3ritish manufacturers have•
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;ervices in Europe by Gordon Crabtree F'ERATORS using British trucks in urope should soon experience little fficulty in obtaining spare parts and nergency service provided their drivers .e properly briefed in advance. The sole ritish manufacturer who does not claim I provide a European emergency service Chrysler. The others have established and -e building a network of service points iroughout Europe.
British Leyland's European truck service as 300 points, all strategically placed close ) main freight centres or along the utobahnen. These points service all LMC marques, and service agents who arry a stock of Leyland fast-moving parts re also able to call on the truck and bus ivision's 24-hour service in the UK.
A gazetteer of this new BLMC service is vailable to British /Continental operators n request.
The Ford Motor Company has 4000 ervice points in Western Europe and of lese 447 are equipped to service Ford's
7uck range. For the moment Germany and taly are the only two countries without
ruck specialists; this is a situation which ill be rectified within the next few years. ord points out, however, that saloon car
ervice points will assist truck operators to ivercome emergencies in the meantime. 7ord also offers a 24-hour emergency parts ervice from the UK for any material which ts European agents do not stock.
Euroservice Bedford's Euroservice covers all Western European countries and all the service )oints are listed in the Euroservice tandbook. This handbook also carries iseful information for drivers, including :ommercial vehicle phrases in French, Jerman, Italian and Spanish.
Although Chrysler cannot yet claim to lave a comprehensive network it has 'acilities in Switzerland, Denmark and Nlorway direct from its own concessionaires and there are at the moment limited facilities ,n Italy, France and West Germany.
Probably the most common emergency zonfronting drivers in Europe is tyre failure, and the National Tyre Distributors' Association operates a breakdown scheme in West Germany and Holland. The operator is issued with a breakdown service book listing names, addresses and telephone numbers of the tyre specialists who co-operate in the breakdown service. The book also contains a notice printed in Dutch, German and English telling the repairer to whom the invoice should be sent. Costs of repairs, punctures and replacements are in accordance with the normal labour costs in the repairing country but the driver is not expected to pay for the service on the spot. His company is invoiced by an NTDA member in the UK. This scheme operates for commercial vehicles only.
The Michelin Tyre Company also supplies a full list of repair and replacement services in France; both these lists are available on application.
Small and Parkes Ltd operates an emergency service for break and clutch linings in France, Belgium and West Germany through Don International SA.
Crane Fruehauf has 109 European agents based in most of Europe's major cities.
Rubery Owen-Rockwell Ltd, which claims to supply 78 per cent of axles for British-built semi-trailers, has a wellestablished European service network and only recently it opened premises to co-ordinate its European activities at Helmond in the Netherlands. It will be distributing equipment through a number of concessionaires throughout Western Eutope and there are 23 service points in the Benelux countries alone, and in addition there is a main spares outlet in Rotterdam.
While the British manufacturing industry cannot claim a 100 per cent service yet, there are clear indications that networks are building up, facilities are available and details of these facilities can be obtained on application to any of the manufacturers.