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'Ex owner-driver' good or bad?
Page 76
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ADVERTISING A TRUCK as "ex-owner-driver" might not be the good selling point it used to be says Phil Holmes, used sales manager, eastern region, at Scania dealership Keltruck.
While many owner-drivers still maintain their vehicles to an impressively high standard, some are being forced to cut corners.
"That's why ex-owner driver stuff isn't selling as well as it was," Holmes adds, "Prospective buyers worry that the truck has been under-maintained, and that next to nothing will have been done to it in the months prior to disposal.
"They fear that what work has been done will have been carried out by Jack-the-Lad round the corner, and that he'll have done the minimum required to keep the operator's 0-licence clean."
"You can see the logic of the argument," says Matt Hammond, used vehicle sales manager at West Thurrock Daf dealership Harris Daf "If an owner-driver is up against it money-wise he may be tempted to sail close to the wind where maintenance is concerned... that said, I took a truck in from an owner-driver the other day, and it was absolutely immaculate."
"It's dangerous to generalise," says an independent dealer. "Just think of the number of superbly turned out owner-driver rigs you see at Truckfest and similar events around the country every year.
"Just remember too that it's not exactly unknown for big fleets to skimp on maintenance, or for franchised dealers to miss things during services — to the detriment of the haulier's 0-licence."