The Freightliner Cascadia has been with us now for four and a half years, and it was time to see how it’s faring Down Under. Is Cascadia living up to the promise? After a little searching, we found just the right truck, driven by just the right bloke.

Regular readers will recall the extensive coverage we gave to the Freightliner Cascadia’s build-up in this part of the world, culminating in the November 2019 Sydney launch. Our first cover truck came in the November 2021 issue, a brand new 116 bulky owned by Cromwell-based McNulty Transport. The daily task was a short-haul aggregate supply run ex the company’s Amisfield Quarry on the western side of Lake Dunstan, to Firth batching plants in Wānaka and Queenstown, with an occasional trip out to the East Coast chucked in for good measure.

Although a great ‘Kiwi style’ application, this time we wanted to have a look at a Cascadia 116 in a role more closely aligned to the truck’s original US intention. We also wanted one with a little use under its belt.

To embrace the full US vibe, ideally it needed to have an aero kit, and be rolling up the road with a big semi-trailer plugged into the fifth wheel. Easy enough you might think, but our ideal truck took a little finding. Shortlisted was one of the seven Hall’s Cold Chain Logistics units that hit the road in 2021, purchased through CablePrice’s Trevor McCallum before his retirement. They fitted the brief to a T, and a quick call to Christchurch transport manager Hayden Reed had us aiming for the immaculate fleet No.7201, domiciled in Dunedin and driven by career wheel-man, Phil Taylor.

It’s an interesting and cautionary lesson in life: in a country and industry as small as ours, your reputation is only ever three marker pegs ahead of you. In the weeks leading up to the phone call to Hayden, every time we chatted to folk about what it was we were looking for and mentioning one of the Hall’s units were on our radar, eight times out of 10 the reply would come back, ‘I know it’s a long way down country, but if it’s Hall’s, it’s gotta be the Dunedin truck’ – or in the case of those who know Phil, ‘It’s got to be Phil’s one in Dunedin, he keeps that bloody thing immaculate! It wouldn’t be fair to not do Phil’s.’

Now, if I may pause momentarily for any industry outsiders embarking on a whole new world of print entertainment. ‘That bloody thing’ in the context of the previous statement is an industry generic term of endearment when a bunch of truck types reference any machine a dedicated operator keeps in fine condition. I’ll give you, it’s an odd turn of phrase considering truck drivers love the machines of their industry and would never refer to their own mechanical companion as a ‘thing’ on almost any occasion. Stand in the shadows at a truck show, however, and I promise you’ll hear it all day long ‘Shit he/she keeps that thing sharp/mint/on-point/ immaculate!’ A funny quirk for sure, but something that makes us, us. Consider it truckers’ love language … but a word of caution, don’t try it on the spouse.

Are your McLean’s showing?

Not sure about me, but Bruce McLean’s certainly are, and it has to be said the Dunedin and Invercargill Hall’s fleet falling under his operational care all look on point and pearly white. A truck man hailing from a long and broad lineage of lower south pedallers, Bruce’s infectious enthusiasm for his industry and the machines at its core would even rub off on Francis Bourgeois!

Bruce manages the Invercargill depot and runs truck operations at both Invercargill and Dunedin, with colleague John Warburton managing operations at the Dunedin depot. Day to day he has about 15 trucks in his keep and additional to them are any floating linehaul units from outside the area travelling south of Christchurch, looking to get back north.

“Ours is a mixture of local, linehaul, and floating. The business is dynamic, and customer requirements and order size can change in a heartbeat, so we have to be ready. I’m a customer service man to the core; I get a real buzz out of the operations role and the challenges it presents. We’ve got a great crew across the two depots at the moment. Invercargill is always settled. However, the amount of trucking based in and around Dunedin makes it a competitive labour market and creates a higher level of churn. It’s just the way it is.

“Workwise, things have really picked up again after a quiet winter in 2023. We were fine through Covid, but had a lull last winter, the first one we’ve really noticed through the whole pandemic era. Thankfully, that’s passed and we’re off again.

