Reliability for hire
Page 67
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
ON McGRATH, managing director of VH Self Drive :d, Waterloo Road, Burslem, is a FIAT enthusiast for vo reasons: one, quality; two, the company's back-up irvices.
Don has built up a successful vehicle hiring business in the tst 14 years. The 12-vehicle hire fleet with which Don McGrath icked his confidence in the growth potential of hiring has now own to some 1,500 vehicles, more than 900 of them )mmercials.
No less than 135 Fiat 0M55 and 75 vehicles are operated. any of them, in daily operation for the past 30 months, have ocked upwards of 80,000 miles, with no major defects on ly single unit. The 75s, slightly faster than the 55s, have been )served to hold 68mph when lightly loaded on a motorway. The payloads, 21 tons for the 0M55 and up to 4-1tons on the M75, make these vehicles eminently suitable for a wide range commercial applications. The smaller van has a capacity of )me 21 cum (750cuft) and the larger approaching 33.6cum ,200cuft) maximum.
Don McGrath quotes his Irish father as saying : "The people ho stay in business buy quality goods". It was because Don as impressed by the design—the fitness for purpose of the at 0M55 and 75s that he first decided to buy them.
"These vehicles did not have to be 'carved' to meet market quirements. They had been proved in service to be durable id economical in use," he said.
On largely motorway running the Fiat vans average 12.4Iit/ DOkm (22.8mpg). One local operator hiring a 5.8m (19ft) 'op-side 0M75, fitted with a lightweight body and carrying -nber exclusively, records an mpg figure of 27.7. Another istomer firm at Tunstall running regularly to Fort William turns an almost identical figure 10.31it/100km (27.5mpg), Jpported by fuel receipts.
VH Self Drive Ltd claims to operate the largest single hiring spot with the largest variation of vehicles in the British Isles. I was surprised to learn of the wide "spread" of contract Jstomers ranging from Aberdeen, Plymouth, Gravesend, and outh Wales. The bulk of routine maintenance for such contract 3hicles is arranged through local dealers. Fiat operators are rovided with copies of a Dealer Directory listing the addresses id phone numbers for sales, service or recovery, with the usiness hours shown.
Don McGrath has never been afraid to quote for any type of Bhicle or any specially equipped vehicle and he makes conderable use of coachbuilders, when customers have a specific eed. The 0M55s and 75s are purchased in three configuraons—dropside body, integral boxvan, and boxvan with De ci a I coachwork.
As a commercially useful aspect of the Health and Safety at lork Act, Don noted that civil engineering firms on site work 'ere now purchasing better types of vehicles for staff transport, menity/hygiene facilities, and so on. "A plastic dome and a ouple of old forms in an old banger will not suffice any longer." VH Self Drive undertakes every type of hiring, from the casual ire by the hour or day to long period hire—two to five years. Special projects requiring the use of a vehicle for three to six months can be fitted in.
Once the contract price is agreed, it is held for the duration of the contract, regardless of the—virtually inevitable—inflationary cost increases. Don McGrath sees it as part of his job to predict the likely trend of costs over the length of the contract.
While customers may think the terms stiff at the outset, the terms may become a very good bargain before the contract term is reached. The contract hire business is so competitive that the bulk of the profit comes from the resale of the vehicle.
VI-I Self Drive employs three road service engineers, all qualified fitters. They are based at the Burslem hq —a modern office and works complex epitomising efficiency and cleanliness.
Some of the VH Self Drive contracts call for service and maintenance on customers' own premises. Fiat Commercial Vehicles have five road service engineers, all practical, qualified, men able to help fleet operators.
Mr McGrath, with years of experience, speaks highly of the prompt assistance obtainable on sales and service Or technical problems from the company's specialists. Spares deliveries from the Fiat stores complex at Warrington are handled twice weekly by National Carriers with a supplementary delivery for urgent spares by Securicor. Some £35m worth of British made parts are incorporated in Fiat vehicles annually. Fiat operations in Britain employ some thousands of people. Don McGrath is quick to point out such facts if a would-be customer queries the foreign vehicle aspect.
It says much for methodical routine maintenance given by VH Self Drive to its Fiat vehicles that maintenance costs since the business was started have stayed fairly constant. I was certainly impressed with the record keeping and financial control procedures, with hired computer time providing control data for the directors.
Don McGrath became convinced of the future for hiring by close study of foreign trends, particularly North American. The growth of VH Self Drive Ltd is evidence of his astuteness. The extra quality built in to the company's large fleet of 0M55s and 75s has more than repaid the slight extra cost initially. The high opinion of the total UK Fiat set-up expressed by Don McGrath is evidence that Common Market co-operation • John Darker reflects more than mere words.