BRS holds Servicentres
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• National Freight Consortium member BRS has revised its strategy for the development of its proposed Servicentre third-party engineering network (CM 6 June).
BRS originally planned to phase in five Servicentres — based on sites chosen from its 121 engineering centres — before the end of August.
Now, following the recent opening of a pilot scheme at BRS Western's Swindon branch, it has decided not to open any more Servicentres until November, when it expects to launch up to four simultaneously, backed by a major advertising campaign.
BRS engineering development manager Peter Parry says that by the middle of next year eight Servicentre sites could be in action, out of a planned total of 12.
No details are being released on the size of the investment that is available to set up the Servicentre network, but Parry does say that individual Servicentre sites could each receive up to 2100,000 to prepare them for third-party operation.
Eventually BRS aims to develop a network of up to 30 Servicentres in a bid to pick up more third-party CV engineering business. The final location of each site will depend on the suitabilty of existing BRS engineering sites and the need to "plug gaps", says Parry.
Operator response to the first Servicentre depot in Swindon has been "very good", he says: "It has created a raised level of awareness in the company, where people previously thought BRS was transport only. Servicentre is helping us upgrade our image."
He says the Swindon Servicentre has already attracted a fair number of enquiries from outside operators, but before opening any more sites, BRS "will be making sure that the right investment is in place", says Parry.
Those BRS workshops which are not selected as Servicentre sites will continue to provide servicing and maintenance for BRS vehicles.
BRS's truck rental business has been "very bouyant this year", reports group rental manager Brian Kirkwood. By the end of this year, he predicts, BRS will have invested over 220 million in new vehicles and its rental fleet will have grown by 20%, to as many as 2,400 vehicles.
Among the new trucks delivered to BRS recently as part of its rental fleet expansion is a MAN F90 tractive unit, which will be based at BRS Southern's Stevenage branch.