Summer

Safety alert issued for cardan shaft parking brakes

Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency has issued a safety alert for owners and drivers of vehicles fitted with cardan shaft parking brakes.

The safety alert aims to raise awareness of the limitations of the brake mechanism, including the potential risks of parking on slopes.

Cardan shaft parking brakes (also known as driveshaft park brakes) are fitted to many small to medium trucks and a small number of passenger service vehicles. They differ from ‘normal’ parking brake systems by preventing the vehicle’s driveshaft from turning rather than directly preventing the rear wheels turning.

Four incidents involving cardan shaft brakes in New Zealand have resulted in fatalities over the past decade, including brakes fitted to road vehicles as well as off-road equipment.

A previous technical bulletin issued by WorkSafe in 2018 provided information for vehicle operators on the safe use of these brake systems and how they can fail. The Waka Kotahi safety alert provides further detail to advise owners and operators on how the brakes are designed, and what precautions to take when using them.

“Owners and drivers of vehicles with cardan shaft park brakes need to understand the brake’s designs and their limitations,” says acting director of land transport, Neil Cook.

The brake’s design means the vehicle may roll away when parked on a slope, especially if the load is changing or if the vehicle is parked on an unstable surface. Cook said drivers should avoid parking on slopes or use wheel chocks when parked on a slope and when the vehicle is jacked.

“In addition, drivers should be aware that the parkbrake lever may require more force than they are used to, especially if they don’t drive a vehicle with this type of park brake regularly. More force may also be required when the vehicle is fully laden.”

The brakes need to be serviced regularly to maintain performance.

“Owners also need to make sure that any person driving their vehicle knows it is fitted with a cardan shaft park brake and what the limitations of the brakes are.”

A more rigorous in-service check of the brakes’ performance using a roller brake machine test during sixmonthly certificate of fitness (CoF) inspections is expected to be introduced for most classes of vehicles with cardan shaft parking brakes from 1 October 2022.

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RAPID

ADVANCEMENT

Being in the right place at the right time, having the right attitude and being prepared to take the right risks can lead to considerable growth for a transport business. Keeping everything on track during that time comes with challenges, but Mike Fale’s journey shows just how this can be done.

Story photos and video by Carl Kirkbeck and Gavin Myers Archive photos: Fale collection

PART I BEDFORD STREET BEGINNINGS

Sitting around the lunchroom table with Mike Fale of MC Fale Transport, we ask how it all started. Mike explains with a beaming smile and a glint in the eye. “Well, that would be my brother and myself on a Sunday afternoon growing up on Bedford Street in Patea in the late 1970s… I would have been about eight years old. I don’t know how we came to do it, but we used to sit out the front of the house and listen to the stock trucks heading to and from the Patea Freezing Works (the glory days before its unfortunate closure – Ed).

“We used to take turns covering our eyes, then guess what make of truck was coming up the hill. I think back quite fondly to those days now. As kids, it was trucks, school, athletics and amateur boxing. The world was far simpler in those days. You wouldn’t see a hi-vis vest back then!” laughs Mike.

Diesel in the DNA

“It is funny; I sort of always felt I had diesel in the veins – like I was born to do it. My grandfather Ward Fale had a small trucking company as he was a distributor of Chevron Fuels at Moses Creek, situated in central Washington state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. He had between three and five trucks, a couple of bigger ones as well, delivering to the growers in the area.”

Unfortunately, Mike never got the opportunity to see his grandad’s fleet. His uncles Pat and Glen both did stints driving for Ward. “It’s funny, out of all my cousins and siblings, I was the one who had the diesel in the veins, no one else.”

Mike started working parttime while in his teens at Eric Darrah’s yard in Stratford, helping in the workshop and “mucking around driving the spreaders”.

“Stan Davidson was a senior driver at the time. Stan would arrive back in the yard and get me to back his Kenworth into the bins so I could learn how to reverse. It was great grounding,” Mike recalls.

When Mike turned 18, Eric was kind enough to let him use the company’s International Paystar to do his truck and trailer HT test. “I did it all in one go. The cop was a real good bugger. He asked me if I could back up the truck and trailer, and I was straight up and said, ‘Sort of. It is still a work in progress.’

“He said, ‘You’re a good honest young man. I tell you what; I will do you a bit of a favour. We will pop around and use the entrance into the racecourse. It has a nice big apron and will make it a bit easier for you.’ As we drove there, I remember telling him that it was a real pig of a trailer to reverse and that the big steering wheel made it a bit harder, trying to make all the excuses under the sun. Anyway, we backed it in first go. He signed me off and wished me good luck with my career. Job done.”

Gentle kickoff

In about 2001, Mike was driving a tanker for Kiwi Dairies on farm collections. “It’s funny. I always seem to have had something to do with dairy farms and the rural sector, whether picking up milk, doing hay bales or contracting. I’ve always liked trucks and machinery as well as being outdoors, so they go hand in hand, really.”

Meeting Sonia, his wife and partner, solidified that connection. Sonia has strong ties to the Central Taranaki farming community, herself being raised on the family farm on the outskirts of Stratford.

“When we got together, we eventually went to live on and manage Sonia’s family farm. We progressed from there to 25%, 50/50 sharemilking and then a lease agreement, which we still do. But I could not do it without at least some diesel in my life. So, I purchased a mower for the tractor and did as much as I could on the farm.

“Operating machinery of any kind was always of interest to me. The tractor work allowed me to make up for what I lost with the trucks – fair to say, farm life was not going to work for me without some diesel in among it somewhere.”

As external contracting increased, the need for a transporter eventually arose. Mike stumbled across an ex-Halls ‘gumboot’ Scania T142 for sale. It was perfect for his needs. A small low loader was teamed up with the Scania, and Mike was trucking again. He did his fair share of milking in the cowshed with some contracting on the side,

The ‘gumboot’ later as Mike had it on low-loader duty. “I absolutely loved that truck,” says Mike.

but life in the shed was not for him, and left him feeling as though he was being held back from his passion.

About five years ago a decision was made to purchase an older 400hp Isuzu tipper for the farm. It was ideal for spreading metal on the races as well as collecting palm kernel but most important of all, it gave Mike time behind the wheel again.

“All that was good, but what I had not considered was other farmers in our community had seen what I could do and began to call me to collect and deliver product for them. MC Fale Transport really started with that one old Isuzu.”

Broadened horizons

One day, Mike was asked if he could do a few loads for Nutrinza Animal Nutrients. “Well, I did one and then two and then four and then eight and then 16… It was fast reaching the point where it was taking up most of my day, so Sonia and I made a plan to employ extra help on the farm, freeing me up to run the truck,” Mike explains.

“This extra work was the catalyst that led us to the first new truck – a Freightliner Coronado bought through Trevor McCallum of Prestige Commercial Vehicles in Christchurch (now CablePrice). Trevor truly went above and beyond with that purchase and helped us immensely. I ran that for a while, and all was going well. Then I got a call from Nutrinza managing director Warren Morritt, who asked if we would take on extra workload. I said no, as I would not be able to keep up with demand, and he said, ‘Well, best you get some more [trucks] then.’

“It was a big step for us. We had the two units running for a long time, looking after our own clients as well as the bulk store transfers, so things were already busy. On top of this, Nutrinza was growing its business output and gaining more market share. This meant the two trucks were now struggling to keep up with demand.”

As time went by, looking to take that next step, Mike contacted Ballance Agri Nutrients to secure some extra work. At that time, the Ballance transport model was structured to only deal with larger operators, so it recommended Mike subcontract to a larger firm. “That was not on the cards for us. If you have to rely on someone else to delegate the work to you regularly, you must have a guaranteed formula that works for both parties, or you really are just grabbing the leftovers. And at that level, you might as well not be doing the job at all as there is no money in that type of work from where we are based in Stratford.

“At the end of the day, you have to make a profit. Some jobs might be a bit of a favour, but it cannot be like that across the board because you are just not going to be successful. I mean, it’s hard enough to operate a small business in New Zealand as it is,” Mike says.

Evolving opportunities

Contracts with Ballance Agri Nutrients come up for review every three years, so in 2020, Mike had another go.

“Man, those contracts are

Left: Mike with the International Paystar that got him his HT licence. Right: A stint behind the wheel for Glen Oroua before moving onto the farm.

extensive. I thought I needed a degree or something to decipher it all. I got some outside help to assist me,” Mike says with a laugh.

“It was well worth the effort as we were given a few stores – not a great deal of work, but certainly enough to take our business to that next level and link us up with other cartage options around the North Island and get us going without swamping us. Ballance Agri has been very supportive of this, and it’s very much a work-in-progress relationship, which we appreciate greatly.”

Mike explains that the new curtainsider Arocs was “a calculated risk”. “I believed that the work was there and that the tipping curtainsider combination was the unit for the task. So we put it on the road with the right man behind the wheel and it is now proving its worth, so much so that we are fielding calls from other organisations with possible backloads for us. The word is getting around.”

All this growth in just five years was certainly a bit of a whirlwind for Mike. “It’s been a bit dangerous as well, the level of investment that’s been required, but that’s where good working relationships come in. Tim Bennett and Mathew Richards at UDC have been a massive help to us. You do have to be careful as growth can hurt you. It must be done right, and you need the right advice around you.”

