Transport & Trucking Australia issue 108

Transport FOR ROAD TRANSPORT & COMMERCIAL VEHICLE PROFESSIONALS

& Trucking Australia

www.truckandbus.net.au Issue 108 Apr/May 2016

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BUSH SPRINTER WE HEAD OFF THE BLACK STUFF IN BENZ’S LIGHT DUTY 4X4

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THE LOW DOWN ON ISUZU’S UPDATED F SERIES 08

WE MEET VOLVO’S NEW COMMANDER IN CHIEF

SYDNEY CONTAINER CARTER FIXES ITS COSTS

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Transport

CONTENTS

FOR ROAD TRANSPORT & COMMERCIAL VEHICLE PROFESSIONALS

& Trucking Australia

16 CONTACT DETAILS PO Box 35 Lindfield, NSW, 2070 www.truckandbus.net.au admin@transportand Enquiries 02 9938 6408 Follow us on Twitter #truckandbusnews Follow us on Facebook at Truck and Bus Australia Editor in Chief Allan Whiting nofibspublishing@bigpond.com Features & Technical Editor David Meredith dvm@bigpond.com.au Art Director Luke Melbourne www.groeningdesigns.com.au Advertising Sales Paul Franks Mob: 0419 149 358 pfranks@mshmedia.com.au

FEATURES

16

FTROOP

24

MR. PRESIDENT

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NEW FOUND AGILITY

38

LEGEND IN THE MAKING

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WATT’S THE DIFFERENCE - HIDS AND LEDS

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BUSH SPRINTER

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I’M NOT DEAD YET

Editorial Contributors Barry Flanagan, Mark Bean, Howard Shanks, Glenn Torrens

After attending the recent media launch Allan Whiting reckons the new Fs will be a significant factor in achieving Isuzu’s continuing sales dominance

Volvo’s new global President Martin Lundstedt jetted into Australia recently for his first ever visit down under and T&TA was there to meet the charismatic new Commander in Chief of the Volvo Empire.

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Sydney Sideloaders, reckons it has nailed down some of the cost uncertainties of transport operation by signing on for Mercedes’ Agility operating lease program, we visited the company recently for this report

The recent sale of all 75 Limited Edition Legend 950 Kenworths in a little under 48 hours demonstrated how passionate Kenworth enthusiasts are for the model.

Howard Shanks headed to the Apple Isle to investigate one such Legend.

Editor Allan Whiting takes a look at all the latest lighting options and gives you the lowdown on whether you should choose HIDs, LEDs - or halogens.

Editor Allan Whiting has discovered one of Mercedes Benz’ best kept secrets, the Sprinter 4x4.

Rumours of the demise of Freightliner’s Argosy here in Australia have been greatly exaggerated according to Daimler Trucks. Jon Thomson took one for a drive recently and reckons there is still life in the US sourced cab over

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58 DEPARTMENTS

04

BACK TRACKS Musings from the Editor

06

HIGHWAY 1

News and info from all over

64

MONEY

Paul’s latest advice on finances

hino.com.au

BACK TRACKS ALLAN WHITING Truck market gloom not justified

T

here’s a general feeling among heavy truck sellers that the top end of the market is in decline and some industry observers are suggesting that there’s evidence of a massive shift in buying patterns.

I crunched some light, medium and heavy truck, and heavy van (3.5-8.0 tonnes GVM) new sales figures since the beginning of this century. While there’s a definite change in the mix at the lighter end of the market and the heavy end is down slightly, the heavy truck sales figures aren’t catastrophic.

Since 2000 we can break down the last 15 years of truck sales into three definite periods: 2000-2003; 2004-2008 and 20092015.

In 2000-2003 the truck market totalled 19,000-23,000 per annum; in 2004-2008 it jumped astronomically to 32,000-38,000 per annum and in 2009-2015 it sat in the 28,00032,000 bracket.

An obvious positive influence in the good years was the resources boom and post-2008 the delayed effects of the GFC pulled things back, despite Government incentives to counter it. However, even in 2009 the truck market totalled nearly 29,000 trucks.

Looking at the percentages of market share for different truck weight categories is also interesting.

In the 2000-2003 period the percentages of the overall new truck market were: heavy duty (HD), 29-35%; medium duty (MD),

28-29%; light duty (LD), 36-34% and Vans, 7-6%. In the 2004-2008 period HD scored 32-35%; MD, 28-26%; LD, 28-33% and Vans, 7-12%. In the 2009-2015 period HD picked up 30-37%; MD, 25-21%; LD, 3029% and Vans, 12-17%.

What’s obvious from those figures is that the heavy truck share of the market hasn’t changed markedly over the 20002015 period; the medium truck and light truck segments are down by around six percentage points each and vans have more than doubled their share.

Percentages can be deceiving, so if we look at total sales numbers the average new truck sales per annum across the 2000-2003 were: HD, 6400; MD, 6600; LD, 6700 and Vans, 1300. In the 2004-2008 period the sales per annum averaged: HD 11,250; MD, 9000; LD, 10,600 and Vans, 4200. In the 2009-2015 period the sales per annum averaged: HD, 9900; MD, 6800; LD, 9900 and Vans, 4300.

So, the actual numbers show that HD trucks spiked during the resource-boom years and have dropped back post-2009, but are still averaging 50-percent above 20002003 sales figures.

MD trucks are static after the boom, back to where they were in 2000-2003.

Today’s LD trucks are up about a third in actual sales numbers compared with the 2000-2003 average and heavy van sales figures spiked during the boom years and

have stayed there.

Van sales figures have more than tripled since 2000-2003.

If there are lessons from this Truck Industry Council data it’s that HD sales are healthy enough; MDs aren’t a growth segment; LDs are looking fine and anyone in the market who doesn’t have a heavy van – that’s all of the Japanese makers – is kissing goodbye to the big growth segment.

Multi-national Daimler is happy with its light-end products, having Fuso in LD, and Mercedes-Benz Sprinter dominating the van market, but you’d expect Isuzu’s and Hino’s local executives to be pressuring Japan for a van.

As usual, we’ve packed the magazine with stories we hope you find interesting. I’ve justified my princely salary with reports on the upgraded Isuzu F Series and a comprehensive look at the driving light situation, for those who want to know their HIDs from their LEDs. I also had a first drive of the latest Sprinter.

Also in this issue we have an interview and profile of Volvo’s newly appointed global CEO Martin Lungstedt during his recent visit downunder, a fascinating yarn from Howard Shanks on a heavy duty Kenworth Legend 950 operating in low loader work in Tassie and a whole lot more, so enjoy the read.

Until next time don’t let the numbers get you down.

We like GoGetta because they’re easy to deal with. Their staff are friendly and nothing seems too hard for them. They make the whole finance process really easy.

ERROL HIBBERD, AMK CONTAINER TRANSPORT

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VOLVO LOOKS FOR AN ANSWER TO DRIVER SHORTAGES Industry surveyed to find some solutions to the 'biggest challenge facing the transport business' VOLVO GROUP AUSTRALIA president Peter Voorhoeve has signaled that the Swedish maker will be announcing a major initiative to answer the growing shortage of quality truck drivers in Australia.

In an extended interview with Voorhoeve, Transport & Trucking learnt that a great deal of ground work has been carried out by VGA including initiating a research program to ascertain the major concerns and demands from the company’s 20 biggest customers.

Overwhelmingly and not surprisingly, the biggest concern was the dearth of drivers and the lack of driver talent, a situation that Volvo and Voorhoeve believe is part of their duty to try to help customers address.

“I believe we have a responsibility and we want to do more,” Voorhoeve told T&TA. “I realised we have a crisis and that crisis is driver availability. This is the topic we need to focus on,” he said.

“The transport task is growing, it will double between 2010 and 2030 and we can see that already with the boom in e-commerce and the way we are doing our shopping as well as the growth of our population. We are not getting new drivers in and the average age of drivers is now around 52years old and we have a problem with driver availability, so if we don’t do anything the slogans on the bumper stickers will come true, Australia will stop,” said Voorhoeve.

“Volvo Group is selling one in every

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four heavy trucks on Australia roads that means we should be doing more than just offering hardware and services, we have a duty to address this,” he added.

VGA has commissioned research through Clemenger BBDO and tasked them with finding out what is going on in the transport market and to find out what its customers are really worried about. The research program is about half way completed but a lot of trends have emerged and given Volvo some indicators, which they appear to be acting on.

“We wanted to know what is really going on and driver availability is one of the key issues and it is driven by the image of truck drivers, it is not a good image and this is inhibiting younger people from entering the industry,” said Voorhoeve.

“The industry is attracting some young men but not nearly enough and certainly not enough young women. The fact is 50 per cent of the population is female but only about five per cent of truck drivers are female, that means we are missing out on a huge pool of potential drivers and it is all to do with the image of the job of driving a truck,” he added.

The VGA president said the company wants to focus on that and would like to help the trucking industry and its customers to solve this problem.

“Once upon a time the industry saw driving as a trade, you would hire a 16 year old to work in the yard, learning the way the business ran, cleaning up and helping with loading and then he would

progress to driving the trucks around the yard and maneuvering them around and then would step up. Slowly after three years they would start driving on local routes and so on.

“That trade has gone and we need to re establish that,” said Voorhoeve.

Voorhoeve underlined the problem by revealing that this year alone around 20 per cent of the Australian truck-driving workforce will reach retirement age.

“If we have 200,000 truck drivers in this country that means that 40,000 could retire this year, which is alarming it would be a big drain on the,” he said.

Volvo’s research has so far involved its 20 largest customers, which is a fair cross section of the Australian Transport industry. The next phase is more qualitative research and opening it up to a wider audience.

The company signalled that it will be announcing some major initiatives for the industry during its annual trade press media conference at the Melbourne Truck Show in May. T&TA was also able to conduct a video interview with the Volvo boss, the first of our planned series of conversations with the bosses of Australian truck manufacturers, which we are calling, Coffee with the CEOs. Voorhoeve is the first cab off the rank and the video discussion is up on our website and YouTube and will be followed by all of the CEOs of the major truck companies, take a look for yourself at www.truckandbus. net.au

web part in our new d orhoeve taking an Vo ' r Os te CE Pe t e th en id th VGA Pres 'Coffee wi ndstedt rview segment based video inte y floor at Wacol with Martin Lu ctor below on the fa

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VGA ANNOUNCES NATIONAL ROADSHOW Volvo, Mack and UD hit the highways for month long national truck expo VOLVO GROUP AUSTRALIA has announced it will stage a month long national road show with VGA president Peter Voorhoeve inviting professional drivers who have never driven a Volvo, Mack or UD truck to get behind the wheel and try one.

The Trucks Roadshow will kick off at the CMV Mack/UD dealership in Laverton on the 10th May and will then take to the road with stop overs into Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Newcastle, before finishing in Brisbane on 10th June.

“Our customers are the heart of our business. We’re taking our Volvo, UD and Mack trucks out to the people all around the country so we can learn more about how we can build their business and improve their profitability,” Peter Voorhoeve said.

“This is an opportunity not to be missed, it’s a chance to get in the cab and see how our various models perform under realistic conditions–for our customers and also for those transport operators who’ve never driven a Volvo,

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UD or Mack truck,” he added.

The trucks being showcased are those that are most in demand in industry segments around Australia today: - Volvo FH16 700 and a Mack Super Liner 685 hp configured as B Doubles - Volvo FM540 and a 500hp Mack Granite set up for line haul work - UD GW 26 420 tipper and dog for the construction segment - UD PD 24 280 curtain sider for local distribution work Volvo says that test drive opportunities are limited, so bookings are essential through the local dealerships.

At each event, the support teams from Volvo, UD and Mack will be offering visitors the chance to see how they can save up to 10 per cent in fuel costs by using telematics, preventative maintenance and driver coaching.

