Facilitating Outside Repairs
Page 38
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
El ROM time to time the attention of this journal has been called to certain unsatisfactory conditions existing between operators of commercial vehicles and outside repairers. These have mostly been in connection with jobs, such as breakdowns or other repairs, which drivers have asked should be attended to immediately.
In many instances of this nature, the accounts submitted have been settled satisfactorily, but in quite a large percentage there has been refusal to acknowledge the responsibility or at least to meet the whole bill.
To avoid such contingencies, various suggestions have been made to provide some form of guarantee, against loss by the repairers or the payment of excessive charges by vehicle owners, but so far. nothing has been achieved nationally.
The result is that owners of establishments which are in a position to effect repairs are chary of undertaking them unless they are convinced of the complete integrity of the operators concerned or receive deposits sufficient to cover their account& In both cases there are likely to be delays involving what may be a considerable loss. In this issue, the commercial sales manager of a well-known concern of agents and repairers puts forward his views as to the possibility of organizing what may be termed a "guardian association," with operators and repairers as members, for the purpose of covering the parties concerned in respect of the payment of accounts and the quality of workmanship combined with reasonable charges.
Our contributor suggests the formation of a committee, the members of which should be drawn from the various bodies which may be particularly interested in the matter, and he adds the hope that The Commercial Motor could carry out the preliminary steps in bringing this committee into being.
If it is thought that such a plan would be beneficial to the industry, and there appears to be no reason why it should not be, then this journal would have no objection to adopting such a procedure. It would, however, be interesting to know what backing the plan would be likely to receive, and opinions from those who would be affected by it would be gladly received.