Truck misery deepens
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• The latest dismal CV registration figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders could herald a recession as bad as that of the early eighties.
Just over 20,000 new CVs were sold in the UK last month, only 1,000 more than were sold in the same month of 1981. But that 1981 figure was good news at the time, representing an increase over sales at the beginning of the year. The current figures are still going down — and the feeling in the industry is that 1991 will not be any better than 1990.
The manufacturers agree: "We're corning close to the early eighties situation and there's no relief," says Scania's marketing director David Michell. "We saw the nastiness earlier because we're in the heavy sector where figures have been down by about 40% for some time." Scania is braced for a difficult time ahead: "It will be 1992 before we see the marketplace pick up again," says Michell. "The operators who went out on buying sprees in 1987 and into 1989 will have to start replac ing their vehicles soon."
Iveco Ford says it expects "a very, very difficult first six months of 1991," but hopes that "some relief from the March budget will filter through into registrations for the second half'.
"There's not the absence of HGVs on the motorways that there was in the early eighties," says Seddon Atkinson's Frank Whalley. "Business is still being done, though at what rates we don't know."
Knutsford haulier Bill Twibell knows rates are lower with plenty of work around but little profit. Twibell has been in general haulage for 35 years and has seen "one or two recessions" — and he believes that there is worse to come: "We've not suffered quite enough just yet."
Down the road in Prestbury, Sue Mitchell of Meteor Transport, says she is finding things
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as bad as 10 years ago and unless business looks up next summer, she will sell up: "We're not making a loss but
we'll wind up if we don't make a profit. There are masses of hauliers round here from the farming community, and we're all going nowhere."
Mitchell cites the extra burden of inflated diesel prices on top of a flat economy as increasing the misery. Scania's Michell agrees.
"The recent spate of oil price increases make what would be a reasonable contract look unhealthy, particularly for long-distance trunk work." And high diesel prices keep trucks standing in the manufacturers' yards.