Experts from Volvo, Mack and UD Financial Services will also be on hand, offering their extensive knowledge of the

industry and explaining how to improve profitability.

There will also be a number of exclusive offers which will only be available on the day.

“We offer the complete range of the highest-quality trucks,” said Voorhoeve, “but more importantly we put our customers at the centre of everything we do. For us it’s all about ‘service, service, service’.”

“This is a highly-competitive industry,” said Voorhoeve, “which is why we’re all about finding ways to help our customers reduce operating costs and improve productivity. This roadshow demonstrates that we’ve got a truck for every requirement, and the service to back it up. We’re really looking forward to spending some time with our customers face-to-face.”

The Trucks Roadshow runs from 10th May to 10th June, taking in all the major capital cities. Interested transport operators are welcome to call the dealers to book their test drives.

MELBOURNE Tuesday 10th May CMV Truck & Bus Laverton (03) 9931 6777 ADELAIDE Friday 13th May South Central Trucks (08) 8360 4465 PERTH Friday 20th May Truck Centre WA 1800 199 517 SYDNEY Friday 3rd June VCV Sydney West (02) 9678 2000 NEWCASTLE Tuesday 7thJune VCV Newcastle (02) 4922 2600 BRISBANE Friday 10th June VCV Brisbane North (07)3613 6002

SANITY REIGNS GOVERNMENT ENDS RSRT

Remuneration Tribunal gets the chop and loud applause from owner drivers THE ROAD SAFETY Remuneration Tribunal has been wiped from the statute books by the federal parliament following a senate vote passed by 36 to 32.

Passing through both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the Road Safety Remuneration Repeal Bill 2016 had the support of independent senators Jacqui Lambie, Nick Xenophon, John Madigan, Glenn Lazarus, and minor party members Zhenya (Dio) Wang as well as Bob Day. Holding to his original opinion from 2014, senator Ricky Muir voted against the bill.

It also means the controversial Contractor Driver Minimum Payments Road Safety Remuneration Order 2016 (RSRO) was also removed when the abolition act commenced on 21 April.

Introducing the Bill into the House of Representatives, Industry, Innovation, and Science minister Christopher Pyne said the Bill “stands by owner drivers

and mum-and-dad small businesses who just want to earn an honest living.”

The leader of the house says the RSRT’s refusal to delay the order, “in the face of widespread confusion and misunderstanding” was “the last straw”.

“Road accidents involving trucks involve both owner-drivers and employee-drivers and in 84 per cent of cases are caused by the other vehicle involved, not the truck,” he says.

“To single one group out, effectively branding them as unsafe, is not only unfair, but it’s also wrong, and enormously insulting.”

The minister also took a shot at the TWU saying it had instigated a tribunal that had “devastating effects on the industry”.

“What an extraordinary and absurd turn of events — the union for whom the tribunal was created, who attacked owner drivers for challenging the Payments Order and went to the Federal Court only

two weeks ago to have a stay of the order lifted, is now before its tribunal saying, ‘We’ve changed our mind, we want you to delay the order’,” Pyne said.

He was annoyed by the notion that improved payments will slow down the ‘cowboys’.

“As one owner-driver told me, if you pay the cowboy drivers more, because they are cowboys, they will just drive more — more hours, longer distances, to get that money.”

Other concerns surrounded the lack of rest breaks in the RSRO and that it doesn’t take safety training into account – “practical measures have all been recognised as having a significant impact on safety and yet the order does not mention them,” he said.

“We will now redirect all the resources from the Road Safety Remuneration System — $4 million each year — to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator to ensure the tangible safety measures the

industry want are given priority,” he said.

Federal Infrastructure and transport minister Darren Chester said the RSRT was a tribunal of industrial umpires and could not claim to be experts in road safety.

“The NHVR should be the body controlling this because it has the expert knowledge and understanding needed to bring about improvements to the safety of the road transport industry,” the minister said.

Employment minister Michaelia Cash who lead the coalition’s efforts, said the government will consult with state governments and the industry to determine how best this resourcing can be used to re-prioritise and strengthen safety measures that will work at the roadside.

It seems that just about everyone in the industry agrees logic has triumphed and the RSRT will be consigned to history as a bad dream.

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VOLVO CRAWLER HAULS 750 TONNES Heavy Swede shows its mettle hauling 40 double stacked containers IT’S BEEN REVEALED that Volvo’s interesting experiment to see just how much load its new i-Shift with crawler transmission can haul has seen an FH 16 pull a GVM of 750 tonnes.

The experiment, staged at the Port of Gothenburg in its home country of Sweden saw 40 double stacked containers filled with Volvo truck parts and sitting on 20 container skel trailers and forming a 300-metre long road train was previewed recently and now the total weight has been revealed. The mission was to drive the

VolvoFH16 from stand still and cover a distance of 100 metres with the load in tow.

“I-Shift with crawler gears offers starting traction that is unlike anything else on the market for series-produced trucks. The new crawler ratios make it possible to haul really heavy loads, start off in difficult terrain, and drive at speeds as low as 0.5 km/h.

Specially built trucks are normally used for exceptionally heavy loads, but here we’re using a Volvo FH16 with a driveline that has come straight from

the factory,”says Peter Hardin, Product Manager FM and FMX at Volvo Trucks.

The Volvo FH16 used in the test features I-Shift with crawler gears and the strongest axles from Volvo’s regular product range. The truck is driven by Magnus Samuelsson, former holder of the “World’s Strongest Man” title.

“Few things can match the sense of challenging and winning over one’s physical limitations. I’ve faced many tough challenges over the years but this pull is my heaviest ever,” says Magnus Samuelsson.

At his side he has experienced trucking journalist Brian Weatherley.

“That Volvo Trucks has developed an automatic transmission that can haul 325 tonnes gross combination weight is impressive.

But tackling more than 700 tonnes GCW* with a single regular production truck is really quite amazing. In my 30 years as a trucking journalist I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Brian Weatherley.

You can view the video at our website www.truckandbus.net.au

“World’s Strongest Man” Magnus Samuelsson, at the wheel of the 'World's Strongest Truck' in Gothenburg recently

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STAY IN CONTROL WITH MACK TELEMATICS.

The more you know about how your drivers and trucks are performing, the more you can improve cost efficiencies. That’s what Mack Telematics is all about.

It’s a hi-tech fleet management system that can help you: • improve driver performance • increase uptime • maximise fuel efficiency • reduce maintenance costs • minimise your environmental footprint For more information on Mack Telematics Call 1300 MYMACK (1300 69 6225) or visit macktrucks.com.au

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IVECO ANNOUNCES NEW PERTH DEALERSHIP

Skipper Trucks replaced by AV Truck Services IVECO AUSTRALIA HAS announced that its long time WA dealer, Skipper Trucks has been replaced by another dealer.

The Dandenong based truck maker has announced it has appointed AV Truck Services as a full-service dealership covering the greater Perth metropolitan area from 1st May. The announcement follows the AHG owned Skipper Trucks’ cessation as an Iveco franchisee at the end of April, allowing it to pursue other business

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interests outside of commercial vehicles.

Iveco says it expects minimal disruption of sales, service and parts supply to existing customers and prospective buyers in WA. In commenting on the new appointment, Iveco Australia network development manager, Matteo Gambaro, said the company was excited at adding a professional and high profile group such as AV Truck Services to the Iveco network.

“AV Truck Services is extremely well

regarded in Western Australia, and Iveco Australia is very excited that this outlet will become our new dealership in Perth,” Mt Gambaro said.

“The group operates a large and well-equipped facility and has strong existing commercial vehicle expertise that will enable a much easier transition to provide high quality sales, service and parts support for the Iveco range from the outset.

“The West Australian market is

important for Iveco Australia, and we are confident that Iveco truck and van customers and prospects will receive excellent support from AV Truck Services.”

Mr Gambaro also thanked Skipper Trucks for its long association and loyalty to the Iveco brand in Australia and wished the dealership every success in the future. AV Truck Services is located at 485 Great Eastern Highway in Redcliffe.

ATA ANNOUNCES INDUSTRY AWARDS FINALISTS AND A RE-ELECTED CHAIR Noelene Watson returned for second term as ATA Chair THE ATA HAS announced the finalists for its 2016 National Trucking Industry Awards and also that Noelene Watson has won a second term as chair of the Trucking organisation. ATA Chief Executive Christopher Melham said the awards recognise the achievements of some of the most dedicated and professional individuals and businesses in the trucking industry.

“As an industry, we are fortunate to have many very skilled and professional people who work tirelessly to keep our industry running safely and reliably. The quality of this year’s finalists is absolutely outstanding, and I congratulate each of them on their achievement,” Mr Melham said.

The ATA has also announced that Noelene Watson has been re elected as the chair for a second term.

Mrs Watson was elected unopposed at the ATA’s annual general meeting in Canberra in April. Mrs Watson is the managing director of Don Watson Transport and has a deep understanding of the industry both as an operator and at an association level. She was first elected as the chair of the ATA in 2014, after many years of experience on the ATA board of management.

Also at the meeting, the ATA elected new directors David Smith and Sharon Middleton to its board.

David Smith is the President of the Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of South Australia, a member of the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Australia National Council, and Managing Director of D&S Smith Haulage in Tumby Bay, SA. “It’s critical that we encourage and promote chain of responsibility and

safety in our own industry,” Mr Smith said.

I look forward to working with the Chair and the Board to ensure the ATA is really connected with the grassroots of the trucking industry.”Sharon Middleton is the President of the South Australian Road Transport Association, and the owner and Director of SA business Whiteline Transport.

“As someone who still actively drives high productivity vehicles across the Nullarbor, I get to see firsthand the challenges faced by small to medium operators in rural and remote Australia.

Their issues are quite unique, and need to be accounted for in national decisions,” Mrs Middleton said.

Andrew Garrety, Kathy Williams, Mike Almond and Austin Vella were re-elected unopposed to the board, and Andrew Garrety was re-elected unopposed as the ATA’s secretary/treasurer. The Council also paid tribute to the ATA’s two retiring directors, Trevor Martyn and Gordon Martin.

Pamela Jeffery, Plant Hire Services (Kununurra, WA) - Trucking Industry Woman of the Year Melanie Cosgrove, SRV Road Freight Services (Ormeau, QLD) Melissa Taylor, Taylor’s Removals and Storage (Toowoomba, QLD) Dianne Carroll, Trans-Help Foundation (Tungamah, VIC) - TruckSafe John Kelly Memorial Award Richers Transport Pty Ltd (Maryborough, QLD) Shackell Transport Pty Ltd (Pottsville, NSW)

Fellows Bulk Transport (Deniliquin, NSW) - National Training Excellence Award All Purpose Transport (Berrinba, QLD) The award winners will be announced on Saturday 25 June at the ATA Foundation Sponsors Gala Dinner on the Gold Coast as part of Trucking Australia 2016, the ATA’s national conference. To register for Trucking Australia 2016 or book tickets for the dinner, visit www. truckingaustralia.com.au.

Meantime, the 2016 National Trucking Industry Awards finalists are: - Outstanding Contribution to the Australian Trucking Industry John Beer, J & M Beer Carrying Service (Romsey, VIC) John Rowe, Victorian Freight Specialists (Dandenong South, VIC) Bryan Smith, Rocky’s Own Transport (Rockhampton, QLD) - National Professional Driver of the Year Garry McVey, McVey’s Transport (Fishermans Paradise, NSW) Nigel Felton, All Purpose Transport (Underwood, QLD)

Re elected ATA Chair Noelene Watson pictured recently with Volvo president Martin Lundstedt during his recent visit down under

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FREIGHTLINER ANNOUNCES EXTENDED WARRANTY Daimler extends the safety net under its Argosy and Coronado models

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FREIGHTLINER HAS ANNOUNCED an extended warranty that covers the Argosy cab-over and Coronado 114 conventional truck for four years or 800,000km.

