells in every 600,000-700,000km and new injectors about every million and a bit. The last time we did the shells we fitted plus one thou, so it is starting to show its age a bit.”

Kevin has owned the Super-Liner for 30 years. New, in 1983, it was the 685th R- or FR-Model Mack to roll off the Palmerston CKD assembly operation of MTD (Motor Truck Distributors), a facility that

had been set up a decade earlier.

The truck’s early life was in logging, decked out in the black and yellow colours of G & A Phipps in Tokoroa, before moving on to similar work (and still in the Central North Island) for P & E Phillips and Vercoe Transport. At Vercoes the colour scheme was changed to a dark blue.

Its logging years were put behind it when the Mack was bought

by J Kidd in Whangarei and it was set us as a curtainsider B-train, contracted to NZ Direct. During this time the colour scheme changed to a red and subsequently to the primarily white livery it has today.

When Kevin bought the truck in 1992, he was impressed by the cleanness of the design and, apart from adding his company name to the door, has left it largely unchanged.

At the time he had been contracted for several years to the Ministry of Works (MoW), shifting heavy equipment around the South Island, and the work was ramping up, he explains: “I needed a big-power unit for transporter duties and with its standard 440hp rating the V8 Mack was as powerful as anything around at the time. Our prime mover before buying the Super-Liner was a Mitsubishi, but it was struggling with the heaviest loads, so when the Mack came up for sale, I knew it was what I needed.

Truck & Driver | 81

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“It cost me a bomb. My old man said I was mad, reckoned I could have got half a dozen T-Lines for that money. My answer was, ‘I don’t want half a dozen T-Lines, I want the Mack.’

“At the same time, I commissioned a brand new `three rows of four’ transporter trailer from Hydrawide and also bought several older transporter trailers from the MoW. Anything that needed moving – diggers, graders, rollers, excavators and the like – we carted, and continued to do so as the Ministry went through several operational and name changes before being sold to Opus International and Downers around 2000.”

One of the largest loads the Super-Liner regularly hauled was a French-designed Benoto drilling rig, which had been used for subterranean strata sampling during the investigation phase of the Upper Waitaki power scheme in the 1960s and 1970s and had earlier been involved in highway bridge piling work. During much of the time Kevin and the Super-Liner were carting it the rig was at work obtaining core samples along the eastern boundary of the Southern Alps.

The Benoto’s design was based on a weighted circular steel casing that was driven into the ground by rotating it. It was a heavy brute, Kevin recalls: “Complete with its peripherals, it went at 136t, which meant we were around 157t on the road.”

The remote locations where the Benoto was being used meant the regular shifts as it made its way down the South Island involved carting it down one side of a river system, crossing at a highway bridge, then heading back up the other side into the high country and the next site.

Kevin reckons they did “around 40” such shifts: “You wouldn’t believe the places we lugged that thing in and out of. Some of them you’d think twice about taking a Land Rover. At the peak I was doing massive mileages for the Ministry.”

Above: Kevin Twiss estimates the Super Liner has travelled between four and five million kilometres.

Below: Forty-year-old cab is a marked contrast to modern trucks.

Truck & Driver | 83

W O P P C C In In 84 | Truck & Driver

Facing page: Occasionally it swaps the low loader (below) for more conventional tanker unit work (above).

Right: Unusual load includes a rail inspection vehicle.

Right below: Brand new, and strutting its stuff in the forests, Note the pancake air cleaner intakes, straight ends to exhaust pipes.

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TD32694

Kevin also has been associated with Wattie’s for the best part of 40 years, shifting their harvesters from field to field during the season and carting them to and from workshops for maintenance and repair.

Strong though the stock V8 was, the addition of a military-spec camshaft has boosted output significantly.

In addition, the standard from new AirResearch turbo has been replaced by a Borg Warner system as used in the CAT C-15. This produces a phenomenal amount of air, with a 25% jump in boost pressure, says Kevin.

“After we fitted it, it blew the tubes on the stock intercooler, so Andy from Heat Exchanger Services fabricated a new one using the same header tank and mounting brackets, and also re-cored the radiator. The job was done a year or so back and has made a heck of a difference. The more powerful turbo system has allowed Mack expert Neil Paintin to back the fuel off by around 20% for a more efficient and economical burn.

“One thing with the Mack V8 that some people had trouble with was that the huge torque caused the block to twist as the engine ran through its power band. This could lead to oil leaks through the seal for the timing case cover. The fix ended up being a sealant from Hino that was

Kevin loading a container.

flexible enough to handle the movement without cracking.

“The truck is currently running a factory-new 12-speed transmission, fitted in 2021. Even though it was new, Neil took it apart and used an angle grinder on the leading edges of the dogs to make for a smoother engagement. There’s not a 12-speeder in the country to match it. We’ve had experienced Mack operators from around the country try the truck out and they cannot believe how nice the shifts are.”

The death of the old, original gearbox was quite dramatic, he recalls: “I was on my way north to Lyttelton with a 60t dump truck on board. Around Oamaru, at around one in the morning, the gearbox began to scream. I rang Neil, and when he answered, said ‘Have a listen to this,’ and put my cell phone on the floor of the cab. After four or five kilometres I picked it up and asked, ‘What do you think of that?’

His reply was instant: ‘Whatever you do don’t put your foot on the clutch. Just work the revs and crash the shifts.’

“We eventually made it to Lyttelton, with the pilot vehicle drivers clearing the way. To be honest, it wasn’t too bad, the pneumatic ratio splitter helped a lot when we were going through towns.