“The Freightliners, yeah, they’ve been interesting. Fundamental mechanicals have been bulletproof; they haven’t let us down at all. But they’ve been a little niggly at times with silly things like marker lights and minor electrical-type stuff, and we had one that broke the door handle! The bit you grab … broken!

“We used to have one based here from new on linehaul and it racked up 220,000km in 12 months. The drivers rated it highly on comfort, quietness, and handling. However, because they’d come off a DD15 in the Western Star, they felt a bit hard done by with the DD13 when they got to places like the Northern Motorway out of Dunedin or the Kilmog.

“Now the business has moved to Scania R590s for the linehaul function, so they’re back to 16L and 590 horsepower, so you know they’re all over them, and you can’t blame them. The Cascadias have found their home in the regional function with the occasional longer run when required.”

Finding opportunity

It’s an interesting assessment from the man who runs them, and soon we’ll move to the man who lives with one.

There’s a whole lot to unpack in Bruce’s comments and it speaks volumes about linehaul trucking in New Zealand and what is required when perishable consumables and food products are at stake.

Three years after our launch articles, Freightliner continues to wield the big hammer in the domestic US class 8 heavy truck market at about 37.9% (87,000 trucks pa approx.) and Cascadia is without doubt the undisputed golden child, still. In many ways the brand lives up to the dream of its founder Leyland James, who sought a light, powerful, economical truck that optimised payload. Dominance in modern times has its roots with Daimler’s top truck man Martin Daum, who turned a flagging market share around with the arrival of the new Cascadia in 2007 and a clear instruction to his people at Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) that they will deliver a 5% reduction in TCO on the model every two years from that moment on. Yikes! R&D nirvana.

Of course, we got the benefit of all this in 2019 when it was decreed the ANZAC nations will fall under the wing of DTNA. Paradoxically, it did mean losing the Argosy, which caused barely a ripple in Australia while sending New Zealand into apoplectic seizure. A valuable lesson, reminding us the hammer we swing when it comes to influencing the global heavy truck market is actually made of polystyrene; probably worth remembering just at the moment.

Never fear though, a bonnet it might have, but at least there would be an 8×4. Well, that was until the regional launch function at the Sydney Opera House in 2019 when Mr Daum put that rabbit in the crematorium, saying such oddness would fall under the wing of the new Western Star when it came; Western Star being the vocational truck in the DTNA lineup.

What it all meant is the road Down Under on the eastern side of the Tasman would not be an easy one for one of the world’s most dominant commercial motor carriages, and that has played out with only 33 of the 116 model, and 10 of the 126, hitting the road here since launch. (The model number denotes bumper to back-of-cab measurement in inches.)

Cool bloke, cool runnings

What we omitted from the list of original requirements when scouting for our truck was a level-headed, well-versed, and experienced driver, who would offer an objective view on the machine. As it turns out, lady luck was with us and, in Phil Taylor, we got the Powerball on that one.

We first met Phil and his Cascadia 116 on the northbound bypass at Balclutha. We’d been held up on our run north from Invercargill and he had happily paused on his way home from the Silver Fern Farms Finegand freezing works to allow us catch-up time. We would learn in the succeeding two days that such accommodation was just who he was. When Phil Taylor says “All good, no problem”, he means it.

After a quick meet and greet, Phil continued his way north and we commenced image capture.

If you didn’t know you were in New Zealand, who Hall’s were, or that day cabs and four- axle reefers are not a thing in linehaul US, motoring north could easily have been a scene from somewhere in the North Carolina countryside. Here was a 13L 6×4 Freightliner Cascadia, with a roof kit, side fairings, no sun visor, and hood mirrors, towing a big semi along the road. This was exactly what we wanted.

Phil was on his way home to Hall’s Cold Chain Logistics Kaikorai Valley depot in Dunedin. It marked the end of his day as a rule, having started the morning with his usual routine of one or two metro deliveries ex the depot, followed up with the run to Balclutha, sometimes making calls to supermarket outlets on the way down. Time permitting, he may also have a couple of afternoon deliveries on his return.

