13 Nov 2017 - New Zealand’s champion truck driver for 2017 has been found following a highly competitive final of the NZ Truck Driving Championship held at Claudelands Events Centre in Hamilton last Friday. Northland’s Simon Reid of SJ Reid Transport proved his knowledge and skill across the many different aspects of the competition to take the victory and the title of NZ’s Champion Truck Driver 2017. The competition was incredibly tight with only a handful of points separating the top few competitors. For his efforts Simon took home a $6,000 cheque courtesy of major event sponsors TR Group and Master Drive Services.
24 regional and company heat winners fought it out across a range of theory and practical tests to find four class winners as well as the New Zealand Young Driver of the Year and the overall champion.
“To even have a chance of winning in amongst such a competitive field requires a high level of competence across a range of disciplines,” says competition coordinator Mark Ngatuere. “It’s not just driving, it’s a detailed technical knowledge of the machinery and the complex matrix of rules and regulations that govern our industry.”
In the rigid sections Sam Linton from Emmerson’s Transport took out the Class 2 competition and Andrew Crandon of Linfox Logistics won the Class 3 & 4 category.
Matthew Jackson of Ben Allen Transport came out on top of the Truck-Trailer Combination section, while John Baillie of Baillie Transport won the Tractor-Semi Combination category for the second year running.
In the ERoad NZ Young Truck Driver of the Year, David Rogers of Tranzliquid picked up the $1,500 winners cheque courtesy of ERoad. This category is limited to drivers 25 years old and younger and grows in strength and numbers every year.
“The Young Driver of the Year category is an important event to recognise some of the excellent young people in our industry and is designed to help inspire those who may be thinking about getting into road transport,” says RTF Chief Executive Ken Shirley.
“The competition steering committee would like to thank John Essex, Geoff Wright, Sandy Walker, Simon Carson, Grant Turner, Jeff Fleury, Hayley O’Connor, the Women in Road Transport network and Chief Adjudicator Don Wilson for their help in putting together such a well-run event. We also appreciate the work that our associations put into to running the regional qualifying heats and supporting the overall event.”
“Andrew Carpenter and his team at TR Group and Master Drive Services, as the major Championship sponsors, deserve a great deal of thanks for their continued support of the event. Without our sponsors events such as this would struggle to get off the ground,” says Shirley.
| An RTF release || November 13, 2017 |||
6 Nov - The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has approved Teletrac Navman as an Electronic System Provider (ESP) and appointed it as an agent for the collection of Road User Charges (RUC) using its new RUC Manager platform and Electronic Distance Recorder. Teletrac Navman RUC Manager along with the Electronic Distance Recorder will allow users to manage, purchase, display and update road user licences in real-time. RUC Manager automatically tracks vehicle distance and calculates off-road activity, enabling accurate, NZTA-approved RUC rebates.
“The work Teletrac Navman undertook to develop RUC Manager to meet specific New Zealand regulatory requirements and gain ESP approval is a mark of our commitment to our long-standing customers and to the transport industry as a whole,” says Ian Daniel, vice president and managing director Asia Pacific, Teletrac Navman.
In July 2017, Teletrac Navman reached the milestone of tracking 100,000 vehicles across Australia and New Zealand.
“Globally the transport market is highly competitive. Businesses must perform under pressure, so solutions which help them to better manage costs, improve service, address safety, capture and analyse data, and address compliance requirements are extremely important.”
To receive NZTA approval Electronic System Providers must go through a rigorous development and testing process to prove the quality and reliability of the system.
“Teletrac Navman has completed the NZTA testing process and meets the standards for recognition as an ESP. The standards are designed to ensure that the technologies and systems tested are robust, reliable, and make compliance easier across many industries including transport, agriculture, forestry, trade and civil services,” says John Freeman, manager revenue assessments, NZTA.
| A TeltracNavman release || November 6, 2017 |||
3 Nov - Driver training in the North received a boost when Fonterra officially handed over a decommissioned milk tanker to NorthTec’s commercial transport department. The tanker was blessed at a special ceremony held at the Future Trades Centre in Dyer Street, Whangarei. NorthTec kaumātua, Hohepa Rudolph, welcomed officials from Fonterra, NorthTec, other stakeholders and students, and performed the blessing of the new “waka”, naming it Uruao. The name means “tail of the scorpion” and refers to one of the first great ocean-going waka, built for the earliest migrations to New Zealand.
