In ‘Hoods’ part 2, we take a look at one of the most popular brands to wear the Freightlines group of companies’ livery
In ‘Hoods’ part 2, we take a look at one of the most popular brands to wear the Freightlines group of companies’ livery and one of the western world’s most iconic truck marques.
It is not too hard to guess we are talking about the North American brand Kenworth, and Freightlines had them in spades.
Conventional Kenworths joined the fleet with T600 and T601 models, and in the early 2000s several T604s hit the road on bulk duties, which (prior to HPMV laws) were three-axle trucks towing four-axle trailers.
It was the late 2000s that saw things really take off with large numbers of T404 models hitting the road in numerous configurations and applications. There were 8×4 quad tractor unit units towing quad semis, along with truck and trailer bulkies being the most common.
Heading into the 2010s the new T408 models came online in droves followed by the similar T409s. When Freightlines freight division was sold to Strait NZ, the bulk fleet went to Bulklines, who continued to commission T409 models and more recently the new generation T610 model.
Whilst the lime green and white colours remained, Bulklines also redesigned the hood stripe as a variation to the Freightlines liveried predecessors. The Bulklines signage was also rebranded and the shadow map of New Zealand used in the Freightlines logo was removed.
Conventional trucks are not conducive to all applications of course and next month we level the playing field as we feature an all Freightlines Kenworth cabover special.
Images by Dean Middleton