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Boom, boom, boom
Page 70
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Used truck sales are soaring, leaving dealers wondering whether to keep buying stock in the traditionally quiet run up to Christmas.
USED TRUCK sales are continuing to boom throughout much of the country, say dealers.
"Demand hasn't stopped since last July, and there's no sign of it easing up," says independent dealer Peter Hassan, of Eurowise Truck and Van,based at Lympne, Hythe, Kent. "As fast as we get stock in, it's going out through the door.
"We recently sold three Volvo FH12 460 Globetrotter XL 4x2 tractor units dating back to 2000 and 2002 within a mere 12 hours of their arrival at our site."
Prices are also holding up well."We're having to pay more for vehicles, but at least we can sell them for more," he says.
"Things aren't going too badly at all," says Keith Whitaker, who is responsible for used truck sales at Renault Trucks South's Southampton branch."We certainly can't complain.
"If we've got a problem, then it's a shortage of stock. I suspect that a lot of operators are hanging on to vehicles in the run-up to Christmas that they would have otherwise disposed of, because they've got work for them."
Lee Smith. director of West Thurrock, Essex based independent dealership Hanbury Riverside, says:"Used business is buoyant and I think a lot of it is because hauliers don't want to wait three months or more for new vehicles to be built and delivered. A lot can happen in three months, and the last thing you want if the price of diesel suddenly goes through the roof is to be sitting there with half-a-dozen new trucks on order."
Mike Smith, of Widnes, Cheshirebased independent dealer Smith Brothers, says things are moving along nicely.
"We recently acquired the entire fleet of Haltwhistle-based JD Crawford — the firm is closing down — including a lot of fairly lateregistered MAN,Mercedes,Daf,Scania and Volvo tractor units, plus trailers," he says. "It's attracted a lot of enquiries and we've already sold one or two items."
The continued demand has left Hassan and other busy dealers in something of a quandary.
"The question is whether we should go ahead and buy more stock at this time of year," he muses. "Traditionally, if you haven't sold vehicles by the first or second week of December, then you can expect lobe stuck with them until at least the second week of January" But with sales holding up so well, things might be different this year, with buyers still active until Christmas Eve. Then again, they might not."It's difficult to know what to do," he says.
Admittedly, not all dealers are reporting soaring used sales.
"So far as we're concerned it's fairly quiet at present," says Mike Curtis, the used truck sales manager at Daf dealership Watts Gloucester "I think people must be saving up for Christmas."
"Things have gone a bit quiet for us, too, after a very good October," says Nigel Sharp, responsible for used truck sales at Sheffield Daf dealership Chatfields.