Row over recovery service
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• A Somerset haulier has attacked manufacturers' recovery schemes, claiming that a Scania deal left him £3,000 out of pocket.
Kenneth Cox says French Scania dealers have twice misdiagnosed faults on his trucks, costing him thousands of pounds in parts, labour and replacement trucks to meet delivery deadlines.
His latest claim began over the New Year when a truck carrying oranges refused to start in freezing conditions near Nantes after its heater broke down.
A mechanic from a French dealer, introduced to Cox through Scania's Lifeline scheme, diagnosed the fault as a blocked fuel pump, forcing Cox pay £3,000 for a fitter to bring a new pump from England while another truck took the load to England to stave off late delivery fines.
But with two feet of snow around the truck, the fitter quickly diagnosed frozen diesel and sent the truck on its way.
"It was analysis," says Cox. "The analysis was wrong. The old pump is still in the vehicle and working properly," But after three months of argument with Scania SA managing director Dieter Merz, Scania SA refuses to accept that the diagnosis was wrong, although Scania UK has offered £1,500 as a goodwill gesture.
"I don't want £1,500," says Cox. "I want £3,000, but it's too expensive to sue in France."
He blames schemes like Lifeline for presenting hauliers with a single, trans-border company face, which can leave hauliers on their own if a dispute occurs. "They obviously don't work," he says. "But we've got no real option."
Merz was unavailable for comment last week, but a Scania UK spokesman said the £1,500 was offered in good faith after Cox had failed to establish that Scania SA was in the wrong.