ABC #396

NEWS
THE WOT!?!
MORE MANAGEMENT
CHANGES AT DAIMLER
THE NEW HEAD of production
Daimler Buses – and managing
director production of EvoBus GmbH
– is Michael Klein, as of August 1, the
company has announced.
Previously head of customer
services & parts (CSP) Daimler Buses,
56-year-old Klein replaces Dr. Marcus
Nicolai, who decided to leave the
company after 23 years of service,
Daimler confirms.
With this development, the
management of the CSP business
Daimler Buses will be taken over
by Bernd Mack, who was previously
head of international key account
management and used vehicles in
sales at Daimler Buses, it explains.
SOLID PATH
“With Michael Klein a highly
competent manager with a strategic
mindset is taking over the lead of the
global production activities of Daimler
Buses,” said Till Oberwörder, head of
Daimler Buses.
“In recent years he has managed
the CSP business with absolute
success, and in so doing made an
important contribution to the business
performance of Daimler Buses.
“His success is largely due to
his entrepreneurial mindset and
leadership culture,” Oberwörder added.
In further changes, after 35 years of
service with Daimler, stalwart Ulrich
Bastert will retire on September 30,
2020, to be replaced by Mirko Sgodda
as the new head of marketing, sales
and customer services at Daimler
Buses on October 1, the company
confirms.
Sgodda, 46 years old – and currently
head of compliance trucks & buses –
began his Daimler career in 2002 and
has worked in various sales functions
across all Group brands since then.
Among many initiatives, he
developed sales network strategies and
successfully implemented commercial
vehicle-specific product and service
portfolios, Daimler says. From 2010
to 2013, Sgodda was responsible
for sales network development
at Daimler Central & Eastern
Europe, Africa and Asia (DCAA)
and was responsible for the market
management of all group brands in
more than 120 markets, it explains.
In 2013 he took over the
‘Business Development’ area at
Mercedes-Benz Retail in Berlin as a
member of the executive board. He
has been the responsible compliance
officer for the Daimler Trucks & Buses
business units in the integrity & legal
division in Stuttgart since 2017, the
company states.
Below: Michael Klein has taken on the roles
of head of production Daimler Buses and
managing director production of EvoBus
GmbH.
STAY IN YOUR LANE
There’s not looking before crossing the road,
but this takes a whole new level of biscuit. New
York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority
(MTA) displayed that city’s famous blunt attitude
recently after a wedding party blocked traffic
in Midtown to take photos. “ARE YOU A BUS?”
it bellowed at them on Twitter after a TikTok
of the road-hogging group surfaced online.
Answers on a postcard if you will.
LIGHTBULB
MOMENT
Just next door in
New Jersey, NJ
Transit has begun
testing the use
of ultraviolet-c
(UVC) to disinfect
its bus fleet from
viruses such as
Covid-19. Working
with Rutgers University’s Center for Advanced
Infrastructure and Transportation, the study
will include electronically mapping the interior
of different bus models to determine the best
placement for the UVC source. It points out that
passengers themselves will not be irradiated, in
case bus drivers were getting any ideas.
POLES APART
Hot on the heels of Dutch city Utrecht’s beefriendly
bus stops, Polish capital Warsaw’s first
environmentally friendly bus stop is now up and
running, sporting a fetching sedum roof and
anti-bird-crash glass. This is the first of 21 green
stops that will be built by the end of the year.
With the claim that the lawn roof could lower
temperatures inside the bus stop, maybe we
should stick sedum on everything? Might need
to be 10m deep, mind you, over here…
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ABC August 2020 busnews.com.au