Plant and Vehicle
The Plant and Vehicle Section is located at Megabid in a number of green Pack-away buildings. The workshop and store team has 17 staff looking after the PWD fleet of plant trucks and vehicles. The section provides plant, transport and mechanical support for all PWD sections and their construction partners. We also purchase new and replacement plant for PWD.
We purchase light vehicles for all other FIG departments and arrange the disposal of vehicles and plant that is no longer required. We provide assistance and advise other departments regarding repairs and maintenance. We also look after the day to day running of FIG vehicle insurance. We facilitate visits by engineers who carry out inspections on all FIG pressure vessels and lifting equipment, from shackles and strops, to cranes and lifts. We deliver diesel to construction sites with our 10,000 litre and 8,000 litre diesel tanker trucks. We also have a full-time tyre fitter to repair tyres for all types of equipment from light vehicles to 30 plus tonne wheeled loaders.
Capital projects
When PWD or partners undertake capital projects, we provide plant and transport, and charge hire so that the true cost of a particular job can be seen. We also charge hire for the heavy equipment used by the Materials section for production of aggregates and asphalt.
Pool vehicles
The section holds a number of pool vehicles that are available to other departments for short term use.
Staff
Due to the location of the Falkland Islands and lack of dealer support for many machines, the workshop staff have to be multi-skilled, working on a variety of equipment from small generators to large earth moving equipment; the largest item being worth over £330,000.
Mechanics are required to have good welding and fabrication skills and be competent at diagnosing faults on modern equipment. We stock and cut laminated glass for repair of windows, undertake a limited shot blasting and spray-painting operation to maintain appearance of machines when possible.
Where possible we recruit local people and regularly undertake training on new items of plant off and on Islands to ensure we minimise down time and maximise output. We train apprentices in conjunction with Falkland College up to NVQ level 3, including some time spent in the UK.