“When we pulled the gearbox out it virtually fell apart. The front of the casing was cactus, the bearing and its housing were wrecked, the input shaft must have been making figure-eights! Neil was right, if I’d tried using the clutch the whole lot would have gone.

“On another occasion we blew the front diff moving the Benoto out of the Bannockburn Gorge. I was out of hours, so I was in the pilot vehicle and one of the Ministry of Works guys was driving the truck.

He tried for a half gear on an upslope, and it overloaded the diff, which went. We rang Neil and he advised us to pull the axles and engage the

A long association with Wattie’s sees the Super-Liner regularly shifting harvesters.

86 | Truck & Driver

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IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. BUT IT’S CLOSE. do big things. technicians & APPRENTICES WANTED.

power divider between the diffs, so we could drive on the back diff alone.

“The power divider shaft is not at all large in diameter and I was uncertain how it would handle the strain. But. with a Ministry grader pushing and a local operator with an 8x4 pulling we got it up out of the gorge, then drove – very carefully – all the way to Port Chalmers, where the Benoto and its trailer were loaded onto a ship.

“We had another low loader trailer in Dunedin, a three-axle, and before we headed back to Christchurch a Mainfreight operator asked us could we take a glass container up for Smith & Smith. This was duly loaded and lashed down and off we set, making it all the way back home, still with the single diff.

“Somehow, the story got into an American trucking magazine and was seen by the people at Mack headquarters, who were deeply impressed. A month later, after we had ordered a new diff from MTD and fitted it I went to pay the invoice for the part and found that the amount had been credited. Mack US reckoned the story had resulted in so much good publicity it was worth dozens of free diffs!”

Another Super-Liner was in the Twiss line-up for three years from around 2007. It was subsequently leased to Buller Contracting and ran in their blue colours for several years before being sold to Dave Carr. The interesting fact about this truck, says Kevin, is that it was the next one off the Palmerston North line after the current one: “They have sequential chassis numbers. This was the last one built in 1983 and it was the first for 1984.”

While acknowledging that both he and the old Mack are doing less these days, Kevin doesn’t see it being pensioned off any time soon. “There is still plenty of work around for it to do, and it’s still a delight to drive,” he says. T&D

Above: Boats were as often a cargo as land-based equipment.

Below: Brothers together, late 2000s. The blue truck is distinguished by winged bonnet ornament, single exhaust.

Bottom: Buildings, too, were very much on the Super-Liner’s job description.

Truck & Driver | 89

TD33194

Queen St, Pahiatua Ph: 06 376 0020 Contact: Trevor: Mob 0274 437 968 Email: trevor@jacksonenterprises.co.nz www.jacksonenterprises.co.nz

National Road Carriers

Driving new resolutions for transport in 2023

By Justin Tighe-Umbers, CEO, National Road Carriers Association

TD33194

A

S WE PUT 2022 BEHIND US THERE IS CONFIDENCE New Zealand has moved on from COVID-19 and its restrictions.

But the pandemic hangover remains as we battle high inflation, talent shortages, rising costs and supply chain issues.

Moving into 2023, NRC has three priorities: 1. Helping members run their business’ effectively 2. Continuing to deliver and strengthen our commercial partner offering Elections and ensuring transport infrastructure investment is front of mind with decision-makers First and foremost, NRC’s role is to ensure our members, and the wider trucking industry are able to run sustainable, profitable businesses. We work to achieve this by advocating with authorities to ensure the regulatory and physical environment members operate in is both workable and safe, and by providing support and tools to help members run their business more efficiently.

Our unique NRC Cost Model Tool can help any size transport business predict their annual cost for up to 12 months ahead. Cost modelling helps you understand the true operating costs of your business. It is a powerful business management tool that can inform capital expenditure decisions, calculate vehicle emissions, and carbon offsets. This tool is available to members for free, and to non-members for a modest fee.

Fluctuating fuel prices are an ongoing source of angst for most operators. NRC believes the use of Fuel Adjustment Factor (FAF) gives transport operators the ability to manage fuel variations proactively with clients. FAF is calculated from the average pump price determined by an independent source from data over the previous 24 hours and is calculated at the end of the month for the following month. By using NRC’s FAF calculator operators can easily determine the correct applicable fuel adjustment – FAF takes the guesswork out of managing fuel costs and importantly has a positive impact on the bottom line.

Secondly, the NRC team is focused on identifying and maintaining commercial partnerships that directly benefit our members. NRC

Justin Tighe-Umbers

membership delivers instant access to exclusive NRC fuel discounts, IT procurement, communications, insurance, and a range of other services. Members can choose the benefits that best meet their business needs, and access significant cost savings.

We are continuously looking to enhance our member offer and we are pleased to be able to confirm Carter’s Tyre Service has recently come on board as the newest NRC commercial partner. Carter’s are a nationwide tyre sales and service provider specialising in B2B fleet management across all tyre applications. Our partnership with Carter’s provides members with the maximum product discount, discounted services, partnership perks and more.

As we head into an election year NRC is determined to make sure roading and infrastructure is a hot topic for our future Government, whoever that may be. We are resolute in our advocacy for a better road funding framework so that the roads ultimately work for our members and other road users. First and foremost, this means that when road users pay for roading, the money collected gets spent on roading, and not syphoned away for other political imperatives. We are preparing for an alternative fuel future and working to lay the groundwork for sensible policy making that will support the transport industry as it transitions to a lower carbon footprint.

It’s crowded out there at the moment, with lots of ideas in competition with policy makers who are trying to work out what to prioritise. Climate change is competing with safer roads and the desire to modal shift.

Simply put, we believe goods need to be delivered to businesses and consumers efficiently and affordably to keep the economy running. This will allow New Zealand to make the money it needs to take action on the issues that matter, make changes, and get ready for the future.

