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Business to be had
Page 52
Page 53
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Used truck buyers are still adopting caution as their watchword, but that doesn't mean dealers face a bleak future. The right stock is still tempting buyers in.
Words: Steve Banner
ACTING IN LINE with this new age of austerity, hauliers in the market for a used truck are treating value for money as their topmost priority as they wrestle with ever-tightening budgets.
Lee Smith, a director of West Thurrock, Essex-based independent dealership Hanbury Riverside, says: "We're selling a lot of mid-range tractor units with 05 or later plates, rather than top-of-the-range models with 07 or later registrations" He adds: "Customers are typically looking to spend around £20,000-00,000."
However, that said, this is not deterring him from stocking newer, pricier models. At the time of writing, he had a 2008-registered Volvo FH16 660 Globetrotter XL 6x2 unit on display. "There's still a market for that sort of truck, but it's a limited one," he observes. That has, of course, always been the case, but the recession and an understandable mood of caution among some operators when it comes to spending money mean it is probably more limited now than it has been for several years.
-We're getting a lot of interest in units priced at about £25,000," reveals Nigel Sharp, who is in charge of the Barnsley-based used truck activities of DAF dealership F&G Commercials.
Allan Hilton, responsible for used sales at the DAF dealership Ford & Slater's Kings Lynn, Norfolk, branch, is finding that customers are happier forking out closer to £20,000. "If you have that amount to spend, it should put you in a 06-registered 6x2 CF85 or XF95 Spacecab," he says. "Their prices are pretty similar at present."
Jonathan Bownes, sales executive of the used truck operation in Volvo dealership Thomas Hardie Middlewich, Cheshire, has sold a number of FM12 units with 04,55 and 06 plates to operators who were in search of some no-frills workhorses.
He is also having some success with bigger and better-specified trucks as well, he reports.
"Remember that £30,000 will buy you a lot more than it would have two years ago," he says. "You can have a big cab, lots of horsepower, a leather interior, a television, and a microwave the sort of truck you could only have dreamed of in the past if that was all you had to spend."
He is also finding a strong demand for well-specified rigids with a sound provenance. "At present, we're selling some 02-registered FM12 8x4s with bulk blower bodies, and we're getting powerful money for them," he says. "They're going for between £19,000 and £20,000."
The fact that they were previously operated by animal feed manufacturer BOCM Paul a company with a good reputation is also assisting their fortunes, says Bownes. "They've been maintained to within an inch of their lives by Volvo dealers, and that's a strong selling point," he adds.
Tough, but not impossible
Overall, though, the market remains tough, Bownes says. "We sold more trucks during the first half of this year than we did in the first half of 2008, but the margins aren't there," he observes.
"Confidence is growing among customers, though," believes Smith. "We're finding that enquiry levels are remarkably high. Whereas at the start of the year, the prospects for the market were pretty daunting, these days there is business to be had. We're not complaining, although obviously things could be better."
Demand for run-of-the-mill rigids across the market is mixed. "We're struggling with 7.5-tonners, partly as a consequence of the introduction of speed-limiters," says Sharp. "Operators seem to be switching from 7.5-tormers to 3.5-tonners, which are not speed-limited, if they possibly can." Broadway Motor Company sales leader Ian Griffiths believes there is still plenty of interest in 7.5-tonners, however, and is placing more emphasis on retailing them, "We used to trade a lot of them out, but thee seem to be fewer traders around these days," he says. "Many of them appear to have dropped out of the industry, possibly because they can't get the funding they need."
Owned by GE Capital Solutions, Broadway has eight outlets scattered across the country.
ome customers are still not happy about accepting tru ks with digital rather than analogue tachographs, but that attitude is becoming much less common, reports Sharp. "Ultimately, of course, they will have no choice but to get used to digital," he remarks.
"More and more customers are coming around to digital, although you get the odd operator who is heading toWards retirement and wants to stick with analogue," says Hilton. "They're coming round to AdBlue, too. A lot of the people we sell vehicles to have already got one or two that require it, so they're familiar with it."
"We're finding that there is very little resistance to either digital tachos or AdBlue these days," adds Bownes.
That is not everybody's experience, however.
"The presence of a digital tachograph and a need to pour in AdBlue are still the two most popular objections raised by customers against buying a particular truck, but they now seem happy to accept auto 'boxes such as Scania's Opticruise.says Phil Holmes, used sales manager, eastern region, at Scania dealership Keltruck. "In fact, we get people asking for it."
It used to be the case that 90% of customers insisted on a manual 'box," says Hilton, "Now it's more like 50%."
Whether you are looking for a rigid or a tractor unit, prices appear to have stabilised, and are no longer tumbling. think they've levelled off," Hilton says.
Stability returns
This return to stability means that hauliers who assume dealers are so desperate to sell vehicles that they will gladly accept any offer, however silly, are behind the times, Holmes contends.
"One thing that has changed is the capacity for dealers to charge a huge premium for a top-of-the-range cab over a standard cab," he says. "Such big premiums should never have been charged in the first place."
So how soon before prices show a significant upturn?
"A lot of manufacturers have unregistered trucks sitting around as a consequence of cancelled orders that they are trying to get rid of," says one dealer. "Once they've all gone, we should see used values start to climb noticeably."
They will be further buoyed up when customers start to realise just how expensive new trucks ordered from the factory have become thanks to the way the pound has fallen in value against the euro over the past couple of years. Most trucks sold in the UK are built in mainland Europe; and those that are not have a high percentage of Continental content. •