MC Truck tcp Bus's site for more guys
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• Volvo dealer MC Truck & Bus is pumping i2m into a purpose-built depot on a four-acre site at Lympne in Kent. It should be completed by the end of the year, says marketing manager Paul Delahay, replacing the company's three-bay branch on the Lympne Industrial Estate that opened in 1996. The new site will operate round-the-clock.
"Our existing depot is struggling to cope with all the work we've got and we need a bigger location," Delahay explains. "We've got two or three very big customers, including Norfolk Line, and we're close to the Channel Tunnel."
The new site will have five 28m drive-through service bays, each big enough to handle two truck services at a time. There will also be annual test and tachograph calibration facilities.
Three further bays will be dedicated to accident repair work and there will be a paint shop capable of taking two tractors at a time, or a tractor and trailer.
MC Truck and Bus employs 35 people at Lytnpne, and it will have to recruit more staff, says Delahay: "There are no problems when it comes to recruiting technicians in Kent, although we sometimes struggle in Essex." The firm also covers Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset, with a network of seven sites. "We're looking to start selling used trucks from our Southampton site, although we're somewhat constrained by lack of space," he adds.
Delahay reports strong sales of new and used vehicles: "We're doing especially well with 8x4 rigids in Kent because there is so much construction work going on, and we're capturing from 22-25% of sales."
Delahay is disappointed that MC Truck & Bus will no longer be selling Mitsubishi Canters from the autumn following Daimler Chrysler's acquisition of the distribution rights. "It's a good product and opened up a new avenue for us," he says,