Bevan Group and A&R Vehicle Services will be promoting their 24-hour back-up when they share a stand at the 2014 Commercial Vehicle Show.

Bevan Group’s rapid response mobile aftercare service covers truck and van bodies, as well as ancillary equipment – particularly tail-lifts – and has been growing strongly, while A&R Vehicle Services are accident repair and refurbishment specialists.

Halesowen-based Bevan Group is best known as a builder of dry freight curtainside and box bodies – it also offers insulated bodies for temperature-controlled applications, in partnership with Schmitz Cargobull.

The company additionally looks after some 2,400 vehicles on a repair and maintenance contract or pay-as-you-go basis, a figure that represents a 45 per cent increase on the same point a year ago, and which continues to rise.

Aftercare manager Simon Dryburgh said other factors have also contributed. “Operators value the fact that rather than recovering the vehicle to a workshop, our highly-trained mobile technicians are able to fix the vast majority of problems either at the roadside or at the customer’s own premises,” he says.

“The loss of a tail-lift, or a jammed roller shutter door, effectively renders a vehicle useless. And as many are purpose-built for the job, operators can’t simply hire a replacement. Our industry-leading service therefore represents a big saving in all-important downtime, as well as minimising hassle and expense for customers.”

The company's team of 28 mobile technicians are on call round-the-clock and reach 86 per cent of breakdown scenes within 90 minutes of being ‘scrambled’, although in most cases the attendance time is a lot shorter. “We continue to employ more mobile technicians and are working constantly to improve our response performance,” added Simon.

A&R Vehicle Services is fully equipped to undertake major accident repairs that cannot be completed at the roadside or at the operator’s own premises, as well as offering refurbishment programmes covering everything from a single vehicle to a large-scale fleet.

A&R managing director George Simpson said: “The partnership with Bevan represents a big adventure for our companies, and we’re both winning new orders for the extended range of services we’re now able to offer our respective customer bases.”