The Top Employers Institute program recognises and certifies organisations based on their participation in and results from the HR Best Practices Survey. This survey evaluates six HR domains and covers 20 topics, including People Strategy, Talent Acquisition, Diversity and Inclusion, and Wellbeing, all areas where MAN excelled.

Certification as a Top Employer demonstrates an organisation’s commitment to enhancing the workplace through exemplary people practices and human resources policies.

Top Employers Institute CEO Adrian Seligman commented: “Achieving a Country Top Employer Certification for 2026 reflects MAN Truck & Bus UK’s dedication to building an outstanding workplace that enables sustained business performance. Their strong alignment between people strategy and organizational goals, combined with a commitment to continuous improvement, demonstrates the impact of their transformative practices. We are proud to recognize MAN for its meaningful contribution to a better world of work in the UK.” 

Maxine Dash, People and Culture Director at MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd, said: “We’re delighted to be recognised and awarded again as a UK Top Employer by the Top Employers Institute. Receiving such a prestigious accolade within our industry acknowledges our commitment to providing high-quality working environments for employees.

“For more than three decades, the success of MAN Truck & Bus UK has relied on the strength and dedication of its employees. The company remains committed to fostering an inclusive, high-performance workplace to attract and retain top talent.”

Through continuous learning and development initiatives, MAN Truck & Bus UK equips employees with the resources and opportunities necessary for growth, supports their wellbeing, and promotes career longevity.

Founded more than three decades ago, the Top Employers Institute has certified and recognised over 2,500 Top Employers in 131 countries and regions across five continents, positively impacting over 14 million employees globally.

The MAN Lion’s Coach E is the highlight of the MAN Truck & Bus booth at Busworld Europe. Europe’s first electric coach is celebrating its world premiere here and captivating visitors from around the globe. It also impressed the international jury of the Sustainable Bus Award (Sby), composed of industry journalists, who honored it with the prestigious award in the “Coach” category. “This award is a true milestone. It’s the first time an electric bus has received this prize. We’re incredibly proud,” said Barbaros Oktay, Head of Bus at MAN Truck & Bus, at the award ceremony at Busworld in Brussels.

The Sby Award has now been presented for the eighth time. As in previous years, the jury recognized only the most innovative and sustainable buses on the European market. “In the past two years, we won the award in the intercity and city bus categories with our MAN Lion’s City 12 E LE and Lion’s City 10 E. This year, our MAN Lion’s Coach E convinced the jury and prevailed over the competition,” explained Heinz Kiess, Head of Product Marketing Bus, adding: “This underscores our leading position in the eBus sector – and we’re very pleased about that.”

The Sby Award is the only European accolade that honors innovative and sustainable technologies shaping the future of mobility. It is awarded by a jury of specialist journalists from ten European countries. They presented the award to the MAN Lion’s Coach E because the eCoach sets technological standards for sustainable long-distance travel. The coach features a fully electric drivetrain with a continuous output of 330 kW and a usable battery capacity of up to 480 kWh, enabling fast charging and a range of up to 650 kilometers – ideal for tourism. The MAN Lion’s Coach E also excels in safety, equipped with an advanced driver assistance package including Emergency Brake Assist EBA Plus with pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control ACC with Stop & Go function, lane-keeping assist, the OptiView mirror replacement system, and the innovative MAN Safe StopAssist. These technologies ensure compliance with the latest active and passive safety standards. In terms of comfort, the vehicle offers numerous options and solutions for a customizable and barrier-free interior. The jury particularly emphasized the sustainability aspect: the model achieves a recycling rate of over 95% of its components, is manufactured in facilities certified to international environmental standards, and features responsible battery lifecycle management.

“That our eCoach received such a prestigious bus award at its world premiere is a tremendous success. Behind it is a dedicated team passionately committed to sustainable and innovative solutions,” concluded Oktay, adding: “Our goal is for all our eBuses to impress every day – with range, reliability, comfort, and environmental friendliness that excite drivers, passengers, and operators alike.”

Stefan Thyssen, Managing Director, MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd, commented: “I would like to congratulate both the shortlisted businesses and the overall winners of this year’s MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd’s Dealer of the Year Awards. As always, due to the high levels of excellence our dealer network delivers, it was a close-run thing and at times scoring was incredibly tight.”

“However, as we tracked through the latter stages of 2024 it was obvious that one of our franchised partners was constantly delivering excellence across all areas of their business. In doing so their commitment to delivering exceptional customer service, outstanding work rates and standards, and true dedication to the MAN brand, has been noticed.