The extended warranty is not a short term offer and is available for new customers through ‘til December 31, 2016.

Freightliner trucks are currently covered by a standard one year/unlimited

km warranty, while the new extended warranty has been introduced for the most popular models in the range, the Argosy and Coronado 114.

There are two parts to the extended warranty program. The first is the basic complimentary extended warranty for three years/800,000km, which incorporates the components originally covered by the basic vehicle warranty.

In addition there is also a drivetrain component complimentary extended warranty for two years/800,000km, which covers such items as the transmission, clutch, driving axles and more.

Neither the standard or extended warranties cover the truck’s engine, which is covered by the engine manufacturer, being either Detroit or Cummins.

The introduction of the extended warranty program comes as Freightliner further strengthens its product offering with the Cummins ISXe5 Argosy cabover, the first Argosy to be offered with Selective Catalytic Reduction.

Freightliner is also offering customers the choice of a Detroit engine or an optional Cummins powerplant in either Coronado or Argosy.

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New Model

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F TROOP ISUZU UPGRADES THE F SERIES FOR 2016 After 27 years of market leadership Isuzu has given its vital medium duty F Series some critical mechanical and cosmetic changes for 2016. With some interesting new engine options and an improved AMT among other things, the company is looking for its 28th year of sales domination and after attending the recent media launch Allan Whiting reckons the new Fs will be a significant factor in achieving just that. www.truckandbus.net.au 017

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hat’s immediately apparent with Isuzu’s new upgraded F Series is a refreshed look, with a new grille design, badging and nomenclature, as well as updated seat trim and steering wheel design.

The mechanical changes are headed by a new four-cylinder, turbocharged diesel and a significantly revised six-cylinder engine, aimed mainly at vocational applications.

The new 5.2-litre four-cylinder retains the same bore and stroke dimensions as its predecessor, but the 2016 4HK1-TC engine has new cylinder head, camshaft, block, main-bearing ladder frame, combustion zone components, injection system and injectors, and a two-stage turbocharger.

Two-stage turbocharging improves torque at low engine speeds, to the extent that the 240hp four has more torque than the six formerly used in 12 tonnes GVM F Series trucks.

The 4HK1-TC has two output levels: 154kW (210hp) and 726Nm, and 177kW (240hp) and 765Nm. Increased performance from this engine has allowed Isuzu to increase its application in the F Series, so now the 4HK1-TC powers FRR, FRD, FSR 4x2 and FSS 4x4 models up to 12 tonnes GVM and 16 tonnes GCM. Up to 14 tonnes GVM is available on 240hp FSR models, subject to application approval.

Task-specific emissions strategy On the 4HK1-TC engine cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and diesel particulate ‘diffusion’ - filtration - (DPD) are used for emissions control to Japanese

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‘post new long term’ (PNLT) standards that are expected to be accepted as part of ADR80/04 (Euro VI) when it’s eventually adopted in Australia.

Unlike most other engine makers Isuzu is confident it won’t need selective catalytic reduction (SCR) with urea (AdBlue) injection on the 4HK1-TC to meet ADR80/04 requirements.

Part of this emissions package is a DPD unit with its own ‘regeneration’ injector. This a departure from existing Isuzu practice that sometimes uses post-combustion injection in each engine cylinder to increase exhaust gas temperature, to burn off soot and particulate matter from the DPD. Onhighway trucks normally don’t require post-combustion injection, because exhaust gas temperatures are high enough to clean the DPD continuously, but stopstart engines sometimes need to be actively regenerated.

Active regeneration requires the driver to park the vehicle and let the engine’s electronic control unit run through a regeneration cycle.

Another issue with post-combustion injection is the possibility that some unburnt fuel can find its way past the piston rings and into the engine sump. Part of Isuzu’s existing DPD-equipped engine maintenance is regular checking for a rising dipstick oil level.

Although the new 4HK1-TC retains a DPD unit it now has its own regeneration injector, so post-combustion injection is carried out in the DPD, not in the engine cylinders. Sump oil fuel dilution from DPD regeneration is no longer a

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“Unlike most other engine makers Isuzu is confident it won’t need selective catalytic reduction “

1. Isuzu has gone for new four cylinder engines in some of its F Series models 2. Isuzu MD Mike Yoda at the launch 3. Isuzu continues to use market accepted Meritor axles on heavier models 4. Isuzu COO Phil Taylor at the media launch

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“T h e m e c h a n ic aela d e d c h a n g e s a r e hr by a new fou a c y l in d e r a n d r e v is e d s ig n if ic a n t l y e n g in e “ s ix - c y l in d e r

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1. A freshened face sits atop upgraded powertrains.

2. The redesigned four-cylinder slots into additional models for 2016.

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possibility, but active regeneration may still be needed in some low-speed and stop-start truck applications.

In the interests of reducing that likelihood in stop-start applications Isuzu has introduced an idle-stop system (ISS), similar to that fitted to many modern passenger cars. If used correctly, ISS promises to reduce idling time that can be up to 50 percent of some metro-truck engine hours and that will reduce soot buildup in the DPD, while also saving fuel.

Two-stage turbocharging, improved DPD and ISS should make the new 4HK1-TC a very popular engine, but there are some applications where even this combination won’t be optimum. Obvious vocations are trucks that operate at low speeds, with or without the need to run PTOs much of the time, negating the value of ISS and possibly requiring regular active DPD regeneration.

Isuzu is hoping that a revised version of the proved six-cylinder diesel 6HK1 will be the answer for these vocations.

This development uses new injectors and combustion zone components, and has no DPD and, hence, no need for DPD regeneration.

The 6HK1-TCC 191kW (260hp)/761Nm Euro V engine meets current emissions

regulations by using cooled EGR in conjunction with a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC). It is the only medium-duty diesel engine in the market not to have DPD or SCR, but as Isuzu points out, it’s not a Euro VI engine like the 4HK1-TC. The 6HK1 DOC engine is available in vocational FRR, FRD, FSR, FTR and FVD 4x2 models and in the FTS 4x4.

The existing 6HK1–TCS engine continues to power general-duty F Series trucks in 4x2, 6x2 and 6x4 configurations, with outputs from 210hp to 300hp.

Wider transmission choices Isuzu’s F Series automated manual transmission has had an upgrade, with the fitment of a stator to the fluid coupling, making it a proper torque converter, with a modest stall ratio of 1.45:1. The torque converter equipped automated manual transmission is known as the TC-AMT. The TC-AMT is optional on all Isuzu FRR and FSR models powered by the new 4HK1-TC engine, as an alternative to the MXW6 six-speed synchro manual box.

Lock-up clutch damper behaviour has also been refined, softening clutch engagement and disengagement.

Other TC-AMT durability enhancements include heat treatment of the friction plate, separation plate and the hub of the

gearshift clutch.

Allison’s LCT 2500 six-speed automatic is optional behind lower-output 6HK1 engines and Allison MD 3000 and 3500 autos bolt behind the higher-power donks.

ZF’s nine-speed, range-change manual synchro transmission is standard on FV models.

Other changes in a nutshell New 4HK1-TC models fitted with manual transmissions have a ‘start assist’ function, to allow easier, faster clutch engagement.

This applies to 4x4 models as well, including the 6HK1- DOC-powered FTS models.

A revised multi-information display, with a larger screen and incorporating satellite navigation, is now standard across the range. Off-road models get the big screen but not navigation, which seems odd for vehicles that are likely to get lost!

Given that daily checks aren’t always done daily, the addition of a low-coolantlevel sensor to all models is timely.

A fuel-line cooler has been introduced with the new 4HK1-TC and 6HK1 DOC engines.

An upgraded anti-lock braking system (ABS) module and ABS 8 software is now fitted to FTR, FV, FSS and FTS models.

The rear seats in crew-cab models have

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“The entire F Series range now has 20,000 km service intervals.“

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been given additional padding in the seat bases and realignment of the back rests, for greater support.

Hill start aid (HSA) has been introduced in all manual transmission FSS and FTS 4x4 models.

A 90-amp alternator has been fitted to all new F Series models, resulting in a 50percent output increase for some models.

A much-needed passenger ISRI 6860 air suspension seat is standard in the FTS 4x4 single and crew cab models as well as in the FTR 4x2 crew cab model.

There’s an extension of oil change intervals from 15,000 km to 20,000 km for those models powered by the new 4HK1-TC or 6HKI DOC engines. The entire F Series range now has 20,000 km service intervals.

Isuzu retains Meritor axle and brake assemblies on FVR and FVD 4x2 models, on the FVL 6x2 and on all FVZ or FVY 6x4 models. FVs now have Stemco Sentinel oilfilled front hubs with Discover hub seals.

“The new Isuzu F Series range represents change on a level we haven’t seen in the

medium-duty market for quite some time,” said Phil Taylor, IAL director and chief operating officer.

“Be it waste and refuse, cold-chain logistics, dry freight, pick-up and delivery, emergency services or something out of the ordinary; the new Isuzu F Series range covers even more applications than the previous line-up.

“While our F Series offering is constantly evolving to meet the needs of Australian businesses, our approach to product development hasn’t seen a great deal of change over the years.

“We will always put the needs and requirements of our customers first.

“It’s a straightforward, ‘fluff-free’ approach that has served us well for 27 consecutive years as the market leader and we aim to keep it that way.

“In this new F Series range, customers have access to a wider range of quality capital equipment and industry-leading aftersales innovation at a very competitive price.”

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“Scania driver training is excellent. A guy who’d been

working here for 26 years did the course and straight off his fuel economy was 10% better.”

So contact your local branch or authorised dealer to find out how a Scania Total Transport Solution can work for your business.

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NEW SOUTH WALES Scania Prestons Tel: (02) 9825 7900 Scania Newcastle Tel: (02) 9825 7940 K&J Trucks, Coffs Harbour Tel: (02) 6652 7218 NJ’s of Wagga Tel: (02) 6971 7214

QUEENSLAND Scania Richlands Tel: (07) 3712 8500 Scania Pinkenba Tel: (07) 3712 7900 Spann’s Trucks, Toowoomba Tel: (07) 4634 4400 RSC Diesels, Cairns Tel: (07) 4054 5440

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Industry

MR. PRE Martin Lundstedt is the new President - of Volvo Group that is - not company in Scandinavia and not a world superpower, Lundstedt’s that of head of state than a captain of industry. T&TA was there

ESIDENT the USA. Despite the fact that he runs the biggest industrial recent visit to the company’s Australian subsidiary was more like to meet the charismatic new Commander in Chief of the Volvo Empire.

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E “Martin is the only bloke I know who speaks more about service than I do said Voorhoeve” 1. A smiling President Lundstedt is introduced to the Australian truck media 2. Lundstedt joined key Volvo and Mack customers to turn the first sod at Volvo Australia’s new corporate HQ in Wacol.

3. Lundstedt says UD is a key focus for the Volvo Group UD ‘because that is a space of the market we must cover in order to be global ‘.

4. Martin Lundstedt with ATA president Noelene Watson and DGL: MD John West.

5. Addressing loyal customers and staff at the sod turning ceremony for the new Volvo HQ

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verything about Lundstedt’s 30-hour visit Down Under was run with the precision of a presidential tour, it was timed to the second, even his toilet stops were written into the schedule. Throughout a day in which T&TA spent some time with Lundstedt he remained jovial and full of energy, shaking hands like a politician up for re-election, smiling, bouncing from one activity to the next with clear eyes and a charismatic air that would make him eminently electable.

