DIFFLOCK.com - Buyer's Guide

THE WORK patterns of the fleet of Land Rovers owned by British Airways is very different from most other fleets. Most of them are based at Heathrow and none of them is licensed for road use and, theoret-ically, most are restricted by an airport speed limit of 15mph.

This results in an unusually long fleet life and the oldest Land Rover, currently based at Manchester, was first registered in 1966.

The fleet consists of 74 short wheelbase and 24 long wheelbase models. Approxi-mately one third of the fleet is petrol powered but the current trend is towards diesel engines. Life of the vehicles is not measured in terms of mileage but rather in terms of months of work.

This reflects the fact that there is a great deal of stop/start work with many jour-neys of less than 200 yards. All the vehicles form part of a general pool and may be driven by as many as 15 different drivers in a single day. All are fitted with freewheel hubs.

Although British Airways does not make constant use of the four-wheel drive ability of the Land Rovers this feature can be vital at times as it was this winter when the whole airport area was snowbound. However, it is considered that the additional outlay incurred is more than recouped by the very long working life of the vehicles and relatively low main-tenance costs.

If one makes a comparison with the vans which are also used in large quantities on the airport, servicing on the Land Rovers although more costly happens less frequently. In addition, the vans normally have a working life of not more than three years.

Disposal of unwanted Land Rovers is by means of sealed bids and the majority are bid for and purchased by airport staff themselves. Purchasing is carried out by open tender with the contract usually being awarded to one of the British Leyland dealers within a radius of roughly 25 miles of the airport. Spares are also obtained from local distributors although not necessarily from the ones who supply the vehicles. The transport workshop of the Ground Support Equipment Division at Heathrow carries more than £750,000 worth of spares covering 4000 vehicles.

There is a huge number of items that requires to be moved throughout the day and night in a major airport like Heath-row, and the main function of the Land Rovers is to tow or transport equipment together with the maintenance crews. Items like passenger steps and ground power units are being constantly moved and as the Land Rovers are not being used on a public highway full use can be made of their towing capabilities.

Mr R Hatfield, manager of the Ground Support Equipment Division at Heathrow, sums up the situation by saying, "We always have a need for a good quality workhorse." In the earlier days of Heathrow there were as many as 400 Land Rovers in use but with the changing nature of the operation a lot of the original workload has been moved over to the lighter vans.

Bearing in mind the needs of British Airways Mr. Hatfield feels that if the company moved off Land Rovers it would

probably be in the direction of electrically powered units. All the baggage trailers are electrically powered and electric tugs with a drawbar pull of 2720kg are already in use.

Basically, the use of Land Rovers at a location like Heathrow emphasises the wide range of duties which they are capable of carrying out in all weathers. It highlights the advantage of a long working life and low maintenance costs. In every sense they can be described as a "good quality workhorse".