Mike leans heavily on technology to help the dayto-day. “I have been using MyTrucking for five years now and working with Ballance we have now integrated M2X, its chosen platform/booking system. With MyTrucking linking up to EROAD, I can look at the big picture and make on-the-spot decisions. We are operating at a fairly high level now. The extra effort spent training yourself, learning how to utilise the systems correctly, really does allow you to manage your business more effectively.

“We’re getting to that size of about five trucks now where we can manipulate it. But that’s the hard bit.”

The path forward

The growth also meant Mike had to broaden his skillset and move from being a driver to being a dispatcher and manager. It’s just him in the office, with a support channel to call on if needed. “I can now see why drivers jump out of the cab to go and step into the despatch office, then two weeks later they are running out the door, jumping back into the cab again. I sure could have done that a few times myself. But you learn some hard lessons and you learn some good lessons.”

While Mike has sometimes done relief driving, he’s found it’s not good for the business. He’ll manage the pallets in the warehouse and if he gets a chance, deliver them with the company’s Hino 500 curtainsider.

“I feel staff are everything in a business. They are an investment, and I’ve concentrated on that,” he says. “We have had to find what works for everyone and have a good mix of local and out-of-town work, so plenty of variety. The drivers naturally want to be home

with family, so we try to keep it a Monday-to-Friday operation and try our best to get them finished early on Friday. But they know we’re running a business, and in Stratford, we sit between two main centres, so we have quite hard competition. Sometimes things must be done, but generally, we leave the guys alone on the weekends,” he says.

“The guys like fact that I’ve been a driver and shifted into despatch and ownership. I have an idea of how long things take to do and I know what hold-ups are about. Understanding the coalface, the pressures of driving and the state of the roads in this country – we’ve got stress no question, but 60 hours in five days, that’s enough. We’re finding that sweet spot.”

On that note, Mike acknowledges his drivers who have stuck with him. “We wouldn’t be operating at this level without them. They’re extremely good with the farmers and client relationships, and the local farmers in Taranaki support us very well. There’s always been a rule that if our guys are invited onto a client’s site that we are sub-contracted into, there is no trying to pinch their work from underneath them. I don’t believe in that style of business. You can’t be everyone’s friend in business, but you’ve got to have other like-minded businesses in the same game also,” says Mike.

“I’m pretty confident we’re doing it right. The speed bumps along the way are normal and are characterbuilding, but it’s all about how you react, who’s backing you, and who is in it for the long haul.” A s you might imagine, we love getting into the cab of a truck, and the man behind the wheel says: “I’ve been collecting New Zealand Trucking since I was about 12 years old.” It was no surprise then that 35-year-old John Langlands always had a desire to get behind the wheel and go truckin’.

“I had an obsession with trucks since I was little – anything with an engine, actually. I did other things, but as the years went by, I wanted to drive trucks more and more,” he begins.

Born in Hawera and raised in Bell Block, John started his working life at 17-and-a-half on a dairy farm near Okaiawa. “Maybe that’s where the diesel influence came in, I was on the little Fergie 35 around the age of 12. Lucky for me, that was still the tail end of the era before things turned soft. Kids could get out and make stuff and climb trees and do things without the government coming out with its measuring stick,” he quips.

On the farm, John did everything down to artificially inseminating the cows, which is probably enough to nudge anyone with diesel in their veins to get into the driver’s seat more permanently. So off he went contracting and driving tractors for a while before finding an ‘in’ with Taranaki’s Jackson Transport.

“A good friend suggested I apply for a yarding position at Jacksons and start there, washing and loading the trucks, that sort of thing. I gave it a go and I did almost three years with them. They put me through my classes to full truck and trailer. To be honest, I dragged my heels with the trailer licence, but once I got it I thought, ‘Shit, I should’ve gone for it sooner.’

“So I went from a yarding contract to a driving contract, and I thank Jacksons for giving me a start and a chance. I probably started by being thrown into the deepend for someone with little driving experience.”

With three young boys at home – Tyson (8), Brax (6) and Felix (18 months) – there was a clear need for a better work/life balance and the opportunity to join MC Fale Transport provided just that. “I actually missed out the first time Mike advertised for a driver. I put my CV in too late. The second time, my wife gave me a boot up the arse and sent in my CV for me,” John says with a laugh.

“When I went for the interview, Mike didn’t try to paint a pretty picture. We go hard Monday to Friday, sure. But he tries to set up Fridays so we’re back in the yard reasonably early to give the trucks a wash. And that’s it. Weekends are really only needed if it’s a necessity to keep everything rolling for the next week. In the year I’ve worked with Mike, I think I’ve worked just four weekends.

“So, with a young family, the balance works mint,” he says.

Adding to that balance is that John is one of the few truck-driving fathers fortunate enough to be able to take his kids out in the truck with him.

“Tyson is on the low end of the autism spectrum. He’s really intelligent and onto shit. He’s truck-mad and has been with me a few times. Brax came for his first ride about six months ago, and he absolutely loved it. Any chance they get to go for a ride, they love it. They’ve got the wave going on. They know other truckies are saying ‘hello’ when they flash their lights. Felix, haha, he was up at 4.30 this morning, at my knee with the biggest grin on, ready to go to work with me,” John says with a laugh.

“They’re full throttle, real boys, three of them… Oh, mate, they love anything with wheels. They’ll sit on the roadside and watch the trucks.

“Tyson goes to bed with my New Zaeland Trucking magazines and has a read. He’s real into it.”

Like father like son(s)… We love it!

John Langlands: truckie, family man and all-round affable bloke.

GIVING IT A GO

PART 2

A TRUCK FOR THE FUTURE

It’s been a fair while since New Zealand Trucking jumped aboard the latest generation of products with the three-pointed star in the grille. Yes, in April this year, we featured six of them, but that was entirely an exercise to explore Daimler Truck’s MirrorCam technology as thoroughly and fairly as possible. In fact, the last time we featured one in-depth was in the

July 2019 issue, when we hopped aboard Carr & Haslam’s Arocs 3246 10-car transporter.

That was less than six months before the latest iteration of the Actros (MP5) and heavy-duty Arocs models were shown to New Zealand and almost a full Covid-delayed year before they officially hit the road. And with it all came the introduction of MirrorCam, the MultiMedia Cockpit, and a suite of advanced electronic safety systems. We’d have a lot to get to grips with during our time with the MC Fale team and with one mirrored Arocs 3258, and one mirrorless Arocs 3258 in the fleet lined up to run a similar route, there could be no better opportunity…

But that’s all to come. What about the Daimler group of trucks suits Mike’s business? Except for a DAF CF530, the MC Fale fleet has embraced Freightliner, Fuso and Mercedes-Benz.

“There are a few reasons for that,” Mike begins, explaining the model lineage. “We had a Freightliner Coronado, which was a bit limited capacity-wise. We do a lot of ‘light’ bulky stuff, such as DDGs [Dried

Distiller Grains], and we weren’t getting the loads in. So that was replaced with the first Arocs, which has run great. We also had an older Mitsubishi Shogun FV430, which we replaced with a 2019 Fuso HD470. That was one of the last before the latest generation Shogun came out, and it’s done 300,000km now.”

Naturally, as Mike developed his plan for the new curtainsider tipper, the new Arocs was an obvious candidate as the base. But he still had an Americansized itch that needed to be scratched, which he did just a few weeks before we arrived. “Ah, the Coronado 122 out front – that’s a good, tough truck. It’ll run parttime filling in the gaps,” Mike says. Those who notice it on the road may place it as the ex-Bill Hammond unit we featured on the cover of our October 2017 issue.

“Look, the first thing I considered when buying the new trucks was bringing things together. I thought the integration between all Daimler’s models was not a bad concept. German engineering, a bit of American muscle, and Japanese technology – it works for me that we’re not too much one way or the other, and it can also ease the transition between the trucks for the drivers.

“But, we will probably get to the stage where we’re just running Mercs.”

Older, but not old

Mike had a good run lined up for us to see the new unit in action. We had a quick preview the day before as we followed the trucks out to Ballance Agri-Nutrients, Kapuni, where they loaded up with urea before parking up overnight. An early morning start would see drivers John Langlands, Iain Parker and Scott Rowland in the Fuso all head north, with Iain and Scott running together up to Te Awamutu, from where John continued to Cambridge, then onto SH1 before heading in the direction of the Kaimais for Ballance Mount Maunganui. This gave us the fortunate opportunity to experience the two Arocs in succession, so we hopped aboard with Iain first to reacquaint ourselves with the more ‘old-school’ of the two.

At first glance, there’s not much old-school about Iain’s truck. It’s all of three years old, and with 207,000km under its wheels, it’s only just getting into its stride. The furthest Iain goes in the general southerly direction is Manawatu or Te Awamutu to the north. “Mike seems to find slots that suit horses for courses,” Iain comments. “And I’m more than happy with that.”

Iain’s bathtubs were loaded with 34.5 tonnes of urea. “We try to keep it under our 54-tonne permit, leave a bit of leeway for variations between weighbridges,” he comments.

Our only experience of Iain’s 3258 under load would be the southern side of Mt Messenger. As he wound the Arocs up the dark road, it pulled steadily, dropping down to 20kph at 1600rpm in sixth at the tightest pinch. The PowerShift transmission held seventh most of the way, moving up to ninth as Iain got his speed up to about 40kph approaching the summit.

