A truck driver facing charges over a Desert Road crash that left two children dead can now be named as John Baptiste Barber.

The 70-year-old appeared at the Taupō District Court on Thursday.

Barber faces eight charges in total, including two of operating a vehicle carelessly causing death and two of operating a vehicle carelessly causing injury.

The remaining charges relate to alleged falsified logbooks, exceeding work hours and failure to have 10 hours of continous rest.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, requesting a judge-alone trial which is expected to last two days and hear from 11 witnesses. A date for that hearing is yet to be set.

The most serious charges relate to a crash on March 30 - Good Friday - on the Desert Road near Waiouru which claimed the lives of Arteen Mosaferi, four, and Radeen Mosaferi, two months.

Arteen died at the scene and Radeen died at Auckland's Starship Hospital two days later from his injuries.

Their mother, Dr Mohadeseh Sharifi, a scientist for AgResearch in Hamilton, was left with serious injuries and spent weeks in Waikato Hospital while their father, Siamek Mosaferi, suffered moderate injuries.

Barber's defence lawyer told the court he had requested a traffic assessor report, which he expected to be completed by November 9.

He said a number of issues "could well be resolved" by the report.

Judge Marie McKenzie, however, was scathing about the proposed timeline.

"[That's] an extraordinary amount of time for an expert report to be available," she said.

"[I am] definitely not prepared to adjourn to a date in November ... the expert is not going to dictate our timeframes."

Barber was remanded until a case review in September.

-Stuff/Benn Bathgate.