A look at how Japanese truck brands helped build New Zealand transport businesses, delivering reliability, strong ROI, and a foundation for industry growth
This month in our series of Jim Barker-related companies, we look at some Japanese brands I like to call ‘The Money Makers’.
Having been involved in the running of a transport company most of my working life, I learned first-hand the value and return on investment of Japanese trucks and how these brands helped many New Zealand transport companies become established.
Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and into the 2000s, literally dozens of locally owned transport companies built their businesses with the help of reasonably priced and reliable Japanese gear.
There were too many companies to count that relied on the big four brands – Nissan Diesel (UD), Hino, Isuzu and Mitsubishi (Fuso) – to put money on their bottom lines before progressing on to the higher horsepower, more expensive American and European brands once the cheque books allowed.
The landscape has changed somewhat in more recent times with the introduction of new HPMV rules introduced by NZTA back in 2010. With far higher gross weights being able to run under permits, the higher specced American and European brands have dominated this area of the New Zealand market out of necessity due to the demands HPMV work.
The Jim Barker group of companies were certainly well aware of the value for money of Japanese brands – in particular Isuzus, which found their way into most applications in the fleet during the 80s and 90s. There were of course other brands in the fleet, but the Isuzus held their own and went a long way to establish Freightlines and its sister companies.
In keeping with the tradition of the aforementioned progression, American brands Freightliner and Kenworth joined the fleet in spades along with the Swedish brand Volvo throughout the 1990s.
Owner drivers and contractors also worked out the benefits of the Japanese brands and a large percentage of them moved onto American and European brands.
Over the years some interesting nicknames have been adapted for the trucks that originated from the Land of the Rising Sun, like ‘Rice Burner’, ‘Hiroshima Screamer’, ‘Nippon Clip-on’ to name a few, and whether these names were a term of endearment or a little derogatory, there is no doubt many a hard earned dollar has been made from them.
Next month we carry on with this thread, exploring the popular notion that ‘real trucks’ have hoods.
Images by Dean Middleton