In return, NorthTec Chief Executive, Mark Ewen, presented Barry McColl, Fonterra’s National Transport and Logistics Manager, with a carved wooden paddle.
Mark Ewen said: “We are concentrating on outcomes for our stakeholders and making sure we deliver on those outcomes. It isn’t always easy for us to have the right resources to deliver for all our stakeholders, but now we have a truck and trailer for the next three years.
“It is a very generous investment in us – it’s an investment because we need to be producing more drivers from our region and employing more drivers in our region. It’s an investment in us to deliver fully trained drivers back to the industry for the next three years and beyond.”
Barry McColl said: “We’re really proud to be able to support initiatives that help develop communities and give back to the regions where we operate. These are the communities that our farmers and our people are part of, so being able to help out with resources that bring new opportunities is important to us.
“Here in Northland there are lots of young people who are seeking employment, and we hope this truck gives them a tool that they can use to gain experience and a springboard into a new career.”
Darrin Rhodes, Fonterra’s Regional Transport Training Manager for the North Island, said the company had often discussed the shortage of drivers in the industry, and decided to work with polytechnics to address the issue, providing the trucks to enable driver training. He presented Mark Ewen with a model of the milk tanker and trailer unit, in acknowledgement of the new partnership.
The tanker, which is now on long-term loan to NorthTec, will be used for training for students earning their Class 4 and Class 5 Truck Licences. It can also be used for completing driver competency tests and assessments, and other training opportunities like safety inspections, mechanical inspections and truck safety days.
The tanker handover was initiated by Keith McGuire, Regional Executive for the Road Transport Association NZ (RTANZ), and came about through discussions with Barry McColl and NorthTec’s commercial transport department. Uruao is the third tanker and trailer unit loaned by Fonterra to tertiary institutes in New Zealand.
| A Northtech release || november 3, 2017 |||
26 Oct: The German industrial giant Siemens plans to merge its rail business with the French train equipment maker Alstom, the companies said Tuesday, creating a behemoth that can compete with the Chinese-state backed China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation. The combined company, Siemens Alstom, would make systems and equipment for two of Europe’s high-speed rail lines, Germany’s ICE and France’s TGV, which can zip between cities at about 185 m.p.h.
“We are creating a new European champion in the rail industry for the long term,” said Joe Kaeser, the chief executive of Siemens. “This will give our customers around the world a more innovative and more competitive portfolio.”
The European rail industry faces pressure from China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, which has been making an aggressive push to expand around the globe, including in the United States. It is part of China’s larger economic and geopolitical agenda that encourages its technology and infrastructure companies to seek foreign markets, refashioning the global economic order to draw countries and companies more tightly into the country’s orbit.
Continue here to read the full article published in the NYT September 27, 2017 |||
New Zealand-based heavy equipment specialist Tidd Ross Todd (TRT) has designed and manufactured a widening eight-line platform trailer for Queensland-based Mactrans Heavy Haulage.
According to TRT, the features of this trailer have been designed for Mactrans' specific haulage challenges following extensive consultation, to make the transport 70 – 120-tonne equipment more efficient.
The platform trailer has been designed for maximum manoeuvrability and load variation, using a centre spine with two widening decks that expand its width from 3350mm to 4880mm.
There is 18m of clear deck behind the neck to the inside the ramps, and 855mm lowered height for easy loading. The deck is manufactured with a positive camber and TRT’s coaming rail – which it says is the deepest of any trailer manufacturer – to help optimise load stability.
It has 64 wheels, eight spares and 16 BPW steer axles to provide the 23m trailer manoeuvrability in any direction.
The trailer also features TRT’s live hydraulic compensating “Gooseneck”, which allows the trailer to be lifted and lowered during travel, minimising damage to equipment and load.
| A Trailer release || October 18, 2017 |||
Cargo Composites (Charleston, SC, US) reports that it has partnered with Boeing (Chicago, IL, US) to deliver composite unit load devices (ULDs) to Air New Zealand. A Boeing 787 departed Charleston on Oct. 6 for Auckland, New Zealand, with Cargo Composites' newest container, an insulated ULD for transporting perishables via air cargo, called the aeroTHERM . To date, Air New Zealand has purchased more than 400 aeroTHERM units.
