Innovations and service from MAN

The world's largest bus exhibition is a spying glass into the future of transport technology.
Award winning MAN Truck & Bus drew back the curtains to let us have a glance at what future technologies will look like.

MAN was represented with its comprehensive bus expertise at this year’s "Busworld 2015" trade fair, which took place from 16 to 21 October 2015 in Kortrijk, Belgium. Whether it is a luxury coach with a bistro upgrade or an application-optimised city bus and intercity bus - individuality, innovation and interactivity are reflected in the MAN product range. At booth 204 in Hall 2 visitors had a the possibility to view the full range of MAN Truck & Bus buses, featuring a wealth of innovations. The key topics was fuel efficiency and safety. Asian Buses met with Hartmut Mueller, Managing Director of MAN Truck &Bus  Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. to find out more about these innovations and how they are going to be implemented in Asia. 

At the Busworld
First, Mueller provided us with a background on the expo and its significance for Asia's bus market. During a tour of the MAN stand he said "Firstly, Busworld Kortjek is the most important exphibition for the bus industry. World-wide.  Here you can see anything and everything that relates to the bus industry. All suppliers and bus makers are her. If you don't find something that belongs to a bus here, then it does not exist".

According to him, the vehicles, technology and products on display are the future for the bus business in Asia too. This is especially true for safety features and technology to clean exhausts as they are highly developed in Europe. "And Asia will follow these standards sooner or later. This is an outlook to the future" he added.

While it may take some time for innovations shown at the Busworld, Malaysian customers can already see an improvement in the bus business.  MAN's man in Malaysia pledged to improve the  service network and there are now two recently opened sites, one in Johor Baru and another in Prai. "These are located directly along the highways to Thailand and Singapore as there is a lot of traffic. Through them we provide better services in the case of a breakdown too" Mueller said. Recently, the German brand also extended their network in the East coast region, collaborating with local firm Minufa. Here Minufa will take care of bus repairs as well as handling regular maintenance.  To be able to respond to breakdowns faster, three new service trucks, complete with workshop repair equipment in the back, are now active and can be deployed in an instant. The on-board equipment even allows for larger repairs to be carried out outside the fixed locations. Mueller is happy to report thatthe company has closed a lot of gaps in the Malaysian service network previously found.

Significant difference
Especially on the bus side, customers are looking for efficiency, better economy as buses drive long distances. Maintenance and fuel efficiency are items that allow for cost savings. This is where customers are looking for European brands. MAN is a leader in efficiency and lower cost of ownership is what the company is aiming to achieve. When asked about Asian products, Mueller replied that there is " A change of mind of customers when it comes to Chinese products. Many are coming back to European buses as they are more reliable." These thoughts are reflected in MAN's approach to Total Cost of Ownership (As shown on the MIBTC 2015 booth earlier this year). Bus operators clock 100 000s of kilometres on each vehicle and saving a few cents per kilometre will result in tremendous savings in the long run.

Customers can expect MAN to be adding more and more safety features, such as automatic breaking systems. These will be added step by step. As these cannot be simply imposed on the customers, MAN Malaysia is currently discussing with interested operators which features are to be added. At the present moment, customers have to specifically order additional safety features.

" Governments should provide more help when operators are upgrading their safety features to electronic safety features. This safes live and is a good way to promote road safety" is his pledge to the ruling parties across Asia. Safety features are going to be the main focus of many bus manufacturers. The industry is now looking at electronic tools to improve safety as axles and bodies have been optimised to a high degree.
In Europe, all buses are equipped in a way that easily allows disabled or handicapped people to use them. For Citibuses it is even mandatory to have such features. MAN is making an effort now to add lift systems onto coaches to allow more handicapped people to use them.

Looking at the home market, he sees that there are a lot of opportunities for improvement when it comes to making public transport more accessible for handicapped people as not all buses and all stations are designed to accommodate them.