When the Army purchases a vehicle, the initial price paid includes the price of the actual vehicle plus enough spare parts and consumables to see that vehicle through ten years or so of Army life. All vehicles break down and have to be maintained throughout their lifetime. The Army works out an equation as to how much money and time they can afford to spend on each vehicle to keep it in tip top condition.
BER does not mean that the vehicle is actually dead, simply that the sum of money that was allocated to keep this vehicle in combat ready condition had already been expended, or will be exceeded if the required repair is to be carried out! So, rather than waste more money on the vehicle it was BER'ed. The next step would have been to send it home from the Ordnance depot O/S and then it would have found itself in an auction as a "no-goer"somewhere in Australia where some keen young bloke bought it for a minimal sum.
The Government was happy as the vehicle had not cost them any amount over the budget that they had previously paid/allocated and then they got some cash back from the auction.
The purchaser was happy as he had picked up a reasonable vehicle that in his eyes was repairable within his budget, and probably got a number of years good service out of it before he got tired of the spartan set up and replaced it with a more modern and comfortable Japanese unit.
Next, possibly a collector came along, saw the potential, and spent a bit of time and money resurrecting the poor old beast back to its former glory and then took it to Cooma. (Think of someone like Dennis M here
)
A pretty typical story for most ex military restored vehicles.
BER did not always work out on the cost side either, some vehicles may have had very little money spent on them in their lifetime but their allocated lifespan had run out. This would also be written off as a BER situation as the original contract was only for a certain number of years.
BLR on the other hand was another equation that worked out the urgency of the repair, the staff and means on hand to do the job, the availability of spare parts on hand required, the capability to handle the task successfully, and a few other requirements, and after looking at all the facts the decision was made to do it there, or if too big a job, send it back home to a base workshop.
Neither actually mean that that was the end of the vehicle.
Note in the last auctions, if you have been following them, a couple of the S line Inters were incomplete and non goers. These were obviously BER'ed by the army (strange after about 30 years service) and then flogged off. A civvy buyer could afford to spend another $10,000 on it and still have a pretty solid reasonably priced truck, but the Army could not justify writing off that amount on an already tired and oft repaired vehicle. BER is the answer.
Regards
Glen
