Niamh Woodford

Said the following about Martin Ling:

“Martin has worked for Freightliner for years as a Wagon Fitter, previously based out of Felixstowe at the Port and now working at Ipswich VMF - the new Freightliner Maintenance Depot. Martin is a very experienced Wagon Fitter and has been instrumental in the success of the Depot so far.

With opening the new Depot we have had to recruit for new Wagon fitters and Martin, as the most senior Wagon Fitter has been so very very helpful in training and mentoring the new staff. The Depot has experienced a high turnover of staff which has been difficult on Martin as the most senior Wagon Fitter but he has welcomed all new colleagues with a positive attitude and been a fantastic mentor to them.

We have also restructured the Teams after opening the new Depot meaning we had 2 Supervisors in place who had a background of working on Locomotives. Martin has been amazing helping the Supervisors gain knowledge about different types of Wagons and their maintenance regime. Martin also steps up as acting Supervisor when the Supervisors are on leave.

Despite manning levels at the Depot being low and not working with a full complement of staff Production has increased since we opened and a lot of this is down to Martins hard work and dedication to getting new starters up to speed.

Martin is also proactive with the new starters and their training needs. He is excellent at communicating with the Depot Office Team and ensuring that the new starters receive the correct training that they need and as such when our new starter are assessed for their competencies, we have no problems at all with them passing out.

When we were all heavily involved in setting up the Depot, Martins contribution meant he spent a lot of time ensuring the correct tooling was present in the sheds, setting up shadow boards and all calibrated and specialist tooling. Martin did such a good job we hit the ground running. As Production figures are key to any company, without Martin the Depot wouldn't even nearly be as successful as it is.

In order to assist the Depot with shunting activities Martin has also trained and gained the qualifications in Shunting and Class 08 driving which meant we were depending on Martin to perform even more duties to assist Production at the Depot. Martin is also a qualified welder and has helped newer members of staff with learning how to weld and gain their own qualification showing his impeccable leadership skills.

Without Martin on our team, life at Ipswich VMF would be a LOT harder and we would not be performing as well as we have so far.

And he has a great beard!“