When volumes dictate, he also heads to Invercargill, a couple of hundred kilometres south – more often than not a Monday mission by all accounts.Under normal circumstances, he might only rack up 250km to 300km a day, so it’s very much a regional role.

We arrive at the Dunedin depot and meet operations supervisor John Warburton, who instantly aligns with the approach and accommodation we’ve encountered since entering the Hall’s world. So far, we were three from three and any thoughts that Hayden, Bruce, and Phil might be outliers in the bell curve of company culture are being rapidly cast to the wind.

The truck made the whole thing quite a buzz really – it’s all so Cascadia, especially if you’ve spent some time in the land of the free. As Phil backed in to the dock, we wondered how many times has a Freightliner Cascadia backed in to a dock? “Surely that number is well into the tens of billions by now?” I said. “It’s like watching an Air Tractor top- dress, it’s what they were born to do.”

Easy squeezy

We met Phil the following morning on a windy and showery Dunedin waterfront morning. Fryatt Street is the quayside access from the city to the inner Otago Harbour berths. At the far northeastern end, a large business estate is home to ENZA and Talley’s cold storage facilities, and it’s from deep within these corridors of cool that Phil emerges and we leap aboard. First impressions count and the inside of the Cascadia is as immaculate as the outside; you could literally eat off the floor. It’s all so apparent now why so many in the know pointed us toward Phil.

“It’s a lovely truck to drive,” says Phil. “I really like it in that sense. There’s plenty of room in, around, and behind me, and the dash layout is superb – nicely wrapped around and everything in reach. There’s a little rattle in the back wall that’s cropped up recently, that’s why your seat was reclined back against it.”

The space, the big lazy wrap in the dash, they generate a feeling of airiness. All things we remember the designers striving hard to nail, and here their work was being vindicated by the only jury that counts.

The rattle? Find a US truck that’s rattle- or squeak-free and I’ll show you an abandoned Mt Everest in the middle of climbing season.

“Visibility is superb, and the mirrors are fantastic. You can just see everywhere, and the bonnet almost isn’t there, is it? I don’t notice it, and it certainly doesn’t compromise manoeuvrability,” says Phil

Manoeuvrability and Dunedin – now there’s the makings of an oxymoron. There’s no place quite like ‘Dunners’. Well, actually, there is – it’s called Wellington. There’s no escaping it, both islands have a city that tests a truck driver’s spatial awareness to the nth degree. Whether it’s the streets or delivery locations, there’s no quarter given in the Otago capital, and any momentary lapse in concentration will result in a ‘gark’ somewhere on the unit. Even motorway off-ramps, like the northbound exit to Kaikorai Valley that feels like you’re on an ever-diminishing taper ending in a quirky little 90° left-hand corner with an immediate kink right onto a narrow two-lane bridge split with a kerb median. I wouldn’t say it’s challenging, but first you have to remember it is a motorway off-ramp; and second, if you happen to be thinking about the roast for tea tonight just at that moment … Let’s just say it’s very Dunedin. And when you take into account the traffic the valley absorbs through that wee complex, it starts to boggle the mind.

Fantastic then that both man and machine come into their own and the fact the Cascadia and semi are as straight as the day they were manufactured, speaks absolute volumes about its captain. This is Phil’s home, these are the streets his trucking teeth were cut on, and it shows.

The Detroit Diesel DD13 is your typical modern 13-litre with a hearty voice that makes the mid 70dB recorded in the cab a most enjoyable experience. The match with the platform AMT is on the button and the Detroit DT12 picks away at the gears as Phil negotiates his way around the city’s front apron, onto and up Lookout Point then back toward the depot.

With Eaton’s Endurant now in the mix also, isn’t it a relief Uncle Sam’s OEMs have finally got a suite of auto-shifters in the marketplace that all work as an AMT should?

