Government increases maximum truck weight allowed on the roads

The "Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Dimensions and Mass Amendment 2010" will allow the maximum weight of trucks operating on NZ roads to be increased from the current 44 tonnes to 53 tonnes as from 1 May. There will also be provision for loads above 53 tonnes but these "will only be granted in very specific instances."

According to Transport Minister Steven Joyce, "New Zealand's freight task is forecast to increase by 70 to 75 percent over the next 25 years and while rail and coastal shipping will play an increasingly important role in meeting the freight task it is expected that the bulk of this increase will be carried on our roads." [our emphasis]

According to him, "this creates an environment where productivity gains in the range of 10 to 20 percent could be realised by using fewer trucks to carry a given amount of freight while enabling the impacts of heavy vehicles to be properly managed. This will help to reduce road congestion, operating costs, vehicle emissions and improve the road safety environment by slowing the increase in heavy vehicle movements on New Zealand's roads.

"Trucks carrying heavier loads will not be any wider or higher than present vehicles, though a limited number may be slightly longer. Roads that are allowed to be used by vehicles will be specified in their permit and road controlling authorities will have the final say on whether routes applied for are suitable for heavier vehicles. Any vehicle issued with a permit to operate at a heavier weight under a permit system will have to meet all appropriate safety requirements."

Well, folks, all this means that while driving along the roads you're going to encounter a lot more longer and heavier trucks in future - how do you feel about that? We thought so.


Here is some important safety advice when you encounter these behemoths in hazardous road conditons...

Driving in winter weather is hard enough, but driving in close proximity to a massive truck in slippery conditions is a lot worse. The normal rules of the road simply don’t apply when you're around one of these gigantic machines. For one thing, when you’re driving either directly in front of or behind a 16-wheeler+, it's important to keep as much distance as possible between your car and the tractor-trailer, because of the longer time it takes for these trucks to stop when braking. Tailgating is inadvisable in any situation, but when the vehicle in front of you or especially behind you is a tractor trailer, it's doubly dangerous.

Always stay alert for signals from the truck driver. For instance, because of its bulk, a tractor trailer will often move to the right first before it makes a left turn because of the wider turning radius it requires. It's important to keep your wits about you at all times, and play close attention to every sign the truck driver makes. Never attempt to overtake a tractor trailer at high speed. Slippery winter roads can increase the risk that you might skid right into the path of the 53 tonne+ monster. Also watch out for bursting truck tyres, a frequent occurrence with these heavy trucks. If a tyre bursts when you are close by, large slabs of sheared rubber can shoot out like rocks, and smash though your windscreen or that of any passenger cars nearby.

If you're driving in bad weather, it's best to slow down and keep as far away from huge trucks as possible.

Bad weather can magnify the effect of the usual causes of huge-truck accidents, like driver fatigue, defective truck parts, speeding, and alcohol or drug abuse by truck drivers, resulting in catastrophic injuries for themselves and other motorists. Even when poor visibility and slick road conditions contribute, there may yet be other factors at work like driver negligence, inattentiveness or speeding that can be root causes of accidents. In any case, drivers of these monsters must be extra cautious in adverse weather conditions to avoid an accident that could be hazardous not only to them, but also to other motorists nearby.

comprehensive guidebook to Jaguar cars

Following the book on Jaguar racing cars in NZ (see our post from 15 September last) comes this new second edition of Haynes' guide to all the models produced from the pre-war SS models to date, including colour photos, specifications and notes on all the aspects that classic car enthusiasts and collectors want to know such as variations in exterior and interior details.

Jaguar was one of the most stylish marques from the UK (and Europe), even if like nearly all British cars its engineering left much to be desired. It certainly was a popular executive car in New Zealand until the early 1980s. The most famous model of the lot - the E type - has been described as 'sex on wheels'.

Like other transport books it is available in our on-line shop.

Can independent bookshops compete with the juggernauts?

By the juggernauts we don't mean mean Whitcoulls/Borders/Paper Plus - these are variety store chains which happen to sell books as part of their range of merchandise.

By juggernauts we mean the on-line biggies - among others, The Book Depository, Amazon, Tesco, Abe Books - which operate from overseas but because of their range, and often their discounts, are increasingly the first port of call for book lovers in NZ in respect of books published overseas.

