How important is the workshop equipment in your garage to you?

The very foundation stone that any garage or mechanics business is built upon is the workshop equipment that it has at its disposal to be able to inspect, repair, build or modify the vehicles that it works upon. These vital items of garage and workshop equipment are the backbone of your workshop and it is these items of garage equipment that allow yourself or your team of skilled engineers and mechanics work on your own or your clients vehicles. (Please allow a moment to consider this point and to decide how long you can go without an item of your workshop equipment being fully functioning.)

Why consider having a garage equipment service contract?

So having established the integral nature that your garage and workshop equipment holds within your business, the next question that should be asked is how to ensure that your equipment is always operating correctly and safely, with no unnecessary downtime generated due to most likely foreseeable and preventable breakages or damage. The old sayings are often the best and “A stitch in time, saves nine” still holds true today.

What we at Lions Equipment have called a ‘STEC’, which is an acronym of 'Service and Thorough Examination Contract' is what might also commonly be described as a garage equipment service contract or planned maintenance contract. With a STEC in place for your important machinery or at your site you ensure that Lions Equipments skilled engineers, who are GEA accredited, will regularly attend your workshop at a time that is planned in advance to fit in with your schedule, to thoroughly inspect the items of your equipment as agreed at the outset and conduct preventative maintenance on these items.

It is not only prudent to ensure that your equipment is regularly maintained, but it will also save money in the long term to not suffer from breakdowns or broken equipment when you can least afford to take time away from the ‘spanners’. A garage equipment service contract is one of the best ways to ensure your machinery is in the best condition at all times.

What does PUWER and LOLER mean and why do service contracts (STECs) relate so strongly to them?

There are many and various regulations that must be followed to ensure a safe working environment for your employees and any other persons involved within your business. Meeting these requirements can often be done ‘in-house’ as long as the standard of inspections, examinations, servicing and required record keeping documentation is achieved and maintained. However, often a sensible approach is to sub contract this work to outside persons, leaving your own team the time to focus on the work that they are best at.

Two regulations and the aspects that particularly relate your equipment are detailed below;

PUWER

All equipment that is in use within your business or workshops must meet PUWER (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998) which stipulates a variety of points, but these two PUWAR points are especially pertinent to an equipment service contract or STEC;

• ensure work equipment is maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair
• where a machine has a maintenance log, keep this up to date

LOLER

Garage and workshop lifting equipment, due to the inherent risks involved in their use, come with their own set of regulations which are abbreviated to LOLER (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998) and cover many different aspects relating to the safe use of lifting equipment. Paragraphs 202 and 203 of HSG261 -'Health and safety in motor vehicle repair and associated industries’, a document that we should all be familiar with, clarify periodic inspections with relation to workshop lifting machinery and LOLER;

• 202 - Vehicle-lifting devices are subject to the requirements of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER).24 They will generally be exposed to conditions causing deterioration, which can result in dangerous situations and will require periodic thorough examination. Records of examination should be kept for at least two years.
• 203 - If a person is elevated inside a vehicle on a vehicle lift, LOLER requires the lift to be thoroughly examined every six months. Additionally, as people routinely work beneath a vehicle raised on a vehicle lift, a risk assessment of that work should conclude that six months between thorough examinations is appropriate. This period is usually specified by the competent person carrying out the examinations, and is the period recommended by BS 7980:2003.22 It is common practice in the industry to have six-monthly thorough examination for all vehicle lifts.

A service contract with Lions Equipment will fulfil all of these requirements, not only with every visit will our skilled engineers conduct preventative maintenance during the servicing ensuring that the item is well maintained, but they will also issue a certificate demonstrating the inspection that was conducted during the examination and a log of any work that was subsequently carried out on the garage equipment to ensure that the workshop equipment is operating efficiently in its continual use. As you can see from paragraph 203 in document HSG261, for all garage and workshop lifting equipment a periodic inspection by a skilled person should be conducted every six months.

With prices for a vehicle lift STEC starting from £70 per visit, £140 a year is a small price to pay to know that not only are you are meeting the required regulations regarding periodic inspections but that your vital workshop machinery is being properly maintained for continual and reliable use.

Key Features and Benefits of the Lions Equipment Service Contract

There are many reasons to why to choose to engage Lions Equipment for your garage and workshop machinery's periodic maintenance and examination requirements, and with a STEC you can rest assured that you are in the best hands when it comes to looking after you and your equipment.

• Highly experienced and GEA accredited engineers who understand workshop machinery
• Book the inspections at a time and date that suits you
• Regular and thorough servicing and maintenance carried out on your workshop machinery

We also know that not every customer needs or wants the same contract. That's why we work closely to provide the best garage equipment service contract for each individual customer. Whether you might be looking for 6 or 12 month servicing or flexible payment options, we will work with you to create a service contract to suit your requirements.