Cargo Composites says the aeroTHERM ULD makes shipping perishables more affordable by taking advantage of Cargo Composites' patented and proprietary design. There is no need for power or for a cooling system — the aeroTHERM's internal compartment is designed to withstand external temperatures. The insulated ULD helps protect contents from extreme temperatures experienced on the tarmac waiting for loading, when a standard ULD's internal temperature can exceed 120°F or fall below 0°F.
Tom Pherson, president of Cargo Composites, states, "We are thrilled to provide the aeroTHERM units to Air New Zealand and to partner with the local Boeing facility to deliver the composite insulated ULDs on another locally made composite product, the 787. This is another great example of how South Carolina's aerospace industry is thriving with activity around the world."
| A CompositesWorld release || October 16, 2017 |||
The nearly 100-kilometer pilot run was completed without a driver on board, making it the first fully autonomous heavy haul train journey ever completed in Australia write MH&L .
At its iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, Rio Tinto announced on October 2, that it has successfully completed the first fully autonomous rail journey.
The nearly 100-kilometer pilot run was completed without a driver on board, making it the first fully autonomous heavy haul train journey ever completed in Australia.
The journey was completed safely, being closely monitored in real-time by Rio Tinto teams and representatives of the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator, both on the ground and at the Operations Centre in Perth.
“This successful pilot run puts us firmly on track to meet our goal of operating the world’s first fully-autonomous heavy haul, long-distance rail network, which will unlock significant safety and productivity benefits for the business,” explained Rio Tinto Iron Ore CEO Chris Salisbury.
The company is working towards commission AutoHaul project in late 2018. The AutoHaul project is focused on automating the trains that are essential to transporting the iron ore to Rio Tinto's port facilities.
Trains started running in autonomous mode in the first quarter of 2017. Currently about 50% of pooled fleet rail kilometers are completed in autonomous mode (with drivers on-board) and 90% of pooled fleet production tonnes are AutoHaul enhanced.
Rio Tinto operates about 200 locomotives on more than 1,700 kilometers of track in the Pilbara, transporting ore from 16 mines to four port terminals.
| An MH&L release || October 3, 2017 |||
ACL Airshop of the US and CORE Transport Technologies of New Zealand have announced an exclusive strategic alliance for bringing innovative new, field-proven Bluetooth® enabled logistics technology to the global air cargo industry, to jointly provide automated tracking of Unit Load Devices (ULD Equipment). ACL Airshop, with main offices in South Carolina and Amsterdam, is a worldwide provider of custom ULD solutions to over 200 air carriers and cargo clients, with services, repairs, and leasing operations at 40 of the world’s Top 50 air cargo hub airports, substantial manufacturing and supply chain capabilities for cargo control products, and 34 years of experience in air cargo. CORE Transport Technologies is an agile software developer, focused for over 10 years on services that provide significant improvement to the transportation process in multiple industries, with offices in New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Orlando FL.
Predictive analytics and Big Data are just part of the new efficiencies these innovations can bring to air cargo carriers, according to the two companies. They assert that airlines will also be able to track the actual cargo loads by the container and pallet, that the tracking system will yield real-time “dot on the map” monitoring and status reports, and will reduce both the loss and/or the overstocking of pallets and other mission-essential cargo equipment. This is coupled as a significant technical enhancement to ACL’s already robust ULD Control and bar-coding systems used by some of its customers.
The two companies have successfully concluded extensive beta testing in the field with international air carriers and an array of multiple ULDs, with 100% tracking reliability. Similarly, a global air carrier conducted another CORE test which succeeded with hundreds of ULDs. Market readiness is now complete. Regulatory aspects such as compliance with FCC and FAA rules have been addressed, plus rigorous adherence to RTCA-DO-160 (“Environmental Conditions and Test Procedures for Airborne Equipment”).
Ian Craig, Managing Director & CEO of CORE Transport Technologies cited additional aspects of the logistics enhancements for clients, and explained the strategic alliance merits at a September air cargo conference. “While CORE has initiated a number of previous technology products independently, with the most current offering of COREInsight Tracking technology, we felt it is best suited for a partnership with a great industry leader like ACL Airshop.” Craig further stated, “By partnering with ACL, we introduce a new benefit to leasing ULD Equipment, whereby the lessee can now have an automated avenue to track their leased ULD even when it may be outside their own system. Core grants ACLAS the worldwide exclusive right to license, sublicense, and sell the ULD tracking technology, in tandem with us. ACLAS customers will always know where their ULD’s are located and when they are being utilized.”
