Scania dealer Derek Jones Commercials at Wellingborough has been a
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DP for four years. An initial 2200,000 investment included a one-bay extension to the workshop. It charges a "facility" fee to the customer of £30 to cover the investment, but says this is offset by the time and cost saving in not taking the vehicle to the local VOSA station. Managing director James Armstrong says: The intention was to offer customers a better service than having to travel to the nearest test station which, in our case, is an hour away. Customers want the minimum vehicle downtime and a DP adjacent to an authorised workshop minimises downtime." It tests 26 axles (around 10 vehicles) a day, five days a week. Offering the service is helping to protect, and build, the company's customer base, Armstrong adds
Rygor
Westbury. Willshire-based Mercedes-Benz dealer Rygor Commercials started testing three days a week three years ago and by the end of this year it aims to be doing five. Much of the business comes from its sister company, 130-vehicie haulier Rygor Group Services, which shares its fouracre site and made setting up as a DP a logical move. "As we are both a dealer and a CV operator, it was a combination of factors," says dealer principal Tim Stacey. "The nearest test station is a twohour round trip and there was the issue of sending technicians up there waiting for appointed times, which was pretty unproductive. Rygor Group Services is treated as a customer, but we can perhaps drop one of our own distribution vehicles— if it is in a fortnight test window, for example — because of customer emergency. That way, we try to create flexibility."