– Technician recruitment coincides with a growing and aging 50,000-strong LCV fleet
– 13% of vacancies are for mobile technicians
– More basic servicing on electric LCVs could be carried out remotely
– IMI Electric Vehicle Accreditation caters for Northgate’s growing fleet of electric LCVs
Northgate is recruiting a further 50 technicians as it reinforces its service and maintenance capabilities across its nationwide network of 54 workshops and fleet of 50,000 LCVs.
Northgate also has a growing fleet of electric LCVs and is providing training to its increasing ranks of technicians so they can service and maintain the EVs in addition to ICE vehicles.
This coincides with Northgate receiving its IMI Electric Vehicle Accreditation, which enables it to manage its own EV training internally.
Thirteen per cent of Northgate’s new vacancies are for mobile vehicle technicians which are branch-based, and deployed where they are needed on customer sites, thus avoiding the need to visit a workshop.
With EVs having fewer moving parts, the future trend could be to carry out more basic servicing remotely, providing operators with speed and convenience.
“Our workshops remain very busy as the general age of the vehicles we provide support for increases following the reduced supply of new vehicles coming into the market. As a result, we are recruiting more technicians as well as getting more of them ‘EV ready’ as our fleet gradually transitions from internal combustion engines to electric,” explained Tim Bailey, Northgate’s Fleet Director.
“We employ an extensive and loyal technician team with plenty of scope for promotion within branch and across the wider Redde Northgate network,” he added.
Northgate’s strategy of running its own workshops has continued with the acquisition of traffic management specialists Blakedale in 2022 and FridgeXpress the chilled and freezer van rental business in 2023 who both operate their own customer support and maintenance facilities.