Our message to Government and policy makers is don’t lose sight of the basics, getting them right will allow us to invest in a more sustainable New Zealand that delivers to the needs of its citizens. T&D Truck & Driver | 91

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It’s political...

WHAT THE POLITICIANS THINK ABOUT TRUCKING THE NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING INDUSTRY FACES many challenges – many of them influenced by Government policy.

Apart from the many problems currently created by the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s the ongoing driver shortage, the worsening state of the nation’s roading network and looming emissions reduction legislation…

So, who among our political parties offers any

salvation for the industry in these situations?

To have some insight into what politicians are thinking about issues impacting the road transport industry, NZ Truck & Driver has offered each of the major political parties the opportunity to voice their views on trucking matters each month.

As election year looms the National and ACT parties share their views on the transport industry in 2023. T&D

FIVE YEARS OF MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

By Simeon Brown, National Party Spokesman for Transport and Public Service.

Simeon Brown

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I START THIS COLUMN BY WISHING YOU ALL THE BEST FOR 2023.

The transport sector had a tough 2022. Covid ravaged Kiwi businesses, put more strain on schedules and rosters, and increased costs across the board.

If the impacts of Covid weren’t enough, there have also been other blows to transport last year such as increasing fuel costs, and massive driver shortages.

As election year dawns, it’s important to acknowledge the difficulties of 2022 but also look forward to how we can better make New Zealand the best little country to live in.

As the Transport spokesperson for National, I am looking forward to the 2023 election and the opportunity to talk about the key issues facing our transport sector and the role that a future National Government could play to help fix them.

New Zealand is a great country to live in, but we could be doing so much better. The last five years have been five years of missed opportunities, and our country is going backwards.

It is my hope that the election this year will focus people’s minds onto what they want out of transport.

Whether it is the driver shortage, getting transport policy back focussed on investing in our roads, or about ensuring that Government policy is focussed on better roads, not slower roads, these are some of the key issues that I look forward to talking

about through this year.

Kiwis are sick and tired of the potholes peppering our roads, and want to see safer roads not slower roads. Labour needs to properly fix the roads rather than just imposing blanket speed limit reductions on communities that don’t want them.

We want to see efficient connections within cities and between regions. Our country is short of almost 1,000 bus drivers[1] and at least 8,000 freight vehicle drivers.[2] Hundreds of thousands of bus trips have been cancelled this year, such as the 270,000 in Auckland.[3] If people are going to take public transport seriously and do their bit for the environment, then public transport must prove itself to be reliable. But it can’t do that if the Government doesn’t allow more workers into the country.

Kiwis also deserve better infrastructure and that means better maintaining of what we’ve currently got, but also building new projects. The cost of building materials is going up and project costs are inflating across the board. It will be a challenge for any potential Government to get budgets and timeframes back on track for the $8.7 billion New Zealand Upgrade Programme, but Kiwis deserve nothing less.

I look forward to getting out and about our towns and communities to listen to people’s concerns and hopes for transport this election. T&D Truck & Driver | 93

It’s political...

LOWER SPEED LIMITS REDUCE PRODUCTIVITY

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By Simon Court, ACT Party spokesperson on transport ACT REVEALED IN OCTOBER THAT THE GOVERNMENT HAS SPENT close to $45m on reviewing speed limits. There’s now an open question about whether New Zealand’s roads have more orange cones or more potholes.

It seems that Labour’s solution for any sort of roading issue is to spend your money reducing the speed limits instead of actually fixing the roads.

Lowering speed limits causes immense frustration for motorists and reduces productivity. Businesses that rely on freight suffer massively.

Kiwi motorists are currently getting the worst of both worlds, roads are being slowed down but they’re not exactly being fixed up. Instead of looking at opportunities to improve the efficiency of the road network, Labour is slowing the movement of freight and people.

Drivers on the Napier to Taupo road are delayed by endless road works. Some sections are reduced to a single lane following slips in 2021. The hazards caused by loose sealing chip means speeds are restricted to 50kph on another section.

On State Highway 2 at Bay View, Waka Kotahi state “Due to pavement deficiencies in this area, there is a lane diversion with a 30km/h temporary speed limit in place. These works will be in place until further notice.”

As if potholes, broken windscreens, and road cones are not enough to reduce efficiency, Waka Kotahi recently applied a blanket reduction in the speed limit from 100kph to 80kph over a long section of this 141-kilometre journey. Waka Kotahi is only just getting started.

Seven times the length of New Zealand, the distance of Wellington to Mexico has been under review for speed limit reductions in the past few years.

Documents obtained by ACT under the Official Information Act show that Waka Kotahi didn’t even perform any costbenefit analysis when dropping the speed limits from 100kph to 80kph in Hawke’s Bay. It doesn’t need to be this way. The Waikato Expressway is a great example of a road that supports a thriving economy and healthy communities - safe, efficient and with a 110kph speed environment.

ACT supports moves to lower the road toll – but that comes from better roading infrastructure, not slowing people down, causing frustration and putting further restrictions on businesses who have quite frankly put up with enough under this Government.

94 | Truck & Driver

Simon Court

T Increasing the level of private sector funding will inject much-needed discipline into decision-making while allowing the Government to maintain prudent levels of public debt.

Between 2007 and 2017, more than NZ$300bn was raised by funds globally to invest in infrastructure. Most of that capital was raised from insurance companies, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds (including our own New Zealand Super Fund) looking for long-term investments with reasonable returns.

Getting places faster shouldn’t be impossible, in fact it should be the priority in a modern and developed society.

