Municipal and Government in West Covina

Buying a body repair on a purchase order instead of a credit card

Public agencies do not buy the way businesses do, and pretending otherwise wastes everyone's week. Before the first repair order there is usually vendor registration, a W-9, a certificate of insurance naming the agency, and a business license on file. After that there are quote thresholds: an informal quote below one dollar amount, multiple written quotes above it, and a formal solicitation above that. None of it is difficult, but it all has to happen before a unit moves.

We work to that process. The estimator writes to your format, includes unit numbers and asset tags, and provides the quote count your purchasing rules require. Invoices carry the purchase order number and itemize labor, parts, materials and sublet so a line can be coded to the right account without a follow up call.

The fiscal year matters too. Maintenance money that has to be committed before the end of June drives a real spike in deferred body work, and a shop that understands that calendar can help you sequence a group of units so the encumbrance lands where it needs to.

• Vendor registration, W-9 and certificate of insurance provided up front
• Written quotes to your threshold rules, in your format
• Purchase order number and asset or unit number on every invoice
• Line items coded for labor, parts, materials and sublet
• Fiscal year end sequencing for deferred body work

Specification colors, agency livery and reflective striping

Public fleets run specification colors, and matching them across units of different ages is the hard part of the job. National School Bus Glossy Yellow is a written specification, but a bus that has been parked outdoors for a decade has drifted from it, so a replacement panel sprayed to the book value will read as a different color against the body next to it. The same is true of a white transit cutaway, a fire apparatus red and a public works orange.

We read the actual panel with a spectrophotometer, spray out and verify in natural light, and blend into adjacent panels rather than stopping at a body line. The goal is a unit that looks like the fleet, not a unit that looks freshly repaired.

Livery is the other half. Department seals, unit numbers, reflective conspicuity tape, chevron striping patterns and door graphics all have layouts, and those layouts are frequently specified. We photograph and dimension placement before disassembly and reproduce the set to the same positions using reflective film appropriate to the application.

• Spectrophotometer read on the aged panel, not the factory code alone
• Blend into adjacent panels so the repair does not stand out in the row
• Graphic layouts photographed and dimensioned before disassembly
• Reflective conspicuity and chevron striping replaced to pattern
• Department seals, unit numbers and lettering reproduced to specification

Return to service dates and the spare unit problem

Every public fleet runs a spare ratio, and every fleet superintendent knows exactly how thin theirs is. A school district with a route uncovered, a fire department pulling a reserve engine off the wall, or a transit agency cancelling a paratransit run all feel a repair delay as a service failure that the public sees.

So we plan from the date backward. If a bus has to be back before the first day of school, if an engine has to return before a reserve goes into a different station, or if a paratransit cutaway has to make Monday's manifest, that date drives part ordering, bay assignment and paint scheduling. When a date cannot be met, you hear it at the estimate rather than the week before.

Grouping helps. Districts and departments often have a set of deferred body items across several units, and running them in a planned sequence during summer, or during a slower period, keeps availability up instead of parking two units at once.

• Return to service date agreed before the unit is scheduled
• Long lead panels and caps ordered at authorization
• Units sequenced so availability never drops below your minimum
• Summer and off season windows used for deferred cosmetic work
• Honest notice when a date cannot be met, given at the estimate

The scope line: body, paint and structural only on agency vehicles

This needs stating plainly because it protects both sides. On municipal and agency vehicles OCRV Center performs collision, body, structural, fiberglass, welding, glass, paint, equipment mounting and graphics work. That covers compartment doors, roll up shutter doors, rub rails, diamond plate, body corners, cab and body panels, caps, door frames, thresholds, mounting plates and the refinish and livery over all of it.

We do not perform engine, drivetrain, transmission or brake work. We do not perform hydraulic or pump service. We do not perform pump testing, aerial certification, wheelchair lift certification, emissions testing, DOT inspections or CHP terminal or school bus inspections. Those belong to your maintenance division, your apparatus dealer or your certifying agency.

In practice the split is clean. Your shop keeps the unit mechanically fit and legal. We put the body, the structure and the appearance back. Documentation of what we did, with photographs, goes back with the unit so your records show exactly what was repaired and why.

• In scope: collision, structural, welding, fiberglass, glass, paint, mounting and graphics
• Out of scope: engine, drivetrain, transmission and brake work
• Out of scope: hydraulic and pump service on any body mounted equipment
• Out of scope: DOT, CHP, apparatus, lift and emissions certification of any kind
• Photographic documentation of completed work returned with the unit

Where agency units are repaired and how they get there

All work is performed in shop at 23281 La Palma Ave in Yorba Linda. We do not send crews to a corporation yard, a bus yard, a fire station or a city garage, and there is no mobile operation. Structural welding, refinish and adhesive cure require controlled conditions, and the documentation a public agency needs is easier to produce when the work happens in one place.

From West Covina the drive runs about 22 miles and 30 to 45 minutes: the 10 or the 60 west to the 57 south, then the 91 east to Imperial Highway. Carbon Canyon Road to the 71 is the local shortcut when the 57 is stacked, though it is a poor choice for a long apparatus. Units that are not drivable can be towed in and received at the shop.

Bring the purchase order number, the unit or asset number, the graphic specification if you have one, and the name and phone of the person authorizing supplements. That single step removes most of the delay from a public sector repair.