“I do flick the transmission into power mode for climbing the hills,” he remarks, “and then drop it into manual for the downhill. Auto can let the revs operate too high for me.”

You might be hard-pressed to pick Iain’s Arocs as a previous-generation model. The instrument binnacle houses four crisp gauges in two pods that flank an LCD information screen, all classily backlit in white and blue. The dash wrap houses a touchscreen infotainment system that’s perhaps a bit smaller than one might expect in a modern truck. Below are easy-to-fathom climate controls and a bank of accessory and auxiliary switches. The profile of the A-pillars viewed straight ahead is narrow, and there’s a fair gap to the side before the mirror housing. But these are big, solid mirror units, and they do seem to cast quite the blind spot.

“You have to take an extra bit more time pulling out from a junction to make sure there’s no car you’ve missed blocked by the mirror housing,” Iain says.

The big Arocs waits patiently in the Ballance Mount shed while John susses out the tipping situation.

Versatility in action

Our first opportunity to jump aboard the new Arocs with John was for his tip

at Ballance Mt Maunganui. The day after our run, Mike received the truck’s 54-tonne HPMV permit, but up to that point, John was running at 50Max. His load of urea for the Mount weighed in at 27.2 tonne, split 12 on the truck and 15.2 on the trailer. The bump in payload was a no-brainer for Mike to get full use from the unit, as it has a relatively heavy tare of 22.7 tonne, the truck coming in at 13.48 tonnes and the trailer at 9.3. By comparison, Iain’s unit weighs in at 19 tonne, split 12.7 tonne and 6.3 tonne.

Placing a set of hydraulic rams under a flat-deck curtainsider will always come with a bit of compromise, deck length compared with a conventional bathtub tipper chief among them. At full tip of 51°, the 10.5m-long trailer body will reach 10.77m into the air, the 7.4m-long truck body 8.2m, so exactly where the unit is deployed to tip needs to be taken into consideration. The Ballance shed is sizeable, to say the least, so John has no issues here tipping the trailer. He then pulls forward, uncouples the trailer and backs up the truck to the designated bin. It’s a tight fit side to side, and there’s not much room to manoeuvre the truck into position. Getting it in requires a fair amount of steering wheel twirling and transmission wand flicking – and ultimate reliance on the MirrorCams. It’s here the distance markers on the screens come into their own – with the rear end of the truck clearly marked by the bottom blue line. It’s a case of ‘easy does it’ and ‘get out and double check’, but before long, John has the bin in the air for the tip.

Before we depart, there’s

one more quirk of a tipping bulk curtainsider to be addressed, sweeping out the bits of bulk caught by the inner flaps of curtain. On the way out, John eases the big Arocs down a narrow ramp alongside an unnervingly close steel upright. Although he’s got his eyes fixed on the MirrorCam display watching the trailer, John again takes the opportunity to get out and check his clearance.

“We’ve probably got half a foot, but I don’t mind. It’s easier taking a minute instead of guessing and tearing your curtains. It would’ve been alright if I’d been in here before, but anything new I will get out and check,” he says, explaining that’s not a comment on the picture portrayed by the MirrorCam’s 15-inch screens. In fact, it matches the ambient lighting levels within the shed and remains sharp throughout.

From Ballance, John heads up the road to Contract Packaging and Storage. There, we have a demonstration of the unit in curtainsider mode. The Straitline Canvas curtains are unlatched and loosened on their ratchets and the poles are unclipped via simple thumb catches and slid to the side, before it’s all opened up to accept 26 tonnes of palleted product. The load is split 10 tonnes on the truck and 16 on trailer, bringing us in at 49 tonnes all up for the trip home.

“This unit really is awesome for versatility. We’ve done timber, bags of fert, bulk… as far out as Whangarei. It’s doing what it was designed to do, and I’m happy using it. The concept is good, the overall build is good,” John says.

Bells and whistles

In the year John has been a part of Mike’s team, he piloted the DAF for six months, the Arocs Iain’s in now for four, and by the time we’d caught up with him, he’d been in the MirrorCam Arocs for two months and 12,200km.

If the cab appointments of the older Arocs might

not initially come across as ‘previous-gen’, taking a seat in the latest iteration might be a shock to the system. Pared-back and minimalist is probably the best description of Mercedes-Benz’s MultiMedia Cockpit concept. Gone are the classy gauges and conventional switchgear we spoke of earlier, and in their place are two 12-inch customisable screens that, according to Mercedes-Benz, “present information in supercrisp detail, giving the driver more control and information in a clear and stylish manner”.

The driver’s ‘instrument’ screen presents speed and revs in two simple round gauges, with central numerical readout of speed in the speedo and gear selection in the rev counter. At the bottom of each gauge sit the fuel and DEF levels. Sharing the right-hand wheel spoke with the cruise control buttons is a touchpad with which the driver can select the information displayed in the area between the gauges.

Similarly, the left-hand wheel spoke houses audio and telephone buttons as well as a touchpad for controlling the centre touchscreen without having to lift a hand off the wheel. MercedesBenz has fitted hard buttons for temperature and volume adjustment, and shortcut buttons to call up climate control, navigation, phone and audio, as well as truck settings, information and auxiliaries such as the PTO.

“Yeah, I acclimatised pretty quickly,” says John. “But touchscreen systems

1

2

1) Looking back, the MirrorCam works pretty well. 2) A handy check button at the bottom of the key fob allows for quick and easy prestarts.

Mike whips the pallets into the warehouse during the early hours.

in general… I’d rather have the buttons. It can be a little tedious to find some functions, and you sort of have to commit to memory how to do certain things. You get used to it, it’s OK – and I haven’t been on the old one for a while, so I don’t know how I’d feel going back to it – but nothing beats oldfashioned buttons or dials where everything’s just there.”

One feature of the system John really likes is the truckspecific navigation. “You set the dimensions and weights of the unit, and it’ll give you a truer estimate of your times than normal GPS. I use it to keep track of my progress because it’s bang on. At most, something like mobile traffic lights could throw it out by around 10 minutes,” he says.

Right, so what about the big one – how does John get along with MirrorCam? “They’re awesome,” he answers almost before I can finish asking. “I was a bit hesitant, like most people would be, but I wouldn’t go back. Not when they’re so good on the motorway in peak Auckland traffic; you can see all the lanes around you, and the wide angle is great. You flick between the two [standard and wide-angle views], and you get a big picture of what’s around you. In Auckland driving especially, I’d have these over standard mirrors.”

One criticism of the system commonly noted in our April article was MirrorCam’s ability to adapt to rapidly changing light conditions. With the second generation now available in Europe, Mercedes-Benz is said to have addressed this. “Backing into a change of light is a bit of a problem, but at night you can’t fault them. They absorb all the light around, and the picture is a lot clearer than normal mirrors,” John says. “They generally stay clean, if you get a tailwind it can blow rain on them, but you’re only wiping off a tiny lens, not a full mirror. I love the cams.”

The notable difference in forward vision between Iain’s and John’s trucks is the absence of the physical mirror housing. The additional width at the A-pillar due to the placement of the screens truly is negligible once you realise how much the view is opened up with the deletion of conventional mirrors.

“I’ve come out of Inter 9800s and K200 Kenworths – the flashest thing they’ve got is a Bluetooth stereo,” John says with a laugh. “And you get out of this at the end of a 14-hour day, and you feel like you can do it again easily. One of those, and you’ll rather start again tomorrow.”

MirrorCam balances light well and gives a sharp picture in the shed.

Comfort and performance

A comfortable truck is something of an asset these days. SH3, especially, is currently in a less-thansmooth condition. John doesn’t mince his words on the topic: “You know when you get back to Taranaki. The road is bad, piss poor. But in saying that, there’s been a shitload of rain this year.”

The Arocs was spec’d with the 2.3m-wide ClassicSpace Large Cab, which is mounted on steel spring suspension. The rear suspension is a Mercedes-Benz eight-bag air system, and John gets to perch on an air-suspended driver’s seat. Suffice to say, the ride’s perhaps not quite as plush as some Euro rivals, but it ain’t bad either.

Being a ClassicSpace L-Cab means a floor-toceiling height of 1590mm and 2.3m of cab depth, allowing for a 750mm-wide bed. “The truck is awesome overnight, the bunk is comfy-as,” John comments.

The meaty bits comprise of the Mercedes-Benz OM473, a 15.6-litre Euro-6 powerplant that puts out 431kW (580hp) at 1600rpm and 2800Nm (2065lb/ft) at 1100rpm. Drive goes through the OEM’s G330 12-speed PowerShift AMT with economy, standard, power and manual modes. While the mileage covered

One delivery of 15.2 tonnes of urea.

