Offroad & Traction – successful pilot training for the tipper truck sector with MAN ProfiDrive

• Customised special training for users of all-terrain MAN vehicles
• Training cooperation with experts from Meiller-Kipper
• MAN ProfiDrive^® offers targeted and sector-specific vocational and advanced training for professional drivers
• MAN ProfiDrive^® focuses on added value through practical skills and customer proximity

With five different MAN tipper vehicles - a TGS 35.460 8x6 HydroDrive, a TGS 26.460 6x6, two TGM 18.340 4x4, a TGM 13.290 4x4 - and three MAN ProfiDrive^® trainers, participants on the “Offroad & Traction” pilot training course learned how to correctly operate and use the various MAN drive functions during practical driving exercises in a quarry that is currently out of use in Simmelsdorf, Franconia. The location with its specific characteristics was ideal for training the professional drivers from the Bärnreuther+Deuerlein quarry, since it was their employer that made the site available for the event. MAN ProfiDrive^® will be using the location for other offroad training courses in the future.

This highly practical relevance is one of the special features of the new sector training. MAN ProfiDrive^® has designed its training courses to be precisely tailored to the needs of each customer. A theoretical module supplemented the practical part. In addition, experts from the testing department at the tipper manufacturer Meiller brushed up participants’ practical knowledge in terms of “Dangers when tipping” with two other vehicles from MAN. Cooperation on training courses with suitable superstructures and equipment manufacturers is another feature of the sector training courses,

“With these events, we want to demonstrate to our customers what MAN vehicles can do and how they can be best deployed for their highly specific sector requirements,” describes ProfiDrive trainer Markus Ulbricht. He led a group of participants in their vehicles up and down different gradients on the various levels of the quarry, pointed out problem areas, and gave both positive and negative examples of driving manoeuvres, which the participants were then able to carry out and compare for themselves to see the difference between “Do” and “Don’t”. “Driving downhill, it’s all about the technical possibilities for economical and wear-free braking and, of course, getting down safely on surfaces like these,“ said the trainer, ”whereas uphill, we deal with the correct use of lock management and other optional driving aids.“

At the same time, another group “discovered” how the steering and driving behaviour of a truck changes if the use of the above-mentioned driving aids doesn’t match the driving situation. The participants in the four-wheel drive and the HydroDrive four-axle turned in circles on level terrain and experienced how the curve radius under lock use is so big that the practice area almost ran out.

With the help of eight axle scales using a 4-axle MAN TGS 35.500 and a MAN TGX 18.500 semitrailer truck with a large tipping trough, Meiller’s tipping experts showed the third group how drastically wheel loads change during the tipping process. A laser gauge showed just how much the superstructures twist. They also explained to participants how a tipper’s uneven position and uneven loading could lead to unintentional “tipping”.

Christian Schlögel, Managing Director of Bärnreuther Transport GmbH, who attended the event together with his drivers, emphasised how well the tailor-made training courses and seminars of MAN ProfiDrive^® are received: “We have a fleet of 85 trucks. Half of them are MAN trucks. If I spend over 100,000 euros on a vehicle, then I don’t save 300 or 400 euros on training a driver. My aim is to bring in something more in the form of wear reduction and damage prevention. You need to learn about new and modern technology in order to know what you are doing. In addition to offering training to our professional drivers, I also want to do something for their motivation. That’s why it’s great that we’re able to develop useful training courses with MAN ProfiDrive^® that meet our needs.“

The varied and flexible vocational and advanced training programmes offered by MAN ProfiDrive^® enables MAN to provide its customers with sustainable added value that goes far beyond technical vehicle service. The experts from MAN ProfiDrive^® focus on vehicle users and their individual needs in their daily work with trucks or buses. Practical advice, assistance and knowledge transfer to help MAN customers make the most of their jobs with their vehicles - that is the aim of the MAN ProfiDrive^® training courses.

In order to promote the special concept of customer proximity, the MAN ProfiDrive^® team accompanied the ”Home, Speed Home Tour” last year, which was a Europe-wide road show with eleven trucks from the new model year 2018. Visitors to a total of 15 events were able to check their practical skills directly with the ProfiDrive^® experts. The programme included test drives where the trainers presented the technical innovations of the trucks.