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IS THIS THE END FOR 7.5-TONNERS?
Page 3
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If the scale of the impact of digital tachographs on the road transport sector needed any further illustration, look no further than the SMMT's registration figures for joim 2006. Between April 2005 and April 2006 registrations of vehicles above 3.5 tonnes GVW virtually doubled. Operators were so keen to get their hands on the last analogue-equipped trucks that they gobbled up pretty much everything on the dealers' books. What goes up generally comes down and, apart from a blip for pre-Euro-4 registrations in September, the market stumbled to a close in December some 5.6% down on the previous year (for details of who sold what, see Analysis on page 22).
The recent interest rate rise will inevitably dampen down demand in 2007. Most insiders are predicting a market a little behind 2006 but still around 50,000 truck sales which is a long way from being a slump, After all, a lot of the big buyers will need to get out their chequebooks in the first half of the year if they are to maintain modern fleets. Recent orders from Hill Hire, Fraikin and others indicate that the major players are flexing their muscles; it will be up to the manufacturers to meet that demand without lead times disappearing over the horizon. We trust the necessary planning is in place.
While the impact of digital tachos continues to be felt throughout the industry, this year's latest 'good news' law is the decision to speed limit 7.5-tonners on the motorway and ban them from the outside lane of three-lane highways, severely reducing any advantage this class has over bigger rigids. Ever since the driver licensing changes took effect back in the mid-1990s many have been predicting the decline in the popularity of the 7.5-tonner, and now we'd be hard pressed to find a strong operational reason to buy one. A 6.5-tonner built on a lightweight chassis will give you the same, or better, payload; it will also be more fuel efficient and is easier to drive about town. Alternatively an 18-tonner will give you pretty much the same performance. It will cost £485 more for 12 months' VED (less than a tenner a week, when all's said and done) but it can carry double the payload. Faced with this evidence, we predict tough times ahead for the ubiquitous little workhorses.
ahead for these ubiquitous little workhorses