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On the search for stock
Page 70
Page 71
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Dealers are struggling to meet orders as the shortage of late-year, low-mileage tractors with analogue tachos reaches crisis point. Steve Banner reports.
Demand for late-year, lowmileage tractors with analogue tachographs shows no sign of abating and the problem is compounded by the shortage of trucks becoming available to the trade.
Stuart Wolstenholme, used truck sales manager at the Middleton, Manchester branch of Scania dealership West Pennine, is turning around stock quickly.
"The other Monday we took in 10 420hp R124 6x2 units with Opticruise gearboxes, all on 03 plates," he says. By 10am the next day we'd sold the lot.
"They'd done 500,000530,000Iu-n.There was a time when that sort of mileage on that age of vehicle was frowned on by customers, but not now," he adds, Looking for more
Now all he has to do is find more. "We've just taken on a new salesman, which should allow me a bit more time to hunt for stock," he reports.
The nationwide shortage may have been exacerbated by at least one manufacturer reputedly shipping ex-contract trucks to Eastern Europe under an agreement drawn up when the British used market was less buoyant than it is today.
UK prices are rising in line with demand, but not as dramatically as might be supposed."We're paying £1,000 more today than we were in January for identical vehicles,and we're seeing our money back from buyers,"Wolstenholme explains.
High prices are a relief to dealers worried they might have set their buy-back figures too high three years ago, ln the present market they are able to meet their obligations and show a profit.
Chris Hart, managing director of Blacicrod, Bolton-based Trucks 2 Go, is also on the hunt for highquality stock. "I've got an order for 25 Mercedes-Benz tractor units and it's proving difficult to find the ones! want," he says, "All you can do in the current market is advertise a lot, stay in touch with as many people as you can, and hope you've got better contacts than your competitors."
Phil Holmes, used sales manager, eastern region, at Scania dealership Keltruck, is also fighting to replace stock. He believes the shortage will continue for at least another four or five months."In April we sold well over 80 trucks so we're clearly getting them from somewhere," he points out.
Finding stock is not always easy, so Holmes is prepared to diversify into vehicles not normally sold by a Scania dealership in order to keep the wheels of business turning. "The other day we sold an S-plated Mercedes 7.5-tonne curtainsider," he says. "Ii was part of a job lot of 45 trucks we bought, ranging from S plates to 51 plates, and we've already disposed of 30 of them."
Scania dealership West Pennine is also diversifying."We always carry a wide selection of trucks, and at one point recently we had more Volvos in our yard than Scanias," says Wolstenholme.
"We've recently acquired a number of 32-tonne Scania refuse
collection vehicles with automatic gearboxes and PDE bodies with binlifts," he adds.-They're Y-reg and date back to 2001, but they've only done around 80,000km each. Trucks like this give us a chance to ring people who we wouldn't normally contact and we usually do OK with them."
Old trucks new problems
Older trucks can bring their own set of problems because of the need to refurbish them to an acceptable standard,saysTim Robinson, used sales manager at Hull MAN-ERF dealership Chatfields.rlIc cost can eat into your profit margin -and there is the risk that having spent money on refurbishment, you will not be able to sell the vehicle.
"It's tempting to fill your yard with old vehicles, but you can get your fingers burned," he warns. "I'd be cautious only buy them in ones and twos, and only if they're clean and low-mileage.
"And remember that a truck on a51 plate is now quite elderly."