RTI's used maintenance
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• Renault Trucks is stepping up its attack on the second-hand lorry market by offering contract maintenance deals on selected used models sold through its 16 used-truck specialist dealerships. RTI believes it is the first manufacturer to offer this service in the UK.
Renault has already run a number of pilot schemes with its FM 10000 repair and maintenance contracts on used trucks, and reports positive operator feedback.
According to RTI's used vehicle manager John Dunkley, the scheme will not only appeal to owner-driver buyers who do not have their own maintenance facilities but also to the larger own-account operators.
"Own-account fleets are nowadays much more likely to look at a used truck, and the scheme will give them the benefits of knowing their operating costs," he says.
Used models most likely to be offered with the FM 10000 package are those on buy-back already covered by an existing repair and maintenance contract, although Dunkley says it could be extended to trucks with known service records.
"Ideally the vehicles we're looking at will be up to three years old, although we will operate some degree of flexibility," says Dunkley.
Each vehicle will have a "rigorous inspection" before being accepted in the scheme, and a major service will be carried out on the truck before it goes to an operator.
On a typical FM 1 0 0 0 0 maintenance contract for a new G200/ G230Ti Manager truck covering around 80,000km a year RTI is quoting a charge of 3.42p/km. RTI's service marketing manager Tony Parker says the equivalent cost for a typical used model covered by the FM 10000 scheme will be about 4.27p/km.
RTI has also introduced "Low Start" repair and maintenance schemes where initial payments are at a lower rate, helping to ease the financial burden.
The company expects to extend its used truck specialist dealer network to 20 sites by the end of the year, says Dunkley.
It has already sold some 600 used vehicles through its network, with half of them handled by its recently established factory site at Dunstable.