SIC vehicle fleet suffering ‘high levels of damage’

SHETLAND Island Council (SIC) vehicles are experiencing a “higher level of damage” than expected, elected members have been told.

Environment and estate operations manager Carl Symons said the council seems to be in an “unfortunate situation where some members of staff don’t take care of the vehicles as much as they could”.

The topic was brought up at a meeting of the SIC’s environment and transport committee on Monday morning.

A report to elected members said that a couple of electric vehicles are to be trialled at the North Haven care centre to “assess barriers and operational performance” prior to further procurement.

But it said the extended lifespan of electric vehicles “is a concern given the high levels of damage the existing car fleet is subjected to”.

Lerwick South councillor Dennis Leask questioned whether this was down to wear and tear or accidents.

But Symons said while wear and tear and accidents do occur, the issue appeared to be with some members of staff.

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He said it may because the vehicles are pooled between workers, so no one person is taking ownership or responsibility.

“The problem we have is we’re discovering the damage when the vehicles come in for servicing, and by that point we’re past the point of insurance notification and things like this, so it’s causing us a bit of a hiccup in terms of how we’d normally respond to it,” Symons said.

He added that driver training has not been as widely accepted as the council had hoped, and said officers are looking at different delivery methods – such as a more formal booking system, where drivers have more responsibility including physical checks of vehicles.

But Symons said that would take time and expense to implement.

He did tell councillors that through the council fleet’s tracking system drivers are issued with a monthly “scorecard”.

Symons said generally there has been a “marked improvement” across the fleet due to training and drivers being monitored.

But the “issue here is one of potential carelessness or a lack of responsibility for vehicles,” he added.