Big wheels keep on turning
A local driver has clinched the Overall Champion title in truck maker UD Japan’s first global Extra Mile Challenge.
HEAVY duty trucks are almost as easy to drive as a car, except that they are much, much bigger and they take up a lot more road.
Vehicle development over the years have made them a lot easier to drive and this makes it less stressful for those handling such mobile mammoths on the road.
A truck driver now even has an array of distinct warning signals that light up should a specific area go wrong and he can take the appropriate action or decide if he could continue driving the vehicle in a safe manner.
The same engine management systems that are applied in cars have also been put to use in heavy vehicles to achieve optimum operating efficiency and the best fuel mileage possible.
The latter is important as good fuel mileage reduces the vehicle owner’s running cost, especially if he is in the transport business, both passengers and goods.
These days, some heavy truck manufacturers offer after sales training in driving skills and knowledge to maximise the full potential of a vehicle’s performance.
UD Trucks Corporation, which has its roots in 1935, is one of them.
Buying a Quester truck in the Malaysian scenario means the owner has to send his driver for training at TCIE (Tan Chong Industrial Equipment Sdn Bhd), the company in the Tan Chong Group which has been selling this truck brand since it was introduced here.
TCIE CEO Wong King Yoon says this is necessary to ensure that the UD trucks the company sells are best utilised to benefit the vehicle owner in terms of ringgit and sens as well as a safer driver on the road.
While it is common of late for heavy truck makers to organise driver challenge events, especially on a regional and global scale, it is mostly conducted by those from Europe, such as Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Scania.
These events are organised on a competitive level to determine which driver is best in handling the heavy vehicle, from pre-drive inspection, fuel efficiency and safety, and driving the vehicle to its optimum efficiency.
While heavy truck makers in Japan have also been running such events, UD Trucks holds the title of being the first to organise it on a global scale recently at its headquarters in Ageo, near Tokyo.
UD Trucks probably benefited from being under the Volvo Group (since 2007 when it was acquired from Nissan), which had actively promoted such events over the years.
As the first of many to come, the recent UD Trucks event might seem a little rushed as it involved drivers from only four countries; Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa.
Moreover, the driver selection was not based on a competitive approach but on customers who were strong supporters of the brand.
What matters though is that with the momentum initiated, the respective markets where UD trucks are sold would now organise the event in the respective country with the best driver selected to participate for Overall Champion in Japan on an annual basis.
We had the pleasure of participating as the media in the first event, called the UD Trucks Extra Mile Challenge (UD’s brand tagline is Going The Extra Mile), which was held in a surprisingly warm late autumn in Japan.
Malaysia was represented by Yuzairi Ibrahim, 31, who has 10 years of experience driving heavy duty trucks from European, Chinese and Japanese brands.
He is an employee with ASAC Logistics Sdn Bhd and has been driving UD trucks, which the company uses solely for its transport business, over the last seven years.
The challenge was to compete in a simulated transport delivery cycle using a Quester truck and the criteria included revenue, fuel efficiency, uptime and maintenance cost, and driving safety.
Each driver started with $500 and had to complete the respective task within a certain time frame, including reversing the Quester truck through a tight course without hitting any cones ($5 is deducted for each fault).
Yuzairi did Malaysia proud when he was adjudged Overall Champion (with the least money deducted) as well as earning top honours in Best Pre-check Inspection.
Thailand was tops in Best Fuel Efficient Driving, South Africa earned Best Driving Skill and Indonesia came away with driving in the ‘Green Zone’ the longest.
It might have been his first time in such an event but Yuzairi was confident as he had been driving the relatively new Quester truck model for more than a year and counted this achievement as a new milestone in his career.
Perhaps, he too had gained from some pre-event coaching from Ahmad Rosdi Mohd Ishak, an experienced driver trainer from Volvo Malaysia, who was part of the Malaysian team.
What such events boil down to is that being a truck driver is not a simple one as it requires a good level of skill and the ability to use the vehicle in the best and safest way possible, and in the most fuel economical way.
Such good drivers are highly valued as Yuzairi’s boss Tan Seong Teik heartily agreed: “This event is a great opportunity not only for the participating driver but also for our company to spread this achievement and motivate other drivers in our company in Alor Setar, Kedah.”
And the heavy truck makers, including UD Trucks Corporation, continue to organise such events as incentives for the owners and their drivers to use their respective vehicle in the best way, safely and economically.