As we observed last year, there are no bookshops in New Zealand which offer a good range of books published in NZ ... well, that is something they should do if they had any sense. They aren't many that try to specialise either, although there are some, for example in Wellington, Capital Books specialises in the subjects we do, Unity Books specialises in fiction, society and culture; and Parsons specialises in art and music. Often these three shops direct customers interested in these subjects to the others. Specialisation is again something all independents should do if they want to survive.

This article in The Daily Telegraph (UK) examines the issue in more depth. One thing that New Zealand does not experience much, unlike the UK, is discounting. The Warehouse has been known to pass on much of its massive discount from publishers (55% of the rrp) for hot new releases, and occasionally so does Whitcoulls, but otherwise most shops sell books at either the recommended price or above - as we have discovered to our surprise.

Did you know ... that we actually need fat and cholesterol in our diets?

You wouldn't think so from the messages we are constantly given and have been for the last 4 decades at least.

Following the movie "Supersize Me" aimed at the Fast Food industry, the issue was examined and taken to task in a much less publicised but also much less biased light-hearted documentary called Fat Head which has screened a few times on the Documentary Channel, most recently this past weekend.

For several years people have been told to avoid fat like the plague - so butter, cheese, eggs, nuts, red meat - among other things were out, but common sense is starting to prevail. What are the real villains according to this doco? Trans-fatty acids such as corn oil and soy oil, and excessive carbohydrates (as found in sugar, flour, pasta, potatoes and other things).

Of course we need a solid base of fruit and vegetables too.

The Doco-maker's blog.

Shirtcliffe resumes his anti-MMP campaign

Peter Shirtcliffe (79), the chairman of Telecon NZ in the 1990s, made most news in the early 1990s not for that but for spearheading the Big Business campaign against a change in New Zealand's parliamentary electoral system from first past the post (the British system) to proportional representation (the European system).

At the time Big Business was concerned about the left-wing Alliance led by Jim Anderton forming a permanent coalition government with the Labour Party, although the first election under PR in 1996 actually saw the National Party returned to power in a coalition with the centrist NZ First led by Winston Peters.

Of course Big Business didn't state the obvious reason behind its campaign, instead it came up with a lot of spurious arguments against proportional representation at all (e.g. that FPP was a good old British system and MMP was this dreadful German system). Now the government has decided to put the issue to referendum again at the next election in 2011 at a cost of $28 million and, surprise, surprise, out comes Shirtcliffe and his cronies again.

Among the arguments he now advances are that there are too many MPs in Parliament. Let's have a look at this first. In 1975 the NZ population was 3.1 million and NZ had 87 seats in Parliament. The NZ population is now 4.4 million so in proportion (the word Shirtcliffe hates) we should now have 123 MPs. We actually have 121. So much for that argument.

He claims the existance of a list has reduced local representation. Er, yeah? We still have half the house of representatives being constituency MPs. This frees the list MPs to concentrate on other duties, which for some time included his National Party leader Don Brash.

There is the likelihood, too, that the electorate MP is totally hopeless and/or many constituents don't like him/her. Often lazy MPs in safe seats were guaranteed them for life, as long as they avoided scandals, while good MPs in marginal seats were often at risk of going at the next election.

This doesn't mean that there aren't faults with MMP. In particular the 1-seat rule should go. This means that if a party wins a constituency seat it gets proportionately represented, but if a party doesn't win one, it has to get 5% of the vote to be proportionately represented.

The arguments in favour of the STV system (as used in Ireland and some NZ city councils) as an alternative are compelling, but not all is great with that either. With this people have to put a long list of candidates for multi-member constituencies in order of preference. The temptation for some may be to go the 'donkey vote' way - choose the 3 or 4 belonging to your party and ignore or rank a-z the rest.

In short the objective should be to improve what we have, not return to the bad old days.

Paris during the Occupation

French photographer André Zucca got himself a job as the Parisian correspondent for the Wehrmacht's magazine Signal in World War 2 and this enabled him to not only freely take photos outside after it was restricted as from September 1940, but also to obtain rare Agfa colour film, and took over 1,000 slides of Paris during the German occupation.

Even for the Nazis, Paris was a special place. Hitler made his sightseeing tour on 29 June 1940 and told Albert Speer it was the world's most beautiful city (although his Berlin when finished would be much more impressive). Goebbels came the following month and finding the city to be "un-usefully sad" ordered that everything be done to restore gaiety and animation. It thus became a centre for both French and German culture - music, opera, art, literature as well as cuisine and nightlife, and for the Wehrmacht it was a posting without equal in Europe. Goebbels encouraged that every German soldier be sent there at least once under the slogan "Jeder einmal nach Paris." Following liberation in August 1944, Paris assumed a similar role for Allied troops, particularly as it had survived almost unscathed.