Anyway, we’re back in the valley and swing into the depot. Phil spins around in the adequate albeit cosy yard – fine if you’re a Dunedin native. In the 116 Cascadia he can see terra firma 3.75m in front of the hood, so he can nose right up to the fence in order to get the unit straight prior to backing onto the dock. By now, regular readers will be well versed on my views regarding mindless safety initiatives, versus real-world helpful ones, and the WABCO TailGUARD system sits in the latter category perfectly. Big trucks and trailers are hard to see around and anything that gives you additional visibility on the ‘dark side of the moon’ so to speak, is certainly worth its weight in gold. Backing onto a dock in a busy DC or depot is a perfect example. TailGUARD keeps the reversing speed under 9km/h and warns the driver of anything within two metres of the rear of the trailer and stops the unit complete at 500mm (the stop distance is configurable between 300 and 700mm). By default, that includes the dock. Part of the awareness process is the sidelights flashing with increased cadence the closer an object is. It’s a canny system.

“That stop wasn’t me stopping,” says Phil as we inch our way back. “That’s the trailer doing it by itself. Here, I’ll go forward and start again, you watch the side lights. See, it’s detected the dock. If I’m happy I can continue back, otherwise there’s something there I may not have seen. I think it’s a great tool. Anything that helps, eh?”

The external modular panel look of the 15.54m Fruehauf NZ Schmitz-Cargobull semi instantly tells an industry onlooker whose show it is. The Hall’s unit sports the company’s clean, smart, contemporary look with the snowflake logo and obvious accoutrements of social licence, like side and rear under-run protection. It’s a robust, bulletproof setup with known longevity built into it beyond the Fruehauf NZ Schmitz Cargobull base product. Spec like SAF undercarriage and JOST full-load landing legs and alloy wheels. There’s also kit like a BroLube central lube system to ensure a long and happy life, and EROAD to help keep on top of the compliance and admin chores. It’s a unit designed with continuous movement as the key focus, just as it should be in trucking.

Phil leaps aboard the forkhoist and starts loading product for the daily run south to Balclutha. He points to the Schmitz Cargobull Double Decker racking system. A series of vertical rails with inbuilt racking that can drop to any height down the vertical, meaning you can optimise space in a second layer, regardless of the height variation in the base load.

“Love that! It’s a great system. You do need a forkhoist obviously, but you can’t have everything I guess.”

One thing that stood out in the Hall’s depot was a lack of incessant horn tooting from the forkhoists as they moved around, which as a rule, completely desensitises you to horn tooting … it’s a ‘how we’re built’ thing. The clue as to why the ambiance was so pleasant was in the blue lights darting around the floor, emanating from units mounted on the ROPS on the forkhoists. They warn the onlooker there’s a forkhoist approaching. It’s a brilliant system, especially when you consider we are designed to acknowledge and respond to movement … it’s a ‘how we’re built’ thing, and that system is a far better use of it.

As Phil completes the loading process, we sneak out and flip the lid on the Cascadia. It is a snug fit for the 13-litre, with the signature drop in the frame so the radiator is set as low as is able, allowing the sleek and slippery wind profile. All the daily checks are on the left and I know I’m showing my age and level of residual paranoia, but I’m a fan of daily checks on things like oil and coolant, and it’s one area a bonnet has real advantages. With it lifted, all is revealed – and you can quickly see what’s rubbing, seeping, loose – anything that may end up irritating your Monday or ruining your Friday.

Bonnet down and standing back, it’s a clever fleet-spec rig, again with proven components like the Holland fifth wheel, but also from the cosmetic standpoint. There are enough shiny bits to keep an enthusiast interested if they want to get into a bit of polishing, yet for the skilled operator who’d rather go fishing than attend a truck show, it will come up just fine with a good honest once-over on a regular basis.

Stretch the legs

With 14 or so tonne on the deck we tip the scales at 33,450kg. Phil can put about 22 tonne on comfortably and says being a 6×4, you have to be aware of how you’re loading it when reaching the upper limits.

With a power to weight ratio well north of 7kW (10hp) to the tonne, the Cascadia launches away with little or no effort, and it’s here you really appreciate the fit of the machine in New Zealand.

While 13L and up to mid-500 horsepower isn’t going to set many wheels spinning in daily HPMV linehaul duties north of 50MAX, it’s a superb regional distribution spec that is easily able to leap into the breach in the event one of the big-boys ‘has a moment’, and can’t front up at the go-line. There would be no drama plugging into the loaded B-train for a couple of nights if it means customers are kept happy. In all reality, you might be surprised at the trip time differential.

