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REPAIR TIPS FOR TIPPERS
Page 122
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Thompsons (UK) is finding a good market for its mobile bodywork repair service by vans
RAPID RESPONSE repair and servicing flexibility can be of paramount consideration to transport operators. While the massive resources necessary to set up nationwide cover can be more easily afforded by the larger manufacturers, it is a more difficult proposition for smaller makers suppling the transport business with components and bodies.
In order to handle on site emergencies, most small companies offer informal repair arrangements on the basis of taking a man off manufacturing work and sending him in a van to the required location. This arrangement can be satisfactory only when the manufacturer's customer base is relatively local.
As smaller manufacturing businesses expand however, the problems involved in field repair and service work grow at an even faster rate. This was the problem facing Thompsons (UK), as the New Addington-based tipper bodybuilder specialist doubled production and expanded its customer base away from its traditional London/Home Counties sales area.
AL the same time as it expanded its production capability, the company decided on a programme to match its service and repair capability to its enlarged manufacturing resources. First stage of this programme saw Thompsons set up a
separate company, Thompsons Spares and Service, with its own 465m2 workshop.
This arrangement still required customers to bring vehicles back to the New Addington plant. "We knew, however, that this, in itself, would not meet the increasingly high service and repair expectations of our customers," says Allan Burton, Thompsons Spares and Service managing director.
Fast-moving lines
To counter this problem the company has put two, shortly to be joined by a third, mobile service and repair units on the road. The first, based at Maidstone, covers Kent, Sussex and part of Surrey. The second, at Portsmouth, provides cover in central south and south western areas. The third mobile will be based to the north of London and is due on the road before the summer.
Thompsons believes that it is one of the few bodybuilders in the country to have its own network of mobile repair/ service vans. The mobile operators are now building up their own customer bases in their respective areas. This process has provided sales opportunities for both Thompsons' parts and service business and also for new tipper body sales.
The vans equipped with mobile phones are stocked with fast-moving tipper lines, including ram seals, ram nuts, valves, hydraulic piping, gaskets and the like. Also the Ford Transit 190 mobiles are equipped with a heavy-duty vice, pipe-swaging kit, pressure, temperature and flow gauges and a full range of special tools.
At this stage Thompsons have not fitted the mobiles with welding equipment. According to Allan Burton, most operators are able to make minor body welding repairs, and if more major damage is involved the vehicle has to be returned to the factory, anyway.
Thompsons' mobiles will provide parts, repair or service for any make of tipper body and most makes of tipping gear. Edbro, Telehoist, Hytec, Hyva, Drum and, of course, Thompsons are handled by the mobiles. In addition, HMF and some other makes of lorrymounted crane are handled.
A day with Stan Rogers, Thompsons' recently appointed Portsmouth-based mobile operator, showed the range of work carried out. Main job of the day was a prebooked replacement of all the seals in an Edbro DE14 front-end ram.
The vehicle, a very clean Dregistration Wilcox-bodied Mercedes sixwheeler, was waiting in the operator's yard and Stan set to. Within a short while the ram was disassembled and the new seals inserted. During the course of this operation Stan explained how he was handling his new role on the road, since he took the job with Thompsons in September.
A working lifetime as a bodybuilder, with various Portsmouth-based companies, has provided Stan with an encyclopaedic knowledge of tipper operators in the area. This, combined with the Thompsons list of its own customers throughout Stan's patch, has got him off to a flying start. When not handling repairs in the field, Stan builds up his contacts making visits, taking orders for parts and making deliveries.
The equipment in his van demonstrates his multi-function role, the cab with its phone and his neat briefcase acting as an office, while the rear is divided into a mobile parts store and workshop.
Thompsons has already found that the mobiles are providing a useful boost to business. As well as expanding parts sales, the mobile service/repair operation has proved to be a practical means of gaining repeat body business and gaining new body customers.