The daddy with the MAN
His driving career started at ten years old: He was the boy who looked after and parked the 7.5 tonne truck in the yard. Now he’s back driving trucks and his son loves going along for the ride.
“I guess I’m a victim of my upbringing,” says Thomas Keil, starting his report on his professional career as a truck driver. Shortly after his birth, Thomas’ family moved into the janitor’s apartment of the forwarding company where his father had worked for many years as a truck driver. “I grew up surrounded by trucks and old-school truck drivers,” says Thomas.
“At a very young age, my father taught me how to work the clutch when our gates were closed for business at the weekends,” he recalls.
He then started washing and parking the 7.5 tonne trucks at the grand old age of ten. Three years later, he started looking after the larger vehicles as well, which were all trailer units: “We had the MB NG 1632 and MAN F8 back then. I was proud as Punch. Even during the semi-annual MOT tests at our company premises, I was the one who guided the fleet through the hall.”
“My first truck? MAN F90 swap body with an unsynchronised Fuller gearbox. I miss that one a lot and often wonder if I could still operate it in today’s hectic traffic. Later on, I got a brand new F2000 Varioline 19.463 semitrailer tractor. I was in my mid-twenties then and was proud as Punch again.”
Holidays in the truck
Thomas spent his holidays on tour with his father: “The early holidays were spent in the 22.280 with a Fuller gearbox, the later ones in the first F90 24.362.” As the forwarding company was out on the road for the mail order company “Quelle” most of the time, the trips took them all over Germany, as far as Berlin. That would have been transit transport at the time and very exciting for Thomas.
Ultimately, the company shut down when the senior partner died. “Otherwise, it would have been a natural progression for me to starting working there,” says Thomas, with certainty in his voice.
So for the time being, his career went in a different direction and he completed a vocational training course to become a motor vehicle electrician. But in reality, he felt cooked up in the workshop and always would have. For that reason, he tried to get behind the wheel every chance he got – for example, on delivery runs in minibuses. In the end, he got his truck driver’s licence in his spare time in 1997.
“Then love came along,” says Thomas. Balancing his work and private life became a challenge. In light of this, he opted for more structured working hours in workshops and goods transport services. On the side, he occasionally hopped into an MAN TGA refrigerated semitrailer tractor at the weekend and transported fruit. When his son was born, he gave up driving altogether and started building fire service vehicles in Forchheim.
Thomas’ son is ten years old now and lives with his mother. “We had separated and I was living 300 kilometres away. It just wasn’t working. I wanted to be able to see him more often. So with a heavy heart I gave up my job in vehicle construction and relocated. I found a forwarding company near my son’s place of residence. An almost brand new MAN TGX 19.580 Individual Line with a refrigerated semitrailer was sitting there waiting for me. Now I drive fresh produce from a local dairy to delivery locations near and far.”
The great thing about getting back behind the wheel: Thomas is now able to see his son on a regular basis, and his son is joining him in the truck more frequently, with growing enthusiasm.
“Now I’m the daddy with the MAN. I guess we’ll see where the journey takes us next,” says Thomas, excitedly.