Maintenance assessment from Hill
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• PSV operators can now buy an independent assessment of their maintenance standards from a former NBC engineer. Peter Hill, until last year engineering auditor of NBC's Southern Region, has set up a firm called Engineering Audit Services, based in Cheltenham.
Hill says that to give a company a detailed report on its maintenance standards he will usually inspect 10% of the fleet at a given depot. According to Hill the reports go far beyond Dip requirements because they will cover defects which are not of interest to the Department but which may lead to expensive failures.
Engineering Audit Services can also provide temporary replacements for senior engineering staff and full engineering audits where a company's entire engineering function is reviewed, the main objective being to ensure that it is cost-effective.
Dawson Williams, managing director of Hampshire Bus, believes there is a definite need for services like those provided by Engineering Audit Services: "In many companies, economies have meant the loss of a complete tier of engineering management, and in new companies engineering policies are still being formulated.
"In both cases an engineering audit is the best insurance against sliding standards and escalating costs," he says.
• City of Oxford is running an express coach service between London and Oxford three times every hour. The company has withdrawn its senice between London and Stratford, which operated three times a day, and that is the service which has been replaced by National Express's 190 service (CM 25 June-1 July).