Totalkare brake tester strengthens in-house capabilities

Family-owned waste management and construction company Smiths has upgraded its facilities in its Gloucester depot after purchasing a mobile brake tester from the workshop equipment experts, Totalkare.

Smiths (Gloucester) Ltd manages a varied fleet of over 120 waste management and construction vehicles, offering skip hire, waste removal, construction, demolition services, transport, and plant hire.

The established Gloucester depot is one of four and an existing Totalkare customer, having previously purchased a rail-based headlamp tester suitable for both HGVs and light commercial vehicles.

The most recent purchase has introduced a new, flexible way to test vehicles in-house. The Totalkare mobile brake tester has a maximum axle load of 16,000kg and is suitable for use on most surfaces including uneven gravel, asphalt, concrete, sand and dirt.

Smiths elected to upgrade the brake tester to meet the requirements of its fleet with bi-directional rollers and extended ramps for longer vehicles.

The brake tester also includes a tablet interface to allow the driver to control and monitor test results from the driver’s seat, reducing the time and number of engineers required to perform the test.

Having both brake and headlamp testing capabilities in-house means Smiths can proactively mitigate against the two most common reasons for annual test failure.