North Canterbury is always enjoyable to visit. By turning off the hustle of State Highway 1 there are quieter roads to discover, flowing through constantly changing terrain and scenery – set against the southern alpine backdrop in the distance.

In early December there’s still some green remaining in the pasture and a slight chill to the morning breeze. Perfect conditions to hit the road in the GVT (Greta Valley Transport) Iveco S-Way 570 livestock unit for a busy morning collecting lambs from local farms.

Our start point is the GVT main base at Glasnevin and we are heading west to Waikari, Hawarden, Pyramid Valley and Mason’s Flat, calling at three properties with driver Mike Norton. Mike gets close to filling the Iveco and its new five-axle TES trailer, eventually tallying up 564 lambs and nine hoggets.

We’re on a mix of tarseal and some freshly graded gravel roads as we head out empty to the first stop on the schedule, leaving the trailer at a nearby intersection as truck-only access is preferable at the first property.

For a model designed primarily for running on the big motorways of Europe, the latest generation Iveco S-Way has been branching out into many sectors of the New Zealand road transport scene.

That’s why we are testing the S-Way in the livestock cartage sector. It’s tough work and in my mind one of the hardest jobs for a truck driver in New Zealand requiring top skills behind the wheel and animal handling.

We catch up with the GVT S-Way 570 at their Glasnevin base for a day of picking up sheep in North Canterbury. The truck is a 9-axle set up equipped with Delta Stock Crates fitted to a new TES trailer.

Once regular driver Mike Norton has completed his morning pickups, we have 564 lambs onboard and are running at 47.5t – still a bit under the full 54t permit.