dagotwit

Interesting selection in light of the fact that MAN has successfully sold its trucks to the Australian, British, and New Zealand Armies.

Most likely they belong to the U. S. Department of Energy's Office of Secure Transportation (OST). Most likely they deal with nuclear weapons security. https://nnsa.energy.gov/aboutus/ourprograms/defenseprograms/securetransportation

A British truck driver has set up a GoFundMe page for the murdered driver: http://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/berlin-market-attack-british-trucker-raises-funds-for-slain-polish-driver The GoFundMe page is here: https://www.gofundme.com/van9vwuk

Their success bit forgot to mention their foray into the US market.

Isn't there a fire department in Hawaii that has a Tatra truck?

Couple of questions: 1) Will this be the stat of a gradual MAN/Scania merger? 2) Will we see this company attempt to enter the US market?

cont'd Part II Any chance of the Swedish government forcing a merger with Volvo? I guess they could still buy Navistar. Thank you as always. Your posts are the type of education I enjoy.

cont'd Very true. I was was told that Booz & Company did a management study of European and American businesses, as well as the US military for comparison. The Europeans were the most aggressive in removing poorly performing managers, the US military the least. IEEE Spectrum magazine has an interesting article comparing engineers from various European countries and how they approached their work. My favorite was the comparison between Spanish and British engineers. The Spanish engineers worked late, did very good work, and stayed until the job was done. The British engineers worked hard, and at 5:00 pm immediately stopped working and asked for directions to the nearest pub.

I should have realized this, having Southern Italian parents. It would appear that IVECO has managed to successfully combine Italian, German, Spanish, and British companies. The real test is how many non-Italians make it into senior management.

The person I talked to was a Mack defense employee working Mack's exhibitor booth. Mack military's team may be familiar with their RMs now, but when someone answers your question about why Mack doesn't market the trucks it has building in Australia to the US Military with "I didn't know about that" (to the best of my recollection), then he obviously didn't know they existed. To be fair to the booth rep, my impression is that Mack's attempts to re-enter the military market are a day late and a dollar short. Mack saw the dollar signs after DoD purchased the Buffalo with Mack components, and the Volvo/Mack management figured they could cash in with a militarized version of the Granite as a COTS sale. Volvo/Mack does not know how to sell to the DoD; the results on Mack Defense's website are proof. Note that back in the the 2000s early 2010s Mack Defense had an office in Alexandria, VA, where I live. I have walked past it many times, it is a small suite. The Alexandria office isn't listed on the website anymore. They did not, and still do not have the sales and lobbying presence needed to compete with Navistar, let alone AM General or Oshkosh. True, but the Renault/Volvo trucks built for their respective militaries would be built to the same NATO standardization specifications as the Austrian Steyr that the FMTV was based on. It would interesting to know if Renault/Volvo studied the possibility of license building a medium military truck in the USA.

kscarbel2, You mentioned in another thread about some of the differences in philosophy between MAN and Scania. I am interested in hearing what they are. Also, why has MAN never tried to enter the North American market? Thanks.

Thanks for the explanation; I remember when Stewart & Stevenson got the contract and didn't realize all of the changes. IIRC the FMTV had other problems besides costs. This gives an interesting insight into how the Army buys trucks. My impression is that Mack saw an opportunity in the mid-2000s to try and get in to the military market, but they were Johnny-come-latelys and couldn't compete against the Oshkoshes and AM Generals.

Another missed opportunity. The Army's Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, originally built by BAE Systems and currently being built by Oshkosh, are based on the Austrian Steyr design. How hard would it have been for Mack Defense to offer a license-built version of the Renault or Volvo military trucks?

I am have some friends in the ADF; I will have to ask them their thoughts on the Macks. MAN won a big contract with the British Army several years ago, and New Zealand is looking at MAN.