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Contract out your maintenance but not your responsibility

4th December 1997
Page 46
Page 46, 4th December 1997 — Contract out your maintenance but not your responsibility
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Many operators contract out their vehicle inspection and maintenance; not least because it gives them a sense of security: "Acme garages are doing my maintenance, if anything goes wrong it's their fault and I'm bornb proof!" Nothing could be further from the truth.

An operator's obligation to keep his vehicles in a fit and roadworthy condition is exactly the same whether he does the work himself of he contracts it out. In fact contracting out can cause more problems because you will have to supervise an independent contractor away from your own site.

Here are a few tips that may help you avoid problems, many of them come from the "Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness": • Before you enter into a contract always check that the contractor has proper facilities; • Visit his workshop—ensure that he has pits or adequate ramps; • Ask if he has access to brake and headlamp test equipment; • Check to see if there is adequate lighting; • Ask your maintenance contractor for names of other operators that he works for—then ring them and see if they have any complaints. Operators must understand that when they enter into the maintenance contract required by the Traffic Commissioners, the obligation is still on the operator to submit the vehicle for inspection—there is no such obligation on the contractor. Operators must keep a wallchart or some other method for pre-planning inspections to make sure they take place within the time limit promised to the TC.

Remember that you also retain the obligation to keep a record of the inspections and the work done at your operating centre. Some independent garages will offer to keep these records for you but this is not good enough. You need the records so that you can show them to a Traffic Examiner on demand.

Even when you contract out your inspections and repairs you still need on effective system of daily driver's checks, which should also be used as a quality control check on your maintenance contractor. If your driver finds a defect soon after the vehicle has been inspected you should ask yourself if that defect have been found during the inspection. If so you should raise the matter with the garage. Operators should read the inspection and maintenance sheets when they come back. Sometimes the same defect will occur on two consecutive sheets, which might indicate that the work was not done properly the first time. Make sure that the records are properly completed. Every appro priate box should contain a tick or a cross—and the ticks are as important as the crosses. If you are unfortunate enough Operators must still plan to receive a vehicle inspections.

prohibition on one of your vehicles, it could indicate a weakness in the contractor's inspection and maintenance procedure. Finally, always consider some form of independent monitoring: consider instructing another garage or mechanic, or an organisation like the Freight Transport Association to carry out spotchecks on your vehicles at pre-determined intervals. This will give you an indication of how well your maintenance contractor is performing. If you take all these steps it is likely that your vehicles will be maintained in good and efficient working order and that you will not fall foul of the Vehicle Inspectorate, the Licensing Review Board or the Traffic Commissioners. But to assume that contracting out is an easy option is a grave mistake. U by Stephen Kirkbright


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