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SERVICE BACKUP
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Back at Wembley, as the tyre fitter repaired th; slow puncture, Lavelle gave us his view Merc's breakdown support. In general he's sa isfied with it: "I did have a breakdown or night on motorway work and got a red light o the air. I called them up and they were thei within the hour and fixed a problem with tF compressor."
When it comes to routine servicing, Lavel has a rather more cautionary tale. When 1 first took on the Actros after II years of maintaining his own truck he felt confident enough to pass up on the offer of a full repair and maintenance contract "and put the money into an account", but then he reconsidered and took out the R&M deal with Mercedes Edgware Road: "At first I wasn't going to do it—I still feel to a certain extent you shouldn't need it on a new truck—but in the end I went for it for peace of mind, especially if you do happen to have a breakdown."
However, Lavelle soon found out the importance of getting his annual usage predictions right. Based on an agreed 30 ,000kin a year his first-year contract
worked out at about boo a month. "But after ro months I'd done over 38,000km and had a charge of £1,200 extra," he reports. "I feel strongly that the money I was paying out was a lot for that peace of mind."
Lavelle has since updated his mileage allowance, which has taken his monthly payment up to the £400 mark but should avoid any further penalties. If you do go for an R&M package he also recommends looking carefully at what is (and, more importantly, what isn't) covered by the contract, including things like lubricants. But, he has no complaints about the actual servicing, which operates on a 24/7 basis that suits him well: "They've had to team about them as much as we have. I stick it in to them in the evening and pick it up in the morning. That's good as well."