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• Surging demand for trucks is delaying deliveries and beginning to cause problems for hauliers keen to pick up new business_ Vehicle bodybuilders are also feeling the squeeze as supplies of chassis become scarce and demand for bodies grows.
Derek Moulding, sales director of York subsidiary Abel Demountable Systems, says that his company is awaiting delivery of 100 chassis for the fitting of demountable bodies: "If all the chassis we are awaiting rolled in at once, all hell would be let loose."
Operator Victor Mays of Holley Services Group says deliveries outside the normal replacement programme are beginning to be delayed. Malcolm Filsell, the Royal Mail head of road transport, says delivery on Cargos is around three months, while delivery of Roadrunners is quoted as October or November.
Bill Herring, specification and purchasing engineer for National Carriers Contract Services, says: "It is not so easy to get equipment now. Lead times are pushing out and you have to put more work in to find trucks."
Among the manufacturers, Seddon Atkinson says July was its best production month for several years. Business so far this year is 30% up on last year.
Volvo says demand for vehicles above 16 tonnes is at its highest level since 1979 and predicts that the total UK market for vehicles in this category will exceed 30,000 units this year.
Demand for the Mitsubishi L30 van has already used up almost all of the vehicle's 1987 quota.