Tuesday, 22 March 2011

The wider team

We have often said its not just the team members that are Swanage Coastguard, there are many local people supporting us.

Over the weekend our truck developed a technical problem.......a flat battery.

Now before anyone thinks that's a bit careless, the vehicle is fitted with a special bit of kit that ensures even if you leave the lights on and the power level drops there is always enough power to start the truck.
On this occasion the device failed so we knew the battery had developed a fault, steps were put in place to ensure we could continue to provide cover until we could source a replacement battery.

The Coastguard don't have a fleet maintenance team, we use local garages to keep the vehicles serviced and on the road, we are measured on "down time " of the vehicle so fast reliable service is vital.

Thankfully we have a Swanage garage who can deal with the truck, when we 1st had the vehicle we had to take it to a dealership in Poole - a 50 mile round trip, taking the vehicle out of town for up to 6 hours.

Yesterday within 20 minutes of phoning Steve at Avenue Garage, two of his staff were knocking at the door of the station with a battery. Fitted and tested in 10 minutes the vehicle was again fully available.

Its this good local support that ensures we can stay available.

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