Stef's Bouncers, annual fleet inspection

What we went out to do

Stef's Bouncers hire castles and soft play round the local villages, and like everybody with a fleet they need the whole lot inspected annually to keep the bookings coming. Their tags were spread across three different expiry dates, which meant three separate phone calls a year to keep straight, so this time we booked the lot for one morning at their storage unit.

The fleet is nine units, a mix of adult castles, toddler castles and a bungee run that takes longer to inflate than to test.

How the morning went

We got there for eight and were done by half one, give or take a break while the bungee run went up. Having everything accessible and the fans already on site made the difference, which is the same note we leave on every fleet day: you get through more units when nobody has to dig a castle out from behind another one.

One toddler castle came up with a worn anchor patch on the back left corner, close enough to the limit that it needed doing before the unit went out again. We failed that point, wrote down exactly what was needed, and the repair went in that week. We came back, re-checked it and tagged it without a second inspection fee.

The other eight passed first time of asking and their tags went on before we left. The reports landed by email over the next couple of days, and Stef's had the full set in their inbox before the weekend.