Welcome back, happy Monday and Merry Christmas to those who celebrated yesterday. To kick things off this morning, we wanted to start with a positive story from Daimler. Chances are, you have heard the horrible reports coming out of Thailand – the death toll continues to rise and they are in need of all the support they can get. To help the Thai government, Mercedes-Benz Thailand has stepped up to help combat the effects of the flood by providing two all-terrain Unimog all-wheel-drive vehicles. Now that the floodwaters are receding, crews have begun to clean up Bangkok — a task that will likely take weeks or even months to complete. This is a task for which Mercedes-Benz Unimogs are ideally suited. They will help to transport debris from areas that would otherwise be inaccessible to vehicles.
Mercedes-Benz Thailand will officially hand the vehicles over to the Thai Red Cross Society on December 23. The ceremony will be attended by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand. She is also known as the Princess of Technology, due to her interest in and knowledge of new technologies and how they can benefit her country.
Vehicles are able to ford depths of up to 1,200 mm
Mercedes-Benz Thailand selected two Unimogs for the cleanup task because the vehicle has special characteristics, in particular the ability to ford unusually deep waters of up to 1,200 mm. Says Gerald Buechler, the manager in charge of the project at Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks, “As a result of a concerted action by all of the relevant units at Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks, it took us only ten working days to complete all of the preparations for transporting the two UNIMOG U4000 trucks by air.” In cooperation with DHL and Thai Cargo, the two vehicles were loaded onto planes in Frankfurt on December 1.
