Old School Trucks: NZL—Part 1
Deals on Wheels takes a look back at NZL's fleet
When I was around 16 years old, I was fortunate to spend the best part of 1988 and 1989 living and working in Auckland. Needless to say, on the weekends when I wasn’t working, I was off to trawl around the almost limitless truck yards of the greater Auckland area in the work hack, a beaten up L300 Mitsubishi van. The van being a bit of a wreck did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm, however, as being born and bred in Christchurch (and all but exhausting the local trucking company scene back then), the Auckland transport yards were a gold mine for a teenager and his camera.
Back in those days, most yards were accessible and even the ones that did have gates usually had the gates left open. One such yard I often frequented was NZL Transport in Wiri. Back then, most of the trucks parked up were those of contractors/owner drivers, which made for a varied array of makes and models to snap.
Previously known as the New Zealand Lumber Company Limited, NZL Group has been a transport and logistics company in New Zealand for more than 60 years and have long had a mix of company trucks and contracted trucks in the NZL fleet. Originally dark green and white, the mid-80s saw a livery change to White and Silver and a shortening of the name to NZL Transport. The livery was again revised many years later to the white and bright lime green we still seeing plying our roads.
Next month, we look at some more of the fleet heading into the late 2000s to the present day.
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