There’s
one word to describe working in the fleet department: busy!
We have over 950 vehicles which cover about 17
million miles a year, so it’s safe to say that the workshop
technicians play a major role within the Service. Our role is to
maintain all of the Service’s vehicles so they are in good working
order, as well as to ensure we have as many vehicles on the road as
possible.
Our shifts start between 7.00am and 8.00am. We
begin by checking to see if any vehicles have been taken off the
road overnight. Our priority is to work on these as soon as
possible so they can get back on the road. General day to day work
also involves planned jobs, such as general maintenance and the
servicing of vehicles.
Working in the fleet team is not an everyday
sort of job. Not only do we work on the actual mechanics of the
vehicles, but we also need to know about all the specialist
equipment involved. Over the years the fleet has had many upgrades
and seen a lot of technological developments, so there are lots of
opportunities for new courses and specialist
training.
The Service’s fleet includes accident and
emergency ambulances, patient transport vehicles, motorcycle
response units, high powered rapid response units and emergency
control vehicles. Working on all these different vehicles
makes my job as a fleet multi-skilled technician challenging and
exciting.
We have twelve workshops across London and I’m
based at Croydon although I also work in the control room at our
headquarters in Waterloo. There is also the opportunity to
move around and we have twelve mobile workshops which are available
to visit sites out of hours or for weekend repairs. Although
the mobile workshops usually operate at the weekend, they always
need to be available to go out to a call.
A career in the fleet team really is a great
one. Someone once said to me, “it doesn’t matter how many
paramedics you've got, without you guys the service wouldn’t
operate.” That comment has always stuck with me and while
paramedics are vitally important we’re the ones who keep the wheels
turning.
Paul Jackson joined the London Ambulance
Service 28 years ago at the age of 21.
If you are interested in a fleet multi-skilled
technician role, check our
current vacancies page to see if we are recruiting.