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End of the boom?

14th July 2005, Page 72
14th July 2005
Page 72
Page 72, 14th July 2005 — End of the boom?
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

After a seemingly unending boom in truck sales some dealers are

reporting a decline in consumer confidence. Steve Banner reports.

Is the sales boom coming to an end? Lee Smith,director West Thurrock, Essex independent dealership Hanbury Riverside, reports:"Demand remains strong so far as we are concerned, but there's not quite the confidence among operators that there was. It may be because of the very high price of diesel."

That view is echoed by Rod Pybus of trailer dealership SDC Northern: "Business has slowed a bit, and it may well be the case that the cost of diesel is making people hesitate before they buy an extra truck or trailer," "Diesel prices are crippling hauliers at present, and there seems to be a lot more repossessed trucks around at present," says independent dealer Martin Rhodes."We seem to be seeing a lot more Saturday sales too as operators decide to close down.The slowdown in retail spending not to mention the slowdown in the housing market is having an impact as well.As a consequence some operators who were thinking of buying a truck may be tempted to wait until the end of the year and see how things go.

"I'm as busy as! was, if not busier," he adds, "But it's proving rather more difficult to get customers to commit themselves."

Items of interest

"We too are finding plenty of interest, but no commitment," says Mike Curtis of Daf dealership Watts Gloucester. "That said, we've done pretty well over the past six months."And Pybus adds:-We had a better first half this year than we did last year, and March and April were record months."

"Several prominent independent traders report record sales months during the fu-st half of this year," says George Alexander,chief commercial vehicle editor at EurotaxGlass's. -Nevertheless they still insist that the market place can prove to be patchy, and remain guarded over future prospects."

If there is a loss of confidence among customers, then as yet it hasn't affected prices, says Rhodes."Ibey're OK at present, although prices of certain vehiclesRenaults and ERFs for example seem to have been affected more than others. Dafs,Scanias, and Volvos are going from strength to strength.

And Curtis remarks: -Where people are buying -and buying tractor units they still want a big cab and plenty of power.We're also finding that X and Y-plated tractor units are viewed as being a bit out of date, even though there may be nothing wrong with them. Buyers are looking for 51,02,and 52 registrations instead."

"We manage to sell older stuff -R andT plated vehicles for instance that we've taken in part-exchange-quite quickly, but we know that a lot of it is going for export,"says Stuart Woistenholme, used truck sales manager at Scaniadealershi pWest Pennine's Middleton, Manchester branch. -In fact export demand has created a bit of a shortage of P cab Scania 4x2 tractor units,"he adds "We recently sold a couple of 380hp R-cab tractors to customers who really wanted P cabs, but couldn't get them."

Rhodes comments: "Nobody can afford for exports to go quiet because they help the bottom end of the market so much."

"The risk now would be to rely on export markets remaining in place indefinitely, and project used market growth purely on this basis," says Alexander. "Few predicted the emergence of vibrant export sales and it will be similarly difficult to identify a point in the future where they might stall."

• Hanbury Riverside aims to boost sales with a revamped website offering a virtual tour of every truck on the forecourt.

"They'll be able to look at everything, both internally and externally," says Lee Smith. `it will take them all around the cab and around the chassis. People spend thousands of pounds on a truck, so they want to know exactly what they're buying. Our approach allows them to see a vehicle without having to get in a car and drive 200 miles."

Smith admits that providing lots of virtual tours doesn't come cheap, but he's happy to make the investment "Nobody else is doing it so far as we are aware, and it gives us even more credibility," he says. "We want to be perceived as operating at the same level as the manufacturers."


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