A POOLS WIN ORIGINALLY GOT AUTO SERVICES PERTH STARTED IN THE RECOVERY INDUSTRY BUT SOUND BUSINESS DECISIONS, RATHER THAN LUCK, HAVE HELPED IT TO GROW IMPRESSIVELY EVER SINCE.
Based in Perth, the gateway to the north of Scotland from the central belt, Auto Services Perth is the UK’s first Stellantis-branded service agent, covering the conglomerate’s Vauxhall, Peugeot and Citroën commercial vehicles. But the firm also offers a body shop, vehicle sales, MoTs and comprehensive mechanical service and repair for light and commercial vehicles. And then there’s the recovery part of the business, which tackles everything from cars to artics, covering breakdowns and accidents.
Perth’s location means a lot of tourist traffic and the firm’s recovery activities cover a wide area with varying roads, from isolated rural tracks to thundering motorways and packed dual-carriageways – including the infamous A9 which runs from Stirling to Perth up to Inverness. Auto Services Perth was established by father and son Jim and Stephen Crozier in 1981. Jim was a foreman at a Fiat commercial garage (in the days before it became Iveco) but was made redundant when the Fiat group’s heavy division encountered financial difficulties.
ON SCENE HEADS DOWN TO DEVON WHERE, THANKS TO THE COUNTY'S RURAL ROADS AND HOLIDAY TRAFFIC, KINGSBRIDGE AUTO REPAIR AND RESCUE HAS DECIDED TO FOCUS ON THE LIGHTER END OF THE BUSINESS.
You’ve only got to look at the South Devon town of Kingsbridge on a map to feel slightly jealous of Mike Saunders. Nestled right at the heart of an area of outstanding natural beauty and operating in a region that includes holiday destinations like Salcombe, Dartmouth,Torquay and Brixham, the owner of Kingsbridge Auto Repair and Rescue is the first to admit he’s a lucky man when it comes to location. “It’s a lovely place to work,” Mike confirms. “Don’t get me wrong; it’s an expensive place to live and work. But at the same time we don’t want to work anywhere else. I grew up here and I like to think I know every road. I’ve probably been down most of them!”
Mike went straight into a garage from school, staying with his first employer for nine years. Having learnt his trade, he then moved to a second garage doing breakdown work, where he met the men who would later become his business partners.
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RYDAM UNIVERSAL HAS A HANDS-ON UNDERSTANDING OF THE RECOVERY SECTOR, ALLOWING IT TO SUPPLY, DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE A WIDE RANGE OF SUPPORTING EQUIPMENT THAT HITS JUST THE RIGHT SPOT.
The vehicle recovery industry is increasingly reliant on a group of specialist manufacturers and suppliers who can design and build bespoke vehicles and equipment for different sectors of the market. Leeds-based Rydam Universal is just such a supplier. It has operational experience in vehicle recovery, heavy transport and vehicle movement, and with its workshop, engineering and fabrication facilities and extensive parts stockholding, it provides a range of bespoke products aimed directly at the recovery sector, almost all designed and built in-house.
The two key people behind the operation are MD John Green and director Adam Green. John founded the operation with his wife Jackie back in 1986, and the Rydam name combines their two sons’ names, Ryan and Adam. The firm has worked hard to diversify over the years and continues to do so, says John.
ON SCENE PRESENTS A PICTORIAL OVERVIEW OF THE BEST DISPLAYS AT THE PROFESSIONAL RECOVERY TOW SHOW IN TELFORD LAST YEAR, BEFORE THE EVENT SWITCHES TO STONELEIGH
The last couple of months have flown by, but it’s still well worth looking back at some of the more memorable vehicles and equipment that were on display at the 2024 Professional Recovery Tow Show in Telford. This time around, we thought we’d let the pictures do the talking. And as they demonstrate, operators are prepared to dig deep and equip new recovery vehicles of all sizes to a very high level, giving their staff the kit they need to carry out all manner of jobs with just a single vehicle.
It’s not just the biggest heavy wreckers we’re talking about, either. Even relatively simple service vans have now become mobile workshops on wheels. Specialist recovery kit continues to evolve, and the changing demands of the market, with the growth of electric and hybrid vehicles in particular, pose new challenges all the time. But the industry and its suppliers are showing real innovation and inventiveness to deal with this new reality.
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ROADSIDE RECOVERY IN THE SPRAWLING TERRAIN OF SOUTHERN SCOTLAND REQUIRES A WIDE RANGE OF EQUIPMENT, TOP-NOTCH ORGANISATIONAL SKILLS AND AN OPTIMUM SET OF LOCATIONS FROM WHICH TO OPERATE. AND CAR AND TRUCK SERVICES HITS THE BULLSEYE ON ALL THREE.
Location, in the recovery business, is not so much about where you are, but where you can get to.
Car and Truck Services has three sites across South Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway, at Lockerbie, Elvanfoot and Dumfries. The Elvanfoot site is visible from the A74M, beside junction 14 on the northbound side. To the public it might look like it’s in the middle of nowhere, but as company boss Nigel Forrest prefers to put it: “It’s in the middle of everywhere. We cover a large geographical area and our three sites are ideally placed for that.”
The company was established in 1969 by Nigel’s father Allan, and was originally focused on vehicle body repair, with a speciality in major repairs. Starting in Motherwell, the company moved to the village of Crawford in 1971, just a mile from its current six-acre Elvanfoot site.
BEING ABLE TO CARRY OUT SEVERAL DIFFERENT THINGS WITH A SINGLE VEHICLE IS ALWAYS GOING TO APPEAL, AS WE WERE REMINDED WHEN WE CAME ACROSS ONE PARTICULARLY FLEXIBLE RECOVERY TRUCK AT THE RECENT TOW SHOW.
An extremely well-equipped Scania 560R Super 8×2 rigid on the ESSEL stand at the 2024 Tow Show really caught our attention. Fitted with Scandinavian-style multi-purpose recovery equipment, we would refer to it as a high-capacity accident unit, but closer examination shows it to be far more complex than most other rigids, combining a slide-bed body, underlift, a knuckle boom crane and a winch or two.
Pete Reddish, director of Barnsley-based Bus and Truck Services, the UK agent for ESSEL recovery equipment, tells us the top capacity ET12000 towing platform, as ESSEL refers to it, is part of a range of heavy-duty sliding platforms that incorporate an underlift, multiple winches, a front-mounted hydraulic crane, plus a host of other equipment and features that mean it can handle most types of recovery work on its own, assuming the truck operator is sufficiently skilled, of course.
With 100 pages of first-class recovery content, what more could you wish for? Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or an individual copy.