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THE RUN DOWN in major work in the construction industry has led to a reduc-tion in the number of Land Rovers in R M Douglas Construction’s fleet. Nevertheless this Birmingham-based contractor still runs around 60 Land Rovers to keep Its site personnel mobile.

The choice of Land Rovers is partly due to company policy to buy British equip-ment wherever it is up to the job and also because in the field of four wheel drive personnel carriers the company cannot see at present any real alternative.

Mixed fleet

The fleet is a mixture of 88in and lO9in wheelbase machines in hard top and soft top versions and includes half a dozen station wagons which are mainly supplied to resident engineers on motorway contracts. Apart from this latter category of user Douglas supplies its own site agents, engineers and works managers with Land Rovers for use on contracts, and normally the plant fitters are provided with Land Rovers.
R M Douglas is a great believer in the value of maintenance and this applies to both construction plant and to the trans-port fleet. At the main transport work-shops at Aldridge any work can be carried out on company vehicles including MOT examinations, re-building and re-spraying. There are also main workshops at Swansea, Wigan, Stockton and at New Malden where major work can also be carried out. In addition most major contracts have their own fully-staffed workshop capable of undertaking all normal servicing and running repairs to the transport on that particular contract.

All vehicles are subject to a monthly inspection and a comprehensive report is prepared for each vehicle and submitted to Roy Seaman, the transport manager at Aldridge. Repairs are costed and a decision is taken whether to repair and keep the vehicle or whether to dispose of it.

The majority of running repairs that are carried out are the direct result of arduous site conditions and for this reason the company sees little point in exchanging relatively low mileage vehicles for new models which would do little to alter the actual running repair costs during their working life. As a result R M Douglas keeps its Land Rovers for a life that may extend to as long as ten years.

Low mileage

To illustrate this policy one of the more recent vehicles to be scrapped was first registered in 1971. The last full inspection indicated that costs of bringing it up to standard would probably exceed £1000 and for this reason it was decided that it would not be economic to retain this particular Land Rover on the fleet. Because of the nature of their work the Land Rovers tend to have fairly low mileages in direct contrast with the light vans in the group which may average as much as 30,000 miles a year and so have a normal life of not more than four years.

Working for most of their life on construction and engineering contracts the Land Rovers incur high repair costs on items like brakes. Roy Seaman explained that because of the relatively low ground clearance inherent in the design there is a rapid build up of mud and slurry which works into the drums in the wet weather resulting in loss of braking. It is not unusual for brake linings to require weekly renewal and the drums themselves may be replaced fortnightly. Roy Seaman describes the mixture of slurry as a wonderful grinding paste".

Spares do not present a major problem although on more isolated sites where spares may have to be obtained from local agents there is sometimes difficulty which is usually overcome by direct collection from Solihull. In addition the main Aldridge transport workshop can call on the plant depot for skills like specialist welding and electrical work and should vital spare parts be unavailable the turners can even make up their own replacement parts.

One of the old school

Roy Seaman is a fitter of the old school with over 25 years of site experience behind him. He tends to feel that the earlier versions of the Land Rover fulfilled the role as a general work horse rather better than later designs. This is not so much a criticism of the present models as his specific need for a robust site vehicle with a simplicity of design that reduces maintenance problems to a minimum.

Having said this he regrets the passing of such features as grease nipples on the steering joints and prop shafts despite the fact that current pre-packed nylon joints reduce servicing time.

It is unlikely that any other Land Rover fleet in the UK is subjected to as hard work and the fact that the vehicles have such a long working life must be due to a blend of Solihull design skill and the special kind of maintenance expertise which R M Douglas Construction has built up over the years.