DIFFLOCK.com - Buyer's Guide

IN ADDITION to a fleet of 54 Land Rovers the BBC has 56 Range Rovers making it one of the largest fleet owners of this type of vehicle in the UK. Many of the Range Rovers are used by the Transmitter Department whose engineers are required to cover long distances on the road combined with the ability to get to any installation regardless of terrain.

The mixed fleet of 4 x 4 vehicles is to some extent a reflection of the changing nature of the work of the engineers who need to service on a regular basis transmitter installations which are now almost entirely automatic and do not have per-manent maintenance crews on site.

The Land Rovers and Range Rovers are serviced at regional garages in London, Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manches-ter, Glasgow and Belfast. Vehicles are purchased centrally against tender and local agents are frequently used to carry out the servicing. Land Rover disposal is usually decided by age as the nature of the work of some vehicles dictates that they can only cover a relatively low mileage in their normal working life.

The majority of the BBC commercial vehicles are fitted out as control rooms, studios, generators and transmission towers and are only working to their full potential when they are stationary on location where the real work of television and radio broadcasting goes on.

Although the BBC purchasing policy is to buy from manufacturers who assemble vehicles in the UK, in one or two rare cases it may be necessary to look elsewhere for suitable vehicles.

Most Land Rovers and Range Rovers are purchased in basic form and conver-sions are carried out in the BBC’s own workshops. The workshops are also responsible for carrying out the painting and lettering of vehicles.

This will vary from a discreet BBC logo on a dark green or grey vehicle that will not look too out of place at a location such as Wentworth, to the eye-catching design of the Radio One Road Show Range Rover and mobile stage which sets out to compete with commercial radio units.