Wes Tucker, Executive Vice President for ACL Airshop, said, “This partnership is not only about tracking ACL’s 40,000 ULDs, it’s also about partnering with a formidable technology company to bring electronic ULD tracking to the airline industry. We’ve been working in unison with CORE in testing and development of this technology. The results are quite impressive. This is the ultimate solution for ULD Equipment tracking available today.” Tucker further explained benefits for airlines customers, “This is a positive game-changer for ACL Airshop and its hundreds of airlines clients. COREInsight ULD service tracks these valuable assets in real time. FOR ACL’s airlines clients, we predict this will be a low-cost logistics efficacy enhancement that will remarkably improve how we can help them manage their fleet and save money long-term.”
Steve Townes, chairman of ACL Airshop and its parent company, said, “Speaking for our entire team of Ranger Airshop co-owners, we are excited to advance and accelerate this new logistics sophistication for ACL’s airline clients, and we are delighted to be partnering with such an excellent teammate as CORE Transport Technologies. We are aiming to accelerate Bluetooth tracking into usage for the many airlines customers who will value the compelling new efficiencies it is designed to deliver for their ULDs”
| A joint ACL Core release || October 2, 2017 |||
A return to 100 per cent jet fuel allocations at Auckland Airport is a great start to the school holidays for airlines and their customers, Energy and Resource Minister Judith Collins says.
Two weeks ago the fuel allocation was reduced to 30 per cent following the disruption to supply through the Marsden Refinery to Auckland pipeline. Fuel allocations were increased incrementally to 50 per cent then 80 per cent as alternatives to transporting fuel to Auckland Airport were found.
“Getting back to 100 per cent fuel allocation this morning is great news for the start of the school holidays. It is the result of the co-operation between government and industry in managing a complex logistical exercise in moving fuel through alternative routes by land, air and sea,” Ms Collins says.
“It should be noted that the Marsden Refinery to Auckland pipeline while repaired, will be operating at 80 per cent capacity into the New Year. However, the industry is confident that the pipeline will be able to deliver the amounts of jet fuel airlines need to operate normally.
“Trucks will continue transporting the 1.5 million litres of jet fuel stored at Wynyard Wharf until the tank is empty, which is expected to be toward the end of next week.
“It’s also good to hear from the industry that there are no longer any short-term outages at stations in Auckland. The pipeline is increasingly being used to deliver petrol and diesel into Auckland, which is continuing progress to normal supply. The fuel companies are looking at their logistics to ensure use of the pipeline and fuel being trucked in from outside of Auckland is balanced, and continues to ensure demand is met.”
| A Beehive release || October 2, 2017 |||
NEW ZEALAND logistics company C3 runs an operation hauling woodchips from sustainably- grown plantations in southern Western Australia to Albany Port.
The company runs a range of IVECO Stralis models for the job. The Stralis prime movers operate five days per week, averaging more than 400km per day, with the majority of the plantations they service located within a 130km radius of Albany.
Along with the WA-based fleet, C3 also operates several trucks from the city of Portland in south-western Victoria in the same application but configured as B-doubles.
C3 has invested in more than 20 Stralis trucks across several years, comprising of the earlier series AS-Ls and four new AS-L Series II models that have been added in recent months.
C3 Albany operations manager Craig Fildes said some of the first Stralis prime movers on fleet were now approaching a million kilometres.
These were fitted with Cursor 13 engines producing 500 horsepower and the smooth-shifting EuroTronic II 16-speed AMT.
"We began using Stralis AS-L prime movers around six years ago. Some of these are still being used and now have over 800,000km showing,” Craig said.
"When it came time to grow the fleet in this application, we opted to continue using AS-Ls, purchasing four of the latest Series II models in March.
"This time we went for the higher engine output and worked with IVECO to select the best GCM.
"The AS-Ls allow us to work at our desired target of 90 tonnes, which helps productivity.
"The AS-Ls do quite an amazing job, they are a good all-round fit for the application. They're comfortable, quiet, they're easy to work with and are competitively priced.
"A lot of the roads the trucks travel on, especially in the plantations, as you could imagine are not very nice, the trucks can take a battering, but the IVECOs handle it well.
"The drivers are also happy with them, especially with their comfortable, quiet cabin.”
The latest AS-L Series II prime movers feature a 560hp, 13-litre Cursor engine coupled to a ZF Eurotronic II 16-speed transmission.
| An IpswichTimes release || 19 September, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242