Contract by TES in South Wales
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• About 25 South Wales operators have contracted maintenance, with MoT approval, to Transport Engineering Services, a division of Tate and Lyle Transport Ltd, CM was told at an open day at the company's depot in Dyfrig Rd, Ely, Cardiff, on Wednesday.
Other TES depots are planned for London, the West Country, the North West and Scotland. If an operator has an unusual problem a specialist is sent from Croydon hq to deal with it at the depot.
The Cardiff depot has facilities for maintaining up to 200 vehicles; in addition to standard garage items, specialized equipment includes a Kismet brake-tester, a Churchill wheel-balancer, chassis-washing ramp and Jumbo recovery unit with a lift of 13 tons.
Vehicles displayed at Cardiff included a van based on a Bedford KEL chassis of 151in. wheelbase, fitted with a Primrose Ceschi steering-type of third axle. This has enabled the plated weight to be increased from less than 11 to 13.85 tons and the vehicle can now carry a payload of eight tons compared with the 6tons of the four-wheeler.
More than 40 vehicles of this type are being employed by Tate and Lyle or are in the pipeline; these vehicles' manoeuvrability is comparable to the standard four-wheelers' and, moreover, overall tyre wear is reduced.