Good buys in FedEx fleet
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• Major transport operators are snapping up good quality secondhand tractors and rigids from nearly 700 ex-Federal Express vehicles after its decision to restructure its UK and European operation.
Many of the vehicles are less than three years old; they are being sold by Kidderminster truck dealer Yardley Commercials. The fleet includes 120 tractive units — mostly Mercedes-Benz — with 450 rigids and 350 trailers.
"Sales have been very encouraging," says Yardley director Malcolm Magnet, who has sold more than 100 of the vehicles bought from FedEx.
Magnet believes that the vehicles are proving easy to sell because of FedEx's reputation: "It's not often that you get vehicles two or three years old with a full service history," he says. "People are buying because the units come from an excellent home."
Buyers include operators who have recently won business and are putting secondhand vehicles on the road for the first couple of years of a contract's life. "Once it's up and running profitably, they will then buy new," says Magnet.
He also believes that operators are preparing for the recession to end. "Transport is the first to go in the recession and the first to come out of it," he says, adding that operators cannot defer vehicle replacement indefinitely.
"Hauliers have taken the decision that now is the right time to buy," says Magnet, who believes that good quality used vehicles are proving popular because truck manufacturers sometimes cannot respond quickly enough to operators' demands. The European restructure of Federal Express this spring led to endorsements by FedEx for two of its major rivals — Securicor took on the UK territory while TNT has been recommended to FedEx customers in Europe and Eire.