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Swap shop for trucks
Page 52
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The road haulage industry is delivering its version of the car scrappage scheme with progressive part exchanges and swappage. We assess who is doing what.
Words! Steve Banner and Kevin Swallow Type scrappage' into Google and you'll discover exactly who is participating. Since its launch, the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) can reveal that 35,000 vehicles [cars and vans] have been sold through the scrappage scheme. That is roughly a 10th of the £300m scheme accounted for. The number equates, says a BERR spokesperson, to one-in-five sales in the UK during the three weeks it has been running.
While generally accepted as a good idea, and one where VAT returns on sales more than cover the government's donations to the cause, some say it hasn't gone far enough.
Des Evans, CEO of MAN Truck and Bus UK, wanted the idea extended to the truck market (CM 7 May 2009 'Industry remains sceptical about scrappage proposal'). He explained it on the BBC, and now the manufacturer has put its money where its mouth is. MAN is offering a minimum part-exchange allowance of £7,000, an environmental allowance, to customers seeking to trade in any truck in daily use with a current MoT, and that has been in the hands of the present owner for at least three months.
MAN's offer is valid only if you're after a 2006-vintage ERF ECT LX unit, with a Cummins 420 engine and a 16-speed manual box, or an MAN TGA XLX D20-powered unit of the same vintage with a 12-speed TipMatic box. Already it's paid dividends, according to the manufacturer. "MAN is working on some 130 positive enquiries from the campaign': says a spokesperson, with 24 vehicles sold to an single, unnamed operator replacing "virtually a complete fleet'.'
Volvo Trucks' version offers a £10,000 trade-in price, and again, it's for specific models rather than anything from the entire range. In this case, 2004 and 2005 FH12 units.
Mercedes-Benz has gone a step further and coined 'swappage', its version of the government's scrappage scheme. There is still the £2,000 cost saving to the end-user, but there is no need to actually exchange a vehicle. It's simply £2,000 off the list price of a Sprinter 311CDI panel van, Traveliner, or chassis-cab with standard or crew-cab. Mercedes-Benz says it is passing the saving directly to the customer.
The manufacturer explains that the scheme is designed to appeal to owners of vans of all ages, without the tight restrictions placed by the government. Here's how it works. Swappage involves three acquisition methods with Mercedes-Benz paying the customer's £2,000 deposit. They are: an off-balance sheet operating lease; an affinity (contract purchase) deal; or a low-rate finance agreement using a flat rate of 1% over 12 months, 2% over two years, or 3% over three years.
Simon Neill, national dealer sales manager, says Mercedes-Benz realised scrappage was going to be difficult for many van users to utilise. "The Mercedes-Benz swappage scheme, by contrast, has been designed specifimlly to meet the needs of light commercial vehicle operators.
"It offers retail customers the chance to acquire a new Mercedes Sprinter 311CDI at a highly attractive monthly cost, and without having to put down a sizeable cash deposit at a time when for many, capital is very hard to come by." •