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Dealers back the Euro
Page 10
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by Ian Wylie • Truck dealers are urging the Government to enter the single European currency as soon as possible to bring an end to lorry price differentials.
As we reported last month, some hauliers are saving as much as £11,000 on the cost of a new truck by buying "grey imports" from other EU states such as Holland, Belgium and Germany (CM
19-25 Nov). Last week the House of Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee recommended that vehicle manufacturers should be fined for charging British car-buyers unacceptably high prices.
The distortion caused by bulk discounts granted to company car fleets does not exist to the same extent in the CV market, but Mike Mudie, a Mercedes-Benz truck dealer and chairman of the National Truck Committee, says UK hauliers should not be made to pay more than their Continental counterparts.
"The sooner we enter the Euro the better," he says, "because then we would get pricing transparency and price fluctuation could be limited to within a 5% band." Mudie claims that truck dealers, like car dealers, have very little influence now over the final price of a vehicle.
"Many dealers have been losing business to grey imports," he adds. "While it isn't a major problem yet, it could be a cause for concern in the future."