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In trouble, call the midni ht movers
Page 85
Page 87
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IT'S 3 o'clock in the morning when the phone rings. "Hallo, boss, the motor has 'broken down. I'm miles from anywhere and nothing I can think of will get it moving," says the driver. How would you deal with the situation?
You could easily spend the rest of the night ringing around-a list of garages who might or might not provide a round-the-clock breakdown service. Even if yob find one quickly who does, unless you are known to him or can provide him with some assurance that his bill will be paid, he will naturally be reluctant to turn out, writes Bill Brock.
With any business, delay or non-payment of accounts are a major cause of bankruptcy. A service industry such as vehicle recovery is particularly open to this type of abuse — until just recently that is.
For many years John Rogers of Unity Garage, Leicester, pur
sued the idea of an association that would bring recovery men together and further the concept of a national network of operators to which' individual and large cornmercial fleet operators alike could subscribe. In return they would benefit by the quality and speed of service that only a professional organisation can offer. Twp main stumbling blocks had first to be overcome.
Although the formation alone of the Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators (AVRO) was a mammoth enough task, it was the establishment of an efficient communication system between client and the operator which posed the most difficult problems. Nobody involved at this stage doubted that such a scheme would get a good response from transport operators.
• National Breakdown Recovery Services Club had already solved these problems and established a control centre continued overleaf
in Bradford. After many hours and a lot of talking, they decided to extend the facilities to AVRO members to cover commercial vehicles as well.
The advantages to the driver of a crippled vehicle is that he needs to know only the one telephone number, no matter what part of the country he is in. The control centre relays the call to the most appropriate member. If he accepts, the driver will be advised when he will arrive. If the first member is unable to attend, the call will be passed on to the next nearest to the breakdown.
National Breakdown Recovery Services (Commercial) Ltd operates at fixed hourly rates according to what type of vehicle attends: £10 for a getyou-going service attended by a service van, £15 for a tow up to 16 ton and £20 per hour for weights above that.
Payment is made to National Breakdown, so that customers with large out-standing debts are obliged to settle up if they wish to go on using the service.
National Breakdown is a' company in its own right and is run by director and general manager Bob Clarke. Part of his brief is to ensure support for the scheme from vehicle manufacturers. Bedford is the first to take advantage of the service by offering free recovery within the warranty period for all the TM range, and this will later be extended to cover all production models. .
Beford Roadcall, as it is known, ()Orates independently of the parent company, Vauxhall Motors, with its own management. A TM operator contacts the Bradford central control by phone. The request for help is relayed in the same way as with the NB scheme, except that the first call is made to the nearest Bedford main dealer. Bedford Roadcall will recover the vehicle to the dealer's premises free of oharge, but once out of warranty the operator is encouraged to join the NB scheme.
John Rogers, involved from the start, has shown his continued enthusiasm by taking delivery of a Bedford TM KXX 3QH0 6x4 which will be used on recovery work for his local Bedford main dealer.
Powered by the Detroit 8V 71 diesel which produces 224kW (300bhp) at 1,600rpm, it must be the most powerful road-going vehicle of its type available. Block and crankcase is a one-piece alloy casting. Should the need ever arise, the liners are said to be easily replaced. Engine cooling is pro vided by a viscous drive fan and an oil cooler. Ten gear ratios in the Spicer air-operated rangechange box help to produce a lively performance and the gradeability to pull away from rest with a crippled vehicle on tow.
Before the bodywork could be added about 1.2 m (4ft) had to be removed from the rear of the light but strong chassis frame which is made from 23ton-yield high tensile carbon manganese niobium steel. Chequer plate in sections has been used to form a flat uncluttered platform.
The 750 Homes Crane has been transferred from an older vehicle replaced by the TM, modified with new 8.85 m (29ft) hydraulic extending booms. A Darlington power winch, original equipment on an Antor and rated at 22.5 tons for a single line pull, is mounted in the middle of the platform. Support legs to the front and rear are mounted on a boxed. subframe to spread the load evenly over the length of the chassis. It also serves as a ballast container above the Eaton tandem axles to improve traction.
The body and all the hydraulics were fitted out by Steve Young's Engineering of Norwich. Steve also modified the booms and made up the special pulley heads to give better lifting characteristics.
At the time of my visit to Unity Garage, John and his team had spent almost five-anda-half weeks work on the vehicle and would have had it finished if they not had to wait for delivery of several of the parts, including the special gearbox pto.
Control panels are yet to be positioned at the front and rear of the platform. Two large hydraulic pumps have been located which will provide an adequate reserve of power for the space anchor and any extra. equipment that might be fitted at the later stage. When complete it is expected to weigh about 15.75 tons, putting it in the heavy locomotive league.
Air horns, spotlights at the back of the cab and at the rear of the chassis, reversing lights, sonic flashers for the roof, multi-channel radio are just some of the extras which help to make the recovery job easier. .
When asked what took most time in getting the vehicle into service, it seems that John Rogers suffers the same problem as any other vehicle operator. —Waiting for parts'S was his reply.