The Union writes to update members on the state of the Fraser-MAN fleet which has been “blacked” since mid-January of this year.
The Local has received favourable feedback from our representatives on the Fraser-MAN Appliance Recovery Project. The ten Union-appointed testers, from
five Locals, of the Recovery Project established to salvage these flawed vehicles worked extremely hard for close to a year to rectify identified faults
and hazards and establish a thorough and vigorous test regime to ensure these faults and hazards have been fixed.
Following the successful testing in Palmerston North in August, the Local is now in a position to remove the “black” status of the Auckland Fraser-MAN
fleet for the purpose of training. As well, pending the successful application of all fixes to identified problems with these vehicles, the process
for bringing these vehicles back into service is detailed below.
In order for each individual vehicle to return to service, it will have to pass an acceptance test conducted locally by Local-selected testers. Once a
vehicle has successfully passed the acceptance test, it will then be accepted into service. The Local has entered discussion with our representatives
to work out a plan for how this acceptance testing can be carried out and dates and times when this can occur.
As well, any “new” vehicles, (those to yet be commissioned into service), will also be required to undergo a Local acceptance test. Any identified faults
will then need to be rectified and the vehicle re-tested before the Local will accept it to be released to our members for service.
The Local has advised Management that we will have a very low threshold in regards to any on-going problems that surface in relation to the reintroduced
MAN fleet. We will not hesitate to “black” these vehicles if faults re-occur and if necessary, do so on a more permanent basis.
The Local has written to Management detailing our position and trusts this arrangement is sensible, as it has always been successfully applied to all vehicles prior to the introduction of the Fraser-MAN fleet.
