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Having made its way northwards from Maputo, through Malawi and Tanzania to Nairobi, the ONE MAN kann Journey Euro 5 MAN TGX 26.540 delivered its crew safely to stalwart MAN dealership, CMC Truck & Bus, in the Kenyan capital on October 2, 2015.
“The dealership visit by the ONE MAN kann team to CMC Truck & Bus was designed to showcase the attributes of the many technologies in the TGX; that while being extremely sophisticated, are totally viable in African long-haul applications,” explained Thomas Ferreira, Head of Export After-Sales, MAN Sub-Equatorial Africa.
The MAN dealership, owned by CMC Motors Group LTD (an Al-Futtaim group company), hosted the ONE MAN kann event to give customers, suppliers and staff an opportunity to meet the drivers of the TGX, Riaan Manser and Nduna Chari, and to get inside the cab of MAN’s new African flagship and get a hands-on experience of the cutting-edge technology and superior cab comfort that has made the MAN TGX 26.540 a class-leader in Europe.
Addressing the guests, CMC Divisional Manager: Heavy Commercial Vehicles, David Kamau Wamathu, emphasised MAN’s ability to provide application-specific commercial transport solutions that consistently build customer enterprise efficiency.
“MAN is one of the most powerful vehicles in this market and CMC is happy and proud to be associated with MAN. MAN trucks, particularly the MAN TGS 33.400, have proven themselves in different types of work in Kenya, from mining, construction, to agriculture and long-haul transport,” he explained. “As we can see here today, the new TGX is helping to prove that a Euro 5 engine running AdBlue on diesel of between 500 to 2000ppm can do the job reliably and economically.”
CMC Motors Group LTD is a shareholder in KVM (Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers), an MAN-approved assembly plant in Nairobi that produces MAN CLA trucks and buses and MAN HB buses from CKD (complete knock down) kits imported from India and Germany respectively. The MAN trucks sold in Kenya by CMC Motors Group LTD are imported from Germany in CBU (complete build up) form.
According to Robert Clough, Head of MAN Sub-Equatorial Africa, “operating conditions in Kenya are extremely demanding. The roads are rough and the climate is dry and dusty for much of the year, which creates a need for robust trucks and buses. MAN’s TGS 33.400, its HB 3 and HB 4 bus derivatives, and CLA truck and bus models, are specifically designed to overcome these challenges, with class-leading ground clearance and tractive power to handle the on/off-road route characteristics of both trucking and bus applications.”
Bus sales at CMC Truck & Bus are going extremely well, stated Ferreira, as are truck sales: “The dealership recently secured a deal with a leading transport operation to supply 60 MAN TGS trucks, a sure sign that MAN is a brand of choice in Kenya.”
With the ONE MAN kann film crew capturing the shocking road conditions leading Manser and Chari to Nairobi, the two intrepid pilots shared a few on-road stories with the guests attending the CMC Truck & Bus event. From run-ins with the military in Mozambique, to dodging potholes on crumbling roads, to close shaves with oncoming trucks and prolonged border-crossing delays, Manser and Chari highlighted the perils of long-haul trucking in Africa.
Despite these challenges, “the ONE MAN kann Journey is helping to build awareness across sub-equatorial Africa and beyond of not only the vital role trucks play in the lives of the region’s people but also, via the delivery of mosquito nets and anti-malaria prophylactics, that partnerships between organisations like MAN and Roll Back Malaria can tangibly uplift the lives of Africans in need,” concluded Ferreira.
