"We have 6 vans with failed engines... They don't care" - The Ford Wet Belt Scandal.

Polly, would you like to introduce yourself and explain who you are, how you came to contact me, and then we can get to the heart of the three issues you're having right now? Yeah, well my name Polly, I'm a fleet manager. for a beer company, I contacted you, since I now

have

five, well, six

belt

s with wet

belt

s, all with the recommended mileage above, oh wow, and F is not doing anything,

they

are really throwing out everything that

they

We

have

proposed, okay? So I thought it was three

vans

, but now we're up to six

vans

.

How many vans are there in total in your fleet? What type of use do they do? When did you buy them? How do you serve them? Tell us about it. we've got about uh custom Transit 50 of those long wheelbases we've got about six or seven of them we've got a Lon we've bought on average between six and n a year £270,000 a year in bands over the last 40 years of service if it's 18,000, I set a reminder for 17 and a half, so that gives me 500 miles to play with. I receive the transport, it is repaired. Our guys have been making it from here in Essex to our depot in Al in Yorkshire since November. forum and uh they just appeared since November they are not doing anything they are not making American money we just no longer feel supported by fors at all especially we are not a big player like some companies but we are a small family business and spend almost a million pounds a year for the last 40 years is a lot of money and not a lick of help.

What has your relationship with Ford been like in the past? Have you always bought forward contracts? and I also want you to know if you've been running this fleet for a while. I want to know what other problems happen. Is this normal? You know, the

engines

just died. Does that happen to Fleet Vans? Has it happened before? What problems occur? How do you deal with and react to this fleet manager when a staff member calls you and says oh yeah, the Vans died? Are you like, oh yeah, it happens all the time? Don't worry, how's that conversation going?

As for what happens next, we have breakdowns. I'm going to say no, because some of our guys can do anything from 100 miles a week to a thousand miles a week and more going from one side of the country to the other. In another example, a guy had a breakdown yesterday two straight to the Dr. His car is in the garage and now it is being repaired. It's a 66 board so it's not a warranty issue, but they usually break down and are repaired within 24 to 48 hours. They are fixable, um, previous problems we've had with Ford, if there's a recall, they're pretty good at that, if there's a recall, they get to you pretty quickly, but when it comes to the problem we have now, they just stop.

To be honest, I feel a little left out. You know, we thought there was a little bit more stability from them because we've been loyal to them and at the moment there doesn't seem to be any loyalty coming back and I guess there is. I have a relationship with a distributor where when you call them, they know who you are. You're buying four five six Vans a year and have been doing so for some time. So what happened? Then the first van broke down and we took

care

of it because we thought it was over. three years, warranty is out or you will get the hit, we didn't think to check the belt warranty, then we did one two days later, I had another, a week later, another one was, they all had similar mileage at the time, if they all go within 17 and 19 games.

I have a plate of 17 that had 131,000 uh, a plate of 19 with 121,000, another plate of 19 with 72,000 and the plate of 19 with 71,000 so it's a big mix so you know it's not like you can. Say they have high mileage and like you said, they've had good service, so what were the symptoms when it left? We're just talking about the engine being off, the engine just went away, it's not something you can do. I don't think I can know. which is going to go because it's a belt, it just breaks, the engine stops, it can't move as soon as one of the guys calls me and says my engine is running and I was driving.

I have no warning lights and it just went off. Can. I don't start it and say, yeah, that's the Bel we have now. I have a list here. I had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 4, well, 12, because there were two that were in a chain of 12. Now I made 10 at our expense because they were getting to 100,000 miles, and now they reduced it without notifying us, it was only because our shop that we use says, you know, that we just dropped the Bel wet it came out 100,000, so I emailed the dealer and they said yes , we wouldn't have known who would know that they haven't made it public, no, so these belts, these wet belt systems, basically, as I understand it, is where the cam belt is. it runs effectively through the sump so it's a wet belt system and then what happens is the belt breaks down because it's in oil and then as it breaks down the stuff that breaks down and comes out of the belt As it decomposes they go into the oil.

I'm right? Yes, and that's what happens. Basically, it degenerates and just falls apart and basically the engine just stops, so now you have six trucks. It's a new engine job. Basically, you need to put a new engine in it. Yes, and what is the cost? which about 8,000 are from Ford, right, so these trucks, I mean, you're telling me that a 2019 truck needs a new engine that's not even a very old truck, it's five years old and it needs a new engine? 2,000 miles, these vans always advertise that they are You know your Workforce Vans well at this point, they are not because they are setting up my yard.

One is currently at Ford for the last month and a half even though we have given them the full service history because it only says oil. and it doesn't say 0330 or whatever they said, they have rejected any attendant because it doesn't show what grade of oil was done at the last service before this, even though you have this relationship with the shop and you have been purchasing these vehicles, So where does this leave you? So I mean you have five vehicles that need an engine each at 8 Grand each or six vehicles that need an engine, so obviously you have to find the money for that Ford.

They don't seem to be doing anything despite the fact that none of these Vans are very old and none of them are particularly tall. I mean, what's the one that has 130,000 Mi in 20177 years and that's not a high usage with 130,000 Mi being 7 years old, police. The vehicle would reach 200,000 miles in 3 years, so you can't even claim that you've used it excessively or anything, so yeah, it's just them, what do you think is going on then? with Ford and with the dealership with Ford, I think it's just if they accept that there was a problem on our end and do it under warranty, could that be the floodgate for everyone to go well?

