Aeolus Truck & Driver News

Truck enthusiasts have had a few months to spot the first examples of the new Kenworth K220 on New Zealand roads and at recent truck shows.

Now the next generation cab-over is officially here with the New Zealand launch taking place during Easter’s big `Wheels at Wanaka’ event. Four new K220s spent time in the spotlight with show goers keen to check out the refreshed exterior styling and the modernised interior.

A visit to the Southpac Trucks stand at Wanaka made it clear the new face was drawing the crowds. There was a queue to even climb into one with the public climbing all over the 6x4 tractor and 8x4 cab chassis demo units on display.

Once we manag...

April has seen change at the top of Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand with Chief Executive Nick Leggett departing the role after almost four and a half years.

Leggett’s final day at Transporting New Zealand was Friday April 14. Transporting New Zealand Chair, Warwick Wilshier, says General Manager Dom Kalasih will become acting CEO until a new Chief Executive is selected.

Leggett is moving to a new CEO role with Infrastructure New Zealand, where he starts on April 24.

“I am grateful to have worked for an industry that literally moves New Zealand,” Leggett says of his time at Transporting NZ. 

“Road transport is made up of some terrific...

The evolution of self-driving truck technology has seen Kodiak Robotics introduce the fifth-generation of its Kodiak Driver autonomous truck hardware platform.

The gen-5 technology increases sensor redundancy and GPU processing power and notably, Kodiak has removed the roof-mounted “centre pod” sensor suite. The front-facing Luminar Iris LiDAR and wide field-of-view camera have been relocated to each of Kodiak’s proprietary mirror-mounted SensorPods.

By integrating sensors into the SensorPods and eschewing the “unibrow” sensor suite common in the autonomous trucking industry, Kodiak has unlocked faster upfitting for customers, greater maintainability and bett...

Recent testing for the battery-electric Mercedes-Benz eActros 300 has included driving a tractor unit from the Arctic Circle to Stuttgart, Germany.

The six-day, 3000km trip is a long-haul test for a truck designed primarily for regional distribution roles and also subjected the eActros to a wide variety of climatic and topographical conditions.

Customers are not likely to use the Mercedes-Benz eActros 300 as a tractor unit for this kind of a long journey. However, being able to test the vehicle in real operation for several days at a time under the most varied climatic and topographical conditions is an ideal the opportunity for the developers to optimise its...

Iveco has begun the roll-out of new generation heavy-duty product with its S-Way models launched in Auckland recently.

The event at Iveco New Zealand headquarters in Wiri was attended by Iveco Australia New Zealand managing director Michael May, who says the new models represent an aligning with European model choices following the decision to close the Dandenong assembly plant near Melbourne.

“We wanted to make sure we are aligning with the latest technology from Europe. We could continue [with the Dandenong operation], but we would need to invest tens of millions in that facility. Or we could align with Europe and get access to the latest products from Euro...