Strikingly similar, this pair of Kenworth W models certainly stood out around the Rotorua district. The first carried the Pinecor Logging logo on the door, the second Pinecor Transport Ltd. Both later passed to Consolidated Freightlines Ltd also from Rotorua around 1979.

Jim Bates Contractor runs a fleet of immaculate American Iron at the bottom of the South Island. Surprisingly, these trucks were all second hand and in most cases had covered significant distances in line haul before being purchased and then brought up to Jim’s exacting standards.

During the 60s, 70s and 80s, the premier fleet in the Waikato had to be the Tamahere-based trucks of B Cronin & Co Ltd. With red cabs and black mudguards, red tipping bodies and green stock crates, these rigs really stood out. Dave Hall looks back at the history of this stand out fleet in this multi part expose.

The line between success and failure is often very blurred, however, Cyril and Hazel Broadbridge managed to drag a small rural operation, started from scratch after the war, to what is today a strong family based transport operation in Renwick, a few kilometres west of Blenheim.

In the summer in the early 1950s during the peak of the fat lamb season Hill’s Morris Commercial had unloaded at Greatford rail and was headed back to Bulls for another load when over the Greatford overbridge came a Riley 9 that had no show of stopping. It hit the Morris in the cab and wrote off both vehicles.

One of only 31, Brian Stanaway’s White Road Boss definitely stood out around Rotorua. A Cummins 350 dragged the long loads out to mills round the district. We feature a selection of the late David Lowe’s fantastic images.