Articles by Mike Ryan

Higer has topped the Australian coach sales charts for the second year in a row. Australia's best selling brand in the non-route bus market, Higer captured better than 22 per cent of the coach chassis segment in 2012.

Strong demand and renewed sales momentum in 2012 has seen Hino Australia sell 882 more vehicles locally than they did in 2011, according to official T-MARK figures released by the Truck Industry Council of Australia (TIC).

WMC Group have announced the appointment of a new CEO, with Neil Bamford taking over from Jason Pecotic, effective from January 1st, 2013.

The Victorian Transport Association have released details on the 'Sandown Drive Days' event, which will take place at Sandown Raceway, Springvale, on March 7 and 8, 2013.

The 2013 running of the iconic Dakar rally is about to get underway. Along with a new route from Lima to Santiago, the Kamaz team will be hoping to win back the category they dominated until last year, while new entrants are hoping to make their mark in the tough Truck category, too.

With the Dakar rally about to kick off, here are a few figures and stats covering this year's event - and the ones that preceded it.

After periods of optimism, progress, disappointments and low morale in the gruelling Dakar rally, the De Rooy Team finally reaped the ultimate reward at the 2012 event. The cherry on the cake was that Gerard De Rooy drove the winning truck, exactly 25 years after the one-off success achieved by his father Jan.

StarTrack, one of Australia's foremost freight and logistics organisations, has contracted Hino Australia to supply 52 new trucks for deployment within its national fleet.

A Sunshine Coast furniture removalist has become the first operator in Australia to take delivery of a JAC light duty truck. Woombye-based 'Furniture Removals and Transport' has already covered more than 3000 kilometres in their JAC J65 in the first week of ownership.

Three of Australia's Toyota forklift technicians have each won a $2000 skills-development voucher in the annual Toyota Material Handing Australia (TMHA) National Skills Competition.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks is continuing to revamp its range of trucks at top speed. The recent unveiling of concept sketches of the 'Arocs', a new specialist for construction work, is following on the heels of the long-distance Actros and the heavy-duty short-radius Antos.

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) has chosen a 2.5-tonne payload Toyota 8FD25 forklift for their new regional complex on the North Coast.