A NEW fleet of vans worth £1m is hitting the roads of the North East, as housing association Cestria invests in upgrading its property services division.
All 46 trade staff are being provided with a new, larger work van, to make their working day as efficient and stress-free as possible.
And every new leased van will carry the new Cestria branding, designed to give the landlord a fresh new look and to fit with the branding of parent group Isos Housing.
Cestria is known for the quality and speed of its repairs service, and is now investing heavily to ensure these high standards can be maintained – or bettered.
Plumber Dave Murray was one of the first staff to receive his new Ford Transit vehicle.
He said the new van would make a real difference to how he does his job each day, with more space for carrying spare parts, so less time is wasted travelling from suppliers to customers and back again.
He added: “This new van makes all the difference to how I do my job, and to providing my customers with a good service. We can give a great first impression, and that gives people confidence that you will look after their home to a high standard.”
Jonathan Fletcher, property services manager for Cestria Community Housing, said: “I’m pleased to be able to invest in the best vehicles for what is already a high performing team. We have high expectations of what our team should deliver, so we have a responsibility to give them high quality kit to get the job done.”
Each van has a bespoke internal layout designed to match the need of each trade employed by Cestria. Mr Fletcher and Mr Murray worked closely with suppliers and staff to identify what materials and spare parts were most frequently used, and hence which stock was most needed on the company’s vehicles. Then appropriate storage and racking was installed by Clark’s Vehicle Conversions, based in Doncaster, to house those items.
He added: “It’s not just doing the repair, it’s the whole package of providing a service. Now our tradespeople will arrive in a new van, with all the right equipment, properly stored, and our customers can have full confidence that wherever possible we will complete the job ‘right first time’, without delay.”