Going the Extra Mile

Customer instructions on how to reach a stranded vehicle on site can sometimes be a little vague, and, on occasions, more than a little misleading. But Pirtek prides itself on upholding its Anytime. Anywhere. ETA 1 Hour service promise, no matter how nebulous the directions. Such was the case recently when Pirtek Basildon was asked to replace a leaking hose on a Bell B30D articulated dumptruck being used on the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ sanctuary at Bowers Marsh in Essex. When asked for a specific location for the broken down truck, the answer came: "You know the marshes behind the Pitsea landfill? Good. Well go past the cemetery, out past the farm and it's about a mile out on the marshes." Armed with this information MSST Jon Bell headed in the general direction and, after additional instructions from several site workers, eventually located the ADT nearly three miles out on the marshes. The truck was one of a fleet used by civil engineers ­­­to move 350,000m3 of soil for the new saltwater lagoons, footdrains and landscaped islands of the new 1,500 hectare Wat Tyler Park, part of the Thames Gateway regeneration.

The hose was replaced, the ADT tested and pronounced fit for purpose once again, and put back to work, much to the amusement of Jon Bell. "I love the way that operators assume the service van has four-wheel drive and that we can actually get out onto the marshes fully loaded,” he concludes. “But I can now see why the instructions were a little hazy; there is literally nothing for miles around. Good job I've got a good sense of direction and a much better sense of distance than the ADT driver."