However Lundstedt was not running for office, he was appointed President by the Volvo board after rising through the ranks at Swedish rival Scania after a quarter century of toil. It’s a bit like rising through the Labor Party only to be head hunted by the Liberals.

The Volvo board said when they appointed Lundstedt that there had been too much focus on cost cutting and that they were looking for someone to bring energy back into the group and re ignite the business. If his visit to Brisbane was an indication they have certainly picked an energetic and inspirational character.

The announcement by Volvo that it had snared Lundstedt to replace Olaf Persson at the helm of the group took the truck industry by storm. His arrival in Gothenburg was much anticipated during the six months ‘gardening leave’ he had to serve in between resigning from Scania and taking up the reins of his ‘new’ company. He finally put his feet under the desk in October last year and has already started to shake the place up, making each

of the brands more responsible for their activities for a start.

Lundstedt’s visit down under is part of a global tour that was designed to give the new boss an understanding of the empire he now heads. Arriving in Brisbane at 6.30am and showering in the driver’s room at the company’s factory owned dealership at Richlands, Lundstedt systematically went about visiting every corner of head office and the Volvo/Mack assembly plant down the road in Wacol.

For an hour or so we were able to shadow Lundstedt as he toured the Wacol plant. His joviality, good nature, smiling disposition and tactile nature won over the Volvo workers and the media alike and his demeanour didn’t reflect that of a man who had climbed off an overnight flight at dawn ahead of an unrelenting meet and greet schedule.

Lundstedt’s 23 years at Scania raises the question of how he was head hunted by his life long rivals.

“The phone rang one day and I have to say it was a surprise,” he explained.

“It was a great honour as a Swede to get the chance to be the president of the Volvo Group and when I got the phone call it was a touch surreal honestly, but after approximately 24 hours of thinking I said I would love to go for it,” said Lundstedt.

“Then I had six months of reflection, but you have been working forever you know, 24 years and it was a bit strange, but it was great to pause and it gave me time for reflection.”

There is not one single Swede that doesn’t have an opinion about Volvo according to Lundstedt going on to say that, “you

VOLVO’S NEW AUSSIE HQ

get everything from your grandmother’s opinion about Volvo to different professional views but everyone believes they deserve a say.” Such is the importance of Volvo in the psyche of Swedes.

Since coming on board on the 22nd October, one thing Lundstedt keeps getting asked is, what he thinks of Volvo and he is happy to recognise that he studied the Volvo Group from afar for 23 years while he was at Scania. He says he has always had the greatest of respect and has taken huge experiences from Volvo as a competitor and for that reason he says he is very proud to be the President of the group.

Surprisingly It was Lundstedt’s first time in Australia despite travelling the world, so many times across so many countries with Scania but said he was excited to be here for the first time, albeit for just 30 hours.

Lundstedt says that one of the keys to the Volvo Group’s ongoing success, strength and growth is they run a global system but with strong regional end to end systems in the different parts of the world.

“I think Australia is one of the continents showing exactly that, where we have the fully fledged range of competences, using global opportunities when it comes to components, when it comes to technology, when it comes to volumes and knowledge sharing etc., where scale really matters,” said Lundstedt.

“The thing is, economy of scale is one of the most over rated terms in history, because people still think that scale is about doing a lot of things, it is actually about doing a lot of the same things and when you come to that, when you are doing a lot of the same

If there is a corporation in Australia, which has had more changes of corporate headquarters over the last 30 years than Volvo has we’d be interested to know about it.

Since 1980 Volvo has had, by our estimate, at least eight different corporate HQs in this country ranging from Minto and Moorebank in Sydney’s West, the Sydney CBD, Chatswood, Chullora and then to Brisbane in Milton, Richlands and now Wacol.

The groundbreaking ceremony for VGA’s new HQ, which is situated at the Metroplex Westgate business park next to the Ipswich Motorway, saw a variety of industry operators and luminaries on hand to see Martin Lundstedt along with the Swedish Ambassador and key Volvo, Mack and UD customers turn the first sods for the development that will house the new head office, a

new dealership and service operation.

Volvo claims the new development will be at the forefront of green building technology using solar power, LED lighting and rainwater harvesting, The company says the energy-efficient facility will also include a new paint and panel workshop.

Lundstedt underlined the company’s “great confidence in the Australian business” by noting that it had invested more than $27 million in local manufacturing in recent years.

“Manufacturing in Australia has been in decline for a number of years, as it has in many other countries, but the outlook for our business is strong,” he said.

We hope the new Wacol HQ has a long tenure as the Swedish company’s office in Australia, at least more than the 4.5-year average for the other bases it has ha in the past 36 years.

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things, it must be also about doing a lot of the same things right,” he emphasised He says that in a big group, like Volvo, the most important thing is to get your hands on what really matters globally and regionally and in the truck business, that means segmentation and application engineering for the trucks, for different end industries which is essential for really getting the competitive advantage in different sectors.

“It is completely different if you are a retailer or running B-Doubles or operating in regional haulage, working in the mining industry or in construction or with chemicals or what ever and that is what we have had the chance to see here today with our operations, we have shown we can do that,” said Lundstedt.

The new president was keen to emphasise that Volvo Group Australia’s engineering expertise is important to the company not just locally but as part of its global development.

“The good thing about our engineering centre is that it is used for our global development, we have some of the most demanding end conditions in Australia when it comes to long distances, to dust, to heat, to tonnage, when it comes to different types of combinations, to demanding customers and when it comes

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to product specifications.

“In Australia we have a real mix because we see conventional applications with Mack, European cab over applications with Volvo and Japanese applications with UD and really we get a lot from this market for engineering purposes and market experience.

“For example Australia was one of the most instrumental markets for the field tests for our new Volvo FH, with the engineering team we have here in Brisbane doing a lot of the work and the things we learned here have been used across the globe, and that will continue to be so quite frankly.

Lundstedt went on to emphasise that Australia continues to be an important market for Volvo across all three brands because he says it is a true melting pot of truck styles and configurations.

“We have some real sweet spots for Volvo, for Mack and for UD and we can learn a lot from that,” he said.

“This is a very important market for Volvo and we are humbly proud that we became market leader as a group last year with 26.2 per cent of the market, I think it is fantastic, both in terms of the level itself, the mix between the different products, segments, geographies and also the development both on the truck side and on the bus side, it continues to develop

1. Volvo’s Wacol assembly plant staff listening to the presidential address at the Brisbane factory.

2. Lundstedt and new UD Trucks chairman Joachim Rosenberg are briefed on VGA’s retail activity at Richlands 3. Lundstedt with key VGA executives in Brisbane 4. Lundstedt says Australia played a key role in the enginering development of Volvo’s latest FH models.

very well and we will continue to invest in Australia, we believe in it,” he says.

2015 was a good year for Volvo coming out of the restructuring and realignments that have been in play for the past four years, with major cost cutting at the core of that plan. In fact last year was a bumper one for the Group globally with the operating income up by an amazing 311 per cent, rising from $AUD1.44 billion in 2014 to $AUD 4.11 billion in 2015, largely on the back of the efficiency drive and cost cutting globally across the Volvo Group under his predecessor Olof Persson since the GFC. Lundstedt was careful not to take any credit for the result, his impact would at best have been due to the anticipation of his arrival, given he was only actually working at Volvo for two months of the calendar year. However he was clear about how Volvo achieved the result.

“It was a number of different factors, but I think it is fair to say the group as such has been going through a pretty focussed program on costs, really to align the organisation and I think the organisation has done a great job on a global basis,” he said.

It’s been a combination of factors, currency to some extent, some one offs, 1. A freshened face sits atop but the bottom line is we areupgraded coming up to powertrains.

2. The redesigned four-cylinder slots into additional models for 2016.

“Last year was a bumper one for the Group globally with the operating income up by an amazing 311 per cent,” a level where it is pleasing because most importantly at the end of December, we had a net cash position in the balance sheets for the first time since 2006 and that means that we have a strong platform for continuous development,” he added.

Lundstedt has moved quickly to stamp his imprimatur on the organisation announcing on the 1st March that the Group’s different brands would become more autonomous.

“So that means that in the executive board we will now have four global brand presidents, working with their separate P&Ls in order to make sure that we are actually giving the brands the opportunities to develop on the commercial side and on their own merits,” said Lundstedt.

“We have four very strong brands with different regional footprints and we are also making sure that the regional footprints are reinforced.

“Australia is a good example we have three brands here that really want to have the attention and we are making sure that Peter Voorhoeve and his team has the autonomy together with resources to develop in a smart way, it is really about focussing on execution for the different brands for the future,” he added.

The question on everyone’s lips centred

Mack is a valuable asset to VGA giving it exposure tot a US conventional truck stream

around the recent news, which was broken as as news story in Australia by T&TA’s website truckandbusnews.net.au, that UD was in discussion with Isuzu regarding the supply of medium duty models as rebadged UDs, leaving UD to concentrate on its heavy duty models.

Joachim Rosenberg, who from the 1st April is taking over as chairman for UD Trucks and has moved back to Tokyo to take up the reins, accompanied Lundstedt on his tour.

“We were actually in Tokyo maybe three, four five days ago, something like that it is a bit of a blur, I can’t remember, but we had a very good meeting there,” Lundstedt said with a laugh.

“UD is extremely important for us because that is a space of the market we must cover in order to be global and therefore we are actually now lining up the plan for how we continue to develop that position,” he added.

“We are looking into some of the segments to see if we can finds some strategic alliances where it matters but when it comes to the heavy product line and the medium duty range we will continue to have strong offerings, we can offer customers the fully fledge range in the different markets including Australia and New Zealand but we are in discussion

to see exactly what the set up will look like,” said Lundstedt.

Lundstedt says that there are a number of challenges for the Volvo Group both from a short term and a long-term perspective.

“In the short term it is about how to continue to manage the volatility around the globe with good flexibility upwards, downwards and in managing volatility, we often talk about that but this is the new normal, things will be more volatile, it will be more pronounced, you have seen it in Australia, it could be in commodities, it could be in resources, in different sectors like agriculture etc.

“I believe we still have some way to go to be even more agile when it comes to following both upwards and downwards trends on the truck side but also in other business sectors,” he added.

“When you look at a more strategic agenda one of the things we are doing now is trying to be better at using the assets that we have, growing organically with the products and the services we have,” he says.

“Again I think Australia is a very good example of how we can do that by really smart play, together with customers being close, using the fact that we have regional supply chains, regional engineering structures but still using the global platforms and thereby using the strengths of all the

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assets that we have in play,” he added.

Lundstedt says that one more area that is being demanded by customers is more service which means extending the scope of servicing, uptime management together with the customers, fuel management and also looking forward to new technologies including connectivity, autonomous driving and electric mobility.

“We have three very important areas where we are on a research level and hold a leading position,” he says.

“With connectivity we have 100,000 units connected units already, which is leading the industry, based on that of course we can boost autonomous driving in different environments from semi autonomous to full autonomous and in that area just think about that, when the mines are coming back we should be ready with autonomous solutions in remote areas, in particular here in Australia.

“Thirdly electro mobility particularly on the bus side of things is very important.

We are already operating fully fledged lines in Gothenberg where we can show a game change in public transport, I think we have a super opportunity given the fact that we have invested for the future and we will obviously continue to invest in R&D, network, people etc.

“We have a very strong base moving forward, so with the cost cutting and the corporate realignment we can now decentralise, use the force for good and as I say Australia is a good example The dynamic Swede says that one of the biggest challenges is in removing barriers to be more competitive within the Group.

“It is most important that we remove barriers, we have a very strong essence and you know to do this you can’t be sitting in Gothenberg looking at Powerpoint presentations!”

