DURING THEIR THREE-DAY VISIT to Munich, four prominent MAN customers from the State of Qatar received the opportunity to test MAN trucks in an off-road training under extreme conditions. Adding together the fleets belonging to Khalid Aswad Al Abdullah, Hamed Boshra Hamed Abdelrahman, Haji Rahman Ajab Khan and Hassan Mustafa Dandan results in an astounding number of more than 1,000 vehicles, many of which are MAN trucks. Thus, the interest in visiting MAN in Munich was correspondingly great. After touring the truck plant, their trip continued onward to Augsburg to view the production process of large diesel engines and turbo machines. The true highlight came at the end of the tour, when the group participated in driver training at MAN’s off-road grounds in Unterwatten-bach near the Bavarian town of Landshut. On an expansive gravel quarry, the command finally came: hit the gas and let the gravel fly. Under the direction of ProfiDrive trainers, the visitors from Qatar put the MAN TGS and TGM models through their paces and learned how to handle the trucks on difficult ground. “Many local drivers aren’t trained well. Our experience with training courses shows, however, that there is enormous potential for operating the trucks much more efficiently,” explains Erhan Eren, MAN Sales Manager Middle East, who accompanied the group during their stay. “In Unterwattenbach, our customers could drive a TGS 6x6 or a TGM 4x4 on the off-road track. Both models are equipped with MAN TipMatic, so that customers were able to test the technology live.” It’s quite a thrill, as Khalid Aswad Al Abdullah confirms, “The team was very impressive and it was an honour to meet these professional drivers and trainers. All I can say is that I have enormous confidence in products made by MAN.”