The DD13 in this installation is set at 377kW (505hp), delivering 2508Nm (1850lb/ft) of torque, and as we’ve said, it is backed up by a Detroit DT12 AMT, with Meritor GP46-160s on Airliner air suspension. Up front, the Meritor FG94 7.5-tonne front axle sits on taper-leaf suspension. Brakes are disc. At the price point offered of recent in some outlets, you couldn’t go wrong with a couple of these in the mix.

We head out of town in the traffic and crest the Saddle Hill in seventh at 1300rpm and 35km/h. The 2021 Cascadia has had a pleasant life with only 220,000km on the clock, and Phil at the helm for the 12 months he’s been with the company. To date, the consumption is sitting at 47.4L/100km (2.11kpl). Reading that in the context of what the truck does, there’s not much to complain about. Outside of the occasional lash to Invercargill, the longest stretch of flat running it gets is the 33km between Allanton and Milton.

“I don’t mind it at all. Like I said, it’s roomy, comfy and quiet. It steers well and goes fine for what is asked of it. I’m an American-truck person, and it’s got a bonnet. Some of my mates reckon the bonnet mirrors ruin it, but they’re a real US thing, and I tell you, they’re bloody handy. I actually use them a lot. And on this raked bonnet they’re great reference points.”

Out across the flood-free north of Waihola at cruising speed and we’re heading for Milton and the first of our two drops en-route at the local SuperValue, the second being New World Balclutha. As is always the case, the big semi certainly reminds you it’s there, especially so considering the competitive tare weight of the tractor at 8300kg and the deteriorating state of our roads. “If it’s loaded wrong, slightly forward too much, say, it’s really horrible to ride in,” says Phil. That of course is not the truck’s fault in any way.

The Cascadia’s cab and vehicle operation from within are state of the art. You don’t become one of the most successful heavy trucks in history with a crappy cab, and it would be the archetypal negative Nelly who would find real fault in how it works.

Access is as easy as it gets, and the driver’s position is superb and fully adjustable. Everything falls easily to hand and the cockpit setup is in the familiar format with gauges and telematics in the binnacle and additional gauges, HVAC, vents, coms/entertainment up high in the wrap, and switches, valves, and Aux power down low. The headlight control is low down on the right of the steering wheel. There’s a Daimler platform familiarity to the smarts on the steering wheel, and located off the steering column wands are indicator, wipers, and dip on the left, and direction/shifter on the right. For me, a wand shifter is superior to button type, allowing the console area to be clear of intrusions like shift-towers. In Phil’s line of work, having cross- cab access is handy.

It’s a day cab bonneted truck so there’s only so many rabbits you can pull out of the storage hat. However, the caddy between the seats, overhead cupboards, and stows both overhead and in the doors, plus room under the passenger’s pew, more than meet requirement in this application.

Fit and finish seemed fine; we had a poke and prod, and three years in, things appeared to be holding up. Materials are highly serviceable and there’s a nice woodgrain pattern through the dash.

Obviously, there’s the recent ‘Budgie’ that’s arrived in the rear wall lining, and of course Bruce’s comments on the collapsed door handle. Hopefully, it’s all being fed back to DTNA. I know first-hand how seriously things like that are taken there.

Walking the Hall’s

As it turns out SuperValue in Milton is a cinch, with access off Shakespeare Street and exit onto Spencer. There is an innocent power pole on the left of the unload area that would appear to be minding its own business, but occasionally it leaps sideways and gives the odd truck a tap according to Phil, especially if they attempt to exit back onto Shakespeare. We’re in and out in no time; it’s a typical friendly Phil exchange – how easy is it for customers when you have a skilful and engaging driver on a regular basis.

Being a semi the back-in was as easy as it gets. However, when talking to Bruce earlier he did say it’s a skill in ever-shorter supply. “Everything we do loads in and out of the rear, so we have to have people who can back competently – big semis and B-trains. That’s not as easy to find as you might at first think.”