“You must be out, you must meet people at different levels, you have to have a hierarchy because we need to be organised but for the rest we should be

all on the same level because customers couldn’t care less for internal structures, they just want service and good product, fuel efficiency, different brands, different executions etc.”

“We have to make it simpler, have a strong strategic direction and really get the best out of the 100,000 people that work for us, “ he concluded.

With that Lundstedt was off, the time allocated for his chat to the Australian media had run out and the schedule said he had to be somewhere else. He was due to address the company’s entire Wacol staff before heading to the groundbreaking ceremony for VGA’s new HQ next to the Ipswich Motorway (see side bar). From there it was off to more meeting with customers, dinner with some key Volvo and Mack dealers and finally a few hours in a hotel bed before a 5am flight to Melbourne for meetings with some major transport groups. I doubt Barrack Obama would have a busier schedule!

“We have to make it simpler, have a strong strategic direction and really get the best out of the 100,000 people that work for us, “  Martin Lundstedt with his Australian lieutenant Peter Voorhoeve

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Operator

NEW FOUND

AGILITY

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Tracking business costs and forecasting future expenses is one of the real challenges for any business and is particularly hard for transport operators given the uncertainties of operating trucks in a tough environment, but one container transport specialist, Sydney Sideloaders, reckons it has nailed down some of those uncertainties with its new Actros trucks, by signing on for Mercedes’ Agility operating lease program. We visited the company recently for this report

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“Agility gives the customer the flexibility, at the end of the agreed finance term, to trade their truck for a new one.“

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1. Sydney Sideloaders has 11 Mercedes-Benz Actros 2648 V6 models geared for economy on its fleet with more to be delivered.

2. The brothers Divis, Chris and Tony who own and operate Sydney Sideloaders

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hris and Tony Divis can predict the future – at least part of it.

The owners of Sydney Sideloaders know how much their new Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks are going to cost to operate over three years.

The savvy operators don’t have to worry how much the trucks will be worth when they go to sell, or the cost of servicing, the price of non-consumable parts or any unforeseen cost blowouts.

This is because the Divis brothers have taken up a new type of truck purchase and maintenance package from Mercedes-Benz.

Carmakers have been offering guaranteed buyback solutions through their finance arms for the last few years in Australia and a handful of truck brands are now putting them on the table.

Sydney Sideloaders, which has delivered shipping containers to and from Port Botany, along with offering bonded storage and quarantine services since 2005, needed some new trucks last year.

“It was time to upgrade our fleet and we were looking at a range of different suppliers,” says Chris Divis.

“We have had trucks from all but about two manufacturers, so the fleet was varied.

When we started shopping around the various trucks, Mercedes presented the Agility program to us.”

Chris goes on to explain that it was: “a great way to fix our costs going forward.”

Tony says: “We moved away from the model of paying off the trucks and then running them for a couple of years. We thought we would go into the Agility

program, hand back the trucks after a certain amount of time and then take on a new one.”

Agility gives the customer the flexibility, at the end of the agreed finance term, to trade their truck for a new one, to hand the truck back and walk away with no more to pay, or to hang on to the truck.

The Divis brothers also took up the option of paying for Mercedes-Benz to manage the maintenance of the trucks, which includes servicing and warranty work.

“We don’t run a workshop, we don’t need to because we have Mercedes do all the maintenance as part of the program.

They do the servicing, we take care of delivering containers. The Mercedes trucks present well to our customers,” he says.

“It is a clean, good looking truck, our drivers are happy, there is less downtime, no breakdowns and our business runs a lot smoother.”

Chris says that before, they would send trucks to a range of different service centres and the costs often blew out.

“It could go in for a basic service and come out with an engine rebuild,” he says.

A range of truck brands offered setprice maintenance programs to Chris and Tony, but only Mercedes-Benz offered a commercially viable buyback price for the truck.

“We asked and Mercedes-Benz was the only one to back their product, which speaks volumes,” Chris says.

Sydney Sideloaders has 11 MercedesBenz Actros models on its fleet and more

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are to be delivered. It is buying 2648 V6 models geared for economy that suit the stop/start work the trucks carry out delivering containers to and from customers.

The company has one of the largest sideloader fleets in the Sydney metro area.

Even though having so many sideloaders on hand is expensive, there is a big benefit for customers.

“Our turnaround times are so much quicker than others because we have so many sideloaders operating at any given time,” Chris says.

He adds that the certainty of the Actros, which is proving to be extremely reliable, as well as the surety of maintenance program, also helps his company provide fast reliable service to its customers.

“Our client retention rate is almost unbelievable, we have many customers that were with us at the start,” Tony says.

“One customer quoted us as being their competitive advantage because we are so reliable.”

Sideloaders are a fast and effective way of handling 20ft and 40ft shipping containers. The trucks pick up the containers from Port Botany and often

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deliver them straight to the customer. By placing them on the ground at the client’s premises, they can be unpacked at the client’s convenience.

This means businesses don’t need special equipment or a loading dock.

Once the customer is finished unloading the container, Sydney Sideloaders returns and takes the container back. Failure to return the containers to the shipping company within a certain window often leads to additional fees, so punctuality is an important virtue.

Sydney Sideloaders can also hold onto containers at its yard under bond and also

4 1. Chris and Tony Divis with one of the company’s 11 Actros prime movers and the sideloader container skel.

2. The Sydney Sideloader trucks often work in challenging conditions, including tight city streets and cramped yards, which means the company relies on the skills of its drivers.

3. Sydney Sideloaders can also hold onto containers at its yard under bond and also operate a quarantine facility.

4. The containers can be delivered straight to the custome and by placing them on the ground at the client’s premises, they can be unpacked at their convenience.

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“The drivers are pleased that Actros models have joined the fleet, including a previously diehard American truck fan.“

operates a quarantine facility.

The trucks often work in challenging conditions, including tight city streets and cramped yards, which means the company relies on the skills of its drivers.

Chris and Tony say the drivers are pleased that Actros models have joined the fleet, including a previously die-hard American truck fan.

Around 60 per cent of its drivers have participated in a complimentary driver training program that helps familiarise themselves with the new truck and then help them to fine-tune their driving skills.

“Even our experienced drivers are

learning things from the training program,” says Tony.

“A lot of them go closed minded as people who have been doing their job for 30 years would do, but it is a bit of an eyeopener for them. Mercedes take the time to explain the vehicle, all the features, like any new product, they come away wiser and are using the equipment to its full potential.”

It just goes tot underline the fact that in business you have to have some flexibility and an open mind to new ideas as well as the ability to move with the times – dare we say some agility doesn’t go astray.

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Operator

Words and Photography by Howard Shanks

LEGEND IN THE MAKING

The sale of all 75 Limited Edition Legend 950 Kenworths in a little under 48 hours clearly demonstrated how passionate Kenworth enthusiasts are for a model that played a significant role in the growth of many of their businesses. Howard Shanks headed to the Apple Isle to investigate one such Legend.

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ate one February afternoon Daniel Rice, dealer principal of Tasmanian Kenworth dealer, CJD Equipment in Hadspen called to invite T&TA to the recently restored Entally Lodge in nearby for the handover of a very special truck, Gradco’s new Limited Edition Legend 950 Kenworth.

“By the way, bring your camera,” he added as he concluded the call with a “See you there.”

The following Wednesday morning arrived dark and stormy off in the western sky. The menacingly dark front threatened to break the drought embracing Tasmania. No doubt a welcome relief for the struggling farmers but not what was wanted for the handover. Thankfully by mid afternoon a clear blue sky greeted us as the immaculately detailed Legend 950 drove out of CJD’s workshop to Entally Lodge for the handover.

The Legend 950 dwarfed the collection of historic cars in the main pavilion in its bright red livery, chrome and stainless glistened in the afternoon sun as Gradco’s management and staff arrived for their first look at this unique Kenworth.

Gradco CEO Oliver Diprose introduced himself with a firm handshake and a smile, enquired my thoughts of the new truck.

“It’s sure a head turner,” I replied before adding, “The detail in it is amazing”.

Oliver admitted that the purchase of this Legend 950 was more a decision of the heart than a business one.

“We have a 1984 W-Model Gold Nugget, the wheelbase and spec of that old

 A classic Kenworth in the midst of some classic cars including a De Tomaso Pantera (foreground)

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W-Model really suits our heavy haulage float operation and that’s what we tried to replicate with the Legend 950.”

“When Daniel first showed us the concept drawings of the Legend 950 I instantly saw the detail that Kenworth had gone to with this model. We just knew we had to have one. The fact that the suppliers came on board really helped make these unique models.”

“I love that Cummins painted the engine just like an old 350 from the seventies and the way Kenworth incorporated modern features like the LED headlights and blended everything into the old school look works perfectly,” he added.

The absence of a bulbar on the Gradco Legend 950 allows you to see the additional grill bars and the old school Kenworth bug with the serif font. The round LED retro look indicators are another nice touch.

Being a heavy haulage truck Oliver specified the larger twin 406mm (Deep Bowl) heavy-duty cyclopac air cleaners with the smooth stainless risers and chrome party hats right out of the 70’s.

Then there is the two-piece stainless sunvisor, which gives a nice old school touch compared todays single piece visor that has more modern wrap around appearance. On top of the cab is five old school bullet lights.

Pay attention to the large 7-inch exhausts and the shrouds, which have been meticulously modeled on the original T950 even down to the chrome elbows. The tank steps are the old traditional ribbed style with polished tanks finished with stainless wrap and additional LED sidelights.

“The Legend 950 dwarfed the collection of historic cars in the main pavilion in its bright red livery“ 1. The absence of a bulbar on the Gradco Legend 950 allows you to see the additional grill bars and the old school Kenworth bug.

2. The retro look extends to the ‘old school’ Cummins badge.

3. The large 7-inch exhausts and the shrouds have been meticulously modeled on the original T950 even down to the chrome elbows.

4. The handover at Entally Hall was a major event ion the region.

5. Cummins even painted the engine just like an old 350 from the seventies

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“The absence of a bulbar on the Gradco Legend bars and the old school Kenworth

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950 allows you to see the additional grille bug with the serif font.“ TRUCK SPECS: MODEL LEGEND T950 Engine Cummins ISXe5 Horsepower 550 - 578 hp Torque 1850lbft torque @ 1200 rpm Gearbox Eaton Fuller RTLO22918B Front Axle Meritor MFS73 7.3T Front Suspension 7.2t multi leaf Rear Axles Meritor RT46-160GP Tandem drive, diff locks to both axles.

Rear Axle Ratio 4.30 Rear Suspension AIRGLIDE 460, 20.9T Wheelbase (mm): 5670 Interior Parchment Trim with HD diamond Seats Black Leather ISRI 6860/870 air suspended Air Dryer Chicago Rawhide Turbo 2000 air dryer Bumper Texas Style Bumper - Polished Battery Box Slide tray under cab and above tank Toolbox Tool box RHS under cab above tank

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Interestingly this is the only Legend 950 to be ordered with spider wheels, which makes a truly unique truck.

“We’ll be using it to shift a some excavators in a few days time,” Oliver said, adding an invitation to join the shift.

Several days later … The Legend 950 has been coupled to a Drake low loader with a Volvo ECR235C excavator chained to the dec, gleaming in the mid morning, at Gradco’s Launceston depot.

This machine was required at a demolition job at the Devonport wharf an hour west along the Bass highway. The run through the undulating countryside would prove a good workout for the new Cummins under the hood.

“We’ve had a lot of people look at it over the past few days,” Oliver said as he eased out the clutch and the bright red 950 began to roll out of the yard.

It took 15 minutes to commute through Launceston and onto the Bass highway.

“We have made a bit of hobby out of collecting and restoring old Kenworth trucks,” Oliver enthused as he guided the 950 westward. “We have a couple of older W-models and an original Limited Edition Gold Nugget which we intend to refurbish back to show room condition.”

