Steve Hunter : Fleet Service Manager
Esh Group
My first position after leaving school was at Airmech Engineering Services, based in Langley Moor. Soon after I started in this position, I enrolled on a four year apprenticeship in Construction Plant Maintenance and repair. During my time at Airmech I attended further training from Compair at Camborne in Cornwall and Maco Meuden in St. Priest, France. My duties at Airmech included preparing and repairing plant for a busy hire operation and working with key customers on a range of jobs including setting up drilling jobs, working on furnace tap drills and motorway barrier post driving equipment design and fabrication to name but a few.
I began working for Lumsden & Carroll, then based in Esh Winning in 1990 as the workshop foreman. My role evolved into a more administrative role ensuring the on-going safety and maintenance of our operated plant, vans, cars and HGV’s. At first, I was largely responsible for maintenance of the vehicles, while doing around 5% of the paperwork, however now I spend around 5% of my time in the workshop and 95% on paperwork.
My current position as Fleet Service Manager for Esh Group is varied and interesting. I ensure all company vehicles are in compliance with road transport law, while drivers are fully qualified to operate and that the vehicles are maintained and serviced correctly. On a daily basis i deal with a wide range of organisations including government authorities including VOSA, DVLA, DSA and Customs & Excise, clients, members of the public and the police. I also need to ensure i have good contacts with vehicle manufacturers, dealer's, parts suppliers, vehicle body repair shops, hire and recovery companies.
It’s a huge balancing act trying to feed as much work as possible into our workshops, co-ordinate with the vehicle hire companies and keep everyone mobile at the same time.
I enjoy my role at Esh Group, its great to work within a large organisation that has friendly and knowledgeable staff with their experience and resources to draw on for back up and advice.
