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A fter some random shuffling of the checklists Volvo got our
Page 60
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first call for help. After a single ring, a very efficient male voice took all our details within three minutes and called back after another five minutes with an ETA of 45 minutes.
In fact it was 17 minutes before the ETA that we heard the familiar strains of a high-roof diesel Transit chugging towards us, proudly sporting the blue Volvo livery. "They said I'd got a breakdown at Argos," Vince Arancio told us. "I was in the workshop preparing a vehicle for its MoT. Everybody mucks in and does a breakdown when they're needed." Inside the van were jump leads, booster and tools at the ready As far as Arancio's concerned, when it comes to typical breakdown calls it's the usual suspects all over again. "Flat batteries mostly, although it could be anything really, like drivers ripping off the suzies," he told us. If the driver gives us all the information we can put what we need on the van 99% of the time they do but last week we had one where the driver just said:Tve got an air leak and I don't know where it is.' If you don't give us much information then you can be in trouble."
Arancio reckons you can soon tell how well a truck's been looked after when attending a roadside breakdown: if it's clean then someone's probably been interested in it. A lot of drivers nowadays aren't so mechanically minded. They just jump in a lorry and if it breaks down it's like a car to them. They could help themselves more by doing their daily checks."
Duration of initial call: 3min Time for ETA: 5min ETA: 45min Time to arrive : 35min