Sitting in the MAN press briefing I've just learned some interesting facts from MAN Truck & Bus UK Ops director Dave Cussans. He estimates that there are 132,000 tractive units on UK roads covering 11.2 billion miles a year and consuming £6.5billion pound's worth of diesel every year and producing 13.6 million tonnes of CO2 a year. According to Cussans at least 10% of all that diesel is being wasted through excessive idling, poor driving etc and that the operarors of those artics can save £650m through better driver training, vehicle management and so on... Now click through here for more.
MAN has set up a fascinating A-G econonomy/good driving grading system for drivers based on research of 1,049 drivers (gained through its telematics opetration) and discovered that over half would benefit from 'further development.' And its now offering a management suite of safe and economical driving reports to help operators highlight who are the star performers saving their company money and who are costing them megabucks...and I'll tell you all about it in a forthcoming edition of Commercial Motor!
I can add another interesting fact to that........approximately 0% of fuel tankers in New Zealand are MANs!
In NZ at least, MANs have certainly not been the replacement of choice for operators who previously used ERFs, in the same way that DAFs have not been the replacement of choice for operators of Fodens. Must be something to do with that ZF gearbox!