Did you know? The council run a fully impartial MOT testing centre which is open to the public! MOT testing is conducted on private vehicles at £46 for cars and £56.50 for other vehicles.
MOTs are fully impartial as repairs are not carried out by the council’s fitters, although they will test again for free once repairs are made externally.
Alongside our fleet vehicle and taxi licencing testing, there are spaces available for the public to use.
To book an appointment or for further information, please call 01642 444979
Vehicle fitter vacancy!
The team are also looking for new mechanics to join the team of expert fitters.
The 11-strong team, which includes an apprentice, look after the authority’s 207 vehicles as well as hundreds of other pieces of mechanical equipment ranging from strimmers to 26 tonne bin wagons. One member is MOT tester Rob Parker, who also works as a fitter when required.
Rob, 41, a Dad living in Redcar, gives an account of life in the team below.
Day in the life of a council mechanic
“If I’m testing and going through the MOTs, I’ll start at 8am and work to 4pm and the day is usually quite straightforward. I’ll typically get through seven vehicles in a day, and we can test family cars, work vans and even 16-seat minibuses. But if I’m on the workshop team I start at either 7am on the early shift or 9.30am for the later ‘back shift’. We do a lot of planned maintenance work in the workshop, but we’re often called out to respond to breakdowns. It’s not only about fixing vehicles but recovering them too. We might be out in the moors repairing a gritter or dealing with a broken wagon in one of our major towns. You never know.”
Throughout the day Rob explains that the team have to be able to repair a lot of specialist equipment which is essential to keeping our borough’s streets and roads clean and tidy.
This ranges from electric vans to gully-suckers, road, and street sweepers to lawn mowers.
From October to May, the team take turns to be on call throughout the night to ensure that vehicles keeping our roads safe get the support needed.
“We might be called at any time but there’s no complaints – it’s a vital service that we’re proud to do.”
Could you be one of Rob’s colleagues?
Find out about job opportunities in the workshop by visiting: https://www.northeastjobs.org.uk/job/Workshop_Fitter/231205