Sharing maintenance facilities
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• The new central workshops for the transport group of Initial Services Ltd., which were opened last week (CM Oct. 18), are the biggest in a series of such workshops which the company intends to operate primarily for its own vehicles but also for the vehicles of other operators where the capacity permits.
Already the company's Mossley, Stockport, workshops have been taking in work; the big new London premises at Burmester Road, Wimbledon, SW17, are being made available to commercial and industrial clients (of whom Security Express is the first) and new workshops being built at Glasgow and Southampton are expected to operate on the same pattern.
Initial Services' own vehicles will naturally have first claim on the facilities but it is now group policy to make spare capacity available to outside concerns in order that the fullest return is obtained on the considerable capital investment involved.
The Wimbledon workshops are housed in a steel-framed building with a clear single roof span of 116ft, and can accommodate 35 vehicles at a time. As recorded briefly last week, these premises will handle all servicing and repair for 35 locally based vehicles but will also deal with overhauls and body repaints for up to 400 vehicles in each 18month period. The workshops are fully equipped with modern aids to inspection, routine maintenance and servicing, major mechanical overhauls, overhaul of engines, and body work of all types. As well as a large paint shop there is a glass-fibre shop where roofs and other sections can be moulded.
A large sunken workshop has space for four vehicles at a time, while other facilities include a roller brake tester, a machine shop and 2,800 sq. ft. of stores racking. Outside the 24,500 sq. ft. main shops is a steam-cleaning bay.