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CharterWay, Mercedes-Benz
CharterWay, the in-house finance arm of Mercedes-Benz, currently funds about 30,000 of its vehicles and a high proportion of all new trucks leaving the forecourt in the UK. "We offer a range of f inancial services from basic hire-purchase agreements to fully fleet managed lease schemes," says CharterWay MD Steve Durrant.
"Our hire purchase schemes vary from three years with a 10% deposit to five-year finance lease with full repair and maintenance including tyres and road fund #icence. We can also offer replacement vehicles for breakdown cover, and a 'recharge service for costs incurred outside the contract" But while CharterWay provides a range of finance products, Durrant readily agrees that they are only 'marginally efferent' from those offered by other manufacturers. "You can only fold a twenty pound note so many ways," he says. "It's often difficult to distinguish between competitors' finance products. But because we are dedicated to commercial vehicles we are not going to disappear overnight. Some of the independents dip in and out of the market," So how do CharterWay's rates stack up? Unlike some other manufacturers which spin the "we are competitive" line, the stock response is that its rates are market driven. Hire purchase accounts for 50% of its business, with the balance made up from lease-based lending. CharterWay aims to increase truck sales through creative finance packages and despite the firm's M-B roots it's happy to help operators acquire any make of vehicle or trailer. But, unlike some independents, it won't finance ancillary items like warehouses, workshops and materials handling equipment.
"Lending money is a high-risk business and diversifing away from your core expertise can result in disaster," Durrant explains. "We are experts in funding trucks not specialists in financing such things as racking nd warehouses."
For the smaller operator harterWay's typical finance lease rms would be a 10% deposit, owed by 33 or 45 payments over r years. Larger fleet customers Id typically be expected to mp up a similar depost followed up to 59 repayments. "We finance anything between two and seven years," Durrant reports. "The average is 45 months. Over the past few years we have seen a move from operating lease towards hire purchase."