West Midlands Mercedes-Benz dealer Midlands Truck & Van will be offering a new dedicated hazardous goods vehicle repair and maintenance facility at its Smethwick branch in the New Year. A handpicked team of four technicians have been trained in maintaining ADR and PetReg vehicles as well as gaining certification to drive them.
The service will be available to operators of all makes of vehicle and trailers. It will operate out of a newly equipped dedicated bay in the dealership’s £7 million Cornwall Road site, which was opened at the end of 2020. The walled-off bay at the end of the building is designed to comply with the HSE’s Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations, and will include a 15 metre inspection pit and working at height facilities. Among the services will be the issuing of Safe Loading Passes allowing vehicles access to petroleum terminals. When open, it will operate round the clock from 0600 on Monday through to Saturday lunchtime.
The ADR/PetReg bay was designed into the building from the start. Midlands Truck & Van MD Steve Hunt said “We’d planned from the outset to establish a PetReg operation at Smethwick, and the bay was incorporated within the original design of the building. It was ‘mothballed’ initially, though, as our first priority was to focus on delivering the mainstream repair and maintenance support that our customers rely upon.”
