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A fter 15 years' service with the Fleet Services division of
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Manchester City Council, Ernie Spencer is poised to retire. Come May, vans and refuse collection trucks will, for Spencer, be out of the picture. As the council's 1,400 trucks and vans trundle through the city's streets, Spencer will be
busy indulging himself in genealogy, his favourite pastime. But this won't happen for four months; before
he launches himself into the world of family trees, he will oversee an operation that ensures the council gets its hands on the right vehicles.
"It's all about procurement," says Spencer. "Procurement?" we ask. The vehicles are on contract-hire agreements and leased, he tells us. And we don't actually manage day-to-day vehicle movements," he adds.
Refuse collection, highways maintenance and groundworks (parks to you and me) are all dealt with by individual branches of the City Council. The chief role of the Fleet Services division is this: to secure trucks and vans for the separate departments. Each
department has its own .,, transport officer, who
deals with vehicle movements. As well as procur
-'ing the vehicles, Fleet Services is responsible For vehicle maintenance.
Spencer's depot is located in the suburb of Gorton, some three miles south of Manchester city centre. He has worked with the department for 15 years, and he says that the local vicinity has changed. "It was a massive industrial area, but today there is nothing here at all really, just a few small -actories."
Derelict buildings
There is a mass of derelict buildings in the district. En route to the Fleet Services headquarters we pass a host of factories which have shut up shop; even a towering Gothic monastery lays idle, fenced off to deter vandals.
Saying that, the Fleet Services equipment is largely unscathed, reports Spencer. "Two hundred vehicles operate out of here, and there is no problem with vandals. There are two other major depots, and a few minor ones."
A pool of 1,400 vehicles distinguishes the Manchester City Council's Fleet Services division from your local haulage operation. "It's the biggest fleet in the area," remarks Spencer.
That said, there is no need
to accommodate all the vehicles in council depots. The larger trucks, such as the wheelie-bin loaders and skip loaders, are kept within the Fleet Services' walls. Vehicles come back to roost, sounding their reversing alarms as they come to a standstill for the night.