The latest from Diesel News this week includes a Linfox Appointment, VW/Navistar, Tesla, TMC, Hydrogen Trucks and a New Scania Team, plus 3D Printing and Strong Truck Sales.
Terry Quinnell has been appointed Linfox President – Retail after 40 years’ experience in the logistics industry. Quinnell began his career as a Linfox driver in 1978, and has managed some of Linfox’s largest customers as Vice President – Retail, plus spent nine years as General Manager – Woolworths. He recently led the development and implementation of Linfox’s new subcontractor management system FOXLink. Read more
This week on Diesel News we have a New Mack Launch, a New Benz Unveiled, Diesel from the US and Show and Shine on the agenda.
This video is one of a series of teasers being released by Mack in the US in the lead up to the revealing of the new range on 13 September. Of course, Australian Mack trucks are a different range. However, new features added into the US range will likely start appearing in the Macks here in Australia in time. Read more
This week we are looking at both positives and negatives in the trucking twitterverse, with anti-truck campaigns, drones, parking bays and safe tippers.
Anti-truck groups already getting fired up about the building of the new tunnel in Melbourne. Expect plenty of aggravation on this topic for quite some time. Read more
On the streets of London, the CLOCS (Construction Logistics and Community Safety) ticking for truck owners in the UK capital. There’s been a growing debate in the UK on how to avoid collisions between commercial vehicles and cyclists. Truck makers are showcasing the designs they have come up with to avoid cyclist fatalities.
In 2011, an analysis of nine cycling fatalities involving trucks in London discovered that seven of them involved construction vehicles, triggering concerns that while the construction industry accounted for only a small-proportion of freight traffic running in and out of the nation’s capital, their trucks were ‘over represented’ in cyclist fatalities. Read more
Last week was Brisbane Truck Show, here are the Diesel News’ Truck Show Snapshots, if you couldn’t make to the event.There were unveilings by Scania, UD Trucks, Mercedes Benz, International and Hino. Crowds surged around the new Kenworth T610 and the old school limited edition T900 on the Paccar stand. Freightliner harked back over the 75 years since the founding of the company with a rare 1950 A64-800 ‘Bubblenose’ truck. Read more
This week, Autonomous Trucks, a 1,140hp Engine and Failed Speed Limits, plus a truckie survey, Hino awards and new investment are all in the news.
A hybrid truck rated at 1,140hp has been unveiled by two Finnish companies, Visedo and Sisu Auto. The two have teamed up to develop a hybrid electric parallel power system for the heavy truck market capable of delivering 1,140hp (850k) and more than 5,000Nm of torque. Read more
Launched earlier this year, Mercedes’ first fully electric truck is the all-electric ‘Urban eTruck’, based on a three-axle Mercedes Antos distribution chassis (complete with a heavily camouflaged cab) which was duly described as, “The first fully-electric truck for heavy distribution operations.” Less than two months later, up popped the Urban eTruck again, only this time sporting a smart curvaceous futuristic cab, and in pride-of-place at the centre of Mercedes’ IAA show stand. Electric heavies are suddenly big news. Read more
The man tasked with the job of running Mercedes Benz trucks in Australia is Michael May, long time servant of the company and part of the relatively young team now steering the Daimler Trucks ship in this country. Diesel News talked to him about his past and the future for the truck brand. Read more
Diesel News became part of the trial testing process in the development of the new truck from Mercedes Benz, which was released last month. Here is a Actros driver’s first impressions of the cab fwhen confronted with a new design and an array of buttons and displays.
The cabin on the model tested by Diesel is the biggest one we will see here in Australia. This has a flat floor and double bunks, fitted with the kind of things we expect in a top of the range European prime mover, a slide out fridge and storage drawer, plus well-appointed interior. The bottom bunk is large, in European terms, and comfortable. Read more
Here’s a new Mercedes Benz Actros preview, in the lead up to the new model’s first official public appearance, next week. The next generation Actros is all-new from stem to stern. There’s a completely new engine platform to go along with the all new cabin. In fact, the new cabin design is a necessity, the new engine is an in-line six and a completely different shape to the V6 and V8 engines powering the current Actros.
Evaluation models have been in and out of the training room at Mercedes Benz HQ in Mulgrave, Victoria, as a succession of technicians from around Australia attend training courses in the all-new product. It’s not just the technicians, there are the parts teams, sales support staff and anyone else needing to be brought up to speed on a product range which is completely different to the product they are dealing with on a day to day basis, at the moment.
“Having the evaluation vehicles in applications is giving those people supporting the new trucks in the relevant areas some direct, real life experience with the vehicles,” said Andrew Assimo, Mercedes Benz National Sales Manager. “Nine have been in operation and there will be fifteen, in total, before the evaluation period ends.
“Some are approaching 200,000 km. One in the West is a road train truck which is running between Perth and Onslow every day, about 2,500 km. It’s running at 110 tonnes GCM, all day, every day. It’s been a good test for that truck in the hottest, toughest type of environment and it’s been really successful. We’ve been able to keep it there for a long period of time.
“This performance and durability testing is evaluating reliability. In Germany we can get so many options, but not all of them make sense for what we want to offer in Australia. As much as further adapting local equipment and local OEM supplied components, it’s a process of finding what makes sense for our market in key applications. If we want to grow and focus our attention on capturing the mainstream on highway business, we’ve got to know what works and what doesn’t.”
Assimo needs to be able to say to customers, when the new Actros is launched, that a particular model is suitable and capable of handling a specific application. The work going on now means the person selling the truck will be able to tell a customer running the Eastern Seaboard at a particular average mass and average speed, what sort of fuel usage and durability they can expect from the truck.
The evaluation will also enable Benz to give precise details on servicing costs. It will also enable the team to develop fully maintained packages which can accurately predict the whole of life cost of a truck over periods up to five years.
The initial trucks brought in were specified as a baseline from which to work. Later introductions have adjusted options like rear axle ratios and tyres to further optimise parameters like fuel consumption and service intervals. The last models used in the testing program between now and the launch will be those with the specification options found to maximise performance.
