MAN dealer sacked for weight modifications
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• by Peter Lawton An MAN dealer has been sacked and two other employees have been given formal warnings following an internal investigation into the sale of five tractive units to Rugby Cement.
The investigation followed allegations that MAN Sheffield made unauthorised and potentially dangerous alterations to at least one 414 Roadhaus tractive unit to meet Rugby Cement's weight limit of 7.7 tonnes ( CM1-7 June).
An MAN spokesman confirmed fast Friday that one employee had been fired and two others had been shown "very big yellow cards".
Chief executive Jurgen Knorpp has also written a letter to the company's entire dealer network about the incident, and the two companies involved are preparing a joint statement.
Details of how the trucks were sold have yet to be revealed; it is believed that one truck was modified to win Rugby's stamp of approval while the vehicles subsequently delivered to Rugby were unmodified but overweight.
MAN has promised to arrange a meeting between marketing director Alistair Williamson and Commercial Moton assurances will be sought from MAN that the rest of the dealer network has not used similar tactics to sell trucks.
There is also the question of possible compensation payments to Rugby Cement.
Since the original allegations were revealed Rugby has told CM that the MANs in its fleet have been checked and found to be roadworthy, shifting the emphasis onto the underhand way in which they were sold (CM8-14June).