The workshop comes to you
Bringing a vehicle off the road to a workshop costs a driver's shift, a delivery slot and sometimes a hire vehicle. A lot of the faults that stop commercial vehicles don't need a ramp or a pit, they need someone who turns up with the right tools and the right part. That is what our mobile repair service is for.
We come out to the roadside when something fails on the move, and to your yard or site for faults that are found during a walkaround check or reported at the end of a shift. Fixing a vehicle where it is parked overnight means it can be back in service for the morning.
What we repair on site
Most of what we do on site falls into a handful of areas:
- Air systems. Leaking couplings, damaged suzies, valves and pipework. Our guide to air system faults explains why these cause so much downtime.
- Brakes. Faults found at a walkaround or flagged by the driver, with a proper check before the vehicle goes back out. More on our brake testing and repairs page.
- Electrical and lighting. Wiring faults, failed lamps and connectors, and charging problems, which matter all the more before winter.
- Tyres and wheels. Damage that makes a vehicle unsafe to move, and the checks that go with it.
- Couplings and trailer faults. The connections between unit and trailer that stop a load leaving the yard.
When a fault isn't obvious, we diagnose it before we start replacing parts. See diagnostics and fault finding for how we approach that.
When the workshop is the better answer
Some jobs are better done under cover with the vehicle on lifts: major component replacement, structural repairs and anything that needs specialist equipment. When that is the case we say so rather than attempting a roadside job that won't last. We can recover the vehicle to our workshop at Melbourne, or arrange a time for you to bring it in.
Walkaround defects, fixed before the next shift
Drivers' daily walkaround checks find a lot of the faults we repair on site: a lamp out, an air leak, a damaged fitting, a tyre that won't pass. Those defects have to be put right before the vehicle goes back out, and waiting for a workshop slot can cost a day.
Ring us when a defect is reported and we can often fix it at your depot the same day or overnight, with the repair recorded so the defect report and the fix match up. That record matters, because DVSA expects to see that reported defects were dealt with.
What to have ready when you book
To get the right technician with the right parts:
- the vehicle registration, make and model
- what the driver reported, or what the walkaround found
- where the vehicle is parked and how we get access
- when it next needs to be in service
Mobile work and the rest of your maintenance
Mobile repairs work best as part of a plan rather than instead of one. Repeated faults on the same vehicle are a sign it needs a closer look at its next service or safety inspection, and we will tell you when we see a pattern.
Booking planned mobile work
Mobile repairs aren't only for emergencies. If a vehicle has a known fault or an advisory from its last inspection, we can come to your depot at a time that suits your schedule, out of hours if that keeps the vehicle earning. Operators on a fleet maintenance contract often combine this with their regular servicing visits.
Where we cover
We work across the East Midlands and South Yorkshire from our base at Melbourne, just south of Derby, close to the M1, A50, A38 and A42. That puts Derby, Burton upon Trent, Castle Donington and the logistics parks around junctions 23a and 24 of the M1, Loughborough, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Swadlincote, Long Eaton, Nottingham and Leicester on our doorstep, with Mansfield, Chesterfield and Sheffield further up the M1.
