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SHOP TALK
Page 103
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• So long as trucks require drivers, so will road transport remain labour intensive; and on the maintenance side, while oil drain intervals lengthen, overhead costs rise. The selection of good tools at the right price and equipping workshops with sophisticated equipment is the right road and can improve efficiency. Diversification may be another way to improve profitability.
As part of its total distribution service, Robson's Distribution Services offers a commercial vehicle engineering service to outside customers. Phil Reed spotlights this service, based on a fivestrong UK workshop network, on pages 22 to 24.
Charge-out rates vary according to location, but as an indication the company reckons that the rate for outside customers is some 30% less than that of distributors in the relevant area.
Life in local authorities is no longer as easy as it used to be and we look at the City of Bristol, which also seeks to spread the load of its workshop facilities by carrying out work for outside bodies. In CBTS's parts department, computercontrolled systems, using VMRS codings, provide accurate stock maintenance detail.
• We must, however, attract recruits of the right calibre to servicing. Ingersoll-Rand managing director John Firth, for one, finds it galling to note the lack of school leavers and college and university graduates in engineering disciplines.
Industry needs to play its part with the Government, he believes, to reverse this trend and at the Garage Equipment Association dinner he commended the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders' motor industry campaign as a good example of practical action.
GEA president David Thompson joked with Motor Agents Association president James Smillie to advise members that the servicing of today's electronic diagnosis equipment requires much the same level of skills as those needed to maintain the office computer. On the other hand, Sun Electric managing director Pat Higgins remarked that at the last Motor Show greatly increased interest was shown in electronic diagnostic equipment within the trade.