SPECIFICATIONS

Mercedes-Benz Arocs 3258 8x4

Tare: GVM: GCM: Wheelbase:

9250kg chassis cab 32,000kg 80,000kg 5815mm

Engine: Capacity:

Mercedes-Benz OM473 15.8 litre

Power: Torque:

431kW (580hp) at 1600rpm 2800Nm (2065lb/ft) at 1100rpm Emissions: Euro-6 Transmission: Mercedes-Benz G330 12-seed AMT Clutch: Double Disc Clutch Chassis: Steel 7.53mm x 71mm x 850mm, 760mm width, heavy-duty crossmembers Front axle: Mercedes-Benz Front axle rating: 7500kg x 2 Front-suspension: Mercedes-Benz dual parabolic springs Rear axle: Mercedes-Benz hypoid 440 crown wheel, 3.583:1 Rear-axle rating: 20,000kg Rear suspension: Mercedes-Benz eight-bag air suspension Brakes: Disc brakes front and rear Auxiliary braking: Three-stage Jacobs engine brake, 480kW Additional safety: Driver’s airbag, smoke detector in cab, bi-xenon headlights, led daytime running lights, cornering lights, headlamp cleaning system, stability assist control, reverse warning beeper with hazard lights, seat belt monitor, active brake assist 5 Additional productivity: Electronic park brake, automatic park brake engagement with engine switch off, door open and 0kph

Fuel:

510 litre

DEF tank:

60 litre

Wheels: Tyres: Electrical: Cab exterior:

Cab interior:

Alcoa Durabrite alloy wheels 275/70 R22.5 24V Bumper with steel corners, chrome hub caps, nut covers & floormats, stoneguard and sunvisor, monsoons, air horn mounted on roof. ClassicSpace L-Cab 2.3m wide, comfort steel spring-cab suspension, adjustable steering column, multimedia cockpit, electric windows, air conditioning. Standard, multi-function steering wheel, comfort air suspension driver’s seat, hydraulic electric cab tilt, light and rain sensors, roof hatch, extended central locking with key, door extension, mirror cam, fridge. Illuminated Mercedes-Benz star

thus far could probably be considered negligible, the Arocs gets on well with a staunch bellow emanating from below the cab under load.

John had her sitting at 29kph in sixth at 1650rpm, climbing the Kaimais on our way into the Mount. On our way back to Stratford, the climb out of Te Kuiti was tackled at 31kph in seventh at 1750rpm, and the northern side of Mt Messenger at 35kph in eighth at 1450rpm. With a 3.583:1 rear end, the OM473 settles around 1300rpm at a steady 90kph. Currently, the Arocs is averaging 1.9km/l, which will no doubt improve as the mileage clocks up.

John comments that he’ll flick the transmission into eco mode on motorways, utilise the extra revs afforded by the power mode when climbing hills, and occasionally run it in manual if “it dicks around trying to find a gear”. Probably just the system learning…

For descending hills, the Arocs is equipped with a three-stage Jacobs engine brake that offers up 480kW of holdback. John comments that it’ll run right to 2300rpm, and he’s found it can be a touch aggressive in stage three, grabbing gears. A neat touch with the digital tacho, though, is the appearance of an orange band in the optimum part of the rev range when the Jake is activated.

The Arocs is equipped with the full suite of Daimler Truck safety equipment. That’s the safety pack inclusive of stability control assist, proximity control assist, active brake assist 5, lane keeping assist and attention assist.

John says the systems can be a little oversensitive, sometimes picking up railings and marker pegs.

TURNING UP THE HEAT

With a history steeped in product development and innovation, Russell Hotter and his Eltham-based business Hotter Engineering are no strangers to working at the sharp end of the industry. So, when the opportunity came across Russell’s desk to build a 22.88m, 80-tonne GCM tipping curtainsider nine-axle truck and trailer unit for Mike Fale, it was game on.

Hotter, a well-established general engineering company with a worldwide reputation for exporting rotary milking systems, was looking to diversify into transport engineering. It was a true opportunity to showcase its already well-honed, digitally driven production skills.

A new basket

“Transport engineering is quite new for us,” explains Russell Hotter, managing director. “We made the jump into the sector in 2018. Our game was rotary milking sheds. We were manufacturing them here in Eltham and sending them worldwide. It was Covid that screwed us – we lost our export market overnight; 90% of what we made all went overseas. We were sending a 40ft container out once a week. At one stage, we were the largest user of steel in Taranaki. When Covid hit, we had 27 platform projects on order. However, with all the global lockdowns, we only ever completed two out of 27.

“We realised before the pandemic that we had all our eggs in one basket, so we were already looking at diversifying. The opportunity to move into transport engineering arose because Bruce Nickel of Nickel Engineering just down the road in Normanby, was looking to move away from transport. Taranaki is a small place, especially South Taranaki, and I always had this unwritten rule that you do not stand on each other’s toes. Bruce was doing transport, so we didn’t go there – and vice versa, we did cowsheds, so Bruce stayed away from those. There was mutual respect; it worked really well.

“I went to see Bruce and said, ‘If you are not doing this anymore, do you mind if we do?’ and he said, ‘No, not at all – fill your boots. Good luck, it’s not as easy as it looks.’ And I have to agree with him now – currently, the margins just aren’t there, but it gave us a new direction and that was motivating.”

Pushing boundaries

On Mike’s project, Hotter Engineering worked alongside Chris Ward from TransTech Dynamics out of Dunedin. Chris was asked to jump on board and provide a design.

“We had worked with Chris before on other projects. He has an extensive knowledge of the industry and is extremely innovative with his ideas, pushing the boundaries to look for solutions,” Russell says of Chris. “I find our thinking is very similar – always looking to push the envelope in search of improvements and efficiencies.”

Russell continues: “All the years manufacturing rotary cowsheds, we were heavily involved in design and innovation, always seeking to perfect the products that we were exporting overseas by implementing

The remote for unlocking and tipping bins complements the manual controls, which are mounted behind the cab as a backup. Receiver for remote mounted behind the cab.

new technologies and procedures. Our history with the production of rotary cowsheds meant working with CAD, and 3D digital modelling was commonplace.

“What was interesting was when the 3D digital model was sent through to us from Chris, our more recently employed transport engineering staff had never really worked off a 3D digital model. They had mostly worked with basic drawings or drawings from a certifier, and that is a completely different world to a 3D model from a designer.”

At first, Russell printed off about 40 different views of the model for the fabricators to envisage exactly what they were building. But eventually, they would instead go straight to Russell to bring up the model on screen. “The ability to hide different layers of the build so that you could see how various parts interfaced with each other made it so easy to understand. The ease of point-to-point measurements removed the guesswork. The boys were just blown away by how simple it was to use.”

Efficient accuracy

Every part of Chris’ design (except the likes of bushes, etc) is formed from flat hightensile Bisalloy steel, which is laser-cut and folded, with all the parts designed to tab into each other. This greatly speeds up the fabrication time. “In effect, you could build the entire chassis of the trailer without a tape measure – that is the magic of integrated design, where all the parts come together and, by design, perfectly align and lock into one another,” Russell comments.

This meticulous approach to fabrication also plays into the hands of another area of advanced engineering. “It was back in 2000 when we invested in our first robot welder. We learnt early on that self-jigging by design was the best way forward. The robot was our best quality-control guy on the factory floor; if it welded in the wrong place, it wasn’t the robot that was wrong, it was the material that was incorrectly located. So, getting our interlocking and self-jigging designs of items that needed welding spot on was critical. This way, the part could never be fitted incorrectly and meant perfect placement and connection every time.”

The ability to use the tools and technology at hand allows the team to design and configure rapid and 3D prototyping, which quickly presents accurate answers, says Russell. “Accurate answers are where you find efficiencies.”

Russell is proud that the whole build for MC Fale Transport, including fabrication, blast and paint, assembly, hydraulics and electrics was completed in house. The build is a true example of using technology and automation within transport engineering to take accuracy, fit and finish to the next level. The trailer and body for Mike’s build are a complex design. However, using technology the way the team at Hotter Engineering has, made it extremely easy to put together.

“It literally clicked into place,” says Russell. “When the wheel-alignment contractor scanned his lasers over the unit, the most extreme misalignment on any of the axles was only 0.4°. His tolerance is 2°.”

You couldn’t ask for much more than that in a build, and it’s fair to say that the Hotter Engineering team’s fresh thinking and technologybased approach to transport engineering will definitely turn the thermostat up a notch within the industry.

Doing it right

Mike Fale and his team at MC Fale Transport illustrate how a rapidly growing fledgling business can be done right. It proves the worth in being connected to the industry they serve, understanding their clients’ needs and respecting where they’re coming from. Mike’s respect for his team and approach to managing operations show, too, that limits don’t need to be pushed to get the job done and make a success of it. And finally, his journey shows the value in having the right tool for the job – and not being afraid to take a calculated risk to create that tool, partnering with the right minds to put it on the road.

“I am from a family that did not have a lot of money. I have had to work myself up to where we are now from pretty much a standstill start,” says Mike. “There certainly have been hiccups where I’ve wondered what I’m doing. I’ll never say it’s easy, but you need to take on the pressure and look at things with an open mind.

“It gets real busy, and it can be a real headache, but there have been plenty of days also where it’s been quite a blast to achieve all the tasks; when everything’s gone right, you’ve ticked all the boxes, your clients have paid their bills, and you can have a beer on a Friday!” Mike says with a laugh.

Doing it right? We’d say so.

Taranaki’s Mt Messenger, soon to be consigned to trucking lore.

Special Thanks

Thanks to Mike and Sonia Fale, John Langlands, Iain Parker and Scott Rowland for having us along, telling us your stories, and sharing our enthusiasm for everything we needed to do to get the story.

