40 years of MAN ProfiDrive: driver training from those with experience

Our “MAN Driving and Efficiency Training” was launched in 1981 using vehicles in the F8 series. From the very start, these training sessions were designed to focus on safe and cost-effective driving. The costs of operating a truck over its entire service life in the 1980s consisted of the driver’s salary (30 percent), fuel (24 percent), purchase price (15 percent), repairs, maintenance and oil (14.5 percent), taxes, insurance and interest charges (13 percent) and tyres (3.5 percent). Reasons enough for transport companies to invest in training from the experts at MAN, and ensure that drivers are making the most fuel efficient and vehicle-friendly use of their trucks.

A prospectus for the “MAN Driving and Efficiency Training” from 1996 shows a group photo of the driving coaches back then. At that time more than 10,000 truckers had taken part in the training sessions. The resulting successes in everyday transport business on the roads were obvious, even from a corporate perspective. Graduates were now consuming on average 11.5 percent less fuel. Their journeys were simultaneously four per cent faster, which also meant that deliveries arrived more punctually. 45 percent fewer gear changes also indicated that the drivers had internalised a fluid, proactive and vehicle-friendly driving style.

Driver training on snow and ice: travel companies also use the professionals at MAN to train their bus drivers in a safe, cost-effective and eco-friendly driving style. Back in 2002, this involved use of the MAN Lion’s Star, which was brand new at the time. MAN had first presented the two-axle vehicle with 460 PS and a six-cylinder engine at the IAA in autumn 2001, to reposition itself in the coach market. Even if coach accidents repeatedly make the headlines, coaches are by far the safest means of transport from a statistical perspective. Travel companies invested in “MAN Driving and Efficiency Training” to enable them to offer maximum safety to their passengers. Training bus drivers has always been a constituent part of MAN ProfiDrive.

Dream job as a coach driver: driving the MAN coaches belonging to football clubs in the German Bundesliga is a very special job – and one that is very demanding. The drivers of these team coaches therefore brought along their MAN Lion’s Coach to a training event with MAN ProfiDrive in 2019. The training programme at the ADAC Driving Safety Centre in Berlin-Brandenburg included, among other things: a slalom course, brake training, cornering and mastering tricky situations using the modern assistance systems. The photo shows training manager Heinrich Degenhart from MAN ProfiDrive explaining the route the coach drivers had to follow.

Bilbao in Spain was the venue for the inaugural presentation of the new MAN truck generation to the general public in February 2020. This involved 100 instructors from MAN ProfiDrive undertaking the exciting task of driving 50 brand new trucks from Munich to the event in Bilbao – over thousands of kilometres, accident-free and ideally without a scratch. This feat was accomplished – almost. A single small scrape on a MAN TGX was unavoidable. Driving vehicles to such world premières are memorable experiences for the team at MAN ProfiDrive. These trips resonate with great pride and emotion.