Running low
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Selling used trucks isn't hard: it's finding them to meet demand that worries dealers today.
Words: Steve Banner
Used truck market buoyancy is steadily stripping dealer yards of stock, and dealers are finding it increasingly difficult to replace what they have sold.
"There aren't the vehicles around to pour into the top of the funnel, hut they-re still running out at the bottom,says Jonathan Bovines, sales executive at Volvo dealership Thomas Hardie's Middlewich, Cheshire used truck centre.
"Fortunately we've got some trucks coming hack off contract and that should help. But overall our stock is very low."
Stuart Wolstenhohne, used sales manager at the Middleton, Manchester branch of Seania dealership West Pennine Trucks, says that he only has 23 vehicles in stock: far fewer than he would normally carry.
Flying off the forecourt -Although things don't feel all that busy, the reality is that we've been moving quite a hit of stuff.he says. -We recently sold every 18-tonne rigid we'd got, including five box vans, a eurtainsider. a fridge and a flat, in just a week and a half." That is not to say that there is a complete absence of vehicles for dealers to buy and retail. "There are still some nice DAF
XF105 units about," says Matt Hammond, used vehicle sales manager at West
il'hurrock, Essex-based dealership Harris DAF. "There probably aren't enough to go round, but you'll lind them if you look hard enough. I sold nine in just two weeks."
"We're seeing an increase in enquiries countrywide. but the lack of stock is a problem. especially so far as late Euro-4 trucks arc concerned," says Tony Bevan, general manager. sales, for MAN's Toplised approved used trucks programme. -I'm going out and actively buying 18-month to three-year-old vehicles and I've managed to purchase two dozen in the past month," he continues."I've got them from a variety of sources, including finance houses and hauliers who have decided to shut down their businesses."
-The fact that new sales plummeted means that there. are very few two-year-old used vehicles around," says Bevan. "Next year there'll be very few three-year-olds around too."
"What we're also seeing is people who would normally have bought a used truck a year ago, but didn't. coming back into the market because they're a bit more confident about things," says Hammond.
Whatever the cause, the combination of rising demand and a stock shortage is pushing retail prices upwards: and hauliers are not always too happy about it.
Customer disbelief
"We've had situations where we sold a truck to a customer in January, the same customer has come back to us recently because he wants another, similar vehicle, and we've had to tell him that it'll cost him 11,500 more than the first one he bought," says Anthony Wright, MD of European Vehicle Sales (EVS).
"He thinks we're trying to pull his leg. rings around lots of other dealers, discovers that we're not, comes back to us and we eventually do a deal."
An independent dealership, E VS is based on the Sandtoft Industrial Estate not far from Doncaster.
"Used prices have been driven downwards over the past two or three years and are now going back up again," says Bownes. "Scania tractor unit prices have been creeping upwards, and we're getting significantly more for the DA Fs we sell too," says Wolstenholme.
"The lack of stock certainly makes it easier for us to dig our heels in and refuse to cut our prices because we know the customer' won't find it so easy to buy the vehicle he's
after elsewhere," says one dealer.
"What we don't want to see though is prices soaring up to massive heights as they did previously, then fall heavily again," says Bevan, Such exaggerated peaks and troughs don't do any favours for a market that craves stability.
And it is not solely small operators who are pursuing the second-hand route.
Bevan points out that airfreight haulage specialist Saints Transport recently ordered 60 second-hand 6x2 TC;A tractor units through MAN's TopUsed programme in a record deal. It means that the whole Saints fleet, which also includes DAF. Renaults and Mercedes-Benz, will soon be wearing the MAN badge.
-We're now involved with one or two similar, albeit smaller, deals around the country." he says.