Thanks to Russell Hotter for the insightful factory tour and your candid explanation of the trailer and body build process. You’re surely onto something!

Last but not least, thanks to Trevor McCallum at CablePrice Christchurch for your support and supplying the technical detail on the truck.

WHAT IT TAKES

Saying ‘it’s all about the journey’ in reference to a half a century in trucking seems a little too synchronous as a metaphor, yet it epitomises what it takes to succeed in one of commerce’s toughest gigs. It’s 50 years this year since Charlie and Marie Norman began their transport journey and, looking at Morrinsville-based Normans Transport and Storage today, it’s obvious they chose to learn from all their journey had to teach.

Story by Dave McCoid and the Norman family Photos by Norman family collection and as credited

Charlie is one of those characters you can tell has you pegged when you’re still 50 metres away. The searching eyes, the shake from a hand you know instantly has closed a few crate doors, twitched up a few chains, strapped and covered its share of loads. There’s a natural cynicism cloaking an obvious eye for opportunity. It’s a safeguard when you’ve seen and experienced all he has. He’s dealt with them all. It’s unnerving. You’re unsure if he sees you as value or a waste of time.

“I’m not much for putting us out there, but they tell me we should mark the occasion.”

That’s the humility always present in those of his ilk. Ironically, it’s his breed the rest of us most want to listen to. Business success always starts and ends with the doers, and Charlie and Marie have ‘done’ a hell of a lot.

The Normans Transport story for me has been an observational one. A semilocal carrier you watch – you know them, but you don’t ‘know’ them. A couple of chance meetings over the years, once while riding around with other local carriers, and then years later, driving a truck yourself. I remember them, of course – he’s Charlie Norman. Understandably, he doesn’t. It’s one of life’s truisms that you’re often unaware just how much your own life’s effort moulds the lives of people you may never meet or know. Actions speak louder than words, and dogged tenacity looks like a role model a lot of the time.

Then there are the trucks, one in particular you remember made a young boffin sit up and take notice – a Scania LB141 8x4, but a single steer and rear tri with a lazy. John Robinson Carriers from Hikutaia had one; so did Normans at Tahuna. The Normans’ one had ‘North Island Livestock Transport’ on the front of the truck crate, and, of course, to a young, truck-hungry soul, ‘North Island’ inferred distance, and distance was cool… way cool.

You watch a company grow, and grow! Admiration without connection… until now. Photo: Grant Schofield

“Not for the fainthearted”

That’s Charlie’s recollection of the formative years. Again, like their peers of the era, the ‘gods’ tested his and Marie’s resolve relentlessly early on to ensure they had what it took, hammering home some of life’s valuable lessons.

But let’s start at the actual ‘go-line’ first. When Charlie came along, parents Doug and Alice owned and farmed Slipper Island, a 2.8km2 isle roughly 8km southeast of the eastern Coromandel town of Pauanui. They later sold the island for £16,000, and talking to Charlie, you realise the entrepreneurial streak alive in him and brother John was certainly a direct generationto-generation hand-me-down.

Charlie spent his first four years on the island before, as only he could put it, “We emigrated to Whangamata.

“School was a five-mile horse ride or walk away, and wasn’t an outstanding success, to be honest. Later at Waihi College my brother John and I were asked to leave and not return. John was 15, I was 13.”

In 1965, that left correspondence as the only option that turned out to be equally unsuccessful.

“By going to Paeroa and signing onto the dole, you had a job cutting scrub by 7am the next day for about $16-$20 equivalent per week. From there, I got a job with Alf Watchorn driving a bulldozer in the native bush locally, which naturally led to driving the log truck. I didn’t have a licence, so someone who had a licence but couldn’t really drive that well would sometimes come with me.”

Eventually, destiny prevailed and employment gave way to ambition. Two things are usually required to get started in business – an alarm clock and debt. The latter is normally unavoidable to the average person, and due to its close association with sleeplessness, quite effective at negating the need for the clock.

Charlie Norman doesn’t strike you as the type who ever needs an alarm clock, but he did need debt. In 1972, he borrowed $2500, $600 of which came via the trade of his parents’ farm truck on a 1966 Commer TS3 sporting a 117hp two-stroke ‘knocker’ diesel. Its name was ‘Black Pete’.

The truck was converted to a log unit with the maiden load of export logs to Mt Maunganui from Tairua’s Pepe Valley carted for the late Don Goodrick.

The track up the Eastern flank of the Coromandel to the Mount was torturous. “I could only do one load a day, and I loaded myself sometimes at the Tairua end with a dragline equipped with a scissor attachment.

“On one trip through the Athenree Gorge, the truck broke down. Not knowing how to fix it, I started walking to Katikati. I walked into the Dear old ‘Black Pete’, Charlie’s first truck, bought to haul logs out of the Pepe Valley near Tairua on the Coromandel. Photographed here on a young Kopu-Hikuia Road.

The ex-Keveys ERF MW.

1) Tahuna Depot 1990. Whispering Breeze was back, converted to a tractor unit. Far left is an F16, a truck Charlie said had plenty of go, but suffered reliability issues at times. 2) The first F Series Volvo, an F12 Intercooler, used on cattle, packaging, and New Zealand Dairy Board work. Charlie and Marie have been great supporters of Scandinavia’s big two truck brands. 3) Scania 113m waits at the Picton warf in 1999. Photo: Craig McCauley.

local carrier, Jeffcoat and Howse – my first meeting with Trevor Jeffcoat. He told me to get in the car and we set off to fix the truck. When we got there, Trevor said, ‘go find a small tea tree stick’. He jammed it in the two-speed diff and told me to come see him when I had enough money for a replacement spring.”

After a year, the Commer was traded in on a Dodge. A truck that still wakes Charlie up at night in a cold sweat. “It was a shocking thing. Let’s not talk about that.”

As soon as he could, he traded the Dodge on a 2624 Mercedes-Benz, and it was about this time that Charlie met Marie while carting logs off her parent’s farm at Coroglen.

Two years in, the log export market dried up. Logs not already on the Mt Maunganui wharf were left to rot, and because truck payments waited for no man, the need to find work – and quickly – was imperative.

Charlie and his brother John headed for Nelson, where they’d got wind of loads of beach logs as part of a selective logging operation near Reefton.

“We were unable to rent a car because we were too young. A friend of a friend who had some influence sorted that for us.

“We picked up a job at Radiata Transport on behalf of TNL and were due to start a week later. We headed for home to get the trucks organised and make our way back. There was no time to spare.”

The work carting to the chip mill in Nelson was good and paid well. Marie and Charlie wed after eight months, at which point they bought a 24’ caravan.

For Marie, things were a little tougher at the top of the South than it was for Charlie. ‘Outsiders’ found it difficult to get work in the local area, and the only thing available was general labouring in orchards.

The contract wound to a conclusion after 16 months. “When the contract ended it was a blow,” said Charlie, “but you get used to things coming to an end over time.”

The pair left the Richmond Motorcamp after selling the Mercedes-Benz truck, packing their Chrysler Valiant and caravan with their belongings and headed back north to the farm Doug and Alice now had in Opoutere, north of Whangamata.

The funds from the sale of the 2624 were invested into a venture with Doug and John in the Far North settlement of Okaihau. Unfortunately, after three years, that proved unsuccessful, leaving the

pair with nothing but their car and caravan. They sold both to fund the purchase, as Charlie puts it, “of a worn-out, ex-Keveys MW ERF and 20’ trailer.”

“Craig Engineering in Kaikohe and I added ten-foot in the middle of the trailer, plus a third axle. This took two long nights of hard work.”

In the 1970s, road transport was heavily regulated and the railways were protected. In the cartage of general goods, road transport could not compete with rail beyond a radius of 40 miles (64km) from the road carrier’s depot. In the wake of the failed Okaihau opportunity and influenced by local carriers, the courts in the north deemed Charlie and Marie unfit to hold another Goods Service Licence in the area, and all company licences were dissolved.

“It was a stressful time. At one stage, Marie and our firstborn Sandy were living under a tarpaulin alongside a creek, while I was driving a bulldozer in the back of Whitianga crushing scrub.”

From there, Marie and Sandy moved between both sets of grandparents, while Charlie lived in the truck, looking for anything that would turn a dollar.

“I joined a couple of real characters, one being Errol Sheehan, a truck driving semi-professional wrestler, a.k.a Dr Death, who many reading this will remember. We were carting hay from around the Waikato and Auckland regions to a feedlot south of Masterton, backloading potatoes to the Auckland markets. The spuds came up in the middle of the night if you get my drift.

“I was trying to run the truck, feed the family, and save enough to buy a set of stock crates. As I got close, I went and worked for Barry Gordon at Nationwide Stock Crates, where I painted several sets of new stock crates, as well as help build my own.”

Amidst the heavy regulation, certain categories of goods were exempt, things like frozen and perishable goods, as was livestock.

An opportunity to buy several livestock transport licences covering an area that stretched from Taupo in the south to North Cape presented itself. The licence domicile was Tahuna, a tiny rural village tucked against the southern end of the Hapuakohe Range midway down the western edge of the Hauraki Plains.