After unloading the excavator at the wharf, Oliver collected the float’s dolly from a nearby yard he’d stored it at slipping it underneath the gooseneck of the float before reconnecting the unit. The next job was moving a tonne 40 for a bridge rebuilding project out the back of Forth.

“We’re taking this machine down to the bottom of the island next week,” Oliver added, as he waited for it to crawl up the ramps..

There is little doubt that this unique Kenworth Limited Edition Legend 950 will one day end up in sitting along Gradco’s other classic Kenworth trucks.

Testament to the popularity of this Limited Edition release is the fact that orders for this model were rumored to be well over double the amount available and that they were all sold within 40 odd hours of the announcement. This sadly disappointed more than a few operators but as my mother use to often say, “it’s the early bird that catches the worm”.

“We feel honored and privileged to have had the opportunity to be able to purchase this Legend 950,” Oliver concluded. “It certainly will take pride of place in our truck fleet for sometime to come, it truly is one of a kind.”

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“Interestingly this is the only Legend 950 to be ordered with spider wheels, which makes a truly unique truck.“ 1. The Legend cuts a dashing picture in the Tasmanian sunshine.

2. Daniel Rice, Dealer Principal of CJD Equipment in Launceston, completes the handover of the Kenworth Legend to Gradco boss Oliver Diprose.

3. The old school Kenworth bug with the serif font.

4. The retro surrounds of the recently renovated Entally Lodge near Launceston was a fitting place for the handover of a classic Kenworth.

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THE GRADCO STORY The Gradco story is one of humble beginnings that originated in 1995 when a resourceful 35-year-old Tasmanian, Dak Diprose, imported what was at the time considered a revolutionary all-hydraulic rubber-tyred Gradall excavator from the USA. He called the new business Gradall Constructions after the machine.

At the time the introduction of this machine, which was a considerably more expensive investment than anything else on the market at the time was considered a huge gamble. It was a gamble that paid off nonetheless. The machine boasted a rotating bucket - giving previously unmatched power and versatility, resulting in its widespread use throughout Australia during the 1960s.

Demand was on the increase as word of its capabilities spread and in 1968 Dak’s son, Robert, joined the business along with a second Gradall, this one fitted with tracks. It went to work digging drainage channels on British Tobacco’s giant Rushy Lagoon property in north-eastern Tasmania.

The earthmoving industry was evolving rapidly and during the 1970s the company diversified into other types of earthmoving equipment, with father and son working in partnership until Dak’s retirement in 1976.

As the business grew the company changed its name to Gradco.

Today, Gradco is operated by brothers Oliver, Thomas and William Diprose and comprises a large fleet that includes

excavators, articulated dump trucks, bulldozers, graders, rollers, bulk and heavy haulage units - as well as two current model Gradall excavators - the machines that started it all.

Oliver joined Gradco in the late 1990s after spending time working in the industry interstate and overseas, followed

by Tom in early 2000 after also working interstate in the industry. In 2005 William also joined the family business after a serving in the Australian Army.

With an ever-changing industry, the need to move with client’s needs and exceed their expectations brought on some of the most significant changes to Gradco since the 1980s.

Safety, Quality and the Environment were now a far higher priority in the industry,

so the third generation of Diproses really embraced these concepts.

In 2002 Gradco implemented the Civil Contractors Federation’s Integrated Management System (IMS) - which provided a pathway to full accreditation to Australian and International Standards.

By 2010 Gradco, with the help of a dedicated management and advisory team, achieved ISO accreditation for its Safety, Environmental and Quality Systems.

This gave Gradco the structure it needed to become one of Tasmania’s leading contracting companies, setting the highest standards across the industry, and today they are recognised as a market leader with works across Tasmania and into mainland Australia.

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\ Paul Jukes Victorian State Manager, Hertz Truck Rental

Efficiency for hire Australian Truck and 4WD Rentals, the Hertz Truck Rental franchisee for South Australia, NSW and Victoria, has decided to replace all of the manual trucks in its fleet with Allison fully automatic equipped trucks.

Paul Jukes, Victorian State Manager, Hertz Truck Rentals, reckons that since adding Allison equipped UD Trucks to the Hertz fleet they have delivered lower maintenance and repair costs as well as saving money when it comes to operating costs.

“Our Allison automatic trucks are easier on clutches and brakes and that means we save money, not to mention the reduced down time,” says Paul Jukes.

Hertz customers can now enjoy improved productivity through full powershifts, with faster acceleration and increase fuel efficiency in city, and suburban applications thanks to Allison.

Fully integrated, sophisticated electronic controls enable precise, smooth shifts and provide expanded prognostics and diagnostic capabilities which reduce driver fatigue, enhance safety and make the truck more reliable and efficient to operate.

Make the smart choice…. Allison automatics

© 2015 Allison Transmission Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Lighting

WATT’S THE DIFFERENCE HIDS AND LEDS We all know that auxiliary lights are necessary for safe night driving on bush roads, but with rapidly changing lighting technology available there is now a plethora of choices from traditional halogen through to LEDs and hybrids. Editor Allan Whiting takes a look at all the options and gives you the lowdown on whether you should choose HIDs, LEDs - or halogens. www.truckandbus.net.au 047

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he black art of lighting up bush roads has produced a dazzling array of add-on equipment, which makes selecting a pair of night-vision aids quite a business.

The reason for buying after-market lights should be to enhance standard headlight penetration, which is inadequate for driving on Australian country roads.

Our laboratory and real-world light tests over the years have shown that price isn’t a reliable guide to light performance, because many of the most expensive lights on the market have performed ordinarily, while some of the cheaper ones blazed brilliantly.

Looking at a light will tell you if it seems to be well made and if its mounting bracket is substantial, but it won’t tell you much about its performance.

The most confident light makers have supporting literature that shows approximate light patterns on the road surface and pattern distances in metres.

However, even such diagrams can be ‘fiddled’ because light intensity is very difficult to quantify.

By far the most popular auxiliary lighting choice is a pair of round spotties, but horizontal LED light bars are becoming popular.

Let’s look at the different driving lights you can buy.

LEDs Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), like HIDs,

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don’t have filaments and their small plastic bulb construction makes them extremely durable. A diode is an electrical device that allows current flow in only one direction.

LEDs generate less heat than resistancetype globes, so more of the electrical power is used to generate light.

LEDs are semiconductor diodes in which two slightly different materials form a positive-negative junction.

Although no current flows through the diode when circuit polarity is reversed, the central ‘neutralised’ zone increases in size and the incoming electrical energy is converted into light energy.

Halogens In any incandescent bulb, electricity passing through a thin filament causes it to glow: the higher the temperature, the brighter the bulb. However, during the process, atoms of the wire fly off, so that the wire decays to the point where it burns through or breaks. The great advance of the halogen bulb is the fact that it’s pressure filled with an inert halogen gas that greatly reduces the amount of ‘evaporation’ from the filament. In addition, the gas forms a tungsten halide compound with the few atoms that do break away from the filament. This halide returns to the filament, breaking down to its original components of tungsten and halogen gas, thus improving the life of the bulb and eliminating clouding.

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LED light bars vary in length and have single or double rows.

2&3. Hella’s small light bars can fit virtually any vehicle.

4&5. HIDs come with spot or spread reflectors.

“By far the most popular auxiliary lighting choice is a pair of round spotties“

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That said, the halogen’s ‘hot wire’ process is still only 5-10 percent efficient, with 90-95 percent of the electrical input being shed as heat.

The halogen bulb will wear out, through the effects of filament degradation, vibration and the extreme heat of the bulb: around 400 degrees C. Rough roads, poorly installed lights and clear plastic light covers used at low speeds, where there’s insufficient cooling airflow, all contribute to shortening of bulb life. In bushtravel conditions, a halogen 55W bulb may last for only 200 working hours, but a 100W bulb for as little as 50 hours.

HIDs

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High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights are automotive equivalents of the household fluorescent tube, which is 20 percent efficient and almost everlasting.

HID lighting technology replaces the filament of the light bulb with a capsule of gas. The light emanates from an arc discharge between two closely spaced electrodes that are hermetically sealed inside a small quartz glass capsule.

The amount of light produced is greater than from a standard halogen bulb, while the HID globe consumes less power and more closely approximates the ‘color temperature’ of natural daylight.

Light engineers talk of colour temperature in Kelvin units. It’s not important to understand the basis of the rating, but the comparative levels indicate why HID lights

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1&2. Mounts can be pedestal types (L) or mid-mounts (R).

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“High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights are automotive equivalents of the household fluorescent tube“ are brighter than conventional lights. The typical colour temperature of a standard incandescent globe is less than 3000 Kelvin; a halogen globe falls into the 3000-4000 Kelvin range and HID lights exceed 4000 Kelvin.

HID lights have globes with wattages that are much lower than halogen lights. A typical HID globe is only 35W, compared with the average 100W for halogen driving light globes. Because the HID globe has no wire filament it’s much more durable than a conventional ‘hot wire’ globe and should last at least 2000 working hours.

Although it produces useful output when first ignited, an HID light requires a few seconds to come up to full output.

In summary, HID lighting has three key advantages over conventional halogen primary lights: more light output, whiter light and longer service life. The main disadvantage is cost, but prices are falling steadily.

Halogens, HIDs and LEDs in the real world At T&TA we keep abreast of lighting developments and test many new lights

as they become available. In the past year we’ve evaluated all new LightForce, Narva and Hella HID and LED driving lights and light bars, as well as ARB Intensity LEDs, Korr 80W LEDs, Great Whites LED 170s, M-Performance LEDs and Big Red LEDs. We’ve made several requests to test the new FRYLYT high-wattage halogens that are claimed to outperform HIDs and LEDs, but we’re still waiting.

We haven’t yet tested any halogens that can produce the white brightness of HIDs or LEDs. However, the best 100-watt, 230mm-diameter halogens had good maximum distance beams, out to 800 metres or more.

All the LED round lights and light bars we’ve tested have produced bright, blotchfree illumination to maximum distances of around 500 metres: the higher the wattage, the brighter and larger the beam area.

No LED light we’ve tested to date can match the beam distance of the top halogens or HIDs, but LED spread beams are the clearest and brightest of all.

The best HIDs we’ve tested are relatively low-wattage lights that give bright,

long-distance beams, out to well over a kilometre. HID spreads are bright, but with some reflector-induced blotches.

‘Hybrid’ lights Many operators fit a combination of twin round lights for distance and a light bar for spread. Hella offers several combination sets, packaging halogen or HID round lights with horizontal light bars in varying sizes and Narva can provide similar combinations.

LightForce has just released the DL230 HTX 230mm light that mounts a ring of LEDs around a centrally located HID globe. Each light comes with four-strand wiring and an available wiring kit includes a pair of switches that allow the lights to be operated as LEDs only, for mediumdistance spread, as HIDs only, for longdistance penetration, or as a combination of both.

Our testing indicates that a combination of LED spread and HID distance is the best option at present, but aftermarket lighting is a rapidly changing scene, in which we’ll keep casting fresh illumination.

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GRAVEL ROADS B

AUSTRALIA COMING SOON!

AN ALL NEW MAGAZINE AIMED SQUARELY AT BUILDING AND MAINTAINING GRAVEL ROADS IN THIS COUNTRY

WELCOME TO GRAVEL ROADS AUSTRALIA AN ALL-NEW niche publication will be hitting your desk in early 2016 when Gravel Roads Australia arrives on the scene.

Gravel roads make up almost 66 per cent of the nation’s road network with close to 600,000 kms of unsealed thoroughfares across this wide brown land. Many have low traffic volumes while others are vital arteries providing access to some of our most valuable resource assets.

