HIGH PRICES FUELLING LATE-REGISTERED DEMAND
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Dealers believe that much of the rise in demand for late-registered used trucks in particular is being driven by customers baulking at paying the high prices being asked for new chassis. "That's without doubt what we're being told by operators," says Thomas Hardie's Bownes.
"We're certainly having people come in and tell us that they would normally buy new, but they want to buy late-registered used
instead," says Woistenholme of West Pennine Truck.
"I've yet to have one of Harris DAF's new truck customers come to me and say that he going to buy used this time round because the new ones are too expensive, but think that's probably the sort of thing that's happening nationwide," Harris DAF's Hammond says.
The shortage is being created, in part, by
operators keeping vehicles for a year or two longer than they might have done in the past thanks to the economic climate and in part by sluggish new truck sales in recent times. If trucks were not sold new to begin with, then clearly they will not be appearing on the second-hand market.