“We rented a house in Tahuna and went into partnership with my brother John and his wife Margaret, carting livestock and freight for Trailways Taupo, Kawerau, and Mount Maunganui. Ross Lyttle, Peter Smaile, and Stu Braithwait were all branch managers and we developed fantastic relationships with them all.”

Carting stock from the Waikato North forged connections with Silverdalebased Neville Brothers, resulting in the cartage of livestock south, as far afield as Waitara.

“Kelvin and Stuart Neville know how to work. They weren’t scared of the dark, that’s for sure.

“We even carted cattle to aeroplanes at Auckland Airport. Yearling Hereford heifers destined for Indonesia, loading 170 head at a time in old DC8s that had thirty-foot added to the fuselage. The airline was called Flying Tiger and was based out of the US.”

Relationships with local carriers were also established with the likes of Graeme Wright General Carriers, and Wayne Hughes’ Whitikahu Transport.

“One night, Wayne and I went to load cattle out of the Herekino sale yards in the Far North. While loading Wayne’s truck, which was blocking the road, along came a chap in a car. He was tooting and screaming ‘move your f%$#ing truck’. I went over to tell him we would only be a few minutes and he poked a double-barrel sawnoff shotgun under my chin. Around about then I got very diplomatic, and set off to tell Wayne ‘we really did need to move the truck’.”

“Sink or swim”

After the test of character that was the ‘70s, the ‘80s were simply sink or swim. That was a mindset the pair had learned a lot about, one they knew how to act on. You swim…relentlessly. Sinking is never an option.

In 1980 at a cost of $97,000, the ERF gave way to a brand-new Scania LB141, the truck that would help facilitate ‘swimming’. Whispering Breeze, the machine mentioned at the top of the story, housed a Scania 375hp V8 engine, with a 10-speed synchromesh transmission tucked up behind. An 8x4 with single steer and rear tri-set, it started life with a two-deck three-deck crate set-up, progressing to a three and three when the balance sheet allowed. It didn’t have a sleeper, but neither did it need one. This was not the time in the business’ history for sleeping, with the bulk of the next 10 years spent carting cattle from the Waikato, and as far north as Whangarei, to

A typical Sunday at Strait Shipping in 2000. By now Normans Transport was a regular inter-island participant, and significant customer for the young shipping line.

the Hellaby’s freezing works in Otahuhu, or sheep to Taumarunui.

“Tahuna to Gisborne, load, back to Auckland, then home was a regular Sunday drive,” Charlie says. “I remember doing 20 back-to-back loads from Gisborne to Kereone in the Waikato one time. One a day.”

Live cattle exports were added to the list of regular missions also, with Normans hiring local carriers to lend assistance.

When ‘Gypsy Week’, the annual share milker shift in early June each year arrived on the calendar, outside trucks were also hired in. While some were again local carriers, his old friends at Trailways in Tokoroa supplied most, a reflection of wellestablished relationships and goodwill.

Charlie had the trailer behind Whispering Breeze altered to a one-front and three-rear axle set-up with the rear axle an airlift. “It made turning in places like the East Coast hill country much easier. You could lift the rear axle and it would pivot on the lead axle of the tri. The 141 was a good machine and the only reason it wasn’t replaced with a 142 was Scania’s unwillingness to trade back then.”

Dalhof and King would, so for Viking fans, the first Volvo arrived in the fleet in 1984, the legendary F12 Intercooler model with its 385hp motor and 12-speed synchromesh transmission.

“Yes, I had a sleeper cab again, at last. The F Series were good trucks. Simple trucks that were easy to fix on the side of the road if you needed. That was my first dealing with salesman Leo Radovancich.

“I’ve always said any truck is only as good as the people selling it, and Leo was tops.”

Supplementing the stock work with loads of milk powder from the Morrinsville Dairy Co-operative to Mt Maunganui became an everincreasing job towards the mid-1980s.

“Sandy had company by now too, Matthew and Corey had arrived, and Marie would come out to the yard in Tahuna at night with three sleeping kids in the back of the car and help take the crates off and wash decks.”

The freight work expanded steadily and carting empty pallets from Brimco Holdings Hamilton to various dairy companies in the Waikato, plus regular loads for Harvey Farms were also added to the roster.

“Jeff Brimley at Brimco helped our business significantly, as did Jeff Landsdown at Harvey Farms. Sadly they’ve both passed away now.”

After 13 years in the game, in 1986 the decision to sell out of livestock was taken. Driven not just by the rise of a new work profile, but also by changes in farming practices. Seasonal work that had once run for eight months in the year fell to four as beef and sheep farms gave way to dairy conversions. In a way, you could say Normans was moving to more consistent work at the other end of the dairy production supply chain.

But again, there was another storm to weather brewing just over the horizon. Charlie and Marie were approached by a local carrier to cart packaging on their behalf from Auckland to Hastings and Nelson. The Normans bought a secondhand Volvo tractor and built a brand-new B-train for the work.

“It was a three-year term that ended abruptly at the 18-month mark when the other party put a truck on himself. There was ‘no more work for Normans trucks’,” says Charlie. “I’m a handshake bloke, and that hurt us. Turnover plummeted from $70,000 per month to $20,000, and as anyone who lived through the ‘80s will remember, interest rates hovering around 26.25% had a significant impact on fixed costs. Our repayments were sitting at $11,000 per month.”

The Normans had one full-time driver who was hired out to local livestock carriers when there was no other work. In order to stay afloat, Charlie himself drove a bulldozer hired from a local farmer at times. Fourth-born Adam had also arrived, and Marie took on whatever work she could amidst the demands of a four-child household.

Although shockwaves rocked the business with the abrupt and unexpected end of the agreement, the South Island work had also served to open the door of opportunity. While carting south, Charlie was approached by the late Rob Lewis at the New Zealand

Container side-loaders. A line of work that contributed significantly to altering the business’ course in the 80s remains a key component today.

Dairy Board (NZDB) about carting casein from the Golden Bay Dairy at Takaka to the Tatua Dairy Co-operative in the Waikato. “This was the start of our relationship with Tatua,” says Charlie. “The NZDB then asked if we could cart pallets of paper bags successfully by road to Takaka. The rail had it, but damages were an issue. It was tricky stuff to cart. If it wasn’t properly secured the bags would slide and end up in a hell of state.

“I was unloading at Takaka one day and chief engineer at the time Don Harwood asked if we could cart new milk vats to Takaka, again, ‘without damaging them’. Don has passed away now also, but this was the start of the milk vat cartage that we still do today 34 years later.”

Then came something new and innovative for the company, a Lees 20’ container side-loader.

“Rob Lewis asked me about putting a side-loader on to cart containers from the Morrinsville rail to the Morrinsville factory and return. This went well and soon we picked up work at Tatua also, uplifting containers and crossing the road to the local rail siding and placing them on wagons. This was previously done by the dairy company, transporting the bags on pallets by truck to the rail siding and then hand-stacking them into the appropriate containers.”

Shortly after, along came the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy site just up the road at Waitoa, with sideloader requirements also.

Eleven kilometres of near straight road separated three NZDB sites and each was a stone’s throw from the railway.

“The side loader was a significant piece of equipment in terms of the company’s future direction.

“Some days there were 60 containers between the three, and the side-loader wasn’t like the ones of today. It was operated by hand levers on one side, and the donkey engine was on the opposite side, so you were running all day.” Charlie shakes his head. “They were bloody long days.”

Packaging work to the

In 2012, celebrating 40 years in business at Morrinsville.

South Island for the Dairy Board continued as did the casein home, and aside from the service levels Charlie was providing, that Norman innovate streak reared its head again.

“I had John Mudgeway at Dawson Engineering at Netherton build a B-train that had a lot of aluminium components. When everyone else was carting 22 tonnes, I was carting 31 tonnes legally, although I was right up to my tolerances.

“I was set up at one point. The cops were waiting for me near Nelson. They’d been tipped off, no question. They weighed and weighed, and eventually, as I drove off, they simply stood there shaking their heads.

“The guys at Takaka, in particular, loved it. They even asked me to do some loads of butter! I was reluctant, but they assured me if they froze it down hard and I doublecovered it, we’d be right. They were right – it was fine. Carted on a flatdeck under tarps. Imagine an RMP [Risk Management Programme] auditor of today seeing that,” he chuckles. “Because of this, tarping’s rapidly becoming a dying art nowadays.”

The 1980s. A decade of continued challenge and resilience testing for sure, but also one where the pair were not afraid to open the door when opportunity knocked, resulting in the shift of focus from livestock to general cartage and containerised freight.

Breathe, and full steam ahead

The 1990s were more settled… well, sort of.

“We went into it with consistent work, which always helps,” said Charlie.

The first big move in the decade was in fact… a big move, into Murray Road, on the outskirts of Morrinsville. It was situated pretty much equidistant between Morrinsville and Tatua, which was ideal, far better suited to the changing nature of the business. But there were other, very 1990s reasons also.

“Road-user charges were bought from the post office and paid for by cheque. They were bought in 1000km lots at a weight you specified for the vehicle type. The nearest post office to Tahuna was 15 minutes away in Morrinsville and Marie was making multiple trips per day at times.

“Murray Road was a

The facility at Arthur Porter Drive in Te Rapa was opened in 2014.

