MAN joins AA roadside rescue fleet

MAN Truck & Bus UK is to supply the Automobile Association (AA) with 49 new vehicles.

It is taking delivery of the MAN TGL 12.220 4x2BL vehicles, which will be the first Euro 6s supplied to the organisation by MAN.

A total of 36 vehicles will be joining the fleet as AA crew cab recovery vehicles, sporting the traditional yellow AA livery. They will all have the DK Crew Cab specified for six seats.

The remaining 13 vehicles will sport the L cab and will be liveried in silver, operating on the prestige vehicle accounts.

All the vehicles will have front steel suspension and air suspension to the rear and are powered by 4.6 litre 4 cylinder engines.

Chris Wiltshire for the AA said: “The AA chose the MAN product on a mix of pricing with the added experience of running a smaller number of 34 trucks since 2012 to gain some very useful running costs.

“This with and the reliability track record demonstrated the MAN product was a good fit with our truck fleet.

“The air sprung cab gives added comfort to the driver and those customers that we carry.

“The current build of 49 trucks is a mixture of 36 standard yellow crew cab slide bed recovery trucks and 13 specialist ‘covered’ recovery trucks.

“These trucks have a fixed to chassis body with a low approach demountable slidebed which enables the ease of loading and enhanced security of very low profile sports cars and other prestige marques.

“The addition of these 49 trucks brings the size of the MAN on fleet to 83 trucks. MAN, with other manufacturers are currently bidding for the 2016 build."

Paul Vickers, fleet sales manager at MAN, added: “The AA has clearly been impressed with the stats, having already run MANs on its fleet and checked out the numbers for running costs.”