VED structure cuts demand for Gx2s
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• Mike Gray, sales director, commercials at Coalville, Leics-based Fleet Auction Group (FAG), reports that three-year-old 6x2 tractors suitable for 44-tonne work are worth less today than the equivalent models were 12 months ago.
"There's been a big swing back towards 4x2s as a result of the VED changes that occurred a while back," he says—and in any case there aren't VAI many desirable three-year-old tractors about in either configuration. "There's a lot of uncertainty at the moment, so operators running this type of truck on three-year contract-hire agreements are renting them for a further year, just to see what happens," Gray explains. "They're cautious about committing themselves to new vehicles."
Despite manufacturers' claims that regularly maintained tractors can clock up over a million kilometres without any ill-effects, buyers remain wary of such well used vehicles, he reports. They also shun trucks that are in poor condition for their age: "If you've got two vehicles of the same age and mileage, and one of them has been refurbished, then it will make considerably more money than its shabbier companion."
FAG's sales are attracting regular entries of 60-90 vehicles, and Gray is eager to boost volumes: "We're making money as things stand, but not as much as we would like to," he adds. Anything a bit unusual attracts keen bidding, and age isn't necessarily a deterrent: "Recently we sold a 15-year-old Nooteboom lowloader trailer with a hydraulic neck for f4,6 5 o."
Lee Smith, general manager of independent dealer Hanbury Riverside, agrees with Gray that hauliers seem to be hanging on to their trucks for longer.
It seems this is causing a shortage of late-registered low mileage examples—and those are just what many operators want because they're not prepared to wait several months for new models to be delivered from the factory.
But when nearly new tractive units with big cabs and high-power engines do appear they tend to make top dollar.
"We recently bought five lefthand-drive Daf 95XF 480 Super Space Cab units that had been run by a Formula I team," says Smith. "They were all 2002-registered, none of them had done any more than 33,000km, and each one fetched in excess of L40,0o a."