“In showing an exceptional willingness and desire to strive for better business practice as well as constantly putting the customer and their needs, at the heart of everything they do, I’m delighted to announce that our 2024 Dealer of the Year has been awarded to ETS Trucks of Poole.

MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd.’s 2024 Dealer of the Year

Winner - ETS Trucks (Poole)

Upon announcing the category - MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd.’s 2024 Dealer of the Year, Stefan commented, “Over the last 12 months ETS Trucks (Poole) has demonstrated an outstanding and enthusiastic approach to improving all facets of their business. Their unwavering determination to deliver unparalleled levels of customer service has simply shone through.

“Showing true dedication their attention to detail in organising parts campaigns, parts stock holding and excellent customer service, has paid dividends meaning they can offer their customers first time fix solutions, on time, every time.

“This is a huge effort on all fronts, and I’d like to congratulate the entire ETS Trucks of Poole team.” Concluded Stefan.

Receiving the award Colin Gale, Managing Director ETS Trucks Ltd commented: “It is an honour to accept this award on behalf of the entire team at ETS Trucks Poole. The team's commitment, in supporting our customers and their vehicles, day in day out, across the whole business, is nothing short of amazing.

“Focussing on delivering customer service is at the forefront of everything we do and as I speak for the team, I know that we are all delighted.

“We have a motto within the business which is:  When a customer asks for help and assistance the answer is an instant – Yes, how can we Help. This simply puts the needs of the customer at the forefront of what we do.” added Darren Gale, Operations Director ETS Trucks Ltd.

Shortlisted for the Award category of - MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd.’s 2024 Dealer of the Year - were…

·       ETS Trucks (Poole)

.       PCL North London

·       MAN Truck & Bus Gateshead 

In addition to being awarded 2024 Dealer of the Year, the team at ETS Trucks (Poole) continued to both impress and woo customers with their outstanding level of service. This unwavering commitment was brought to light again when the company was awarded MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd.’s category – 2024 Service Dealer of the Year.

Held annually, the Dealer of the Year Awards recognises, honours and rewards the achievements of the MAN Truck & Bus Dealer Network, including both the MAN Truck & Bus wholly-owned sites and the private capital franchised partners.

Through a series of thorough checks and measures those sites that have simply gone above and beyond, in constantly delivering high standards across all business areas, offering outstanding levels of customer service as well as business efficiencies, are singled out.

Stefan Thyssen, Managing Director, MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd, commented: “I’d like to congratulate both the shortlisted businesses and the overall winners of this year’s MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd’s Dealer of the Year Awards.  

“As we tracked through 2023 it was obvious that two of our franchised partners were constantly delivering excellence across all areas of their businesses. Their outstanding work, commitment to delivering exceptional customer service and dedication to the MAN brand, has simply shone through. Both have shown a great desire and willingness to strive for better business practices as well as constantly focussing on putting the customer and their needs, at the heart of everything they do.”

“For the first time in the history of the awards, which dates back over two decades now, we have the added excitement of a joint winner in the highlight category of, MAN Truck & Bus Dealer of the Year.”

MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd’s 2023 Dealer of the Year

Joint Winners – WG Davies (Swansea) and DSV Commercials Ltd.

Upon announcing the category - MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd’s 2023 Dealer of the Year, Stefan commented, “This is a special moment as we have never had such a close point score in the history of the awards, it simply shows how even the points tally and business commitment was throughout the year.

With almost 300 miles between the joint winners, WG Davies Swansea, in South Wales, and DSV Commercials, in North East Lincolnshire, when reviewing the scores it was neck and neck throughout the year and this is why we are thrilled to jointly award WG Davis (Swansea) and DSV Commercials as our 2023 Dealers of the Year.

“Both WG Davies (Swansea) and DSV Commercials were consistent high achievers, equally demonstrating an eagerness to please their customers. They demonstrated an unwavering determination and enthusiastic approach to improving all facets of their businesses and over the last twelve months, they have individually shown true dedication in delivering outstanding levels of customer service and support. Independently their attention to detail in organising parts campaigns, parts stock holding and excellent customer service, has paid dividends meaning they can both offer their customers first time fix solutions, on time, every time. This is a huge individual effort and I’d like to congratulate both businesses.” Concluded Stefan.

Upon receiving the award, Roger Davies, Managing Director, WG Davies Swansea, said: “It’s an honour to accept this award on behalf of the team at Swansea. Across the entire business, the team's commitment to supporting our customers and their vehicles is nothing short of amazing.

“Focussing on pure customer service is at the forefront of everything we do and as I speak for the team I know that we are all delighted. Winners in 2021, runners up last year and now winners again in 2023, you can't get any better than that.” Concluded Roger.

