If you have decided running your own workshop to maintain your fleet is one step too far, probably due to a lack of time or resources, you still need to invest some time and effort into managing external contractors if you are to run a well-maintained fleet.
Managing external contractors starts before you have your first meeting. The first step is obviously to provide them with the accurate dimensions of your fleet or just the specific vehicles you want them to maintain; so the number and full specification of the vehicles you are seeking to maintain with mileages and inspection intervals.
You then need to sit down with a blank sheet of paper and decide exactly what you require from this agent, but be prepared to negotiate, as a long list of desires will probably put the price up, or have them decide you are not their ideal customer.
As an example, many commercial vehicle workshops now open extended working hours, from early in the morning to around 10 pm at night. If your normal working day ends mid-afternoon, and the vehicles are single shifted, there is ample scope to have most of your vehicles serviced and returned ready for the next working day, so incurring zero downtime. If, however, you do not finish until sometime after 8 pm, the workshop either has to operate a night shift, probably at extra cost, or you incur a day’s downtime.
At some stage you need to meet and tour the premises of your potential contractor. As you walk round, look carefully for evidence of high standards of quality – would you be happy to see your vehicles in there?
There are a lot of important operational questions to be asking yourself and your prospective supplier, such as:
- Are there sufficient facilities, enough bays with hoists or pits?
- Is the place clean, brightly lit and well laid out, looking efficiently run?
- Do they have enough tools and equipment, is there a roller brake tester?
- Are staff just wandering about, or does everyone seem to be working with a purpose? Simply observe the staff and their behaviour will give you a good idea of how the facility is being run.
- How large is their stores area, is it well laid out & what arrangements do they have for procuring spares, how fast are their lead times – is the stock they are holding large enough for their throughput?
- Check their annual test performance; this factor is even more important for O licence holders as it can affect your OCRS (Operator Compliance Risk Score).
- When checking their pass rate, bear in mind the average age of the vehicles they are repairing; franchised dealers in particular, often have a very young average repair fleet profile which can skew the figures.
- Check out their systems and particularly their inspection and service sheets – how up to date are they, are they DVSA compatible and will you be able to access them as soon as complete? Will you get rapid notification of jobs completed?
- What diagnostic facilities do they have and what IT links to the manufacturers and service functions?
- If they run an ATF or MoT facility, check on the volumes of work and how it functions alongside the workshop, so how are the technicians organised? – you want the use of the facility but not at the expense of a quick turn-around for your vehicles
- Check how many of the technicians are irtec qualified (an independent industry qualification) and to what level, and if the workshop has been recently IRTE (Institute of Road Transport Engineers) audited.
- Check out all their other training, accreditations and insurances
Assuming the results from the above are largely positive and you have successfully negotiated all the commercial and financial aspects of an agreement, the next most important step, is to spend some time carefully setting up the finer details of the arrangement with your external contractor before starting the contract.
