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recession
The industry is emerging cautiously from recession and looking to at least maintain current fleet renewal rates, says CM’s survey in conjunction with Chevron
Words: Steve Hobson The most in-depth research into the UK truck market undertaken in recent years was completed last year by Commercial Motor, Motor Transport and Roadtransport.com in association with Chevron, a leader in inished lubricants and the manufacturer of Texaco premium base oils.
Chevron wanted an in-depth insight into the size and structure of the UK CV parc for vehicles over 3.5-tonnes GVW and to explore the trends and likely future buying habits of the market.
“When we commissioned Commercial Motor and Motor Transport to undertake research for us into buying habits in the UK CV marketplace, we little realised the wealth of unique and valuable information it would produce,” says James Welchman, marketing manager at operators work in the private sector, with only 8% reliant on public sector work.
The total number of vehicles operated by our sample was 67,171, making the average leet size 134. Despite the rise in the popularity of contract hire and leasing, almost 70% of operators bought new vehicles outright, with 27% leasing or hiring vehicles and 3% buying second-hand. Looking a little deeper, 71% of operators that run large leets (more than 50 vehicles) buy new trucks outright, 30% of operators running mediumsize leets (21-50 trucks) prefer contract hire or leasing, and 25% of operators running small leets (5-20 vehicles) buy second-hand.
Just over 40% of vehicles are Euro-5, while 36% are Euro-4. A surprising 22% of the parc are still Euro-3 and will attract swingeing penalties if they stray into the London Low Emission Zone after 2012. ■