Receiving the joint award of 2023 Dealer of the Year, Chris Marshall, Director DSV Commercials, commented: “Focussing on delivering the ultimate customer service journey is what the entire team at DSV Commercials do every day and this win demonstrates the team's hard work, commitment, professionalism and consistency.

“We have a motto in our business, which is:  when a customer asks for help and assistance the answer is an unwavering and instant – Yes We Can. This simply puts the needs of the customer at the forefront of what we do, day in and day out. In 2022 it was great being shortlisted, now winners in 2023, I’m thrilled to accept this on behalf of team DSV Commercials, giving our team the recognition that they richly deserve.” Concluded Chris.

Shortlisted for the Award category of - MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd’s 2023 Dealer of the Year - were…

·       WG Davies - Swansea

·       DSV Commercials - Immingham

·       A N Richards Ltd – Froncysyllte

Throughout 2023 the team at A N Richards Ltd continued to impress, woo customers with their outstanding level of service and build on their Customer First and Foremost promise. This unwavering commitment was brought to light when company secretary, Johanna Cooke, was awarded MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd’s award category - Impact Driver of the Year. This award recognises an individual who simply goes above and beyond, striving for excellence across all areas of business.  

Being certified as a Top Employer showcases an organisation’s dedication to a better world of work and exhibits this through excellent people practices and HR policies.

The Top Employers Institute programme certifies organisations based on the participation and results of their HR Best Practices Survey. This thorough survey covers six HR domains consisting of 20 topics including People Strategy, Work Environment, Talent Acquisition, Learning, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Wellbeing and more.  

Top Employers Institute CEO David Plink said: “Exceptional times bring out the best in people and organisations. And we have witnessed this in our Top Employers Certification Programme this year: exceptional performance from the certified Top Employers 2024. These employers have always shown that they care for the development and well-being of their people. By doing so, they collectively enrich the world of work. We are proud to announce and celebrate this year’s group of leading people-oriented employers: the Top Employers 2024.”

Catherine Brown, People and Culture Director, MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd, said: “We’re delighted to be both recognised and awarded as a 2024 UK Top Employer by the Top Employers Institute. To receive such a prestigious accolade within our industry recognises our dedication to providing the very best working environments for employees.”

Established over 30 years ago, the Top Employers Institute has certified and recognised over 2,300 Top Employers in 121 countries/regions across five continents.

MAN Truck & Bus has received the "Truck Innovation Award 2024" from the International Truck of the Year jury. The commercial vehicle manufacturer was honoured for its research and development projects in the field of autonomous driving - ANITA and ATLAS-L4. In his laudatory speech, jury chairman Gianenrico Griffini, representing 25 international truck trade journalists, emphasised "the advanced characteristics of both projects, the contribution to hub-to-hub and intermodal transport automation, and the fruitful project cooperation between MAN Truck & Bus, logistics providers, component suppliers, research institutions, and public infrastructure operators" as essential for the Truck Innovation Award 2024 to be presented to the MAN projects ANITA and ATLAS-L4 for autonomous driving.

„The award is not only a great honour for ANITA and ATLAS-L4 and the partners involved. It is also an acknowledgement of the achievements of all our colleagues at MAN, who have been driving automated driving forward with great expertise and passion for many years. Alongside digitalisation and CO2-free drives, this is the third key pillar in the transformation to the climate-friendly, safe, efficient and intelligently networked transport of the future. From 2030, we want to offer autonomous trucks in series production for transport on defined routes between logistics hubs," says Dr Frederik Zohm, Executive Board Member for Research and Development at MAN Truck & Bus.

Autonomous trucks are particularly useful for transport on motorways between logistics centres (hub-to-hub): they increase safety by helping to avoid rear-end collisions caused by fatigue, are always particularly energy-efficient and stabilise the logistics flow thanks to their independence from individual driving time breaks. They can also help to alleviate the driver shortage by freeing up drivers for more varied and attractive transport tasks in regional and distribution transport.

ATLAS-L4: autonomous driving on the motorway

"In the ATLAS-L4 project, we are developing autonomous driving on the motorway specifically for the hub-to-hub use case. We are using the framework of the law on autonomous driving passed in Germany in 2021, which already allows the use of driverless lorries on defined routes with technical supervision. We want to test a corresponding prototype vehicle on the road by the end of 2024," says Sebastian Völl, Project Manager Autonomous Driving at MAN Truck & Bus. Since January 2022, MAN Truck & Bus, Knorr-Bremse, Leoni, Bosch, Fernride, BTC Embedded Systems, Fraunhofer AISEC, Technische Universität München, Technische Universität Braunschweig, TÜV SÜD, Autobahn GmbH and the Würzburg Institute of Transport Sciences (WIVW GmbH) have been working together on the research and development project "Autonomous Transport on Motorways and Expressways at Level 4" (ATLAS-L4), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection.

