MAN breakdown vehicles: when the going gets tough, the tough get towing

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a car, semitrailer combination, or a specialist vehicle that gets stranded – when it comes down to it, Kevin Erhard is ready with Autohaus Erhard’s MAN breakdown vehicles, whatever the time of day.

“I want to help people,” says Kevin Erhard, Junior Manager at Autohaus Erhard. And that’s exactly what he does – even when everyone else is in bed. That is what is required of his business’s 24-hour service. Mountain rescue, towing, breakdown services: the whole range. “When the telephone rings at night, you have to be wide awake in a second,” says Kevin. The family business, in which Kevin already represents the fourth generation, started off making repairs to small vehicles. First they repaired bikes, then later added motor-assisted bikes, scooters, cars, and finally commercial vehicles to their remit.

In time, the company became established as an MAN service workshop, and also started its own business selling cars and trucks. Now, 45 employees work at Autohaus Erhard. 26-year-old Kevin has officially worked there for 11 years, but in fact he has been around ever since he was old enough to walk. “After nursery and then school, I went straight to the workshop.” Kevin discovered his passion for vehicles as a child, and was happy when he could finally start training in the family business.

Problem solvers at the ready

The breakdown service that his father and grandfather ran before him has expanded further during Kevin’s time in charge. “Before, the breakdown vehicles were a bit smaller, and we didn’t have as many of them.” These days, they have two large vehicles and three smaller ones at their disposal. “What I like the most about this job is that no situation is like any other,” says Kevin. The challenge is deciding how to proceed each time, from case to case. To achieve this you need good technical knowledge and a lot of resourcefulness. “You have to know what needs to be done, use your head, and sometimes just make do with whatever you have,” says Kevin.

When an emergency call comes in, customers often send photos, to give Kevin an overview of what to expect and to help him and his team decide which vehicle or vehicles to deploy. For larger operations, there is a rota that shows which employees are available. Precision and expertise are needed at the site of the accident. For this, Kevin and his team have undertaken a variety of training courses. The first thing that must be done is to properly and thoroughly secure the site of the breakdown. For example, if the job involves an overturned semitrailer tractor, it is essential to decide, depending on the load, whether the vehicle can be retrieved while still loaded or must be unloaded, and whether the loading fasteners are still intact.

“MAN makes good vehicles, which we can use for a variety of purposes. They offer the most reliable trucks that we know of.”

Complete trust in MAN-power

As an MAN service workshop, the business fully backs MAN. “That is also reflected in our breakdown vehicles,” says Kevin. “MAN makes good vehicles, which we can use for a variety of purposes. They offer the most reliable trucks that we know of.” So it is no surprise that when a call is made, depending on the requirements, it is an MAN F 90, MAN F 2000, MAN TGL or MAN TGS – but, in any case, an MAN vehicle – that arrives at the site of the breakdown. In fact, all the other MAN models are also in use at the business. An MAN TGX, an MAN L 2000, and an MAN TGE, which is used as a mobile workshop vehicle, belong to the fleet at Autohaus Erhard.

We would not wish it on anyone, but if one were to have a breakdown in the area around Aichach, Pfaffenhofen, Neuburg and Ingolstadt, they can rely on Kevin and his MAN breakdown vehicles’ fast breakdown service. One call is all it takes. No matter the time of day.