Mine is gone, you already did it. I want mine made and that's what I think, that's why they suddenly lowered it from 150 to 100,000. You reduce your belt usage by 50,000 miles, half the lifebelt, almost that for me, like you know it's crazy and I had to rush to get it. all this is done and it's not cheap to do the black belt replacement, you're talking about 80, around just over 000 pounds each, actually the ones I did, I had to pay for that and luckily I have two 66 plates, their chains and they changed them on the 66 plates to this wet belt system, so would you be more inclined to try to buy a 66 plate truck with a chain?

I mean, what are you going to do next? time you need to buy a truck then it possibly won't be enough yeah then Ford is going to lose a decent sized customer yeah it seems to me because you're not the only person who has this problem and they know they've built. a substandard product and they are doing everything they can to avoid massive financial losses by paying for everyone, but you know that family businesses like you are greatly affected. Now you have five vans that just sat there doing nothing, yeah, and that's five people that we Potentially can't hire if we need someone new because we don't have the vehicles to do it and that means we have to buy them and the cost of Vans vans has just increased with the renewed model.

Is the face wash model still wet? Bel, don't go up the St any more now, you don't get a spare tire, you have to pay for it, you don't take out the cargo line in the back of the truck, which is now an extra, so those two things are two things which we've had as standard for the last few years - a spare tire now measures around 250 that figure and a cargo liner is about the same, so the black plastic that goes in the back of the transit so you can't in bare metal, you have to pay for that too.

Wow, that's it. The price has corrected up and up in the last two or three years. I have noticed a big change. I love staying with fors because the report we have with the sales staff is really good but the customer service is letting them down we buy transit from them for a long time when the bases of the Rangers cars also not only has an impact . It impacts the way we move forward with other vehicles and you've got to do what's right for the business, right? At the end of the day, I mean, if the Vans you're buying from Ford are too expensive and are going to break down anyway, then obviously you're going to look elsewhere, it seems like we're getting nowhere, our vo just No, they just haven't listened to us for the last 40 years with the amount of bands we've brought in. averaging between six and nine bands a year, all Ford, all up, always up, how does that make you feel?

Seeing the position you're in after spending 40 years buying Ford trucks to have them turn around and say, oh, those five that you're parked in the yard, that's not our problem. Oh yeah, we're just another number, we're just another number, they're happy to take our orders, they take our money, but when we say, look, can you help us? No, that's where it comes. It's literally just a reply email, unfortunately we can't help you at this time. They are grasping at straws. It is not like this. They have known them for 40 years. They have known their service department for 40 years.

And they know it. You are not going to put olive oil well. I mean, what oil do you think you put in it? Or you will have to spend £50,000 to get new

engines

in all the vans, which is a huge outlay. I think we'll post this on YouTube as the first video and see what happens next because if I post this on YouTube and say maybe everyone else in the comments can come up and tell me their wet belt problems. or Ford Fleet wet belt problems. I suspect we're going to have another video to make from the comments because this is happening all over the country, so I think if I can use the YouTube channel to, you know, make your case.

Go ahead, great then, but it sounds ridiculous to me that vehicles that are intended to be rugged work trucks break down after 72,000 Mi, it's just not acceptable. I have calculated that in the last five years we have spent 1.3 million on vehicles to be treated that way, I mean, even if you take 1.5 million that you have spent on vehicles, the £50,000 it is going to cost to get engines, you would think that there is some room for maneuver, they would want to take

care

of you, they would want to do more than turn around and say that you put the wrong oil in or that you didn't write down the oil you put in and that we can't replace the engine seems pretty ridiculous, so which I guess We'll have to see, we'll post this video and see who else is having these problems and see if we can pressure Ford to do something for the many other customers that are in your position, yes exactly.

I'm like you said, I'm sure when you post this there will be people who will come back and say yeah, I've had that problem or this one, whether it's a commercial or a car, you know, a Ford car, you know? I'm sure there are countless people who have just criticized it because they thought, oh, the previous year's warranty is gone, oh, it won't be covered under the warranty and they just go out and pay for it, unfortunately, some people think. you know it is the wear item because it is a belt, the clutch is not covered since wear under a warranty as such is a wear item, the thing is that when the clutch is activated it is not cleaned, the gearbox it does, whereas when the belt breaks it cleans the engine so you know we need Ford to give us reliable information on the life of these things and if they say 150,000 Mi and they break at 70,000 Mi then that's a problem from Ford.

It's not a user problem, it's not a truck problem, it's a Ford problem, so we need honest advice from you, well, we'll post this video and I'll get back to you in a few weeks and see how we move forward. there, but what I mean, what do you think you're going to do, you have these trucksparked in the yard, I mean, are you just delaying the inevitable when you're going to have to spend the money and put engines in them? it's we're going to have to do something, we can't have them sitting there much longer, it's not like we can move them because they won't start, yeah, so there's a cost associated with just having them sitting there.

Don't you push a Transit customer across a yard? Yes, I imagine it's great. Thank you so much for getting in touch and hopefully we can do something. What is your business? You're into brewery supply.supply beer, type of stuff that's good in shops, pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants, we do mobile bars, we do events, as you can see from all the signs behind me, so we do festivals , we've done unloading, we do things like that, we go out and do events and general maintenance of pubs and clubs, if your beers don't work we go in and sort them, that's why we need reliable vehicles because we cover the whole of the UK from one end of the country to the top, yes.

Here we go Ford, we've got to keep the beer flowing so you need to sort out Po's fleet with some engines. Thank you all so much for watching and Polly, I'll watch it with you again.