Att All Van Drivers.

[POSTMAN]

RE: LDV Maxus - Rear Door Lock Failures & Driver 'Lock-ins':

Following 7 incidents reported to us by the Watford Area Safety Rep, discussions took

place with Vehicle Services (VS). We have requested that arrangements are

made for the Watford Fleet to receive new, latest 'Prototype' rear door and lock

Modifications and VS have given us the attached information.

RE: LDV Maxus - Rear Doors Retaining Mechanism:


Further to LTBs 195/07 and 064/08 which dealt with the LDV Maxus rear door problems, causing drivers to get locked in. In connection with this, a further problem has been identified to us by an ASR in relation to a Safety Problem with the rear doors and this has been raised with Royal Mail Vehicle Services.

Tim Shearer our ASR for London North West reported a further safety issue with the LDV Maxus vans back doors, connected to the previously raised problem which has led to a number of minor accidents as a result of the door retaining mechanism being too weak to hold the doors in the 90 degree open position. This results in the doors easily blowing open into the path of passing traffic or blowing closed striking the driver whilst unloading or indeed locking the driver inside.

Tim reported one RTA in which a passing Bus blew the back door open into the path of a following car and the wing mirror was decapitated at Royal Mail expense but more importantly it has been pointed out that the incident could have caused a far more serious accident had the car concerned swerved across the road into on-coming traffic etc. The comparison has been made with the Ford Transit which has no such problem due to a far more robust rear door retaining mechanism.

Shaun Buttress Royal Mail Vehicle Services National Aftersales Manager has confirmed that VS are aware of this and other rear door problems which have been identified on the 05 models. Royal Mail VS have been working closely with LDV to address this issue. LDV have designed a modified, re-engineered rear door "check link" aimed at addressing the problem of the doors going past the 90 degree point when open and the issue of the doors closing on the drivers. The Prototype is being evaluated at Watford, Glasgow and Preston. This and all the modifications reported in the previous LTB have been introduced on to the LDV Maxus production line, so any LDV Maxus from 57 plate onwards would have had these modification built in with further improvements to be introduced to the assembly line by June 2008. LDV assures Royal Mail that these modifications are all part of the continuing development of Maxus, and that all these have resulted in a vastly better Vehicle being produced.

In the mean time Area Safety Reps should take the opportunity to alert drivers of the 05 Model LDV Maxus vans to the potential hazard, until modified.

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I've lost count the amount of times the back doors have swung back and nearly cut me legs in half when i'm doing stuff in the back.
Aint been locked in yet but some at my place have.

Pile of shite LDV!!!

[Stormproof]

I think most of our LDV Maxus vans have had trouble with the rear doors and side sliding doors. Don't think theres been a week gone by where one of them has'nt been over the workshop to have the rear doors removed so the drop off bags can be taken out. The most recent incident in our office was a driver getting locked in the rear of the van (hi PD ) and shouting for help , luckily he was waiting for a postie to turn up for his bag who then called the D.O. to get a spare key to release him. The key fob door opener did'nt work and nor did the internal door release on the doors. The side doors are just as bad, won't open easily or won't close without coming off the runners.

[Johnny_Rad]

Same with all our LDV's. I bought the rear door catch issue up with my DOM and he replied that they wont get rectified as it is not a serious enough problem to take a van off the road..

[saru]

If the back doors aren't shut properly then you can't open them with the key or catch. I've found that giving them a kick to shut them properly works & then you can open them normally. The most annoying about the new LDV's is the way they lock themselves in a matter of seconds.