Truck Test 2022 Results reveals best trucks in South Africa

The Mercedes-Benz Actros Actros 2652LS/33 RE is the most productive truck in South Africa, MAN’s New Truck Generation is the most fuel efficient and the tautliner interlinks on the country’s highways are an astonishing 12% more fuel efficient than they were 10 years ago.

Truck Test 2022 Actros 2652LS/33 RE — Mercedes-Benz Actros Actros 2652LS/33 RE is the most productive truck in South Africa

Truck Test 2022 MAN’s New Truck Generation — MAN’s New Truck Generation is the most fuel efficient in South Africa

These are among the facts to emerge from Truck Test 2022, a South African event unique on the continent of Africa. In fact, even in highly developed first-world markets, it is rare to find an event similar to South Africa’s Truck Test. That’s because this unique event – organised by FOCUS on Transport & Logistics magazine – pits extra-heavy trucks against each other on the same route and on the same days. This is very important; weather and congestion can make the world of a difference.

FOCUS partners with TruckScience, a company that has developed software that helps truck salespeople and transport operators to spec the best truck for the job, and its customer success manager, Martin Dammann, reveals that Truck Test is something of which South Africans can be really proud. “Truck tests are conducted on other continents, but what makes ours truly unique is that we tested eight vehicles on the same days under the same conditions, whereas the tests conducted overseas are typically done on one vehicle at a time. With our test we are able to make direct comparisons between the different vehicles,” he points out.

Furthermore, all the trucks were fitted with telematics from Ctrack. They all ran on Engen Dynamic Diesel 50ppm with Pro-Drive. They were all hooked up to Afrit trailers. Even the loads were the same; they all carried bricks made by Vibro. On Truck Test, the flatdecks carried about 10 500 bricks while the tautliners transported a whopping 12 000.

The goal of Truck Test 2022, explains Charleen Clarke, editorial director of FOCUS, was to help transport operators select the very best trucks. “South Africa is a most unusual market in that we have a plethora of brands here from around the world.

Accordingly, transport operators are faced with quite some choice when it comes to vehicle selection. It was our goal to arm those operators with scientific evidence that reveals which trucks are South Africa’s very best,” she reveals.

All suppliers of extra-heavy trucks (6×4 truck tractors with a GCM greater than or equal to 50 000 kg) were invited to participate in Truck Test 2022. Each truck manufacturer had to supply a fully loaded vehicle, a driver and an observer. The observers are placed in rival vehicles.

Truck Test was well supported by many of the leading players within the commercial vehicle industry. Engen sponsored the fuel used on the test while Afrit sponsored the trailers. Ctrack sponsored the tracking devices while Vibro sponsored the loads.

Completing the line-up of the eight competitors in the Truck Test 2022 are: