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A. T the request of many readers The Commercial Motor . . has compiled, from information supplied by manufacturers. the list which appears on succeeding pages of this issue. The intention is to provide for goods vehicle Operators a guide to the places in England. Wales and Scotland where breakdown facilities. service and factory spares can be obtained oiitside normal working hours for the types of British vehicle and semi-trailer most commonly used on medium or long
distance work in this country. .
it therefore lists those places where, .according to those -manufacturers who have replied to our request, spares or service, or both, are available on (a) a 24-hour basis, and/or (b) at. week-ends. or (c) substantially before 8 a.m. or after Tp.m. on a week-day or after 1 p.m, on a Saturday. The list does not include distributors, dealers and agents who, according to information supplied, do not provide out-of-hours s6rvice.
The variation in information supplied by manufacturers Means that, inevitably, the details published here vary slightly from make to make. It is hoped that on a future occasion it will be possible, with the co-operation of the dealers, to provide more details about the extent of the service which each provides. One remarkable feature which this survey has revealed is the lack of centralized information which some manufacturers have about the out-of-hours facilities offered by their dealers or agents: this, indeed, was an obvious reason why readers requested it from us.
Although we have attempted to be consistent in presenting
details relating to each maker's service coverage, we have also permitted ourselves a certain amount of commonsense licence in interpreting the details supplied. For example, in ihe case of some of the larger companies with several hundred dealers listed, it has not proved practicable to make detailed inquiries about individual facilities, or for that matter the willingness of a listed dealer to turn out his staff at dead of night. We have therefore extracted. information for publication to a. fairly Set pattern. But in the case of manufacturers with fewer dealers (and this is especially true of some of the trailer makers) there are often less formal arrangements for dealing with emergencies and mention is therefore made of these where we have been told of them.
Night service varies considerably. Spread over the country are a relatively small number of motor trade establishments fully equipped to tackle the recovery and repair of it heavy commercial vehicle at any hour of day or night; some of these provide familiar names in the lists which follow. But there are many companies for whom a 24-hour service of this type would prove quite uneconomic hut who nevertheless hold a