Heavy commercial vehicle leasing and rental company TR Group is urging customers to plan vehicle repairs in advance with the industry near “breaking point”.
In the company’s latest Real Torque newsletter, it says the heavy vehicle repair industry is under serious pressure and compounded by the Omicron outbreak it is “worse than ever”.
“What we are seeing now is that for even basic vehicle services (A Services) we are often being told that it will be a week before a service provider can fit the vehicle in.
“If the service is a major service (C service), then this could be up to two weeks or, in some cases, even three weeks. The same goes for repairs. Smaller repairs can take a couple of days to begin, and larger repairs are taking longer than ever to complete.
“We are also seeing the time for servicing increasing, due to the volumes in the shops on the day. In the past, you could expect to drop in at 8am for a two-hour job and be back to work before lunch. But now we are seeing workshops having to juggle things, so some jobs might not even be started until lunchtime and may only be ready by the end of the day,” the company says.
On top of absenteeism due to COVID, there is a huge shortage of mechanics which was made worse with the borders closed.
It reports that there are hundreds of vacancies available for heavy vehicle technicians throughout New Zealand.
Increased transport demands on freight and significant delays on the arrival of new chassis supply and long lead times with bodybuilders is seeing the maintenance of more older gear.
TR Group says it has been seeing the problem grow over a number of years and has been adapting to accommodate and ease the load as much as possible.
This includes increasing its swing componentry programme to assist with getting trucks repaired quicker, providing servicing planning information to customers to help them book services in advance and working closely with workshops.