ANITA: autonomous driving in a container hub

Together with Deutsche Bahn, Fresenius University of Applied Sciences and Götting KG, MAN investigated the integration of autonomous trucks within logistics hubs as part of the "Autonomous Innovation in Terminal Operations" (ANITA) research and development project, which is also funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. To this end, MAN developed a self-driving lorry that autonomously handles container loading from road to rail with the help of digital mission planning. After six months of practical tests conducted jointly with the partners at the DB Intermodal Services container depot and the DUSS container terminal in Ulm, it was clear at the end of the project in September 2023 that the autonomous truck was up to 40 per cent more productive than conventional vehicles and thus showed great potential to make environmentally friendly combined road and rail freight transport more efficient, predictable and flexible. "The special thing about ANITA was the complete digital integration of the autonomous lorry into the terminal process. This is a general prerequisite for the use of autonomous trucks in logistics," says Amelie Jacquemart-Purson, ANITA project manager at MAN Truck & Bus.

Second Truck Innovation Award for MAN Truck & Bus

This is the second time that the prestigious Truck Innovation Award 2024 has gone to an MAN automation project. In 2019, the automated construction site safety vehicle AFAS won the coveted industry prize at its very first edition.

About the international Truck of the Year

The International Truck of the Year (IToY) award was initially launched in 1977 by the British journalist and legendary editor of TRUCK magazine Pat Kennett. Today, the 24 jury members represent leading commercial vehicle magazines throughout Europe. Moreover, in the last few years, the IToY Group has extended its influence by appointing 'associate members in the growing truck markets of China, India, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Iran, New Zealand, Israel, and Malaysia. The combined truck operator readership of the 24 IToY full-jury members' magazines and those of its ten associate members exceeds 1,100,00

A total of twelve products were shortlisted in four categories for the prize, which was awarded for the first time by Busworld. In addition to the "Digital On-Board Comfort" category won by MAN, these were also the categories "Digital Operational Excellence", "Digitally Enhanced Driving" and "E-Mobility Management". A jury of experts from the bus industry, private entrepreneurs, journalists and UX (user experience) designers drew up a shortlist from a large number of submissions and selected the winners. The jury's statement reads: "MAN's new digital cockpit is a clear step into the HMI future. With its innovative "SmartSelect" operation and full integration of the new electric platform and the latest ADAS systems, it helps the driver to concentrate on his work without irrelevant distractions."

The basis for the new features in the 2024 model year and the innovative, digital cockpit is a newly developed electronics platform for the bus portfolio. This is based on the tried-and-tested modular technology of the truck series and has been adapted for the special needs of MAN and NEOPLAN buses with their complex body electrics. This massively accelerates all computing processes on board with extended functionalities.

Digital cockpit with MAN SmartSelect sets new standards

The new digital cockpits, especially in the coach versions, feature the innovative SmartSelect operating system, a newly designed driver's workplace that meets the highest ergonomic standards. In the centre of the console, the new SmartSelect control panel is used in conjunction with a high-quality infotainment system with navigation, which is easy for the driver to reach and intuitive to operate.

A highlight in the truest sense of the word is the new 12-inch diagonal colour digital screen, whose two half-instruments in the centre reveal a large information surface. For this purpose, the rev counter and power meter have been moved to the right. This doubles the display area compared to its predecessor. The display offers a "full screen" view with large symbols in 3D optics and the detailed "home screen" display with a toggle display to the right and left of the central display for selecting. When the information placed to the side is called up, the two side pop-up menus slide like curtains from the outside inwards into the driver's central field of vision. In this way, several pieces of information can be displayed in parallel and optimally perceived by the driver.

The new MAN SmartSelect control button, which has never been installed in a bus before, pays tribute to the same theme. The entire operating concept and the positioning of the MAN SmartSelect unit is not only convenient, but also serves to ensure safety during the journey. Drivers can remain in their usual position with the media control and keep their attention on the road throughout. Carelessness or accidental missteering that could jeopardise safe driving are significantly reduced.

The concept is based on the experience of MAN's developers that in a commercial vehicle with its hard use and also a swinging driver's seat, a touchscreen for operating important functions is not optimal. To stabilise the operator's hand, an ergonomically optimal palm rest is used for the first time in the bus sector, on which the hand can be placed and thus stabilised. The principle behind this is: "Intuitive, simple and low distraction".