Building and maintaining our unsealed road network is a major industry in itself with Local Govt, Civil Contractors, Mining Companies, Forestry, Farmers and a myriad of others all

involved in ensuring these vital routes are available to industry and travellers alike.

successful transport website, www.truckandbus.net.au.

Now, for the first time, this sector will have its own journal featuring interesting stories about road construction practices, new equipment, case studies, planned projects and new techniques - in fact anything that involves the building and maintaining of gravel roads.

Gravel Roads Australia will feature great writers with features and news produced by some of the best journalists in Australia with high quality photography and design.

Gravel Roads Australia will be a high quality 64-page publication, produced four times a year by Grayhaze Publishing, publisher of Transport & Trucking Australia and Coach and Bus magazine as well as the highly

The first edition will be published in March 2016 and then in June, September and December each year. The magazine will be direct mailed to more than 3000 Local Govt Works Officers, Civil Contractors, Transport Operators, Machinery Dealers and Manufacturers as well as Mining Companies.

For advertising please contact: Grayhaze Publishing 02 9938 6408 admin@transportandtruckingtoday.com.au - ads@transportandtruckingtoday.com.au

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BUSH SPRINTER LCV

Editor Allan Whiting has discovered one of Mercedes Benz’ best kept SECRETs: THE SPRINTER 4X4. AFTER THREE TESTS HE’S CONVINCED THAT FIRE FIGHTING AND BUSH AMBULANCE AREN’T THE ONLY VOCATIONS FOR this unique vehicle. www.truckandbus.net.au 053

“Mercedes-Benz Australia sells the Sprinter 4x4 in van, cab/chassis and crew-cab/chassis versions.“

1. Car-like interior allows easy walk-through 2. Much easier access than a crew-cab ute.

3. Oberaigner’s 2.8:1 transfer case and a 6x6 model at the 2012 IAA in Hanover.

4. Skinny 205R16s have no place in this market.

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here’s always been a market for a semi-bonnetted 4x4 working van and cab/chassis Down Under and for a few years the MB Sprinter was the only offering, until the Iveco Daily 4x4 came along. The Sprinter 4x4 has some fans and there are many being used for field service, construction and mining.

Iveco is really pushing the Daily 4x4 and in 2015 it sold at more than twice the volume of the Sprinter 4x4s. MercedesBenz, on the other hand, doesn’t promote the Sprinter 4x4. (We had to get the Truck Industry Council to give us the Australian registration figures for 2015, because ‘Benz had them coded as 4x2s!)

Mercedes-Benz has a history of producing off-road capable light and heavy vehicles and has been the main supplier of medium 4WD and 6WD trucks to the Australian Army for years. It’s also the successful tenderer to replace the aged Land Rover fleet in the ADF with 4x4 and 6x6 G-Wagons, but for some reason the company hasn’t pursued the civilian market for its excellent 4x4 products.

Sprinter 4x4 mechanicals The Sprinter 4x4 is based on the 4x2 version, with off-road specific components engineered by Austrian company Oberaigner. This company is a ‘qualified partner and system supplier’ to MercedesBenz; much like AMG before it was absorbed into the Daimler empire.

Although Oberaigner makes a full-time

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4WD version, with deep reduction transfer case and rear axle differential locks, the only version being imported by Mercedes-Benz Australia has a selectable-4WD driveline, without centre or rear-axle diff locks.

Oberaigner also produces a 6x6 variant.

In late 2012 the Sprinter 4x4 picked up hill descent control and additional upgrades in 2013 and 2015, but there was still no sign of the 2.8:1 transfer case ratio, centre diff lock or across-axle diff locks that are available from Oberaigner.

On the plus side, the Sprinter 4x4 has a modified edition of the 4x2 Sprinter’s Adaptive ESP system, with ABS and ASR, electronic brake force distribution (EBD), hydraulic brake assist (BAS) and, optionally, Start-off Assist.

Adaptive ESP/4ETS also includes the control functions for the all-wheel-drive system and sensors continuously supply the central controller with information about the driver’s inputs and about operating and driving conditions. The most important parameters are steering angle, accelerator position, engine speed, wheel speeds, rotational movement about the vertical axis of the vehicle (yaw) and lateral acceleration.

The latest Mercedes-Benz’ Sprinter 4x4 models enjoy the safety initiatives that 4x2 models received in 2013. Five new systems include three world premieres for this category of vehicle: Crosswind Assist, Collision Prevention Assist and Blind Spot Assist. The systems are designed to prevent accidents from happening, rather than

mitigating the consequences afterwards.

Crosswind Assist keeps a van safely on course when the wind is gusting strongly.

Collision Prevention Assist alerts the driver if the vehicle gets too close to other moving vehicles on the road ahead or to the end of a queue of traffic, while Blind Spot Assist warns a driver that vehicles in the next lane are dangerously close. Also new are Lane Keeping Assist and Highbeam Assist.

Mercedes-Benz Australia sells the Sprinter 4x4 in van, cab/chassis and crew-cab/chassis versions with a choice of mid (3665mm) and long (4325mm) wheelbases. The Australian line-up consists of all ‘3’ series models, apart from 310, 313 and EXL variants. No ‘4’ Series models come as 4x4s, but all ‘5’ Series cab/chassis do.

The ‘3’ in the model number denotes 3.55 tonnes GVM and the ‘5’ denotes 5.0 tonnes GVM, but it can be optionally replated at 4.49 tonnes GVM, for car-licence drivers.

The ‘16’ denotes 163hp (120kW), from a sequentially twin-turbocharged, four cylinder, 2.1-litre diesel that has peak torque of 360Nm from 1400rpm to 2400rpm; and the ‘18’ denotes 180hp (134kW), from the same 440Nm, three-litre V6 aluminium diesel that powers the ML and GL wagons.

Transmission choices are a six-speed manual or five-speed tiptronic-style automatic, making the Sprinter the only light 4x4 truck with an auto box. The transfer case has very modest low range gearing of 1.42:1 and splits torque 33 percent front: 67 percent rear.

There’s a seven-speed auto available in 4x2 Sprinters, but it can’t be fitted to 4x4s, because it’s longer overall than the fiveratio box.

The final drive ratios in 4x4s with fourcylinder power are different from 4x2s. The ‘3’ Series 4x2 has a 3.923:1 diff, but the 4x4 version has 4.182:1 front and rear diffs. The ‘5’ Series 4x2 has a 4.364:1 rear diff, but the 4x4 has 4.727:1 ratios. Sprinters with V6 power have 3.923:1 final drive ratios in both 4x2 and 4x4 versions.

What these diff ratio changes mean is that the four-cylinder 4x4 models have good low-speed characteristics, but rev too high at highway speeds. The V6 models are good at both ends of the speed spectrum.

The Sprinter van is semi-monocoque in design, with an inverted hat-section frame welded to the floor pan full length. Cab/ chassis models have the same sub-frame, but have a similar hat-section bolted on top, forming a box-section chassis from the cab rear wall aft.

Up front the drive axle components and suspension are mounted on a massive subframe. The transfer case bolts directly to the rear of the main transmission, leaving the belly area clear of obstructions.

Suspension up front is by struts and lower wishbones with an anti-sway bar, and, at the rear of the van, by long mono-leaf springs with dampers and anti-sway bar.

Cab/chassis variants have two-leaf springs at the rear, with an additional ‘helper’ leaf.

Standard tyres on the ‘3’ series van are

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235/65R16 Continental van rubber, on 6.5J steel rims, but the ‘5’ van models have skinny 205R16s up front and ‘super single’ 285/65R16 rears, on 8.5J rims. Cab/ chassis have the skinny 205s, with duals on the rear axle. Neither standard tyre/ wheel package is suitable for sand work, but are passable for most work sites.

Sprinter 4x4 van and cab/chassis models sit between traditional 4x4 utes and 4WD light trucks. Even with its open centre and rear diffs the Sprinter can almost match 4WD utes for off-road ability (except in soft sand), while greatly exceeding them in cargo and passenger capacity.

When compared with other 4x4 light trucks the Sprinter has car-like dynamic safety features, traction control, ergonomics, comfort and vastly better ride and road manners. It’s also the only one with an automatic transmission option – a huge market advantage.

However, that combination comes at a cost. In the most recent rice list we’ve seen the Sprinter 4x4 was a $22,000 ask above the 4x2 models, so that gave a 316 manual 4x4 mid-wheelbase cab/chassis a RRP of $66,490. However, have you priced a LandCruiser ute cab/chassis lately?

A Sprinter 316 manual van model had a RRP of $73,990, compared with the Troop Carrier’s $65,440, but the Sprinter came with a huge sliding side door and full headroom as standard.

Payload capacity for the Sprinters ranges from around 1.4 tonnes to 2.3 tonnes.

On and off-road tests We’ve checked out three different Sprinter 4x4 vehicles since the model’s introduction.

Our first 4x4 Sprinter test vehicle was a 318 medium wheelbase van. We loaded the back with a half-tonne of railway sleepers, stowed four people and a heap of gear inside and ran the vehicle for two days over different road conditions.

In rear wheel drive mode, on highway, the Sprinter was undetectable from a two wheel drive model: it rode, handled and steered well.

Car-like ergonomics, cruise control, climate control, stubby transmission lever and excellent forward vision made driving it on bitumen surfaces a breeze and it was the same story on gravel.

The selectable full-time 4x4 driveline engaged all wheel drive with the vehicle running in neutral and the speed below 10km/h. A push on the dashboard button and all was done. In this mode the steering loaded up slightly, but because the Sprinter is fitted with a centre differential it could be driven on firm surfaces and at all speeds in 4x4 mode.

Disconnecting 4x4 mode was done in the reverse manner, by slowing to under 10km/h and slipping the auto lever into ‘N’ before hitting the button once again.

In 4x4 mode the Sprinter had much more grip than its tall stance suggested and we embarrassed a couple of 4x4 utes on loose gravel roads. The Sprinter sat flat through twisty bits and it took a great deal of

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provocation in tight corners to activate the dynamic stability control system.

On rough, corrugated and potholed surfaces the combination of coil struts up front and long mono-leaves at the rear gave an excellent, pitch-free ride. We could maintain high cruising speeds without effort.

Anyone who’s driven a Japanese 4x4 Fuso Canter or Isuzu N-Series light truck will be amazed by the contrast with the Sprinter 4x4. The Japanese vehicles have poor ride quality on good surfaces and are quite uncomfortable on rough surfaces.

The Sprinter van rode as well on rough surfaces as most 4x4 wagons and better than 4x4 utes.

Our test van was fitted with the excellent Mercedes-Benz W5A380 tiptronic-style auto five-speed main box, which had a quicker shift action than many 4WD wagon boxes. Shifts were seamless and easily manually overridden by a sideways flicking action of the lever.

The three-litre aluminium block-and-heads V6 diesel came from the M-Class and had ample grunt to propel the loaded Sprinter 318 to illegal speeds very smartly.

Noise levels inside the unlined van body were louder than ute levels, but we know from experience that an interior fitout quietens van noise markedly.

Vision from the high-set driving perch over the sloping bonnet was excellent

and checking the rear was made easy by powered, folding truck-sized mirrors, supplemented by wide-view spotters.

For serious off-road climbing we made a low range selection at rest, with the transmission in ‘N’ or ‘P’ and to enhance grip we dropped tyre pressures in the relatively skinny 235/65R16s to a recommended bottom setting of 40psi.

We didn’t expect too much from this open-diff machine on steep, loose sandstone climbs, but we were soon amazed by the agility of this big box on our off-road course.

It went everywhere traction-controlled 4x4 utes could go.

The traction control system proved to be very powerful and enduring, controlling spin constantly as the street-pattern, van tyres lost grip.

