Story Wayne Munro Photos Gerald Shacklock BIG TEST - Isuzu

Back at the cavernous Bullet
Freight logistics centre in the
middle of the day, the Isuzu has
the freight recently picked up
in Albany quickly unloaded
ON THIS busy Albany street it doesn’t take long for the
traffic to build up as the truck driver backs and forths his way through
getting his truck and trailer backed into a factory driveway.
The street’s lined with parked cars, leaving not quite enough room
in which to swing the Isuzu FVY1400 6x4 truck and get the trailer
pointed in the right direction – prompting a bit of trailer chasing, a
bit of correcting, a bit of pulling forward for another go. It doesn’t
help that the driver’s new to the truck and the sensitive little two-axle
trailer behind it. New also to delivering to this particular address.
In fact, the man behind the wheel for this tricky manoeuvring is
New Zealand Truck & Driver tester Trevor Woolston – getting a taste of
the challenges of metro freight work in the country’s biggest city.
Well that…and testing this one of a vast array of new models (69 of
‘em) in Isuzu’s GEN6 (yep, sixth generation) family of F Series mediumduty
and N Series light trucks.
Backing into tight driveways and contending with impatient
Auckland motorists is very much part of the daily deal for Anthony
Marks, the regular driver of this Bullet Freight Systems truck and trailer
unit. He comes to this particular factory twice a day, five times a week.
His advice on the cars is simple: Don’t let it get to you. He doesn’t
– not even when annoyed motorists are moved to get out of their
cars to verbally abuse him: “I just think over the top of it. I’ve had it
happen a couple of times – people coming up to me and swearing
and everything…complaining that I was taking too long.
“I just say ‘I can’t do anything about it. I can’t manoeuvre this thing
like a car or a van.’”
He has tried to explain that “I’ve got a lot more things to worry
about than you guys have: It’s easy for you to turn around and look
– I can’t see anything.”
So, did they take that on board, you ask? Anthony’s answer is
succinct: “Nah.”
It doesn’t help Woolston’s effort to quickly clear the road and let
these potentially abusive motorists get on their way that the pressure
in the Hendrickson HAS400 air suspension on the Isuzu’s Meritor
RT40-145G rear axles sees it hike a wheel without much provocation
– bumping over the kerb, for instance. It prompts another delay for the
waiting motorists, as Woolston has to resort to the diff lock.
On the other hand, he does find an advantage in this new truck
that takes some of the stress out of this situation: As part of the move
to driver-friendly features for its city trucks, with their susceptibility to
regularly getting involved in stop/start traffic, Bullet managing director
Owen Ferguson decided on going for the automatic transmission
version of the FVY1400.
And so at least the back-and-forthing between reverse and first
couldn’t be easier when it comes to the actual gearshifting – simply a
matter of pushing the R (reverse) button, pushing the D (drive) button,
the R, the D, the R, the D…..well, you get the idea. Hell, what’s not to
like about autos!
Well, funnily enough, the transmission was the one thing about
this new truck that driver Anthony didn’t like initially: “I’m not
really a fan of automatics – I like my manuals.” He drove an
18-speed Roadranger and an eight-speed manual in his previous
two trucks (a linehaul Mitsi and a metro Hino, respectively) and
confesses now: “I’m just missing the clutch.”
He reckoned that the worst bit of all about the auto was in exactly
this situation: “The hardest thing was getting used to reversing the
trailer without having a clutch and a gearstick. This trailer can be quite
tricky to back. If you don’t control it, it’ll go anywhere.”
But now, he says, he’s learnt how to make the most of the six-speed
Allison 3500 Series: “Now that I’ve got used to it, it’s good. Easilycontrollable.”
The automatic does make life easier – particularly in the
city’s heavy traffic, he says.
That’s important, considering that the nature of Bullet’s metro work
means that trucks like the Isuzu typically have to make end-of-theworking-day
pickups from regular customers…
And then beat their way back to the company’s Greenmount
logistics centre through the city’s notoriously-bad rush-hour traffic
– for the freight to be sorted, to either be sent off around the
country that night on the linehaul units, or await delivery around
Auckland the next morning.
22 | Truck & Driver
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