First Choice for First Bus

Keeping a fleet of 60+ Wright-bodied Scania buses and 10 Volvo D10 double-deckers operational is no mean feat. But as Birkenhead First Bus depot fitter Paul Oldham explains.

"There is a contingency of just five buses available at any one time to stand in for vehicles undergoing regular maintenance or repair. So mechanical failures and unplanned downtime is something we strive to avoid at any cost. However, to be able to plan for every contingency is close to impossible, as it would mean holding a massive range of stock and specialist equipment on site.”

Enormous Pressure
This is a view echoed by fellow fitter Chris Cureton. "Service buses have a fairly hard life and it is not unusual to find a vehicle with a history of 900,000 miles of almost non-stop use. Some of the components, such as the hydraulic cooling system, come under enormous pressure and we carry out regular preventative maintenance to make sure we don't have a hose failure,” Cureton says. “This is where Pirtek come into its own. They check the hoses and replace anything that’s showing signs of failure. They can also replace other common wear parts, such as power steering and compressor hoses.”

Challenge
Cureton reports that replacing hoses on a modern bus is a challenge in itself. “Modern bus bodies are designed to be part of the chassis and incorporate many mechanical components as integral items. So replacing a hose that stretches from one end of the bus to the other, but inside the bodywork, is not a problem I would like to solve,” he says. “That’s one task that we’d prefer to leave to the hose experts. We have been working with Pirtek Ellesmere Port’s MSST Paul Johnston for the past three years and I cannot fault his work. Pirtek has given us fantastic service, they have solved all our hose problems, and completed them well inside the scheduled time,” Paul Oldham concluded. “Best of all, it frees up our staff to carry out other essential maintenance and cuts down our stock overheads.”