A day in the life of a Pirtek MSST can be very diverse, but variety is the spice of life. John Allen who works out of the Harlow Centre demonstrated just this in a typical day’s call outs. The day started with a blown excavator hose to replace. Nothing unusual in that, especially as the job took less than a hour to complete.
Second call started out as a call for hydraulic oil for a Hitachi mini excavator, working at the Harvey centre in Harlow. A team from Morrison’s Utility had the thankless task of finding a fault in a high voltage electric cable supplying power to the Centre car park. But by isolating the cable in 50 metre sections, they were able to isolate the fault to a single section. However, the excavator had gone though its allocation of hydraulic oil whilst digging up the road, and needed replenishment. John soon arrived with the oil but was then asked to replace the mini’s pecker attachment hoses as well. Knowing that he now has two other calls lined up, Allen managed to replace both 1.2 metre, 3/8″ flat faced hoses in record time, even though he was working on the hottest day of the year in temperatures of 35 degrees plus.
Next call was to Epping where Total Waste Management had a failed compressor tap on a bleed-off system. Not the largest of jobs but the pipe work was corroded and the assembly had to be remanufactured, not as simple as it seemed as the parts were obsolete and a little bit of ingenuity was called for to supply the replacement. John also suggested that an on line filter trap should be installed to increase the life of the compressor and remove impurities from the system. This was agreed and the order phoned in for delivery the following day.
After a quick call in to a garage on route for a hurried lunch snack, John Allen headed off to Stevenage and Alchemy Metals Ltd, a private family owned independent scrap metal merchant, specialising in factory only scrap metal. The company process everything from casting waste, and steel rails, to overhead power lines and unbelievably MOD missile castings.
Here a JCB 8015 mini, perched eight feet up in a platform above a metal baler had blown a boom ram hose. The JCB was fitted with a material handling, grab that was sorting aluminium sheet from the CNC blocks. It was a particularly awkward place to carry out a repair, as the JCB couldn’t be moved off the platform, so some gymnastics from Allen were called for to gain access and reach the failed hose.
It was then unexpectedly discovered that both the 3/8″, 2.5m boom hoses would have to replaced, which meant a delay to the next customer. They were immediately contacted as Allen knew he would only just make it to the customer before they closed at 5 pm. As there was a good rapport between Pirtek and the client and the repair wasn’t urgent, the customer agreed for the repair to be carried out at 8 am the next morning rather than keep his yard open that evening.
With a sigh of relief, Allen completed the repair and set about returning to base at Harlow, an hour away. Ironically, especially as he had solved the problem of one customer, he was just a few minutes from Harlow, when he received an emergency call. “No rest for the wicked” was his wry response. “And another call to the other half to explain what’s happened.”
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