With a desire to improve our roading network and a plan to increase investment it can be reality. T&D

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New Zealand Heavy Haulage Association

Check compliance for over height loads

OP Ltd

By Jonathan Bhana-Thomson – chief executive, New Zealand Heavy Haulage Association

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RANSPORT OPERATORS MOVING LOADS THAT ARE IN excess of 4.3m height are deemed over height loads according to transport law, and must follow the requirements in the Vehicle Dimension and Mass Rule (VDAM) for these loads.

The compliance requirements for overheight loads are there for good reason, and include protection of overhead infrastructures such as bridges, and overhead cables for electricity and communications. Indeed, no driver wants to leave the yard in the morning and then to find that they have hit an overhead obstruction, as the costs are often significant, and the delays for other road users often mean that the incident gets reported in the media.

So, what are the requirements for overheight loads? The responsibility in VDAM is on the transport operator to ensure that any load in excess of the 4.3m normal legal height of a load/vehicle

TD32203

AND S BAY

Jonathan Bhana-Thomson

complies with the process that includes assessment of the route, notification to regulatory authorities if required and gaining then approval.

If your load/vehicle is more than 4.3m height and up to 5.0m above ground, then you need to check for clearance to any overhead obstruction for that load. This includes undertaking a route check, and only if there are wires in this height range then you need to seek an approval from the owner of those cables. If there are structures in this height range, then if the load is unable to travel underneath it with safe clearance, then an alternative route needs to be found.

If your load is in excess of 5.0m in height then there are a number of requirements: • An overheight approval from each of the overhead line owners that you are passing through – this includes power line owners such as Vector and Powerco, and communications companies such as Chorus and any UFB providers • You need an overdimension permit from NZTA. Even if you are not over width or long, you still need a permit from NZTA if you are over 5.0m in height. Note that there will be piloting requirements for these loads.

• A rail permit from KiwiRail if you exceed their height requirements for any level crossings you are travelling over.

• A transporter with a deck height of less than 1.3m is required to be used.

In addition in this height range, a check needs to be undertaken to ensure that there are no low bridges on the proposed route, and also in some locations there will be other low infrastructure such as overhead traffic signals that need to be managed.

For any loads in excess of 6.5m then in addition to the above, then engineering analysis of the load needs to be provided.

However it with the loads that are up to 5.0m that many of the bridge strikes and other issues occur, and the onus is on those operators and drivers to ensure that the load is not accidentally overheight – for example, loaded in such a way so that it exceeds the normal travelling height for that load or piece of machinery.

If this is a risk for your operation, then please put in place procedures to ensure that drivers do check the height of loads, and that they know the height of overhead restrictions in the area of operation – or for the specific area, if travelling outside of the normal drivers area. The investment in device to measure heights is good insurance – such as a height measuring pole.

There are significant potential risks for overheight loads, but by following the various regulatory requirements, and putting in place good company practices and procedures, then these can be managed successfully. T&D Truck & Driver | 97

Parkwood Products of Whanganui is distributing its finished doors, frames and louvre products in this new Hino 700. The 8x4 FY3248 model has a Euro 6-spec 480hp engine with retarder brake and a 16-speed TraXon AMT. Load share twin steer front axles and rear air suspension and inter-axle differential cross locks are fitted. The 8.2m, 16-pallet curtainsider body with full length mezzanine floor was built by Fruehauf NZ in Feilding.

Fuso leads the way again FUSO HAS SECURED THE NUMBER ONE POSITION IN New Zealand’s new truck market for the second year running, following on from ending Isuzu’s 21-year leadership run in 2021.

Data for 2022 also confirms a new record for new truck sales (with a GVM above 4.5 tonnes) with 5987 registrations for the full year. The market is up by 15.3% compared to 2021 (5190 registrations) and the 2022 total betters the previous record year in 2019 which saw 5314 registrations.

The new trailer market continues to track behind record volumes. The 2022 total registrations of 1400 units is down from the 1447 total achieved in 2021 and is 18.3% behind the all-time best of 1714 achieved in 2018.

Fuso not only topped the truck market but has also grown its market share during 2022. Closing the year with 199 registrations during November and December takes the Fuso registration total to 1249 units (a 22.4% increase year-on-year) and its full-year market share climbs from 19.6% to 20.9%.

Isuzu (1117 full year/208 Nov-Dec) retains second place and 18.7% of the market while Hino and Scania continue to third and fourth place respectively in the 2022 market. Hino’s end of year numbers of 945 (full year) and 155 (Nov-Dec) are well ahead of Scania (512/87). Both brands grew sales last year with Hino’s total 19% ahead of 2021 and Scania up by 14.5%.

Iveco (357/91) holds fifth position ahead of UD (294/55), Mercedes-Benz (276/41), Foton (250/27), Kenworth (226/20), and Volvo (187/37).

Fuso, Hino, Iveco, UD and Foton have all gained market share in the past year while Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Kenworth lost share during 2021.

Scania’s share of the total market remained unchanged at 8.6%.

In the crossover 3.5-4.5t GVM market segment, long-time sector leader Fiat (434/73) remains dominant. Posting 73 registrations in November/ December sees Fiat claim 43.8% of the market. Mercedes-Benz (181/96) is way back….and in turn holds a huge margin over Volkswagen (76/16) and Chevrolet (74/15).

The 4.5-7.5t GVM sector is Fuso’s (604/93) strongest performing

segment. It holds 32.5% market share ahead of Isuzu (371/72). Iveco (235/73) ranks third, followed by Hino (182/28) and Mercedes-Benz (172/26).

