The Ely-based dealer asked technicians to volunteer for two additional weekend shifts for Knowles Transport, which is reporting “unprecedented demand” to transport food products to regional distribution centres.
Last Saturday, 21 March, three technicians went to the Knowles Transport workshop in Wimblington as soon as their morning shift had finished. Seven more worked throughout Sunday – and the same process is being repeated this coming weekend.
Managing director Alex Knowles says: “We’ve never been this busy in March before; it’s the equivalent of Christmas-level volumes, plus a bit more.
He adds: “We have the majority of our fleet on a service contract with Volvo, but we normally stagger maintenance throughout the week – and we’d never normally service trucks on a Sunday. The speed of response from the dealership in Ely has been fantastic; they’ve really stepped up to help us out.”
Volvo Truck and Bus East Anglia has also provided a Volvo FH demonstrator to help the operator.
“We’ve literally needed every single truck we could lay our hands on,” says Knowles. “Having the loan of an extra tractor unit has come in really handy.”