11.07.2008

A million service miles

Steve Gallacher has clocked up a total of a million miles in his 30 years on the road for ZF Great Britain.

Gallacher is now part of the ‘Direct Service’ team which recently opened up ZF Service direct to all end users and operators of plant machinery fitted with ZF gearbox and transmission equipment.

He joined ZF GB after an apprenticeship at Scott of Nottingham, working on commercial engines and gearboxes. He remembers saying at the time: “I won’t work on gearboxes for the rest of my life”, but he is happy that it did turn out that way.
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Steve Gallacher

Unsurprisingly after 30-year’s with ZF, Steve is expert at all service disciplines: hydraulic, electrical, pneumatic, mechanical and software, and with their application across all the brands that use ZF equipment: Demag, Terex, Liebherr, JCB, et al.

He also has wide vehicle knowledge encompassing everything from cranes to dump trucks, and is qualified to drive virtually any vehicle that uses ZF equipment: from main battle tanks to an underground mining machines, to 100-tonne cranes.

Gallacher says that his job has changed dramatically over three-decades; but the way he gets involved is as traditional as it always has been. “First a call comes into the ZF office from the field, this is usually stimulated by a problem with an Off Highway vehicle; they are complex machines and have a hard life, so some maintenance is expected. What we impress upon operators is that it is better to call ZF, early, before the potential problem becomes an issue that can stop the machine.

People in the field need to be encouraged to do this, as 40 percent of calls result in the problem being fixed over the phone, and no call out is necessary. A lot of work is done talking the operator through procedures on the phone for test, diagnostics and often - a fix.”


Although many things have remained the same one aspect of his job is quite new: working with manufacturers to develop their products, and, in the process, ensuring that ZF components work to their optimum on new machines.

Gallacher has been closely involved with JCB developing the company’s range of heavy vehicles. “Often it is the details that are crucial,” he says, “from obvious things such as specifying loads and work rates for the gearboxes, to checking oil and hydraulic fluid flow rates, to something as simple as making sure the dip stick is the right length – a minor thing like that can have huge repercussions.”


Although Gallacher is entering his fourth decade at ZF, he’s not letting up, yet; and he has plenty of additional support back at base in the shape of Andy Parkhouse and Pete Thorpe. Both of whom worked at ZF on the shop floor before managing technical services. They have access to the entire stock of ZF items, including the back-catalogue of every product ZF has manufactured in recent - and not so recent times.

This is vitally important as mobile cranes can cost up to £5,000 per day in downtime. keeping them up and running is essential and a well co-ordinated team with front line spares availability makes all the difference.