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Bright sparks set a DAFaid record
Page 14
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• by Toby Clark Daf warns that operators are still getting stranded by battery problems in cold weather—giving its roadside assistance service one of its busiest days ever last week. DAFaid handled more than 4,000 calls (its highest ever daily total) at its Birmingham HQ on 2 January, the day that most of the country went back to work.
DAFaid manager Rod Monument reckons that the total could have been even higher but for the extended Hogmanay celebrations in Scotland.
The service dealt with 609 stranded vehicles during the day, 80% of which were non-starters, almost all due to batteryrelated problems. Oaf dealers reported that they took an average of 81minutes to attend and repair each vehicle, 84% of which were Fixed at the roadside.
DAFaid is claiming a record performance last year too, as the organisation dealt with 84,200 assistance calls during 2001 (fewer than half of them to Oaf vehicles). On average, the calls were dealt with in 88 minutes: three minutes to assign a dealer to each case, 45 minutes to attend the incident and a further 40 minutes to get the truck back into service.