Multiple choice

MVS contracts offer numerous benefits argues Jungheinrich UK after sales director Nicholas Allen

Multi vendor service (MVS) contracts offer a number of benefits to the truck user. For instance, clarity on support cost as the user receives a single invoice from a single supplier and has a single point of contact for the entire fleet.

However, successful MVS contracts require a high level of professionalism from the materials handling company if the potential cost savings and productivity increases that successful MVS partnerships should provide are to be achieved.

Many companies simply cannot undertake true MVS contracts because their supply chain will not support the demand for spare parts that the MVS agreement requires.

A multi vendor service partner has to be able to draw parts through its supply chain for every make and type of truck in operation at a client's site.At facilities where several truck brands are working this is a lot of parts and there are very few companies with the supply chain sophistication to meet a user's demands for minimal downtime.

There are also issues surrounding the training of engineers to the level where they are competent to work across a range of lift truck brands. Engineers may have been trained to work on counterbalanced trucks but have no experience of dealing with, for example, reach trucks. They may also be competent at repairing a certain brand of truck but be unsure about others.

We offer a range of managed services for all major brands and the company's investment in stock is backed up by an industry leading supply chain.We have been offering MVS for a number of years and have highly skilled engineers and support teams.

One user of Jungheinrich's MVS throughout the UK is a large distributor of tyres. A varied range of materials handling equipment - including reach trucks, low level order pickers and electric counterbalance trucks - operates at each of its sites and, until recently, the company had agreements in place with a number of different truck manufacturers to carry out service and maintenance on its forklift fleet.However, this was proving difficult to manage, as the company found the levels of service it was receiving varied dramatically between the different suppliers.

As a result, it became clear that a 'one-stop shop' would provide a uniform level of service and easier billing.

To overcome these problems the company reached an agreement with Jungheinrich to take on responsibility for the ongoing maintenance of the entire fleet.