| 53 T T Hugh de Lacy One -stop-shop for truck maintenance Dunedin Truck Serviceing’s clients can drive out of the company’s service lanes and straight into Vehicle Testing New Zealand’s (VTNZ’s) testing lane alongside. Dunedin Truck Servicing TRANSPORT The idea of a one-stop-shop for truck maintenance and repairs has been taken a step further by Dunedin Truck Servicing: to get their Certificates of Fitness (CoFs) its clients can drive out of the company’s service lanes and straight into Vehicle Testing New Zealand’s (VTNZ’s) testing lane alongside. Dunedin Truck Servicing has a near-new 2500m2 building on a 10,000m2 site on Carnforth Street, Green Island, and it leases one lane to VTNZ. “We have a separate lane of our own that has brake-rollers and all the stuff needed for pre-tests, so a truck goes out our bay and straight into the testing station next door,” says Colin Clay, the joint owner of the business through his Invercargill-based Clay Group. The other owner of Dunedin Truck Servicing is its branch manager, Tony Duncan, who previously worked for Sutton Trucks until that company went into receivership in 1999. Colin bought Sutton Trucks out of receivership and changed the name to Dunedin Truck Servicing Ltd that year, and today it employs 19 staff, mostly mechanics and parts people. Dunedin Truck Servicing is the Otago service franchise holder for Southpac, the company that sells DAF and Kenworth trucks and TRP parts throughout the country, and it also holds the Otago regional agency for Supercharge batteries. Four years ago Colin’s commercial property trust purpose-built the present state-of-theart truck servicing depot, leasing it back to Dunedin Truck Servicing. It has seven service bays each 30m long, easily able to accommodate a full truck-andtrailer combo, and its services are available 24/7. The building has insulation on the roof and the sides to hold the heat out on the hot summer days, and keeps it in in the winter months. “It was built with a lot of environmental safety factors in it,” Colin says. The company is driven by the importance of HTV owners having as little downtime as possible. “We work towards the peak goals of speed, quality of service and costs,” he says. “We’re proud to have a loyal, hard-working and contented workforce and believe the business’s biggest asset is its staff.” Colin and Tony have built the business around fast. “Trucking people can have rigs worth $700,000, and they don’t want them sitting in the garage, so we concentrate on preventive maintenance – we like to fix it before it breaks,” he says. “Our clients have noticed our 24/7 call-out service is getting fewer and fewer call-outs, and that’s got to be good for them because they only make money when the truck’s turning the wheels. “The fact is that if you don’t find and fix a part that’s failing, when it finally gives up the ghost it takes ten associated parts with it, and that’s when things start getting expensive.” The preventive maintenance policy has resulted in the company working at full capacity with trucks literally lining up to be looked after. “We’re flat out,” Colin says. “We have a hell of a following with big players as well as the wee ones: we pay equal attention to everyone whether they’ve got a small milk truck or a fleet of Kenworths. “We treat our staff the same way,” Colin says, and looking after them has enabled the company to maintain a full skills list despite the acute shortages plaguing most trade industries round the country. Proud to support Dunedin Truck Servicing Proudly supporting Dunedin Truck Servicing Ltd Quality Parts with Professional Service at Competitive Prices www.multispares.co.nz • Truck & Trailer Parts • European & Japanese • American Parts • Jaltest Diagnostic Equipment Contact us on 0800 404 100 for your parts requirements. The Dunedin Truck Servicing depot has seven service bays each 30m long, easily able to accommodate a full truck-and-trailer combo, and its services are available 24/7.
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