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Samworth Brothers Distribution
Page 54
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Samworth Brothers Distribution (SBD) has strong views on in-house maintenance, Its sizeable fleet of eye-catching yellow artics carry the distinctive Ginster's savoury food logo on a 24/7 food delivery operation. Two-bay workshops at Leicester and Callington, near Plymouth, share the maintenance of more than 60 artics and 120 reefer trailers, from servicing and repairs to 0-licence checks (units at 20,000km/ six weeks and trailers inspected and serviced every eight weeks).
'The fleet's a mix of high-spec Oaf 95XF 420s, lveco EuroStar 430s, MAN TG-A 460s and 420hp Scania units," says fleet service manager Graeme Hawker. "We replace them at five years. They cover 250,000km a year, and our Gray & Adams trailers are written off over nine years. Apart from trailer body repairs we do all our maintenance including fridges and tail-lifts. Nothing is farmed out; that's the whole point of having our own facility."
SBD manages its tyres using Michelin's Four Life policy. "It's very cost-effective and with close monitoring, we're getting huge mileage from drive-axle tyres in particular," says Hawker. "Our very raison d'etre is to save money, but not by compromising on maintenance. Two of my technicians can turn a clutch around in 2.5 hours, but at a dealership, you may lose it for the best part of a day."
Some years ago, SOB was paying a main dealer El ,000 for a clutch change on an lveco EuroStar; today his team can do it for half that in less time and pay less for the parts too. Its vehicles come with three-year warranties and two-year driveline packages, which is another good reason for Samworth to look after its own.
"On contract maintenance we'd pay for a service just two-and-a-half times a year," says Hawker. "We can get an MAN service kit for under £40 excluding the oil, which is nothing at all. It looks like easy money to me."
He sees the only benefit of contract maintenance as a fixed price across a given term, and he prefers not to hand direct control to other people: "It's about controlling costs — and if you lose that, you're in trouble."
Hawker believes there's no better way to achieve minimal downtime than by having your own technicians on site and on hand. "In any case," he concludes, "I regard fleet maintenance as my responsibility and I just couldn't