On to Balclutha and Phil happily talks about his place of work. “I’ve worked at plenty of places and it’s as good a place as I’ve ever been, probably better. The crew I’m with all get on, and everyone knows what they’re doing. Bruce [McLean] and John [Warburton] know what they’re doing and leave you to get on with it. The conditions are great, the gear’s good, and the pay is fine. There’s a bonus system they run worth $100 a week tied to things like driving hours, PODs, CHEP recovery, all the basic stuff a driver should be doing anyway. Guys from our generation shake our heads at those sorts of things needing to be incentivised. There is nothing onerous and it’s easily achievable – if you do your job properly, you’ll get the bonus. On the occasions I’ve missed, it hasn’t been because it’s unachievable, it’s because I’ve buggered something up and that’s annoying … for me, I mean. And there’s no pressure on hours or to do silly things – that’s a big no-no.”

Continuing the theme of keeping compliance easy, Hall’s runs electronic logbooks housed in the same little Zebra device as the dispatch, consignment, coms, and pre-check/maintenance information. “Again, it’s all a bit easy for someone raised in another trucking generation. There it all is,” says Phil holding up the device. “It’s that simple, there’s nothing difficult about any of it.

“The Seeing Machine? A lot of people hate them, I’m not sure why. Yeah, it’s gone off a couple of times for no reason I can fathom, but I’ve got nothing to hide, and it’s a good safety device. It’s a more professional world now and I can only see things like that saving arguments.”

And with that we’re at the Balclutha New World for a two- carton delivery and then on to the huge Finegand freezing works located just to the southeast of town on the Owaka Highway. Hall’s does a lot of transfer work for its customers as well as delivery work, and today we were bringing the bulk of our load down in here, as well as loading out 22 pallets for places far away.

“That’s the chilled loadout dock run by Nicole Thompson,” he says as we idle in. “And this one we’re backing into is the frozen run by her cousin Jodie Thompson. They are two of the best, there are no other words for it. They keep this place running like clockwork. They are so friendly and make your work life so easy. I’d go so far as to say they’re just good friends now. We’re all going out for a social occasion next month.”

Phil has the semi in the dock in no time, and his commentary on the leading ladies as we drove in was instantly vindicated by the delightful Jodie who wheeled up in her electric forkhoist and welcomed us to the frozen load- out at Finegand, taking interest in what we were there for. “You’re going to be famous Phil!” she says, laughing. “We love Phil, he’s great,” and with that she was off with the first pallet disappearing into the bowels of the giant plant. If only the world was full of happy glass-half-full people, eh?

Experience is everything in trucking, and it’s the little things that make all the difference. Once unloaded, Phil tweaks the raise/lower valve on the semi-trailer so the deck slopes fractionally down from back to front, making the task of escorting the pallets on his pallet trolley to the front of the trailer that much easier.

“It’s safe, too,” he says. “If I slip or something, it’s going to want to roll away from me, never back toward me; and you should never be in front of it with it coming toward you … ever!”

In no time at all, the 22 pallets we were there to receive post-unload were onboard, and away we went.

Finding a happy place

At the end of the day the truck is a tool of utility, and one indicator of a good truck might be adaptability. In its homeland, there is no argument the Freightliner Cascadia is a giant. The sheer numbers on the road there perplexes the mind. But we are not the United States. We don’t have 75,000km of lazy rolling interstate, or corporate 1000-plus truck fleets. We carry more on our general access and HPMV trucks – lots more – and our road pricing mechanism means we love collecting axles … even steering ones. It all means Cascadia will never be the colossus here it is there.

But that’s not to say this immensely capable, comfortable, and easy to drive machine doesn’t have a place in Godsown. Cascadias have found happy homes in the bulk and aggregate tip markets, often emulating what this Cascadia does at Hall’s. Take the McNulty truck; local work with the occasional run out to the coast.

Yes, sales might have been modest, but to get a fair comparison you need to measure them against all bonneted US 13-litre 6x4s over the same period.

With a proven driveline capable of backing up the big boys when needed, and with good support after the sale, it would be hard to do a lot better for the outlay.