Originally Pirtek Watford wanted to feature a local company they are working with. However the project was deemed to contain sensitive information. So rather than waste the visit, our ‘Pipeline’ correspondent decided to see what other work the MSSTs undertook during the course of the day, and rode ‘shotgun’ with Watford’s newest recruit for the rest of the day.
MSST Kristian Pollitt, who joined the centre in June, was more than happy to have some company on what proved to be an interesting and day .
To say Pollitt had a somewhat diverse working day would be doing him a disservice. His first call was to Harrow Weald cemetery, where Harrow Council workers were struggling with shoring equipment intended to prevent graves collapsing whilst they were being dug. They had a new pump, which powered the hydraulic jacks used to keep the shoring in place, to be commissioned. The hoses to the new pump had to be shortened and a new T-piece fitted to prevent the hoses becoming tangled when in use.
Finally the four jacks were to be flushed as they had been filled with incorrect oil, which prevented their safe operation. Next stop was Harrow bus depot run by London Sovereign, part of the RAPT group. The site is a satellite to the much larger Edgware Road depot, which has a fleet of 109 buses.
At Harrow, MoT fitter Terry Watts explained that there were 49 new Alexander bodied Dennis Enviro 200 single deckers and 12 Dennis Dart Euro 3 in his fleet.
With a crew of just four to maintain the fleet, Watts said he called in Pirtek Watford for hose repairs because it was the most cost effective solution to keep the buses on the road. “It would be impossible to hold all the spares, fixtures and fittings on site. Spares are now looked upon as an unnecessary overhead, and effectively as a dead asset. The workforce has gradually been reduced to just four, which makes it difficult to provide specialist services such as hydraulic repairs, whilst maintaining the regular and scheduled maintenance work,” Terry Watts explains. “At the moment I am in the middle of preparing a Dart for an MoT test only to discover there is a defective brake hose to be replaced. This has the added complication of unusual fittings, one with an internal thread. Certainly nothing I hold as standard. I called in Pirtek Watford, and sure enough they not only had the part but had the correct flexible hose as a standard hydraulic hose would have been too stiff to get into place. I’m pleased they have come up trumps on oil, brake, steering and all sorts of hydraulic hoses. They certainly make repairs a lot easier for the crew, and far faster as well.”
Leaving behind a satisfied customer, Kristian Pollitt headed for his favourite customer, the Warner Studios at Leavesden. The studios are currently filming The Jungle Book, Tarzan and the new Mission Impossible. Pollitt said the previous week he was working on a repair to a lighting teleboom, when Tom Cruise walked onto the set. “I was lucky in that the repair took a long time as I was constantly asked to stop work when filming was taking place, so I got a great insight into the new film. It certainly made my day.”
However today there was no Tom Cruise on this occasion, just a delivery for Charles Wilson for a MWEP repair. Kristian said he was sure to see more celebrities as he was constantly on site working on the myriad of telebooms, fork lifts, scissor lifts and platforms for Nationwide and Wilsons, which are used by the lighting riggers.
After dropping off the correspondent, Kristian had another bit of glamour added to his day. His last call was to SB Racing, to look at a Ferrari. ‘Pipeline’ may have missed out on the original story, but was at least able to demonstrate the variety of work undertaken by Pirtek.
“I am pleased to say Pirtek have come up trumps on all our hose needs”
Select a country