In the 7.5-15t segment, Isuzu (433/81) is the clear market leader, well ahead of Hino (300/47) and Fuso (249/42).

Hino (120/17) clearly leads the 15-20.5t division ahead of FUSO (69/13) in second. UD (60/11), Scania (29/3), Isuzu (25/2) and Iveco (24/3) are next.

The 20.5-23t category continues to represent a tiny slice of the market. A strong finish to the year sees Fuso (16/8) leap ahead of Hino (13/0) to take the top spot and Sinotruk (4/1) is third.

In the premium 23t-maximum GVM segment, 2560 new registrations during 2022 is ahead of last year’s total registrations of 2171 and also slightly ahead of the highest previous yearly total of 2515 set in 2018.

Scania (483/84) is enjoying three years of sales leadership and 18.9% market share but the rest of the rankings are significantly changed compared to 2021.

Hino (330/63) climbs from third into second while Fuso (311/43) also moves up a spot into third. Fourth ranked Isuzu (287/53) climbs two spots while Kenworth (226/20) slips from second to fifth. UD (222/42) is up two spots into sixth, Volvo (176/33) down two and DAF (145/17) down one comparing to their 2021 rankings. Mercedes-Benz (88/14) and MAN (85/20) complete the top-10.

In the trailer market Patchell achieves its 13th consecutive year as number one with 146 sales and a 10.4% market share during 2022.

Fruehauf (135/23) is second ahead of Roadmaster (110/17) and Domett (99/7).

TMC (81/17) were busy in Nov-Dec moving into fifth position ahead of Transport Trailers (78/9) and M.T.E (76/3). Transfleet (51/10), Freighter (41/8) and Fairfax (38/7) all retain their positions to round out the top-10. T&D Truck & Driver | 99

4501kg-max GVM Brand FUSO ISUZU HINO SCANIA IVECO UD MERCEDES-BENZ FOTON KENWORTH VOLVO DAF MAN HYUNDAI SINOTRUK VOLKSWAGEN MACK FREIGHTLINER INTERNATIONAL SHACMAN FIAT WESTERN STAR RAM PEUGEOT JAC DENNIS EAGLE Total

Vol 1172 1025 885 481 309 274 258 241 224 175 145 94 65 49 48 26 22 20 20 20 13 6 2 2 2 5578

2022

% 21.0 18.4 15.9 8.6 5.5 4.9 4.6 4.3 4.0 3.1 2.6 1.7 1.2 0.9 0.9 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 100

3501-4500kg GVM Brand FIAT MERCEDES-BENZ VOLKSWAGEN CHEVROLET FORD RAM IVECO RENAULT LDV PEUGEOT TOYOTA Total

Vol 411 136 71 70 59 53 31 27 15 12 1 886

2022

% 46.4 15.3 8.0 7.9 6.7 6.0 3.5 3.0 1.7 1.4 0.1 100

4501-7500kg GVM Brand FUSO ISUZU IVECO HINO MERCEDES-BENZ FOTON HYUNDAI VOLKSWAGEN FIAT RAM PEUGEOT JAC Total 100 | Truck & Driver

Vol 571 344 193 175 164 148 52 48 20 6 2 2 1725

2022

% 33.1 19.9 11.2 10.1 9.5 8.6 3.0 2.8 1.2 0.3 0.1 0.1 100.0

Nov 22 Vol % 122 20.2 116 19.2 95 15.7 56 9.3 43 7.1 35 5.8 23 3.8 18 3.0 3.0 18 25 4.1 11 1.8 14 2.3 4 0.7 6 1.0 2 0.3 5 0.8 2 0.3 1 0.2 2 0.3 5 0.8 2 0.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 0.0 0 0 0.0 605 100

Nov 22 Vol % 50 33.8 51 34.5 11 7.4 11 7.4 11 7.4 5 3.4 5 3.4 3 2.0 1 0.7 0 0.0 0 0.0 148 100

Nov 22 Vol % 60 30.9 45 23.2 31 16.0 21 10.8 18 9.3 9 4.6 3 1.5 2 1.0 5 2.6 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 194 100

23,001kg-max GVM

Avery Bros from Westport have taken delivery of a new Kenworth T610SAR 760mm midroof 6x4 tractor unit which will multi-task as a tipulator, tanker and transporter. Power comes from a Cummins X15 with 615hp and 2050 lb ft of torque matched to an Eaton RTLO22918B, MT23-168GP rear axles and Airglide 460 rear suspension. Meritor disc brakes and a Kentweld bumper are fitted.

Brand SCANIA HINO FUSO ISUZU KENWORTH UD VOLVO DAF MERCEDES-BENZ MAN IVECO SINOTRUK MACK FREIGHTLINER INTERNATIONAL SHACMAN WESTERN STAR DENNIS EAGLE Total

Vol 454 307 298 255 224 208 166 139 78 77 54 44 26 22 20 16 13 2 2403

2022

% 18.9 12.8 12.4 10.6 9.3 8.7 6.9 5.8 3.2 3.2 2.2 1.8 1.1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.5 0.1 100

Trailers 7501-15,000kg GVM Brand ISUZU HINO FUSO FOTON IVECO HYUNDAI UD VOLVO MERCEDES-BENZ MAN DAF Total

Vol 400 279 229 93 39 13 11 6 4 4 1 1079

2022

% 37.1 25.9 21.2 8.6 3.6 1.2 11.0 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.1 100

Nov 22 Vol % 49 43.0 26 22.8 22 19.3 9 7.9 4 3.5 1 0.9 1 0.9 0.9 1 0 0.0 0.9 1 0 0.0 114 100