Our second test vehicle was a 516 crewcab/chassis, powered by the twin-turbo fourcylinder diesel, driving through a five-speed auto and with lower-speed final drive ratios.

A third test machine was a 516 short-cab; also with the auto box.

We loaded each vehicle with 1.5 tonnes of hardwood poles.

Slow diffs meant that the four-cylinder diesels had to rev over 3000rpm at highway speeds and fuel consumption suffered drastically, from an 80km/h average speed consumption of 14L/100km to more than 20L/100km at 110km/h.

The positive side of its lower-speed diffs

was great creeping ability on sites.

Cab equipment was similar to that in the test van, but behind the twin front bucket seats in the crew cab was a four-seat bench, with all positions having lap-sash seat belts.

The crew-cab had space galore, with ample rear seat legroom and easy walkthrough to the front seats. The space between the front seats could easily accommodate a 40-litre fridge.

Our 516 short-cab had a two-seat passenger bench, but a single passenger seat is optional.

Off road, the tray-back 516 models were far less capable than the 318 van, because their 205-section tyres were way too skinny to get much grip on loose surfaces. They also had a propensity to sink into soft ground, even with pressures dropped to 25psi. The 516 tray-backs were definitely traction-trucks, not nimble off-road performers.

Oberaigner makes a wide-wheel option for the vans and the 516, but Mercedes-Benz Australia doesn’t list it.

The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 4x4 should be doing great business as a ute replacement, a camper van, a bush fire fighting vehicle, or an off-road tour bus.

We’d like to see all the available Oberaigner kit, including the deepreduction transfer case, incorporated in the Mercedes-Benz Australian model lineup, but the range even as it stands should be attracting more buyers.

Much more people space and cargo capacity than a crew-cab ute.

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Update

I’M NOT DONE YET!

Rumours of the demise of Freightliner’s Argosy have been greatly exaggerated according to Daimler Trucks but the trouble they have been going to with upgrades and improvements would suggest that the old fella still has some life left in it yet. Jon Thomson took one for a drive recently to sample the upgrades first hand.

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“Argosy has been the staple of the Daimler owned US built brand down under for some years “

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1. The Argosy dash panels now get special attention with added sound deadening that also ensures a tighter fit, helping to eliminate squeaks and rattles.

2. The Argosy nameplate is here to stay says Daimler

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n a world scale Australia must present more than a few headaches for automotive planners. We have a relatively small market of around 32,000 commercial vehicles a year and a shade over 1.1 million total vehicle sales, so there isn’t much room for vehicles that are peculiar to our market.

Freightliner’s Argosy has been the staple of the Daimler owned US built brand down under for some years and in fact for the last few years it has only been produced for a few select right hand drive markets including here, the tiny NZ market and South Africa.

It’s easy to see why this has fuelled speculation amongst those who believe ‘they know’ that the Argosy’s death warrant has been signed.

Interestingly Daimler Trucks locally has been quite blunt in its assertions that Argosy has a future here and that there is plenty of life left in it. While there are some sceptics out there, this writer reckons that this is probably the case. Why would the company be so adamant that it was continuing if it was for the chop? Besides, Argosy is the favourite Freightliner amongst line haulers and Australians do have a love affair with cab over prime movers, with 155 of the 568 Freightliners sold in Australia last year being Argosy.

Without it Freightliner would struggle to match the likes of Kenworth, Volvo and Scania, which all have such strong sales in this sector.

So let’s call that unfounded speculation and get down to the things that Daimler has done to the Argosy locally to make it more livable and to justify its continued

existence on our roads.

During a brief 250 kilometre dash up the Hume Highway and back we had the chance to experience some of the changes including the availability of the Cummins ISXe5, a blind spot camera and a new multi-media system. In addition the Daimler PR man was at pains to point out that there has been quite a bit of work done locally to ensure the squeaks and rattles the Argosy cab has become famous for have been eliminated.

The other mod to the updated Argosy has been some strengthening to its unique swing out steps, that are the most logical and rationale addition to any cab over truck in the market. Truck driving is dangerous enough without throwing in the hazards of climbing two-metres up some precarious steps, especially if you’re juggling a coffee, a bag and some paperwork.

When Argosys arrive in Australia a local team swings into action to add some sound deadening material behind the dash panels, which also serves to ensure a tighter fit as well as eliminating the squeaks that Argosy has become infamous for. Certainly during our few hours behind the wheel it was noticeably quieter and rattle free.

The company now also removes the doors from the stowage cupboard and replaces them with some elastic netting to remove another source of squeaks and rattles, however the doors are still available as an option if that is your desire.

On our drive from Daimler Trucks’ dealership at Campbellfield we wheeled the bright red Argosy out on to the Hume with a single trailer in tow, grossing a

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3. The availability of Cummins ISXe5 engine means the nice chrome Ad Blue tank will come in handy when buyers tick the Cummins box 4. Argosy is well served in the lighting department

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“It offers a great blend of US style cab over with the advantages of the European comfort and safety that clearly comes from Daimler’s strOng influence.“ shade under 40 tonnes. We headed north on the Hume for a late breakfast at the Avenel truck stop, one of the best stops on Highway 31.

To demonstrate Daimler’s ecumenical spirit the truck featured the Cummins ISXe5 coupled to an 18-speed Eaton UltraShift Plus transmission. Ecumenical because Daimler owned Detroit Diesels have been the powerplant of choice until now but the latest Cummins SCR engine will surely add to the Argosy’s appeal.

The truck did the job easily and pulled away from the dealership with minimum fuss as you would expect from a fully B Double rated prime mover that is only tasked with a single and a good 25 tonnes under maximum weight. The Ultrashift easily shifted up through the cogs and the lever on the right hand side of the steering column allows the driver to upshift and downshift with some degree of manual control. Leaving the centre of the cab free of any gearshift ensuring easy access to the sleeper cab and the ability to stand up and move easily inside the cab.

Its easy to understand why US trucks that come to Australia are more highly

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stressed than in their homeland, where billiard table smooth Interstates don’t bring out the squeaks and rattles like our bumpy roads do. The Hume maybe a freeway but there are enough dips and bumps to test the build quality of any prime mover. The work seems to have done the trick with a quiet and pleasant cabin allowing easy conversation throughout the drive.

The Cummins e5 worked extremely well delivering when it was needed up Pretty Sally and over the range, while the interface with the UltraShift was impressive. New software has apparently been written to deliver a more streamlined and smoother driveline operation.

Argosy’s long lamented blindspot on the left hand side of the cab has been covered with the fitment of a new camera neatly positioned under the left hand door mirror. As soon as the left hand indicator is engaged (and you do know when that happens because of the extremely loud buzzer that accompanies it), then the area underneath the mirror is displayed in full living colour on the infotainment screen in the middle of the dash, hopefully ensuring any errant car drivers don’t finish up as

unwanted wheel chocks far below you.

The infotainment screen gives access to a variety of things including navigation program, Bluetooth connection for phone and music and a range of apps. It wasn’t the easiest of most intuitive to use first up but if you were living with it day-to-day I am sure it would become easier.

A few minor gripes include the exhaust brake activation being via a rocker style switch on the main dash as is the cruise control. Both of these would be better positioned on a stalk on to the steering column enabling the driver be more focused without having to navigate a bank of switches that tend to all look the same.

Minor point and one that would also potentially be easier to cope with after some familiarity.

There still seems to be plenty of life left in the Argosy. It and Daimler is clearly pushing that line hard. It offers a great blend of US style cab over with the advantages of the European comfort and safety that clearly comes from Daimler’s strong influence in Freightliner design.

For a truck that was meant to be dead the Argosy still has some spring in its step.

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MONEY MATTERS PAUL CLITHEROE ADDING TO OUR SUPER FOR A BETTER RETIREMENT

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orking Australians have almost one-tenth of their salary added to their super each year through employer contributions. Yet many people aren’t embracing the benefits of super to grow a retirement nest egg.

A recent study by MLC found two out of five Australians don’t think they will be able to fund their own retirement, and expect to rely on government support in their senior years.

One in five people are pinning their hopes on a big inheritance to ensure their financial security.

At present, 53 per cent of Australia’s retirees rely on the government as a source of income, and given our ageing population it’s hard to see how this level of support can be sustained. This is why we are continually being urged to build a pot of retirement

were aged 49 or over on 30 June 2015.

If your spouse is a low income earner (less than $13,800 annually) or not working, you may be able to claim a $540 tax offset when you make a contribution of up to $3,000 to his or her super fund.

Low to middle income earners can cash in on the government’s co-contribution scheme.

If your income for the current financial year will be below $50,454, tipping $1,000 into super from your own pocket could see the government add as much as $500 tax-free to your fund. Check out the co-contribution calculator on the government’s MoneySmart website to know what sort of co-contribution you could be entitled to.

Now when it comes to accumulating some money to potentially make those extra super contributions, many of us often have some little secret purchases that can eat into the

bills, with separate accounts for individual spending no questions asked.

The challenge often lies in breaking entrenched spending habits, and that’s where working together to follow a household budget can be helpful.

First, determine must-have money for mortgage repayments, rent, utility bills and groceries. These essential costs take top priority in your budget.

Next, talk about individual wants. It can be confronting to have conversations about how spending on personal items like clothing, haircuts, or hobbies is draining the household coffers. But simple lifestyle changes like going for a daily power walk instead of paying gym membership, or imposing a three-beer limit for Friday nights with mates, can let you both satisfy wants without blowing the budget.

“Low to middle income earners can cash in on the government’s co-contribution scheme.” savings ourselves, and superannuation provides an ideal way.

Super is lightly taxed when we’re in the work force, and you can withdraw your super tax-free from age 60. That makes super far more tax-friendly than investments held outside super - and much more of a sure thing than an inheritance.

As we head towards the end of the financial year, it’s worth looking at ways to grow your nest egg. In some cases, it could mean more money in your hand today.

If you’re a PAYG worker, consider speaking with the boss about adding to your super through salary sacrifice. This is where you choose to have part of your before-tax salary paid into super rather than receiving it as cash in hand. If you don’t have much in super, salary sacrifice can fast track your nest egg.

If you’re self-employed, making contributions to super can provide a valuable tax deduction. You can claim a tax break for up to $30,000 of contributions for the current financial year, or $35,000 if you

household income.

I suspect many of us make occasional purchases we don’t mention to our spouse or partner. It’s usually harmless stuff but habitual secret spending can leave a gaping hole in our finances.

According to research by comparison site Finder, around one in five Australians keep guilty purchases secret from their other half.

The most common secret indulgences include clothing, ‘guilt’ food and cigarettes.

It all sounds pretty low key so far. But here’s the rub. The average secret shopper shells out about $2,700 annually on hidden purchases.

I’m no relationship expert but when thousands of dollars of household money go unaccounted for each year, the whole foundation of trust can quickly unravel. If covert spending is getting the better of you, it could be time to open up to your other half.

Aim to devise a system where you are working towards shared goals while still having personal freedom. That may mean using a shared account for regular household

Finally, track and reward your progress.

Make a regular date, fortnightly or monthly, to talk with your other half about how easy or hard it’s been to stay within your spending limits.

Importantly, reward yourselves for those times when you’ve managed to stay within your budget. Go out on a dinner date or head out for a bushwalk. Just do something you both enjoy and think back to the early days of your relationship when a good time didn’t involve spending on the sly.

For more ideas about making money work in your relationship, check out my book Money, Marriage and Divorce. Or contact organisations like Relationships Australia for free or low cost counselling.

Paul Clitheroe is a founding director of financial planning firm ipac, chairman of the Australian Government Financial Literacy Board and chief commentator for Money magazine. Visit www. paulsmoney.com.au for more information.

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