MAN professional driver training with EPSILON specialist expertise
With its new ProfiDrive training, MAN Truck & Bus is now responding even more keenly than before to individual customer requirements. Using the company's own equipment in order to provide the best-possible preparation for their everyday work, the new training programme aims to instruct participants in a range of specific areas including cost-effectiveness, driving safety and load securing. The first segment-specific training session was held on 18 November at the MAN Truck & Bus testing ground in Munich for hauliers working for UPM GmbH. PALFINGER EPSILON – the world's leading manufacturer of timber loader cranes – also got involved by offering its own practical training programme.
First-hand expertise
To make the training conditions as realistic as possible, MAN teamed up with timber haulage experts at UPM – one of Europe’s largest paper producers – to develop a ProfiDrive training programme specifically geared towards short wood haulage requirements. Georg Steindl, customer service manager at PALFINGER EPSILON, contributed his expertise in all aspects relating to the optimal handling of timber loader cranes and was on hand with tips and tricks for practical applications.
Cost-effectiveness and responsibility highly valued at UPM
As a frontrunner in Europe's bio and forest industry, paper production at UPM focuses heavily on sustainability and resource-conserving production methods. A sense of responsibility – both towards the environment and employees – is therefore an important component of its corporate philosophy. No wonder, then, that occupational safety in particular is held in such high regard both by UPM itself and its external supplier companies. In the world of paper production, this also includes the safe and secure transportation of timber from the forest to the paper factory.
For timber haulage professionals, the ability to properly handle the weight of the load is particularly important – because the higher the moisture levels in the timber, the greater the loading weight. Other critically important aspects for hauliers include truck stability on uneven ground as well as the optimal application and regular, systematic maintenance of the timber loader crane.
Prioritising individual practical applications
To enhance the long-term value of the ProfiDrive training programme, its content is primarily practical in nature and is taught using the company's own vehicles. Participants had at their disposal a total of ten, differently configured trucks – an accurate reflection of the wide variety of trucks used in the
timber haulage industry.
In teams of two, Georg Steindl explained to the participants the most important steps involved in maintaining and operating the various forestry cranes. Since the EPSILON customer service manager also works in the forestry industry alongside his main job, a lively discussion was had regarding the optimum application of forestry cranes in practice.
Great feedback for first segment-specific training
Participants provided excellent feedback on the new segment-specific training programme with MAN ProfiDrive. Nikolaj Mann, a driver for the shipping company Hüttner Transport & Logisitk GmbH in Großschönbrunn, succinctly summed up his response: "I'm really impressed. I learned and experienced so many new things. That alone was a big surprise!"
Building on the customer feedback and experiences of the first training event, the plan is to roll out this new segment-specific training programme to other regions and customers, the principle behind this being to work with customers to combine and enhance the ProfiDrive training modules to formulate a training programme that is perfectly tailored to individual transport operations.
PALFINGER EPSILON will actively support the training programme in the future as well and be on hand to provide advice and assistance to timber hauliers throughout Europe. After all, the more intuitively drivers can operate their loader cranes, the smoother, more efficient and cost-effective are their day-to-day operations.
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