15,001-20,500kg GVM Brand HINO FUSO UD SCANIA ISUZU IVECO MAN MERCEDES-BENZ DAF SHACMAN SINOTRUK Total

Vol 111 63 55 27 24 22 13 12 5 2 2 336

2022

% 33.0 18.8 16.4 8.0 7.1 6.5 3.9 3.6 1.5 0.6 0.6 100

Nov 22 Vol % 8 29.6 7 25.9 6 22.2 1 3.7 1 3.7 1 3.7 1 3.7 1 3.7 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 3.7 27 100

20,501-23,000kg GVM Brand HINO FUSO SINOTRUK VOLVO ISUZU IVECO Total

Vol 13 11 3 3 2 1 33

2022

Nov 22 % Vol % 39.4 0.0 33.3 3 75.0 9.1 0.0 9.1 1 25.0 6.1 0.0 3.0 0.0 100 4 100

Vol Brand PATCHELL 138 FRUEHAUF 122 ROADMASTER 107 94 DOMETT TRANSPORT TRAILERS 76 75 TMC M.T.E. 74 TRANSFLEET 48 39 FREIGHTER 34 FAIRFAX TES 29 CWS 29 28 JACKSON MTC EQUIPMENT 27 HAMMAR 23 MAXICUBE 22 TANKER ENGINEERING 17 KRAFT 16 16 LUSK EVANS 14 12 MD ENGINEERING MILLS-TUI 12 TIDD 12 PTE 10 MAKARANUI 9 SEC 9 LOWES 8 7 WARREN LILLEY 7 STEELBRO 6 SDC 6 LOHR 6 TEO 6 COWAN 6 WHITE 5 5 KOROMIKO 5 ADAMS & CURRIE 5 MJ CUSTOMS COX ENGINEERING 5 MODERN TRANSPORT 3 OTHER 142 Total 1314

2022

Nov 22 Vol % 55 20.7 40 15.0 30 11.3 21 7.9 18 6.8 28 10.5 23 8.6 11 4.1 4 1.5 12 4.5 7 2.6 5 1.9 5 1.9 2 0.8 1 0.4 2 0.8 2 0.8 0 0.0 266 100

Nov 22 % Vol % 10.5 12 8.9 10 9.3 7.4 8.1 14 10.4 7.2 4.4 6 5.8 7 5.2 5.7 8.1 11 5.6 1 0.7 3.7 7 5.2 3.0 4.4 6 2.6 3.0 4 2.2 3 2.2 2.2 3 2.2 2.1 1.5 2 2.1 4 3.0 1.8 1 0.7 1.7 5 3.7 1.3 1 0.7 1.2 1 0.7 1.2 2 1.5 1.1 1 0.7 0.9 0.0 0.9 1 0.7 0.9 2 1.5 0.8 1.5 2 0.7 0.0 0.7 1 0.7 0.6 0.0 0.5 1 0.7 0.5 2 1.5 0.5 0.0 0.5 0.0 0.5 0.5 1 0.7 0.5 3 2.2 0.4 0.0 0.4 0.0 0.4 0.0 0.4 0.0 0.4 0.0 0.2 0.0 10.8 21 15.6 100 135 100

Bushett Contracting at Waipukurau have a new Mack Trident 6x4 Day Cab carting aggregate around the Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa regions.

A 535hp MP8 13-litre engine and mDrive 12-speed transmission drive to a Meritor 46-160 rear end on Primaax air suspension. Offset front rims, painted tanks and graphics by Caulfield Signs add to the immaculate appearance. The Trident is working with a 5-axle Transport & General trailer.

Eight-year comparison – overall market (4501kg-max GVM)

Brand

2022 Volume % FUSO 1249 20.9 ISUZU 1117 18.7 HINO 945 15.8 SCANIA 512 8.6 IVECO 357 6.0 MERCEDES-BENZ 276 4.6 KENWORTH 226 3.8 UD 294 4.9 DAF 151 2.5 VOLVO 187 3.1 FOTON 250 4.2 HYUNDAI 76 1.3 MAN 102 1.7 SINOTRUK 53 0.9 FREIGHTLINER 23 0.4 VOLKSWAGEN 52 0.9 FIAT 21 0.4 MACK 27 0.5 INTERNATIONAL 22 0.4 SHACMAN 22 0.4 WESTERN STAR 13 0.2 RAM 6 0.1 RENAULT 0 0.0 JAC 2 0.0 CATERPILLAR 0 0.0 OTHERS 4 0.1

2021 Volume % 1020 19.7 981 18.9 793 15.3 447 8.6 308 5.9 275 5.3 231 4.5 200 3.9 180 3.5 178 3.4 173 3.3 77 1.5 71 1.4 48 0.9 44 0.8 43 0.8 33 0.6 28 0.5 25 0.5 20 0.4 12 0.2 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

2020 Volume % 622 15.20 978 24.00 555 13.60 287 7.00 292 7.20 250 6.10 158 3.90 143 3.50 156 3.80 224 5.50 84 2.10 34 0.80 63 1.50 51 1.20 34 0.80 50 1.20 21 0.50 38 0.90 27 0.70 0 0.00 6 0.10 4 0.10 0 0.00 1 0.00 0 0.00 4 0.00

2019 Volume % 794 14.94 1261 23.73 711 13.38 239 4.50 294 5.53 389 7.32 265 4.99 260 4.89 239 4.50 297 5.59 81 1.52 43 0.81 108 2.03 107 2.01 54 1.02 40 0.75 18 0.34 60 1.13 27 0.51 0 0.00 14 0.26 6 0.11 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 7 0.13

