This week we are announcing more about the Truck of the Year Australasia Award in 2023, PowerTorque, and our partner NZTrucking, is introducing the ToYA contenders for this year’s prize.
Deciding on which truck is to be named Truck of the Year Australasia is not one of just of thinking about a personal favourite, it is about understanding the requirements and preferences of the trucking industry in both Australia and New Zealand.
Australasia presents truck makers with challenges unlike those it faces elsewhere in the world. Trucks are working in the harshest conditions, extreme heat, sub zero temperatures and mountainous topography at weights up to and over 200 tonnes in some cases and the trucks are running at higher speeds than most of the rest of the world.
Unlike the other regions in the world, Australia and New Zealand utilise trucks from Europe, North America and Asia, often loading these trucks to much higher weights than they are designed for in their domestic markets.
The main criterion for the nomination and the election of any truck as ‘Truck-of-the-Year Australasia’ should be its contribution to the standards of safety and efficiency of transport of goods by road in Australasia. The five judges use their experience to draw out the overall effect of the new vehicle and make a judgement call on the weighting of each segment of the criteria.
Any truck which fulfils the criteria and which has a gross vehicle mass 4.5 tonnes or above is eligible. The truck must contain considerable technological improvements. A minor facelift, for instance, does not make a truck eligible. The truck nominated must be reasonably new, shall be produced in series and shall be ordered, according to an official price list.
The Contenders
Choosing the nominations for the 2023 Truck of the Year Australasia has been complicated by the effects of the pandemic on the flow of technology and vehicles at a time when travel and supply chains have suffered major disruption.
As a result, the judging panel has allowed some fluidity with the dates the trucks were launched but insisted that any contenders need to be available in both Australia and New Zealand.
All of them have been driven by, at least, Tim Giles and Dave McCoid. In following years, we hope to enable other jury members to sit in the driver’s seat as well.
The trucks nominated are, in no particular order:
l
Credit: Source link
