Aftersales

As a PGE customer, you’re automatically entitled to a range of additional support services, designed to protect and prolong the life of your equipment and to streamline the way you do business with us.

This includes:

• Bespoke maintenance and servicing packages for all your equipment
• Breakdown and repair call-outs, upon request
• Regulatory compliance advice (to ensure you stay in line with changing legislation)
• Round-the-clock customer support from a dedicated key account manager
• Privileged access to our online customer relationship management portal

Our aftersales team have years of customer service and technical experience. It’s their job to take care of you.

Maintenance: good for your workshop, good for your business

At PGE, our team is highly experienced in providing maintenance services for the majority of garage workshop equipment. In some cases, we may need to request an access code from the manufacturer so that we can carry out the required maintenance but this is rarely an issue.

We work with a wide range of leading manufacturers across the UK and Europe and have in-depth technical knowledge of their products. Our engineers and technicians also have years of training, which is always kept up to date, and are known for their reliability and friendly attitude. By staying on top of a maintenance schedule, you can protect your equipment from unwelcome faults and prevent unnecessary downtime.

Our services include:

• Preventative maintenance programmes
• Routine workshop inspections
• MOT equipment testing
• MOT equipment calibration
• Lift inspection
• Certification
• Training

With direct access to genuine parts, we can repair most pieces of equipment within a short timeframe, allowing you to get back to work as quickly as possible.

And it’s easy to stay on top of scheduled maintenance visits, and keep workshop productivity high, with our simple-to-use customer portal. 

Maintenance contracts make complete business sense. As the saying goes, prevention is better than a cure, and this is precisely what planned maintenance provides. With all your equipment regularly inspected, at a time to suit you, the process is more streamlined and less invasive than if we were called in only once something had broken down.

It’s also more cost effective. By the time something breaks down, it may well be badly damaged and will most likely be out of action for several days. And of course, you can never predict such events which means the timing is totally out of your control.

Breakdown and repairs

Time equals money. For every hour that your workshop is not running at maximum efficiency, you are potentially losing money.

We’re always at the end of the phone. As soon as you notify us of a breakdown or repair, we schedule your job into our system and send a technician out to your garage as promptly as possible. You can see the progress of each job via your customer portal, which allows you to plan your schedules to kickstart as soon as your equipment is back up and running.

If support or technical advice is what you need, we’re always happy to help. If we can source a specific product or part for you, we will always go the extra mile. Happy customers make us happy.

Regulations: how to stay on the right side

The automotive industry is carefully regulated to ensure that employees, consumers and the environment are all protected.

As an employer, we must abide by a number of regulations and we have a duty of care to our employees and our customers. More detail about individual regulations and accreditations can be found here.

The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER 1998) and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER 1998) were issued in response to recommendations made by the European Commission in the Amendment to the Use of Work Equipment Directive 95/63/EC.

These two pieces of legislation intersect where lifting equipment is also work equipment (the majority of cases). LOLER 1998 regulates companies and people who own, control or operate lifting equipment and imposes safety considerations. PUWER 1998 governs the use of this equipment (it must only be operated by appropriately trained people) and requires it to be installed correctly, safe for use and regularly inspected/maintained. It must also be clearly marked with warnings and safety devices used where necessary.

Service intervals for specific pieces of equipment are specified, usually based on risk. For example, vehicle lifts (where technicians may be working directly underneath) must have a ‘Thorough Examination’ and service every six months, while for engine cranes and similar, an inspection is required every 12 months.

As a general rule of thumb, always ensure that your equipment is safe to use, is clearly marked and is only operated by those who are adequately trained.

Training

If you’re unsure about the specific requirements set out in LOLER 1998, or unsure if training is even required, please get in touch. We can assess your technicians and their competency level and provide training where needed.

For example, some of our customers have been asked by their insurers to verify that their technicians are adequately trained, and to undergo specific training on the lifts they are using. In response to this, we created a short, training course comprising GEA guidance booklets and other literature along with documentation for daily and weekly checks. We can also issue certificates of competence which can be provided to insurers.

It’s not surprising that insurers are leaning towards proof of competence. If one of your technicians makes a mistake due to lack of training, you (and the insurers) are exposed on many fronts – duty of care, compliance, PUWER 1998 and LOLER 1998. We know that many of our customers are not aware of their obligations in this regard and may only discover it when an accident happens, or, as in these cases, when insurers demand it.

Remember that training doesn’t only apply to lifts. There are many pieces of equipment used on a daily basis which should only be operated or serviced by fully trained technicians, including tyre changers, wheel balancers, presses, jacks and air conditioning systems.

Customer care at the touch of your fingertips

There is a jobs section with details of all pending, in progress and completed jobs – and if you have a new job you’d like to book in, you can do that via the portal. You can also access live quotes and request new ones. And all your maintenance records, certificates and asset registers are attached to your customer profile for viewing or as downloads if you would like to print them out.

It couldn’t be easier to manage every aspect of your relationship with us. The portal has been designed around our customers’ needs and with the positive feedback we’re receiving, we know it’s ticking many of your boxes.