Suttons calls for third-party maintenance standard
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CM COVER STORY
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A LEADING HAULAGE boss has expressed exasperation at the standards of truck maintenance provided by third-party suppliers in the UK.
Andrew Palmer, M D at Widnesbased Suttons Group, believes it is unfair that contract maintenance suppliers that fail to meet adequate standards can potentially put a hauliers 0-licence at risk with no consequences for them.
He tells CM: "1 have to take responsibility for the performance of the company [Suttonsl. but thirdparty maintenance people have no penalty. We recently had to bill a supplier for thousands ()I pounds for a piece of badly done work.
"Some suppliers are good. a lot are OK and a few are dreadful. But we are exasperated at the situation."
Palmer would like a working group to he set up where hauliers could meet with contract maintenance suppliers. VOSA and the licensing authorities to raise issues regarding reliability or safety.
He adds: "We have to educate suppliers and explain what the situation is. At the moment. many providers are doing the work to a price but not at a standard."
In CM's Trucking Britain out a Recession survey, published in
Apri1,69% of respondents said they used third-party maintenance companies. However, 12% of these respondents said they were either "not very satisfied" or "not at all satisfied" with the standard of service they received.
Problems cited were poor response times for servicing and chaotic administration of fleets. Ray Collington, fleet engineer at retailer John Lewis, says his firm has recently updated its service level agreements with providers. "This has helped us to get better response times and weed out the bad ones': he says.
George Ward. head of engineering at Nightfreight, says that a change in personnel at a maintenance provider can sometimes lead to a decline in service. -A problem can arise because of changes in management at the supplier:"
• Do you agree? Contact roger. brown@rbi.co.uk