Demanding route
The event – which aims to identify the very best truck in South Africa – was run on the N3, which is an extremely demanding trucking route. One of the reasons why the N3 is such a good route on which to test trucks is Van Reenen’s Pass. It’s super tough – especially when the trucks are going uphill. And it can be super frustrating when the trucks descend the pass – because they end up stuck behind slower vehicles. Overtaking is illegal but, of course, it happens.
Each Truck Test over the years has become safer and safer – as the organisers from Focus on Transport magazine and TruckScience have introduced new safety measures. This year, an innovation was introduced on Van Reenen’s. The trucks always want to complete the pass in the shortest possible time – because the time taken and fuel consumption are the two factors that are measured at Truck Test.
This year, the organisers stopped the clock for the route down Van Reenen’s. Every single extra-heavy truck (6x4 truck tractors with a GCM greater than or equal to 50 000 kg) was allocated a time of 23 minutes to descend the pass – exactly. The assumption was that the trucks would normally travel at an average speed of 45.1 km/h down Van Reenen’s. So, it was pointless for Truck Test participants to overtake – meaning this event was safer than ever before.
Comparing apples to apples
As per previous years, the organisers tried hard to level the playing fields in the event. Of course, all the trucks travelled on the same days. This is very important; weather and congestion can make the world of a difference. Then, all the trucks were fitted with telematics from Ctrack. They all ran on Engen Dynamic Diesel 50ppm with Pro-Drive. They were all hooked up to Afrit trailers. Even the loads were the same; they all carried bricks made by Vibro (the flat decks transported about 10 500 bricks while the tautliners carried a whopping 12 000).
According to George Mienie, CEO of AutoTrader, the “level playing field” makes the event a worthy and true test. “As South Africans, we can all be really proud of this event; there is nothing else like it on the continent of Africa. And maybe it’s unique globally too. Of course, there are other truck tests happening in other countries. But they fit into two categories. You get truck companies evaluating their own vehicles. Honestly, their results can never ever be as credible as Truck Test’s – because their tests are internal and not independent.
“Then there are some independent tests like Truck Test. But they evaluate trucks on different days – and not all at the same time under the same conditions. That’s not really a fair way of testing – the traffic and weather can be completely different on different days, which are major factors. With Truck Test, all the trucks are running on the same route at the same time. It’s a world class test. I think we can be proudly South African with this,” he maintains.
Value of data
Furthermore, Mienie notes that Truck Test produces highly credible data. “At AutoTrader, we’re passionate about data. We produce and have produced industry reports that contain valuable data. Our data bridges the gap between the buyer and seller. We stress the value of industry data. Simply put, vehicle dealerships that use data effectively sell more vehicles. Truck Test will generate even more data that we can share with buyers and sellers of commercial vehicles,” he explains.
Accordingly, the field of eight trucks was monitored closely throughout the 1100-km event. While the Ctrack telematics system recorded factors such as speed and time taken, observers from rival manufacturers (placed in each truck) manually logged the data.
As you read this story, the team from TruckScience is analysing all the data. The results will be eagerly anticipated and studied by all the participating truck manufacturers (as well as those who, rather unwisely, chose not to participate). The full results will be announced on this website on June 22. And finally, we will get the answer to this important question: which is the finest truck in the land?
