Author:charleen-clarke
Iveco has been crowned the overall winner of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship 2018. Team Hahnโs Jochen Hahn, driving his Iveco Stralis, was recently crowned FIA European Truck Racing Champion for an historic fifth time. Iveco dominated the 2018 season, with a total of 14 race wins. Steffi Halm sealed sixth place in her debut season in the Iveco Truck#44 as new team leader of the Schwabentruck team. She was the only woman competing in the championship. The Schwabentruck […]
Weโre all talking about e-mobility. Iโm certainly writing about it all the time in this column. And e-trucks are almost becoming a dime a dozen. This is all very well โ but what about bodies? Well, Schmitz Cargobull has developed electrically driven refrigeration units for use in distribution transport. They operate completely emission-free โ and the first units are now making their way onto trucks! Edeka, the well-known European retail chain, has just taken delivery of a fully electric eActros […]
Each month, we chat to one of the captains of industry about pressing issues. This month, CHARLEEN CLARKE goes face to face with Raimo Lehtiรถ, MD of Scania South Africa. Please provide our readers with some background about your career โ you have worked all over the world โฆ Finland, Russia, the Far East, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to name but a few. What roles have you held and what were your greatest achievements during these times? I started working […]
Much is always expected of the IAA and, once again, this yearโs event did not fail to deliver. CHARLEEN CLARKE dashed from hall to hall during this feast of commercial vehicles and related technology. These are just some of the exhibits that caught her eye. The numbers at the IAA โ which takes place in Hannover, Germany, at the end of September every second year โ are always simply staggering. Two years ago, for instance, a whopping 332 world premieres […]
Iโve been writing about electric trucks a lot this year. In fact, I hardly ever pen a Global Focus column that does not contain coverage of electric trucks โ for good reason. Many of the major European truck makers โ Daimler, Volvo, MAN and DAF โ have blown their electric truck trumpets this year. However, the path to electric propulsion has not been smooth. And, to be perfectly honest, operators havenโt exactly rushed forwards to place their orders. However, I […]
By now you will have heard the news: the F-Max from Ford Trucks is the 2019 International Truck of the Year (IToY)! This announcement caused huge waves at the IAA last month โฆ IToY has traditionally been dominated by the so-called Seven Sisters (the seven big European companies, namely Mercedes-Benz, MAN, Volvo, Scania, Renault, Iveco and DAF). The last time that the award was won by an โoutsiderโ so to speak was back in 1982 โ when the Ford Cargo […]
The 2018 IAA was all about e-mobility and saving the planet. However, not all the solutions presented at the fair are ideal for Africa. Does this mean that transporters on this continent can forget about going green? Most definitely not, says Pierre Lahutte, Iveco brand president, in an exclusive interview with CHARLEEN CLARKE Imagine Coca-Cola exhibiting at a trade fair, but there isnโt a drop of Coke to be found on the stand โ just water. Thatโs more or less […]
We have launched an all-new series in FOCUS, entitled Face to Face, in which we interview captains of industry. This time around, CHARLEEN CLARKE goes face to face with Gianenrico Griffini, chairman of the International Truck of the Year jury First of all, some background to you, please. I know that you are one of the most important commercial-vehicle journalists in Italy and also in Europe for that matter. I also know that you used to work as press officer […]
MAN has a treat of trucking innovations in store for visitors to the IAA this month. These are in addition to the bus, coach and van innovations that I reviewed in the last Global Focus column (youโll find it online). The undisputed superstar of the trucking line-up at the IAA will be the all-electric MAN eTruck. Based on the TGM, this 6ร2 is being delivered to nine Austrian companies right now โ and itโs a truly spectacular vehicle. I drove […]
Highway maintenance personnel take their lives into their own hands โ quite literally โ when working on German highways. As we all know, many highways in that country have no speed limit โ meaning that these highways full of hurtling missiles. The consequences of this situation are dire; deaths are common. In fact, German researchers discovered that road service staff face a risk that is 13-times higher than equivalent workers (who are doing similar jobs, but not working on highways). […]
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