Without a railway station of its own, Swadlincote leans on the road for every journey its people make. Several bus companies run services through the town, and alongside them are the coaches and minibuses that carry school groups, sports teams, day trips and private hires. The largest secondary school has around 1,200 pupils, and there is a semi-professional football club on Moat Street in Church Gresley.
If one breaks down with people on board
A coach or minibus that stops is a passenger problem before it is a mechanical one. The driver's first job is to get the vehicle as far out of the traffic as possible with hazards on, then move passengers somewhere safe and away from the road, keeping the group together. Then ring 01332 916028 with the location, the number of passengers and what the vehicle did. Let your office know at the same time so onward travel can be sorted if it is needed.
We talk the driver through the options while a technician heads out, and repair at the roadside wherever that is safe and possible so the trip can carry on. If the vehicle can't be fixed where it stands, we recover it.
Servicing, inspections and the annual test
Coaches, double-deckers and minibuses are serviced on the same lifts as our HGVs at the Melbourne workshop. That means the manufacturer's schedule plus close attention to what passengers rely on: brakes and air, steering and suspension, electrics and lighting, heating and ventilation, and the drivetrain. Passenger vehicles need regular safety inspections and a test-ready vehicle each year just as goods vehicles do, and we carry out both, with brake performance checked every time and defects repaired and recorded before sign-off.
Swadlincote has its own draws for groups, from the large dry ski slope and the leisure centre to the museum of the town's pottery heritage and an 80-acre woodland forest park. Operators carrying groups to places like these, or taking local groups further afield, have weeks when every seat is sold and weeks when vehicles sit idle. Tell us which are which, and we will plan servicing and inspections into the quiet weeks.
Cold-weather faults deserve a mention for passenger vehicles in particular. A heater or demister that fails turns into a windscreen that won't clear, which is a safety problem rather than just a comfort one, so it is worth having them checked along with lights and batteries before winter.
If you run minibuses next to vans or trucks, a fleet maintenance contract can bring them all under one team and one schedule, including breakdown cover from the people who already know the vehicles. Planned work is Monday to Friday, 07:30 to 17:00, and the breakdown line is open day and night.