10-acre greenfield site and we built a workshop, a kitchen lunchroom that was shared with the drivers, an office that was in the tyre bay and a small flat above with two rooms where the family lived for eight months while a house was built.”

‘Build it and they will come’. It applies to trucking as much as any other industry or discipline. The ‘it’ in trucking is more often than not reputation, and for that reason alone Normans Transport was flat out in a post-deregulation transport world. The company had the cartage of all packaging for the NZDB South Island sites. Imbued with the ‘Never say ‘No’’ service approach of so many of his era, Charlie’s efforts on one-off jobs like a ‘red-eye’ from Tahuna to Dargaville to Edendale over a weekend (to ensure the factory had stocks of the right packaging for the coming week) had contributed in no small part to the position they now found themselves in.

Rye straw was carted out of Canterbury back to Golden Bay, and there were loads of fresh fruit ex-Otago to the Auckland markets for Fulton Hogan Central. “They were on a tight timeframe,” Charlie recalls.

Of course, for any interisland operation, the great bottleneck is the Cook Strait ferries. But they were more of an issue for Normans Transport than others. The reason was, of course, irritation within the railways over the loss of packaging work to the upstart blue and white fleet from the Waikato. As a consequence, making bookings was never an easy task.

Relief came, of course, in the form of Strait Shipping when it steamed onto the scene in 1992.

“The venture was launched by Tony Johnson, Doug Smith, Derrick Bouys, and Jim Barker to provide an alternative Cook Strait crossing,” says Charlie. “They bought a little ship called the Straitsman that had carted cattle and freight from Tasmania to its offshore islands and return. The cattle were carted below and above deck, and in heavy seas, the stock in the top pens certainly got a bath. They had the cattle ready to go from the start, but we were the first freight customer.

“They got laughed at in the beginning and battled the government, unions, and the Rail Ferry crews, but they had the guts to give it a go and persevere.

“The trouble with the Straitsman for us was the stern door at only 3.85m high. By that time we’d begun moving into curtain-side units and they wouldn’t fit. It meant we had to go cap-in-hand back to the Rail Ferries.”

There’s one Rail Ferry North to South crossing in that time Charlie recalls vividly. “There were 8.5m swells in the Strait and they couldn’t be bothered tying the unit down properly. As a result, it fell on its side and flattened a camper van. The whole mess slid across the deck three times, crashing into bulk-heads. In those days you could stay inside the truck and I was hanging on for all I was worth in the sleeper. I got out by kicking the windscreen out, only to be confronted with the deck at 38° and a giant coil of mooring rope sliding towards me. I dived back in just as it passed. The truck and B-train were buggered. It’s testament to the strength of those Scandinavian cabs…the pain it took. One of my nine lives went that day.

“Kiwi Rail didn’t even offer to bring the wreck back to the North Island, but Strait Shipping did.

“I had the B-train rebuilt at Dawson Engineering and put a new cab on the tractor. Initially, the insurance company wanted to repair it, so I told them if that was the case, I’d send them the ownership papers and they could just pay me out… it was absolutely stuffed.

“Once the Suilven arrived at Strait Shipping in 1995 we were right. At one point we were their biggest freight customer with 30 crossings per week on the inter-island work.”

In 1993, the company had built its first Dairy Boardapproved warehouse covering 1100m2, and the first office staff member was also hired to assist Marie with administration and dispatch.

Change was rampant throughout the business. Back in the Tahuna days, the closest thing Charlie and Marie had to a computer was an adding machine that printed and a calculator, both located on that key piece of small-business office equipment, the kitchen table. Once daughter Alice had arrived, the accounts was a job that commenced once all five children were tucked up in bed.

“Evidently, the staff at the Dairy Board had quite a chuckle when our handwritten accounts arrived,” smiles Charlie.

But this was now the 1990s and fax machines, an answerphone, and cell phones with batteries half the size of the suitcase and questionable service – nothing’s changed there – had arrived. There was also an accounts computer, and even a road-user charges machine.

Tech was arriving in-cab

Left: A new generation accepting the helm and a new-look livery. Right: A special R660 to celebrate half a century of endeavour.

too, and again the Normans ‘read the room’ impeccably. RTs gave way to cellphones, an essential given the size of the fleet footprint; likewise, fax machines were fitted to all South Island trucks so road users could be sent direct, and timesheets, waybills etc. back.

“One step forward, two back, two forward.”

Growing pains. The first decade of the millennium was one of huge change as the transport and storage business grew significantly.

“A large portion of the cartage in this period was focused on the South Island. It was only five years since we’d built the Murray Road warehouse, yet we’d outgrown that site. We were at 15 trucks by that stage. It was then that Marie and I purchased the site at Avenue Road in Morrinsville for the new depot and head office. We moved in there in 2001.”

The demise of the Dairy Board and arrival of its successor Fonterra in 2001 saw a logistics management cell formed and contracted to the new entity. Normans Transport and Storage chose not to join Fonterra’s logistics group, and although that resulted in downsizing for a spell, it certainly didn’t mean the end of servicing the dairy industry, or the South Island.

The Dairy Board South Island packaging work had meant Charlie crossed paths with Westland Co-op CEO Hugh Little.

Hugh had asked Charlie why their carriers couldn’t get milk powder from Hokitika to Nelson without spilling it along the road, and could he do a better job?

“I knew straight away why; I’d seen them securing it, and I’d seen where it ended up. He gave me a trial load, which I did. Then he asked me if I could stay down and carry on for a week? I rang Marie and said ‘I’ll be a bit late home’.

“We ended up carting to Christchurch over the Arthurs Pass, and back to our Morrinsville store for distribution. Hugh was someone I had great respect for.

“When the Fonterra thing happened, Tatua and Westland Dairy Co-op remained independent, so we just happily carried on.”

Over the next three to four years, the South Island work continued to grow again, considerably.

“General freight, agricultural machinery, dairy products, they were all in there,” says Charlie. “There was a real mixture. We carted wine barrels, even yacht masts and an engine shroud for a 747 amongst other freight. We went as far south as Invercargill and usually backloaded dairy product from Westland Milk Products at Rolleston.”

As a result, the fleet again expanded to 26, clawing back much of the ground lost with the Fonterra decision.

In 2002 Adam Norman joined the business sweeping the floors, helping in the workshop, and moving on to working in the warehouse. In the years following, he worked in all facets of the company, and at 37, is now the manager and a shareholder in the business.

After 15 years servicing the inter-island freight scene, the decision was made to sell that side of the business to the late Jim Barker’s Freight Lines in 2006. “Jim was a shrewd businessman, but we always got on well,” says Charlie.

“Over the years, we learned that not many carriers could be trusted to keep their word, and do a good job. There are the exceptions of course, and I’ve talked about them, but I want to mention John and Cheryl of Opzeeland Transport also. Great people that we continue to work with to this day.”

With the sale of the interisland work to Jim, the fleet again reduced back to 21 trucks but there was a plan at play. Freight Lines was building its inter-island business, and the Normans could see their Morrinsville location, in the heart of the Mt Maunganui/Hamilton/ Auckland ‘golden-triangle’, had huge potential.

They were right of course. The depot at Avenue Road developed rapidly and the company’s storage arm expanded to include four separate RMP-accredited food-grade stores covering 6000m2 .

“As the warehousing capacity increased we were able to pursue new opportunities connected to container transportation and distribution, including

our first MPI bioecurity approved transitional facility for the devanning of import containers. Both container and general transport soon required additional units, again resulting in expansion.”

Milestones, mishaps, and miracles

In 2012, Charlie and Marie celebrated 40 years in business. The fleet was assembled and there were events held to mark the occasion. Little did the family know what lay just around the corner.

“Yeah, I’ve always had a thing for logging. It goes all the way back to 1972 and the Pepe Valley days. But in March 2012 I was logging a private block of land and suffered a mishap that almost killed me. I was left with no feeling below the waist and partial paralysis. It was certainly life-changing for both myself and Marie.”

Charlie attributes the fast and professional response from driver Don Mckay, his mate Trevor Newport, the Tahuna Volunteer Fire Brigade, a local nurse, and the Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter with his survival at the scene.

“Then there’s the Emergency Department at Waikato Hospital. Without all of them, I wouldn’t be here. Myself, Marie, and the whole family are forever grateful to everyone for their help that day. Each year, we support the Tahuna Volunteer Fire Brigade and the rescue helicopter. It’s something we can give back.”

It would be fair to say setbacks were nothing new for the Norman family, neither was overcoming them. Despite the accident, the business remained full steam ahead and the decision to focus on the country’s logistical hotbed was paying off.

Avenue Road was no longer able to contain the requirement and in 2014 a brand-new 14,000m2 warehouse was opened in Te Rapa, dramatically expanding the company’s capability. The facility incorporated foodgrade storage, and a further Biosecurity transitional facility.

Avenue Road didn’t miss out on all the goodies though, gaining an additional warehouse and load-out canopy, increasing that site’s footprint by 1650m2. This addition now took facilities at the 6.5-hectare Morrinsville site to five warehouses, three loading canopies (12,000m2), a three-bay workshop, the administration complex, and parking for 35 trucks.

New buildings and additions to Avenue Road weren’t the only story in 2014. Expansion in all areas meant Marie needed help with the Food Grade Compliance required by MPI, so Alice Norman stepped in and joined the business that same year, and today sees to all the regulations and audits.

