Story by Bill O’Byrne
Wellington’s Yates Freight is having something of a Goldilocks experiment with e-trucks. The Seaview-based firm is a contractor for NZ Post, doing bulk mail pickups around the city from the mailing houses.
NZ Post had a FUSO eCanter which it had been used around Auckland. It’s now trialling the 19 tonne Mercedes-Benz eActros so they passed on the eCanter to Mike Yates of Yates Freights and told him to have a go.
A lot of the actual driving has been done by operations manager Peggy Ann Smith. (Both Mike and her have had a long association with NZ Post. Peggy used to be a mail sorter, and Mike was one of its mechanics. Both got made redundant, and both moved into transport. And then both ended up carrying NZ Post freight!)
Peggy has worked for Mike for 26 years and knows her way around pretty much every kind of truck. She says the eCanter has some nice qualities:
”It’s really zippy. I love driving it,” she says. “Of course it’s nice and quiet,” – maybe a bit too quiet! “Sometimes cars don’t notice you till you’re right there!”
For quite a heavy beast, the steering is very light thanks to the joys of power steering. It also comes with plenty of alerts and alarms, such as the tail lift alarm, all the cameras needed, and a backup power supply for the truck, EROAD etc.
On the downside it’s just a bit small for the bigger days on their usual Wellington round.
Probably more importantly, with just 100 kilometres range on a charge, it does give the driver’s range anxiety from time to time.
“It hasn’t quite met our requirements in terms of range, so you can only use it for half a day,” Peggy Ann says. But they got around that with a part charge between the first and second drivers.
“Initially we were trying to charge it all the way up,” says Mike. “But then we were told that just the first 15 minutes will give you 85 per cent of the charge. And that was enough to get us around the run.”
But general manager Jodi Haftka says range anxiety was real at the start, with drivers calling in worried they weren’t going to make it back.
“They would call in from the truck saying they were watching the charge go down, down, down,” Jodi says.
And hitting the hills like the Ngauranga Gorge was a bit of a drain.
“You’d make up about 10 per cent of what you used going up coming down using regenerative braking,” Mike says, “but that’s only 1 K.”
“But we got used to it,” Peggy Ann says. “We’ve just gotten into a routine now … after this round you go to this place, charge up and then you carry on and you’ve got enough to finish your day.”
It’s been a good addition to the current fleet of Volvos and Hinos but Mike is still keen on exploring how to make the most out of electric trucks.
“We’re quite engaged with NZ Post – they’ve got a sustainability team that we’ve spoken with and they’re really keen on reducing their carbon footprint.
“And I think this is a good start for us,” he says.
Yates Freight probably won’t go with something the size of the eActros. It’s just a bit big. But there is the “just right” option of an 11 tonne Isuzu EV which they plan on getting. It’s got the capacity, and a 200-k range. That will reduce any worries.
Peggy Ann says it would be handy if it comes with air seats, something the eCanter doesn’t have. That can prove tough for a small, heavy truck.
“It can hit potholes pretty hard!”
For more information, see yatesfreight.co.nz.
[This story first appeared in the July 2025 issue of Transporting News.]
