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SALES BOOM AS FIRMS GO BUST
Page 12
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Despite the predictions of the soothsayers, the commercial vehicle market hit near record levels last year. Trucks above 3.5 tonnes were up 7.1%, while the van market was up a massive 14% . Clearly this has to be seen as good news. If sales are up, then surely the demand for road transport must be up too, right? So why then are companies still going to the wall? This week we report on the winding up of Coales Distribution and parcels firm Hellmann Overnight Logistics, the latest big names to call time on transport and join the growing list of those who couldn't mak this business pay. It appears a strange conundrum: little profitability, sector over-capacity, yet set against this is an apparently insatiable thirst for more and more new trucks. Free market economics would suggest that the supply of trucks should balance overall with the need for them in the economy. We can only conclude that our industry is polarising, and that the brutal tenets of capitalism are sifting the prof able firms from those who are failing and falling aside. The question is, which side will you be on?
"...yet set against this is an apparently insatiable thirst for more and more new trucks"
• This issue we've also been exploring the Euro4 emission legislation, now awaiting full introduction in a couple of years. While any drive to clean up emissions has to be good, the technology that's required to meet the latest emissions limits will definitely added to the complexity of vehicles. If past performance is anything to go by that will mean more cost and, no doubt, reliability issues. As we say in our review, it's probably worth carefully considering future buying patterns to alleviate some of the risk.
• While we're on the subject of legislation it appears the digital smart-card tachograph, originally planned for introduction on all new vehicles this October, is to be delayed, much to the relief of the enforcement agencies and vehicle manufacturers. As many have been predicting for as long as this law has been on the cards, the technology simply isn't ready. Finally it seems that the EU governments have seen sense and delayed its introduction Let's hope we can put it aside for a very long time.