New Zealand Truck & Driver magazine is going big for the final issue of 2024 with a fully loaded 120-page December-January edition that has New Zealand’s only 250t-rated Kenworth T909 featuring on the cover and the Giti Tyres Big Test pages.

We join the Nikau Contractors team as they put the big yellow Kenworth to work and look into the custom specification which allows the truck to handle the big heavy haul jobs.

Teletrac Navman Fleet Focus is in the heart of the rural Waikato to tell the 10-year story of Laurent Contractors. The family owned company based at Waharoa has a fleet of sharp looking red trucks at work handling the livestock, spreading and rural transport needs of its clients.

The final News section of the year previews new local models plans for International, takes a look at summer road works and closure plans for State Highway 1 in the North Island and reports on the latest battery electric, hydrogen, safety and autonomous technology developments in the transport industry.

The latest issue also traces the 100-year story of Southland’s Smiths Transport, and we take an Auckland city drive in the new JAC Trucks N60 EV electric model.

Transporting New Zealand wraps up the year with CEO Dom Kalasih considering roading design issues and looking at weigh-in-motion concerns while former MP Andrew Little offers a guest column about democracy and how politicians listen to different interest groups.

Our 2025 Allied Petroleum/TransFleet Trailers Bombay Truck Show guide provides all the key details ahead of the big day on Saturday January 18 and our events coverage takes a look at some of the special trucks that rumbled out in the Canterbury sunshine for the annual Dave Carr Memorial Run.

Southpac Trucks Legends is the platform for Gary Johnstone to tell the story of his journey from owner-driver to the creation of the Brenics food transport operation…  and he explains his choice of footwear.

There’s also early season truck racing action from round one of the NAPA Auto Parts NZ Super Truck Championship at Manfeild and the Double Coin Tyres NZ Transport Imaging Awards Poster introduces a new flagship for Auckland’s Gleeson & Cox.

CrediFlex Recently Registered wraps up the market trends and October Registration figures and the National Road Carriers Association column considers the challenges for early adopters of new EV trucks and how the future shapes up for fleets looking to introduce new technology.