PowerTorque in association with NZ Trucking are introducing the Truck of the Year Australasia Award for the first time in 2023.
This year sees the arrival of a major initiative to increase the profile of the truck industry in Australia and New Zealand and emphasises the importance of trucks to our nations’ wellbeing and prosperity.
Truck of the Year Australasia (ToYA) will be presented at the Brisbane Truck Show in front of the media and will also serve as an opportunity for the truck industry, as a whole, to promote its importance to our economy.
In 2023, the first ToYA will be awarded to the truck which meets criteria based on those used globally by the other three International Truck of the Year (IToY) awards already in existence, in Europe, South America and China, but also taking into account the particular characteristics of the Australasian truck markets.
Truck of the Year Australasia is a positive initiative which will shine a spotlight on the excellence of the product hauling freight on our highways. There is general media interest in the award, which will further enhance that spotlight. Also, with the help of the close connections with our fellow jury members and access to trucking industry publications around the world, it is an opportunity to showcase this Australasian excellence internationally.
To choose the winner, a jury of five people will assess the trucks nominated. Apart from Tim Giles, Editor of PowerTorque and Dave McCoid, Editor of NZ Trucking, we have asked Charleen Clarke from South Africa to make up a third IToY representative. The other two jurors have yet to be decided, but will be either industry experts or journalists, without brand affiliations, one from Australia and one from New Zealand.
The award is our region’s development adding to the International Truck of the Year (IToY) award family, which was originally launched in 1977 by the British journalist and legendary Editor of TRUCK magazine, Pat Kennett.
Today, the 23 jury members from magazines throughout Europe have been joined by ‘associate members’ in the growing truck markets of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Japan, China, India, Iran, and South Africa. Altogether, the combined truck operator readership of the 24 IToY full-jury members’ magazines and those of its 10 associate members exceeds 1,100,000.
When the ToYA is presented the story will be broadcast around the world to these outlets, presenting the excellence of the Australasian truck industry to the rest of the world.
Here in Australia, the period around the Brisbane Truck Show is the obvious time and place to make the announcement of the award, as it is one of the few occasions when all of the Managing Directors and CEOs, of all of the truck manufacturers operating in the Australian truck market, are in the same room. The presentation of the award will alternate between Australia and New Zealand, with the 2024 award being presented in New Zealand.
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