Thirty Years' experience pays off
THE CONTROL of a fleet of Land Rovers has been reduced to a fine art by Tarmac Construction Ltd of Wolverhampton. It is not really surprising as the company has some 30 years of experience with Land Rovers which dates back to the days of the 86in and lO7in wheelbase models with 2-litre petrol engines. The life and service record of every vehicle has been carefully documented and provides historical computer data as a guide for future purchases and optimised holding periods. No additional extras are incorporated in the fleet machines and not even free wheel hubs are fitted. Vehicles are delivered in standard factory finish and are neither painted nor sign written apart from the Tarmac logo and the statutory informa-tion required on all commercial vehicles. This is deliberate company policy that stems from the fact that vehicles are normally kept for a two-and-a-half year life after which time they are all sold on the open market. A life pattern like this greatly assists forward planning and purchasing policy as, on disposal the vehicles normally fetch an average of 50 per cent of the purchase price. There is never any shortage of potential buyers who can range from members of Tarmac’s own staff to other plant companies. Transport manager David Poxon sums up the Tarmac policy as buying in at the maximum discount available and selling on the open market for the highest price. As with other main contractors em-ployed on Ministry motorway contracts Tarmac is required to provide vehicles for resident engineers and their staff as requested. The work of inspection and collecting samples invariably calls for four-wheel drive vehicles and in the majority of cases Land Rovers are specified in the bill of quantities. Land Rovers are also used by Tarmac for their own site staff and fitters and in such roles normally spend over 50 per cent of their lives in four-wheel drive. Service facility Servicing is carried out by Tarmac fitters and on all motorway contracts a service facility is set up where full main-tenance can be carried out. Some contracts may be too small for such a facility but in such cases they are normally within striking distance of one of the major Tarmac servicing depots. These are located in Murrayshire, Grangemouth, Stockton, Newcastle, Rotherham, Leeds, Bromborough, Peterborough, Iver, Chandlers Ford and Chepstow. Although the policy of Tarmac is to buy British wherever possible, David Poxon stresses that this does not prevent the company examining and evaluating other vehicles and equipment. Many alter-natives may appear suitable on pure specification but the aspect which most concerns Tarmac is that of servicing and spare parts. In the past newly-appointed concessionaires have often claimed to be able to offer country-wide service facilities but Tarmac tends to regard these claims with a certain amount of scepticism and David Poxon quoted examples of com-panies which initially offered servicing backing that never achieved its promised level. A fleet of the size that Tarmac normally runs puts a great strain on the servicing back-up from the manufacturer and in this respect British Leyland has not always lived up to the expectations of customers like Tarmac. The original merger within British Leyland caused problems because of the multi-role activities which people on the service engineering side were required to undertake. However, David Poxon now feels that with the establishment of Land Rover Ltd much of the old specialist back-up has been re-established and the relationship is now working very well. All of the Tarmac Land Rovers are registered on a commercial basis with the short wheelbase costing £96 a year and the long wheelbase costing £136 a year. However, a number of the vehicles are used for towing and handling a trailer which puts the taxation up by a further £41 and £55 a year respectively. In addition some of the vehicles are already fitted with tachographs and David Poxon explained that where the long wheelbase versions are used with trailers this takes them over the 3.5 tonne gvw limit and the requirement is now to have tachographs fitted—a point not always fully appreciated by some Land Rover operators. OTHER SERIES III ARTICLES: Technical SpecificationsAll of the following articleswere published between 1980 and 1983, a period that saw the introduction of the County models, the Hi-Cap Pick Up and the Stage 1 V8
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