Today there are 80 staff employed across the various divisions. It’s all a long way from the humble yard at Tahuna, eons from a 2624 Mercedes-Benz and 24’ caravan in the Richmond Motorcamp ground near Nelson, and unfathomable if you hark back to a TS3 Commer called Black Pete heading for the Mount with a load of logs and a tea-tree stick jammed in the twospeed. Or is it?

Spend a couple of hours with Charlie and Marie and

The head office on Avenue Road, Morrinsville.

Marie and Charlie, all dolled up for the 50th do: the epitome of partnership, tenacity and humility, and an epic story in the history of New Zealand road transport.

what resonates the most is never, ever forget where you came from, and the toil so many both inside and outside the family have put into getting the business to where it is today.

“You must never take anything for granted,” says Charlie. “I hear people talk about being in hard times and I say, ‘I have a cure for that’. ‘Do you?’ they say. ‘Yep. Go to bed an hour later, get up an hour earlier, and get stuck in. It’s always worked for me’.”

Change. It’s the only real constant in life, and Normans Transport and Storage in 2022 is testimony to the fact that if you’ve got the right mix of ambition, energy, and malleability, then crisis, change, and opportunity often appear as one and the same. However, philosophy, culture, and principle are ours to keep just as they are – in perpetuity if we want. Build the company you want on the foundations of culture and principle you decide.

Principled flexibility. In 2022 it’s as rare as the proverbial rocking horse… Yet it’s exactly what is required to get a start-up going and have it looking like Normans Transport and Storage half a century later. The customer base today reflects the respect the Norman name has, and some have been on the ledger for more than 30 of the 50 years to date. Likewise, suppliers. Business in the Norman sphere is about the lasting principles of commercial relationships.

Charlie Norman is renowned for an uncompromising attitude to service and customers, and everyone who knows him well will tell you he’s a great bloke, with gun barrels as straight as they come. As more than one party told us in the process of gathering and chatting about this piece, “You won’t be left wondering with Charlie.” You know that from the moment you meet him, before he’s uttered a word. And in the end, isn’t that the only type of person we actually want on our contact list?

Of course, no man lives forever; many have died trying. For an enterprise such as Normans to see out the next 50 years, the big question at this juncture is always succession. Any number of great businesses, both local and overseas, have fallen on the sword of succession. In this story, that question appears wellanswered.

At 70, Charlie still works everyday either at the office, from home, or on the road in his ute. Likewise, Marie isn’t far away either, and that might be attending meetings, helping with the grandchildren, and running their 30-acre lifestyle block.

Adam’s a bit scary, to be honest. He’s tall and of slender build and as he approaches you down the hall his piercing eyes have you pegged 10m prior to shaking hands. He has time for what you are there for. Somewhere here there’s a chip off an old block, maybe?

In truth, handing on the reins takes bucket loads of humility on the part of the founders. It is, at the end of the day, the greatest measure of who they are. It is the final testament that you really didn’t forget where you came from; the same humility that fuelled Charlie’s reluctance to have the half-century marked in the magazine.

“…but they tell me we should mark the occasion,” were again, his words.

When you’ve grown something so worthwhile that’s helped put the food on not only your table, but the tables of so many households over five decades, it’s okay to cut yourself a bit of slack and celebrate with those who shared the journey and helped make it happen.

The truth is, not everyone has what it takes to grow a business, to make sacrifices albeit with the family; to put the customer first and get the job done… because if you take too long, someone else will.

NORMANS TRANSPORT AND STORAGE AT 50 YEARS - 2022

Staff 80

Sites • Avenue Rd, Morrinsville • Arthur Porter Dr, Te Rapa Fleet 10 skelly trucks 6 side-loaders 16 freight units 4 flat decks 3 crane trucks 2 log trucks

DON’T MISS PODCAST EP11 – CHARLIE NORMAN

CONGRATULATIONS TO CHARLIE, MARIE, ADAM AND THE REST OF THE NORMANS TEAM FOR 50 YEARS IN BUSINESS

THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING EQUIPMENT SUPPLIED BY THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING EQUIPMENT SUPPLIED BY THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING EQUIPMENT SUPPLIED BY THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING EQUIPMENT SUPPLIED BY

THAT INCLUDES: THAT INCLUDES: THAT INCLUDES: THAT INCLUDES:

SL9 AIR SUSPENSION AND DISC BRAKED TRAILER AXLES TRUCK AND

CS9 & SL9 AIR TRAILER HOIST, SUSPENSION AND DISC BRAKED HYFIX BODY LOCK

TRAILER AXLES

SL9 AIR SUSPENSION AND DISC BRAKED TRAILER AXLES TRAILER TIRE INFLATION SYSTEM

SL9 AIR SUSPENSION TRUCK AND

AND DISC BRAKED TRAILER HOIST,

TRAILER AXLES HYFIX BODY LOCK

SL9 AIR SUSPENSION TRUCK AND

AND DISC BRAKED TRAILER HOIST,

TRAILER AXLES HYFIX BODY LOCK

TRUCK AND TRAILER HOIST, HYFIX BODY LOCK E55 SERIES 50mm COUPLING E55 SERIES E55 SERIES E55 SERIES 50mm COUPLING50mm COUPLING 50mm COUPLING

DISC BRAKE ACTUATORSDISC BRAKE DISC BRAKE DISC BRAKE ACTUATORSACTUATORS ACTUATORS FORGED ALLOY

WHEELS WITH FORGED ALLOY FORGED ALLOY FORGED ALLOY

CERAMIC COATING WHEELS WITH WHEELS WITH WHEELS WITH CERAMIC COATING CERAMIC COATING CERAMIC COATING

P&I Pasco are long standing loyal supporters of T.A.T.E.S (NZ) LTD Theirs (and other customers) continued patronage is never taken for granted. Normans Transport are long standing loyal supporters of T.A.T.E.S (NZ) LTD, P&I Pasco are long standing loyal supporters of T.A.T.E.S (NZ) LTD Theirs (and other customers) continued patronage is never taken for granted. P&I Pasco are long standing loyal supporters of T.A.T.E.S (NZ) LTD Theirs (and other customers) continued patronage is never taken for granted. P&I Pasco are long standing loyal supporters of T.A.T.E.S (NZ) LTD Theirs (and other customers) continued patronage is never taken for granted. Thank you Peter and Ian. From the Management and staff at T.A.T.E.S (NZ) LTD Theirs (and other customers) continued patronage is never taken for granted. Thank you Peter and Ian. Thank you Peter and Ian. Thank you Peter and Ian. Thank you from the management and staff at T.A.T.E.S (NZ) LTD From the Management and staff at T.A.T.E.S (NZ) LTD From the Management and staff at T.A.T.E.S (NZ) LTD From the Management and staff at T.A.T.E.S (NZ) LTD

From left: Graeme Wright, Jeremy Welsh and Wayne Williams.

WORTH THE WAIT

It’s been a journey for sure, but all good things are worth the wait. In July, Kiwi Replicas launched the first 1/64th diecast models in its New Zealand Stock Truck Series.

Story by Dave McCoid Photos by Alyson Hood Video by Carl Kirkbeck

If the weather gods count for anything, then Kiwi Replicas owner and Model Barn co-owner Jeremy

Welsh can be confident of the future. After a horrid week of weather, Saturday, 2 July saw the clouds roll back and the sun shine on the 70 or so guests gathered at the Model

Barn premises at Orongo on the Hauraki Plains. They were there for the launch of the first two 1/64th scale diecast model trucks in the Kiwi

Replicas New Zealand Stock

Truck series.

“After such a journey to get to this day, I didn’t want the models just arriving and then filtering out. I wanted to mark the occasion, something simple that we can replicate to make each release a thing of its own,” said Jeremy.

The first 10 models in the nine-axle stock truck series are based on the Volvo FH Globetrotter chassis, with five from each island planned in the liveries of actual Volvo FH Globetrotter stock trucks.

As readers will know (New Zealand Trucking May 2022, Not-so Stock Units), the first two cabs off the rank were Graeme Wright General Carriers of Puriri in the Thames Valley, and Transport Services Ltd (TSL) based in the Southland hamlet of Nightcaps.

“It is just so good to have Graeme Wright and TSL co-owner Wayne Williams here for the launch,” said Jeremy. “It’s a long way to come for Wayne. In fact, it’s as far away as is possible, so he’s set the bar high for future owners.”

None of the models had left the model barn before the event. “It’s only right the first

Graeme and Wayne were kept busy on signing duties.

two should go to the owners,” said Jeremy.

At 1pm, with the actual Graeme Wright General Carriers FH16 Globetrotter sitting majestically on-site, Graeme and Wayne were both presented with the first two models, opening the floodgate for sales to commence. As refreshments were served, both owners were available to autograph the boxes, and in some cases the actual models of those who had secured theirs on the day.

At 3pm, Jeremy then announced who the next two in the series would be via a poster reveal.

“It was a great little ceremony, and so rewarding to see the looks on the faces of people as they took delivery of their model. At last, we have a proper nine-axle Kiwi diecast truck.”

1/64 Volvo FH16-700 2020 No 305 Midlands Rural Transport 1/64 Volvo FH16-700 2021 No 100 Frews Transport