EDITOR’S CHOICE
(^8) Summer 2019 Truck & Driver
M
ike Greene celebrates
35 years in business
this year but, as he
points to a framed,
yellowing newspaper
cutting in the corner of his office,
it could – maybe should – have
all been over almost before he
began. Starting M&M Greene in
1984 with a couple of tippers,
everything was going well until a
fateful run on the M4 in 1985.
Mike was driving a Ford Cargo
when he collided with the back
end of a crane. “It was a hell of a
smash,” he recalls. “They never
thought I’d walk again after that.”
However, Mike made a
mockery of the prediction. Just
seven weeks later, he was back
in a truck and on the road again.
When asked how he
managed to do that, he laughs,
saying that he was younger and
could bounce back quicker then.
“Now, it hurts,” he says.
A dozen trucks
But since then, M&M Greene,
based in Gorslas, just outside
Llanelli in West Wales, has
steadily grown and the fleet now
numbers 12 trucks – including a
couple of show trucks – along
with more than 20 trailers of
varying types, such as flatbeds,
low-loaders and curtainsiders,
reflecting the variety of work
done by the company. “If it goes
on a trailer, we’ll take it,” he says.
The M&M Greene fleet is
certainly a distinctive one, with
its trademark green livery with
red detailing. Mike says he isn’t
Clean, efficient lines inside – and, considering the work done, the MAN is spotless
one for marque loyalty, and the
fleet is a mix of Mercedes-Benz,
Daf, MAN and ERFs.
However, while each of the
trucks always looks immaculate,
the latest addition to the fleet,
which went on the road in May
last year, is a bit special – it is
one of the first MAN TGX
26.580s in the country with the
new XLX cab. The cab has an
array of new features, including
an under-bunk fridge.
Mike decided to go for the
MAN after having one on lease
for a couple of years. “There was
never an issue with it, so we
thought we would buy a new
one,” he says. Following a visit to
W G Davies, the local MAN
dealer in Swansea, Mike decided
to go for an MAN with the new
XLX cab, which had been
introduced at the Commercial
Vehicle Show in April 2018.
As well as having all the mod
cons in the cab, Mike added alloy
wheels – fitted by MAN – as well
as other extras such as a catwalk
and lights, which were installed
by SB Components of Wisbech.
Scott Lewis is the MAN’s
regular pilot. He works mostly on
general haulage and is a tramper
from Monday to Friday. He’s been
in the MAN for a few months
since returning to drive for Mike
and is a big fan of it. He says it’s
comfortable and, with the 580
engine, hills are nothing to be
afraid of, while the generous
spec – including an under-bunk
fridge and TV – makes it very
much a home from home.
Lewis is relatively new to
tramping, having previously
spent most of his time on day
work, but is loving it. “It suits my
lifestyle. If it was the same thing
Monday to Friday I would get
bored quickly, I have to have
variety,” he says. “I go all over the
country; I’ve been down a lot to
Dover and Immingham docks
recently, and I’ve been up to
Cumbria and Scotland too.”
Vlogging on
Another feature of the new MAN
cab is that it has plenty of power
sockets, which is something
Lewis appreciates as he is often
using his laptop, mobile phone,
GoPro and other gadgets as he
makes and edits new videos for
his YouTube channel – youtube.
com/scottandrews.
“I try to put a video up each
week and I’ve got coming up to
9000 subscribers now,” he says.
Lewis’s inspiration for
becoming a vlogger came from
seeing others doing videos.
“The type of work I was doing
at the time was completely
different and I thought, ‘what if I
do this and show a completely
different side of it?’. I have put
my own style on it and it has
grown from there. It kills the
boredom day-to-day too.”
His videos focus on a variety
of subjects, from showing what
he is hauling on that particular
day, to giving advice and tours of
the truck and the cab.
“There are quite a few different
styles of videos, but the general