Family run companies work well together!
It’s often true that family-run companies work well together when they do business. Such is the case with family-owned Dave Bland Engineering and G. Bannerman (Tain) Ltd.
In an exclusive interview, Neil Bannerman told Professional Recovery magazine: “We are a family-run car and commercial workshops trading since 42 years in the same premises in Tain.
“My father started the business and has been running it ever since. We have always done recovery as it is a good way to feed work into our workshops and bodyshop.
“We currently run five recovery vehicles 3.5ton Fiat Ducato Beavertail 7.5ton Merc Slidebed with second car lift 26ton Merc Accident unit with 10tonslidebed, five ton second car lift and 32ton/metre lorry loader crane, ERF with Century recovery boom and Low rider underlift and our new Dave Bland 12ton Renault Midlum aluminium slidebed and second car lift.
“We hold contracts with the majority of clubs and have the police contract for our area.
“We currently employ 19 people throughout the whole company. We traded in our old 10ton Renault as we were finding more and more that the vans were getting bigger and we were only just managing them.
“We went with Dave for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you deal with Dave from the start and he was always quick to deal with any queries we had and nothing was ever a bother for him.
“Secondly a lot of things which were extra on quotes from others were standard on Dave’s. This gives you the impression he understood more how diverse a truck has to be, especially for a smaller operator like ourselves.
“We arranged to meet in Carlisle, we met up with Dave and he gave us an excellent run through of all the equipment and explained in great detail all the electrics and where all the fuses relays etc were and gave us a demo of the equipment.
“We will not hesitate to deal with Dave in the future and have discussed some accessories for our other trucks which he is going to fabricate for us. The truck went straight into operation before it had finished its journey North recovering a Porsche with a broken driveshaft back to the workshops for repair!”
A spokesman for York-based manufacturer Dave Bland Engineering confirmed that they have recently supplied a new 23′ Alloy deck slide body with 1500kg second car lift to G Bannerman (Tain) Ltd.
The spokesman said: “The vehicle was fitted to a new Renault Midlum 220.12/B 4×2 R E3 Crew cab chassis also supplied by us. This was the first vehicle we have supplied to G. Bannerman. We’re delighted to have received the order and we’re confident it will provide our customer with many years of reliable service.”
Dave Bland Engineering are renowned throughout the industry for producing products which give the operator years of hassle free use. Their portfolio boasts a full range of Recovery, lightweight, Accident and transport vehicles, including their ultralow approach slide back. Both the slide body vehicle and the super low angle option can be made in Aluminium, increasing load capacity.
Dave Bland continues to be enthusiastic about the recovery industry and the company are continually developing their designs, more recently producing slide bodies with the fitting option of a beacon arch constructed in polypropylene, which is lighter, more resistant to impact and 100% resistant to corrosion.
The company have recently invested in a new CNC laser cutting system enabling the easier manufacture of “individual” products and forward thinking design, the machine produces high quality accurate components and Dave himself is confident it will be a valuable investment to the company and the development of their equipment, improving and streamlining manufacture.
To learn more about your next new recovery vehicle, call Dave Bland on 01759 372515 or email: sales@davebland.co.uk. Visit www.davebland.co.uk or you can follow them on Facebook.