The HGV MOT Test, my experiences!

The best job I ever had entailed organising the maintenace of the fleet rather than actually doing very much of it. Practically everything was leased on contract mainrenance but WE had the say on who did the work. Why should we send two drivers 10 - 15 miles to take and collect a vehicle for/ from service if we could get it done more locally?This meant keeping the contractors on their toes - and boy did we have a go at the main dealers. This meant quite a lot of quality control PMI inspections either before or after the vehicle went to the garage. It also meant visits to our Kearsley, Manchester and East Kilbride sites to QC inspect their vehicles and visit the repairers. We had a couple of issues with one dealer missing a couple of obvious Bedford TK defects that resulted in MOT failures - a missing bolt from underneath the TK hand control valve and a seized brake servo travel indicator.

The most amusing incident also involved a TK. We had an excellent mobile company visiting who started off with just the trailers but very soon proved to have simply top notch fitters on the books. We had three fairly regular guys but Vic Goodsell in particular was out no1 choice. It was not just the opportunity of effectively havig our own fitter, but also the liason with his company. No two week wait for a booking, just a phone call and he or another would be there the next day, or even later that day to sort out some problem. Yes, I could do the job and did do so on occasions, but we were already paying the leasing company for all maintenance to be doen at theor expense. He picked up on KG tractor unit which had a broken rear spring leaf. Neother ourselvs nor the leasing comany were able to find a repalcement spring in time for the test. I rang Gillingham and explained the problem, but since were were inside the 7 day limit we woild not just forfeit the fee but could not obtain another appointment for a further three weeks. They said just bring it along and get a fail then we canrebook it for retest any time in the 14 day limit. Accordingly I took it along solo since the load simulator was sufficient for such a lightweight unit. I carefully made sure that I dislodged the boken leaf so that it was clearly visible … and it passed.