BACK TO THE FALKLANDS FOR VOLVO TECHNICIAN
19 August 2009
BACK TO THE FALKLANDS FOR VOLVO TECHNICIAN
It doesn’t pay to let a customer down – so when a Volvo FL6 fire engine developed a fuel fault, John Pettitt from Hartshorne Potteries sprang into action.
He knew the vehicle – he’d worked on it before, he had, as he says, “a good inkling of what the problem was – the injector pump was failing.” And he wasn’t remotely fazed by the fact that the customer was a bit off his normal patch… at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, 15,826 miles from Newcastle-under-Lyme !
John’s last visit to the 'In Theatre Volvo Domestic Fire Vehicle' was over a year ago, but little had changed except the faces. “It was winter in the Southern hemisphere this time, so it was a bit desolate and I wasn’t able to get out of the workshop much,” says John, who described the Falklands on his last visit as being “like Derbyshire with penguins”
He also enjoyed the company of the team at the base, whom he calls “a great bunch of lands – a brilliant group to knock about with. I’d certainly go again.”
John enjoyed his time on the Falklands, although "it was a bit desolate !"
And he in turn has made a very good impression on the service personnel. In a letter forwarded to Hartshorne, Captain CG Baddeley – the Royal Engineers officer commanding the Joint Force Mechanical Transport Workshop first thanks Andy Bloor for arranging the visit, and then goes on to talk about John; “My staff who hosted Mr Pettitt’s visit have commented on not only his excellent technical knowledge and experience, but also more noticeably his highly professional and courteous manner. He proved to be not only a fine ambassador for Hartshorne Volvo but also an extremely high calibre technician of whom his employers can be justifiably proud.”
So if you’re a Volvo technician and you find yourself in Port Stanley, you’ve got a lot to live up to!
