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Wrecking the wrecker's image
Page 99
Page 100
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by lain Sherriff
WRECKER operators are becoming so concerned about the influx of "pirates" into their specialized field that they are making moves which they hope will eventually lead to them being licensed, having their vehicles plated and tested and classified, and working to a published scale of basic rates.
This week Mr Wm. C. Jackson, managing director of Dial-Holmes (England) Ltd, attended a meeting in France of French wrecker operators where recently introduced regulations controlling their activities were explained. On his return, Mr Jackson told me that something along the French lines, but possibly a bit more sophisticated, was what was required in the UK.
The heavy wreckers meet
There are 450 heavy recovery vehicles fitted with power equipment capable of lifting and towing over 7 tons operating in Britain. These vehicles are owned by about 300 operators. There are 15,000 recovery vehicles with hand-operated equipment capable of lifting less than 3 tons, operated by about 10,000 garages and light recovery men. Mr Jackson, who is the force behind the movement for licensing and registration, said that it was the intention to cater for the heavy wreckers only.
As a first move, a meeting was held in London during the Commercial Motor Show when 140 oper ators attended. According to Mr Jackson there was a unanimous feeling that this specialized branch of transport was being brought into disrepute by people who employed underhand practices to obtain work and used vehicles which were neither built nor fit for the job.
"The big hook men say that they can lift 30-ton loads and when they are called out to a job, they are quite incapable of doing so. This means, of course, that all those in the wrecker industry are labelled by the disatisfied customer as liars," said Mr Jackson, who went on to explain that the recovery vehicle had not yet been built that could be classified as a 20-tonner. The biggest wrecker built to the manu facturer's formula is capable of ling no more than 12 tons. A wrecker is defined by Mr Jackson as a device manufactured for the recovery of a damaged vehicle and capable of lifting it from any direction. This means from either side, the back end or over the cab. To find the lifting capacity of the vehicle, the equipment manufacturers work to a formula which is the front axle weight in cwt multiplied by the wheelbase in inches and divided by the overhang in inches, measured from the centre of the back axle to the lifting hooks. This provides the tipping moment in cwt, which is that weight which would cause the front wheels of the towing vehicle to leave the ground. This figure is reduced by one third to produce the safe liftir weight of the equipment.
The wrecker operators are worric about the number of vehicle repaire moving in on their market wi. equipment which does not confer to this formula, merely to pull repair jobs.
'Public danger'
A South East London operator, N Douglas Twyford, told me that lit( ally thousands of vehicles were beii used in Britain on lift and tow °per tions which constituted a danger the public in that although they h; the lifting power; they were incapal of braking safely when towing a loa The wrecker operators will so; be approaching the Customs a Excise, Weights and Measures i specters and the Department of t Environment with a proposal 1 classifying vehicles and plating a testing them. It is visualized ti there will be four classificatio; Class A will be for recovery vehic with a lift and tow capacity of rn( than 8 tons. Class B will be vehicles with an unladen weight more than 71/4 tons, licensed to and tow 5 tons and up to 71/4 to Class C will be for vehicles with capacity to lift and tow over 2 t( and up to 5 tons and Class D vehicles to pull in less than 2 i loads.
On the question of rates, Mr Ja son told me that they varied wid( or the heaviest wrecker, charges In be anything from ES per hour to 10 per hour. The meeting in Sepmber heard and agreed to pro)sals that vehicles should be larged by category, with a basic inimum for the heaviest vehicle £15 for the first hour and £12 an mr thereafter.
understand that although some -ecker operators with as many as machines are constantly occupied hours a day, seven days a week, e majority find that their £6,000 itfits operate less than six hours r week. The intention therefore is at the rate should be the minimum d that if operators can obtain a her rate then they will do so.
I asked Mr Jackson about the derhand practices which he had 'erred to and to which other operars had aluded. "If I were to be ecific," he said, "and you had to int it, we would both finish up in Tower of London." But I gathered tt, on occasions, it involves money anging hands. He suggested it was no mere coincidence that "big-hook" operators often attended damaged vehicles when more sophisticated equipment was available nearer to the incident. Amongst the less reprehensible practices adopted by some operators, he said, was the habit of exaggerating what facilities they had available. It was because these practices were bringing the wrecker men into disrepute that they now sought official recognition in the form of licensing.
The ultimate intention, I understand, is to ask the DoE to introduce a form of operators' licensing where applicants for a wrecker's licence would require to prove that they had the ability, the facilities and the financial capability of operating a fleet of wreckers safely. A licence would be necessary for one or more vehicles in any of the four classifications. It has also been suggested that wrecker vehicles should be sub-. ject to the same plating and testing regulations as heavy goods vehicles. Although the lifting equipment on a wrecker is at present subject to Factories Act lifting regulations, the chassis-cab is not tested by the DoE.
In order to prove that the operator has the ability to work efficiently and safely, Mr Jackson suggests that he should be required to produce proof that his operatives had been trained in safe working methods. For the past two years, Dial-Holmes has been organizing training courses for its customers, the fire service and the police. More recently, three instructors from RTITB's Motec 2 at Livingston attended the course. In addition, the RTITB has been running five-day courses for light vehicle recovery and 10-day courses for heavy vehicle recovery, at Livingston. The heavy goods vehicle course has now been reduced to five days. Four days are spent on vehicle recovery work and one day on airbag techniques. In addition to the physical side of recovery work, both the Dial-Holmes and RTITB courses include legal aspects of the work.
On April 14 next year the DialHolmes course takes over a training area at Motec 2 in Scotland. Depending on the success of the course and on its acceptability to the RTITB, a continuous series of courses at Motec could develop. Mr Jackson believes wrecker operators should be retrained annually and he estimates that a continuous weekly course accommodating 10 drivers throughout the year would meet the country's needs.
Mr S. Lyne, manager at Motec 2, told me that for the moment the RTITB course was confined to basic lifting techniques and that it had not yet developed a course for sophisticated equipment.
It seems there is no doubt that better operators not only need an association and some degree of official recognition but, perhaps more importantly, they want it. Mr Jackson agreed that any of the three large lifting equipment manufacturers, T.F.L. of Bedford, Harvey Frost Ltd or his • own company, might be accused of promoting the official recognition idea for commercial gain but he pointed out that the intention of the September meeting was that it should be handed over to government departments to administer. The few wrecker men I managed to contact this week had not attended the meeting but all of them supported the idea. Whether or not it ever gets off the ground will depend on how many of the 300 operators in that side of the business voice similar support.