In 2020, Transports Becker (Châtenoy-le-Royal, 71880) added 16 Renault Trucks and Volvo Trucks to the flexible B100 in their fleet of 120 MAN. With the objective of “advancing with customers towards sustainable transport solutions”. MAN has been offering B100 models since October 2021, Perle Becker, who chairs Transports Becker, acquired seven 510 hp TGXs at the beginning of 2022 with the flexible B100 for its long-distance container transport. Its drivers appreciated the comfort of their GX cabin and its active and passive safety. But the leader was disappointed with the oil change at only 30,000 km. “This deadline is too short,” she points out. If MAN doesn’t improve it, I won’t take any more. Or I’ll change them for exclusive B100 Renault Trucks for regional distribution. »
MAN B100: a precautionary oil change
The manufacturer has explained this measure. “This early oil change is part of our careful studies to space out oil changes by 50,000 km for construction vehicles and 100,000 km for long-distance vehicles, i.e. the same timeframes as for diesel, comments MAN. We are aware of the additional cost. But if the customer combines the purchase of a MAN with the signing of a maintenance contract and a B100 supply contract with Oleo100, we will smooth the cost of maintenance to the level of diesel maintenance.” , argues the constructor.
A third service at 90,000 km for Urano
A B100 user since the beginning of 2021, Pascal Urano, manager of the Truck Location transporter, confirms this approach. “We have followed the procedure requested by MAN for the B100 on our long-distance trucks. So we did the first oil change at 30,000 km, he reports. The analyzes and the oil being satisfactory, we extended the second oil change to 60,000 km. The sample was once again found to be compliant and we will therefore do the next one after 90,000 km. If everything is normal, we will adopt this time frame for the interviews. All these analyzes were carried out with an engineer from MAN. Everything is as I expected. I will switch my 158 long-distance vehicles to the B100 or exclusive B100 by the end of May 2022”, anticipates Pascal Urano.
Simon skips the steps
For Transports Simon, Gilles Simon has been using his exclusive B100 trucks since February 2022 for short and long distances. “We carried out the first oil change at 70,000 km, he reports. Filters and oil were clean. This confirms that we could treat the exclusive B100 like diesel because our new vehicles did not need an early oil change to clean the mechanics. Now the B100 has made sense to me. We refuel our trucks within a radius of 200 km around the company, which is valuable. And we will no longer use diesel by 2024, when my entire fleet will be running on B100,” he predicts.
