Safety MAN Road Safety Truck October Roundup

11 Minutes•By NZ Trucking magazine•November 7, 2017

The NZ Trucking Association hosted an NZTA Rollover Prevention Workshop with Jeff Fleury on October 7th. This was a great opportunity to put 48 drivers through the Healthy Truck Driver Programme.

Bookings & Feedback

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 are more than welcome to come along to any of the Safety MAN events.

Feedback to date has been fantastic, see some of the comments below…

Omihi School Parent:

“Yes kids loved the truck visit and definitely came home talking about it, and clearly understood where it is safe for a bike to be in relation to truck. Alice talked about the driver’s blind zone and Jeremy could describe where not to be next to a stopped truck. Jeremy really liked the booklet he got sent home with and worked through it with Chris over a number of nights as bed time reading.”

Streamline Freight:

“What an amazing initiative. We just love it!”

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:

RTFNZ Conference, Hamilton – 10th – 11th November
Picton School – 21st November
TIL Freight Blenheim – 22nd November
Toll Blenheim Depot – 23rd November
Selwyn Car Show Christchurch –November 25th
TIL Freight Christchurch – 28th November
Kaikoura 4th – 8th December

Summerland Express Freight Nelson

The Safety MAN made its first trip up the alternative state highway route to Nelson to deliver the Healthy Truck Driver and Share the Road with Big Trucks programmes to the local transport companies and schools in the area.

We started by visiting Summerland Express Freight at their new Nelson depot and put 40 people through the Healthy Truck Driver Programme. The feedback was great, and we have now made plans to visit Summerland’s Christchurch depot.

TIL Freight Nelson

The Safety MAN set up at TIL Freight on October 16th and throughout the day had over 40 drivers from TIL Freight, Nelson Earthworks and Conroy Removals come through the Healthy Truck Driver Programme. The drivers were all very appreciative of us being there and sharing our resources with them. The drivers are also very interested to learn what we are doing with the schools and keen to see the Share the Road with Big Trucks programme as well.

Stoke School Nelson

On October 17th the Safety MAN visited Stoke School in Nelson. These kids are truck-mad and were very excited to see a ‘transformer truck’ when they arrived at school. Over 300 students went through Share the Road With Big Trucks. It’s great to see how engaged the kids are during the talking truck videos and their eagerness to sit in the truck for the blind zones demonstration.

Stoke School is situated along a very busy route, with trucks regularly passing by. The teachers and parents were extremely grateful for our visit – one staff member / parent agreed to give us feedback, check out her video here.

The Safety MAN also had a visit from the Nelson local news crew who wanted to take photos of the programme in action, check out the article on stuff.co.nz

Talleys Freight Motueka

The Safety MAN spent the morning at Talleys Freight on October 18th to put 25 drivers from Talleys, Darryl Fancois Freighting and Westhaul through the Healthy Truck Driver programme. We had great response from the drivers about the programme. They all went away with greater awareness about the importance of good health & wellbeing, a take home Healthy Driver Booklet and free health checks from St John.

St John have generously agreed to support the Safety MAN by attending the Healthy Truck Driver programme as often as they can to provide drivers with free blood pressure and diabetes checks.

Murchison Area School

On our way back to Christchurch the Safety MAN Stopped off at Murchison Area School to deliver the Share the Road With Big Trucks programme to another group of very excited, truck-loving kids. Being situated on the busy alternative state highway, Murchison was a key school to target.

Once again the students were very engaged with all aspects of the programme and lots of them were seen working on their activity book during lunch.

Students gathered around to watch the Safety MAN drive out of school and were warning their friends to stay out of the truck’s blind zones! Good to see the safety messages had sunk in.

Cheviot School – October 24th

Cheviot School had over 350 students go through the Share the Road programme. This school was visited a year ago when the NZ Trucking Association team were running this programme from gazebos. It was great to see that the students remembered us and the safety messages we shared with them last year.

They were amazed by the Safety MAN Road Safety Truck. All the students were very interested in sitting in the truck, getting a feel for the size of it and seeing how large the blind zones were.

Sheffield School – October 26th

150 students from Sheffield School all learnt about truck road safety in the Safety MAN Road Safety Truck on October 26th. A huge thanks to Steve Murphy / SML for helping on the day and providing another truck for the kids to have blind zone demonstrations from. There were definitely a lot of inspired students in this group!

It was fantastic to see the teachers using the Share the Road Workbook for further learning back in the classroom. SML transport also went above and beyond to demonstrate to the students the different stopping distances between a car and a truck.

Steve Murphy Transport / SML

On October 27th the Safety MAN parked up at SML Transport to put Steve Murphy’s drivers through the Healthy Truck Driver Programme. 50 truck drivers came through and we had St John on board to give the drivers free health checks, which included blood pressure and diabetes.

We have produced information cards so that the drivers can take their results home with them. The health professionals on board write down the results of their tests and this provides the drivers with an indication of their blood pressure and blood sugar levels. This is used as an indication only, each driver is informed that their results can fluctuate regularly and they are encouraged to see their GP if needed.

Western Belfast Bypass Opening


NZTA asked the Safety MAN team to be at the public opening of the Western Belfast Bypass on October 29th. The sun was out the crowds rolled in! Over 2,000 people came through the Safety MAN to check out the Share the Road With Big Trucks Programme. Road users from all groups came in to have a look and watch the safety messages; kids, cyclists, bikers, truck drivers and even a few dogs!

Thanks to the Sponsors

Thanks again to all the sponsors and supporters who have got behind the Safety MAN Road Safety Truck. This is a fantastic initiative for the industry and to share with road users around the country. Thank you to the companies who are helping to drive road safety awareness around the country. See the sponsors. If you would like to get behind the Safety MAN please get in touch with the team at NZ Trucking Association, 0800 338 338.