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OLD TRAILERS NEVER DIE
Page 52
Page 53
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Not all ageing trailers end up as advertising boards in fields; it seems to
Kevin Swallow that even the most decrepit trailer can fetch something.
As advertising boards beside motorways, old trailers provide a perfect space for promoting new glasses, second-hand Jags,cheap kitchens and vacant commercial premises (see panel). But in truth, the majority of old trailers— 15 years plus— end up overseas, or are broken down to provide spare axles for other trailers. As ProTruck Auctions' Charlie Wright says:-Old trailers never die."
It's impossible to pinpoint the age at which a trailer is ready for export or is fit only to be cut down. "The market has an excess of curtainsiders at the moment," says Wright. "Even curtainsiders as late as 1995 have been sold to domestic breakers.
-At our most recent sale, 25% of the trailers up for grabs went directly overseas.lhese included 1998 and 2001-registered curtainsiders, and a 1984 tipper.Yet a 1976 skeletal went to a UK transport company," he adds.
It seems everything has a use. Glass's Guide chief commercial vehicle editor George Alexander finds the trailer market diverse and full of surprises— you're never quite sure what might make a few quid: "There are a few traditional routes for old trailers. You've got your old stock worth around £100, which is sold for axles and tyres: then there are the trailers which are good enough to export, worth in the region of £750.There are trailers with a decent chassis that can be worth £1,500 which can be broken down into flats.
-Then you have your higher-end serviceable stock which can be worth £2,800-3,000, and you have skeletal and flat stock,worth anywhere between £350 and £11,000,which can be easily refurbished and put back into domestic use." Three years ago,Alexander says, 70% of 15-year-old stock that came up for sale was shipped overseas, but today the market has been stripped of much of this type of trailer and now only 45% is sent overseas.
Trailer manufacturers tend not to get too involved with elderly and dilapidated products directly. SDC Trailers has its own used sales division which handles part exchanges. General manger Paul Bratton sees it not so much as a money-maker as a metal-mover a means loan end in securing a deal for new stock.
-It is priced to shift,' he reports. "Last week we had four deals out of 20-odd involving trade-ins; next week it might be none." In total, around 30% of SDC's deals involve trade-inssome curtainsiders and boxes are priced tip and refurbished into flats, depending on their quality.
The current shortage of decent used trailers means older stock, that would probably otherwise be destined for overseas, might be brought back into the domestic market as a short-term solution.
Garry Knights, an owner-driver operating out of Liverpool. has made a small business OUT of bringing old trailers back to life and supplying them to fellow owner-drivers in the North-West and Midlands.
"If you know what somebody wants, and they aren't too fussy, then you can pick up, refurb and supply a trailer for them cheaper than it would be for them to rent or finance something new," he says. "They have to be prepared for a warts-and-all trailer sometimes -but if the axles and brakes work, it's structur