2018 Volume % 829 16.05 1197 23.18 707 13.69 167 3.23 252 4.88 387 7.49 310 6.00 271 5.25 279 5.40 274 5.31 53 1.03 24 0.46 113 2.19 37 0.72 74 1.43 3 0.06 35 0.68 65 1.26 24 0.46 0 0.00 22 0.43 23 0.45 1 0.02 2 0.04

Total

5190

4082

5314

5164

5987

15

0.29

2017 Volume % 955 18.33 1262 24.23 661 12.69 168 3.23 246 4.72 331 6.35 229 4.40 267 5.13 253 4.86 294 5.64 13 0.25 32 0.61 161 3.09 31 0.60 70 1.34 8 0.15 37 0.71 62 1.19 25 0.48 0 0.00 25 0.48 50 0.96 1 0.02 1 27 5209

Lost share from 2021

Increased share from 2021

0.02 0.52

2016 Volume % 414 10.18 1218 29.96 639 15.72 131 3.22 184 4.53 171 4.21 153 3.76 247 6.07 198 4.87 203 4.99 18 0.44 49 1.21 137 3.37 5 0.12 87 2.14 14 0.34 28 0.69 55 1.35 21 0.52 0 0.00 24 0.59 29 0.71 5 0.12 4 0.10 14 0.34 18 0.44

2015 Volume % 680 15.81 1071 24.90 659 15.32 159 3.70 113 2.63 220 5.11 184 4.28 261 6.07 201 4.67 228 5.30 18 0.42 17 0.40 150 3.49 117 5 29 73 20 0 33

2.72 0.12 0.67 1.70 0.46 0.00 0.77

30 3 8 23

0.70 0.07 0.19 0.53

4066

4302

No change in share from 2021

Eight-year comparison – 23,001kg-max GVM

Brand

2022 Volume % SCANIA 483 18.9 VOLVO 176 6.9 ISUZU 287 11.2 KENWORTH 226 8.8 HINO 330 12.9 FUSO 311 12.1 DAF 145 5.7 MERCEDES-BENZ 88 3.4 UD 222 8.7 IVECO 56 2.2 MAN 85 3.3 SINOTRUK 47 1.8 MACK 27 1.1 FREIGHTLINER 23 0.9 INTERNATIONAL 22 0.9 WESTERN STAR 13 0.5 SHACMAN 16 0.6 CATERPILLAR 0 0.0 RENAULT 0 0.0 OTHER 3 0.1

2021 Volume % 414 19.1 174 8 174 8 231 10.6 220 10.1 212 9.8 172 7.9 110 5.1 143 6.6 92 4.2 57 2.6 47 2.2 28 1.3 41 1.9 24 1.1 12 0.6 20 0.9 0 0 0 0 0 0

2020 Volume % 270 14.9 224 12.4 212 11.7 158 8.7 155 8.5 147 8.1 142 7.8 134 7.4 100 5.5 66 3.6 52 2.9 48 2.6 38 2.1 33 1.8 27 1.5 6 0.3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.1

2019 Volume % 216 8.8 293 11.9 346 14 265 10.8 221 9 175 7.1 224 9.1 156 6.3 141 5.7 76 3.1 97 3.9 95 3.9 60 2.4 54 2.2 27 1.1 14 0.6 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0.1

2018 Volume % 147 5.84 273 10.85 392 15.59 310 12.33 257 10.22 214 8.51 272 10.82 120 4.77 143 5.69 72 2.86 92 3.66 32 1.27 65 2.58 74 2.94 24 0.95 22 0.87 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 6 0.24

2017 Volume % 152 6.73 292 12.94 365 16.17 229 10.15 202 8.95 187 8.29 241 10.68 85 3.77 94 4.16 78 3.46 124 5.49 25 1.11 62 2.75 69 3.06 25 1.11 23 1.02 0 0.00 1 0.04 0 0.00 3 0.13

2016 Volume % 115 6.38 202 11.20 340 18.86 153 8.49 196 10.87 98 5.44 189 10.48 50 2.77 99 5.49 50 2.77 103 5.71 5 0.28 55 3.05 87 4.83 20 1.11 24 1.33 0 0.00 14 0.78 3 0.17 0.00

2015 Volume % 141 6.83 228 11.05 329 15.94 183 8.87 213 10.32 135 6.54 197 9.54 75 3.63 115 5.57 39 1.89 121 5.86

Total

2171

1813

2464

2515

2257

1803

2064

2560

73 116 20 33 0 8 28 10

3.54 5.62 0.97 1.60 0.00 0.39 1.36 0.48

Truck & Driver | 101

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The distinctive green colours of A.J. Tutill & Sons have been applied to a pair of new FUSO Shogun FS2540 8x4s. The Euro 6 spec 11-litre engine develops 400hp and the Shogun rides on the standard air suspension. Tutill Carriers uses the trucks for general freight around the Auckland region, mainly delivering building products to sites. Both trucks are fitted with 9.6-metre flat deck bodies built by Boss Motorbodies in East Tamaki and the painting was done by Auckland Truck Spray in Penrose.

TD32948

A Kenworth T410 SAR is a new addition to the J Swap Contractors fleet based in Mt Maunganui and driven by James Ramsden. Fitted with Transport & General alloy tip bins and trailer, the Kenworth is the latest J Swap unit to carry signage for Rural Support. Powered by a Euro 5 Paccar MX13 engine producing 510hp, the T410 SAR runs an Eaton RTLO 20918B 18-speed manual transmission, Meritor MFS 7.2t front axle and Meritor 46-160 rear axles with full cross locks. Airglide 400 rear suspension, twin tanks and twin exhaust pipes are fitted along with ISRI leather seats.

