Longer chassis give better used prices
Page 41
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Firms using short-chassis 7.5tonners with 4.9m (i6ft) box bodies on urban delivery work should think about specifying longer chassis with 6.1-6.7m (20-22ft) bodies instead. It might mean sacrificing manoeuvrability, but they'll get a better price when they come to sell them second-hand, says Jeremy Martell, national HGV and plant manager at Manheim Auctions.
"Chassis with big box bodies always sell well," he points out. "Anything with a 16ft box on it is always hard work, however. Bidders don't view them as being desirable." Of course it's always possible to take the body off and convert a short chassis into a tipper. "But that's not really a costeffective option at present because there are already lots of 7.5-tonne tippers about," he adds.
There aren't nearly as many alloy-bodied dropside 7.5-tonners around, and they're fetching premium prices: "We sold a number of Daf 45 Series 24ft alloy drop. sides recently and they went for L1,500-2,000 more than the nearest equivalent box van." They're idea for scaffolding, and steel stocicholders like them too, for local delivery work All those 455 had r5ohp engines. "That's the sort of power that people want at 7.5 tonnes these days," Martell reports.
He's pleased with the way things have gone at Manheim this year. Sales are up, and the move to concentrate on four auction centres at Colchester, Gloucester, Leeds, and Glasgow has proved a success. Prices are about the same as they were a year ago, he says, but there can still be surprises.
"We've had one or two on the trailer side of things," Martell explains. "At a recent sale we had a 1999 Fruehauf 13.6m triaxle cur
tainsider g° through, on air suspension and with rear barn doors. It was in clean condition, and was from a finance house. It would have been cheap at L4,500, and I thought it would probably make /5,00o. In the event a haulier bought it for f5,750.