Axle weighing specialist Axtec has once again secured the contract to maintain and certify the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) national network of 46 roadside enforcement weighbridges, located throughout the UK.
The Runcorn-based company has now held the DVSA contract for an unbroken 25-years, during which time it has dramatically improved the efficiency of routine maintenance and calibration, while significantly reducing downtime across the network.
Despite the repeat successes, Axtec has been subject to the most rigorous pre-contract examination before being awarded the renewal. Axtec is particularly proud of scoring an ‘excellent response’ against all quality criteria questions in the tender.
Axtec can reflect with some satisfaction that it has not incurred a service credit in the quarter-of-a-century following its first DVSA contract award.
Under the contract, routine maintenance and calibration will be undertaken using Axtec’s unique axle weighbridge test equipment; first commissioned in 1997, and currently hauled by a new DAF XF 480 4×2 tractor unit.
The purpose-designed truck-and-trailer combination – the only one of its type in the UK – efficiently delivers highly accurate, reliable results.
Now supplemented by Axtec’s new, 32-tonne rigid test vehicle, Axtec’s team of dedicated Service Engineers carry out routine six-monthly verification tests swiftly and cost-effectively using its own vehicles. All with the ultimate outcome of supporting DVSA in keeping operators’ vehicles safe, reliable and legal.
The Axtec test vehicles enable the company to carry out any emergency repair work, not only during normal working hours, but also at night or weekends, so that repair and re-certification can be completed quickly and within the contractual deadlines.
The contract also includes annual level surveys, to certify that the flat weighbridge approaches are within the stringent limits specified by law. Any remedial work is completed by Axtec’s own in-house construction team.
Axtec Managing Director, Keith Gresham, said: “We’ve been awarded this contract for a sixth consecutive time; testament to our ongoing commitment to quality and performance – for our products and our customer service. We’re very proud of this achievement,” he said, “it also sets the benchmark and inspires us to maintain the highest levels of quality and service.”
Axtec’s latest Series 5000 Dynamic Axle Weighbridge is the most accurate dynamic weighbridge in the world. Now approved to Class 0.2, requiring accuracy of +0.1%, it is capable of checking all six axles of a tractor / trailer combination, plus gross vehicle weights, in just 40 seconds. Axtec’s Series 5000 is the only dynamic weighbridge authorised for use in the UK as a Public Weighbridge.
Axtec produces a range of dynamic, static, on-board and portable axle weighing solutions.