The first new Mack Anthem in Higgins Concrete colours is a cement tanker operating from the Palmerston North depot and working around the lower North Island. The 8x4 tractor unit is powered by the 535hp MP8 13-litre engine with 12-speed mDrive transmission and Meritor 46-160 rear axles with Primaax air suspension. A King Bars Texan bumper is fitted with Roklume driving lights and the blower unit was fitted by Skookum Technologies.

Truck & Driver | 103

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TD33142

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A new Scania R 540 B6x4HZ with a Domett drop side tipper and 5-axle trailer has gone to work for A.T. Cook Contracting from Atiamuri. The R model does agricultural work around the BOP region and is powered by a 540hp Euro 6 Scania DC13 with a 12-speed Scania Opticruise GRSO905R AMT and 3500 retarder. A Scania RB735 hub reduction rear end, spring suspension front and rear, disc brakes with ABS/EBS are fitted. Extras include a fridge, Durabright alloys and CTI. Signwriting

by Caulfield Signs, Rotorua.

TD33142

E

NZ Moving and Storage has two new Lower Hutt-based DAF CFs working nationwide in NZ Van Lines livery. The 4x2 sleeper cab units are driven by Graeme Clapp and Joseph Hirini and become the second and third Euro 6 DAFs in the NZ Van Lines fleet. The 410hp MX-13 engine and ZF TraXon 12-speed AMT drive to a DAF SR1347 rear axle with 2.40:1 ratio. Other features include 8-bag air suspension and full disc brakes with EBS, ABS, ESC, DTC and ACB. Extras include alloy wheels, seat covers, grill lights, hands free phone with steering wheel controls, touchscreen audio, air conditioning and Safety Package with lane departure, active cruise with braking, trailer response management and driver’s air bag. The exterior includes factory fitted fifth wheel and guards, alloy chassis covers and a roof kit with cab side extenders.

Radial Imports at East Tamaki now has an emissionsfree fleet with a new FUSO eCanter carting tyres in the Auckland region. Harris Nimo is driving the full-electric 135kW/290Nm eCanter equipped with Automatic Emergency Braking System, Lane Departure Warning and Electronic Stability Control. Radial Imports fleet is now 100% electric with director Sam Robinson also running a Tesla Model 3.

Truck & Driver | 105

The first of two new MAN TGS 35.540 8x4s has gone to work for Kumar Holdings of Hamilton on a North Island NZ Post contract. The TGS Day Cab is equipped with Penske built 16-pallet NZ Post spec curtainsider body with Zepro tail lift. The 540hp D26 six-cylinder is matched to an MAN 12 28 OD gearbox with Retarder 35 and the truck is equipped with HYD 1370 hypoid rear axle, rear ECAS air suspension and MAN BrakeMatic disc brakes. Alloy wheels, front Kelsa bar and Narva LED light bar are fitted.

Haddock Spray Painters in Whakatane painted the truck.

Allan Moore from Rotorua’s T.W. Moore has put a Scania R 650 B6x4HA bulk alloy tipper with new T&G alloy bathtub to work carting pumice, fert and general bulk goods around the central North Island. The 650hp Euro 6 Scania DC13 is teamed with the Opticruise GRSO926R 12-speed AMT with 4100D retarder and Scania RB735 hub reduction rear end.

ABD/EBS disc brakes, AEB Emergency braking and ACC Adaptive cruise control are standard. Options include V8 leather trim, fridge, Durabright alloys, CTI, and toolboxes.

Caulfield Signs completed the sign writing.

106 | Truck & Driver

A K200 2.8m Aerodyne is the first new Kenworth for Steve and Rochelle Hoko who founded Taupo Landscape Supplies in 2016. The custom-built K200 operates in both Islands with a Cummins X15 600.615hp engine and Eaton RTLO 20918 18-speed Roadranger transmission. Kenworth load share front suspension and Air glide 460 rear suspension are specified along with Meritor 46-160 rear axles with full X-locks. Features include painted fuel tanks and air intakes, a king single bunk, leather seats, stainless drop visor, fuel tank trims and front wheel arch trims, twin 6-inch exhaust side pipes, offset Durabright front rims and 10 grill bars.

The third Scania to join the Hog Haulage fleet is a new R 620 A8x4NA fitted with Scania DC16 16-litre 620hp V8 and Scania Opticruise GRS0905R 12-speed AMT with 4100D retarder. Equipped with a Scania RB662 Hypoid rear end, the R 620 has spring front suspension front and air suspension rear axle with EBS/ABS, AEB emergency braking and ACC adaptive cruise control. Extras include drop visor and Euro style stone guard, LED marker lamps and stainless work, fridge, bunk sleeper cab and Alcoa Durabrights. A factory set up fifth wheel and locally fitted slider combine with a new Road Master super quad for nationwide general freight work.

Signs done by TCC.

Tranzport Solutions in Palmerston North has the first of two new Kenworth’s for its new leasing business. The T610 6x4 Day Cab units have the 550hp Cummins X15 Euro 5 engine and Eaton FO-20E318A-MXP Ultrashift 18-speed AMT. Other features include Meritor MT21-165GP rear axle with 4.10:1 ratio, Kenworth AG400 8 bag air suspension and Meritor drum brakes with EBSS, ABS, and DTC. Southpac Trucks fitted the Holland slider fifth wheel and guards along with alloy chassis covers and tool box. Extras include Durabright alloys, extra grill lights, hands-free phone with steering wheel controls, touchscreen radio, air conditioning, centre console, roof kit and cab side extenders.

Truck & Driver | 107

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Mills-Tui A4 Advert 2022-09.indd 1

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