MAN Truck & Bus invests €300M in European service network

MAN Truck & Bus SE plans to invest around €300 million in the expansion and further development of its European service network by 2030. The investment – the largest of its kind in the company’s history – will be used to create new bases in Europe, modernize existing locations, optimize regional coverage, further improve service quality and continue to work to make the network fit for electric mobility.

Around one third of the planned €300 million investment will be channeled into electromobility and digitalization. (Photo: MAN Truck & Bus)

Currently, there are around 1,200 MAN-owned and partner companies across Europe, with a total of approximately 7,000 employees working in the companies. More than 2,000 service centers and cooperation partners provide customer support via the MAN Mobile24 breakdown and mobility service.

“A strong brand needs a strong service network. We have that – and we are now making it even stronger,” said Friedrich Baumann, Executive Board Member for Sales and Customer Solutions at MAN. “The commercial vehicle business is significantly more complex and service-intensive than the passenger car business. The daily availability of vehicles is essential for our customers’ businesses. To be successful, we need to be very close to our customers and offer top-notch service.”

The goal is for almost 80% of customers to have a travel time of less than 30 minutes to the next MAN service location. (Photo: MAN Truck & Bus)

In the future, for example, the distances customers have to travel will be shorter, the company stated, with a goal for almost 80% of customers to have a travel time of less than 30 minutes to the next service location. Priority markets for this goal to be achieved before 2030 include Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Poland and Turkey, among others. In certain regions with particularly high logistics requirements, it will be achieved by creating new bases, among other measures, with an average of seven new branches being opened per year in these countries.

By 2026, two out of three bases are to be prepared for e-mobility. Around one third of the planned investments will thus be channeled into electromobility and digitalization. This comprises:

• Training of sales and service staff in Europe on the subject of e-mobility.
• The addition of more MAN-owned battery repair centers to augment those in operation across Europe, including in Germany, Spain, Belgium, Austria and Italy.
• Equipping a large number of MAN service branches with publicly accessible charging points for electric trucks as part of the cooperation with energy company E.ON.
• Further expansion of photovoltaic systems at MAN branches, together with the widespread installation of LED lighting and heating systems.
• The use of iPads to handle service orders, documentation and communication, and app solutions and artificial intelligence to support end-to-end digitization.