170 of the colour slides plus 6 of the b/w photos that André Zucca took between 1940 and 1944 have been turned into this book, Les Parisiens sous l'Occupation, which together with the commentary from Jean Baronnet, provide a fascinating study of Paris during the war years.

French war graves were constantly tended by the Wehrmacht - this was the charm offensive

Colonial Railways in Africa

All of Africa was colonised by European powers except Egypt which was briefly a British protectorate between 1914 and 1922.

This book, a reprint of a book published in Germany in 1916, although the text had been closed off in 1914, provides comprehensive information about the railways in each African country at that time in its 450 pages.

The map of Africa has changed in the meantime and some names and borders are now history. In regard to German colonies in Africa, all were taken off Germany in 1919 and given to other colonial masters to exploit. Although in those days books aimed to inform through text rather than pictures, there are plenty of photos and diagrams of track installations, stations, locomotives and trains, as well as technical discussions. Economic analysis features a lot too, for those interested in general African history.

50 years since the Sharpeville Massacre

One of the most infamous events in South African history occurred on on 21 March 1960, when a group of between 5,000 and 7,000 black people converged on the local police station in the township of Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their pass books which determined where they could live and work. Many of the crowd attended to support the protest, but there is evidence that the Pan Afrianist Congress also used intimidating means to draw the crowd to the protest, including the cutting of telephone lines into Sharpeville, the distribution of pamphlets telling people not to go to work on the day, and coercion of bus drivers and commuters.

By 10:00 am, a large crowd had gathered, and the atmosphere was initially peaceful and festive. Fewer than 20 police officers were present in the station at the start of the protest. Later the crowd grew to about 20,000, and the mood turned ugly. About 130 police reinforcements, supported by four Saracen armored cars, were rushed in. The police were armed with firearms, including Sten sub-machine guns. There was no evidence that anyone in the crowd was armed with anything other than rocks.

Sabre jets and Harvard Trainers zoomed within 30 metres of the ground, buzzing the crowd in an attempt to scatter it. The crowd responded by hurling stones, striking three policemen, and at about 1:00 pm the police tried to arrest a protestor. There was a scuffle, and the crowd advanced toward the fence. The shooting began shortly thereafter. The official figure is that 69 people were killed, including 8 women and 10 children, and over 180 injured, including 31 women and 19 children. Many were shot in the back as they turned to flee.

Needless to say, this turned world sentiment swiftly against the whites-only South African Government and its policies of Apartheid, although it was to be more than 30 years before it ended. Protests against NZ's rugby ties with white South Africa were a major feature of 1970s and 1980s politics in NZ, with Robert Muldoon's support for them being a key factor in his 1975 and 1981 election victories. They were also a key factor in the boycott by some African countries of the 1976 Olympics. However, the next National Party PM, Jim Bolger, took a quite different stance to Muldoon on the issue of politics and sport.

21 March is now the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

there's something not quite right about Alan Smith

In the film world, the credit of 'Alan Smithee' as the director of a film means that the director wants to remain anonymous. Thus suspicions were aroused when in an issue of Tramway Topics about a year ago, someone reviewing Wellington Transport Memories used the name 'Alan Smith', particularly as this person used significant column space to praise a previous book by Graham Stewart, the god of tramways in this country. This in itself may have been unremarkable, but it was remarkable when a comparison of the two books in question was rather like comparing apples and oranges.

But the mystery has been solved - in the latest issue the editor decided to publish a photo of Graham Stewart, and a few pages later with a piece about Wellington trolley buses, a photo of Alan Smith! A comparison of the two reveals ... you guessed it.

the "Robin Hood tax"

A customer has sent us this video link on an alternative to GST. We like the idea of taking the tax burden off the productive sector of the economy (small and medium business) and we don't like sales taxes except those on specific things which pay for the the cost of repairing the damage caused by their consumption - petrol, diesel, alcohol, tobacco. On that subject it's interesting to speculate how much revenue the Government would get if it legalised marijuana and taxed it - one thing that's certain is that it wouldn't cause any more of it to be consumed.

There is already a financial transactions tax in some Australian states so it isn't such a radical idea.