Safety MAN Road Safety Truck Monthly Update

9 Minutes•By NZ Trucking magazine•October 13, 2017

Safety MAN Road Safety Truck Official Launch

The Safety MAN was launched on August 10th at the Vulcan Steel Warehouse in Christchurch. Industry sponsors, supporters and government officials attended to celebrate the completion of this fantastic initiative and to officially launch the Safety MAN and the two important road safety programmes: Share the Road With Big Trucks and Healthy Truck Driver.

This was our chance to thank everyone who helped in the development of the Safety MAN and all sponsors who generously provided products and services to get this truck on the road. David Boyce, CEO of NZ Trucking Association, cut the ribbon along with Adam Wright from Heavy Trucks, Tresca Forrester from NCTIR and Jim Harland and Jenny Dickenson from NZTA.

Safety MAN Bookings Are Open


The Safety MAN Road Safety Truck has a designated website, with a booking system and calendar to show upcoming events/locations of the truck. Sponsors and volunteers are always appreciated and welcome to come along to any of the Safety MAN events.

Upcoming Locations & Events

Keep up to date with the Safety MAN’s travels using the Calendar. Here are the upcoming bookings over the next month:

Nelson, Summerland Express Freight – October 14th
Nelson, TIL Freight – October 16th
Nelson, Stoke School – October 17th
Motueka, Talleys – October 18th
Murchison Area School – October 19th
Cheviot School – October 24th
Sheffield School – October 26th
Kaiapoi, SML Transport – October 27th -28th
Blenheim – October 30th – 1st Nov
Ashburton Truck Show – 4th November
RTFNZ Conference, Hamilton – 8th – 12th November

Freight Lines Christchurch Depot

The first Healthy Truck Driver Programme was held at the Freight Lines Depot in Christchurch. Around 40 drivers from Freight Lines & Streamline Freight went through the Safety MAN and left with greater awareness about the importance of their health and wellbeing.

Drivers are given a handbook full of information about Fatigue, Sleep, Alcohol / Drugs, Mental Health, Diet, Exercise and Training and Qualifications. The booklet is designed to highlight symptoms and causes of common health issues in the industry and should not be used to self-diagnose, we always recommend seeing a GP if participants are feeling unwell. We encourage the drivers to read through this in their own time and if they are concerned about their health in any way, there are links and contact numbers to reach out for more help.

We hope the Healthy Truck Driver Programme will spark more conversations about health and wellbeing, especially the topics we often find difficult to talk about, such as mental health. We want to provide drivers with important information and ultimately get people thinking more about the importance of looking after themselves.

After delivering the programme, Freight Lines, Streamline Freight and Straight Shipping generously came on board as sponsors of the ferry crossings for the Safety MAN.

New Life School Rangiora

New Life School in Rangiora, along with some of Southbrook School and Kindercare Preschool, were the first to go through the Safety MAN’s Share the Road With Big Trucks Programme on September 7th. Over 400 students throughout the day participated and were amazed by the truck. The custom built trailer has been designed as an engaging and interactive mobile teaching facility for students and adults of all ages.

The feedback from the school’s teachers was great:

“They liked the hands on approach of the lessons.”

“Loved the way the children could see for themselves in the truck what can and can’t be seen by a truck driver”

“Students were actively engaged with the truck”

“Great to see the trucking community working with the schools”

We hope that sharing these safety messages and giving participants a demonstration of the truck’s blind zones, will make people think twice about their behaviour and safety around trucks.

Amuri Area School Culverden

On September 14th the Safety MAN travelled to Culverden to put 350 students from Amuri Area School through the Share the Road programme. Once again the feedback was fantastic from students and teachers. The picture top left shows students working through the Share the Road activity book, using the Samsung tablets to find the answers. On the right are the senior school students getting a closer look at the truck, there were definitely some future truckies in that group!

Omihi School – September 18th

Perhaps the smallest school to visit, but no less important, was Omihi School, with a total of 20 students. The rain did not deter the very excited kids, who were overjoyed that we made the effort to visit them. Their school is situated on a busy route and we felt it was important to share the safety messages with them as well. We had a special visit from the Mayor of Hurunui District Council – Winton Dalley.

Hurunui College – Hawarden


On September 21st the Safety MAN visited its fourth school, Hurunui College, with 300 students. We had the help of Senior Constable Ken Terry, who is fantastic with the kids!

Alexandra Blossom Festival

Truck shows are a great opportunity to put large numbers of drivers through the Healthy Truck Driver Programme. The show and shine and truck parade organised by Heavy Trucks had a great turnout and we used the Safety MAN as the registration booth at this event. This gave us a chance to put another 50+ drivers through the programme.

After this, the Safety MAN lead the truck parade at the Alexandra Blossom Festival. Over 10,000 people got a chance to see the truck.

Ride Forever Motorcycle Safety Day

The Safety MAN was invited to attend this event at the Christchurch A & P Showgrounds, on October 1st. There was fantastic turn out, with a real mix of road users, from motorcyclists, truck drivers, cyclists and children. The event was run to promote motorbike safety, give demonstrations on driving to the conditions and provide free motorbike checks. The Share the Road with Big Trucks Programme is designed to target all road users, so we saw this event as an opportunity to promote safe driving around trucks to the motorcyclists. There were around 400 people that came through the Safety MAN and almost all of them were interested in sitting in the driver’s seat to become more aware of the truck’s blind zones.

Positive Ageing Expo

On October 2nd the Safety MAN attended the Positive Ageing Expo at Papanui High in Christchurch. This was another important road user group to target as the older drivers are generally very nervous sharing the road with big trucks. Participants throughout the day were interested in the road safety programme and were fully engaged when shown the talking truck videos. We had around 350 people come through the Safety MAN. Thanks to CVST for helping on the day.